---
title: "Ice Cream Distributors: Selling into November's Cold, Last Year's Stock Still Not Cleared!"
description: "Big brands do bring volume, but top-tier manufacturers' excessive focus on their own sales data makes it hard for distributors to profit. Stock-pushing is the core practice of a few leading companies; in 2023, it crushed many large clients, with market prices falling dozens of points below the factory-set purchase prices. Meanwhile, these companies are also starting direct-to-terminal layouts and livestream sales to C-end consumers, and by 2025, distributors could almost be described as 'delivery men.' These days, Lao Sun, who works in the ice cream and frozen food channel in Hunan, is a bit troubled..."
author: "不旧"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2024-11-25"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ozBxDP2bQb0tQdPE1YSjeg"
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---

# Ice Cream Distributors: Selling into November's Cold, Last Year's Stock Still Not Cleared!

> Big brands do bring volume, but top-tier manufacturers' excessive focus on their own sales data makes it hard for distributors to profit. Stock-pushing is the core practice of a few leading companies; in 2023, it crushed many large clients, with market prices falling dozens of points below the factory-set purchase prices. Meanwhile, these companies are also starting direct-to-terminal layouts and livestream sales to C-end consumers, and by 2025, distributors could almost be described as 'delivery men.' These days, Lao Sun, who works in the ice cream and frozen food channel in Hunan, is a bit troubled...

