As a regional community retail supermarket, its own brand sales accounted for 60% in the early Yuan Dynasty, with nearly 1000 SKUs, more than 2,000 cooperative suppliers and 3 product research and development centers around the world. In contrast, the average proportion of self-owned brands in the top 100 supermarkets of 20 19 is only 4. 1%, and the industry average is less than 3%.
Lack of in-depth research on products and experience in supply chain quality management is an important reason why most domestic retailers find it difficult to build their own brands. After paying the high upfront cost for the development of private brand goods, the back-end marketing guarantee and inventory risk solution also bring practical problems to retail channel providers.
However, the inherent genes of international trade in the early Yuan Dynasty turned these difficulties into their own advantages. The predecessor of the early Yuan Dynasty was Xiamen Tianchou Import and Export Co., Ltd., which was established on 200 1. Through cooperation with many international and domestic high-quality food production enterprises, thousands of products are exported to North America, Europe, Australia, Japan and other countries and regions.
However, in order to ensure that the goods meet the different food safety standards of different countries in the import and export trade, Tian Rui participated in all aspects of product research and development early and consciously planted its own brand to enhance its bargaining power. For self-owned brand goods, we can also ensure the sales scale by leveraging the international supply chain.
After deciding to establish its own domestic retail channel, Chu Yuan opened its first store in Xiamen on 20 1 1. Influenced by innate genes and location, at the beginning of Yuan Dynasty, he positioned himself as a "healthy three-meal provider" and a selected supermarket in the community, and the products he sold "adhered to the original ecology to the greatest extent, treated less and added less". By April of 20021year, the number of community stores in the early Yuan Dynasty had reached 140, with 27 convenience stores and 6 front warehouses, with a daily passenger flow of more than 60,000 people.
In addition to Xiamen base camp, the regional layout in the early Yuan Dynasty also extended to Shenzhen, Dalian, Quanzhou and Vancouver, Canada. Providing family-friendly customer service is one of the main ways to establish channel trust.
Because we insisted on not charging suppliers' channel fees and entrance fees, we went through a difficult initial stage in the early Yuan Dynasty to make ends meet. According to the data of the last annual report 20 17 before the New Third Board delisted in the early Yuan Dynasty, the revenue scale of the early Yuan Dynasty with 33 Xiamen stores was 550 million yuan, and the gross profit margin of sales was 28.32%. This gross profit margin is lower than other excellent retailers in China, but it is also a prominent feature of supermarkets with high proportion of their own brands: pursuing high gross profit margin rather than high gross profit margin.
At the end of 20 19 and the beginning of Yuan Dynasty, it obtained the equity financing of Maixing Investment 1 100 million yuan, and plans to invest the funds in the development of its own brand, the deepening of the supply chain, the technical development of the retail system, the expansion of overseas markets and the exploration of new business integration such as opening stores and pre-warehouses.
The self-created technology company was also an important decision made in the digital transformation of retail industry in the early Yuan Dynasty, and achieved sales results of online total sales accounting for more than 20% and daily average sales 1 10,000 orders. After running this technology company independently, Chu Yuan also cooperated with Tencent to export technical solutions related to orders to other retailers.
Although in the forefront of various experiments, Chu Yuan, as a community retailer deeply involved in this area, has always maintained a low-key and pragmatic attitude, neither participating in the noisy domestic private brand selection, nor getting the whole picture from commercial reports. Since the development of domestic retail channels, whether it is the turmoil and reshuffle of offline retail, or the counterattack and accelerated penetration of offline e-commerce platforms by virtue of data advantages and cost-effective advantages, private brands, as an important moat, have become a core business that cannot be ignored in the more intense channel competition.
For example, Box Horse has been increasing its own brand development and member store construction, and Sam and Costco, representatives of American warehouse member stores, have also accelerated their layout in China. In order to explore the methodology of food brand in the early Yuan Dynasty, we recently interviewed Jin Xing, vice president of food in the early Yuan Dynasty, and Zhiqiang Wen, director of commodity center, trying to re-examine the retail logic in the early Yuan Dynasty systematically.
0 1 From Trade to Retail
As the predecessor of food in the early Yuan Dynasty, the brand left by Tiangui is still obvious.
