It is reported that Anhui Laoxiang Chicken Catering Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Laoxiang Chicken") and Guoyuan Securities signed a listing counseling agreement at the end of September, and then filed with Anhui Securities Regulatory Bureau to prepare for listing on the main board of Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
As one of the representative catering enterprises in China, Laoxiang Chicken originated in Anhui, and now it is fighting all over the country. What are the highlights of its IPO road and what thresholds need to be crossed?
Tracing back to the source, hometown chicken was first established in 2003. As a native Anhui brand, it not only achieved the first place in Anhui Chinese fast food industry, but also succeeded in "going out of the circle" and expanding its territory from the region to the whole country.
On June 5438- 10, 2003, the first fast food restaurant of Feixi Laoji, the predecessor of Laoxiang Chicken, officially opened in Hefei, and then developed rapidly. 20 12 March, Feixi old hen spent 50 million yuan to upgrade its brand and officially changed its name to "hometown chicken"; On 20 18, Laoxiang Chicken Restaurant received RMB 200 million in Series B financing, and the investor was Jiahua Capital; In 20 19, it will reach more than 800 direct stores nationwide; In 2020, hometown chicken announced its official entry into Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and other cities at the strategic conference.
At present, Hometown Chicken has more than 1000 stores in China.
In addition, in cities without hometown chickens, netizens also lined up to call the chairman, which is enough to get a glimpse of its popularity.
A brand has spread all over the country, and it has also spread to hundreds of millions of netizens. Why?
From 0 to 1000, the success of Laoxiang Chicken comes from continuous strategic innovation and change.
Who would have thought that a chain restaurant brand actually came out of a chicken farm?
The predecessor of the old country chicken was called "Feixi old hen", and the founder Shu Congxuan was from Feixi, Anhui. He joined the army when he grew up. 1982, Shu Congxuan returned to his hometown Feixi County, took out 1800 yuan given by his parents when he got married, bought 1000 chickens, and devoted himself to starting a business. Since then, he has started a career dealing with "chickens".
He is young, willing to study hard, and even lived in a chicken shed for seven years. Ten years later, Shu Congxuan became the largest chicken farmer in Anhui, selling hundreds of thousands of chickens a month.
With more and more farmers, the market supply exceeds demand, and prices have been stagnant for a long time, Shu Congxuan realized that it was time to change.
During this period, foreign fast food brands entered the China market. An unexpected opportunity, Shu Congxuan got the training information of catering joining. He took his team to study for three days and learned about the fast food industry and chain operation industry for the first time.
Seeing the huge growth space of the fast food industry, Shu Congxuan decided to open a restaurant, combining catering with his old line of aquaculture, and taking the road of chain fast food with chicken soup as the core product.
No one's road to entrepreneurship is smooth sailing, and so is the hometown chicken. In 2003, Shu Congxuan opened the first fast food restaurant, which led to high food and operating costs. By the end of the year, all losses were incurred. Shu Congxuan hired professional managers to train and refine employees. This is the first major change; Then, due to the brand expansion, the local color of "Feixi" in the name is too strong, and it is difficult to expand to the whole country. Shu Congxuan reluctantly started the positioning strategy in 20 1 12, and officially changed the brand name to "hometown chicken" in 20 12, which was the second major change. The third change was in 200 16, when hometown chickens successively settled in Nanjing, Wuhan and other cities, and acquired Wuhan Yonghe in 20 18, and the pace of national expansion was officially accelerated.
By 2020, under the influence of the epidemic, Shu Congxuan made an online national strategy conference, announcing that hometown chickens had officially entered Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and other cities. This year, this fast food chain stood in front of the IPO.
As we all know, Chinese food is much more difficult to chain than western food.
Western food recipes pay attention to accuracy, and the standardization of fast food chain stores naturally comes, but Chinese food pays attention to the chef's "feeling", which depends entirely on the temperature and technology. So, how can hometown chickens have the confidence to impact IPO?
As the saying goes, small opportunities rely on luck, and big trends compete for time. Looking at the industry benchmarks, we will find that they are all patient hikers without exception. KFC and McDonald's, which have more than 10000 stores, were globally deployed in the 1980s, while Laoxiang Chicken, which incited the whole catering market in China, has always insisted on long-term returns. Old country chicken has two big killers.
1. Product level: Make products that make users scream.
Shu Congxuan said: "To be an enterprise, we must have good products. The product is 1, and the rest are 0. "
The quality of products is related to the brand of enterprises.
Quality, quality first, quality second, as long as you do a good job of quality, your brand and reputation will naturally be good.
If your product is not good enough, the brand may be negative and no one will buy it.
Founded in 2003, Laoxiang Chicken has numerous opportunities to expand greatly. But for a long time, the old country chicken only did one thing, focusing on products. It was not until the whole group found a way out that the hometown chicken attacked in the 20 16 area.
In the choice of raw materials, like Shu Congxuan's original chicken-raising principle, the old country chicken "refused to use instant chicken" and insisted on using green healthy chicken raised for more than half a year, which was different from the instant white feather chicken widely used in foreign fast food.
This product makes the hometown chicken stand firm in the market.
