Xiao Qi's author

Cheng Zhao's editor

Er Cai (ID: Kanercai) produced

the pot circle food exchange, which grew into the darling of capital in just a few years, is being questioned by the outside world.

Recently, Pot Circle Food Exchange announced the completion of the $61 million Series C financing. However, the good news in the capital market has not cooled down, and some media reported that the promise of "251,111 yuan start-up capital and 1 years return" by the franchisees was questioned.

"Born in flow, died in reality", the profit dilemma has been a long-term fate in the field of fresh food. The appearance of the pot circle food sink seems to have broken this spell, and its business model has been regarded as a classic case for many times, which has been analyzed and even worshipped at industry conferences.

Up to now, Crops Food Exchange has not made a public response to this, but the question of "returning to the original capital in 1 years" inevitably makes people reflect on the moisture brought by the epidemic and ask again: Has the curse of making profits in the fresh food field really been solved?

1

one-year return?

Pot-circle food exchange is a "showstopper" from food and beverage.

yang mingchao, the founder of the pot circle food exchange, was also the founder of xiaobandeng hot pot. When the bench was the hottest, he said, "We are not making hot pot."

This sentence has two meanings. First, I have been engaged in beer agency before, and I am an outsider who switched from FMCG to catering. Second, in the future, the team will not stop at the hot pot catering business, but will penetrate both upstream and downstream.

In 2117, Pot Circle Food Exchange was established, which was the first supermarket convenience store chain system with hot pot and barbecue as the main ingredients, covering leisure snacks, fresh food, clean vegetables, diet, snacks and other commodities.

Because of years of undercover catering industry, Yang Mingchao and his pot circle food sink have rapidly occupied the market, which not only provides B-end food supply for the majority of small and medium-sized catering enterprises, but also provides convenience for more and more people who are "curtilage, anxious, busy, lazy and old". Online, internet plus ingredients, B2B, B2C operation. Off-line, encouraged to join, supported by multiple preferential policies, opened nearly 3,611 stores nationwide in three years.

Recently, a report in the media pushed the joining policy of the pot circle food exchange to the forefront.

according to a survey conducted by the Beijing News reporter, the investment promotion staff of Pot Circle Food Exchange in Beijing announced that they would not charge the joining fee, and uniformly requested to choose a storefront with a street area of 61-81 square meters. The starting capital of a standard store needs 251,111-281,111 yuan, including the basic decoration of the store, the purchase of in-store facilities, the cost of the first batch of ingredients and materials, and the deposit of 21,111 yuan. Under normal circumstances, it takes an average of 11 months or 1 years to return to the original.

In addition, in the interview, the person in charge of the fruit chain in the industry revealed that "there are not many fresh supermarkets making money at present".

In this regard, Ercai has also learned about some franchise stores in Zhengzhou.

A franchise store in Jingyi Road, Jinshui District, Zhengzhou City said that it joined two years ago and invested about 411,111 yuan before and after, but it has not yet "returned to its original place".

When asked if the start-up capital of a standard store is 251,111 yuan, the staff of a franchise store on Hongzhuan Road in Zhengzhou City immediately shook their heads. The staff was unclear about the profitability of the store. "It depends on the individual's business ability."

what's the online operation of the pot circle food exchange? Open the online shopping mall of the pot circle food exchange, and no sales data is displayed. Searching for the "pot circle food exchange" near a certain area in Zhengzhou on the Meituan takeaway platform, the sales data are really quite different, with the minimum monthly sales of 58 copies and the maximum of 929 copies.

is the promise of "paying back the capital in 11 months or 1 years" a personal behavior or an enterprise's investment strategy? What is the proportion of profitable franchisees? Up to now, the pot circle food exchange has not been publicly explained.

2

Why is it a pot ring?

The fresh food industry is rapidly deployed, but the difficulty in making profits has always been a pain point in the industry.

Take fresh e-commerce as an example. In 2119, according to the data of China E-commerce Research Center, among the more than 4,111 fresh e-commerce enterprises in China, only 1% made a profit, while the other 7% suffered a huge loss, 88% suffered a slight loss and 4% was flat.

