---
title: "Three Guangdong Natives Prop Up China's Convenience Store Sector"
description: "Guangdong, known as the cradle of convenience stores, is home to three of the top ten national chains, including Meiyijia, Tianfu, and Yizhan. Their success stems from local conditions, supply chain innovation, and a resilient entrepreneurial spirit."
author: "微澜"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2024-10-25"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/three-guangdong-natives-prop-up-china-s-convenience-store-sector-8b285f5c/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/three-guangdong-natives-prop-up-china-s-convenience-store-sector-8b285f5c.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/AV656RhCZGM7TzBFYjDW9g"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/3%E4%B8%AA%E5%B9%BF%E4%B8%9C%E4%BA%BA-%E6%92%91%E8%B5%B7%E4%BA%86%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E4%BE%BF%E5%88%A9%E5%BA%97%E4%B8%80%E7%89%87%E5%A4%A9-8b285f5c.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/three-guangdong-natives-prop-up-china-s-convenience-store-sector-8b285f5c/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Three Guangdong Natives Prop Up China's Convenience Store Sector

> Guangdong, known as the cradle of convenience stores, is home to three of the top ten national chains, including Meiyijia, Tianfu, and Yizhan. Their success stems from local conditions, supply chain innovation, and a resilient entrepreneurial spirit.

To explore the landscape of China's convenience store market, one cannot overlook Guangdong, often called the "cradle of convenience stores." Statistics show that in 2023, national convenience store sales reached 424.8 billion yuan, with a total of 320,000 stores. Guangdong stands out as a major province for convenience stores. According to the "2023 China Convenience Store TOP100" released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, 11 local chain convenience store brands from Guangdong made the list, with a total of 50,223 stores (as of December 31, 2023), accounting for over a quarter of the total stores of listed companies. Moreover, among the top ten in terms of store count, three were founded by Guangdong natives: Meiyijia (ranked first), Tianfu (ranked fourth), and Yizhan (ranked tenth).

2023 China Convenience Store TOP10 (by store count) If you exclude the state-owned brands Yijie and Kunlun Haoke (backed by Sinopec and PetroChina gas stations) and foreign brands Lawson and 7-Eleven, Guangdong natives occupy half of the top ten. **Why have Guangdong natives propped up China's convenience store sector? What legendary stories lie behind this?** Today, we take a look at the three Guangdong natives who made it into the national top ten.

**The King of China's Convenience Stores,**
**With 36,000 Stores and Annual Revenue Exceeding 50 Billion Yuan**
**(Meiyijia Founder: Ye Zhijian)** As a pivotal figure in China's convenience store industry, Ye Zhijian, founder of Meiyijia, is also known as the "Godfather of China's Convenience Stores."

Meiyijia founder Ye Zhijian Born in 1951 in an ordinary family in Dongguan, Ye Zhijian dropped out of school after junior high due to poverty and went into business. With the unique acumen of Dongguan natives, he realized the potential in the candy, tobacco, and alcohol trade and started a candy business. As the reform and opening-up wave surged, Ye seized the opportunity and brought his tobacco, alcohol, and candy business to the forefront. For a long time, he served as deputy director of the Dongguan Commercial Bureau, where he introduced international consumer giants like Nestlé to Dongguan. **In 1990, Ye's life took another turn.** That year, at age 39, he was transferred to serve as general manager of Dongguan Sugar and Wine Company. In August of that year, an idea struck him: **Why not try introducing the foreign chain supermarket model to China?** He immediately led his team to establish a chain supermarket named "Meijia" in Humen Town, Dongguan. At that time, Meijia Supermarket opened a new shopping experience for Dongguan residents. It was an instant success, expanding to eight stores within a year. By 1996, Meijia Supermarket had nearly 50 stores in Dongguan. However, the good times did not last. That year, several international retail enterprises entered China, and giants like Walmart and Carrefour subsequently set up in Dongguan. Their advanced management concepts, fresh and abundant goods, and "everyday low price" strategy dealt a heavy blow to Meijia Supermarket. This prompted Ye to make a transformative decision: **enlarge, but make it small** — based on the then-current capital, technology, and team management conditions, and the new opportunities in convenience stores, **Ye ultimately decided to take a differentiated path: make the stores smaller and transition to a 24-hour convenience store model with a focus on franchising.**

