Liu Erma Mipi started in 1960 in Zunyi Match Factory, and has gone through 63 years, from being awarded the best famous snack in northern Qianbei in 2005 to winning the sixth batch of "Guizhou Time-honored Brand" titles in 2023.
On the evening of December 31, 2023, on Chinese New Year's Eve, the "Intangible Cultural Heritage to Welcome the New Year" New Year Goods Market in Zunyi City was crowded. The spicy and fragrant chicken, red local glutinous chili peppers are embellished, mixed in the soft glutinous rice skin, and a bowl of spicy chicken rice skin is hung with juice to taste.
Spicy chicken rice skin is a new product recently launched by Liu Erma's rice skin, and the third-generation head Liu Lu personally appeared on camera not long ago to shoot the relevant promotion short**, and attaches great importance to its market response, "We always want to do something new to push to the market, just like my grandmother made the first bowl of meat and rice skin in Zunyi 60 years ago." ”
Three generations have sold "a bowl of rice paste" for 63 years.
In 1960, Zhang Chonghua, the founder of Liu Erma, moved to Zunyi with four children from Liuchang Town, Xifeng County, and when her husband passed away, she relied on a bowl of rice to set up a stall to support a family. At that time, only "monk" rice peel was sold on Zunyi Street, which was vegan. In order to attract diners, Zhang Chonghua wanted to make something different, adding diced meat to the rice skin, but he didn't expect the response to be very good, and gradually became famous. Relying on a bowl of red oil and pork and rice paste, she broke out in the Zunyi snack industry.
When it comes to her grandmother's entrepreneurial history, Liu Lu described her grandmother as a chivalrous woman and a resolute woman. "In our family, women sing in front of the scenes, and men support behind the scenes, and the women in this family have 'blood suppression' against men. ”
In 1997, Liu Erma Mipi did a major event that will have far-reaching significance for its future brand development - the registration of the "Liu Erma" trademark. This time it was led by the aunt Liu Manli, and brand awareness began to sprout in this family. Three years later, my aunt took her family to open the store out of Zunyi and opened the first Guiyang branch in Guiyang Xiaocross. At that time, the traffic was very inconvenient, and the instability of the ** chain became a major problem restricting the expansion of local snacks. Liu Lu said with emotion.
The baton was passed to Liu Lu's generation, if the grandmother took 4 children from Xifeng to Zunyi, and the aunt took the family from Zunyi to Guiyang to open a branch, it was two geographical "leaps", one in Zunyi to start the brand, and one in the region to expand the store, then Liu Lu's generation wants to do much more than geographical expansion.
Liu Erma's hometown food ** store was officially launched in 2014. "At that time, all the elders came to see with their hands behind their backs, you guys are so good, can you really sell rice skin to the whole country with such a short shelf life?As the revenue from e-commerce continues to rise, the attitude of the family elders has gradually changed from questioning and wait-and-see to understanding and cooperation, and the four young people of Liu Lu's generation have begun to take over the family brand in an all-round way.
A piece of rice skin's "defense and offense".
In 2016, Liu Erma Mipi followed the Guizhou Provincial Department of Commerce to two places, one was the 25th Taiwan Food Exhibition, and Guizhou went to a total of eight places to represent snacks. Liu Lu was immersed in memories.
The other time is the food exhibition in Shanghai, Zunyi is Shanghai's counterpart city, and Liu Erma Mipi is pushing it locally. At that time, there were a lot of uncles and aunts queuing in front of the booth, and some even waited for 3 hours. Liu Lu believes that this emotional foundation is where the potential of Liu Erma's brand to expand the domestic market lies, and what they want to sell is a bowl of "taste from hometown grandma".
The brand that has existed for more than 60 years is our foundation, how to get out of Zunyi and even out of Guizhou?This question haunts the minds of the new batonists, what to defend and how to attackI have to start with this rice peel.
Liu Qingguo is a master in the Zunyi rice peel industry, working in Liu Erma's house for more than 20 years, and has been hand-making rice peel for decades. "There was once a Mipi in Zunyi that listed Liu Erma Mipi as the number one competitor, and where our store opened, they also opened a store there, but without the core technology of Mipi, it was still impossible in the end. ”
Rice peel is the core product of our family, and it is also a threshold, our family has been making it for three generations, and Zunyi has also been eating it for three generations. Liu Lu analysis, the first thing is to keep and even improve the quality of the core product of rice peel, at the same time, focus on the rice peel track, the survey found that the rice peel market is currently no brand, Liu Erma rice peel as the head brand, the goal is to attack the first brand of rice peel category.
A piece of soft glutinous rice skin to sell to the whole country, become a chain brand, there are two most difficult problems at present, one is that the production standard depends on experience, once you leave the master's craft blessing, the familiar taste is still there?The second is whether the first chain is built firmly
Because of the accumulation of the first two generations, we have financial guarantees, and everything will be done slowly, without seeking immediate results. Liu Lu believes that the quantitative standard is the first step, and it took them several years to basically complete the quantification of the front and back end, and in 2019, the semi-automatic mode was officially opened, but the pulping part insisted on retaining the manual production.
Such quantitative standards have also extended to store management, and now each store has a scale, and a standard bowl of rice skin is half a catty. After the half-catty standard landed in the storefront, it caused a lot of discussion, "I also put a rod scale to catch it, for fear of giving two more?.""The amount of Liu Erma's rice skin is less than before. ”
2019 was a mixed year, Liu Lu drove Liu's second mother Mipi to the straight street of Kunming Confucian Temple, and returned home. She analyzed afterwards that the key was the lack of effective support for the ** chain. It is not their strength to engage in production and sales, and doing what they can do well is the most pragmatic move at the moment.
Liu Erma Mipi only directly operates in Zunyi and Guiyang two markets, and wants to broaden the business territory of the brand. However, there are opportunities and dangers, and there are not a few brands that have been dragged down by the franchise model due to poor management. "We are very cautious in our franchise steps, and we must survive when the small store joins. We attach great importance to management ability and brand marketing ability, and have spent a lot of effort to make franchisee operation manuals and select franchisees. Liu Lu plans to do 200 franchisees in Guizhou.
Three generations of relay to get to today, our family cherishes the century-old brand, has a lot of expectations for the future, and is patient enough. ”
Guizhou ** Tianyan News reporter Yang Yi.
Edited by Yang Yu.
Second instance Xu Ran.
Third trial Zhou Wenjun.