Editor Mina
Head map source interviewee
It happened to be New Year's Eve. On February 2002 11/year1day, Naixue Tea officially submitted its listing prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Peng Xin will read these reports, whether positive or negative.
"Want to fight back against these disputes?" China Entrepreneur asked Peng Xin.
"Without counterattack, it is the most important thing to judge whether the core business of the enterprise is healthy." She said.
"Will there be pressure?"
"The real pressure comes from enterprises, from management, not from public opinion. How can there be pressure when business operations are developing very well? " Peng Xin said with a smile.
Nearly four months later, on the evening of June 6, Naixue's tea officially passed the listing hearing of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. According to the newly disclosed prospectus, the company's adjusted net profit in 2020 was 62 1.7 million yuan, and the so-called "blood-listed" was also broken by performance.
During the road show, Peng Xin felt the enthusiasm from the capital market. The research reports of several securities companies gave a recommendation rating to Naixue's tea, calling it "the first tea stock in the world".
According to the prospectus, as of the final actual date, Naixue Tea has opened 556 direct stores in more than 70 cities in China and Osaka. According to the data disclosed by Combustion Knowledge Consulting, as of June 65438+February 3, 20201,Naixue has the most extensive network of high-end ready-made tea shops covering China in terms of the number of cities covered.
Peng Xin is very confident about the future. She said that Naixue has opened so many stores that today's sales are not based on discounts, but on products and brands, which is a benign interaction between enterprises and customers. "We have more than 35 million members, and nearly half of the transaction volume comes from members."
Some people say that Naixue's tea is on the market in a hurry, but Peng Xin denies this statement. "Listing has always been on the company's agenda, and there is no such thing as' rushing'. We want to be a global brand, and listing is not the ultimate goal. "
Soul character
In front of the camera, Peng Xin often wears a dress or shirt with a long skirt. She wore a long shawl and smiled brightly. She has the temperament of a little fresh goddess. Her image and pursuit of a better life are also in line with many consumers' first impressions of Naixue tea brand. In their view, this is a brand with a strong personal color of the founder.
In a sense, Peng Xin became the spokesperson of Naixue Tea. When you mention Peng Xin, you will think of Naixue's tea. Naixue used to be Peng Xin's screen name. In the eyes of many people, it seems that Peng Xin and Naixue's tea can be equated.
Peng Xin thinks this is the brand she wants to be. "I hope Naixue's tea is a place where we can socialize and date, and it conveys to consumers an elegant and comfortable sense of space."
Under the design of this storefront environment, Peng Xin found that Naixue's milk tea users gradually diversified, and families, couples and business people often came to spend. Naixue's tea also has many male user groups, which is different from what the outside world imagined.
Peng Xin is also different from the gentle and honest image imagined by the outside world.
"Speak frankly", "be cheerful" and "pursue perfection" are the descriptions of Peng Xin by most people around. Several years ago, Peng Xin met an old friend. He said to Peng Xin, "We people in our fifties and sixties don't drink these things (new tea)."
Peng Xin immediately replied, "That's you. I still drink when I'm 50 or 60 years old. Don't you see what the children are drinking now? "
No brand wants to be abandoned by young consumers. How Naixue's tea can stand the examination of time is also the biggest problem facing Peng Xin.
Couples and comrades-in-arms
Peng Xin and Zhao Lin have always maintained the relationship of "husband and wife and comrades-in-arms" during their years of starting a business.
They also argue with each other, but Peng always feels "good" after each argument. After an argument, the two reached a consensus that all arguments should find some defects and problems from their own perspective and explain the problems to each other clearly, otherwise things will not move forward.
Many times, Peng Xin is the one who has the upper hand. "If I can't answer some questions, he will bring me the solution he thought of." This usually enables them to find a better solution in the debate.
However, in the capital market, mom-and-pop stores have always been the point that investors "mind". "There will be many people asking this, fearing that couples are not good at starting a business."
Peng Xin is helpless. She believes that women in the new era should not give all the demands and pressures to each other. It is a particularly comfortable feeling that two people are "neck and neck".
Peng Xin will use these as a spur to constantly alert himself to the doubts of the outside world.