Tianshou is an import and export trading company, positioning itself as an "Asian food procurement expert". On the one hand, Tian Rui needs to find excellent food suppliers from all over Asia to represent brands and purchase products. On the other hand, Tian Rui will hand over the purchased goods to large importers and wholesalers in overseas markets, who will further transport them to local retail terminals (such as Chinese supermarkets and other large supermarket chains) to complete the sales.
The particularity of import and export trade requires Tianbao to have a deeper understanding of commodities and commodity quality. On the one hand, because the import and export commodities need to meet the quality and safety standards, food hygiene standards and food quality standards of the export place, these requirements in overseas developed markets are often more stringent, and there are many details in production process, technology and quality, and qualified high-quality suppliers are limited; On the other hand, the goods purchased by Tianbao need to adapt to the changes of consumption habits and consumption environment in foreign markets, and often need to be continuously developed and adjusted through feedback from Tianbao, a middleman, and with the cooperation of suppliers.
Therefore, compared with the general traders in the unilateral market, under the premise of strict quality control, the dependence of natural rewards on suppliers is more obvious. In the expression of Venus, suppliers are called "like backers". Only when suppliers are with us and willing to support us can we cope with the ever-changing market.
This is reflected in the attitude of grain to suppliers in the early Yuan Dynasty: timely settlement, no input fee. Although the practice of not charging entrance fees broke the traditional channel business model and directly led to the profit difficulties in the early Yuan Dynasty, even "many well-known brands came to us and said that as long as you let my goods in, how much rebate would you give each year", but the Yuan Dynasty persisted.
In addition, in the process of trade, Tiangui not only acts as an agent for well-known domestic brands (such as Anjing and Gulong), but also entrusts OEM to produce some goods, consciously implants its own brands, and increases its voice and channel differentiation. For example, under the brand of "Sungiven in the Early Yuan Dynasty", the basic ingredients are all whole grains, "Yuan and Yuho" stands for Japan and seafood, and "Yuan Xihui Sunfreesia" corresponds.
The idea of shifting from trade to retail was first born in 2008. The Sudan Red incident and the melamine incident have sounded the alarm for the people of China, and food safety has aroused widespread concern. With the upgrading of domestic consumption, many consumers think that they can't get safe and secure goods at home and turn to overseas purchasing.
For Tiangui, on the one hand, he holds many high-quality food suppliers and high-quality goods sources at home and abroad, but there are many negative news about China food in the world, which leads to insufficient competitiveness in foreign markets, especially in developed countries; On the one hand, the domestic market environment has changed and the demand for high-quality products has increased. It is a choice to guide this part of high-quality food suppliers and high-quality goods sources to "export to domestic sales".
By 2065438+01September, the first store of Chu Yuan Food finally opened in Xiamen, promising that the quality of the products sold can be controlled and the process can be traced back. The operating characteristics are to provide raw materials for three meals with maximum original ecology, less processing and less addition, and to provide export food and internationally renowned brand food.
At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the original plan of food was to open a retail store, so that friends, family members and the surrounding citizens could buy safe food. However, in the actual operation process, it was found that if there was no scale to support the reduction of operating costs in the early Yuan Dynasty, the operating advantages of retail enterprises could not be discussed. But if you sell your goods through other channels and mix them with other brands' goods, the connotation of the goods you want to express in the early Yuan Dynasty cannot be extended.
Therefore, in the early Yuan Dynasty, it was finally decided to take the road of large-scale self-built channels.
Starting from Xiamen, a second-tier city with dense population, relatively small place and comfortable life, the early Yuan Dynasty insisted on the logic of choice in the limited storefront space and gradually explored the positioning of boutique community supermarkets. The store is 200 square meters with more than 2,000 SKUs. The product structure mainly meets the needs of three meals a day, including fresh ingredients, rice flour, grain and oil, drinks and so on. , and some cooked food products made on site.
After the layout of stores was completed in important communities in Xiamen, convenience stores, front warehouses and other formats were also tried in the early Yuan Dynasty to meet the shopping needs of different people at different times.
In addition to Xiamen, the territory of the early Yuan Dynasty also extended to Dalian (20 13), Quanzhou (20 18), Shenzhen (20 19) and Canada (20 19).
