Chinese consumer brands are no longer niche exports. From electric vehicles to bubble tea, they are showing up everywhere. Walk through almost any Asian city today and there is a good chance you will see a bright red storefront, a smiling Snow King mascot, and a menu that looks almost suspiciously cheap.
That brand is Mixue (蜜雪)
Without flashy marketing or premium pricing, Mixue has quietly built the largest store network of any fast-food chain in the world. It did not do this by charging more or positioning itself as aspirational. Instead, it relied on a carefully designed franchise model that prioritised scale, survival and repeat sales.
This is a story about how getting the economics right can sometimes matter more than brand gloss.
A Humble Start In Zhengzhou
Mixue did not begin as a polished venture capital success story. Its roots go back to 1997, when founder Zhang Hongchao (then 21) sold shaved ice from a small stall in Zhengzhou.
The early years were messy. Stores opened and closed. Products changed. The business restarted more than once. This is familiar territory for anyone who has tried to run a food and beverage business.
What eventually emerged was not just a popular product, but a repeatable system. The brand Mixue Bingcheng (蜜雪冰城) took shape, and the business shifted from a single shop mindset to one built around standardisation.
That shift matters because franchising only works when operations can be copied reliably. Recipes, equipment, store layouts and workflows all need to be predictable. Mixue spent years refining this before it ever tried to scale aggressively.
A Franchise Model With Skin In The Game
Most franchise systems make their money through upfront franchise fees, ongoing royalties and marketing charges. The franchisee bears the operational risk, while the brand owner collects steady income as long as more stores open.
Mixue flipped this logic.
Instead of depending mainly on franchise fees, it earns most of its revenue by selling ingredients, packaging, and equipment to franchisees. Fees exist, but they are not the core profit driver.
This small structural choice has big consequences. If a franchisor earns mainly from fees, growth can become about selling more franchises. If revenue comes from supplying stores, the focus shifts to keeping those stores alive and busy.
Mixue only makes money when franchisees sell drinks and ice cream. That aligns incentives in a way that many franchise systems struggle to achieve.
The Supply Chain Is The Real Business
From the outside, Mixue looks like a drinks-and-desserts brand. Under the hood, it is closer to a supply chain company.
The group invested heavily in production facilities, logistics, research and development, and quality control. By controlling sourcing and manufacturing at scale, it keeps costs low and quality consistent across tens of thousands of stores.
This is what makes the low prices possible. Franchisees can sell at lower prices because their input costs are tightly managed. The company does not need high royalties because it benefits from recurring demand for supplies.
For everyday consumers, this shows up as an ice cream cone or tea that costs little enough to feel like a daily habit rather than an occasional treat.
Why Cheap Prices Matter More Than You Think
Mixue’s pricing strategy is not just about being affordable. It changes customer behaviour.
Low prices dramatically expand the customer base. Instead of competing only with premium drink brands, Mixue competes for impulse buys, frequent visits and daily consumption.
When a drink costs just a few yuan, customers can come back multiple times a week. That frequency is crucial for franchisees, especially in high-rent areas where volume matters more than margins.
Affordability also opens doors in lower-tier cities and neighbourhoods where premium brands tend to struggle due to their high prices. With more affordable options, this helped Mixue blanket China far beyond major urban centres.
Strong Numbers Backing The Model
The financial results reflect how well this system works.
In the first half of 2025, Mixue reported revenue of RMB 14.87 billion, up 39.3% year-on-year. Net profit rose even faster, increasing 44.1% to RMB 2.72 billion.
Most of this revenue still came from selling goods and equipment to franchisees. Franchise and service fees grew, too, but they made up only a small portion of total revenue.
By mid-2025, Mixue’s global store count had reached 53,000, with almost all of them operated by franchisees.
Taking The Model Overseas
After proving the system in China, overseas expansion became the obvious next step. Southeast Asia, in particular, offered familiar conditions: price-sensitive consumers, dense cities and a strong appetite for franchised food concepts.
Markets like Indonesia and Vietnam have emerged as key growth engines. The same playbook applies. Local franchisees invest capital and run the stores. Mixue provides supplies, systems, and branding.
As long as logistics and sourcing can be replicated, the model scales surprisingly smoothly across borders.
What This Means For Global Brands
Running a network of tens of thousands of franchise stores is not simple. Quality control, internal competition, and supply disruptions become more complicated to manage at scale.
Still, Mixue’s rise shows that Chinese brands are developing their own global expansion playbook. It looks very different from the Western fast-food giants that came before it.
There is no single “correct” way to scale globally. For Mixue, a low-price, supply-chain-driven franchise model has worked extraordinarily well so far. Whether it continues to hold up as the network grows even larger is the next chapter to watch.
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Photo Credit: iStock/uskarp
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