被新茶饮围攻的野人先生 用蛋糕冰淇淋“救火”

This article covers an industry case study of Signor Gelato, the world’s largest gelato chain, which is launching cake-shaped ice cream to expand its product portfolio amid customer headwinds from new-style tea brands. Key takeaways include:

1. Brand background: Originally known as Yeren Mufang, the brand pivoted to gelato in 2015 and rebranded to its current name when it began offering franchise opportunities in 2024. As of June 2024, it operates over 1,400 stores across 30 Chinese provinces. Its two bestsellers, pistachio and Wuchang rice flavored gelato, have sold more than 900,000 and 1 million units respectively on Douyin, and have lifted same-store performance for break-even locations by 30%.

2. New product details: The new cake ice cream line comes in 10 flavors, most adapted from the brand’s existing popular offerings. Produced and distributed centrally from a central kitchen, the product has a 60-day shelf life and retails at 168-228 RMB for a 4-inch size. Currently only one variant is available via group-buying channels, with no member pricing or in-store tastings, and most early buyers are converted from the brand’s existing customer base.

3. Ongoing controversy: The new pre-made product contradicts the brand’s long-held positioning of "freshly-made in-store", and the company has not proactively disclosed its production method, leading to widespread consumer dissatisfaction. Additionally, its pricing is higher than competitors like Baxi and DQ, and consumers have not accepted its stated justification for the premium, with many reporting no intention to repurchase after trying.

This article presents a full case study of category expansion for an ice cream chain, with actionable lessons and pitfalls for consumer brands to reference. Key insights are as follows:

1. Products and market trends: Gelato is currently the fastest-growing segment in China’s ice cream market, with growth exceeding 10% and a market size topping 12 billion RMB in 2024, and average profit margins ranging from 60% to 70%. As new-style tea brands have entered the space and siphoned off customers, incumbent leading brands need to expand into new categories to reinforce brand positioning. Expanding SKUs by extending existing hit products allows brands to leverage existing customer perception and open up new consumption scenarios. Signor Gelato’s extension of its hit flavors into cake ice cream fills the gap for ceremonial gathering scenarios, and also paves the way for expansion into county-level markets.

2. Lessons for brand operations: A misalignment between a brand’s core positioning and its new product production model can trigger a consumer trust crisis, and even damage overall brand reputation. Local brands pursuing a premium pricing strategy must continuously cultivate customer perception and communicate a clear brand story to justify price premiums, otherwise they will struggle to gain a foothold in a mature market.

This article sorts out market opportunities and project risks for sellers looking to enter the ice cream sector and franchise with Signor Gelato. Key points are as follows:

1. Sector opportunities: Gelato is currently a high-growth blue ocean in China’s ice cream market, with outpacing industry average growth in 2024, a market size exceeding 12 billion RMB, and average industry profit margins of 60% to 70%. Large-scale price wars are unlikely in the short term. Following Signor Gelato’s rise to prominence, market attention and franchise inquiries have grown significantly.

2. Project overview: Signor Gelato is now open for franchising, with more than 1,400 stores across 30 Chinese provinces. Its two existing hit products (pistachio and Wuchang rice gelato) are already proven, and drive stable same-store growth. It is now prioritizing growth from its new cake ice cream line, which has already launched in eight tier-1 and new tier-1 cities, with plans to further expand into lower-tier county markets, leaving significant room for growth.

3. Risk warnings: Signor Gelato’s hit flavors can be easily copied by competitors, leaving its long-term competitive moat uncertain. Its new pre-made central kitchen-produced cake line conflicts with the brand’s freshly-made positioning, and has already sparked consumer trust controversies. Additionally, the new line is priced higher than competitors with no promotional discounts for customer acquisition, making it difficult to attract new buyers.

This article sorts out shifting production demand in the freshly-made ice cream chain sector, with key insights and opportunities for food manufacturing factories. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Raw material opportunities: The gelato sector is seeing a trend of localized research and development, and developing flavors around Chinese geographical indication products is a proven path to creating hit products. Signor Gelato’s Wuchang rice gelato became its second top-selling product by a wide margin, which will drive growing order demand for domestic agricultural raw materials, bringing new growth opportunities for raw material factories.

