Economic Observer reporter Zheng Mingzhu

After going through bankruptcy liquidation and asset auctions, the well-known ice cream brand "Zhong Xue Gao" has returned to the market.

On September 16th, at the 28th China Ice Cream Industry Expo, Zhong Xuegao set up an independent booth to showcase ice cream products. The packaging, shape, and specifications of the ice cream products remain the same as before, still in the shape of tiles, and the taste also follows the classic flavor of Zhong Xuegao. At this exhibition, Zhong Xuegao's management team also made their first public appearance.

At the media communication meeting held on the same day, Zhong Xuegao introduced that the new company has not been registered for long and the team is also being formed. The first batch of three flavors of products are planned to be launched in the fourth quarter of this year. The peak season for ice cream from the fourth quarter of this year to next summer will last for about 6-9 months, "said Chen Dacheng, CEO of Zhong Xuegao, during a communication meeting." We are working hard to get our company, brand, and product distribution back on track as soon as possible, while constantly listening to consumer feedback and market feedback, and making timely adjustments.

Resurrection "

A few days before this exhibition, there was substantial progress in the restart of Zhong Xuegao.

On September 14th, on the National Enterprise Bankruptcy and Restructuring Case Information Network, the administrator of Zhong Xuegao Food (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. announced that the ownership of 508 intangible assets that were previously packaged and publicly auctioned has been transferred to the buyer's name, and the buyer has the right to use them legally.

From the auction platform, it can only be seen that the natural person named "Wang Mouqing" ultimately purchased the trademark of Zhong Xuegao. Upon further investigation by Tianyancha, it was found that a company called "Changsha Zhongxuegao Food Co., Ltd." was established on August 3, 2026, and is wholly owned by Zhongxuegao Brand Management (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. The latter was established on June 23, 2026, jointly funded by two shareholders, of which Wang Yaqing holds 60% of the shares and is also the actual controller of Changsha Zhongxuegao Food Co., Ltd; Changsha Hujia Food Technology Co., Ltd. holds a 40% stake.

Zhong Xuegao introduced on site that the "Wang Mouqing" who captured the Zhong Xuegao trademark and the actual controller of Changsha Zhong Xuegao Food Co., Ltd., Wang Yaqing, are the same person.

Regarding shareholder identity and capital composition, Zhong Xuegao explained that the new company, namely Zhong Xuegao Brand Management (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., has only a financial investment relationship with Changsha Hujia Food Technology Co., Ltd. The new company will be independently operated by a team led by Chen Dacheng, and there is no other relationship between the two; In the future, both parties may engage in company to company business cooperation in areas such as supply chain, production, and fulfillment. As for Wang Yaqing's situation, Zhong Xuegao did not provide any introduction.

One of the shareholders, Changsha Hujia Food Technology Co., Ltd., owns the frozen food brand Royal Little Tiger. According to the company's website information, the Royal Little Tiger brand's grilled sausages and egg tarts have been ranked first in national sales for five consecutive years, and pizza will be ranked first in national sales by 2025. The company has built multiple super factories in North China, Central China, Southwest China, and other regions. By 2025, the retail sales of Royal Xiaohu's omnichannel terminals will exceed 4 billion yuan. According to public information, in terms of channel layout, Royal Tiger has opened stores on Tmall, Tiktok, JD, Kwai and other platforms, settled more than 100000 retail terminals offline, and established cooperation with chain channels such as Snack Busy, Yonghui, Bubugao and Tianhong.

Chen Dacheng, CEO of Zhong Xuegao, is a "post-90s" self media blogger whose content mainly focuses on food science popularization and evaluation. Since 2025, its account has been updated on Tiktok, Bilibili, Little Red Book and other platforms, with a total of more than one million fans. According to the information provided by Zhong Xuegao, Chen Dacheng has 10 years of experience in food distribution and production. At the communication meeting, Chen Dacheng stated that his self media account is a personal account and has no connection with the company. To avoid suspicion, he will no longer evaluate ice cream products in the future.

Xin Zhong Xue Gao

Consumers are more concerned about what Zhong Xuegao will look like when he returns.

Chen Dacheng introduced that the new products are consistent with the original Zhongxuegao products in terms of taste, specifications, and formula. The first batch of products to be launched consists of three flavors, namely light milk, velvet cocoa, and the semi exquisite combination of milk and velvet cocoa. The planned pricing for the three flavors is as follows: the suggested retail price for the light milk flavor is 6.9 yuan per bottle; The suggested retail price for velvet cocoa and semi delicate flavors is 7.9 yuan per piece.

Compared to Zhong Xuegao's previous retail price of 13-20 yuan per unit, the restarted products have seen a significant price reduction.

Regarding the reason for the price reduction, Zhong Xuegao explained at the meeting that there has been controversy and discussion over the brand's pricing in the past as an "ice cream assassin". One of the important reasons for the price reduction is to listen to consumers' voices and respond to their expectations with practical actions. The factory prices corresponding to each flavor of the restarted new product are similar to those in the past, and the fluctuation of the factory prices mainly depends on the cost of raw materials such as milk and cocoa, as well as adjustments brought about by technological progress and scale changes. The new operator emphasized that compared to new and old products, the change in factory price is much smaller than the adjustment in retail price.

