Rakuten on December 2
After advocating a high-end snack strategy that lasted for several years, BESTORE encountered a real dilemma.
Just this week, BESTORE underwent a management adjustment, Yang Hongchun, chairman and general manager of BESTORE, resigned, and Yang Yinfen took over as chairman and general manager.
Yang Yinfen's new official took office with three fires, and the first fire burned to the "high-end snack strategy" of BESTORE, announcing a big price reduction of its products. The average price reduction of the 300 products of BESTORE was reduced by 22%, and the highest price reduction was 45%, which was also the largest price reduction in the 17 years since BESTORE was established.
BESTORE's price reduction is mainly "focused on snacks with high repurchase rate and cost optimization but no impact on quality", including nuts such as macadamia nuts, pine nuts, pistachios, cashew nuts, etc., meat snacks such as pork jerky, duck neck, grilled sausages, etc., as well as spicy strips, dried tofu, bread cakes, melon seeds and other products with high repurchase rate.
Improve efficiency, greatly reduce management costs, and be close to the people
In an internal letter, Yang Yinfen called on BESTORE employees to have a clearer understanding of the current economic situation and the current situation of the company
1. Look at the industry: the shift of online consumption traffic, the intensification of competition, the full flowering of various offline snack models, and the emergence of a series of new species.
2. Look at the user: consumption has entered the era of rationality, the people's money bags are tighter, and the consumption levels of different groups of people are more differentiated and clear, how to meet the needs of different users is also a test in front of us. In addition, the practical problem that consumers think that BESTORE is "expensive" also shows that BESTORE's products must be more accessible to the people, and BESTORE's quality mentality needs to be further consolidated.
Look at yourself: With the development of the company for 17 years, the organization is bloated, people are superficial, and bureaucracy and self-centeredness have emerged. Externally, it is the sluggish development and the decline in scale and profitability.
Yang Yinfen emphasized that BESTORE should improve efficiency and greatly reduce management costs. As with all companies, the disregard for efficiency and innovation, the invisible disease of big business, is spreading in the group. Yang Yinfen once again emphasized the direction of BESTORE: to return to the image of BESTORE as a neighbor, and move towards the route of good quality and close to the people.
Yang Yinfen also called on employees to say less and do more;Spend less time in the office and more in the field;Less meetings, less PPT, more experience, more hard work. Prove your ability with data and results.
New competitors emerge and carve up existing markets
Behind the large-scale adjustment of BESTORE, the company's performance is being challenged. BESTORE's revenue in the first three quarters of 2023 was 6 billion, down 14% year-on-year;Net profit 19.1 billion, down 3.3 billion year-on-year43%；The net profit after deducting non-profits was 12.2 billion yuan, down 44% year-on-year.
BESTORE's revenue for the third quarter of 2023 was 201.3 billion yuan, down 4 percent year-on-year53%；net profit was 2 million, down 98% year-on-year;The net loss after deducting non-profits was 2.08 million, compared with a profit in the same period last year.
In fact, whether it is BESTORE or the three squirrels, they have been in trouble for the past two years. With the profound changes in the surrounding environment, many cities across the country have seen consumption downgrades, and the snack industry itself has a low threshold characteristic. When consumers realized that BESTORE and Three Squirrels also relied on OEM, they flowed to mass-selling snack brands with more categories and lower categories.
This has also led to the rapid development of new retail methods such as "Zhao Yiming snacks" and "snacks are busy". For example, Zhao Yiming's snack revenue in 2022 will be 121.5 billion yuan, with a net profit of 38.44 million yuan;Revenue for the first half of 2023 was 278.6 billion yuan, net profit of 76.31 million yuan. According to this development momentum, Zhao Yiming's snacks may exceed the volume of BESTORE in less than two years.
Recently, Zhao Yiming snacks have also merged with "snacks are very busy", and he also realized that he can't make money from shopping, so it is better to merge together, and the new enterprises after the merger may also cause greater danger to the old players such as BESTORE.