2. Production model demand: After opening franchising to achieve rapid expansion, chain brands face sharply rising demand for product standardization. Signor Gelato’s rollout of cake ice cream across more than 1,000 stores adopted a centralized pre-production and distribution model via a central kitchen, which solves the standardization challenge of in-store preparation and cuts store labor and equipment costs. This trend indicates that contract manufacturing via central factories will see growing market demand amid chain expansion.

3. Business direction insights: Ice cream brands are increasingly expanding beyond their original single-category offerings into new categories like cake ice cream. Factories can proactively invest in R&D and contract manufacturing capacity for these new categories to match the expansion needs of brand clients.

This article sorts out the current development status and pain points of ice cream chain brands, and outlines new business directions for relevant industry service providers. Key insights are as follows:

1. Industry development trends: The gelato sector is growing rapidly, and Signor Gelato’s breakout has drawn in large numbers of new investors, driving surging demand for gelato flavor R&D and store opening training services. Some service providers are already capable of replicating Signor Gelato’s popular flavors and supporting custom flavor development, leaving ample room for market growth.

2. Core pain points for brands: A common contradiction emerges during chain brand expansion: brands need standardized production to support the scaling of thousands of stores, but must also maintain their original advertised positioning. Signor Gelato’s crisis of consumer trust after launching pre-made cake under its "freshly-made" positioning highlights this universal problem for expanding chain brands.

3. Solution directions: Service providers can help brands structure communication around new products, proactively disclosing production methods to consumers to avoid cognitive dissonance. They can also help local premium ice cream brands build their brand stories and cultivate targeted customer perception to solve the problem of unaccepted premium pricing for domestic brands.

This article sorts out the expansion needs of ice cream chain brands and existing industry problems, for reference by catering investment recruitment and group-buying platforms. Key points are as follows:

1. Brand-side demand: Leading gelato brands like Signor Gelato are currently expanding rapidly, and have strong demand for investment recruitment channels after opening up franchising. New product launches also rely on group-buying platforms for customer acquisition. Signor Gelato’s hit ice cream products sold over 1 million units on Douyin, demonstrating that platform group-buying delivers very strong sales growth for catering brands.

2. Risk avoidance guidance: When some brands’ promotional messaging is inconsistent with their actual product production practices, it easily leads to consumer complaints and disputes. Platforms should guide brands to clearly label product production information during onboarding review and content management to avoid negative impacts from misleading advertising.

3. Operational references: County-level markets are the key expansion direction for ice cream brands going forward. Platforms can roll out targeted support policies for investment recruitment and customer acquisition in these markets to attract more chain brands to join. For pre-made desserts, a product category that draws high consumer scrutiny, platforms can push brands to clearly disclose production information to reduce after-sales disputes and boost user trust in the platform.

This article documents the latest development trends in China’s freshly-made ice cream sector, sorts out emerging competitive dynamics and brand-level issues for industry researchers’ reference. Key findings are as follows:

1. New industry trends: Gelato has become a new growth engine for China’s ice cream market, with growth exceeding 10% and a market size topping 12 billion RMB in 2024. Signor Gelato, the leading brand originally focused on niche freshly-made gelato, completed a rapid national expansion after opening franchising, opening more than 1,000 stores in just over a year. At the same time, new-style tea brands are increasingly entering the gelato category and siphoning customers from existing specialized brands, forcing leading brands to pursue cross-category expansion.

2. New industry issues: Local premium ice cream brands generally face challenges in customer perception building. During chain expansion, the demand for standardized production conflicts with brands’ freshly-made positioning, easily triggering consumer trust crises. Additionally, local premium brands have not yet built brand stories that resonate with consumers, leading to low acceptance of price premiums and making it difficult to compete with leading international brands.

3. New business model changes: Leading gelato brands are shifting from a single-category freshly-made model to a multi-category matrix model, extending new categories from existing hit products while using central kitchen pre-production to support chain expansion. The long-term performance of this new model remains to be validated by the market, and merits ongoing tracking and research.