According to Zhong Xuegao's introduction, the product is currently produced on a commission basis, in cooperation with contract manufacturers who have previous experience in Zhong Xuegao's production. In the future, production layout and planning will be further adjusted based on market feedback. With the restart of business, we will continue to innovate our products based on the trends of health and miniaturization in the ice cream market, combined with market feedback.

Zhong Xuegao also stated that various disputes involving the original Zhong Xuegao company, including historical legacy disputes with various channels, employees, suppliers, and production and processing parties that have not yet been settled, as well as issues such as refrigerators with the original trademark logo still existing in some retail channels, are legally unrelated to the new company, which only carries out business activities legally and compliantly with the original trademark assets.

New Test

Zhong Xue Gaochuang was established in March 2018, entering the market with tile shaped ice cream, covering flavors such as velvet cocoa and Old Tree North matcha. Between 2018 and 2021, Zhong Xuegao successively received investments from institutions such as ZhenFund, Fengrui Capital, Jingwei China, Tiantu Capital, and Yuansheng Capital, and completed a 200 million yuan Series A financing in 2021. In 2021, Zhong Xuegao's sales exceeded 1 billion yuan, becoming a typical new consumer brand and a "dark horse" in the ice cream industry.

But the rapid development of Zhong Xuegao has always been accompanied by multiple controversies. Among them, the label of "Ice Cream Assassin" has had a significant negative impact on it. When most ice creams were still in the price range of 3 to 5 yuan, Zhong Xuegao pulled the price to a dozen or even dozens of yuan. The "Ecuador Pink Diamond" ice cream launched in 2018 was priced as high as 66 yuan per stick, and its pricing was widely questioned by the market. In addition, in the summer of 2022, evaluation videos such as "not melting at 31 ℃ room temperature for 1 hour" and "lighters not melting" sparked food safety controversies. Although Zhong Xuegao clarified at the time that it was not scientific to judge the quality of ice cream by baking, sun drying, or heating it, its sales were greatly affected.

Afterwards, Zhong Xuegao tried various self rescue methods. In 2023, a sub brand named "Zhong Xue Bu Gao" will be launched for 3.5 yuan, and a sheep milk ice cream will be developed in cooperation with New Zealand Muyi Company. But the operational pressure has not eased. Starting from 2024, Zhong Xuegao has been repeatedly exposed for unpaid wages, frozen equity, and listed as a debtor. In July 2025, Zhong Xuegao was finally applied for bankruptcy review due to insolvency.

On August 22, 2025, the Shanghai Third Intermediate People's Court ruled to accept the bankruptcy liquidation application of Zhong Xuegao Food (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and appointed Shanghai Everbright Law Firm as the administrator on August 28. After the administrator took over, according to the "Property Price Change Plan" approved by the creditors' meeting, the intangible assets under the name of Zhong Xuegao were packaged as a whole and publicly auctioned on the JD Judicial Auction Platform.

The intensity of this auction exceeded many people's expectations. According to the JD Auction Platform, on May 7, 2026, 508 intangible assets under the name of Zhong Xuegao Food (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. were auctioned as a whole, with a starting price of 2.07 million yuan, a deposit of 200000 yuan, and a markup of 10000 yuan per transaction. The final bid price was 21.1 million yuan, with a premium of nearly 9.2 times. The intangible assets being auctioned include 492 registered trademarks, 8 authorized patents, and 8 copyrights. Registered trademarks include trademarks such as Half Cleverness, Zhong Xue Bu Gao, Zhong Xue Xiao, etc., involving multiple categories such as food, advertising sales, catering and accommodation.

Now, Zhong Xuegao has found a new place. But the ice cream market it operates in has also undergone structural changes in the past few years.

According to the monitoring data of the four summer peak seasons from 2023 to 2026 by the Instant Win Intelligence Station, the sales revenue of the ice cream/ice cream category has been declining year by year, and the year-on-year growth rate of sales revenue has been expanding year by year. By 2026, the year-on-year growth rate of peak season sales has shown a double-digit decline.

The rebooted Zhong Xuegao is facing a more complex and fiercely competitive market than in 2018. Its pricing range of 6.9 to 7.9 yuan falls within the price range of top local ice cream brands and bottom foreign ice cream brands. Whether it can find its place in this price range depends on the actual performance of its new team in product quality, channel strategy, and consumer trust reconstruction.

It is worth mentioning that just before the news of Zhong Xuegao's restart was confirmed, Luo Yonghao's comments also brought this brand back to the public eye. On September 12th, he commented on Mr. Wild Man's ice cream on Weibo, saying that it was "much harder to eat than Zhong Xuegao and I miss him". Spokesperson Zhong Xuegao responded at a media communication meeting that whether it tastes good or not is a normal subjective evaluation of consumers, and there is a thousand flavors for every person; At the same time, it opposes all forms of unfair competition, strictly abides by relevant laws and regulations, and has not participated in or will not participate in any unfair competition or market activities in the past.

(Author Zheng Mingzhu)