Mixue Ice Cream & Tea

This article is about the Chinese dessert chain. For the Chinese musical artist, see Mi Xue.

Mixue Ice Cream & Tea (Chinese: 蜜雪冰城; pinyin: Mìxuě Bīngchéng; lit. 'honey snow ice city') is a Chinese multinational fast-food restaurant chain specializing in ice cream and tea-based drinks. It was founded in 1997 in Zhengzhou by Zhang Hongchao.

Mixue Group

Headquarters of Mixue in Zhengzhou, China
Native name
Chinese	蜜雪冰城股份有限公司
Literal meaning	Honey Snow Ice City Joint Stock Limited Company
Company type	Public
Traded as	SEHK: 2097
Industry	Food and drink
Founded	Jinshui District, Zhengzhou, Henan, China (June 1997 (1997-06))
Founder	Zhang Hongchao
Number of locations	46,479 (December 31, 2024)[1]: 7
Area served	Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Kazakhstan
Key people	Zhang Hongchao (President Director)
Products	Ice cream, bubble tea, and tea
Revenue	RMB24.8 billion[1]: 99  (2024)
Operating income	RMB5.81 billion[1]: 99  (2024)
Net income	RMB4.45 billion[1]: 99  (2024)
Website	www.mxbc.com

As of early 2025, it operated more than 45,000 stores in China and overseas, which makes it the world’s largest food-service chain by number of stores. Most locations are franchised and the company generates a large share of its revenue by supplying ingredients, equipment, and packaging to franchisees. Its menu emphasizes low-priced items such as soft-serve ice cream and milk tea.

Mixue’s parent company, Mixue Group, listed in Hong Kong on March 3, 2025. The initial public offering raised about HK$3.45 billion (approximately US$444 million at the time) and the shares rose by about 40–47% on the first day of trading.

History

Mixue's mascot, "Snow King" (雪王)

In June 1997, Zhang Hongchao was studying at Henan University of Economics and Law when he opened a shaved‑ice stall in Zhengzhou using a 3,000‑yuan loan from his grandmother.^[2] The stall’s early success convinced him to expand, and in 1999 he opened a second stand called Mixue Bingcheng.^[3]

Due to a lack of experience, Hongchao had closed three stores in a little more than a year. Following the closure of his third store, he went to Hefei in order to sell tanghulu, which also failed.^[4] In the spring of 1999, Hongchao returned to Zhengzhou to start a new cold drink shop, though this would also be demolished; the failures of these street stalls were attributed to poor locations and ongoing urbanization.^[4]

Timeline

Mixue Ice Cream & Tea began in 1997 when Zhang Hongchao opened the first location under the Mixue name.^[5] After six relocations, the first successful Mixue Ice Cream & Tea store opened in 2003.^[6][4] Around 2005 or 2006,^[7] the company introduced soft serve ice cream at the price of just 1 yuan, which quickly became a best-seller and its first signature product;^[8] by the first nine months of 2023, Mixue had sold approximately 442 million ice cream cones in China.^[9]

In 2007, Mixue began franchising after opening a new ice cream shop.^{[citation needed]} The following year, it established Mixue Ice Cream & Tea Trading Co., Ltd. to manage its growing network of franchises.^[10] In 2012, Henan Daga Food Co., Ltd. was founded to support self-production of raw materials for the franchise, and by 2014, the company had developed the Mixue Ice Cream & Tea Logistics Park to streamline distribution as it continued expanding across China.^{[citation needed]}

Mixue took its first step outside of China on September 5, 2018, with a store opening in Hanoi, Vietnam.^[11] Later that year, in November, it launched a new brand mascot, Snow King.^[12][13] Between May 24 and 26, 2019, the company hosted an "ice cream music festival" at Opalala Water Park in Zhengzhou,^[14] drawing over 30,000 visitors. On June 24, 2020, Mixue celebrated the opening of its 10,000th store in Yuanyang County, Henan, Xinxiang.^[15] That same year, it expanded into Indonesia with a branch in Cihampelas Walk, Bandung.^[16]

Mixue reportedly went public for the first time on September 30, 2021.^{[citation needed]} In 2022, the company made significant purchases of over 9,000 tons of tea, benefiting around 50,000 tea farmers, while also supporting over 11,000 franchisees and generating more than 500,000 jobs. It launched a 6.5 million yuan scholarship program across five universities in Henan^[17] and expanded into additional Southeast Asian markets, opening stores in Singapore,^[18] Thailand, Cambodia, The Philippines, Laos, and Myanmar.^[19] By the end of 2022, Mixue had also entered South Korea and Japan.^[20][21]

In February 2023, the company debuted in Australia with a store in Sydney,^[22][23] followed by additional openings in Melbourne and Brisbane.^[24]

On March 3, 2025, Mixue Group went public through an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in what was then the city’s largest initial public offering of the year. The company sold 17 million shares at HK$202.5 each, raising about HK$3.45 billion (US$444 million).^[25]

In September of 2025, Mixue began plans of opening its first store in the United States in New York City, with a planned opening date.^[26][27]

Controversies

Food safety

In December 2022, journalists from The Beijing News applied for jobs at two stores in Nanjing, where they were not required to sign labour contracts and discovered that "discarded" ingredients and "corner-cutting measures" were being used. The story was reported in March 2023, and as of March 14, 2023, the number of complaints on the Black Cat Complaint Platform reached 4,435, most of which were food safety issues.^[28]

Illegal use of child labour

On April 2, 2022, a Mixue drink shop in Tiantai County was fined 12,500 yuan for the illegal use of child labor by the local comprehensive administrative enforcement bureau after hiring a 15-year-old girl.^[29] The owner of the punished franchise store admitted fault in an interview with the media and said he realized his mistake to hire the 15-year-old minor, but claimed that her family had abandoned the minor, and so he sympathetically let her work at his store. He confirmed that the minor had since left.^[30] In July of the same year, a Mixue drink shop in Chiping County of Liaocheng was fined 5,000 yuan for the illegal use of child labor.^[31]

Halal certification in Indonesia

Mixue products in Indonesia have been certified halal since February 2023, after the Institute for Food, Drugs and Cosmetics Assessment of the Indonesian Ulema Council (LPPOM MUI) issued halal certification of ingredients used in their products.^[32][33] Before certification, Indonesians had questioned the absence of halal certification for Mixue's products.^[34]