What do you think of Mixue and its business model?
I’m looking at Mixue from an investor’s point of view, but I’m outside China, so I’d love to hear from people who actually live there or know the market well.
Mixue has grown insanely fast, with around 50,000 stores, most of them in China. Their supply chain seems very strong, and their low-price strategy clearly works.
But I have some doubts about whether the growth is sustainable.
From what I understand, a lot of Mixue’s revenue comes from selling ingredients and supplies to franchisees. So even if some franchisees don’t make much profit, Mixue can still make money from supplying them. That makes me wonder whether the business is more attractive for the company than for individual store owners.
I’ve also heard that their international expansion has had some issues in places like Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia, though I’m not sure how true that is.
As a consumer, I understand why people like the low prices, but the taste feels a bit artificial to me, and there seem to be Mixue stores everywhere. For franchisees, it looks like they have to compete not only with local brands and other chains, but also with other nearby Mixue stores.
So I’m curious: how do people in China actually view Mixue? Is it still popular and growing, or is the market starting to feel saturated? And do franchisees generally make decent money from it?