四年闭店1.5万家 温州富豪携初代“万店之王”冲刺上市

This article tracks the rise and fall of China's original "10,000-store king" Zhengxin Chicken Chop, and contextualizes the brand's current IPO preparations in Hong Kong. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Development timeline: Founder Chen Chuanwu opened his first snack shop in 2000 to clear frozen food inventory. In 2012, the brand underwent a strategic pivot, cutting 90% of its SKUs to focus on chicken steak and a few other hit products. After rebranding as Zhengxin Chicken Chop, it expanded rapidly, surpassing 10,000 stores in 2017 and peaking at 25,000 stores in 2021 — twice the total number of KFC and McDonald's locations in China at the time. As of June 2026, its store count has fallen to 9,545, representing a net closure of more than 15,000 stores over four years. Zhengxin is now preparing for a Hong Kong IPO to raise approximately $300 million.

2. Success factors and causes of decline: Early growth was driven by a focus on hit products and standardization, a small-store format that cut opening costs to penetrate lower-tier markets, an in-house supply chain, and a franchise model that enabled rapid scale-up. In later years, however, the franchise model's flaws emerged: headquarters prioritized raw material sales over individual store profitability, over-saturation in many regions split customer traffic, the brand failed to update its marketing and aged over time, and its core fried chicken chop no longer aligned with modern healthy consumption trends, ultimately leading to large-scale store closures.

The expansion and contraction of Zhengxin Chicken Chop offers valuable lessons for chain restaurant brands. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Actionable success strategies: On the product side, cutting redundant SKUs to focus on a single blockbuster product simplifies standardization and improves internal efficiency for large-scale expansion. On the channel side, a small-store format (5-20 square meters) maximizes space efficiency, minimizes opening costs, and enables penetration into scattered high-traffic locations in lower-tier markets. High store density also reinforces brand recognition, and clustering with complementary brands that share a similar target audience (such as Mixue Ice City) creates a closed consumption loop that benefits all parties. A capital-heavy vertically integrated supply chain ensures consistent product quality nationwide, generates stable recurring revenue from raw material sales to franchisees, and the ultra-low pricing model perfectly matches demand in lower-tier markets.

2. Critical pitfalls to avoid: Aggressive,粗放 expansion via franchising leads to diminishing marginal returns on management. Prioritizing store count growth over individual store profitability triggers internal homogenized competition and raises food safety risks. Long-term stagnation in brand marketing leads to brand obsolescence, failure to keep up with consumption upgrading trends, and leaves core products vulnerable to shifting preferences for healthier options. Without new product development to match these shifts, brands struggle to unlock new growth curves.

This article analyzes the evolution of Zhengxin Chicken Chop's franchise model, offering actionable insights and clarifying opportunities and risks for small and medium-sized sellers in the food and beverage sector. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Original advantages of Zhengxin's franchise model: A standard Zhengxin store only requires 5-20 square meters of space, keeping the entry barrier low enough for small entrepreneurs in lower-tier markets. Headquarters provides standardized raw material delivery, and franchisees only need to complete the final frying step, which requires no advanced cooking skills and has a low learning curve. When demand in lower-tier markets was booming in the brand's early years, many franchisees earned their first substantial profits with Zhengxin.

2. Current risks to watch: Zhengxin's franchise model is fundamentally built on headquarters earning revenue from selling raw materials to franchisees, which creates incentives for over-expansion. Multiple locations in a single region split customer traffic, and franchisees bear 100% of the risk of losses; more than 60% of the stores open at Zhengxin's peak have closed in the five years since. The aging brand has declining appeal among young consumers, its core fried chicken chop conflicts with healthy consumption trends dragging down same-store revenue significantly, and frequent food safety scandals have further hurt individual store performance.

3. Potential opportunities: Zhengxin is currently pushing forward digital transformation and expanding into overseas markets. If its transformation succeeds, its existing base of nearly 10,000 stores remains a valuable competitive advantage that could unlock new growth.

Zhengxin Chicken Chop's development model offers insights and business opportunities for factories focused on frozen food production and restaurant supply chains. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Business opportunities: Zhengxin's growth proves that chain snack brands have enormous demand for standardized, uniform raw materials, and leading brands tend to integrate their supply chains for self-sufficiency. Factories with existing frozen production capacity and cold chain distribution capabilities have the opportunity to form deep partnerships with top chain brands, or even be integrated into the brand's supply system to secure long-term, stable orders. Since Zhengxin originally started as a frozen food distributor that opened downstream stores to clear excess inventory, traditional manufacturers stuck with unsold inventory can follow this same path: expand downstream to open owned retail stores to absorb excess capacity.

