Mixue Group Headquarters, Zhengzhou, Henan, China; Credit: Chronicle.lu

Continuing my series of articles on my recent visit to Henan proving in China, this one focuses on consumer industry businesses we visited.

Mixue Group Headquarters

Mixue (pronounced "me-shoe") has seen an incredible emergence in the last few years into a huge brand across China and beyond. We were welcomed into its Exhibition Hall which told its story including its group profile and company culture: it presented this with the help of a large model showing all aspects of it operation.

It has around 60,000 stores in total, including around 4,700 stores in fifteen countries outside China (mainly SE Asia, the US and Brazil). It has 25 warehouses in China and five overseas.

In 1997 its first drinks shop was opened in Zhengzhou, with the Mixue brand created two years later, in 1999; it started franchising in 2010 and, in 2015, was floated on the HKEX. Its first overseas store was opened in 2018 in Vietnam, the same year it launched its iconic brand mascot "Snow King". 

Its corporate culture places a huge emphasis on quality control and also on its global supply chain. 

Mixue has a number of different store types: standard, dine-in, container, flagship and partnership.

Dazhi Film and Television Base

China is experiencing a rapid emergence and development of micro short dramas (between one to two minutes), with the Dazhi film studios also on our itinerary. 

Not unlike Filmland in Kehlen, Luxembourg, these film studios allow production companies to use and adapt their sets (unlike Filmland, though, it does not have permanent green screen facilities). The film studio's sets currently include dining rooms, lounges, bathrooms, hospitals, schools, conference rooms, mansion corridors and more.

While we were there, one production company was concluding a casting session for an upcoming production, and another had just completed filming a micro short drama set in Shanghai.

Talking with a local producer, she confirmed that filming for micro short dramas normally takes five to seven days, with post production normally one to two months.

For the main / introductory article on my trip to Henan, please click here.