The numbers came from Häagen-Dazs' own mini-program: 550 mainland stores at the 2019 peak, 263 by June 2025, and 171 on May 29, 2026 — 92 closed in a single year. The brand exited Nanning, Weifang and Shijiazhuang entirely; Taiyuan and Nanchang each kept one store, Jinan three. In Beijing, where 17 stores remained, the Anzhen location of more than ten years closed for good on July 29, 2026 — staff said it was a withdrawal, not the relocation the notice suggested.
On June 2, 2026, General Mills announced the hand-off: an exclusive license for Häagen-Dazs mainland stores and its gift business passed to a consortium including Ningji, a domestic hand-shaken lemon-tea chain, expected to close within the year, with Citi advising and terms undisclosed. General Mills keeps the lighter businesses for itself — supermarket retail and foodservice supply — and called the deal part of a plan to focus on brands and channels with profitable growth.
The economics had already decided. Global premium ice-cream revenue at General Mills slid from $800 million in 2018 to $730 million in 2024. Chinese consumers no longer pay foreign-brand premiums on faith; DQ, gelato shops and new tea chains made dessert an everyday purchase, and a ¥58 scoop carried direct-operated fixed costs that a franchise-native operator was better built to bear.
General Mills licensed the parlors to a lemon-tea consortium, keeping supermarket and foodservice, since a franchise-native operator could bear fixed costs better.
The premium was the brand's story, and Chinese shoppers stopped paying foreign-brand premiums blindly — dessert became an everyday purchase priced by tea chains.
Directly-operated parlors carried fixed costs that shrinking traffic could no longer cover; 92 stores closed in one year.
General Mills chose to hand the offline network to a franchise-native operator and keep the capital-light supermarket and foodservice channels itself.
A premium price is a promise the venue has to keep renewing. Häagen-Dazs kept charging for a ritual Chinese shoppers had outgrown — until the owner licensed the ritual away and kept the freezers.
The Ningji-consortium license deal is expected to close within 2026; General Mills keeps running Häagen-Dazs supermarket and foodservice supply in China itself. The network kept shrinking through the handover — Beijing's Anzhen store closed July 29, 2026, leaving 17 stores in the capital.
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