BESTORE originally also invested in Zhao Yiming snacks, but in October 2023, it announced that it would hold a 3% stake in Yichun Zhao Yiming Food Technology *** referred to as "Zhao Yiming") for a total of about 10.5 billion yuan of ** transferred to Shanghai Yihi Enterprise Management Consulting Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Xiamen Heiyi No. 3 Overseas Connection Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership).
The following is an internal letter from Yang Yinfen, chairman and general manager of BESTORE:
Dear BESTORE Family:
Good morning!
By the resolution of the third board of directors meeting of the company, I was elected as the chairman of the new board of directors and the general manager of the company.
First of all, on behalf of all shareholders and all directors, please allow me to express my high respect and sincere thanks to the board of directors represented by Mr. Yang for its efforts and contributions in the development of BESTOREI would like to express my deep gratitude to Ms. Hu Yanzao and Mr. Chen Qifeng, independent directors who left their positions due to the expiration of their terms
As the chairman and general manager of the company, I would like to thank all shareholders and directors for their trust. Especially the trust and support from Mr. Yang, I feel that this trust and support is priceless. To be honest, in this society, no one can entrust me with billions of net worth and let me manage it all. In my heart, I have always asked myself not to live up to this trust that transcends brotherhood under any circumstances!
Yang is always the founder and actual controller of the company, the spiritual leader of BESTORE, and the entrepreneurial mentor of the whole family. This time, Mr. Yang stepped down as the chairman and general manager of the company, and all the directors and shareholders tried their best to retain and did a lot of communication and coordination work, and finally everyone expressed support and understanding for Mr. Yang's decision. Yang is always a first-class vision, with a strong strategic vision of the entrepreneur, is a good store for the second life of the entrepreneur, but also a friendly, diligent, pragmatic, life is always full of hope for the brother, after leaving the chairman and general manager of the post, Mr. Yang is still the company's founder, actual controller, director, member of the strategy committee, Mr. Yang will continue to be in the listed company governance structure, corporate strategy, the company's external relations, training senior management talents, the company's major business projects, Corporate culture and other aspects play an important and irreplaceable role.
Dear family, for me, behind the new appointment, what has changed is the time and position, and what has not changed is the original intention and belief, the more the times have changed and the business has been up and down, the more all the managers of BESTORE will fight side by side with everyone until the victory!
Here, I must call on all Liangpin people again: have a clearer understanding of the current economic situation and the status quo of the enterprise.
Look at the industry: the shift of online consumption traffic, the intensification of competition, the full flowering of various offline snack models, and the emergence of a series of new species.
Look at users: consumption has entered a rational era, people's money bags are tighter, different groups of people consumption levels are more differentiated, more distinct, how to meet the needs of different users, is also a test in front of us. In addition, the reality that consumers think that we are "expensive" also shows that our products must be more close to the people, and our quality mentality needs to be further consolidated.
Look at yourself: With the development of the company for 17 years, the organization is bloated, people are superficial, and bureaucracy and self-centeredness have emerged. Externally, it is the sluggish development and the decline in scale and profitability.
Tremendous changes are taking place both internally and externally, family, why do we have to stay the same?I said in August this year that 17-year-old Liangpin is facing the most difficult challenge since its establishment. At present, this challenge is still intensifying, and in order to stand out from the encirclement, Liangpin must be like a high-flying eagle, fading from aging and regaining life.
At present, what is in front of us is not only the question of how difficult it is to live, but also the question of whether or not we can live. BESTORE has 110,000 employees, and 110,000 households, and thousands of businesses and homes on the chain. Therefore, we, the helmsman, have to run and race against time, because this is the need of competition, the needs of partners, the needs of employees, and the needs of every family behind employees.
But my heart has always been extremely firm, the market demand is still there, the brand influence of BESTORE is still there, our ability and resource advantages are still there, our opportunities are still there, the cards in our hands are much better than our competitors, but we need to change, neither arrogant, nor arrogant!
