Source | E-Business Advanced Research Institute

Editor | Effective EMBA Project Team

The lid was lifted from a recent video.

A popular science blogger posted a video saying that when they made an unannounced visit to a Baiguoyuan store, they found that some store staff not only sold cut fruits overnight, but also cut and sold fruits that were about to spoil.

As soon as the video came out, it immediately caused an uproar in public opinion. Pagoda issued an apology on its official Weibo in the early morning of the 7th, saying that the franchise store involved had been suspended for rectification, and the store clerk involved was ordered to undergo suspension and re-education. In addition, rectification and supervision plans for other stores were also given.

The entry "Baguoyuan Apologizes" suddenly became a hot search topic.

Not long ago, on May 2, Pagoda just submitted its application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, sprinting towards an IPO.

01 Consumers wait and see

Although an apology statement was issued, many netizens did not buy it. In addition to expressing disappointment, many people also mentioned the price issue.

Some netizens said: "A watermelon in Baiguoyuan costs more than 100 yuan, and the price is more than 200 yuan. It's too much to use spoiled fruit for freshly cut fruit. Don't you know how expensive your fruit is?" Some time ago I bought black plum tomatoes and ate them, but they didn’t feel very fresh and I didn’t care.”

Most of the friends in the circle of friends have bought fruits from Baiguoyuan. Most of them are beautifully packaged and bright. Although most of them are expensive, due to the large number of modules and the wide choice, they still attract many member.

Especially the fruit cutting module, which can satisfy multiple tastes for one person and is really very convenient. "I live alone, so everything is convenient. I often buy cut fruit. There isn't much of anything, but I can eat several at once, which is very convenient. Sometimes I want to eat some fruit at night, so Baiguoyuan is still open. "

Xiao Yan lives alone, is a frequent customer of takeout and express delivery, and is also an old member of Pagoda. In his impression, the fruits in Pagoda are a bit expensive, but overall they feel fresh and clean. There are many friends around him who are in a similar situation to him. As soon as the spoiled fruit cut came out, he hesitated a little: "I probably won't buy it again in the near future. If I do, I will buy the complete one. I don't have to worry about it."

02 The bumpy road to listing

In recent years, Pagoda's revenue has increased steadily and will exceed 10 billion yuan in 2021. According to data released by market research firm Frost & Sullivan, Pagoda has become China's largest fruit retail company.

It is worth mentioning that in the past 20 years, Pagoda has opened in more than 130 cities across the country, with more than 5,300 stores and a total of more than 67 million members, of which 90% are franchise stores.

With 8 rounds of financing in 5 years, this is the third IPO in 2 years. Speaking of which, Pagoda's road to listing was quite bumpy.

In 2002, Pagoda was established. Relying on the franchise store model, Pagoda rapidly expanded to 100 stores. The rapid expansion in a short period of time caused various management problems to arise frequently, and Baiguoyuan was full of chaos at that time.

Until 2007, its founder Yu Huiyong bought back nearly a hundred franchise stores and converted them into self-operated stores. However, the good times did not last long. The self-operated heavy model seriously hindered Pagoda's development pace, and the company once again fell into the dilemma of whether to go left or right.

From the introduction of investment in 2015 to 2020, Pagoda has completed 8 rounds of financing and begun the listing process.

In June 2020, Pagoda submitted a listing application and was approved in September of that year. However, just two months later, Pagoda announced that it would suspend listing of Hong Kong stocks and switch to the A-share GEM.

In November of the same year, Pagoda planned to IPO on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange GEM, but since then there has been no new progress in its listing process. Until May 2 this year, Pagoda competed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange again.

The exposure of the spoiled fruit incident at this critical juncture has added another element of uncertainty to Pagoda, which wants to hit the "number one fruit retail stock".