Sweet future for Economic City
Wang Anqi and Tong Wangyue
DURING the 618 shopping carnival, ice-cream brand Zhongxuegao achieved sales of more than 16 million yuan (US$2.3 million) on Tmall.
Established in Nanxiang Economic City in 2018, it once sold 50,000 ice creams in 40 minutes during the Double 11 online shopping spree.
Due to the COVID-19, some ingredients could not be bought, resulting in a delay of new product launches and the removal of a few flavors. However, sales were still good.
Zhou Bing, a partner of the company, said current sales had increased by 600 percent compared with the same period last year. Prices of Zhongxuegao’s products, with an average of 20 yuan, are much higher than traditional ice cream.
The registration of Zhongxuegao provides more possibilities for the agglomeration of new retail enterprises in the economic city.
“The planning of the brand, the structure of the enterprise and the use of funds make it a potential company. When we first got in touch with this company, we knew we must keep it,” Ren Zhudan, manager of the economic city’s investment promotion department, said, making no secret of his affection for the enterprise.
“If we did not step forward and embrace new retailing, the future for the economic city would be uncertain,” said Ren.
Zhou said Nanxiang’s efficiency and attitude had impressed them. Within six weeks, the economic city helped the company get a business license, food business license and other certificates.
Nanxiang also helped it find a large cold storage as quickly as possible. In May 2018, Zhongxuegao settled down in
Nanxiang and began its story of rapid development.
This year, a dozen new retailing enterprises have been moving into the economic city every month and the economic city is working hard to follow up on the needs of the new retailing industry.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, Nanxiang Economic City helped enterprises get in touch with banking and tax departments in terms of resuming work and maintaining capital chains.
It is regularly organizing online training to promote exchanges between enterprises.