Due to the large number of franchisees in the early stage, and in order to quickly occupy the national market, Little Sheep Company has set the franchise policy as "franchise-oriented, focusing on direct sales" and set up provincial, municipal and county-level general agents and independent franchise stores all over the country. The introduction of this policy has played a positive role in the early rapid development of Little Sheep Company, which not only meets the needs of the market, franchisees and consumers, but also creates good brand benefits, making Little Sheep's footprint spread all over the country in a short period of two or three years, making it famous in one fell swoop.
The management policy of "focusing on joining and focusing on direct sales" has brought benefits to the rapid development of the company at the beginning, but it has also produced many disadvantages. The focus is on the uneven quality of franchisees, services and management, which harms the interests of consumers. Moreover, because "Little Sheep" was not a registered trademark during this period, it lacked powerful weapons for counterfeiting and rights protection, which caused counterfeiters to run rampant and seriously hurt the reputation of Little Sheep brand, which restricted the company's further development. Based on the above situation, since the end of 2002, the company has taken a series of measures to reverse the chaotic situation in the joining market. The core is to adjust the franchise policy, from the original "franchise-oriented, focusing on direct marketing" to "direct marketing-oriented, standardized franchise". Specific measures are:
First of all, set up a franchise center to be responsible for the contact, management and service with franchisees. After the establishment of the franchise center, it almost traveled all over the country, and conducted a comprehensive and in-depth investigation of more than 600 franchise stores scattered around the country, which provided a basis for the next step to ban and rectify franchise stores. Secondly, based on the investigation of the franchise center in early 2003, the board of directors decided to suspend the franchise business, and there were almost no new franchise stores in the company for a long time. At the same time, the company has carried out a series of standardization and rectification of the joining market in stages and with emphasis. From 2003 to 2007, the company carried out a large-scale rectification of the franchise market, and its focus was mainly reflected in the following words: the first word was "Guan". It is to resolutely ban the unqualified storefronts found in the inventory to maintain the brand image of Little Sheep from being harmed; The second word is "delay". That is, although the business situation is poor, but can actively cooperate with the company to carry out rectification of the storefront to be retained, rectification within a time limit; The third word is "closed". On the one hand, a number of well-managed and profitable stores found in the investigation were acquired and incorporated into the standardized management system of the company's direct stores. On the other hand, gradually withdraw the agency rights of general agents at all levels, and do not renew the contract; The fourth word is "He". It is to cooperate with good franchisees and agents in the form of equity participation and holding. The typical case at this stage is to cooperate with the original general agent in Gansu and incorporate it into a branch company under the headquarters to develop the western market.
After several years of uninterrupted cleaning, adjustment and standardization, the number of chain stores of Little Sheep Company has been reduced from 72 1 store at the peak to 360. Among them, 2 18 unqualified stores were closed after the general agent expired (72 in Henan, 38 in Shandong, 24 in Gansu, 39 in Shaanxi, 2 in Qinghai and 43 in three northeastern provinces); 36 franchisees were banned because they could not maintain the company's image and reputation; There are 19 stores banned due to illegal operation; There are 40 stores that have been banned due to extended operation; There are 2 1 stores banned due to major complaints; There are 53 stores closed by themselves due to poor management; 8 stores were closed due to force majeure. From 2003 to April 2007, Little Sheep's joining market has been effectively purified through unremitting cleaning and standardization. Therefore, since May 2007, in order to meet the market demand and the voice of franchisees, Little Sheep Company has re-planned to open high-quality franchise stores and entered the development stage of "not only quantity but quality"-domestic market: first-and second-tier cities are mainly direct-operated, while second-and third-tier cities are mainly franchisees, forming a pattern of mutual supplement and promotion, and no general agent of any form is set up; International market: In view of the high voice of joining in the international market, according to the actual situation of the international market, we will open franchise stores moderately on the basis of opening direct stores and gaining sufficient experience. Its form is flexible, which can set up necessary general agents or individual franchisees to fully open the international market.
The new franchise policy has raised the requirements for franchisees and also improved the service for franchisees. The ultimate goal is to improve the standardization of franchise stores and make them operate at a high level, so as to achieve a win-win situation among consumers, franchisees and companies.
As of 20 1 1 year1February, the company has 469 chain stores, including 163 self-operated restaurants and 272 franchised restaurants, and has more than 20 restaurants in the United States, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong and Macao. It is a well-known restaurant chain brand in China.
Little Sheep's vertically integrated business model is very extensible, including mutton processing, hot pot soup production, restaurant operation and food distribution and wholesale.
From "Top 100 Chinese Enterprises" and "Top 500 Chinese Enterprises" to "International Franchise Award of the Year" and "Top 25 Model Brands" awarded by Singapore Franchise and Authorization Organization (FLA) ... Little Sheep has made gratifying achievements with ten years' hard work, and set a model for the standardization, branding and internationalization of Chinese food.