Yan Zhou rarely put himself in front of the media before the bell rang on listing day. Only after repeated urging from investors did the CEO of Busy Ming agree to step into the spotlight.
Among China’s generation of consumer business founders born in the 1980s, figures as low-profile as Yan are uncommon. As a result, even the limited information about him available online is difficult to piece together.
His most recent public remarks before the IPO dated back to a mass rally held several months after the 2023 merger between Busy For You and Zhao Yiming Snacks.
By February 2025, Busy Ming held another press conference. Zhao Ding, CFO Wang Yutong, and other executives took center stage to outline strategy and private-label ambitions. Yan, meanwhile, sat quietly in the audience, listening.
Before entering the snacks business, Yan spent seven years working as a real estate agent. During that time, he noticed that starter apartments sized 70–80 square meters consistently sold the fastest. That segment, he concluded, represented China’s largest consumer base.
In snacks, higher-end brands such as Bestore and Three Squirrels were already focused on first- and second-tier cities and higher-spending consumers. Demand in the more price-sensitive mass market, however, remained underserved.
In 2017, Yan and three co-founders, Li Wei, Liu Wei, and Zhu Lang, opened the first Busy For You store in Changsha’s Yuhua district. Less than a decade later, he led a company with nearly 20,000 stores to a listing in Hong Kong.
For its first few years, Busy For You focused exclusively on Hunan and had no plans to raise capital. That changed in April 2021, when it completed a Series A funding round led by HongShan, Gaorong Ventures, and Genbridge Capital. Soon after, investment in China’s consumer sector turned sharply downward. By the time the company launched its next round in 2022, the boom had fully cooled.
As consumption slowed and capital froze, Busy For You pressed into an increasingly crowded market by expanding through scale. It moved beyond Changsha in 2018, exited Hunan in 2021, and merged with Zhao Yiming Snacks in late 2023 to form Busy Ming.
In the first nine months of 2025, Busy Ming posted RMB 66.1 billion (USD 9.3 billion) in GMV (gross merchandise value), roughly on par with the combined scale of supermarket operators Wumart and Metro China. Revenue reached RMB 46.4 billion (USD 6.5 billion).
Ahead of its IPO, Busy Ming attracted a notable lineup of cornerstone investors, including Tencent, Temasek, and BlackRock. Its international placement was subscribed about 44.44 times, the highest multiple among Hong Kong consumer IPOs in the past two years.
For comparison, Mixue Bingcheng and Bloks, the other two major consumer companies to list in Hong Kong last year, recorded international placement multiples of 35.23 times and 38.6 times, respectively. Busy Ming also raised HKD 3.67 billion (USD 469.8 million), exceeding Mixue’s fundraising total from the previous year.
On January 28, Busy Ming debuted on the Hong Kong exchange. Shares surged as much as 88% at the open, briefly valuing the company at nearly HKD 100 billion (USD 12.8 billion). Based on Yan’s 24.06% post-IPO stake, his personal wealth exceeded HKD 20 billion (USD 2.6 billion).
With no standout academic credentials and a background in a small town, Yan built his fortune in just a few years through what he calls “small-town business.” He insists it came down to luck.
He was not alone. Early investors who backed the company during the sector’s downturn were equally fortunate, betting on consumer demand when sentiment was weak.
Exercising discipline
Consumer entrepreneurship in China is no longer tied to elite pedigrees. Pop Mart founder Wang Ning did not graduate from a prestigious university. Yan never completed an undergraduate degree. His first job was selling apartments.
That background often creates a contrast during first meetings.
HongShan, a co-lead investor in Busy For You’s Series A round and the largest external shareholder ahead of the IPO, first met Yan in the fall of 2020. Founding partner Neil Shen and partner Su Kai flew to Changsha and met him in a hotel lobby. At the time, Busy For You had opened its initial batch of stores in Hunan and had not yet raised funding.
Shen’s assessment was brief: “A solid young man.” Su described Yan as “clean-cut and efficient,” saying he was reminded of Wang Ning.
Gaorong Ventures, also a co-lead of the Series A round, applies a simple test when evaluating retail founders. “If you talk to them for an hour and 70–80% of the time is about the supply chain, you know their focus is on the right things,” partner Han Rui said. “That was exactly our first meeting with Yan.”
With internet companies, investors often ask whether a business can be ten times better than its competitors. In retail, Han believes winners are those that outperform rivals by 10% across many metrics. Yan, in his view, was someone who could repeat simple actions relentlessly, with personal traits well matched to the business.
Genbridge Capital founder Zhang Xinzhao first met Yan in 2019, after the firm had completed extensive research on bulk snack retail. “I walked him through the core principles, no promotions, whole-case handling, no breaking packs,” Zhang said. “He was already doing every one of them.”
Yan pushed back on one point. “We’re not selling cheap goods,” he said.
That mindset shaped Busy For You’s strategy. Standardized discount products were essential for establishing price perception, but non-standardized products, and the emotional value they carried, mattered just as much.
