Chinese bubble tea and drinks firm, Mixue Group, which has surpassed McDonald’s and Starbucks in store count to become the world’s largest food and beverage chain, reported a spike in profits on Wednesday (Mar 26) as it laid out further expansion plans.

The shares jumped 5% in afternoon trading on Thursday.

The results came after Mixue raised US$444 million in a bumper Hong Kong listing, with the stock jumping more than 40 per cent on its Mar 3 debut and trading at around double its offer price this week.

The firm – known for beverages usually priced around US$1 – had 41,584 stores in China and another 4,895 spread across 11 countries as of the end of last year, Mixue said in an exchange filing on Wednesday (Mar 26).

Revenue increased 22 per cent to US$3.4 billion in 2024, which the company attributed mostly to “increased revenue generated from sales of goods and equipment, and to a lesser extent, from franchise and related services”.

Profit for the year jumped 40 per cent to US$613 million.

Mixue, whose name translates to “honey snow ice city”, was founded by two brothers in the Chinese hinterland province of Henan in 1997 as a shaved ice shop.

The Zhengzhou-headquartered firm quickly expanded across China and became a hit with frugal young consumers, disrupting a sector once dominated by premium brands.

Mixue stores – recognisable by their bright red signs and smiling snowman mascot – became ubiquitous in lower-income Chinese cities, offering freshly made fruit drinks, tea drinks, ice cream and coffee.

Nearly 60 per cent of Mixue stores in China are in cities categorised by the company as “third-tier or below”.

Mixue says it relies on a franchise model to grow its brick-and-mortar network, but “franchise and related service fees are not our primary sources of revenue”.

Instead, it makes most of its money from supplying food materials, equipment and packaging needed to run its stores.

The company said on Wednesday that it will “continue to elevate the breadth and depth of our supply chain” in China, while remaining “focused on cultivating the South-east Asia market”.