Museum Odense holds the commercial rights to Hans Christian Andersen. The challenge was bringing that cultural IP into China without losing control. The solution: an investment partnership with Hengsheng Group, a Chinese subsidiary, and contractual safeguards that let the museum withdraw rights if sales targets are not met.
Case type
Market entry
Sector
Food & beverages
Client
Museum Odense
Chinese entity
Andersen Food Company
Investor
Hengsheng Group
Licensing the Hans Christian Andersen brand into China via a food venture with Hengsheng Group
Museum Odense, the Danish cultural institution dedicated to Hans Christian Andersen, holds the commercial rights to Andersen's name, signature, and silhouette. The brand has previously been licensed into watches and chocolate. The question for the China expansion was not whether the brand had value - it clearly does - but how to structure a Chinese commercial venture that captured that value without surrendering control of the IP.
The challenge
Market entry without losing control
Museum Odense wanted to extend the Hans Christian Andersen brand into China and diversify its revenue beyond core museum operations. Andersen's fairy tales have a long publishing history in China, and the brand carries pre-existing cultural recognition. The strategic question was structural: how to enter a market the museum did not operate in directly, with a brand it could not afford to lose control of, through partners it would need to evaluate carefully.
Three constraints shaped the work.
First, the museum had no operational capacity to manage Chinese commercial activity directly. Any structure would depend on local partners.
Second, the IP was the museum's strategic asset. A licensing arrangement that produced revenue but exposed the brand to misuse, dilution, or contested control would be commercially worse than no entry at all.
Third, the venture had to be structured to allow withdrawal. The museum needed a defined exit path if commercial performance did not meet expectations - without the cost and complexity of standard IP recovery proceedings in China.
The Solution
Creating a scalable and protected operating model
We developed the go-to-market model, conducted partner assessment and commercial planning, and facilitated the investment partnership that anchored the venture.
The structure: a Chinese subsidiary, Andersen Food Company, established in Suzhou, funded by Hengsheng Group as the investor, operating under licence from Museum Odense, with Shaeps as the local representative overseeing operations and IP rights management on the museum's behalf.
The role split is clean. Hengsheng provides capital, local market access, and operational capability. Museum Odense provides the brand. We provided the structuring work and ongoing oversight. Each party contributes what they can without taking on responsibilities outside their capacity.
The IP terms include a performance condition: if the venture does not meet commercial targets, Museum Odense retains the right to withdraw all intellectual property rights at no additional cost. This safeguard converts a commercial risk into a bounded one. The museum's downside is exposure of its time, not its IP.
Implementation
Moving from investment to operation
Hengsheng Group committed RMB 2,000,000 (EUR 264,000) to the test phase. The capital funded product development and business setup.
Andersen Food (Suzhou) Company obtained its business licence in autumn 2024. A Shanghai-based food manufacturer was contracted to produce licensed products. A local team was assembled through 2025. Online marketing, sales activity, and partnership development are now in early-stage execution.
Shaeps holds the local representative role - overseeing operations, ensuring alignment with the museum's commercial and brand standards, and managing IP rights distribution within the agreed food categories.
Status
Performance-driven expansion
First-year commercial target: RMB 50,000,000 (EUR 6,590,000) in sales.
If the target is achieved, Hengsheng Group has committed to a follow-on investment of RMB 100,000,000 (EUR 13,180,000) to build dedicated production infrastructure and expand the operation.
If the target is not achieved, the safeguard activates. Museum Odense recovers the IP at no cost and is free to pursue alternative partnerships or strategies.
The venture is in early commercial execution. Outcomes determine the next phase.
Value
Designed for success and failure
The structure converts a cultural IP entry into China from a one-shot commitment into a staged commercial test with bounded exposure on the strategic asset.
For Museum Odense, the venture extends a Danish cultural brand into a market with significant consumer engagement, while preserving the museum's ability to redirect if the commercial path does not hold.
For Andersen Food Company, the structure provides a clear commercial mandate and a defined performance threshold for follow-on investment.
For Hengsheng Group, the partnership provides exclusive access to a globally recognised cultural brand under defined commercial terms, with performance-aligned investment escalation.
The architectural principle: the capital partner provides resources, the brand owner provides IP, the operational entity executes, and the safeguard ensures that if the commercial model does not hold, the IP returns intact to its owner. Few cultural-IP licensing arrangements into China include comparable withdrawal provisions. They are not unavailable - they require structuring at the outset, not retrofitting after exposure.
