The main products are light milk ice cream 6.9 yuan, velvet cocoa and semi-smooth ice cream 7.9 yuan. Compared with the previous price of 13 to 16 yuan, the price is nearly halved.

Do you want 66 yuan? Please take a look at 6 yuan and 9 cents.

According to Maoying data, from 2023 to 2026, the average price per 100 grams of domestic ice cream and ice cream categories dropped from 3.58 yuan to 3.28 yuan. The price bands below 3 yuan and 3 to 6 yuan accounted for about 80% of the market share, and the price bands above 6 yuan totaled less than 20%.

Zhong Xuegao’s resurrection game does not seem to be completely “people-friendly”. It can only be said that he no longer acts as an Hermès and ice cream assassin.

01

“The Zhong Xuegao of the Era”

In 2018, Lin Sheng, a former advertiser, entered the ice cream track.

Tile shape, back pattern, national trend concept, and scarce raw materials, it is probably difficult to understand now why such a combination of punches can raise the price of an ice cream.

But from the perspective of business history, it may not be that everyone really needs to eat more expensive ice cream, but “expensive ice cream” can be a very valuable story in the market.

What capital is best at is creating demand.

Since 2017, a wave of “new consumption” has emerged on the Internet.

China’s manufacturing supply chain has matured, and the emergence of channels such as Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Bilibili, official accounts, and live broadcasts has lowered the threshold for brands to enter the market.

A popular article or topic can turn a new product into a hit.

Driven by the new growth logic of various industries, investment and financing in the primary market have fully blossomed and grown rapidly.

Food and beverages are one of the largest secondary industries in the large consumer industry. In 2020, there were nearly 200 financing events for new consumer brands, of which food-related brands accounted for 46.15%, nearly half.

In February 2021, the PE multiples of many leading companies exceeded 100 times.

As long as the story is told well enough, traffic can be turned into sales, sales can support the valuation, and the valuation can be used for further financing.

Round after round, Zhong Xuegao raised a total of 1.3 billion in financing.

But the faster the building is built, the faster it collapses.

Until the summer of 2022, the “Ice Cream Assassin” was criticized for being a hot search topic for a long time.

A consumer picks up a plain-looking ice cream cone at a convenience store and is stung by the price when checking out.

The “Fire Will Not Melt” incident followed closely. Netizens used a lighter to burn Zhong Xuegao’s ice cream, and found that not only did it not melt, but it burned and smoked.

Although Zhong Xuegao responded that “it complies with national standards,” the brand’s defense was feeble in the face of overwhelming doubts.

Online products are all out of reach, and offline products are hidden in affordable freezers. Consumers are worried about having nowhere to vent their anger. If Snow King makes a mistake, everyone will forgive him, but if the “assassin” commits a crime, he must be caught and tried.

According to dairy industry analysts, the raw material cost of a basic Zhongxuegao ice cream is “on average between 3 yuan and 5 yuan.”

But Zhong Xuegao could only make one yuan from it.

According to the financial report, Zhong Xuegao’s marketing expenses in 2021 are as high as 320 million yuan. After deducting the costs of channel rebates, the operating profit is less than 50 million yuan, and the net profit rate is less than 5%.

Equivalently, for every 20 yuan ice cream sold, the company actually only earns 1 yuan.

Anyone who looks at it may think that the profit model of this product is amazing.

At that time, Zhong Xuegao did not build his own factory. The cold chain cost accounted for nearly half of the total cost. The ex-factory price and the “travel expenses” to sell to consumers were too high.

Moreover, simply expensive ice cream is not a long-term business. Although Haagen-Dazs is not cheap, it has many categories and channels, so it is not an assassin.

There are only so many people who are willing to pay high prices for ice cream. When all those who want to try it out have tried it, and there is no repurchase, sales will only become less and less.

Wage arrears, layoffs, supplier debt collections, and office lease cancellations followed one after another.

Zhong Xuegao tried to find another way out by launching a low-priced sub-brand of 3.5 yuan, but old users felt that they were being “stabbed in the back”, new users did not buy it, and neither party was pleased.

At the same time, capital markets have also tightened their purse strings.

In 2024, the number of primary market investment and financing transactions in the large consumer industry will be 785 with a transaction amount of 34 billion yuan, which is -51.9%/-53.8% respectively compared with the same period in 2023, and -81.6%/-87.9% respectively compared with the same period in 2021.

In July 2025, Zhong Xuegao entered the bankruptcy review process. At that time, the company’s book assets were only 186 million yuan, but its maturing debt was as high as 782 million yuan.

A brand that was once valued at 4 billion finally sold for 21.1 million.

02

Half the price difference, how can Zhong Xuegao make money from his “resurrection”?

According to industrial and commercial information, the operating entity of the brand restart is “Zhong Xuegao Brand Management (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.”, the actual controller is Wang Yaqing, and the other shareholder is “Changsha Hujia”, the parent company of the quick-frozen food brand “Royal Tiger”.

Everyone is familiar with Royal Tiger. The quick-frozen food they produce can sell for billions a year, and it has a mature supply chain system especially for cold chain food.

Although the new team stated at the communication meeting, “The relationship between the two parties is only financial investment and financial investment. The new company is independently operated by a team led by CEO Chen Dacheng. There is no other relationship between the two, and there is currently no business overlap.”

But such a shareholding structure means that Zhong Xuegao may receive supply chain support from Royal Tigers in the future to make up for the previous shortcomings in production and cost control.

For the new owner, the brand still has residual value, there are still consumers who remember it, and there are channels willing to give it a place in the freezer.

It’s just that the price has been discounted by half, but the formula process remains the same. The price difference can only be found from the channel structure, marketing system and supply chain costs.

