Luckin Coffee and the Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) have laid the foundation stone for their joint venture coffee roasting plant in Xiamen, China, with annual production capacity of 30,000 tonnes.
Situated on a 35,000-square-metre plot of land, the roasting plant will be equipped with environmentally friendly technology for coffee cleaning and roasting, including the roaster’s exhaust air cleaning and smoke elimination.
The plant is expected to start production by mid-2021, and its annual production capacity is expected to be expanded to 40,000 tonnes in a second phase of construction. In future, the plant will supply Luckin’s growing network of coffee shops across China.
“LDC is among the world’s largest merchandisers of green coffee beans, with a diverse product and regional portfolio. This is in line with Luckin’s focus on high quality coffee beans and diversified product flavours to meet consumer needs,” says Jinyi Guo, Luckin Coffee Senior Vice President and Co-founder.
“Through this coffee roasting joint venture, Luckin extends upstream closer to the raw materials and production, giving greater product quality control and enhancing the ability to offer better products and services to consumers, together with a better coffee experience.”
This coffee roasting joint venture project is part of a strategic cooperation between Luckin and LDC, which also includes a joint venture to develop a juice business, signed in September 2019.
“We are pleased to be advancing in our alliance with Luckin, which has proved highly successful in developing a broad customer base in the Chinese coffee market, through the use of cutting-edge technology and an innovative business model,” says Michael Gelchie, LDC’s Chief Operating Officer.
“Our strategic partnership will continue to strengthen LDC’s business presence in China, enabling us to develop further downstream. This joint venture will also enable a more robust, transparent and sustainable coffee supply chain, to provide great tasting, high quality and convenient coffee to Chinese consumers.”