Image source: Company official website In 1997, the first "Meiyijia" convenience store opened in Garden New Village, Guancheng District, Dongguan. **It turned out that Ye's transformation decision was extremely correct.** First, compared to the harsh winter nights in the north, Dongguan, located in the subtropics, still sees people wearing spring and summer clothing in December, providing a better consumption environment for 24-hour convenience stores. Second, the factory investment boom in the early 1990s divided Dongguan into a pattern of one town, one industry. Compared to large supermarkets that rely on central location traffic, convenience stores in community streets are more adaptable. As one of the world's largest manufacturing bases, the "world factory" of Dongguan has a migrant population that has consistently remained above 70%, ranging from 1 to 10 million. These workers, who leave early and return late, have made "nightlife consumption" a habit. At the same time, some individual businesses, originally mom-and-pop shops, also tended to become Meiyijia franchisees. **Thus, Meiyijia began its rise to convenience store dominance:** In November 2003, Meiyijia opened its first store in Guangzhou; in August 2004, the first store appeared in Shenzhen... In 2007, Meiyijia opened its 1,000th store in Houjie, Dongguan. **From 0 to 1,000 stores, 1,000 to 10,000, 10,000 to 20,000, and 20,000 to 30,000, Meiyijia took 10, 10, 3, and 2 years, respectively.** **As of July 31, 2024, Meiyijia's national store count reached 36,227**, covering more than 20 provinces, over 1,100 counties, and more than 4,300 townships, with sales exceeding 50 billion yuan. Looking back at Meiyijia's development, it took over 20 years to become the king of China's convenience stores, which can be attributed to the following aspects:

**1. Adapting to local conditions to achieve differentiated innovation and competition.** At its inception, Meiyijia was similar to most peers, but as business progressed, it gradually carved its own path in site selection, management, and operations.

Here are two examples: Unlike 7-11, which locates stores in commercial centers, Meiyijia initially placed its stores around industrial areas, ensuring dense foot traffic while avoiding direct competition;

In terms of franchising, Meiyijia decided from the start to expand through franchising. In 2016, it introduced a new "partnership franchise" model, separating investment rights from management rights, organically combining investors, operators, and headquarters, which accelerated brand development.

**2. Building a closed-loop supply chain to create a positive flywheel.** During expansion, Meiyijia continuously iterated and improved its supply chain from front to back (from B2B2C to S2B2C, then to M2S2B2C):

For example, Meiyijia upgraded its supply chain in terms of product strength, warehousing, and fulfillment by building its own logistics, cold chain distribution centers, and food processing plants;

Another example is establishing a profit model of "offline sales + online delivery + e-commerce + value-added services," gradually integrating procurement, storage, transportation, and management to enhance per-store profitability while scaling up.

**3. Digital transformation.** In fact, Meiyijia was one of the earliest convenience store brands in China to undergo digital transformation. As early as 2002, it used information systems for product and store management efficiency. When Meiyijia had only about 200 stores, it had already completed the optimization of operations and supply chain, with configurations that would typically require 800 stores.

It can be said that it was precisely the continuous investment in digitalization that ensured Meiyijia's rapid expansion thereafter.

**Giving Up an Executive Position,**
**He Built China's Fourth-Largest Convenience Store Chain**
**(Tianfu Founder: Ouyang Huajin)** It is worth noting that Ye Zhijian not only built the king of China's convenience stores but also had a connection with Ouyang Huajin, founder of Tianfu, China's fourth-largest convenience store chain. In the 1990s, Ouyang Huajin, a graduate of Jinan University with a degree in Chinese literature, joined Dongguan Sugar and Wine Group, where Ye Zhijian worked. Reports also mention that he served as Ye's secretary and, by chance, participated in the founding of the "Meiyijia" chain brand. However, in 2003, Ouyang gave up his enviable executive position and decided to start his own business with 500,000 yuan in startup capital.

Tianfu founder Ouyang Huajin, Image source: Official WeChat account On July 13, 2004, Ouyang Huajin and a group of young people founded Tianfu Convenience Store Co., Ltd. "After opening a store, renting an office, buying a delivery truck, and hiring a few people, there was no money left, so Tianfu could not afford to lose money from the start," Ouyang once said. **"It is impossible to start a chain enterprise with 500,000 yuan. What we could do was integrate upstream and downstream resources and make up for the shortage of startup funds through franchising."** At the beginning, Ouyang and his partner inspected sites from dawn to dusk, and to gain suppliers' trust, they paid cash for every purchase. In the second year, Ouyang established Chuanghao Logistics Company, **which unified delivery to franchise stores, reducing intermediate links to lower operating costs and create profit margins for franchisees.** In this way, in its first year, Tianfu opened 100 franchise stores in Dongguan alone. Subsequently, Tianfu expanded beyond Dongguan to other parts of Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guizhou, and other regions. By the end of last year, it had opened 7,208 stores, ranking fourth nationally on the "China Convenience Store Top 100." Excluding petroleum-based convenience store brands (Yijie, Kunlun Haoke), Tianfu is second only to Meiyijia as China's second-largest convenience store chain.

