Opening a bubble tea shop in Australia takes four things: a food business registration from your local council, a site with enough passing trade, the equipment to brew and seal, and a supplier who can keep you stocked.
We've supplied bubble tea shops across Australia since 2013, so a fair bit of this comes from watching new stores open, including the parts that trip people up.
Do you need a licence to sell bubble tea in Australia?
Yes. Every food business in Australia must be registered or notified before it starts trading, and in almost every case you apply to your local council, not to the state government. This catches a lot of people out. They go looking on a state health website, can't find an application form, and assume they've missed something. The form lives with the council.
The state agency sets the rules. The council registers you, inspects the premises and issues the certificate. Registration usually covers the fit-out (hand basins, food-grade surfaces, waste), a nominated Food Safety Supervisor and an inspection before you open.
The quickest way to find out exactly what applies to your address is the Australian Business Licence and Information Service (ABLIS). It's a free federal tool. You give it your business type and location, and it returns the specific local, state and federal permits you need.
For the rules themselves, go to the agency for your state:
| State or territory | Food regulator |
|---|---|
| NSW | NSW Food Authority |
| VIC | Safe Food Victoria |
| QLD | Business Queensland — food industry regulations |
| WA | WA Department of Health — starting a food business |
| SA | SA Health — food safety |
| TAS | Tasmanian Department of Health — food safety |
| ACT | ACT Government — food safety for businesses |
| NT | NT Government — hospitality |
The national standards behind all of these come from Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Allergen labelling is the section worth reading twice. Bubble tea uses dairy, soy and tree nuts routinely, and the rules on how you declare them are specific.
Where should you put a bubble tea shop?
Bubble tea is an impulse buy. People rarely make a trip for it. They buy it because they walked past, which makes passing trade worth more than almost anything else. That's why shopping centres, food courts and strips near universities and high schools work so consistently.
Three things to check on any site before you sign:
- Water and drainage. You'll be cooking pearls and washing equipment all day. Retrofitting plumbing into a shell that wasn't built for it is one of the larger unbudgeted costs in a fit-out.
- Power. A pearl cooker, sealer, blender, fridge and freezer running at once adds up. Check the switchboard capacity before you commit.
- Back-of-house space. Toppings arrive in cartons and tubs. If there's nowhere to store a week's stock you'll be ordering small and often, and the freight will cost more than the storage ever would have.
What equipment do you need to open a bubble tea shop?
Less than most people expect. You can open with the first group and add the rest once you know what actually sells.
Needed from day one
- Pearl cooker — cooking pearls in a pot works, but staying consistent through a rush doesn't
- Cup sealing machine — you can't sell takeaway without one
- Tea brewer and thermos buckets — brew in batches, hold at temperature
- Shaker jars and an ice jar
- Under-bench fridge, plus a freezer if you're carrying frozen toppings
Add later
- Blender — only if smoothies or frappes are on the menu
- Fructose dispenser — pays for itself on speed and portion consistency once volume picks up
- Milk foam jar — for cheese foam and milk cap drinks
The full range is in Equipment.
Which cup size and sealing film do you need?
Sort this out before you order anything, because it's the detail that catches almost every new shop.
Cups, lids and sealing film are matched by rim diameter, and the sizes aren't interchangeable. The common Australian formats are 90mm, 95mm and 119mm. A 95mm film won't seal a 90mm cup, and your sealing machine is set up for one diameter at a time.
So pick your rim size first, then buy cups, film and machine to match. Changing later means replacing all three.
Most shops start with 90mm or 95mm in 500ml and 700ml, plus jumbo paper straws wide enough for pearls. Standard straws are too narrow. The full size range is in Cups and Lids.
What ingredients should a new shop order first?
Start narrow. A tight menu you can make consistently beats a long one you can't, and every extra flavour is stock that has to turn over before it expires.
A workable opening order covers five groups:
| Group | What to start with |
|---|---|
| Tea | One black, one green, one oolong. Fresh brew tea bags are easier to keep consistent if you're short on staff or bench space. |
| Powders | Non-dairy creamer, plus taro, matcha and chocolate. These carry most milk tea menus. |
| Syrups | Three or four fruit flavours. Mango, lychee, passionfruit and peach are the reliable sellers. |
| Toppings | Tapioca pearls first, then popping pearls and coconut jelly. |
| Sweetener | Fructose syrup. It dissolves cold, which cane sugar doesn't. |
We carry around 190 products across these groups and dispatch from warehouses in Melbourne and Sydney. If you'd rather not build the list yourself, send us your menu and we'll put an opening order together. The full product range lists every category with pack sizes and yields.
What do new bubble tea shops get wrong?
Five things we see repeatedly.
- Buying cups and film separately. Covered above, and it's the most expensive of these because it strands three purchases at once.
- Cooking pearls too far ahead. Cooked pearls harden as they sit. Cook smaller batches through the day rather than one big batch at open. A batch made at 10am won't be right at 4pm.
- Launching with thirty drinks. More lines means more stock, more waste, slower service and more training. Open with a menu you can make well, then add.
- Costing only the liquid. The cup, lid, film and straw go into every single drink. Leave them out of your margin and you'll be short on every sale.
- Ignoring shelf life on the slow movers. The flavour that sells two cups a week is the one that expires in the storeroom. Check shelf life before you commit to a long menu.
How do you market a new bubble tea shop?
Signage and location do most of the work in an impulse category. Beyond that:
- Set up your Google Business Profile properly before you open, with photos, hours and the correct address. Most people searching for bubble tea are searching for it near them.
- Put the menu somewhere it can be read from outside. Unclear pricing stops walk-ins.
- Run one signature drink people can't get elsewhere. It gives customers a reason to name your shop rather than 'the bubble tea place'.
- Loyalty cards still work here. Bubble tea is a habit purchase, and the tenth-cup-free maths is favourable.
How long does it take to open?
Allow three to six months from signing a lease to opening. Council registration and the fit-out inspection are usually the longest items, and neither can be rushed. Equipment and opening stock can be organised in a fraction of that time, so plan the paperwork first.
Getting started with Sunwide
We stock tea, powders, syrups, toppings, cups and equipment, and we also do menu and recipe development for new shops. Tell us the drinks you want to sell and we'll work back to the products and quantities.
Open a wholesale account, or get in touch to talk through your menu.
Before you commit to any supplier, our guide to choosing a bubble tea wholesale supplier in Australia sets out the ten questions worth asking first.
