How Chinese F&B chains scale so fast, and what local brands can copy

Chinese F&B chains such as Mixue, Chagee and Luckin are growing fast in Malaysia because the outlet is the last step of a supply chain, not the start of one. Buying is centralised, the skilled production work happens once in a central kitchen or factory, inventory runs on systems rather than memory, and each new outlet plugs into a ready-made playbook. Most of that model runs through a central kitchen, which many Malaysian brands with 5 to 30 outlets already have, or could build.

That makes it worth studying as operating practice. None of the habits below depends on foreign capital or thousands of outlets. They depend on deciding which work belongs in the central operation and which belongs in the outlet, then holding that line as the brand grows.

What is a supply-chain-led F&B chain?

A supply-chain-led F&B chain is a brand whose core business is the system behind the counter (sourcing, central production, distribution and inventory), with outlets designed to sell what that system delivers, quickly and identically.

That is close to how Datuk William Ng, president of the SME Association of Malaysia (Samenta), described the new arrivals to The Malaysian Reserve in July: supply-chain companies “disguised” as F&B businesses. He pointed to centralised procurement and economies of scale, and to “plug-and-play franchise models, automated inventory management systems and centralised kitchens”. Local brands, he said, are held back by labour shortages, higher operating costs and fragmented supply chains.

Two other voices in the same report fill in the picture. Weihan Chen of Momentum Works said the chains use their apps to collect purchase data, and that Mixue earns most of its revenue by supplying its franchisees through a vertically integrated supply chain. Dr Jeff Lim, CEO of Luckin Malaysia, highlighted app-based ordering, smart pickup and optimised retail spaces.

Put together, the outlet is the visible part of the business. Much of the work that makes it pay happens upstream.

How fast are Chinese F&B chains growing in Malaysia?

The same report gives a sense of the scale:

• The category. Malaysia Chinese Restaurant Association president Gao Haoyun reportedly estimated there are 20,000 to 25,000 Chinese F&B outlets nationwide, about 60% of them in the Klang Valley.
• Chagee opened its 200th Malaysian outlet, in Bukit Bintang, in October 2025.
• Mixue, which entered Malaysia in 2022, had more than 700 Malaysian outlets as of 2025, according to its company website.
• Luckin said in March 2025 that it planned 200 Malaysian stores within three years.

Ai-Cha and Lucky Cup are named in the report as part of the same wave. The price points are telling: RM6.50 for a Mixue classic milk tea, RM5 for a strawberry sundae. Prices at that level leave little room for waste anywhere between the supplier and the counter. That is why F&B chain expansion in Malaysia at this pace is, underneath, a supply-chain story.

Six operating habits behind the speed

Read across those comments and an operating model emerges. The table breaks it into six habits, why each one scales, and the version a local brand with 5 to 30 outlets can run now, without an app or a factory.

Operating habit	Why it scales	What a 5–30 outlet brand can copy now
Centralised procurement	One buyer sets specifications and prices once for the whole network, so combined volume becomes buying power	Put core items on one approved supplier list with one agreed price and specification, even where deliveries still go direct to outlets
A narrow, standardised menu	Fewer items built from shared components mean more volume per ingredient, simpler training and fewer failure points	Review slow sellers that need an ingredient nothing else uses; build new items from existing components first
Central kitchen or factory does the hard work	Skilled, variable steps happen once, under control; outlets need less skill, space and equipment	Move sauces, marinades, bases and portioning to the central kitchen; outlets heat, assemble and serve
Automated inventory	Reorder decisions follow sales data rather than each manager’s memory, at any outlet count	Set par levels per outlet and let POS sales drive recommended orders
Purchase data drives decisions	Knowing what sells, where and when lets supply, production and menu follow demand	Use the POS data you already hold: item mix by outlet, daypart and week, fed into production plans
Plug-and-play franchise playbook	A new outlet opens into an existing system of menu, supply, SOPs and reporting	Write the opening package before the next outlet: recipe cards, SOPs, order cycle, opening stock list and reporting routine

The menu row is our reading rather than the report’s. Centralised procurement and a central kitchen only pay back when the menu is built from a limited set of shared components; every one-off ingredient adds a supplier, a storage slot and a training step at every outlet. The inventory row is where most local groups have the shortest path: par levels that drive replenishment are a system decision, not a capital project.

Start with the central kitchen you already run

Many local groups already have a central kitchen. The gap is usually in what it is asked to do. In a supply-chain-led model, the central kitchen does the skilled, variable work once, and the outlet assembles, heats and serves.

