BEIJING — Walk into almost any corner of China and a Fulujia pub is within reach. The chain, whose name translates as "Lucky Deer," has opened more than 3,200 outlets since 2021, a pace of expansion that has made it the largest bar chain in the world by location count.
The price of a pint is what sets it apart from every other large hospitality chain on the planet. Fulujia sells beer for as little as 80 U.S. cents—roughly RMB 5 to 6—a figure that undercuts virtually every pub, bar or beer hall in Europe, North America or Southeast Asia.
Fulujia is now under new ownership. Mixue, the Chinese beverage giant best known for selling bubble tea and ice cream at similarly aggressive prices, announced the acquisition of a 53 percent controlling stake in Fulujia for RMB 297 million, equivalent to approximately $41.7 million. The deal moves Mixue from soft drinks into alcohol for the first time.
Mixue built its reputation on the same low-price, high-volume model it is now applying to beer. The company's name translates as "Snow King," and it has franchised thousands of small-format storefronts across China, often in lower-tier cities and towns where international chains rarely operate. Fulujia's mini-pub format fits that template: compact venues, minimal overhead and prices calibrated for workers rather than tourists.
The 3,200-outlet figure is striking against the global hospitality landscape. For comparison, the British pub industry—long considered the world's most developed bar culture—supports roughly 40,000 pubs across the United Kingdom, a country with a fraction of China's population. Fulujia achieved its scale in under four years, opening at a rate of more than two new locations per day on average since 2021.
China's beer market is large and competitive. Tsingtao Brewery, the country's most recognizable export brand, holds about 15 percent of domestic market share and accounts for roughly half of China's national beer exports. Domestic lager has historically dominated, but Fulujia is positioned in craft beer—a segment that commands slightly higher margins than mass-market lager even at discounted retail prices.
The craft beer angle matters to the acquisition's logic. Mixue is not buying a struggling chain to cut prices further; Fulujia was already growing fast before the deal. The RMB 297 million price for a 53 percent stake implies a total enterprise valuation of roughly RMB 560 million, or about $78.5 million—modest for a chain of this size, which reflects both the youth of the business and the thin margins inherent in sub-dollar pints.
China's broader alcohol landscape is divided between beer, which dominates casual consumption, and baijiu—a high-proof grain spirit sometimes called the country's national drink—which dominates formal occasions, gift-giving and the premium end of the market. Maotai, produced in Guizhou province, is the most famous baijiu brand and one of the most valuable spirits companies in the world. Fulujia operates at the opposite end of that spectrum: everyday, informal, cheap.
For Mixue, the Fulujia deal is a diversification into an entirely new regulatory and supply-chain environment. Alcohol licensing in China is governed separately from food and beverage permits, and operating a bar chain at national scale requires coordination with local governments across dozens of provinces. The company's existing franchise infrastructure—already built to manage thousands of small operators—gives it a distribution and compliance backbone that a new entrant would take years to construct.
The acquisition reflects a wider trend in Chinese consumer markets: large franchise platforms absorbing category-specific chains rather than building from scratch. Mixue's move into beer follows its consolidation of tea and ice cream under one brand umbrella, and the Fulujia deal suggests the company is testing whether the same low-cost franchise model can replicate across licensed alcohol retail.
No completion date for the transaction was provided in the announcement. Mixue did not disclose how it plans to integrate Fulujia's operations or whether the Lucky Deer brand will continue independently.