Image source: Company official website Looking back at Tianfu's journey, we find that its success shares similarities with Meiyijia but also has differences:

**1. Taking a differentiated path.** When Tianfu was founded, the domestic convenience store industry had already entered a "red ocean" of competition between foreign and local brands. To achieve differentiated competition, Tianfu positioned itself from the start as a chain brand that meets consumers' daily needs and operates to higher standards than mom-and-pop stores.

To this end, in terms of business model, **Tianfu implements three models: franchising, direct operation, and partnership**, and implements "unified image, unified management, unified distribution, unified procurement, unified training, and unified marketing."

**2. Building an efficient supply chain through information management systems and logistics bases.** For example, by establishing its own distribution company, building a warehousing and distribution center covering nearly 60 mu, and improving ambient and cold chain warehouses, Tianfu has introduced daily delivery and every-other-day delivery models to meet store operational needs.

**3. Digital transformation.** Focusing on store and consumer needs, Tianfu Group continuously explores building a digital store management system, focusing on the development of three major service platforms: intelligent store management systems, membership management systems, and digital supply chain systems.

**4. Multi-brand strategy, relying on an efficient and scientific supply chain system to gradually expand the brand territory.** During its development, Tianfu Group has merged with local convenience store brands such as Shuangke in Shantou, Guangdong, Kuaidi in Huizhou, and Haoban in Huaihua, Hunan. Currently, Tianfu Group owns nine brands, including Tianfu, Xiangjia, Jishi, Kuaidi, and Haoban.

Based on the positioning of different brands, it enters new regional markets in a relatively easy, fast, and low-cost manner, then leverages Tianfu Group's mature operating model, management experience, complete and efficient supply chain system, and channel resources to achieve economies of scale, reduce costs and increase efficiency, and build an ecosystem.

**From Odd Jobs to National Top Ten,**
**The Counterattack of a Convenience Store Giant**
**(Yizhan Founder: Hong Pangqing)** Unlike Ye Zhijian and Ouyang Huajin, the story of Hong Pangqing, founder of Yizhan, ranked tenth nationally, is more like a grassroots epitome under the wave of reform and opening up in Guangdong. Yizhan founder Hong Pangqing, Image source: Company official website Born in 1970 in an ordinary farming family in Baita Town, Jieyang City, Hong Pangqing was expelled from school in the first year of junior high for being too mischievous. Initially, his parents wanted him to farm, but he refused, believing it would lead nowhere. So, before turning 16, Hong began learning to be a small trader, selling vegetables and fruits. It wasn't until early 1989, when he turned 18, that Hong went to Shenzhen alone to make his fortune. Due to his youth, lack of education, skills, and even the ability to speak Mandarin or Cantonese, he could only work as a helper in a Chaozhou restaurant, washing dishes, wiping tables, and mopping floors. Despite being ridiculed for doing "women's work" in the kitchen, Hong knew exactly what he wanted: to learn to be a chef, and washing dishes allowed him to stay in the kitchen for long hours every day. A year later, when the restaurant's chef left due to health reasons, Hong finally got his chance to cook. Soon after, he borrowed 30,000 yuan from his family and took over the restaurant, becoming a boss for the first time. Subsequently, Hong opened a supermarket, a bicycle store, a hardware store, a brand clothing store, an electrical appliance mall, and a kitchen and bathroom appliance agency. These continuous attempts honed his business acumen. In 2003, after some research, **Hong Pangqing saw the potential in the 24-hour convenience store industry and decisively entered it.** On November 11, 2003, at No. 161 Jinglong New Village, Longhua Street, Shenzhen, the first Yizhan 24-hour convenience store opened. In the early days, although sales were far below expectations, Hong did not give up. Instead, he continuously summarized and improved, even going to Hong Kong for five or six days at a time, sleeping during the day and going out from 7-8 PM to 6-7 AM to experience and learn from local convenience stores. This quickly put Yizhan on the right track. In July 2005, Yizhan's 10th direct-operated store opened in Longhua; the same year, its first franchise store, "Sanlian Store," opened in Jinxiu New Village.

