The reporter investigated the Chinese restaurant industry, summarizing the industry's business model, in addition to individual restaurants, catering enterprises can be roughly divided into four levels: fast-food chains, affordable specialty restaurants, high-level specialty restaurants and top specialty restaurants.
The reporter chose four companies to study these four types of Chinese food: Countryside represents Chinese fast-food chains, Haidilao represents specialty restaurants, South Beauty represents high-level specialty restaurants, and Lijia Cuisine represents top specialty restaurants.
Because these four companies offer different products and consumer experiences, their respective business strategies are different, but their development processes are all very exciting. (By Zhu Xiangting)
Obviously, McDonald's and KFC are not two lone travelers in China, and they have encountered a number of Chinese companions on their journey of expansion - such as the inexpensive and tasty Chinese fast food "Countryside", which has been recognized by "Forbes" as one of the most popular fast food restaurants in China, and which has been recognized by "Forbes" as one of the most popular fast food restaurants in the world. The fast-food company was ranked No. 23 on Forbes' 2009 China's 200 Potential Companies list.
Li Hong, the founder of the company, has positioned Countryside as an enterprise that relies on sales scale - the "Wal-Mart" of fast food. Countryside Key insisted on taking the "affordable" route, priced at more than 10 yuan, 20% to 30% lower than Zhenkongfu, this "thin profit, high sales" strategy in 2007 for the countryside Key generated nearly 300 million yuan in annual sales, annual net profit of 33.83 million, and attracted Sequoia China and Haina Asia **** 20 million dollars in investment. By the end of 2008, the number of Country Key stores reached 62.
Unique "heat preservation" to improve Chinese food
In 1996, the countryside base was established in Chongqing, just after the formal training of the catering industry Li Hong complacent. At that time, the countryside base operating fast food products are somewhat similar to the "hybrid", Chinese fast food and foreign fast food thirty-seven mix, the main dishes are French fries, burgers and so on. However, the countryside base is in an awkward situation - the food fussy Chongqing people do not buy the account of foreign fast food, but also not "pure" Chinese food is not cold.
This situation lasted for two years, and in 1998, Li Hong decided to lead the restaurant through its first transformation into a Chinese fast-food restaurant.
The difficulty with Chinese fast food is that it has to be fast and standardized while maintaining taste. How do you do it?
Country base to a unique "heat preservation" way to solve the problem of Chinese fast food speed. It is like McDonald's, KFC to take the counter to order the self-service form, and the provisions of the time to wait for food is 60 seconds, it provides fried in advance of the Xiangru slippery chicken, Ma Po tofu and other Chinese home-cooked dishes, these meals in the special "insulation pot", this "insulation" way to improve the Chinese fast food, the "insulation" way to improve the Chinese fast food. The way to improve the Chinese fast food, maximize the taste and freshness of the meal, and the shortest possible time for customers to eat.
For example, a "Kung Pao Chicken" fried out of the countryside based on calculations, it can only be held in the heat preservation pot for a maximum of 60 minutes, otherwise the taste, color and lustre will have a significant change, so once the dishes to the end-of-life time node, "Kung Pao Chicken" would be was unceremoniously scrapped.
Relying on the process, rather than relying on the chef
Chinese food companies to attack the city, there is still a hurdle to overcome - standardization. Unlike McDonald's burger, two slices of bread, a beef patty, 1/8 ounce cheese sauce, 1/3 ounce ketchup, wrapped in paper, the world a taste, standardization in Chinese fast food is difficult to complete. "A little salt, MSG, oil seven minutes hot, fried eight minutes cooked", the chef can only use these uncertain words to describe the Chinese cooking process.
Countryside requires that precise quantitative data be implemented in the preparation of meals. In order to minimize the impact of on-site operations on chefs, Countryside has strengthened the entire process of food procurement, logistics and production management, such as Kung Pao Chicken using the source of ingredients, cooking combinations of the proportion of detailed data.
"We rely on the process, not the chef." Li Hong said. Li Hong said, country base cooking materials to fresh food-based, semi-finished product delivery, store processing mode, as far as possible to minimize the artificial operation of the taste difference and improve the taste of the ingredients, to any country base dining, as into any McDonald's the same.
Country base employees want to copy it, did not succeed
In the catering industry, the business model can easily be copied, when the country base fire, there are people who want to become the second country base. For example, the countryside base of the staff to start another stove, want to copy its model, the initial development is also good, looks like a twin sister with the countryside base, but the more later the gap is wider and wider, to the point of not being able to support.
Why is this happening? We are puzzled. In this regard, Li Hong's explanation is that the reason why the countryside base can expand the copy does not go, in addition to a set of processes in the kitchen, there is a set of management processes in the employment, "talent gradient, is the countryside base expansion of the core competitiveness."
It is understood that in the countryside base, from the hall to do the most common trainee staff to start, to do the primary qualified need eight months. In the store management of the core team, many team leaders are in the countryside base has more than five years of experience in the staff. Village base not only requires cooking standardization, but also requires standardization of service, and this employment system ensures that the standardization of service is skillfully implemented: from the guests to leave the door, from the hygiene inspection to the restaurant inspection, the whole process of standardization to quantify the level of service.
Currently, the country base has 3,000 employees, 62 stores, in the total number of employees, each restaurant to train two people, three months after the new restaurant management, which formed the country base of the soft strength of the talent gradient.
In addition to these elements of talent, the opening threshold of the restaurant chain continues to increase - each store up to millions of start-up capital, but also blocked a number of investors to enter the Chinese fast food, so that the countryside base in the scale of the "first to enter the main" advantage. The first to be able to do so is to be able to get a good deal of money from the company.
(Our reporter Liu Yan Yan)
Reporter observation
Category: Chinese fast food chain
Representative enterprises: country base
Similar enterprises: Zhenkongfu, Lao Niang-uncle, Oriental both white, Lihua fast food
Chain of fast-food: meal delivery time can be in 60 seconds or less?
The representative of this type of enterprise is Zhenkongfu, whose price and positioning are similar to those of KFC and McDonald's.
The company's price and positioning is similar to those of KFC and McDonald's.
Because of its targeting of busy urban white-collar workers, the speed of delivery is crucial. For example, a media report said that Zenkungfu launched a "fast service" in North and East China in 2008, promising that "any one of Zenkungfu's meal products is guaranteed to be delivered to customers within 60 seconds of placing an order, and if the time limit is exceeded, it will immediately give a cup of 12-ounce soymilk valued at 5 yuan! "
But the fact is that the company's products are not available for sale in the United States.
But, because of the rapid, standardized, fast food products are difficult to change according to personal taste. For example, in some restaurant review sites, there are many users think that the real Kung Fu "flavor general". A netizen said, "ordered the famous pork chop rice, because it is steamed, so the pork chop is not fragrant, eat in the mouth without the aroma of the stew."