Previously, Zhong Xuegao used “short-term warranty” as a selling point, with the shortest shelf life of only 90 days, while other ice creams on the market generally have a shelf life of 8 to 12 months.

The short-term warranty design and low repurchase rate will eat up a large part of profits in channel costs.

If you want to adopt a “lighter cost structure” and enter sinking channels, appropriately extending the shelf life to adapt to the channels is almost an inevitable choice.

So after the price reduction, can Zhong Xuegao make money?

Food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng believes that competition in the price range of 8 to 10 yuan is relatively relaxed, and Zhong Xuegao still has a chance to break through.

“If the taste of the product can be maintained and the price is reduced, there will be market opportunities.”

But at the same time, he also said that brand comeback is inseparable from capital empowerment, and channel building and marketing promotion require continuous investment.

With a price of 6.9 yuan, whether it can make money depends to a greater extent on whether the new owner is willing to continue to burn money for the new Zhong Xuegao in the supply chain and channels.

03

Prepackaged ice cream is returning to “childhood”

Judging from the time of Zhong Xuegao’s resurrection, the current market environment is no longer as friendly as in previous years.

The average price per 100 grams of domestic ice cream and ice cream categories has shown a downward trend. Ice cream in the price range of 3 to 5 yuan has ranked first in sales for three consecutive years, while the total price of ice cream in the price range of 6 yuan and above is less than 20%.

During the peak season from May to August this year, sales of cold drinks also dropped by 12.93% year-on-year.

Moutai ice cream stores have been closed in large numbers, and products are being cleared out at 30% discounts. The number of Haagen-Dazs stores in China is only half, and high-priced ice cream is visibly declining.

Everyone bought less, and the ice cream was sold cheaper.

The only thing in the entire industry that can still sell at a high price and tell a story is almost the only one left in the field of freshly made ice cream.

Most of the sales are concentrated in the Gelato specialty stores and the ice cream business of the freshly made tea brand stores.

Money will not disappear but will be transferred. From June to August 2026, freshly made ice cream took away more than 61% of the high-end market above 30 yuan.

Consumers are willing to pay a higher price for a gelato made on site, but are not willing to pay for a prepackaged, high-priced ice cream.

It’s great to enjoy a freshly made ice cream at a luxury store in a shopping mall at a high price, and I’m willing to take photos and share it on social platforms.

But if you get “stabbed” in a convenience store refrigerator, wait until you get stuck in a lightning protection post.

The latter has no more stories to tell.

Zhong Xuegao must reduce prices, but price reductions may not necessarily win over long-term customers.

04

stand up and run

When Zhong Xuegao cuts prices, everyone will more or less think of Heytea and Naixue.

These two “branded teas” that were once the most expensive among new tea drinks have also gone through a similar path.

Heytea’s unit price once reached 52 to 56 yuan, while Naixue’s unit price remained stable at around 43 yuan.

According to the consumption concept at that time, if you queue for an hour to buy a cup of milk tea for 36 yuan, no matter how painful your wallet is, you can still get a lot of “awesome” praises when you post it in your circle of friends.

But if you do the same thing again now, others will only think that your awesomeness needs to be replaced by stupidity.

In the Internet era, the ingredient lists, cost structures, and industry insider information of most fast-moving consumer goods brands can be easily checked. The higher the premium, the more obvious the price correction will be.

Naixue’s tea customer unit price has dropped to 24.4 yuan, and Heytea has also reduced prices on nearly 90% of its products. Products priced between 15 and 25 yuan account for more than 60% of all products.

After the price reduction, did the tea-drinking giants really usher in a stable second growth?

Naixue is still losing money, and Heytea is still “laggard in scale”.

Price cuts can help brands survive, but they may not make them run again.

Clayton Christensen posed a question in “The Innovator’s Dilemma”“Disruptive Innovation” Theory (Disruptive Innovation), divided into two paths.

New-market Disruption:Create an entirely new market with customers who have never purchased or used similar products and services before and have no legacy experience, and you will have pricing power. (For example: the emergence of platforms such as Didi).

Low-end Disruption:Within the existing market value network, use a low-cost business model to win by reducing prices by attracting “low-end customers” that mainstream companies disdain to serve. (Examples: discount retail stores, low-cost airlines).

The reason why Heytea and Naixue can “survive” is that they benefit from the creation of new products for freshly made tea drinks (milk-topped tea, tea + baking, third space) and new consumption scenarios (social networking, check-in, instant experience), which belong to “new market disruption”.

These factors have independent value in themselves, and price reductions only lower the barriers to entry.

And Zhong Xuegao is obviously closer to the latter – trying to enter an already mature market (pre-packaged ice cream) with high prices (ice cream of 6.9 yuan is still not considered a low price band), but does not create new consumption scenarios.

Freshly made ice cream has achieved new market disruption, so it is popular, which shows that consumers are willing to pay for the “new scene”, but they are not necessarily willing to pay for the “new price of the old product”.

Therefore, after the price reduction of Heytea Naixue, at least there will be a “freshly made” scene, social attributes and high-frequency repurchase of freshly made tea drinks.

After Zhong Xuegao lowered the price, only the price tags in the freezers were consistent with consumers’ tastes. Unlike tea, which is sold all year round, consumers are willing to drink it every day.

結語

Industry analyst Zhu Danpeng’s judgment is more cautious and optimistic: “Consumers will have a try mentality and compare the differences between new products and old models.”

There is a long way between “trying it” and “buying it again and again”.

It is said in the industry that to be a brand is to be a friend of time.

Time is also the touchstone of a brand, and will filter out all gorgeous packaging, loud slogans, and overwhelming marketing.

The premium of freshness will eventually come, and the cycle of every brand in every era is so long.

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