When I was in college, Quanjude Roast Duck came to mind when I mentioned Beijing. I have heard about this century-old restaurant since I was a child, and I have always wanted to visit Beijing.

Quanjude was founded in 1864 (the third year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty). In 1999, it was recognized as a "well-known trademark" by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. It has a history of 156 years.

At its peak, Quanjude sold 20,000 copies a day. Because of this, Quanjude has gradually become a cultural symbol with Beijing characteristics, and even a "signature" of Beijing.

I came to Beijing in 2014 and went to the Quanjude Qianmen store. I queued for 40 minutes to get a seat. Plus a 15% service fee, three people spent 80, which made the already poor university life even worse. .

But after graduating and living in Beijing, I looked at Quanjude in front of my home every day and found that most of the people entering the store were tourist groups. Many tourists said that after trying it once, they didn’t want to come back a second time.

Gradually, "expensive and unpalatable" became the new label for Quanjude, and its reputation continued to decline.

On August 26, Quanjude released its results for the first half of 2020. Data showed that during the reporting period, Quanjude achieved operating income of 313 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 58.77%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was -1.48 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 559.83%.

Quanjude’s net profits in 2018 and 2019 were 73 million yuan and 45 million yuan respectively. This means that in the past six months, Quanjude lost its net profits in the previous two years.

Quanjude attributed the decline in performance to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. The number of customers in the original catering market has shrunk significantly, and the company's catering and merchandise sales businesses have been hit hard.

The number of dine-in customers at its directly-operated stores dropped sharply, and the epidemic rebounded in Beijing in June, causing further setbacks.

The recovery of customer flow and revenue at the main stores in Beijing was less than expected; in terms of product sales, the company's sales of vacuum roast duck, duck blanks and other products declined.

However, Quanjude’s weak performance growth is not a short-term phenomenon.

Quanjude’s roast duck itself may not be particularly expensive. Part of the high cost lies in the brand premium and service fee.

Many people spend thousands of yuan to eat national roast duck with great interest, but it tastes nothing special and the price-performance ratio is extremely low. It is normal to give a negative review.

As a city with a relatively dense tourist population, Beijing receives tens of millions of tourists from all over the world every year, and everyone has different tastes.

As an old and traditional restaurant, Quanjude’s cooking methods and tastes will not change much. A single recipe is difficult to satisfy the tastes of all tourists.

For the rest of this year, the situation in Quanjude is still not optimistic.

The impact of the epidemic on the company's business will continue. Net profit in the first three quarters may fall by 499.21%-442.18% year-on-year, with losses reaching 180 million-210 million yuan.

The bleak revenue has made Quanjude's cash flow tight. In order to supplement its working capital, the company took advantage of tax incentives during the reporting period to exempt or postpone the payment of some taxes.

In the first half of this year, Quanjude’s non-recurring profits and losses during the reporting period reached 7.9364 million yuan, of which government subsidies included in the current profit and loss amounted to 2.4734 million yuan and investment income of nearly 6 million yuan, which alleviated its problems to a certain extent. losses in the first half of the year.

During the epidemic, in order to further save itself, Quanjude also took a series of measures in an attempt to regain the continuous loss of customer base.

On July 24, Quanjude announced that the prices of some dishes would be reduced by 10%-15%, and that all store halls would no longer charge service fees.

Taking roast duck as an example, the membership price of Quanjude Roast Duck has been reduced from the original 258 yuan to 238 yuan.

In addition, Quanjude is currently actively studying the preferences of young people. The post-80s, 90s and even post-00s are all Quanjude’s research targets.

Currently, a 600-square-meter space has been set aside on the first floor of the Heping store. It will focus on building a new Chinese-style store for young consumer groups. It is hoped that more young people will consider Quanjude as a place for dining. options.

In fact, if you think about it carefully, Quanjude has made full use of its inherent advantages as a time-honored brand in its development. Now their proactive behavior of seeking changes and their accomplishments in catering to the tastes of young people have made their time-honored brand more popular. The background gradually disappears.

As a giant in the service industry, the most important thing to change is the level of service to consumers.

If the service consciousness does not change, this century-old brand will inevitably fall behind the times.