In terms of management, Peng Xin resolutely drew a "line" with Zhao Lin. She is responsible for products and brands, while Zhao Lin is responsible for the strategic direction and talent building of the whole company. Both parties have the final decision in their respective fields.
In the process of team expansion, Peng Xin is constantly improving his cognition and has more and more entrepreneurial perspectives. She and Zhao Lin began to hire professional managers in various departments to let professionals give full play to their talents.
Peng Xin compared himself to the Tang Priest in the team. Maybe he is not the strongest, but he knows his beliefs and goals. It is effective to compare the person in charge of each business segment to the "Monkey King". "But you have to let them know the company's values and let them implement them firmly."
The "truth" she wants is to build an international tea brand called "Naixue Tea". The road for reference is long, and the story of new tea belonging to Peng Xin has just begun.
Brand tonality
20 15 is an important time node if we want to explore the development track of domestic new tea industry.
In this year, a number of brands, such as Naixue Tea, Hi Tea and Modern China Tea Shop, which were positioned as "new tea drinks" by the outside world, were established one after another.
When it comes to new tea, the first thing that comes to mind is cheese milk tea. The combination of salty cheese and tea has become the iconic product of new tea. As for the originator of cheese tea, there have been different opinions and arguments, and major brands are also secretly competing, trying to flaunt themselves as the originator.
It is questioned that whether it is cheese tea or fruit tea, the so-called innovation is just the improvement and upgrading of existing products in the industry, which is carried forward through marketing means.
Peng Xin believes that tea is mainly divided into three categories: fruit tea, milk tea and pure tea. All brands innovate in these three categories, even if there are differences, they are "subtle" differences. "People will actually like classic and signature products more and more."
When talking about products, Peng Xin made an analogy with the coffee industry and bluntly said, "Today in the coffee industry is the future of the tea industry." Through observation, she found that the products of all coffee brands are nothing more than American, latte, mocha, cappuccino and other classic products, as well as drinks prepared in different formulas on this basis.
"Coffee shops sell the same products, but do you think Starbucks and Costa are the same?" Peng Xin asks.
For this question, many consumers will answer "different" without thinking, but few people think about where this different feeling comes from.
"For example, in the selection of raw materials and the production of products, each brand will have some differences, so the products will also have subtle differences. The brand tonality of Starbucks coffee and Costa is also different. "
In the initial stage, in addition to creating explosive products, Peng Xin will also focus on creating a "comfortable big space", opening its stores in the core of the downtown business district and shaping its high-end positioning. "In the early days, this made Naixue's tea brand (different from other brands) very different."
In addition to Starbucks' "third space concept", the combination of tea and soft-packed European bags is also a very important label of Naixue's tea, which is a distinctive label different from other brands, leaving consumers with a certain brand awareness in the early days.
Embrace capital
20 15 12, Naixue Tea opened three stores in Shenzhen at the same time. To this end, Peng Xin and Zhao Lin mortgaged the house and borrowed 5 million yuan from the bank.
Fortunately, the three stores quickly gathered popularity and quickly became popular. But if you want to open more stores, 5 million is a drop in the bucket.
"In the first year, we opened 16 stores. According to a store investment of 2 million, it needs tens of millions. In addition, at that time, we also wanted to build a central factory and distribution center to support the expansion in the second year, which required investment in advance. " In order to develop rapidly, Peng Xin and Zhao Lin began to contact capital and seek financing opportunities.
In Peng Xin's impression, in10-February, 2065438+2006+65438, many colleagues and investors from all over the country took the initiative to come to us because Naixue's tea was extremely hot.
At that time, Naixue had just been established, and she personally talked with Zhao Lin about financing. At that time, they wanted to concentrate more on the operation of the company, so they hoped to complete the financing as soon as possible.
Finally, Tiantu Capital reached an understanding with Peng Xin and Zhao Lin. On February 20 17 17, Naixue's tea was financed by Angel Round of Tiantu Capital. Then, on July 25, Naixue received another Series A financing of 654.38 billion yuan from Tiantu Capital. On March 20 19 18, Naixue's tea once again received hundreds of millions of A+ round financing from Tiantu Capital. Tiantu Capital became the only institutional investor in Naixue's first three rounds of financing.
