Maybe you're like the blackboard, and you suddenly found that there are several mass-selling snack shops in the surrounding area.
In the complex economic environment, cost-effective mass snacks have become a new outlet. Players are stepping up their development, among them, the most "wild" is undoubtedly Zhao Yiming's snacks.
This brand, which had never been seen before, suddenly opened stores everywhere. The first store was opened in 2019, and it took only 4 years to exceed 2,500 stores.
Subsequently, it merged with the industry's No. 1 snack busy strategy to form the snack busy group; After the merger, the scale of stores will reach 6,500, and it is not far from leaving 10,000 stores.
However, from last year's suspected deception of BESTORE to renew its equity, to the recent "flop" battle of the store. Indulging in rapid expansion, Zhao Yiming seemed to have no time to take care of more.
Zhao Yiming, who has a reckless spirit, why does he run blindfolded?
Source: Zhao Yiming Snack Weibo.
In the "flop" battle, the bayonet was red
As the Spring Festival approaches, the smoke of the business war on the mass snack track is getting thicker, and the bayonets are red.
On January 22, a "Notice on the Recent Malicious Contact of Our Franchisees by a Competing Brand" issued by the Snack Very Busy Group to franchisees circulated on the Internet, which stated that the competing brand "guided our franchise store to flop and change to a certain Xianglai brand".
On January 24, Wanchen Group confirmed to the "China Times" that a staff member claiming to be Zhao Yiming Snacks contacted its franchisees and wanted it to "flop".
Previously, Laiyoupin franchisees also jointly issued a statement to Zhao Yiming Snacks, calling for the cessation of unfair competition.
The so-called "flop" means that brand A through subsidies, buying stores and other ways, so that brand B franchisees change store signboards and turn into brand A.
Originally, the two families developed in their own territories, and the well water did not interfere with the river water. The snack group is very busy, and the group mainly lays out the central and southern markets in China, while Wanchen Group, which has more than 5,000 stores and ranks second in the industry, mainly sits in the northern market.
Expansion, naturally, is to go to a place where there is no layout, and the situation of stepping into the coverage area of competitors may also occur.
You must know that the most important thing in offline snack stores is location.
Source: Wanchen Group's Weibo is a snack microblog.
Flop", although it may pay a certain financial price, but it saves the time to open the store, and gets rid of the main competitors in the region, and can also directly win the money-making store, from the perspective of operating cost performance, this "bad character" tactic does have value.
However, this tactic is extremely tragic, because it is necessary to pay a high price to make the store "mutiny", which is a strategy of self-damage of 800 and injury of 1000 enemies, and it is also easy to be blamed by commercial morality.
As for whether this method violates market regulations? From the current point of view, the relevant departments have not intervened, and the companies have blamed each other, and the water has been muddyed.
Be wary of low margins
In addition to the "flop" battle, in order to compete for more franchisees, Snacks is very busy Group and Wanchen Group have launched preferential policies for joining, such as Zhao Yiming can provide 380,000 yuan franchise fee waiver, and subsidies for stores with an area of more than 30 square meters.
The brands of Wanchen Group want to come to snacks, and they can also reduce the franchise fee from January to June 2024, and also put forward policies such as 0 management fee, 0 service fee and 0 delivery fee.
Whether it is the "flop" war or the franchise discount, it shows that the intensity of the business war has intensified, and this requires a lot of capital support.
According to BESTORE, Zhao Yiming's snack revenue in 2022 will be 121.5 billion yuan, net profit is only 03.8 billion yuan, net profit margin of about 316%；And in the first half of 2023, its revenue was 278.6 billion yuan, net profit is only 07.6 billion yuan, and the net profit margin is still ** to 274%。
In the period of crazy store opening, the net profit margin of Zhao Yiming snacks has begun**, and now with the "flop" war, the net profit margin may be further **.
Source: Snacks are busy official website.
Capital does recognize the number of stores, but from a business point of view, there are dark horses and new stories in the traditional retail industry every year, but those that survive are still the ones that are doing better.
For example, Luckin fell into a trough after the counterfeiting incident, and has been reborn in recent years, and the overall operation of the store is better.
It is worth noting that Snack is Busy Group has two major brands, Snack Busy and Zhao Yiming Snacks, both of which are operated independently. Between the two, there may be the possibility of overlapping store coverage and competing with each other.
Blackboard Jun believes that in the long run, snacks are very busy and Zhao Yiming snacks need to do brand differentiation, as well as positioning combing, and further integration and coordination can play the effect of consolidation, otherwise it is just a consolidated financial statement, which is slightly "fat".
Blindfolded and running wildly to bury hidden dangers
Looking back on the development trajectory of Zhao Yiming's snacks, the most appropriate keyword is "fast".
