The 2026 Government Work Report proposed the in-depth implementation of special actions to boost consumption, stimulating the endogenous drivers of household spending while promoting consumption policies to sustain growth. As a major consumption province, Henan's performance has been particularly impressive. From the "peak-season-only 6A-level scenic spot" Pangdonglai and the king of freshly-made beverages, Mixue Bingcheng, to the 10,000-store chain Guoquan Shihui and the wet toilet paper category champion Deyou—behind these phenomenal consumer IPs stands a group of supply chain enterprises. Together, they have built a complete new consumer industry cluster with integrated upstream and downstream chains, presenting a vivid scene of "elephants dancing and geese flying in formation."
Driven by the "push" of these Henan giants, these supply chain companies have either grown from obscurity into hidden champions with annual sales of billions of yuan, achieved comprehensive upgrades to navigate industry cycles, or carved out new paths for differentiated breakthroughs. They are both facilitators of the rise of the elephant herd and beneficiaries in return, completing iterative evolution of the supply chain ecosystem through deep integration and jointly promoting the sustained prosperity of Henan's new consumption.
**Quality Forged by Standards**
Zhengzhou Bairong World Trade Mall has become a crucial procurement center supplying Pangdonglai, Xianfeng Life, Tao Xiaopang, and other Henan supermarkets. There, floor mat distributor Mu Qiang has developed a habit: whenever he submits a new product to Pangdonglai, he proactively raises the quality by one notch. This habit was "forced" upon him. When cooperation began 17 years ago, Mu Qiang still followed the old industry logic: quote, bargain, close the deal. But Pangdonglai completely broke the mold—"We'd send a quote, and their procurement would ask, 'Can the quality be improved further? If costs don't cover it, we'll add to the price.'" This "reverse price hike" was unheard of in the supermarket industry, yet it was routine for Pangdonglai's procurement.
For an ordinary play mat, competitors thin the coating and minimize packaging to undercut prices. But Pangdonglai demanded high density, edged borders, a scratch-resistant thick film surface, and even a heavy-duty zippered packaging bag.
MaoYuan Meat Industry's factory in Luyi County. Wang Lei, General Manager of MaoYuan Meat Industry, located 200 kilometers from Zhengzhou Bairong, experienced a similar "push." In 2022, when MaoYuan transitioned from a trader to a lamb processing plant, Guoquan Shihui made a seemingly stringent demand: each 150-gram box of lamb slices could only have a positive weight tolerance, not 1 gram less. "The industry generally allows a ±5-gram tolerance," Wang Lei recalled, noting significant internal resistance due to increased labor intensity and management costs. But the company ultimately chose to understand from the client's perspective. Now, "only more, never less" has become the mindset across all MaoYuan production lines and extends to serving other clients.
In the dictionaries of Pangdonglai and Guoquan Shihui, "standard" is not a cold term. It means re-examining industry norms and keenly observing consumer usage scenarios. Wang Jun, a Zhengzhou Bairong merchant and water cup supplier to Pangdonglai for over a decade, remembers this profoundly. After the "red underwear incident," Pangdonglai consulted experts and learned that different colorants could cause unknown chemical reactions when mixed with raw materials. They promptly instituted a new rule: different colors of the same product model require separate independent test reports. Previously, four colored cups needed only one report; now, reports jumped from one to four, significantly increasing testing costs.
What impressed Wang Jun more was their professionalism—even for paints on the cup body not directly contacting liquid, the procurement team would rigorously ask, "What if a consumer drinks directly from the rim without a straw?" Thus, ordinary paint was upgraded to food-grade water-based paint, raising costs again. A new national standard for glass water, officially effective in March 2026, was already required by Pangdonglai from suppliers in winter 2025. "They are more sensitive to changes in industry standards than us suppliers," Wang Jun said.
This relentless pursuit of standards is equally evident at Guoquan Shihui. To meet Guoquan's food safety control requirements, MaoYuan Meat Industry introduced advanced equipment like X-ray machines and low-temperature, high-humidity storage. The X-ray machine clearly detects bone fragments, lymph nodes, and other foreign matter in meat products; the storage preserves lamb freshness maximally at 0°C–4°C and over 90% humidity. "As a food factory, national standards are just the baseline. To go further, we must be stricter with ourselves," Wang Lei said.
