Mixue-Linked Fulu Mart Quietly Reached 100 Convenience Stores in Henan, With a 1,000-Store Target

This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on February 15, 2022.

Retail Business Finance reported that Fulu Mart, a convenience-store brand founded by the wife of Mixue Bingcheng’s founder, had reached 100 stores in Henan, with average daily store revenue of RMB 4,000. According to the report, Fulu Mart’s plan was to reach 1,000 stores in 2023 and enter the top 10 of China’s chain convenience-store brands the following year.

Unlike Lucky Cup, Mixue Bingcheng’s coffee brand for lower-tier markets, Mixue’s relationship with Fulu Mart had not been publicly disclosed. The report said the two maintained a low-profile, apparently independent relationship, while Mixue supported Fulu Mart in areas including supply chain and site selection.

A source cited by Retail Business Finance said Fulu Mart was effectively a Mixue project, and that this was already an open secret in Shangqiu, Henan, the hometown of Mixue founder Zhang Hongchao.

Ownership And Timeline

Corporate registry platform Qichacha showed Henan Fulu Mart Trading Co., Ltd.’s major shareholder as Tian Haixia and its legal representative as Jia Rongrong.

Tian Haixia previously had three beverage-shop entities under her name, all now deregistered: Zhengzhou Huiji District Mixue Beicheng Ice Drink Shop, Zhengzhou Jinshui District Mixue Bingcheng Beverage Shop, and Zhengzhou Jinshui District Tian Haixia Beverage Shop. The former Tian Haixia Beverage Shop location was later the site of Mixue Bingcheng’s Huanghe Road store in Zhengzhou’s Jinshui District. Jia Rongrong had operated 11 Mixue Bingcheng beverage stores, all also deregistered.

Henan Fulu Mart Trading Co., Ltd. was established in October 2018, when the Fulu Mart brand was also registered and entered the Henan market. Its first convenience store opened in May 2019 at Henan University of Economics and Law, Zhang Hongchao’s alma mater. In August 2020, Fulu Mart opened franchising with “zero franchise fee.” By the end of that year, it upgraded its brand image with support from Mixue’s back-end capabilities.

After roughly six months of preparation and two years of replication, Fulu Mart had gone from zero to 100 stores in Henan. Its stated thousand-store and ten-thousand-store plans indicated an ambition to move beyond Henan and expand nationally.

Store Format And Offer

Fulu Mart’s store identity used orange, red, and dark blue, with “FULU MART” as its English mark, a format similar to FamilyMart’s English signage.

On the product side, Fulu Mart said standard stores carried more than 3,000 SKUs, while BOX-format stores carried more than 1,500 SKUs. Beyond basic convenience-store categories, the assortment included fresh food such as oden, sandwiches, and buns, as well as private-label products including bread, bottled water, and craft beer.

Retail Business Finance reported that Henan Juntai Supply Chain provided warehouse and scheduled store-delivery services, including daily delivery and next-day delivery.

Fulu Mart also built both offline and online service channels. In stores, it offered services such as restrooms and document/photo printing. Online, it operated the “Fulu Mart Convenience Store” mini program, built a membership system, and launched delivery through Ele.me and Meituan.

For digital systems, Fulu Mart selected Haiding as its digital service provider. The stores offered self-checkout similar in form to Bianlifeng, but the report noted that Fulu Mart had not reached Bianlifeng’s level of intelligence, operations, or procurement capability.

Target Consumer And Marketing

Fulu Mart targeted a similar consumer group to Mixue Bingcheng: young people and students seeking “high quality at low prices.” These customers were willing to spend on products they liked, but had limited purchasing power. As a result, many Fulu Mart stores were located around schools, pedestrian streets, shopping centers, and other high-traffic areas.

Marketing activity included back-to-school discount campaigns, a “Fulu Daily” format compared in the report to Huang Taiji’s marketing style, sales of Mixue’s Snow King merchandise and blind boxes, a dedicated “Fulu Mart Canteen” merchandise display area, and a Costa Coffee themed store.

Note: the 2023 store target and subsequent industry-ranking plan were forward-looking figures reported in 2022 and should be read as historical guidance.