Mc Donald's it's no longer the fast food chain with more shops since IT world;. Surpassing it, even if at the moment it is only present in the Asian continent, is the Chinese Mixue, which closed 2024 with 45.282 points of sale, against the 43.477 of the very well-known yellow “M” on a red background. A year ago, Mixue was in fifth place in the world in this special ranking, but it has continued to grow and has also left behind Subway, Starbucks e KFC, although it has not yet landed in the United States (who knows if it will, with Donald Trump president ...) and in Europe. At the moment 90% of the stores are located in China, with the remaining 10% in South-East Asia: the chain that offers tea, milk shakes, lemonades, iced drinks and ice cream (the full name, "Mixue Bingcheng”, meaning “sweet snow palace”) was founded in 1997 in Henan province and still had only about 2019 outlets in 5.000. The first was a slush stall opened nearly 30 years ago near a university by Zhang Honghao and from his brother Hongfu, whose fortune today has surpassed that of Howard Schultz, historic president and CEO of Starbucks from 1986 to 2000.
Mixue Bingcheng: The Low-Price Ice Cream Phenomenon Takes Over the World
Mixue Bingcheng, appreciated by customers especially for the low prices and for simplicity of the offer, it was in fact listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange a few weeks ago, immediately capitalizing 3,5 billion of HK dollars, equivalent to 444 million US dollars. The house specialty is the iconic cone gelato at first sold at 1 yuan, which not by chance is quite reminiscent of the Sundae from rival Mc Donald's, which has been so successful that it is now sold for double, at 2 yuan. Lemonades and milk tea with bubbles are also very popular. But customers were also attracted by the marketing campaign launched in 2018, which imposed a bright and varied color scheme on the stores, as well as a jingle inspired by the American children's song "Oh! Susanna", which has also been adapted in Italian in the past ("Oh Susanna, don't cry because, I left Alabama ..."). Also in 2018, International expansion has begun, for now limited to the Asian continent: The first store outside China opened in Hanoi, Vietnam, and today in Indonesia alone there are already 2.600 Mixue stores. Of the more than 45 stores, only 20 are still owned by Mixue, with all the others being franchises.
However, this form of indirect management does not always protect the quality, which the parent company would like to keep high, also because it controls the entire supply chain, including the raw materials which are all natural and grown near the cities where Mixue operates. Yet some ice cream shops have already attracted the attention of the authorities following reports from consumers themselves, who have revealed very high sugar levels and, precisely on the occasion of the International Consumer Rights DayOn March 15, a video was circulated showing lemon and orange juice made from leftover fruit in a shop in Yichan.
