Introduction:Luckin Coffee has surpassed 7,846 stores nationwide. With this market expansion, the demand for stable and fresh coffee bean supply has been growing increasingly. Recently, Luckin broke ground on its second wholly-owned smart roasting facility in Kunshan, Jiangsu, with an investment of approximately US$120 million. The facility is expected to commence production in 2024, boasting an annual roasting capacity of 30,000 tonnes. Equipped with Italian imported machinery, together with the Fujian facility, the combined annual output will exceed 45,000 tonnes. This article takes you behind the scenes to explore how this new base will support the supply needs of all national stores, along with highlights of its key equipment and technologies.
Luckin Coffee’s nationwide store network continues to expand, now exceeding 7,846 outlets, leading to a greater need for a stable and fresh supply of coffee beans. To strengthen its supply chain resilience, Luckin has started construction on its second wholly-owned intelligent roasting base in Kunshan, Jiangsu, building upon its first roasting factory in Pingnan, Fujian.
This roasting facility located in Kunshan is 100% invested by Luckin, with a total investment of about US$120 million, or approximately RMB 820 million. It covers an area of 53,000 square meters and is expected to officially begin operations in 2024. The base is planned to have an annual roasting capacity of 30,000 tonnes and will employ high-end equipment including the Italian BRAMBATI roasting system, significantly improving the quality and consistency of the roasted coffee beans.
Currently, Luckin’s first roasting base is situated in Pingnan, Fujian. That facility is a joint venture with Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), with a total investment of RMB 210 million and covering an area of 45,000 square meters. Since beginning production in April 2021, it has had an annual roasting capacity of 15,000 tonnes. The new Kunshan base, however, is wholly owned by Luckin. Not only is it larger in scale, but it also more fully integrates the entire industrial chain—from green bean sorting, roasting, warehousing to logistics.
The new base will introduce Italian BRAMBATI roasting machines, which are well-known in the industry for their efficient roasting systems. These machines offer precise temperature control and batch management capabilities, helping to maintain consistent flavor across every batch of coffee beans and enabling more efficient responses to the supply needs of stores across the country. In addition, ICA brand automated coffee bean packaging machines will be installed to ensure that beans are quickly sealed after roasting, minimizing oxidation and flavor loss.
According to Luckin officials, once completed, the facility will form a roasting supply network with the Fujian Pingnan base, achieving a combined annual production capacity of over 45,000 tonnes. This is sufficient to meet the coffee bean demands of the current over 7,846 stores nationwide. It will also ensure that each batch of coffee beans reaches the stores in the shortest possible time after roasting, maintaining optimal freshness and flavor.
Notably, Luckin began planning the construction of its second roasting factory as early as last year. After evaluating multiple cities, it selected Kunshan as the site for the new base. In May 2023, Luckin officially signed a cooperation agreement with the Kunshan Economic and Technological Development Zone. After a six-month approval process, the project recently broke ground.
The new roasting base in Kunshan is not limited to just coffee bean roasting—it also encompasses bean variety sorting, R&D, and logistics warehousing, making it a comprehensive production hub that covers the entire upstream and downstream process. This vertically integrated model not only helps Luckin control key quality checkpoints from green beans to roasted coffee, but also allows for more agile responses to market changes and rapid adjustments to product strategy.
For the Kunshan locality, this project is another major investment in the coffee industry following Starbucks’ “China Coffee Innovation Industrial Park.” The Starbucks park was launched in 2020 with a total investment of RMB 1.1 billion, covering 80,000 square meters. It includes importation, roasting, packaging, warehousing, and logistics, representing Starbucks’ largest productive investment outside the United States. Luckin’s move into Kunshan also signals that the region is gradually becoming a hub for the coffee industry, driving upgrades in local supply chains and technology.
A Luckin spokesperson further pointed out that the establishment of the new roasting base is a significant step in the brand’s development toward a globalized and refined supply chain. Over the next 1 to 3 years, Luckin plans to continue strengthening technological innovation, information systems, and talent cultivation to build a coffee brand with international competitiveness. This will further consolidate its leading position in the Chinese market and gradually expand its global vision.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