What some viewed as a consumption downgrade, Yan framed differently. He insisted on clean, brightly lit stores with orderly displays, aiming to create a sense of pleasure while shopping. Su described it as a distinct retail aesthetic.
Yan’s definition of consumption upgrading has since become clearer. It means giving ordinary residents in Anqing, Anhui access to kitchen paper, or letting county-level consumers enjoy freshly made tea. The rise of Pinduoduo and Mixue has shown that upgrading is not only about products, but also about emotional fulfillment.
After the merger, Genbridge took Yan and Zhao Ding on a study trip to Japan. There, they drew inspiration from Don Quijote and later rolled out stores reflecting that influence. “It showed their real interest was in creating fun,” Zhang said.
In hindsight, much of the praise for Yan is shaped by outcomes.
In 2021, the project remained controversial. According to people familiar with the matter, Zhu Xiaohu spoke with Yan for just 15 minutes. Xu Xin personally reviewed the project. Investor competition was limited. That lack of consensus resulted in a modest valuation: a pre-money valuation of RMB 2 billion (USD 280 million) against an eight-figure RMB revenue base and slim profitability.
Black Ant Capital, the second largest external shareholder before the IPO, invested in Zhao Yiming Snacks when sentiment was near its lowest point. “With RMB 200 million (USD 28 million) in profit, valued at RMB 1.5 billion (USD 210 million), and still growing quickly, it was cheap,” partner Yang Cheng said.
Gaorong continued to increase its exposure in later rounds, even as consumer investing fell out of favor. “Disagreement is fine,” Han said. “What matters is conviction.”
In Han’s view, Yan is also a founder with a strong sense of discipline. One year, Gaorong sent him a modest Lunar New Year gift box. Yan kept the couplets and mailed everything else back.
That discipline surfaced again ahead of the IPO, when Yan insisted on prioritizing long-term investors over short-term capital.
When Miniso founder Ye Guofu spoke about revamping Yonghui Superstores, he often criticized traditional supermarkets for charging suppliers excessive backend fees that inflated prices. Yan identified the same issue early and rejected the practice outright, helping Busy For You build a price advantage.
Franchisee selection was equally strict. Out of 100 applicants, perhaps one would pass. Candidates were required to disclose funding sources, conduct site selection, submit inspection reports, and personally operate their stores.
Coming from a small town, Yan understood who would commit. “If someone expects to get rich overnight, the mindset is wrong,” one investor said. “But if they believe opening a store is better than a regular job and offers stable income back home, that’s the right attitude.”
Merger and coronation
Hunan has long had a deeply rooted snack culture, even before Yan entered the sector. Still, he is widely regarded as a pioneer of bulk snack retail.
Visitors seeking advice streamed in, including Zhao Ding, founder of Zhao Yiming Snacks. Zhao frequently visited Yan, who shared his experience openly and even allowed Zhao’s team to train inside Busy For You’s operations, despite knowing they would eventually compete.
Similar exchanges played out with other regional brands. Over time, competition intensified.
Busy For You dominated Hunan but struggled elsewhere. An early expansion into Jiangxi reportedly resulted in losses of RMB 50 million (USD 7 million) in a single year.
Yan’s cautious approach left room for Zhao Yiming’s more aggressive expansion. By 2023, the sector entered an unexpected growth phase.
Price wars followed. Discounts fell to 88%, then 85%. Some small retailers even purchased inventory directly from competitors’ stores. Margins collapsed.
A third force then emerged. Haoxianglai, under Wancheng Group, expanded rapidly through acquisitions, pushing the market toward inevitable consolidation.
Yan moved to stop the fight and proposed a merger.
Despite Busy For You’s larger scale, Yan agreed to a 60-40 equity split. He and early shareholders accepted paper losses. HongShan supported the decision. “He sees the big picture,” Su said.
No formal due diligence was conducted. Under the founders’ direction, the merger was completed in two weeks.
On November 10, 2023, the two companies announced the deal, retaining independent brands. At the time, Busy For You operated about 4,000 stores, while Zhao Yiming had roughly 2,500.
Integration proved difficult. Store formats and procurement systems differed so much that warehouses initially could not serve both brands.
The solution was regional separation. Busy For You retained its strongholds in Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing, and the Yunnan-Guizhou region, while Zhao Yiming expanded elsewhere. Overlapping stores were reorganized through detailed grid analysis.
Aligning people was the hardest part. “When one person used a Busy For You notebook and another used a Zhao Yiming notebook, it felt wrong,” Yang said. “Eventually, everyone held the same notebook and fought together.”
Seven months later, the combined store count surpassed 10,000, making Busy Ming the first snack chain to reach that milestone.
By November 30, 2025, the total had grown to 21,041 stores.
After Pinduoduo and Mixue, investors have spent years searching for the next consumer platform capable of spanning counties and megacities. Yan Zhou and Busy Ming might be the answer.
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by Li Xiaoxia for 36Kr.