Image source: Company official website After more than 20 years of hard work, Yizhan has expanded to Guangdong, Jiangxi, and other places, serving over 100 million people annually. By the end of 2023, its store count reached 2,800, surpassing FamilyMart to enter the top ten. In fact, reviewing Yizhan's success, it also cannot be separated from differentiated competition and supply chain construction: For example, in supply chain, Yizhan has a 30,000-square-meter logistics park and nearly 3,000 market-tested SKUs. Relying on its fully independent supply chain and product lines, Yizhan continuously seeks breakthroughs, focusing on Sichuan and Cantonese flavors among the eight major cuisines in the fresh food sector.

Another example is Yizhan's launch of a new social convenience store format that integrates specialty fresh food, coffee and tea drinks, craft beer, and leisure space.

However, **the most noteworthy point about Yizhan is that in 2015, it partnered with marketing master Ye Maozhong to fully launch a brand strategy cooperation.** It introduced Yicaishen as a classic symbol of Yizhan convenience stores. Moreover, Yizhan even shouted the slogan "Chinese people's own convenience store" at that time, seizing the public's mind in advance.

It can be said that once cultural grafting is reasonable, it forms a natural brand competitive barrier.

**Conclusion: Why Guangdong?** Whether it is Meiyijia, Tianfu, or Yizhan, they are all epitomes of the prosperity of Guangdong's convenience store industry and the rapid development of China's convenience store market. Here is another thought: **Why do 11 local convenience store brands from Guangdong appear on the national TOP list, with 3 in the TOP10, while excluding state-owned and foreign brands, local convenience stores in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River Delta rarely make it into the top 10?** **Why Guangdong?** Here, I would like to share a story about Huaqiangbei and Saige Group:

> In the mid-1980s, the Shenzhen municipal government made great efforts and paid a lot of effort to "combine" more than 100 small and medium-sized electronic industrial enterprises into the Saige Group.
>
> However, unexpectedly, the Saige Group, despite its superior configuration, failed to develop its electronic industry even at its peak, instead giving rise to Huaqiangbei, the world's largest knock-off market.
>
> Countless people made fortunes here. Huaqiangbei not only supported the development of Shenzhen's home appliance and consumer electronics industries but also attracted a large number of outstanding talents. With the full completion of Saige Square in 2000, Huaqiangbei entered its glory days, while the once-famous Saige Group gradually faded into obscurity.

In fact, the development of Guangdong's convenience store industry is similar to the rise of Huaqiangbei. As Mr. Wang Zhigang proposed, Shenzhen's **three internal driving forces** also apply to Guangdong to a certain extent:

**1. Genes.** The stronger the local culture, the more rigid the social strata, making it very difficult to grow into a towering tree. Shenzhen relative to Guangdong, and Guangdong relative to China, are the opposite: the proportion of non-local or migrant populations is very large, there is no strong sense of local cultural identity, and most areas are highly inclusive. It can be said that a social atmosphere of "Once you come to Shenzhen, you are a Shenzhener" and "Once you come to Guangdong, you are a Guangdonger" has formed.

**2. Ecology.** Looking back at the 40-plus years of development in Guangdong and Shenzhen, from reform-minded government officials to boss groups with different life experiences, to ordinary workers who left their hometowns to change their destinies, they are all part of the ecology of Guangdong and Shenzhen, products that grew from nothing and gradually developed in this ecology. And they continue to grow, like a tropical rainforest, endlessly.

**3. Human nature.** The development of Guangdong and Shenzhen, **in the final analysis, is driven by the power of human nature.** That is, most people who started businesses in Guangdong, despite their different origins and businesses, share a common background: they were generally poor, had many siblings, had low education levels, and experienced the hardships of life from an early age. The suffering life, strong pressure, and humble status did not extinguish their fighting spirit; instead, it gave them a stronger desire to stand out. So why Guangdong? Because this group of "barefoot children" all possess a grassroots power, that tenacious vitality, **first changing their own destiny, then changing the destiny of their families, then changing the destiny of their friends and employees around them, and finally changing the destiny of the era.** This is Guangdong, this is the "Guangdong people."

References:
[1]. "Wang Zhigang | Why Shenzhen?", Zhigang Think Tank
[2]. "Unexpectedly, the King of China's Convenience Stores Comes from Dongguan", Investment World
[3]. "How Was Meiyijia, the 'King of China's Convenience Stores,' Made?", Retail Business Finance
[4]. "He Gave Up an Executive Position and Opened a Store in Dongguan; Now Everyone in Dongguan Knows Him", Dongguan Daily
[5]. Yizhan founder Hong Pangqing's personal column, Yizhan official website


---

## 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