(Yicai) Sept. 8 -- Chinese cities are welcoming new milk tea stores again due to impressive sales after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Several brands have revealed rising sales this year and brand owners are encouraged to expand, Yicai learned.

Bojoo Desser, a maker of curd-based beverages, boosted its performance in the first half by more than two times, selling three million drinks, per Zhang Sanfeng, marketing manager of the Shanghai-based firm.

The customer flow of tea beverage brand Changee has doubled this year, a person in charge at Chagee Enterprise Management that has 22 stores in Shanghai said to Yicai.

Heytea, a popular seller of milk tea and fruit tea, has recorded rising daily sales for six straight months, according to data provided by the firm. Since June, the volume of same-store sales has jumped by more than a fifth from a year earlier, and some franchisees exceeded monthly sales of CNY1 million (USD136,100).

As companies are collecting cash from customers quicker, they are also prompted to expand faster. The break-even time of Bojoo stores has significantly rebounded this year from previous years and many new stores opened since January become profitable in six to nine months, or even quicker, Zhang said.

As of last month, Bojoo has opened more than 60 new stores this year, including nearly 20 in Shanghai. In 2023, the brand will widen its network of stores by more than four times the pace of previous years, Zhang added.

After Heytea added a franchise model in December, the brand has reached over 1,000 franchise stores in cities including Luoyang and Ganzhou this year with a total number of more than 2,000 units, including self-operated businesses.

A person in charge of a large commercial center in Shanghai said that in comparison to big restaurants, a milk tea store is much more affordable to run in terms of raw materials, rent, and design. When a milk tea store is well operated, it can become profitable in three to six months whereas the payback period for a restaurant is usually about a year, the person added.

Editor: Emmi Laine