The author of this article is Dong Dong.
Typography: Static text.
In 2010, 24-year-old Wang Yunan, who had just graduated from university, returned to his hometown of Daxi Town, Wenling, Taizhou, Zhejiang.
At that time, he may not have imagined that the bubble tea shop he opened called "Gu Ming" would become the largest mass freshly made tea shop brand in China (10 yuan-20 yuan** belt), and it is also the second largest freshly made tea shop brand in China under the whole ** belt.
In terms of the number of stores by the end of 2023, Gu Ming is one of the top five ready-made beverage brands in the world. In 2023 alone, Gu Ming stores will sell 1.2 billion cups of ready-made drinks, and the GMV (merchandise sales) will exceed 19.2 billion yuan.
From 0 to 1.2 billion, Gu Ming took thirteen years.
At the beginning of the fourteenth year, on January 2, 2024, Gu Ming submitted its application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and launched a sprint to the listing.
Gu Ming's journey has sounded a new horn.
Obviously, this is not an easy road.
According to iiMedia Research, the market size of new tea drinks is expected to reach 3,749 in 2025300 million yuan. According to the big data of Red Meal, as of December 2023, the total number of tea stores in operation is 63About 30,000.
So, what is it that gives Gu Ming the confidence to break out of today's fierce tea market and ride the dust?
High-quality product power
Build a brand "moat".
Looking back on Gu Ming's thirteen years, in fact, the secret of success has already been made public by Wang Yunan, he said frankly: "There was no business logic at that time, but I was doing it very carefully. ”
In Wang Yunan's view, milk tea does not sell well because it is not delicious.
So, find a way to make it taste good.
At that time, Wang Yunan didn't know how many cups of milk tea he had drunk, and he was constantly improving the taste. He even rode a tricycle and took his milk tea to the street to invite neighbors and passers-by to taste it and listen to everyone's opinions.
To this day, Wang Yunan still maintains the habit of checking his own products.
Before each new product is launched, he has to taste it first, and has strict requirements for taste and quality. In order to improve the product strength of Gu Ming, he and his partner Ruan Xiudi plunged into research and development, constantly improving and iterating.
In the highly competitive and seasonal tea market, sometimes being one step ahead can be a long way ahead of the competition.
However, Gu Ming is not obsessed with seeking speed and gimmicks, but pays more attention to the final quality of the product.
Yunnan's summer black grapes have been on the market since April, but Gu Ming has not launched grape drinks for the first time. Wang Yunan even insisted on using grapes that had been hanging for a week after ripening, just to ensure the best taste of the grapes. If a grape wants to be a part of the ancient tea cup, there are strict requirements for various factors such as sweet acidity to origin, fruit setting time, and even fruit setting location and picking time.
There was once a batch of new grape juice that tasted a little worse than before, and Wang Yunan would rather lose money than allow it to be used in his own products. In his view, "the reason why a product survives is that consumers like it, and if consumers don't like it when they drink it, then it has no value in existence." ”
It is precisely this strict requirement for quality and taste that has made "Super A Cheese Grape" one of the best-selling drinks of Gu Ming, with a total sales volume of more than 1300 million cups.
Good milk tea with good quality and stability can naturally stand the test of the market.
In 2023, Gu Ming launched the seasonal drink "Cloud Gardenia Green" in the light milk tea series, which sold more than 2 million cups per week for eight consecutive weeks after its launch.
In October 2023, Gu Ming and Tianguan Blessing's co-branded "Thousand Miles of Twilight Mountain Red" sold about 6.7 million cups within 3 days of its launch.
In Internet hot stalks such as "The First Cup of Milk Tea in Autumn", Gu Ming once created a single-day GMV of more than 1300 million yuan.
According to the prospectus of Gu Ming, in 2023, the average quarterly repurchase rate of Gu Ming throughout the year will be as high as 53%, far exceeding the average repurchase rate of less than 30% of the popular ready-made tea brand stores.
At the end of the day, it's the last word.
This good product "moat" of Gu Ming, day after day, digs deeper and deeper.
For a good cup of tea
R&D, transportation, and quality control make concerted efforts
Good products have laid a solid and heavy foundation for the success of Gu Ming, and behind the good products is the help of its strong R&D team.
As of September 30, 2023, in nine months, Gu Ming has launched 107 new products, that is, an average of 11 new products per monthThere are 8 models, and consumers can taste new flavors every 3 days or so.