In terms of distribution, Laoxiang Chicken has a central kitchen in Hefei, covering an area of 60,000 square meters, and the production capacity can supply 1.200 restaurants, ensuring that all dishes of Laoxiang Chicken are standardized and clean vegetables, and send them to the transparent kitchen for on-site cooking;
In addition, Laoxiang Chicken has built its own 4,000-ton cold storage and supporting constant temperature cold chain logistics fleet. All restaurants deliver them once a day to ensure the freshness of the ingredients to the greatest extent.
Laoxiang chicken is a rare enterprise with one-stop production, supply and marketing. A nearly complete supply chain system including breeding, slaughtering, processing, distribution and refrigeration has been established.
This fully proves that supply chain management is a breakthrough to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises, and it is also a gold mine that catering enterprises urgently need to tap.
2. Strategic level: Brand power is a booster.
20 1 1 Feixi old hen made a profit of 6 million. Shu Congxuan decided to spend 4 million yuan as consulting fee, and asked trout Company to assist her in strategic positioning.
However, the first plan given by trout is to change its name.
At that time, "Feixi old hen" was famous in Anhui, and it was later renamed. Isn't this "fatal"?
"Feixi old hen" is actually a good name in Anhui, but because it is difficult to be effectively perceived in other places, it is greatly restricted to go to the whole country.
New customers make decisions through simple information such as names.
Therefore, Shu Congxuan reluctantly changed "Feixi old hen" into "hometown chicken" and changed "special old hen fast food" into "the largest chain fast food in Anhui", which made the brand image immediately perceptible.
Woodruff, the former president of Coca-Cola Company, once said: Even if the whole Coca-Cola Company was reduced to ashes overnight, he could immediately make a comeback with the brand of Coca-Cola. Why? Because the brand is an amplifier of value. The old country chicken also insisted on cooking.
After the strategic upgrade, the hometown chickens did not rush, but continued to cultivate the Anhui market for four years.
It was not until 20 16 that hometown chickens began to expand outward and enter Wuhan, Nanjing, Shanghai and other cities. The total number of stores exceeds 400, and now it has exceeded 800, with annual sales exceeding 3 billion!
On 20 18, Laoxiang Chicken received RMB 200 million in financing from Jiahua Yewei. For a time, hometown chicken became a star company in the fast food market.
From Anhui to the whole country, the profit of hometown chicken has increased 30 times in five years. Old country chicken has been committed to providing more value to users. In addition to working hard on products and brands, Laoxiang Chicken also attaches great importance to the consumer experience.
1. Stay open 24 hours a day.
Most branches of Laoxiang Chicken are open 24 hours a day, which is the condition to compete with foreign fast food brands and provide all-weather take-away food delivery service. In addition, the stores of Laoxiang Chicken are mainly distributed in the business district not far from people's residential areas, and are located in the "community canteen" which is open 24 hours a day.
This position allows customers to eat for 24 hours as soon as they turn the corner.
2. Insist on not sacrificing the user experience.
Behind catering entrepreneurship is not only the exploration of mature business models, but also the challenge of consumption upgrading.
In the past, the standardization of fast food was to meet the sudden increase in the demand for eating out, improve the efficiency of eating out, and facilitate the scale of brands, which was bound to sacrifice some tastes.
However, under the wave of consumption upgrading, consumers' requirements for catering enterprises not only stay at the level of food and clothing, but become more diversified. For example, the taste of food, decoration design style and restaurant service experience are all reference standards.
In order to increase the consumption experience, unlike traditional Chinese fast food packages, Laoxiang Chicken does not sell packages, but insists on letting customers order dishes and let customers take their favorite dishes as needed.
Considering the continuous upgrading of consumers' consumption habits and experiences, new stores take the image of "green" as the basic point and occupy the minds of consumers of all ages with images of "nutrition", "health", "intimacy" and "warmth".
In the change of consumption pattern, leisure catering represented by hometown chicken is easier to catch young consumers.
3. Insist on building a family kitchen
In addition to the extreme environment and food, Shu Congxuan also hopes that the new generation of stores will make customers feel at home.
In order to make customers feel at home, most of the family kitchens are home-cooked dishes.
Hometown Chicken also specially designed a self-help area in the new generation stores. Free hot water, barley tea, clean tableware and children's spoons specially prepared for children are provided.
These humanized services and the dining atmosphere that is infinitely close to the family ceremony have brought unexpected consumption experience to customers.
These unexpected user experiences have become the deepest moat in my hometown. Behind the change of hometown chicken, it seems that it is because of consumption upgrading, but in fact it stems from the insight into user needs.
The catering market in China has great potential at present, with 9.4 million catering stores and 30 million employees nationwide, with a compound market growth rate of nearly 10%.
Chinese fast food is undoubtedly the biggest track in the catering industry.
Nowadays, whether it is an old brand or a young brand that has been deeply cultivated for many years, what is the way out?
From 16, it can be seen that in order to remain competitive, we must find the superior category, patiently do it again and re-price.
At present, the epidemic seems to be making a comeback. In the uncertain environment, it is not difficult for anyone, but the fact is that the strong can finally sneak back.
From small shops in Hefei to Chinese fast foodNo. 1, hometown chickens are popular all over the country, with 978 direct stores and 20 million freshly boiled chicken soup sold every year. This is by no means an overnight success story. This is the attachment to the lighthouse and the solar arch.
Not everyone can get full marks, but everyone can do it from 60 to 80. Think deeply, take it seriously and pay attention to every detail, and you will enjoy the dividend of the times.
Always remember: if you do things sincerely, you will have a future.