---
title: "Distributing Yili, Mengniu, Bright Dairy, etc., and Establishing 40+ Ice Cream Home-Batch Stores, How Did She Achieve Counter-Trend Growth?"
description: "In the first half of the year, the FMCG market showed a slight downturn, with distributors of ice cream and frozen products particularly struggling. However, a distributor in Nanchang, Jiangxi, focusing on province-wide cold chain service and distribution, currently represents brands like Yili, Mengniu, Bright Dairy, and others, and has achieved counter-trend growth by establishing over 40 ice cream home-batch chain stores."
author: "张雨薇"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2024-07-27"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/distributing-yili-mengniu-bright-dairy-etc-and-establishing-40-ice-cream-686db487/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/distributing-yili-mengniu-bright-dairy-etc-and-establishing-40-ice-cream-686db487.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/wyFHJpdMogI9hsTBJuyHVg"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E4%BB%A3%E7%90%86%E4%BC%8A%E5%88%A9-%E8%92%99%E7%89%9B-%E5%85%89%E6%98%8E%E7%AD%89-%E5%B8%83%E5%B1%8040-%E5%86%B0%E5%93%81%E5%AE%B6%E6%89%B9%E5%BA%97-%E5%A5%B9%E6%98%AF%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E5%AE%9E%E7%8E%B0%E9%80%86%E5%8A%BF%E5%A2%9E%E9%95%BF-686db487.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/distributing-yili-mengniu-bright-dairy-etc-and-establishing-40-ice-cream-686db487/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Distributing Yili, Mengniu, Bright Dairy, etc., and Establishing 40+ Ice Cream Home-Batch Stores, How Did She Achieve Counter-Trend Growth?

> In the first half of the year, the FMCG market showed a slight downturn, with distributors of ice cream and frozen products particularly struggling. However, a distributor in Nanchang, Jiangxi, focusing on province-wide cold chain service and distribution, currently represents brands like Yili, Mengniu, Bright Dairy, and others, and has achieved counter-trend growth by establishing over 40 ice cream home-batch chain stores.

In the first half of the year, the FMCG market showed a slight downturn, with distributors of ice cream and frozen products particularly struggling.
On one hand, inventory backlog is severe; by the end of Q2, last year's leftover stock hasn't been cleared, and multi-channel price cuts are relentless.
On the other hand, the emergence of various made-to-order stores has further squeezed existing market space amid weak consumer demand.
However, in Nanchang, Jiangxi, there is a distributor who focuses on province-wide cold chain service and distribution, currently representing Yili and Mengniu ice cream and low-temperature milk, with brands including Yili, Mengniu, Bright Dairy, Kasi, and Wei Chuan juices.
Having established over 40 ice cream home-batch chain stores, she has achieved counter-trend growth in a shrinking market, with expectations to double business volume by 2025. She is Yi Tianli, General Manager of Jiangxi Houya Trading.
Recently, New Distribution had an in-depth exchange with Ms. Yi Tianli, where she shared her entrepreneurial journey, methods for business growth, and insights on running home-batch chain stores.
**Seven Years of Entrepreneurship, Constantly 'Tinkering'**
Before starting her own business, Yi Tianli spent ten years at manufacturers, rising from business roles to professional manager, accumulating rich operational experience and connections.
Having been deeply involved in the front lines, she keenly noticed rapid changes in the environment, while the trading industry remained traditional, with many stuck in their ways. This prompted her to start her own business to seize new market opportunities.
In 2018, Yi Tianli founded Houya Trading, focusing on ice cream. Due to entering the market late, most brands already had distributors.
Yi Tianli had to leverage her accumulated resources to develop province-wide highway channels, heavily invest in cold chain and cold storage construction, and operate as a special channel customer. Limited by the channel and category specifics, business scale remained small.
From 2019 to 2021, these were three key years for Houya Trading's rapid development.
At that time, traditional channels were seized by early entrants, leaving little room for a not-yet-scaled Houya Trading, but new channels still offered opportunities.