Shenzhen is a younger, richer and more accepted market, and the competition is more intense. To get out of the comfort zone of Xiamen in the early Yuan Dynasty, we need such a foothold to test our commodity structure and supply chain efficiency. The establishment of overseas stores not only allows local Chinese to get in touch with the products of the early Yuan Dynasty, but also enables the early Yuan Dynasty itself to more strictly realize the international standards of global synchronization, forcing the improvement of supply chain and service quality.
Generally speaking, the early Yuan Dynasty was a small and beautiful community supermarket, so it is hard to say that the publicity of foreign companies was positive and high-profile. Therefore, compared with other well-known channel retailers, at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, consumers' trust in the innate channel of food was not strong. In addition to constantly increasing the proportion of private brands and providing high-quality goods, it is also necessary to establish and make up for this trust in the process of expansion in different places, and family service is also a necessary link.
For example, shop assistants in the early Yuan Dynasty will try to remember the names and basic information of customers' family members to shorten the distance. They must also receive product training to understand the characteristics of each product, so as to give professional answers when customers ask.
Mothers with children at home are typical people in the portraits of consumers in the early Yuan Dynasty. From pregnancy, pregnancy to the birth and growth of children, such people will pay special attention to food safety issues and are particularly picky about specialties and details. This is also a good opportunity to build long-term trust by virtue of its own advantages in the early Yuan Dynasty.
Independent brand development: high quality and reasonable price
Based on the international supply chain background of import and export trade and the insistence on product positioning, developing private brand goods has always been the core strategy in the early Yuan Dynasty and has become its important differentiated competitiveness.
Up to now, there were nearly 1000 SKUs and more than 2,000 cooperative suppliers in the Yuan Dynasty, accounting for about 60% of the total sales from 40% in 2065,438+05. Judging from the positioning of community selected supermarkets in the early Yuan Dynasty, these self-owned brand products are still developed around the layout of three meals and family consumption scenes, with fresh food, daily necessities, eggs and dairy products as the main products.
High quality and low price are the basic elements of all self-owned brand goods. This product positioning, which was called "high quality and low price" in the discourse system in the early Yuan Dynasty, also guided private brand strategy in the early Yuan Dynasty.
Quality is divided into two levels, the quality perceived by consumers and the quality of actual products. The quality of goods in consumers' minds is usually transformed from previous channel trust, such as Sam Supermarket backed by Wal-Mart and Box Horse, a new retail platform of Ali. In this sense, this trust gene in the early Yuan Dynasty was not self-contained in the C-end market. In order to establish this kind of trust, family service is an external performance, which accurately conveys the health concept of "original ecology, less treatment and less addition" with certain differences in the domestic consumer market to consumers, which is also an important part of channel trust in the early Yuan Dynasty.
Taking coconut water as an example, the fluctuation of product sweetness is normal in the whole annual production cycle and daily production cycle. Generally speaking, many manufacturers will artificially add sucrose in order to pursue the balance of sweetness, but at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, they will clearly tell consumers in the product descriptions of their own brands that the sweetness of each bottle may be different, but sucrose is not added.
The high quality of products is the fundamental reason that prevents many large retailers from establishing their own brands. Due to the lack of in-depth research on products and experience in supply chain quality management, many independent brand products are only variants of factory brand products. Even if there is channel trust endorsement at the beginning, it will eventually be defeated in the competition with other product brands. Huang Yingming, Chairman of Chu Yuan Holding Group
Talking to Huang Yingming is like listening to a transparent Buddhist lesson. I graduated from the Philosophy Department of Fudan University, studied the management courses of prestigious schools, returned to China's classical philosophy and Yijing Buddhism, and lived a life of "actively entering the WTO and being indifferent".
The early Yuan Dynasty, which he established, also gave birth to a unique cultural atmosphere. Employees with natural personality and initial heart have gained more and more horizons and development space here.
With the changes of industry and times, he said that the thinking mode and direction of attracting outstanding talents in the early Yuan Dynasty also needed to be changed, so that the development of enterprises always conforms to the changes of human nature, which is his long-term thinking. And his wish is to make the early Yuan Dynasty a harbor, both a destination and a place to set sail.
Compared with the development of enterprises, he pays more attention to the process of self-discovery and self-improvement. This self is not only his own, but also that of all the employees he cherishes.