"Big brands do bring volume, but top-tier manufacturers are too focused on their own brand sales data, making it difficult for distributors to profit."
"Stock-pushing is essentially the core of a few leading representative companies. In 2023, it crushed a batch of large clients. The purchase price is set by the manufacturer, but the market selling price is dozens of points lower than the client's purchase price. At the same time, these companies are also starting direct-to-terminal layouts and livestream selling to C-end consumers. By 2025, distributors can almost be directly described as 'delivery men.'"
These days, Lao Sun, who works in the ice cream and frozen food channel in Hunan, is a bit annoyed.
"How come others' warehouses are cleared spotlessly, but I'm clearing from the beginning of the year to the end? Now I'm already wearing long sleeves..."
Meanwhile, Shen Qiang, an ice cream distributor in Henan, looks at the crowds in down jackets on the street, and his heart sinks again: **"If 2023 stock shows up in the 2025 market, that would be really absurd."**
Previously, I also interviewed some distributors who said, "Cold drinks braked early; as we sold, we ran out of stock, and this year we have almost no inventory."
However, Lao Sun and Lao Shen above clearly haven't been so "lucky."
**Inventory and New Products: "Selling Until It's Cold, Last Year's Stock Still Not Cleared"**
"I've already lost over a hundred thousand! In 2023, the manufacturer pushed stock. This batch went from new products to old-date stock. Now it's November, and it's getting cold. I've tried every method, but I still have a pile left." Lao Sun told me, **"These days, the weather has clearly turned colder. Large supermarkets, convenience stores, and community stores at the terminal are starting to reduce ice cream shelf space."**
Indeed, as Lao Sun said, the "inventory problem" that has always plagued the entire ice cream industry is a "leftover issue" from 2023.
"In 2022, the entire ice cream industry was too prosperous and dazzling. Not just us, but people in the industry naturally had a determination to make a big push and overly optimistic estimates for this track." A Shandong ice cream and frozen food distributor believes the story called "inventory" should start from 2022.
"Actually, we all considered that winter is the off-season and terminal channels move slowly. After the Start of Autumn each year, we cautiously stock up and try to clear inventory, but in 2023, the movement through various terminal channels was really hard to look at. Later, we spent all our time cleaning up this mess."
Now, as November approaches, the weather turns cold.
This also means the traditional peak season for the entire ice cream industry has officially come to an end.
**As the frozen food peak season kicks off, these distributors, who mostly handle both ice cream and frozen food, need to start busy with new frozen product launches and shelf placement.**
"That (ice cream) inventory is looking like it will pile up into 2025," one distributor said helplessly. "As soon as frozen food is done, spring will come, and you'll find a new round of ice cream new product launches starting again..."
**Big Manufacturers and Distributors: "If You Don't Pay, You're Out!"**
"The New Year shopping festival is coming soon, and there will be a small peak in sales. I need to stock up more. I won't reserve too much now, otherwise, when the time comes, even if I have money, I won't be able to get goods."
Wang Dong, an ice cream and frozen food distributor in Guangzhou, Guangdong, told me that every day, week, month, and quarter, the big manufacturers' salespeople urge like this. "You see, it's already the fourth quarter. Although the weather here isn't as cold as in the north, it's still the off-season."
"Dumping orders, pressing tasks, bundling sales... These manufacturers: cheap products have no profit, so we don't want to do them; we only want to do expensive ones, but expensive ones don't sell well. So manufacturers desperately produce expensive ones and then push them onto distributors. As long as they leave the factory, the factory makes money. **If this vicious cycle continues, when all distributors can't hold on, that's when the factories go bankrupt.**"
An industry insider from Liaoning said that tense manufacturer-distributor relations are also becoming the "rope" choking the distributor community.
"Things have changed, haven't they? Our autonomy is shrinking, profits are getting lower, and top-tier brands are becoming more and more dominant," said the owner of an ice cream chain in Henan. "A few big brands can even account for up to 40% of the total, but they just don't make money!"
"Salespeople urging payment is routine; behind every word is the rhythm of 'If you don't pay, you're out,'" said an ice cream and frozen food distributor in Anhui. "Too many rebates haven't arrived yet... Alas!"
A fan who works as a salesperson at a big manufacturer shared their "difficulties" with me: "We have no choice. Our tasks increase year by year, and the salaries of low-level salespeople decrease year by year. We're always penalized at task progress checkpoints..."
**According to my understanding, with industry development, more and more new players entering has made this industry visibly competitive to the extreme. The past dividend period where big brands could 'win by lying down' has come to an end, and intensified competition has directly led to extremely compressed profits, which naturally passes down the chain to distributors.**
"These big manufacturers care more about 'face.' All year round, they focus on the numbers in their financial reports. The series of operations derived from over-pursuing sales data only make it harder for distributors to profit," Mr. Sun, the owner of a trading company in Guizhou Province, told me.
These elements intertwine and also trigger a series of chaos in the market.
**Online and Offline: "Terminal Prices Are in Chaos!"**
"What's sold on group buying is cheaper than my purchase price. How can I compete?"
As is well known, emerging channels like livestream e-commerce and community group buying are developing vigorously. Most brands can't "sit idly" watching the impressive sales numbers these channels bring, so even when they already have distributors in the region, they introduce these emerging channels at lower product prices, competing with distributors and disrupting the entire pricing system. Moreover, brands haven't reduced distributors' tasks one bit, chilling distributors' hearts.
"Some big manufacturers are as strong as ever: tasks, stock-pushing... 20% off, 30% off, 40% off... even 75% off. Promotions and price wars to clear inventory have thrown the entire market into chaos," an ice cream distributor from the southern region once told me.
"Distributors are all trapped by manufacturers. To get so-called rebates, they increase purchase volumes. When selling prices drop, no matter how cheap you buy, selling more won't make money. Distributors are being played out by manufacturers," said a distributor from the southwest. "Distributors don't unite either; wave after wave of them go to be 'cannon fodder.' If you can't do it, they'll just replace you without a word."
I took a screenshot from a friend's circle.
"Stock-pushing is essentially the core of a few leading representative companies. In 2023, it crushed a batch of large clients. The purchase price is set by the manufacturer, but the market selling price is dozens of points lower than the client's purchase price. At the same time, these companies are also starting direct-to-terminal layouts and livestream selling to C-end consumers. By 2025, distributors can almost be directly described as 'delivery men,'" said a channel provider from Jiangsu.
**Final Thoughts**
As mentioned in the article, the ice cream and frozen food sections that have become "standard" in these soft discount stores have a "dazzling array" that is "not quite in line" with the season and other business formats.
1 yuan for Meidenggao;
1.5 yuan for Wufeng Chrysanthemum Tea flavor;
2.4 yuan for Bright Peanut Nougat;
3.2 yuan for Walls Cornetto;
4.5 yuan for Renyang Yitou Niu;
5.9 yuan for Walls Magnum;
5.9 yuan for Nestlé 8 Times;
...
In addition, I also noticed a Japanese imported Ice House Ramu candy soda flavor ice pop, 48.3g*6 sticks, with a distributor's suggested price of 45 yuan, selling for 5.5 yuan, a shocking price of less than 10% of the original.
These big-brand ice creams, which are relatively "distant" in daily life, are extending an "olive branch" to consumers at an irresistible price in the freezers of these stores.
And the "inventory problem" we discussed above might also be one of the important reasons why the ice cream category is exceptionally hot in these soft discount formats.


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