Being "pushed" by standards superficially increases costs but实质上 reshapes capabilities. While other suppliers struggle in price wars, these "trained" companies have quietly built their own moats.
**Market Created by Endorsement**
Sun Jian, founder of Xinxiang Dingfeng Paper Products Co., Ltd., still remembers the turning point in 2017. That year, the company, primarily producing supermarket receipts and ATM slips,偶然 partnered with Mixue Bingcheng, which then had thousands of stores, becoming its supplier for cup labels and thermal receipt paper. "Partnering with Mixue Bingcheng was a great inspiration, showing us the immense potential of 'small stores, big chains'," Sun Jian said.
Dingfeng Paper mainly supplies cup labels to Mixue Bingcheng and Luckin Coffee. As Mixue expanded from thousands of stores to over 50,000 globally, Dingfeng's collaboration grew accordingly, with annual cooperation value now more than 10 times that of the initial partnership in 2017. But the greater gain came later—leveraging the endorsement from working with Mixue, Dingfeng smoothly opened doors to other major chain brands. Today, top brands like Luckin, Gu Ming, Bawang Chaji, and CoCo are its clients, with cumulative合作门店 reaching hundreds of thousands. The company's annual revenue surged from under 20 million yuan to 200 million yuan, maintaining stable growth of over 10% annually.
At Zhengzhou Bairong, Mu Qiang felt similarly: "Many supermarket buyers from other regions specifically visit Pangdonglai, see our mats, and call us directly." Some even said, "I want the Pangdonglai同款." This名片 saved him much effort when pitching to new clients. After Pangdonglai's popularity soared, Wang Jun felt the impact更深. Yonghui's restructuring team approached him; Lotus's restructuring team did too. The reason: supermarkets nationwide wanting to learn from Pangdonglai's model eagerly sought its underlying supply chain resources. "2025 was a year of集中爆发; hundreds of supermarkets found us through Pangdonglai," Wang Jun said.
Wang Lei of MaoYuan Meat also tasted the benefits of endorsement. "Many餐饮连锁 and supermarket clients, seeing our endorsement from a top client like Guoquan, are more willing to cooperate." MaoYuan's client list now includes知名企业 like Xinyulou, Xianfeng Life, Dingdong Maicai, Zhang Liang Malatang, and Tongqinglou.
In the elephant's ecosystem, endorsement is a remarkable asset. Not stipulated in contracts, it's more persuasive than any advertisement. Gaining entry into the giant's supply chain本身就是 proof of capability—proof of withstanding the strictest standards, stable delivery systems, and trustworthy business ethics. This trust溢出效应 is reshaping the market landscape for Henan's supply chain firms. They are no longer just "Pangdonglai's supplier" or "Mixue's supplier"; carrying this名片, they stride into broader horizons.
**Transformation Molded by Deep Integration**
Before 2020, MaoYuan Meat's identity was simple: a lamb trader. "Buying goods from the market and selling them—essentially acting as a middleman," Wang Lei recalled. This model thrived in good times but had weak risk resistance. Starting in 2020, violent fluctuations in international and domestic lamb markets made "buying today, selling at a loss tomorrow"常态 for traders. "Trading has no anti-cycle capability," Wang Lei admitted. "Slight market changes immediately cause losses."
Under this pressure, MaoYuan chose to "transition to实体." In May 2020, MaoYuan acquired land in Luyi County to build a factory, operational by October, shifting from pure trading to lamb deep processing. This转型契机 overlapped with Guoquan Shihui's rapid development period. Starting with hot pot meat slices, Guoquan continuously proposed new demands: lamb skewers, cut parts, hotel dishes... Pulled by the "elephant client's" needs, MaoYuan's product matrix rapidly expanded, now covering hot pot slices, Chinese barbecue, cut parts, and hotel dishes—four categories with dozens of products.
More importantly, Guoquan's standard system acted like a sculptor's knife, reshaping MaoYuan's production processes and management mindset. Weight standards shifted from "allowed tolerance" to "only more, never less"; food safety control upgraded from "meeting national standards" to "enterprise standards exceeding national standards"; quality control evolved from "spot checks" to "full-process traceability."