During the same period, the monthly average of Mixue Bingcheng was also 52 new products. Gu Ming's new speed can be called a veritable "volume king".
In a prospectus released earlier this month, Gu Ming said that its product development team is made up of "gourmets" and "engineers".
The former is constantly inspiring and tracking the latest trends in consumer preferences, while the latter rigorously analyses ingredients using a scientific approach and often has degrees in food technology, agriculture and tea.
Guming has a R&D team of more than 100 people. Among them, more than 40 people focus on tea and extraction process research, and about 50% have a master's degree or above. They develop a new product every week, and for each successful product, the R&D team has to debug and taste hundreds of cups. It is said that a R&D person can use more than ten catties of fruit a day, and the formula has been iterated 11 times with just one cup of grape tea.
In order to ensure the stable quality of products, raw materials are particularly important.
In 2022, Gu Ming purchased more than 81,600 tonnes of fresh fruit of more than 30 varieties. According to the CIC report, Gu Ming was the largest buyer of fresh fruit among China's freshly made tea brands during the same period.
In addition to purchasing good raw materials, Gu Ming also set its sights on the upstream of raw materials, looking for the most suitable flavor of tea and fruits.
In 2016, Gu Ming owned its own perfume lemon plantation in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province. With the continuous expansion, it is now the brand with the largest area of perfume lemons in China.
With good raw materials, they must be delivered to the store in time, and Gu Ming has long known this truth.
In 2012, before the fledgling Gu Ming began to make money, Wang Yunan bought a truck out of his own pocket and delivered it to the franchisee.
Today, Gu Ming has established 3 processing plants, 21 warehouses with a total construction area of more than 200,000 square meters, including more than 40,000 cubic meters of cold storage that can support different temperature ranges, and directly owns and operates 327 vehicles.
At the same time, Gu Ming's own logistics and distribution system uses advanced algorithms to intelligently match its raw materials with logistics needs, optimize distribution routes, greatly reduce distribution costs, and closely monitor the ** chain end-to-end, tracking vehicle temperature, speed and location to ensure the freshness of raw materials delivered to stores.
Taking the bayberry in Yunnan as an example, the bayberry is picked on the same day and sent away, and the temperature of the bayberry core is reduced to 0-4 degrees through professional pre-cooling equipment. After the work of cooling and locking in freshness is completed, it will be directly transferred to the transfer vehicle prepared in advance, and directly to the store, making a cup of fruity cheese bayberry.
The circulation time of a bayberry in the entire ** chain will not exceed 7 days, while the more shelf-stable perfume lemon will be controlled within 16 days from picking to making a drink.
At present, Gu Ming has the largest cold chain warehousing and logistics infrastructure among Chinese freshly made tea shop brands, providing two-day cold chain delivery services to more than 97% of stores. In terms of GMV, Gu Ming is also the only one of the top 10 freshly made tea shop brands in China that can frequently deliver short-term fresh fruits and milk to stores in lower-tier cities.
It is worth mentioning that in the construction of the cold chain ** chain, each warehouse will be matched with a separate laboratory to ensure the quality of raw materials from the field to the warehouse.
Renderings of Gu Ming Zhuji Laboratory.
In addition, Gu Ming is also building a new laboratory of about 1,000 square meters in Zhuji, which is expected to be put into use in 2024, and at present, the laboratory of Hangzhou headquarters, the new laboratory in Zhuji and the laboratory of the ** chain warehouse have a total area of about 1,500 square meters.
It is precisely because of this strength infrastructure that Gu Ming can ensure the consistent product quality of more than 9,000 stores across the country.
Gu Ming's industry leadership is not something that is said, but something that is made.
Stick to long-termism
Escort franchisees to work side by side
For Gu Ming, which mainly operates through the franchise model, the franchisee is its closest partner and the "comrade-in-arms" who work side by side.
From the beginning of the birth of Gu Ming, it has taken serving franchisees as the top priority.
Back then, Wang Yunan would take franchisees hand-in-hand from store site selection, store leasing to decoration and opening.
In order to help a young girl who had just graduated to open the store, Wang Yunan drove a car with her for three months to choose the store location.
In the end, even the little girl couldn't stand it herself, and just wanted to find a store to open the store quickly, but Wang Yunan still insisted, he told her: "You believe me, the store can't open here, you have to wait patiently until a good location, and the business will be good." In the end, after thousands of choices, the little girl's shop finally opened, and as Wang Yunan expected, business was booming.
