New coffee shop aims at selling locals ‘a lifestyle’

Felix Se

Macau people are increasingly living and working under great stress, as their city only gets busier, changing at an ever-faster pace. To slow things down and bring back time for small rituals like gathering with friends, local entrepreneur Felix Se decided to open a chain of spacious and relaxing cafés in the city’s neighborhoods.
“In general, Macau is a very, very crowded city. As a local citizen, I feel very stressed all the time, so I really want to find some space and time where I can chill out,” he told the Times in his newly opened coffee shop.
The 25-year old entrepreneur opened a Korean-chain café named “Tom N Toms” in the Rua do Campo near the Tap Seac Square last week. The shop sells many coffee related products and will inaugurate an art space to showcase local artists following a two-month soft opening.
“Tom is a very common name in Western culture, the name of ‘Tom N Toms’ means a group of ordinary people together. So the brand is providing a place for people to sit together and share together. This is the value we believe in,” explained Se, as the brand’s South China CEO and chairman.
“Targeting the locals instead of tourists,” the café is situated in an area full of schools, residential buildings, shops and restaurants. By providing a slow-paced environment, Felix hopes it can help bring busy modern citizens back to the basics of life.“Macau really lacks this kind of big café,” he stressed.
“Some very famous competitors of ours brand themselves as slow coffee or relaxed coffee, but actually when they came to Macau, it’s altered,” indicated the young entrepreneur. “They open stores in tourist areas or the very busy areas; the store is very small, very crowded, very fast, which makes people even more stressed.”
The new café will open its second floor after two months’ trial operation. It is planned as “a platform” for local artists to showcase their works. According to Felix, the space will put on exhibitions for painters and fashion designers, staging live music by local bands, as well as hosting readings and book presentations for local writers.
“The concept is that we are not only selling coffee but also a lifestyle. We really want to provide a platform for Macau’s young generation – those born in the ’80s and ’90s,” said Felix, adding that they are also developing a mobile phone app that allows customers to order coffee and products provided by the art space’s performers and exhibitors.
“The market share of Macau people consuming coffee right now is less than 20 percent; in western culture it’s more than 80 percent. So we are full of hope for Macau’s local café market,” he said. “The consuming power of Macau people is very high, even of the younger generation. For them, paying a hundred patacas for lunch is very acceptable; you can’t imagine this in mainland China.”
Although many have seen great market potential in running cafés in town, the increasingly high rents have even strangled a few big chains’ survival. A once spacious Starbucks café in busy Senado Square closed up shop as recently as two years ago. Instead, many new small cafés have now emerged in the city’s narrow streets.
“We are very clear about our market position: we are targeting local people. We want to invest more on products, instead of marketing and paying high rents to satisfy the tourists,” Felix stressed.
“We are not going to make a profit in the next two years, but we will cultivate a group of very loyal customers that will come here every other day and when we have a new product, they’re going to buy it,” he added. “I want it to be like the Apple [brand] of the coffee industry, like a religious reaction when they see the ‘Tom N Toms’. At that moment, I think we’ll have done our job.”
The young chairman revealed that as part of a bigger picture, Macau is going to see three more “Tom N Toms” cafés this year, then a total of ten more in five years’ time. Meanwhile, the total number of their branches will grow from two to two hundred, covering nine provinces and the two SARs.
“Coffee is a necessity. The reasons why there are so many new small cafés in Macau, first of all, is that the demand for coffee and good coffee is getting higher and higher. Secondly, it’s the market that forces them to operate small cafés – it’s not an easy job for them as the rent is high and you can’t hire people,” he explained.
“Compared to us, they are less comfortable, not very spacious. Also, they are selling the product itself, and we are selling the lifestyle, the environment, and the culture. But we don’t see each other as competitors; we are spreading the culture in a different way, on a different level. It’s our duty,” he observed.