Laymen look at the scene, but laymen look at the doorway. In 2014, under the coincidence, Li Gang, who has a certain amount of wealth in hand, decided to seek a higher development breakthrough. At that time, the roaming coffee in China is a red-hot, Li Bao felt that this is an opportunity, it is worth a try. When choosing a location, Li Bao had his eye on the current location of King's Court Gongti Store. "It is an old house with a history of more than 200 years and relatively complete. At that time, the transfer fee was as high as 10 million dollars. Later, in order to pay a lower rent per square meter, I signed a 5-year contract and paid 12 million in one go." Li Bao told in the video. The most remarkable thing about this house is its interior design structure, which is an ancient Huizhou-style building with a history of more than two hundred years. Li Junrui, a well-known designer who has participated in the project, mentioned in a public interview: "Due to the deep affection for Chinese culture, the former owner of the King's Court visited many places in China and found an ancient Hui-style house of a master in Wuyuan, Jiangxi Province. The house was packed directly back to Beijing, and it was only after half a year of hard work by workers and designers that these hundreds of balsam camphor stakes were rebuilt into their original form, exuding their original light. "

"At that time, there was 'live money' in hand, cash flow was abundant, so it was big, unrestrained, and did not pay attention to details." In this way, not yet fully realized business, the first store has spent 22 million. at the end of 2014, a cafe brand called UKing coffee was born. But a few months of short operation, Li Bao realized that he only learned the skin of the diffuse coffee, and did not learn the essence. The project lacked a certain degree of rationality and science from the early stage of input. When the cafe project was in a deadlock, at a time of no progress, Li Bao coincidentally met the executive chef of the Hong Kong Lai Tea Restaurant, Chen Jinping. Chen Jinping conveyed a lot of new ideas to Li Bao, such as fusion cuisine, that is, not a single cuisine as the main focus, but a variety of dishes in a store at the same time, and the fusion of different cuisines, the formation of the restaurant's unique and innovative signature dishes. Chen Jinping, Li Bao two people hit it off, quickly reached a cooperation. 2015 March, UKing coffee announced the external transformation and upgrading, the original design of the decoration is completely dismantled, only to retain a large framework, the other hairs are not left, the renovation and design costs also hit the splash. On the other hand, Chen Jinping brought in Hong Kong-style dishes such as "Baked Wild Mushroom with Cheese" and "Ice and Fire Pineapple Buns", which brought unlimited vitality to UKing Coffee. So far, under Chen Jinping's strict control over the products, coupled with Li Gan's extensive marketing and promotion, King's Court has ushered in a small outbreak, and the single-day revenue of the Gongtibei store has risen from 6,000 yuan to more than 100,000 yuan. The whole has entered a stable upward stage.

Less than three months after the opening of the first store, two loss-making stores were opened

However, in less than a year, Li Bao opened two stores in a row, Palm Springs store and Wangjing store. Among them, Palm Springs store is located in Chaoyang Park Palm Springs Life Square, originally a spring, summer, fall and winter bar Hong Kong-style hot pot. Li Gang threw away 1.1 million dollars of transfer money, plus part of the small percentage of equity. Finally took the store's operating authority. Afterwards, as the law, the store in accordance with the style of the positioning of the King's Pavilion restaurant redecoration. The second store was thus born, but according to Li Bao's personal statement, the store until the middle of 15 years is still in the state of no loss and no profit. The most regretful thing for Li Bao was Wangjing store T1. At that time in Wangjing SOHO property publicity, Li Bao to 1600 square meters of area to create a "special space roaming" theme restaurant. Overall to the universe battleship cabin as the scene, inside more than 50 display screen showing the animation simulation flight in space, overhead is the use of blue light bar rendering "interstellar" atmosphere, the whole theme restaurant is very futuristic.

