Wen Yang Yafei, Zhang Ting

Editor Qiao Qian

36Kr learned from many people in the industry that the tea chain brand Mi Xue Bing Cheng is about to complete a new round of financing. The investors are Gao Ling Capital and Dragon Ball Capital, a subsidiary of Meituan. After this round of financing, the post-investment valuation of Mi Xue Bing Cheng is about RMB 2 billion.

36Kr asked Mi Xue Ice City for verification, and the other party responded, "It's not true. I have not received relevant information for the time being. "

According to informed sources, Mixue Ice City plans to raise RMB 1 billion to RMB 2 billion this round. In addition, 36Kr learned that Mixue Ice City is also preparing for listing at the same time, and brokers have entered the market, and this round of financing may be the last round of financing before the IPO of Mixue Ice City.

Headquartered in Zhengzhou, Mixue Ice City has been established for more than ten years, and its products include milk tea, fruit tea, ice cream and other categories, among which there are many best-selling explosive products such as chilled lemonade, skyscraper crispy ice cream, shake milkshake, full cup of passion fruit and so on. Mi Xue Bing Cheng focuses on sinking market, and the product price is mostly below that of 1 yuan. The target users are young consumer groups represented by college students, and the stores mainly open around universities, pedestrian streets and shopping malls.

It is reported that the brand of Mi Xue Bing Cheng is jointly served by three major companies, and managed and operated by Zhengzhou Cross-Strait Enterprise Management Co., Ltd.; Henan Daka Food Co., Ltd. leads R&D and production; Zhengzhou Baodao Trading Co., Ltd. provides warehousing and logistics services. Tianyancha APP shows that founder Zhang Hongchao and president Zhang Hongfu hold 47.53% and 47.53% shares of Zhengzhou Cross-Strait Enterprise Management Co., Ltd. respectively.

According to an informed source close to Honey Snow Ice City, in 219, the revenue of Honey Snow Ice City was about 6 billion yuan and the net profit was about 8 million yuan. As a chain brand of tea with a scale of 1, stores, the income of Mixue Ice City mainly comes from the material fee charged to franchisees, that is, the supply chain fee, and the franchise fee accounts for a small proportion of the total income. This year, Mi Xue Bing Cheng announced that the number of stores nationwide exceeded 1,, making it the largest chain brand of tea in China.

how did Michelle grow into a sinking giant in the milk tea industry? 36Kr has done it. To sum up, Mixue Ice City successfully grasped the demand of beverage upgrading from bottled drinks to ready-made drinks more than ten years ago, launched ultra-low-priced explosive drinks under 1 yuan, and quickly copied them with the help of the franchise model. The low-price strategy has made Mi Xue's franchise stores sink to counties and towns. In addition to the regular location of tea brands around shopping malls, office areas and schools, Mi Xue's location also includes communities, streets and urban-rural fringe.

With the gradual expansion of its scale, Mi Xue continues to invest in supply chain, warehousing and logistics, and store management, further strengthening its advantages. Although the price of a single cup of Mi Xue is basically below that of 1 yuan, the cost of a single cup can be kept stable between 2-5 yuan depending on the upstream advantages of the supply chain and relatively simple raw materials and ingredients. According to official website, the ice city of Mi Xue, the gross profit margin of its products is basically around 5%.

The milk tea industry has been constantly making capital moves recently. Recently, it has been reported in the market that the tea of Xicha and Naixue is planned to be listed in Hong Kong before the end of 221. Although they are all representative brands in the milk tea industry, the biggest difference of Mi Xue Ice City lies in the main attack on the sinking market.

In fact, the first-and second-class food and beverage markets have been very hot this year. According to the data of wind platform, as of September 29th, the Shenwan food and beverage index has increased by 46.89% in the past six months. The beverage industry sector is particularly active, and the valuation is also rising all the way. In addition to Mi Xue Bing Cheng, 36Kr reported in July that the latest valuation of Yuanzhong Forest had reached nearly US$ 2 billion, and Nongfu Spring, a leading enterprise in packaging water and beverage, also landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September, and raised over HK$ 8.1 billion to become the "frozen king" of Hong Kong stocks.

affected by the epidemic, the investment and financing of catering industry has a hot trend this year, and head projects have been financed. Before this round of financing in Mi Xue Bing Cheng, Guming, a tea brand with over 3, stores, also rooted in the sinking beverage market, completed strategic financing in July this year and was blessed by Dragon Ball Capital under sequoia capital china and Meituan.

The competition in the offline beverage market is becoming fierce, and it is gradually jumping out of the context of single product and channel and exploring in the direction of multiple categories.

The popular tea market penetrated by Mi Xue Bing Cheng, followed by thousands of tea chain brands such as CoCo Coco and Little Point. In addition, Shu Yi Shao Xian Cao and Gu Ming respectively explored the direction of snacks and tea in the higher price range from 1 to 2 yuan.

New tea brands, such as Hi Tea and Naixue Tea, are also extended in the direction of baking, coffee, snacks, soft drinks and other categories on the basis of new tea. Hi Tea also launched the "Hi Little Tea" sub-brand this year; In addition, traditional FMCG brands are also planning to enter the offline. Wahaha opened a brand milk tea shop in Changsha in September this year, and Xiang Piaopiao also expressed his plan to open an offline store to "test the water".

In fact, in addition to the main brand, Mixue Ice City also launched the sub-brand of ground coffee "Lucky Coffee" in 217, and opened a brand-new image shop in Zhengzhou this year, selling classic coffee, flavored latte, flavored tea, ice cream snacks and other coffee and related products. The price of a single cup of American black coffee for Lucky Coffee is 5 yuan, and the overall pricing of the products is in the range of 5 yuan to 1 yuan, which belongs to the same price band as the brand of Mixue Ice City. However, at present, the lucky coffee sub-brand is still in the initial stage of exploration.