A crowed Tim Hortons store in Shanghai Photo: VCG

Canadian coffee brewer Tim Hortons said on Tuesday that its Chinese branch had received an investment from Chinese tech giant Tencent, a move seen to tap into the growing Chinese market. 

The Canadian firm's expansion comes at a time when the novel coronavirus battered the catering industry on a global scale, which shows that international capital continues to have confidence in the Chinese market - a market that has achieved significant progress in containing the lethal virus, Liu Dingding, an industry analyst based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Tim Hortons said it will use the funds to advance its digital infrastructure and will expand store outlets in China from current 50 to 1,500, read a statement the company posted on its Weibo account.

"I visited the coffee shop when it came to Shanghai last year, and personally I am fond of the coffee when I studied in Canada, but not many of my local friends know about it," said a white-collar worker in her 30s surnamed Yu and based in Shanghai.

"Instead, many Chinese consumers prefer Starbucks, which has more stores in Shanghai, or domestic brand Luckin Coffee, which offers large discounts," Yu said.

Tim Hortons opened its first branch in Shanghai in February 2019. The brand also has stores in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province and Zhengzhou, capital of Central China's Henan Province.

Though the chain does not enjoy the same fame as other foreign brands such as Starbucks and Costa in the Chinese market, its cooperation with Tencent will help it expand into more Chinese cities like Beijing and Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, where Tencent's headquarters are based, a Beijing-based market watcher surnamed Shi told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The Chinese market is likely to embrace another round of intense competition among global coffee brands following local Luckin Coffee's recent financial fraud scandal, experts said. 

China's coffee industry has great growth potential in per capita consumption, and is expected to see double-digit annual growth, Tim Hortons said in the statement.

China's per capita coffee consumption was 6.2 cups in 2018, the figure just 1.6 percent of the US', according to industry site chinabaogao.com, citing a recent report. The report forecast that China's per capita coffee consumption will be 10.8 cups in 2023, with a market valuation of 180.6 billion yuan ($25.5 billion).

Tencent said it had no further information about the investment when reached by the Global Times on Tuesday.