"Fresh e-commerce has developed for so many years. No matter what type of platform, there are two difficulties. One is that it is difficult to get customers at the front end, and the other is that it is difficult to store fresh food and it is costly." Zhong Wenbin, founder of Xinnongtang, who has been deeply involved in the fresh food industry for many years, said.

Among them, the storage is difficult and the loss is large, which is recognized as a pain point in the fresh food industry. After all, the fresh food industry has invested heavily, and the customer unit price space is limited. However, correspondingly, the industry will cause losses from ordering, receiving and handling to storage, processing and tally. Whoever can minimize the loss will have more initiative.

it seems that the pot circle food exchange has solved the industry dilemma. According to the Beijing News, public data show that in 2119, the sales of food stores in the pot circle increased by 411% year-on-year. On the basis of achieving profitability for two consecutive years, this year, it still maintained a large-scale growth, with a year-on-year increase of 411%.

The control of the loss rate by the pot food sink is also often discussed by the industry.

In this regard, some people think that there are two advantages of the pot circle food sink. First, the category advantage. In the fresh food industry, the loss rate of vegetables is very high, but the loss rate of frozen meat is very low. There are many frozen meat in the SKU of the pot ring, and the demand frequency is medium frequency. The gross profit can also be equivalent to that of vegetables, but the loss is less.

secondly, the pot food sink has the advantage of supply chain. At present, the boiler circle has its own factory, its own logistics and perfect cold chain cooperation, which further reduces the cost and increases the gross profit margin in disguise.

the large-scale operation under the infrastructure naturally reduces the cost, but for many small fresh-keeping enterprises, such a large investment is unrealistic. Under the vicious circle, we can only fill the hole through continuous financing. In the almost abnormal catch-up, "underestimating the speed of burning money for fresh food" has become a phrase mentioned by many fresh players after the defeat.

Liu Gang, executive general manager of Shenzhen Venture Capital Group, once analyzed the profit model of the pot circle food exchange. He believes that the special feature of the pot circle food exchange is that it is not only a frozen food chain store, but also a food supply chain. Part of the supply chain is like infrastructure, and frozen food chain stores are a profitable business. When entrepreneurs want to build their own infrastructure in the future, they need to pay attention to a business that can make profits and support cash flow. And the pot circle food exchange has this business, which has formed an advantage. Compared with frozen food chain stores, there is now a horizontal supply chain business direction for the pot circle food exchange, which makes the project more plastic.

3

Personal care under the aura of capital

"If an enterprise relies entirely on blood transfusion from external capital during its growth, it is really difficult to make it last for a long time." Lao Yuling, director of the e-commerce research center of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, said.

It can be seen from the news that the food in the pot circle has been profitable for two consecutive years that the food in the pot circle has already possessed the hematopoietic capacity.

However, we have to admit that the strength of capital can't be underestimated: in August, 2119, we won 45 million yuan of A-round investment from Unbelievable Venture Capital; In October, 2119, it won the A+ round investment of RMB 51 million from Sanquan Food. The pot circle completed three rounds of financing in half a year, and the accumulated financing amount exceeded 451 million yuan. On February 24th this year, Jiayu Fund, IDG Capital and Puzzle Venture Capital invested 51 million US dollars. On July 31, in the C round of financing, Pot Circle Food Exchange received 61 million US dollars of investment from four companies, including Jiayu Fund, Qicheng Capital, IDG Capital and Puzzle Venture Capital.

huge scale is a powerful bargaining chip for obtaining financing. Regarding the store layout, Pot Circle Food Exchange has publicly told the media that this year's keynote is still to expand against the trend and accelerate the layout in the sinking market. It is estimated that the layout of 5,111 stores nationwide will be completed in 2121.

However, returning to the incident of "the return to the original value in 1 years was questioned", although the food in the pot circle has not been publicly explained up to now, it can be seen that under the bustling capital, as far as commercial individuals are concerned, lice under Chinese clothes always exist.

However, it seems to have more long-term significance for the pot circle food exchange, which has been one step ahead, how to adhere to "altruism", reflect the individual care for its partners and promote the refinement of the fresh food industry. After all, whether it is the aura of "fresh dark horse" or the highlight moment of "kiss of capital", it is inseparable from the blessing of 3,611 stores. How to seek and maintain the long-term interests with the franchisees is one of the keys to determine whether the pot circle food sink can still lead in the next round of fresh competition.