With keen market insight, when the 'front warehouse + fresh e-commerce' model emerged, Yi Tianli realized it could be the next trend.
Leveraging her province-wide cold chain logistics advantage, she deepened cooperation with Yipin Fresh, undertaking all chain fresh supermarkets in Nanchang, covering over 200 stores.
Meanwhile, to better understand the evolving retail market and empower stores, Yi Tianli extended downstream into retail, opening her first ice cream store, 'Bing Xiao Qi'.
By 2021, snack discount stores were on the rise. As the snack system was rapidly expanding, they outsourced ice cream operations and distribution to the professional team at Houya Trading.
Additionally, to expand scale, from 2021 Houya Trading fully undertook brands and channels, leveraging experience from direct-operated hypermarkets and self-operated home-batch stores to successfully enter the local six major KA systems and convenience stores.
**In three years, Yi Tianli kept 'tinkering', seizing new channels and actively entering, tripling Houya Trading's overall scale.**
Just when development was at its peak, she made a surprising move: in 2023, she cut some ice cream hypermarket business.
Yi Tianli explained, 'Some brands front-load annual tasks, putting pressure on the first half of the year. Additionally, hypermarkets have payment terms and various fees, tying up capital. Cutting some ice cream hypermarket business frees up significant cash flow for brand and channel expansion.'
From a single special-channel ice cream distributor to now focusing on cold chain, representing a series of ice cream, frozen, and low-temperature dairy brands, covering KA hypermarkets, BC supermarkets, convenience stores, snack systems, highways, and other channels, and opening over 40 ice cream chain stores downstream.
Yi Tianli frequently makes clever moves, backed by deep insight into distributor business and new retail tracks.
**Counter-Trend Growth:**
**Dual Drive of Channel Layout and Store Operations**
Affected by last year's inventory, the ice cream industry has been brutal; also impacted by economic factors and rising consumer health awareness, demand for frozen food has significantly declined.
Houya Trading's counter-trend growth in this context can be attributed to the following:
**1. Layout in Snack Systems, Seizing Growth Channels.**
In 2021, snack systems developed rapidly in Nanchang, and by 2023, the province had over 300 stores.
Three years of cooperation built deep trust, and the snack system's head even entrusted ice cream and low-temperature milk products to Houya Trading, with Houya Trading also undertaking distribution operations across Jiangxi Province.
To date, this system has opened over 600 stores in Jiangxi, 100 in Fujian, 100 in Hubei, and over 200 in Hunan.
Houya Trading keeps pace with this snack system, continuously optimizing cold chain service operations, aiming to become a benchmark for ice cream + low-temperature milk + frozen category operation service providers in Jiangxi.
**2. Opening Ice Cream Chain Stores to Feed Back into Trading Business.**
A major pain point in the ice cream industry is that the sales season lasts only about 8 months a year.
To develop a second growth curve and better understand store needs and optimize product structure, in the second half of 2019, Yi Tianli opened her first ice cream home-batch store, 'Bing Xiao Qi'.
Initially, performance was mediocre. A chance experiment adding roasted nuts to the store solved the low off-season output problem.
To further expand visibility, Yi Tianli turned to Douyin's same-city traffic.
She led her team to explore, learning shooting and editing, and studying platform algorithms. Through short videos, live streaming, topic creation, group buying activities, and influencer check-ins, they actively promoted 'Bing Xiao Qi' and opened franchising in 2022.
**The creation of the 'Bing Xiao Qi' IP not only directly increased sales and distribution channels but also changed the past situation where distributors were 'invisible' in downstream sales.**
Previously, distributors supplied stores without direct consumer contact, and some new customers didn't know who to contact for goods.
**Through building the chain brand, they showcased professional supply chain and store operation capabilities, establishing a 'professional ice cream supplier' image in customers' minds, attracting customers to proactively seek cooperation.**
To date, 'Bing Xiao Qi' has over 40 stores, with Douyin single-platform sales exceeding 300,000 yuan during the May Day Golden Week.
