McDonald’s has been the leading fast-food chain for many years. However, the rapid success of a Chinese brand has now overshadowed the golden arches.
The brand, Mixue Ice Cream and Tea (pronounced ME-schway), known for its affordable beverages, has quickly expanded to 45,000 locations, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
That puts McDonald’s, with its 42,000 locations, in second place for global store count. Starbucks boasts just over 40,000 stores across the world.
The company’s founder, Zhang Hongchao, opened the first shop in 1997. The popular, small shop has exploded onto the fast-food scene ever since.
The majority of Mixue’s locations are in China, with about 10 percent spread across Australia and other Asian countries.
And the ice cream and tea chain has plans to keep up the expansion.
The company’s executives recently made the brand public in Hong Kong through an initial public offering (IPO) that generated $400 million and placed a $10 billion valuation on the company.
They have not announced any plans to bring the fan-favorite store to the U.S., though experts believe the brand set its sights to come state-side.
‘Currently, Mixue is situated in South East Asia,’ Longdley Zephirin, principal and analyst at The Zephirin Group, told CNBC. ‘I think the company will increase operation into the U.S. or Europe.’
Mixue, aided by its low-cost tea and recognizable mascot, has attracted millions of fans
Inside the ice cream brand
The brand’s massive success and valuation are built on three key pillars: efficiency, affordability, and a mascot that has gained as much national recognition in China as Ronald McDonald has in the U.S.
Mixue keeps things simple with a standardized menu of teas, lemonades, and ice creams, all served in stores that follow the same aesthetic playbook.
Most of the stores are small kiosks that don’t require a lot of maintenance or energy overhead costs.
But they are filled to the brim with personality.
Snow King, the company’s bulbous, blue-eyed mascot, makes dozens of appearances in the restaurant’s décor.
He is often depicted wielding an ice-cream-themed scepter or pouring tea into a diffuser.
McDonald’s recently lost the crown as the largest restaurant chain by store-count
Mixue, the Chinese ice cream, tea, and coffee brand, also has more global stores than Starbucks
Every Mixue location features red and pink interiors, and speakers play the brand’s signature theme song – a remix of ‘Oh! Susanna’ – on repeat.
But, perhaps most importantly, the products are cheap.
Mixue’s ice cream and drinks start at 6 Chinese yuan, or just $0.83, a value proposition that has attracted millions of customers amid China’s ongoing economic slowdown.
The restaurant’s next goal appears to be simple: infiltrate more markets.
Previously, the chain has also focused on building shops in smaller markets, instead of reaching massive scale in large, competitive cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
During the IPO, the company said it wanted to become ‘more global.’ It also has no stores in major markets in Europe, North America, or South America.
But to appease shoppers in other markets, it may have to rethink its looped jingle.
‘This ice cream is better than McDonald’s,’ Julian Eymann, an American tourist in Singapore told The Wall Street Journal. ‘[But] the song’s gotta go. It’s got to torture the employees.’
