Chatime

Chatime is a Taiwanese global franchise teahouse chain based in Zhubei. Chatime is the largest teahouse franchise in the world.[1] Its expansion and growth model is through franchising. It operates 2500+ outlets in 38 countries. In 2006, it opened its first store outside of Taiwan in California, United States and it has since expanded to China, Malaysia, Mauritius, Canada, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Maldives, India, Ireland, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Mongolia, Lebanon and South Korea, Switzerland among others now.[2][3]

Its parent company, interlanguage link La Kaffa International Co Ltd 六角國際集團, debuted on the Emerging Stock Market in December 2012 at NT$168 per share.

History

Henry Wang founded Chatime in 2005 in Hsinchu, Taiwan, under the parent company, La Kaffa Coffee.[4]

Legal & regulatory matters

In Malaysia, the master franchisee agreement was terminated on 5 January 2017 by La Kaffa International due to contractual dispute with its country master franchisee, Loob Holding. This legal dispute attracted the attention of local media and is currently in arbitration in Singapore. La Kaffa held a press conference in Kuala Lumpur announcing it would be taking over the Malaysian Chatime business operations and development with immediate effect.[28] This however appears to be largely incorrect with Loob Holding rebranding 161 out of 165 Chatime outlets to Tealive brand on 17 February 2017.[29][30] Due to Loob Holding's alleged use of unapproved ingredients (which were later found out to be collaborations with other brands for localization purposes),[31] questionable practices, and a blatant breach of the terms of contract, La Kaffa International director Chen Zhao sought an injunction against the former master franchisee from operating a similar (bubble tea) business in Malaysia. On 29 May 2017, the High Court dismissed the injunction bid by La Kaffa International, against Loob Holding Sdn Bhd, from carrying a similar business as Chatime.[32] Judicial Commissioner Wong Kian Kheong, in his oral judgement, ruled that the injunction would cause great risk of injustice to Loob Holding and its business and also associates. The court also found that the franchise termination by La Kaffa was done in bad faith. On 30 August 2018, La Kaffa and Loob reached an out-of-court settlement to amicably resolve all their disputes arising from their one-time franchise relationship of the latter’s Chatime bubble tea brand and agreed to withdraw all proceedings in Malaysian courts and arbitration in Singapore. The settlement shall not constitute nor be deemed nor treated by any party as an admission of any allegation and/or liability. Parties have come to an agreement in resolution of their disputes, in which the decision has also been made to stop all court or any other enforcement actions against each other.

Chatime Australia is alleged to have underpaid 152 employees (including 42 junior workers and 95 visa holders, resulting in a loss of $169,320 in wages) of 10 company-owned outlets across in Sydney and Melbourne a total of about $169,000. During the period, Chatime Australia reportedly paid employees at company-operated stores flat rates as low as $7.59 to $24.30 per hour adopted a practice of not paying Fast Food Industry Award entitlements such as loadings and penalty rates.[33]

native name	日出茶太
native name lang	zh
foundation	in Zhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan; opened 2006
location city	Zhubei, Hsinchu County
location country	Taiwan
locations	2400
area served	Worldwide
key people	Henry Wang (Chairperson, Founder) Kion Zhouling (Vice-president, Co-Founder)
industry	Beverages Franchising
genre	Bubble tea
products	Bubble tea • Tea • Flavored tea
services	Tea
revenue	US$20 million (2011)
operating income	$999,999,999
net income	$493,116,012
num employees	2500
homepage	chatime.com.tw/zh chatime.com.tw/en

History

Expansion

Products

Locations

America

Europe

Middle East

Africa

Oceania

Asia

Collaborations

Brand ambassadors

Counterfeit

Legal & regulatory matters

See also

External links

References