**3. Empowering Downstream Stores to Increase Per-Store Output.**
Whether it's promising chain systems, single large stores, or ordinary mom-and-pop shops, as long as ideas and concepts align and they are willing to give Houya Trading enough trust, the team will uphold a mutually beneficial mindset, providing overall business planning, operational guidance, and support for stores.
First, through overall analysis of the ice cream market environment and Jiangxi market, combined with historical POS data and regional ice cream volume, they help stores adjust product structure and formulate sales target analysis tables.
Second, based on different store needs, they help optimize displays or create store-in-store images.
Finally, they tailor operational and promotional strategies. Using wholesale, flash sales, community flash sales, platform operations, and other forms, they help stores achieve integrated online-offline operations and increase per-store output.
It is understood that a recently partnered store saw ice cream sales grow 40% in one year from an initial 900,000 yuan.
**Downstream stores are the core of a distributor's business. Using supply chain advantages and category operation capabilities to help stores resist risks and increase per-store output is also finding a way out for oneself.**
**Small Distributors Make Money, Large Distributors Plan**
Discussing the future of distributor development, Yi Tianli stated: **Either scale up, or focus on making money without obsessing over scale or brands, doing whatever is profitable. Small distributors make money, large distributors plan.**
Houya Trading will implement the strategy of **'integrated online-offline operations, using retail to feed back into trading'** to continue expanding scale.
Utilizing their professionalism in product selection and category operations, they will fully promote 'Bing Xiao Qi', create model stores, and through comprehensive online private domain and platform investment, attract more retailers wanting to grow in ice cream and frozen products to cooperate.
Inside stores, they adhere to two points:
**1. Deepen and specialize to build the perception of a professional ice cream store.**
In 2023, the Bing Xiao Qi brand was fully upgraded, focusing on ice cream, with some low-temperature dairy and minimal frozen products to meet nearby residents' breakfast needs.
**2. Cooperate with professional teams to build private domain.**
On one hand, compared to public domain traffic, private domain maintenance has lower costs and stronger stickiness; on the other hand, deep cooperation with professional group-buying teams, where the group-buying team operates the private domain and Houya Trading provides supply chain support, is mutually beneficial.
Yi Tianli pointed out that Bing Xiao Qi has been building for 3 years. With richer categories and improved team operations, conservatively, store count will expand to 100 next year.
In the trading segment, Houya Trading will **continue focusing on cold chain, introducing new brands and categories, and penetrating categories thoroughly.**
At the same time, actively seek stores with matching values and concepts in the market, help stores with deep operations, empower stores, create differentiation, increase per-store output, and **use retail to feed back into trading**.
Low-temperature distributors face a major pain point: only a few months of business a year. As competition intensifies, many low-temperature distributors will gradually exit.
For distributors who still want to continue and grow, the current task is to continuously consolidate core competitiveness and prepare to take over blank markets.
**Final Thoughts**
As a traditional industry, many distributors have only played the role of capital advance and brand front warehouse in past business, easily making money from brand and channel dividends, but neglecting annual planning, overall strategy, process management, channel management, and team management.
The market still exists, but competition is fiercer. Facing declining sales, instead of self-pity, it's better to look for areas to optimize. The more confused you are, the more you should go out and see, visit and learn from excellent peers in the industry, and find business strategies that can be borrowed and replicated.
**From August 20-22, 2024, the '3rd China FMCG Distributor Conference' with the theme 'Crossing the Shrinking Era' will be grandly held in Shanghai.** Concurrently, the **'2024 6th China FMCG Conference'** and the **'3rd China FMCG Hard Discount Conference'** will also be held. **At the conference, the 'FMCG Industry Distributor B2b Platform Strategy Guidance Report', '2024 FMCG Distributor Business Status Survey Report', 'FMCG Industry O2O Regional Practical Implementation Guidance Report', and '2024 China Hard Discount Development - FMCG Industry Insight Report' will be released.******Interested friends are welcome to scan the code to inquire about the conference details!**


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671