The EIS Engelchen store stands out on the Sanlitun back street behind the bustling Taikooli mall, thanks largely to its unmissable Barbie-pink storefront. In case you weren’t sure of what the store offers, a giant ice-cream cone next to its name, spelled out in big purple block letters, clues you in. But this is no ordinary ice cream store, for many reasons.
You would be forgiven for not being familiar with the brand name EIS Engelchen. The German name translates to “ice angel” and is known as a B2B (business-to-business) ice cream brand that supplies cafés and restaurants in Germany. This store in Beijing is its first ever direct B2C (business-to-customer) store – an idea brought to fruition by high-schooler-turned-business owner Milly Wang.
Currently an eleventh grader in the international division at Xicheng Experimental School, Milly has a persona that is quite a stark contrast to the look of the store she is responsible for. She greets me with a mild handshake on a Friday afternoon dressed in a fluffy off-white sweater and jeans, her long hair loose and with no make-up on. She came straight from school to the store for our interview and is armed with only her laptop, which she sets on a small round table in a corner. As I look around the fuschia store interior, furnished with details, down to merchandise, that she designed herself, I can’t help but think, “She made all of this happen, and she hasn’t even graduated high school yet.”
Milly is soft-spoken but direct, taking her time to answer my fervent questions, which I toss out with no discernible rhyme or reason, simply to see if I can elicit a greater reaction from her. But she’s settled, comfortable, and sure of herself; after all, she is the boss here. Looking over at the staff behind the ice cream counter, all of whom are older than her, I ask her if she hired them herself and she nods affirmatively. I say that I doubt she has even had a job interview before, so how did she know how to hire someone else? She smartly reveals that she watched an online video from Stanford about how to start a start-up and got tips from there.
I had to ask the obvious: How much of this business was owed to her parents? Milly stated that aside from the start-up loan (interest-free, of course) and helping her to register the business in their name since she’s not yet legal, her parents had little involvement in the whole process. It was Milly who had traveled around the world, from Japan to America, to try various ice cream brands before she discovered “the one” – EIS Engelchen – with its all-natural, fruity taste that’s 100 percent made in Germany.
“It’s not too sweet or complicated, so you don’t have to drink lots of water and you can eat lots of it. Once you eat this ice cream, no others can compare,” Milly swears. When she worked in a shop in Germany, she saw firsthand how many others shared her passion for the ice cream brand, convincing her to import it to Beijing. To preserve its authenticity, the business has the ice cream shipped from Germany every month. “This has been one of the greatest challenges in opening this store,” Milly shares. “I actually rented the space in April but only opened in November because we were waiting for the ice cream to go through customs and all.”
She tells me about how she wanted to open a shop that’s clearly for young people like herself, and since she personally loves to eat ice cream, it made sense to open an ice-cream store. “My generation loves ice cream, whether in summer, or winter,” she muses.
She’s on to something. Since the store opened in late November 2023 in Beijing, customers have flowed steadily in. Milly’s schooling in statistics and math have come in useful for running the business, among other life skills she’s picked up – from how to make coffee to paying the salaries of her employees. But with SATs and AP final exams coming up, she makes fewer trips to the store now. “After high school, I want to go to college, preferably Stanford or Harvard for business,” Milly fancies, “I’d really like to go to Boston. I think I could open another store there.”
EIS Engelchen is located at 43 Sanlitun Nanlu (across the Sanlian Bookstore). We highly recommend getting the chocolate cones and mint chocolate chip ice cream flavor. Milly’s current favorite flavor is strawberry cheesecake.
Images: Courtesy of Milly Wang, EIS Engelchen
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