2. Shifting product demand: As consumer trends shift toward healthier, lower-fat options, demand for traditional frozen fried chicken chops continues to decline. This requires producers to adjust their product mix to match brands' demand for new healthy products, and develop more raw material offerings aligned with current consumption trends.

3. Insights for digital transformation: Zhengxin is currently weeding out stores that fail to meet its requirements or cannot adapt to digital operations. For factories, this underscores the need to proactively pursue digital transformation and upgrade production and management standards to meet the evolving requirements of chain brand partners.

This article sorts through the evolution of China's 10,000-store snack chain sector, exposes existing industry pain points, and outlines clear business directions for food and beverage-related service providers. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Industry development trends: China's first generation of 10,000-store snack chains has moved beyond the粗放 growth phase of incremental expansion and entered a new stage focused on stock optimization, refined operation, and brand upgrading. Expanding overseas to tap new markets has also become a new strategic priority for leading brands, and the entire sector has shifted its focus from store count growth to improving individual store profitability and brand value.

2. Core customer pain points: Most established franchise chain brands face common challenges: high difficulty in franchise management control, declining same-store profitability, brand aging that fails to resonate with younger consumers, core products misaligned with healthy consumption trends, and difficulties with localization when expanding overseas. Most first-generation brands need to catch up on digital transformation, brand upgrading, and supply chain optimization.

3. Targeted business opportunities: Service providers can develop targeted offerings including refined store management systems and digital operation tools to help brands improve franchise control and boost individual store profitability. They can also build out services focused on youth-focused brand marketing, new product R&D support, and for brands expanding overseas, localized supply chain adaptation and overseas operation consulting.

The expansion and contraction trajectory of Zhengxin Chicken Chop offers key insights on operation management and risk mitigation for franchise platforms and chain service platforms. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Market demand direction: Small entrepreneurs in lower-tier markets still have strong demand for low-threshold, low-investment food franchise projects. Ultra-low-priced small-format snack franchise opportunities remain the most popular segment of the market, and platforms can prioritize matching these brands that fit the needs of lower-tier entrepreneurs to serve the large pool of aspiring business owners.

2. Existing industry problems: Many established franchise brands still stick to the old model of粗放 expansion, prioritizing store count growth over individual store profitability. Overly aggressive franchising leads to large-scale store closures, which not only harms entrepreneurs but also creates reputational risk for platforms that list these brands.

3. Guidance for platform operation and risk mitigation: Platforms should strengthen vetting of franchise brands during the recruitment process, with a focus on evaluating the brand's individual store profitability model, franchise management capabilities, and supply chain management standards, and guide brands toward high-quality expansion to avoid mass closures caused by over-franchising. At the same time, platforms can offer digital operation and compliance management services to help brands improve their management capabilities and reduce the overall operational risk of the platform.

As China's first generation of 10,000-store franchise chain, Zhengxin Chicken Chop's rise and fall is a classic, high-value case study for the development of China's chain restaurant industry. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Industry development context: The first commercially successful 10,000-store model for domestic Chinese chain restaurants was "super blockbuster single product + small format for lower-tier markets + open franchising + in-house supply chain". Zhengxin Chicken Chop was the first domestic brand to validate this model, breaking through 10,000 stores in 2017 — nearly three years earlier than Mixue Ice City. This model laid the groundwork for the wave of lower-tier market chain brands that followed, making Zhengxin a landmark case in the history of China's chain restaurant development.

2. Emerging industry challenges: After the incremental growth market matured, the flaws of the original B2B franchise model — where headquarters earns revenue by selling raw materials to franchisees — became increasingly prominent. Diminishing marginal management returns and over-expansion triggered internal homogenized competition: brand headquarters have guaranteed profits regardless of performance, while franchisees bear all downside risk. At the same time, most first-generation brands face widespread brand aging, fail to keep up with consumption upgrading trends, and see their core product categories disrupted by the shift toward healthier consumption, leaving the entire cohort of first-generation chains facing a major transition test.

3. New industry trends: Today, leading first-generation chain brands are universally pursuing IPO financing, digital transformation, and overseas expansion. The wave of Chinese snack brands going global has emerged as a new industry trend. However, replicating a successful domestic store model overseas still faces many hurdles including raw material standardization and localization adaptation, and its long-term trajectory remains to be seen.