"Only this set of soft system project costs more than 70 million, which at the time became a major initiative." But along with the late management operation is not in place, as well as large and small various problems, Wangjing store began to gradually cold. Have King's Pavilion Wangjing store until the end of the withdrawal of the store operation, Li Gan only found the actual loss of more than 20 million yuan. Among them, the renovation cost loss of more than 10 million yuan, the actual operating loss of more than 10 million yuan. After the incident, Li broke the analysis of the summary; "excessive pursuit of form, the pursuit of the so-called theme restaurant, regardless of the cost of input, but forget the fundamental restaurant or down-to-earth good food." In addition, Wangjing SOHO T1, the location of the store itself also has problems. Not to mention consumers, even Li Bao himself for a long time to understand the location of the store. Secondly, Wangjing area mostly work groups, low unit price, almost no night consumption. However, it is gratifying that this space-themed concept store has made the brand awareness of King's Pavilion soar. At that time, if you searched for Cantonese cuisine in Dianping, King's Court was definitely ranked number one. Although on the surface of the King's Court brand more and more red, but the real situation is that Lee broke open three consecutive loss-making stores, individuals and companies continue to fall into debt quagmire, the original shareholders also have to budge.

Accidentally introduced external investors Qijianhong

Continuously into the anxiety of Li Bao began to intend to expand contacts and circles, the introduction of external investors. Because of the 4S store repair luxury cars, caused by the rights, Li Gang unintentionally, and became acquainted with the chairman of the Board of Directors of Yew Lai Holdings Qijianhong. Finally, after some maneuvering, Qijianhong decided to buy 70% of the shares of King's Court, and reached an intention to cooperate. In this way, Li Gang luckily introduced the first external investor. But to the delight of the people, Qijianhong brought a bigger star resource - Jackie Chan. With the traffic boost from Jackie Chan and many other first-tier stars, the business of Yau King Pavilion is booming and exceptionally hot. Specifically to the level of revenue, single store daily revenue of up to 100,000 yuan, the average must also be in the 70,000 or 80,000 yuan.

At that time, the spirited Li Gang once promised the shareholders to open 300 new stores in 3 years. But more treacherous is that the company's financial level is still in the red, unable to shareholders to fulfill the due promise. And for a long time could not find the reason. Later, Li Bao realized that there is a lot of unreasonable waste and unsound cost control in the middle. "Catering such a red sea, is not as simple as imagined, fine operation and management capabilities are very important. On the one hand, the catering industry has a very long industrial chain, from raw material procurement, transportation, to storage and custody, to production and production, and finally to the customer. On the other hand, the superposition of multiple attributes such as production, retail and service in the catering industry also makes the management more complicated." Li Beng so analyzed. For the previous blind expansion and development, the general manager of King's Court, Mr. Chen Jinping, has also said publicly in media interviews that King's Court is currently expanding very cautiously, not to pursue the quantity, but to pay more attention to the quality. The pursuit of "open one, become one", pay more attention to improve the efficiency of a single store and reputation. Expansion of stores in foreign ports has a high demand for ingredients, the logistics of raw materials, refrigeration and other requirements; secondly, the food and beverage industry is a high-intensity, talent-driven industry, and it takes time to build a dedicated team to continue to create blood for the new store." After much trial and error and pitfalls, King's Court has now weathered the dangerous period and has even developed a set of proven management measures. In order to emphasize the differences, all of the stores are made in different styles. Beijing China Central Place store is decorated with a majestic atmosphere, reflecting the sense of honor, Beijing Chaoyang Park store reflects the people-friendly style with the Hong Kong street culture, and the previous Wangjing SOHO store creates a space battleship theme restaurant with a strong sense of technology. One of the most important abilities of the founder of a restaurant brand is to always reflect and constantly review the detours that have been taken. Li Gang, the founder of King's Court, has done some introspection in time, realizing that the loss of a single store and blind expansion is a wrong way of development, which is also a rare and precious thing. No matter when, in the catering industry dishes and service is always the foundation of the foundation, and cost reduction and efficiency is a long-lasting war around the industry. As some of the public commentators praised Yau King Court, "Yau King Court is very cost-effective, reliable, and will not step on the pit at all." Any stage of business development, slow does not mean not fast. Only steady development is the brand's permanent way of standing."