Move the variable steps upstream. Sauces, marinades, bases, doughs and portioned proteins are where taste and cost drift. Produced in batches against one recipe, they arrive at every outlet the same.

Make the outlet’s job learnable in days. If the outlet mainly assembles, a new hire needs a short visual SOP rather than months beside a senior cook. With hiring as hard as it is, that matters.

Run inventory as one network. Outlet stock, central kitchen stock and stock in transit form a single pool. Replenishment follows sales, and surplus at one outlet can move to another before it expires. Automated inventory in F&B mostly means this: the system holds the number, and people check it.

Keep one version of every item. Centralised procurement falls apart if the same chicken thigh has three names and four units across outlets. Item master data that holds is unglamorous groundwork that every later step depends on.

Package it for the next outlet. A plug-and-play playbook is these decisions written down and handed over as one package. Good franchise operations are mostly that package, kept current, plus the reporting that shows whether each outlet follows it.

We have written before about scaling an F&B business without scaling the chaos. The narrower point here: the habits worth copying are the ones that make each new outlet cheaper and quicker to open than the last.

Where RMS fits

Codemax RMS (Resource Management System) is built for the shape of business this model describes: a central kitchen supplying a network of outlets, with procurement, production, inventory and distribution on one system.

Ordering and procurement. Outlets order stock from the central kitchen on mobile. Recommended purchase-order quantities come from par levels and POS data, so ordering stops depending on who is on shift.

Production. The central kitchen plans production against rolling outlet demand, with pick lists and batch tickets generated automatically.

Recipes and cost. Recipes, sub-recipes, yields and multi-level BOMs are governed centrally and pushed to every outlet without version drift. When an ingredient cost changes, the affected dishes are re-costed, and actual consumption is measured against theoretical usage outlet by outlet. Image and video SOPs give outlet staff step-by-step instructions on their phones.

Inventory and finance. Live stock-on-hand, automated replenishment and inter-branch transfers, with FIFO and expiry checks enforced at stock-out. RMS is multi-entity and multi-brand, syncs live with POS, and connects to SAP, Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Xero.

It scales from a single store to hundreds of outlets. A pilot store is typically live in 4–8 weeks, and most groups complete network rollout within one or two quarters.

Questions worth asking this week

• Which of your top 20 ingredients are bought at more than one price across outlets?
• Which prep steps happen in every outlet that could happen once in the central kitchen?
• How does an outlet decide how much to order tomorrow, and who would know if it got that wrong?
• Which menu items need an ingredient that nothing else on the menu uses?
• If you opened an outlet next month, what would you hand its manager on day one?

If the answers depend on which outlet you ask, the gap isn’t ambition or capital. It’s the system between the central kitchen and the counter, and that can be built at 5 outlets as well as at 500.

Frequently asked questions

Why are Chinese F&B chains expanding so fast in Malaysia?

Chinese F&B chains are expanding fast in Malaysia largely because they operate as supply-chain businesses. As reported by The Malaysian Reserve in July 2026, Samenta president Datuk William Ng pointed to centralised procurement, economies of scale, plug-and-play franchise models, automated inventory management and centralised kitchens. Outlets mainly sell and assemble what the central system delivers, so each new outlet is quicker to open.

Does a small F&B chain in Malaysia need a central kitchen?

A small F&B chain in Malaysia does not always need a central kitchen, but one usually pays back once several outlets prepare the same sauces, marinades or bases. A central kitchen produces those items once, in batches, against one recipe, so outlets need less space, equipment and skill. It works best with a focused menu built from shared components.

What is centralised procurement in F&B?

Centralised procurement in F&B means one team sets the approved suppliers, specifications and prices for core ingredients across every outlet, instead of each outlet buying on its own terms. Deliveries can still go direct to outlets. The benefits are consistent ingredients, buying power from combined volume and a single price file that keeps recipe costing accurate.

What should a franchise operations playbook include?

A franchise operations playbook should include standard recipe cards, step-by-step SOPs, the ordering cycle and approved suppliers, an opening stock list, equipment specifications, training steps and the reporting routine each outlet follows. A playbook works best when it lives in a system that pushes updates to every outlet at once, rather than in a document that goes out of date.

What is automated inventory management for restaurants?

Automated inventory management for restaurants means stock levels update from sales, deliveries, transfers and wastage as they happen, and reorder quantities are recommended from par levels and sales data rather than worked out by each manager. Staff still count stock, but each count checks a live number instead of rebuilding it from scratch every week or month.

Sources

1. Chinese F&B boom reshapes Malaysia's affordable market — The Malaysian Reserve, 6 Jul 2026