What happened to bubble tea? Chain shops closed, some aim at large-scale retail shelves

Those who have ridden this evolution - and partly anticipated it - is Bobble Bobble, a Lucchese company founded in 2017 by Simone Simonelli and Nicolò Ossino. Founded as a franchisor with almost thirty outlets before Covid, it gradually closed its shops during the pandemic, when imports from Taiwan and China had stopped. The answer was to build their own production, starting from scratch: molecular spherification, density, specific weights... a chemistry that the two partners, born in 1990, learnt in the field, having started at 27 years of age without any industrial experience.

Out of that need was born the first European production reality of bubble tea ready-to-drink. Today, Bobble Bobble produces the Bob brand - an acronym for Beyond Ordinary Beverage - in a plant in Lucca operating around the clock, seven days a week during peak months, with a capacity of around 60 thousand pieces per day and an annual production of around 8 million glasses, according to Simonelli. The product - infused tea, fruit juice and popping boba inserted in the glass thanks to a patented recipe that solves the problem of osmosis - is Vegan OK and Halal certified, gluten and lactose free, with an entirely Italian supply chain.

Bobble Bobble ended 2025 with a turnover of 5 million euro and an Ebitda of 610 thousand euro, growing at a rate of 20-25% per year, according to the company. 55% of sales come from the Italia market, 45% from abroad: Bob is present in more than 25 countries, with references in chains such as Tesco, Aldi and Lidl, and has been a private label supplier for Eurospin since 2025. The stated goal for 2026 is 7.5 million euro turnover. "The result achieved in 2025 is the fruit of a path built over time, made up of precise industrial choices," comments Ossino.

The open knot, however, is the price. Bob's is worth around 3 euro on the supermarket shelf, up to 5 euro in the refrigerated column in bars: figures that place it in the artisanal segment, far from the competitiveness of the big brands. 'We are alongside huge names, but we don't make huge numbers,' says Simonelli. The aim is to lower the price by increasing production volumes, but growing means finding sheds much larger than the current one thousand square metres of production. A fund or a financial partner? 'We are listening, we are not closed to anything, but for now it is not on the horizon,' says Simonelli.

Bob's audience is between 7 and 13 years old, peaking at 8-12. They find him at the pool bar, they see him in manga and Netflix series, they choose him instead of an ice cream. Bobble Bobble has been an official sponsor of Lucca Comics & Games for six years.

Bubble tea is not finished: it has transformed. "What has disappeared is the store with the queues outside. The product in the world is growing significantly,' says Simonelli. With Ferrero as a reference model and a list of products still absent from Italian and European shelves in the drawer, the two Lucchese founders aim to build what in the world of bubble tea does not yet exist: a recognisable corporate name on a global scale.