After three rounds of financing, due to the good cash flow and profit of the store, Peng Xin suspended the financing action. However, after the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, Naixue's tea was forced to close for nearly two months. In addition to the store rent, the labor cost of more than 1 10,000 employees made Peng Xin feel the financial pressure.
So, Peng Xin and Zhao Lin decided to raise money again.
According to the prospectus, from 20 17 to 2020, Naixue * * * completed five rounds of financing, nearly1300 million yuan. Among them, in 2020 alone, Naixue completed three rounds of financing, and Shenzhen Venture Capital, Honghui Capital and PAG invested 200 million yuan, 5 million dollars and 654.38 billion dollars in Naixue in April, June and 654.38+February respectively. According to public information, the current tea market valuation of Milk Snow exceeds 30 billion yuan.
Cost and profit issues
"Why did the previous prospectus show that Naixue's tea lost money for three consecutive years?"
Peng Kao tested his mind and didn't answer immediately. She picked up the pen and paper beside her and solved it like a math problem.
She listed all the cost data one by one, and then substituted them into the formula for calculation, trying to explain the cost and profit level of stores and backstage to China Entrepreneur. "You see, the profit of the store is positive and it has always been profitable."
On the other hand, from the cost structure of tea, this can also be confirmed from the side.
According to the newly disclosed prospectus, the average price per cup of Naixue tea is 27 yuan, the average price of baked products is 22 yuan, and the average sales amount per order is 43 yuan. In the domestic high-end finished tea chain stores, the average price of each order in the whole industry is only in 35 yuan.
Because of this data, Naixue's tea is ridiculed by some people as "the most expensive tea". In the impression of many people, this is "too expensive" compared with a cup of milk tea that cost more than ten dollars in the past. But if you compare the price of Starbucks coffee 30-40 yuan, the price of baked product 20-40 yuan, and a cup of milk snow tea filled with fresh fruit, tea, milk and other high-quality ingredients, will you still feel expensive?
The Wall Street Journal once analyzed the cost structure of a Starbucks large latte, in which the rent accounts for about 26%, followed by raw materials 13% and labor 9%. Naixue's tea prospectus shows that the cost of ingredients accounts for 37.9%, followed by the personnel cost of 30. 1% and the rent of 1 1.5%. Comparing the cost structure and sales price of Starbucks, we can probably understand why the "most expensive tea" mentioned by the outside world still does not make money.
Faced with such a high cost, how can Naixue's tea be optimized in the future if it is to achieve profitability? Will the high cost of ingredients come down?
"I didn't want to optimize the cost of raw materials, and it would be nice to stabilize it at such a ratio. There may be one or two points of optimization after larger-scale procurement in the future. " Peng Xin has her own insistence on the control of ingredients. In her view, Naixue's tea ingredients are very simple, mainly tea, fruit and dairy products. "Only good ingredients can make simple things taste good."
Peng Xin also stressed on many occasions that at this stage, what she values most is the "taste stability" of drinks and giving users the best products, which is the foothold of Naixue's long-term management of tea.
In recent two years, Naixue's tea has been continuously put into tea farms and orchards, forming a stable supply chain, trying to pursue the stability of taste.
In the eyes of the industry, Naixue's tea cost structure conforms to the labor-intensive characteristics of the catering industry. According to Peng Xin, Naixue's tea making is very complicated. Coupled with baking products such as soft European bags, only the store is divided into 14 different positions, and it takes at least two months to train a new person.
Many classic products, such as domineering grapes, domineering bayberry and so on. Employees are required to peel and core grapes and bayberry by hand, which undoubtedly increases the labor cost.
The cost of ingredients is not reduced, and the labor cost cannot be optimized in the short term. Where is the future profit space? Peng Xin takes a huge IT team as an example. For example, his own system can realize many automated processes and standardized operations. Before, he tried automatic scheduling and ordering, and later, many fruits and teas in the store also tried automation. "At present, it may not produce direct benefits, but personnel efficiency will be greatly improved."