I would like to take this opportunity to announce to you that BESTORE will launch a new round of reform around the theme of "Strengthening Business Innovation and Comprehensively Improving Business Efficiency".The purpose of our reform is to make the products more accessible to the people on the basis of adhering to the "good products". This is also a major change in the company's operation, and it is an upgrade in cognition and ability.
In the past 17 years, we have been insisting on using "quality of conscience" and "everyone's shop" to dialogue with users and impress the market as promised by the brand name. Based on this, in the new situation and business environment, we must do four things well:
We must adhere to the development route of high-quality snacks, but we must think completely about "quality" from the perspective of consumers. We are taking a differentiated path, which is essentially a different development path from mass selling snacks. Our path is more difficult, more challenging, and at the same time, more valuable. I firmly believe that for a business with a unit price of tens of yuan and a food that eats into the body, people will definitely choose a brand with better quality, and at the same time, they will be better for themselves.
Our current difficulties are caused by our lack of differentiation and sense of value, not that consumers do not need us. We must unswervingly follow the development route of high-quality snacks, and if we don't take this road, we will be dead!At the same time, I also ask the whole group to implement a new thinking on "quality" from the perspective of users, so that every penny spent on quality can be perceived and recognized by consumers.
We must insist on innovation and change for consumers. At present, consumer groups and consumption Xi are changing. The reality that consumers think we are "expensive" also shows that our products must be more accessible to the people. We want to work with our partners to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and ultimately achieve the best people-friendly through technological innovation and digital tools. Nature tells us that it is not the most powerful creatures that survive, but the creatures that can adapt to changes in their environment!Sticking to the rules and using the so-called successful methods of one's past to guide the future will only make one's path narrower and narrower. We must make breakthrough innovations in three aspects, such as business model, product development and content, and at the same time, we must decentralize power and encourage every business system and every person in every position to innovate, forming a situation of galloping horses. Through all-round innovation around consumers, enterprises are more adaptable to the competition.
We need to improve efficiency and significantly reduce overhead. As with all companies, the disregard for efficiency and innovation, the invisible disease of big business, is spreading in the group.
We are a retail business, the margins are meager, and what we make is hard-earned money!Roles, processes, and even organizations need to be revisited. Don't do what you can do or don't do in advance, concentrate your limited forces to do urgent things, do things that affect the overall situation, and do things that really have value for users!Finally, through the overall improvement of business efficiency, we will provide users with more products with quality-price advantages, and truly achieve good goods and inexpensive.
We have to be more executing to get the results we want. As an organization, we talk much better than we do, we talk too much and do too little. Many things, it seems that the idea is very good, and there are resources and conditions, but we can't do the results we want. Many people, the sense of purpose is not strong or the goal is not clear at all, do a good job and do a bad job, where does this come from?
I appeal to everyone to say less and do more;Spend less time in the office and more in the field;Less meetings, less PPT, more experience, more hard work. Prove your ability with data and results. I know very well that it is difficult to change, and only when he hurts himself will he take the initiative to change. But by the time the pain hits everyone, it's too late, so I have to force everyone to change now with the most direct performance appraisal method.
Behind a series of changes, there is only one core purpose: to return to the image of BESTORE as a neighbor and move towards a route of good quality and close to the people. There is a real possibility that we will lose our qualification at the table. The winner is strong, the self-winner is strong, there is no winter can not be overcome, there is no development of an enterprise is smooth sailing, the entrepreneurial history of the good product has proved that the first war can not kill us, will only make us stronger. Although only 5% of the world's companies are able to make it through the cycle, I believe that our entrepreneurial beliefs, our value leadership in the industry, and our dedication to consumers will lead us back to the trajectory of growth and maintain our leadership position in the industry.
I once again emphasize our direction: to return to the image of BESTORE as a neighbor, and to move towards a route of good quality and close to the people.
On this thorny road to the future, only by working together can all BESTORE lead themselves, lead partners, and our users through the economic cycle, so as to jointly lead BESTORE to realize the dream of building a snack kingdom!
Yang Yinfen November 29, 2023.
Lei Di was founded by ** Lei Jianping, if ** please in**.