This reshaping is having deeper effects. MaoYuan employs over 800 locals in Luyi, indirectly boosting surrounding aquaculture, linking feed planting, straw utilization, breeding income, and national dining tables. From an "ordinary" trader to the largest halal source factory for lamb deep processing in central China, MaoYuan's five-year metamorphosis is a典型样本 of structural transformation driven by the elephant's "push."
**Differentiation Carved Out by Ecosystem**
Not all firms must deeply bind with giants. In Xinmi's emerging hygiene products industry cluster, the "Zhenbaorou" brand under Wanli Group charted a path of "seeking common ground while reserving differences" with leader Deyou.
Zhenbaorou was born in Xinmi's卫生材料产业集聚区, where Deyou is also based. When the Zhenbaorou project launched in 2022, it tried to emulate Deyou by targeting the C-end market. But it soon found this path impassable. "Deyou has deep industry accumulation and market understanding in hygiene products, allowing it to积累薄发 and gain rapid fame during the trend. But we are newcomers with shallow consumer market insight," admitted Wang Wanli, General Manager of Wanli Group.
Thus, Zhenbaorou quickly adjusted strategy, turning to a more promising area—the B-end market. This shift恰好 coincided with retail transformation rhythms. Emerging discount stores and traditional supermarkets face intense homogenization competition, urgently needing differentiated, uncommon products to attract客流. However, developing自有品牌 means higher inventory risks and R&D costs for these channels. Zhenbaorou proactively intervened,深度合作 with multiple discount stores and supermarkets, offering customized services from packaging to raw materials.
Leveraging Xinmi's industrial cluster supply chain advantages, Zhenbaorou quickly accessed mature supply chains of firms like Deyou, achieving further procurement localization and flexibly responding to different stores' user needs. In Xinmi's industrial soil, Zhenbaorou draws nourishment from the龙头 while firmly choosing its own path. It and Deyou are both competitors and mutually beneficial peers.
Whether MaoYuan Meat, Dingfeng Paper, or Zhenbaorou, they collectively form a contemporary supply chain portrait, reshaping the underlying logic of Henan's consumer industry. Previously, regional industrial competitiveness often focused on how strong the leading enterprises were. But on Henan's new consumption map, what merits more attention is: behind each elephant, how many geese are willing to be "pushed"? And how have these geese reshaped countless consumer scenarios?
Perhaps this is the true meaning of "elephants dancing, geese flying in formation": it's not the elephants leading the geese, but each trumpet of the elephant awakening the power of more followers.
**Elephants Lead the Dance, Geese Fly in Formation**
Pangdonglai's reverse pricing forces products above industry standards; Mixue Bingcheng's steadfast partnership brings following suppliers onto the supply chain table of tea drink giants; Guoquan Shihui's gram-specific stringent demands push traders to transform into source factories; Deyou's peers "yield" a differentiated survival path under the龙头's lead. All印证 the same logic—deep collaboration between leading enterprises and supply chains begins with trust, succeeds through perseverance, and endures by never settling.
Where elephants dance, supply chain firms are no longer mere supporters but integrated into a symbiotic ecosystem. This system flows with trust and凝结着 quality. This "never settling" stems from trust in the chain leader and reverence for the market and consumers. As a supplier with over 20 years of cooperation with Pangdonglai said, "They are inspiring you. Making you develop a respect from within, then不知不觉 being led along—to find better materials, conduct stricter tests, uphold higher底线."
The rise of Henan's new consumption is never a "solo" by leading brands but a "chorus" of the entire industry chain. Haoxiangni leads Xinzheng to form a jujube industry cluster, gathering over 200 processing firms, integrating planting, R&D, processing, and tourism; Lixing Food makes Tongxu an industry hub for sour spicy noodles, creating an industry pattern where "8 out of 10 national桶酸辣粉 are made in Henan, 6 in Tongxu," and boosting local carton, seasoning, and vegetable processing plants; Banu empowers the rise of Henan's tripe industry, nurturing配套企业 like Niudedao and Qinre Group in tripe细分 sectors...
This is an industry collaboration led by "elephants" with countless supply chain participants. Those "pushed" suppliers temper quality under strict standards, expand scale with large orders, and ultimately feed back to the elephant firms. The true code for Henan's new consumption "breaking out" perhaps lies in this supply chain of mutual trust, win-win, and quality坚守. As "elephants" and "geese" dance together, a more resilient and vibrant new consumer industry cluster is rapidly rising on the Central Plains.
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