Whether he accumulates wealth or achieves his career, he will eventually fall into the feeling that Buddhism brings him. This also prompted him to invest tens of millions in giving back to the society, using his wealth for charity and public welfare, and constantly improving his moral cultivation. Joint business column: On the one hand, it is the weak consumption caused by the economic slowdown, on the other hand, it is the diversion effect of various new retail forms such as e-commerce and pre-warehouse. After years of staking, the supermarket industry in China has finally entered the "post-operation period" of the stock market game.
On the occasion of the full arrival of the "second half of retail", most supermarket enterprises are caught in the "sustainable growth dilemma" of "limited extension growth and weak connotation growth", while one retail enterprise continues to maintain a double-digit annual growth rate, which is not only "full of vitality" under the background of "poor industry prosperity", but also maintains great development potential from the operating situation.
What did this enterprise do right?
On the official WeChat account of Yuan Dynasty Cuisine, Yuan Dynasty Cuisine introduced itself like this:
Xiamen Chu Yuan Food Co., Ltd. is positioned as a "healthy three-meal provider" and is committed to providing three-meal ingredients with maximum original ecology, less processing and less addition for families who love cooking and pay attention to food safety and health. Is a food chain enterprise which mainly promotes its own brand products, builds its own retail channels and controls the supply chain. Enterprises mainly involve in food retail and wholesale, food import and export, e-commerce and other business areas. Its core business is the retail business of food stores with chain supermarkets as the channel, and its operating characteristics are international standards and global synchronization.
Corporate vision, described by Food in the early Yuan Dynasty, became a world-class high-quality food enterprise, which not only positioned itself in the domestic market, but also planned and prospected the international market. At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the business objectives included customer-centered, strugglers-oriented, and long-term hard struggle, which also demonstrated the initial intention and determination of enterprises to set foot in the retail industry.
I first came into contact with the Yuan Dynasty. During my tenure in Fuzhou retail enterprise, the company introduced a "Yuan Dynasty Food" supermarket in the shopping center of Xiamen. Colleagues from Fuzhou who supported Xiamen were praised by Xiamen colleagues as "rich in imported goods, affordable and extremely cost-effective". The pleasure of paying the bill is no less than the "fierceness" of the team when visiting Tokyo to sweep the goods at the drugstore. A family was born in Xiamen.
Pay attention to the beginning of Yuan Dynasty again, which originated from the "constant mention" of retail peers.
Ms. Tang Shaojuan, President of Beijing IBMG International Business Group, who is known as "the first think tank of retail in China", has served many retail enterprises such as Fujian Yonghui Supermarket and Liu Yi Convenience for a long time. When talking about food in the early Yuan Dynasty, Tang Shaojuan was full of praise: "In the early Yuan Dynasty, this enterprise did a very good job in its supply chain and its own brand, and enjoyed high praise in the retail circle. You can really pay more attention in Fujian! "
In addition to the concern of people in the industry, a friend who is engaged in fund management in retail industry in Xiamen also highly praised Chu Yuan food: "Chu Yuan food has a foundation of import and export trade for nearly 20 years, and there are abundant high-quality sources in the world. The existing business portfolio includes import and export trade, supply chain services, retail chain stores (over 65,438+000) and online sales. At present, the chain layout of Xiamen, Quanzhou, Shenzhen, Dalian and even Canada has been completed; Its operating characteristics are high-quality imported food and ingredients, and a high proportion of its own brands; At the same time, corporate values are unified, team fighting capacity is extremely strong, corporate growth is good, and the ceiling is high. It is one of the high-quality targets in the field of consumption and circulation at this stage, and our organization has long been concerned! "
▲ 1 store in Canada in the early Yuan Dynasty.
Another friend, a regional executive of a Fortune 500 company and a multinational retail giant, also spoke highly of the commodity strength, cost performance and floor efficiency in the early Yuan Dynasty:
1. There were some shops in the early Yuan Dynasty, with an area of about 360 square meters and an annual turnover of 30-40 million yuan. Our 10000 square meter store has an annual performance of less than100000, and its operating capacity and floor efficiency are amazing.
2, 500ml canned German imported beer, pure taste, no added rice, authentic malt pure brewing, the retail price is only in 4.9 yuan, less than half of the price of imported beer of corresponding quality, as people in the industry, can't help but consume it frequently.
