Known as the "first stock of national chain tea drinks," Mixue Ice City updated its prospectus a year after it initiated its listing in Hong Kong last January, continuing its efforts to go public.
On January 1, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange documents show that Mijia Ice Castle Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Mijia Ice Castle") updated its listing application. It is worth noting that this is not Mijia Ice Castle's first attempt to enter the Capital Markets. Previously, Mijia Ice Castle intended to go public on the A-share market and list its Stocks. In September 2022, Mijia Ice Castle planned to land on the Main Board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and aimed to raise 6.496 billion yuan, but there was no further news afterward. In January 2024, Mijia Ice Castle disclosed its prospectus for listing in Hong Kong, but there has also been no progress since then.
China's first ready-to-drink beverage company.
Mijia Ice Castle, known as "the first national chain tea beverage stock," is introduced in the latest Hong Kong prospectus as a global leader in the ready-to-drink beverage industry, focusing on providing high-quality, affordable ready-to-drink fruit beverages, tea drinks, ice cream and coffee products at an average price of about 6 yuan (approximately 1 dollar) to consumers. Mijia Ice Castle operates the ready-to-drink tea brand "Mijia Ice Castle" and the freshly ground coffee brand "Lucky Coffee."
As of September 30, 2024, Mijia Ice Castle has developed a store network through a franchise model with over 45,000 stores in China and overseas, covering 11 countries (including Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Australia, South Korea, and Japan).
In 2023 and from January to September 2024, Mijia Ice Castle's network achieved approximately 7.4 billion and 7.1 billion cups of beverage sales, respectively. According to a report by Zrac Consulting, based on the number of stores as of September 30, 2024, Mijia Ice Castle is the largest ready-to-drink beverage company in China and globally. Based on beverage sales volume in 2023, Mijia Ice Castle is the number one ready-to-drink beverage company in China and second globally. Based on the terminal retail sales in 2023, Mijia Ice Castle ranks number one in China and fourth globally, with market shares of approximately 11.3% and 2.2% in China and globally, respectively.
Currently, Mijia Ice Castle's product matrix includes both evergreen products and seasonal and regional products. According to the Zrac Consulting report, based on beverage sales volume in 2023, Mijia Ice Castle's ice-cold lemon water, fresh ice cream, and bubble tea are the top three single products in China's ready-to-drink beverage industry. In the first nine months of 2024, approximately 1.1 billion cups, 1.4 billion units, and 0.385 billion cups were sold in China, respectively.
At the same time, the company will regularly launch seasonal and regional beverages in line with consumer preferences and market trend analyses. For instance, "Berry Sisters," launched in June 2023, usually sells for 7 yuan and achieved approximately 33 million cups in sales in the first month of its launch, becoming one of the best-selling products.
As of September 30, 2024, Mixue Ice City has become the largest and most comprehensive enterprise in the supply chain of freshly made beverages in China. Currently, Mixue Ice City has five production bases in Henan, Hainan, Guangxi, Chongqing, and Anhui, covering a total area of approximately 0.79 million square meters. The production in these bases covers seven categories of ingredients used for making freshly made beverages, including sugar, milk, tea, coffee, fruit, grain, and materials, with an annual comprehensive production capacity of about 1.65 million tons.
As of September 30, 2024, the delivery network of Mixue Ice City covers 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in mainland China, over 300 prefecture-level cities, 1,700 county towns, and 4,900 townships, making it the highest in coverage breadth and penetration depth in the industry. By that date, Mixue Ice City has achieved delivery within 12 hours in over 90% of county-level administrative regions in mainland China; about 97% of Mixue Ice City stores in mainland China have cold chain logistics coverage. As of September 30, 2024, Mixue Ice City’s delivery network also covers over 560 cities in four overseas countries.
Franchise sales model
In terms of performance, Mixue Ice City has shown impressive financial results in recent years, achieving strong growth, excellent profitability, and abundant cash flow on a massive scale. From 2022 to September 2024, Mixue Ice City achieved revenues of 13.576 billion yuan, 20.302 billion yuan, and 18.66 billion yuan, with net income during the same period of 2.013 billion yuan, 3.187 billion yuan, and 3.491 billion yuan respectively.
Mixue Ice City’s business model mainly involves selling the ingredients, packaging materials, equipment, facilities, and operational materials required for making various freshly made beverages and ice cream to franchisees, while also providing franchise management services, and directly selling freshly made beverages and ice cream to consumers through self-operated stores.
Mixue Ice City mainly conducts business through a franchise model, with the vast majority of its revenue coming from selling products and equipment to franchise stores. As of September 30, 2024, over 99% of Mixue Ice City stores are franchise stores, with the remainder being self-operated stores.
The initial investment and franchise fees for Mixue Ice City stores are lower than the average charges in China's freshly made beverage industry. In terms of revenue model, Mixue Ice City does not primarily rely on franchise fees and related service fees for income. During the performance record period, only 1.9% to 2.4% of Mixue Ice City’s revenue came from franchise fees and related service fees.
In this Hong Kong IPO, Mixue Ice City plans to raise funds to enhance the breadth and depth of the company’s end-to-end supply chain, build and promote the brand and IP, strengthen digitalization and intelligent capabilities across various business segments, and fund working capital and other general corporate purposes.
Focusing on "high quality at a reasonable price".
From a small shaved ice business to a scale of ten thousand stores, Mixue Ice City has taken a development path praised as "surrounding the city from the countryside".
It is understood that the founder of Mixue Ice City, Zhang Hongchao, came from a poor background and did not have a smooth educational path. After dropping out of school, he started a business with his family. Through self-study, Zhang Hongchao enrolled in the adult education program at Henan University of Economics and Law. In 1997, during his university years, Zhang Hongchao started his lifelong sweet career at Mixue Ice City, a national chain brand created for young people, offering fresh ice cream and tea drinks.
Through multiple market surveys, Zhang Hongchao finally determined the positioning of his business, which is down-to-earth, focusing on the sinking market, and adopting a low-price strategy. Mixue Ice City's operating mission was also established as "to let everyone in the world enjoy delicious food of high quality at a reasonable price."
In recent years, China's ready-to-drink beverage and ice cream industry has shown rapid growth, with the market scale expanding quickly. At the same time, due to the relatively low threshold for starting a business in this industry and the high replicability of products, the number of market participants and brands has been continuously increasing, leading to increasingly intense competition in the industry. Currently, well-known brands such as Mixue Ice City, Heytea, Naixue Tea, Chayan Yuesao, Cha Bai Dao, Gu Ming, Ice Queen, and Haagen-Dazs have been formed.
Mixue Ice City focuses on "high quality at a reasonable price." The prospectus shows that the price of "Mixue Ice City's" core products typically ranges from 2 yuan to 8 yuan, while the core products of "Lucky Coffee" typically range from 5 yuan to 10 yuan. However, low prices do not mean no profit. The prospectus indicates that in terms of gross margin, from 2022 to September 2024, Mixue Ice City's gross margins were 28.3%, 29.5%, and 32.4%, respectively; during the same period, the net cash flow from operating activities was 2.431 billion yuan, 3.794 billion yuan, and 5.101 billion yuan, respectively.
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Editor/rice