People believe that I am a 20-year-old kid who borrows money everywhere and does business with us, so I definitely can't take him to the pit, you have to take him to make money. In Wang Yunan's view, "our real core goal is how to make franchisees make better money." Because we can only make money if they make it. ”
Gu Ming is the first freshly made tea company in China to set up a franchisee committee.
Under the influence of Wang Yunan, Gu Ming attaches great importance to the opinions of franchisees and respects their opinions on potentially major business decisions. Respect each other and help each other to build a good franchisee relationship with Gu Ming. And this good relationship has built a virtuous circle of stores. Store operations have become more efficient and stable, and the shopping experience of consumers has been further enhanced by continuously providing high-quality products and services.
In order to refine the management and assistance of each store, Gu Ming expanded the supervision team, and the number of stores covered by each supervision was reduced from more than 50 to more than 30 now, and made stricter requirements in terms of store inspection.
With more supervision, fewer stores are responsible, and more energy is spent in each store, so it can play a more role in helping stores find and solve problems in a timely manner.
Do you know? Actually, we were quite surprised. No matter what the question is, you will get the answer (from Gu Ming). Speaking of Gu Ming's help to the store, some franchisees sighed. Even if the franchisees inadvertently express their opinions on the supervision of the store inspection, they will be reflected to the company by the supervision. For example, if a customer wants to add more ingredients to milk tea, the company's R&D department will call the franchisee to explain the reason why more ingredients cannot be added, such as causing the drink to become too sweet.
Supervision is not simply supervision from top to bottom, but has become a bridge, which can allow the headquarters and franchisees to have a smooth communication channel. The voice of the front line is heard by the headquarters, and the franchisee can better understand the requirements and reasons behind the decisions of the headquarters.
According to the prospectus, as of September 30, 2023, Gu Ming has a quality control team of more than 100 people and a supervision and audit team of more than 360 people.
Gu Ming, who is engaged in the food industry, has always had strict requirements for product quality and food safety.
In order to ensure the health and quality of the drinks, Gu Ming has developed a strict SOP process in the store, and at the same time, the audit team will manage and supervise it. Before each drink is launched, the store needs to receive training and complete the drink check-in before it can be made and sold to customers.
When customers encounter problems in actual consumption, Gu Ming will have a special customer service team for after-sales processing to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
On the other hand, Gu Ming has always paid attention to the benefits of franchisees.
For example, when setting the price of goods, if the store does not make a profit, the headquarters will appropriately reduce its own profit.
Why did Gu Ming gain the favor of so many franchisees in just a few years?
Because, there is money to be made with Gu Ming.
According to the prospectus, the GMV of Gu Ming's single store was about 2.2 million yuan in 2021, increased to about 2.3 million yuan in 2022, and further increased to about 2.5 million yuan in 2023. In particular, in 2023, the GMV of a single store in fourth-tier cities and below will be about 2.3 million yuan, and the GMV of a single store in towns and villages will be about 2.4 million yuan.
In 2023, the operating profit of a single store of Gu Ming franchisees will be 3760,000 yuan, and the operating profit margin of a single store of franchisees is 202%。During the same period, the estimated operating profit margin of China's mass freshly made tea shop market was about 10%-15%.
Good products, good services, consumer satisfaction; Good management, high profits, franchisee satisfaction.
Gu Ming is like this, going hand in hand to achieve a win-win situation for all parties.
According to Qichacha data, in the first half of 2023, the number of milk tea-related catering enterprises established will be close to 250,000, while the data for the whole of 2020 and 2021 exceeded 70,000.
Obviously, the competition between tea companies is gradually intensifying.
Gu Ming mentioned in the prospectus that the market pattern of China's ready-made tea shops has always been fragmented, and now it is in continuous consolidation. According to the CIC report, the market share of the top five ready-made tea shop brands in terms of GMV increased from 38 in 20205% increased to 44. for the nine months ended September 30, 20233%。
Gu Ming, who holds 9000+ stores, has obviously firmly occupied a great advantage on this side of the battlefield.
Behind the fierce competition, high-quality products and mature first-class chains have become important bargaining chips for Gu Ming to further seek interest space and ensure competitiveness.
From a small store to the door of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Gu Ming has walked for thirteen years. Gu Ming will also go through the second thirteen years and the third thirteen years ......
The hidden dragon is in the abyss, and Tengbi is nine days.