In 4 years, 2,500 stores have been built, and the strategic merger with snacks has nearly tripled the size of the store.
However, under the blindfolded run, there are many hidden dangers. In addition to the above-mentioned "flop" war, internal point integration, accelerated burning of capital flow and other issues, Zhao Yiming Snacks also has to face lawsuits from former investors, which casts a shadow on the future listing.
Things have to start at the beginning of 2023, Guangyuan Juyi, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BESTORE, signed an investment agreement with Zhao Yiming, and exchanged an investment of 45 million yuan for a 3% stake in Zhao Yiming's snacks.
On October 17, Guangyuan gathered billion to about 10.5 billion yuan of total price to transfer its equity in Zhao Yiming snacks to two subsidiaries or affiliates of Black Ant Capital.
From this point of view, BESTORE has earned 60 million yuan in half a year, and the return on investment is also very high.
Source: BESTORE official website.
However, less than a month later, Zhao Yiming Snacks and Snacks were busy announcing their merger.
In December, the snack group was very busy, and the group introduced 10., Yanjin Shop and Miss You, two snack companiesWith an investment of 500 million yuan, the valuation instantly reached 10.5 billion yuan. If you look at it this way, BESTORE has lost a lot.
According to BESTORE, they felt that they had been "deceived" by Zhao Yiming's snacks.
They questioned that it was impossible for the merger of two leading companies to complete all the processes required for the merger, such as due diligence, negotiation, contract drafting, and investor approval, in just 22 days.
As one of the minority shareholders, it has the legal rights to know, make decisions, inspect and preemptively purchase according to the Company Law.
BESTORE believes that Zhao Yiming Snacks has never communicated about the future merger, so BESTORE has initiated a lawsuit to protect its rights in accordance with the provisions of the Company Law, the Civil Procedure Law and relevant judicial interpretations.
As for the merger of the two companies, will it touch the monopoly of the industry? This may be a bit exaggerated, but at least market share is not the criterion for judging monopolies, but the key is to determine behavior.
Grassroots entrepreneurship, moving forward?
Zhao Ding, the founder of Zhao Yiming Snacks, although he dropped out of high school, is a grassroots entrepreneur with rich entrepreneurial experience.
According to ** report, Zhao Ding, who was born in 1989, dropped out of high school to work due to family changes, and went to Shanghai alone, worked as a coolie, worked as a restaurant waiter, and went to the camera studio as an apprentice because of his love for photography.
In 2008, he began to learn how to make roasted food from his parents and opened his own roasted food snack shop.
In 2010, he took the 200,000 yuan he earned to open a photography studio in Shanghai, but he didn't expect it to close down in 3 months, so he could only go back to his old business.
In 2015, he opened the first mass-selling snack store "Fool Melon", with a single-day turnover of up to 50,000 yuan, and opened a franchise store in half a year, but in the end it failed.
In January 2019, he officially founded Zhao Yiming's snack brand, and since then it has finally soared.
In October 2022, the number of stores exceeded 500, and in February 2023, the investment led by Black Ant Capital and followed by BESTORE was completedWith a round of financing of 500 million yuan, the total number of stores in the country has exceeded 2,500.
Source: CCTV News.
And his partner, Yan Zhou, the founder of the post-85s generation who is very busy with snacks, is also a grassroots entrepreneur.
He has been engaged in real estate marketing planning for 8 years, and started his first store in Changsha, Hunan Province in 2017, and has more than 4,000 stores 6 years later.
It is rumored that because they are both grassroots entrepreneurs, the two cherish each other and have a good personal relationship, which is also an important foundation for the successful strategic merger of the snack group.
Zhao Ding served as the CEO of Zhao Yiming Snacks, Yan Zhou served as the CEO of Snacks, and Yan Zhou served as the chairman of the group company.
The grassroots entrepreneurship "barefoot is not afraid of wearing shoes", and when the track is identified, it will move forward resolutely, and it will be more courageous to expand the scale and seize the opportunity, which has been reflected in Zhao Ding and Yan Zhou.
However, due to the rapid expansion, it was involved in various disputes and buried some business concerns. Blackboard Jun thinks that the two big guys have to be fast.
The economic situation is complex, investment has begun to be cautious, and the recent bright outlets are mostly related to cost performance, such as Pinduoduo, Miniso, etc.
This outlet may also disappear quickly due to environmental changes. Whether it is a resolute merger or a white-knuckle battle of the "Northern Expedition", it shows a strategic idea, that is, to fight on a large scale first.
The brave wins, whoever can be the first to achieve the scale of 10,000 stores, who can seize the opportunity, such a white-hot stage, also made Zhao Yiming snacks have to expand quickly, and have to hastily merge strategically.
Of course, people are still happy to see the success stories of grassroots entrepreneurs, albeit more difficult.
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