Luckin Coffee and LDC to form new juice JV in China

Luckin Coffee has signed an agreement with global commodity merchant Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) to create a new joint venture (JV) for developing a co-branded Luckin Juice business in China.

Established in 1851, LDC is a global merchant and processor of agricultural goods.

LDC Global vice-president and LDC North Asia regional head James Zhou said: “Accelerating our strategic alliance with Luckin Coffee through this new JV is very positive.

“This fits perfectly with our corporate strategy to move further downstream toward the end consumer, in particular through partnerships and with our growth ambitions in China.

“LDC has been in the juice business for over 30 years and this is an excellent fit with our Juice Platform’s strategy.”

The business entity will focus on creating co-branded ‘Not From Concentrate’ (NFC) orange, lemon and apple juices retailed at Luckin outlets, as well as through other channels.

Going further, LDC is also planning to build a bottling plant in China. Through this initiative, the company intends to bottle and brand other fruit and vegetable juices.

Luckin Coffee senior vice-president co-founder Jinyi Guo said: “China is the fastest-growing NFC market globally and, together, Luckin and LDC see a significant opportunity to offer high quality, sustainably-developed NFC juices to the Chinese consumer.

“There are strong synergies between our leading-edge marketing and consumer approach and LDC’s great juice supply capacity, global reach and strong value chain expertise.”

Earlier this month,  Luckin Coffee launched Luckin Tea as an independent brand in the market.