I went to Xiamen on business last year, and specially visited the shops in Chu Yuan. I haven't seen them for years. After the number of stores has expanded from 10 to more than 100, the "commodity power" of Chu Yuan food is still amazing. In a Chu Yuan gourmet community store with an area of about 100 square meter on Qianpu Road, the audience chose their own brand products, and the SKU ratio may be above 60% visually. Price, in-store environment and service all have a rare "affinity". Mothers with children and carefully selected aunts in the store happily shop in barrier-free communication with shop assistants.
What puzzles the author is, what kind of operational capacity support does such a high proportion of private brands need (the national level must be top-notch and the global level should be first-class)?
Under the recommendation of Fujian Chain Store & Franchise Association, the author interviewed Chen Qiming, president of Chu Yuan Food Company, as a columnist of Lianshang.com. ..
Before the interview, we made a rough combing of the delicious food in the early Yuan Dynasty through various channels, and found that besides the advantages of being located in Xiamen, a city with excellent business environment and broad global vision, the relatively international shareholder/management structure, long-term import and export trade experience and unique "primary culture" contributed to this completely different development path.
Focus on market segments
In the supermarket industry in China in 2020, the common problems that everyone faces are:
1, there was interception before: consumption went down, the ceiling of industry growth peaked, and the circulation channels were completely fragmented.
2. After that, there are chasers: a large number of cross-border and new retail formats have intervened.
3. The traditional profit model is unsustainable: the channel account period is too long, the sales rate is poor, and the background gross profit such as admission fees is subverted and squeezed by other circulation channels.
4. There is an urgent need to find new business growth points: hypermarkets are transforming into community fresh supermarkets, increasing the proportion of rented areas, increasing the proportion of their own brands, bypassing middlemen, direct mining at the base, direct mining at the source, etc.
5. Facing the restriction of high rent, the challenge of digital transformation, the lack of new talents and the difficulty of organizational development.
Compared with the challenges faced by the supermarket industry in China at present, the food in the early Yuan Dynasty obviously had relatively loose room for manoeuvre in the face of the above problems based on its unique market positioning and special resource endowment.
First of all, in terms of business positioning, compared with the current hypermarkets and tens of thousands of SKUs, the store area in the early Yuan Dynasty was mainly 300-500 square meters, and there were about 3,000 SKUs in a single store, focusing on the field of "high-quality ingredients" that they are good at and dedicated to.
When talking about food in the early Yuan Dynasty with people in the industry, the first reaction of Lin Yongqiang, chairman of Guanchao Supermarket, was that "they did a good job in the early Yuan Dynasty and were' market segments'". Based on the enterprise positioning of "healthy three meals ingredients", the company naturally extends its business to the catering field in its business portfolio. In the catering assembly shop in the early Yuan Dynasty, customers can not only buy internationally standard and globally synchronized goods, but also eat directly in the catering area of the shop-fast food, stew, rice noodles, sausages, marinades, desserts and so on. These food stalls are self-operated, the ingredients used are all from the early Yuan Dynasty, and they also adhere to the quality management principle of "original ecology, less treatment and less addition".
Secondly, in the target market and customer group positioning, unlike the traditional fresh supermarket which pays attention to the fresh demand of all customers, the food in the early Yuan Dynasty focused on families who loved cooking, paid attention to food safety and cared about health, and those who were highly sensitive to price and had low requirements on product quality were not the target customers in the early Yuan Dynasty.
As Chen Qiming said in an interview, "We only serve those customers who know us, and pay attention to food safety, health, baby mothers and so on".
Under the clear positioning and choice of the enterprise, the store adopts the mode of "no shopping guide", and there are no customers who are disturbed by the factory shopping guide. More people had their own concierge consultants and food consultants in the early Yuan Dynasty to give customers experience and try. There are few promotional activities in the venues, and the prices of high-quality and affordable goods are more open.
▲ "President Wen Qing" Chen Qiming (middle)
In the process of visiting Wu Tong food store in the early Yuan Dynasty, the author found many good goods with good quality and low price, such as a bunch of flowers from 9.9 yuan, mineral water from 1 yuan, and a bottle of French imported wine from 59 yuan, which made customers feel that it was not difficult to enjoy a high-quality life.