Before 1993, these time-honored restaurants accounted for more than half of Wuhan catering sales. However, in the mid-1990s, with the entry of foreign fast food and the rise of new local catering enterprises, time-honored restaurants were losing ground in the fierce competition. At present, the total annual output value of Wuhan time-honored brands is not as good as that of a medium-sized hotel.
Time-honored brands are not only an industry, but also a part of the precious culture of the city. If the old brand disappears, many historical memories will disappear with it. How did Wuhan time-honored brand decline step by step? How does an old brand get rid of the dilemma of management? When will these once brilliant "golden phoenix" be reborn in the tide of market economy?
Wuhan Laotongcheng Restaurant, which has a history of 77 years, has recently quietly closed its doors to thank customers. This time-honored brand in Wuhan, which is famous for its Hubei snack bean skin, received Chairman Mao twice in its most glorious period, which is the pride of Wuhan people.
Nowadays, this time-honored restaurant with the golden signboard of "Bean Skin King" has reluctantly posted a notice of "closure" under the embarrassing state of bleak operation for many years. The first floor of the restaurant has already become a mobile phone market, and the restaurant channel "Iron General" on the second floor is closed.
The "King of Bean Skin" flourished and declined.
Laotongcheng, formerly known as Tongcheng Restaurant, was founded in 1929, and is famous for its signature gourmet bean skin. Bean skin was originally a kind of food in rural areas of Hubei Province. It is made of glutinous rice and chives and is very popular with diners. 1955, Old Tongcheng was renamed as "State-owned Old Tongcheng Hotel", which is the first state-owned hotel in Wuhan.
Because of its contacts with many Chinese and foreign leaders, Laotongcheng once became the pride of Wuhan people.
1In April and September, 1958, Chairman Mao visited Huijike in Laotongcheng twice, leaving behind the teaching that "the country should serve the people better", which became the most brilliant chapter in the history of Laotongcheng Branch. In fact, Chairman Mao is not the only party and state leader who has eaten in the Old Tongcheng Hotel. 1958 At the beginning of this year, Premier Zhou accompanied foreign guests to taste bean skin at the Old Tongcheng Head Office. During the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Deng Xiaoping, Li Xiannian, Li Fuchun and Cai Chang all tasted the three fresh bean skins and crock chicken soup in the old Tongcheng head office, and praised the service of the restaurant. Old Tongcheng also got the reputation of "King of Bean Skin".
From 1987 to 1989, it is recognized as the heyday of old Tongcheng, and its sales volume ranks first in the same industry in the city. 1992, Laotongcheng opened a branch in Shenzhen, and after one or two years, it recovered its investment of one or two million yuan. Subsequently, the old Tongcheng branch expanded rapidly and opened branches in Nanchang, Shenzhen, Tianmen, Ezhou and Dijiao, Jiangxi. At that time, Laotongcheng was also preparing to open a shop in Thailand.
In order to make old Tongcheng famous at home and abroad, generations of old Tongcheng people have paid wisdom, hard work, sweat and even life for 77 years. In 1990s, Zhang Bin, the head who brought the old Tongcheng into the fast lane of development, died of a heart attack due to overwork.
However, in the process of transforming into a market economy, Old Tongcheng did not pursue victory and continued to write brilliantly, but embarked on the road of prosperity and decline irresistibly.
1988 after the transformation of the old Tongcheng, it was the largest restaurant in Wuhan at that time, and it formed a monopoly advantage in foreign reception, but this situation did not last long.
Since the mid-1990s, some private catering enterprises have gradually become a climate, often poaching employees from state-owned stores with high salaries. For a signboard enterprise like Laotongcheng, it is the focus of poaching. At that time, there were rumors in the society that Laotongcheng was the "Harvard" of the catering industry, and many private enterprises set their sights on it. Zhang, the direct descendant of the "King of Bean Skin", has also been poached, and the inherent mechanism disadvantages of the old state-owned enterprises have also accelerated the loss of these outstanding talents.
The traditional signboard of Laotongcheng is "Three Counties Bean Skin". As early as 1984, in order to meet a large number of take-away needs, Laotongcheng had developed vacuum-packed soybean skin, but it was limited to variety research and development, ignoring equipment update, which eventually led to abortion. At the same time, because street shops are everywhere, the good and bad are mixed, which has a strong impact on the "three fresh bean skins" of old Tongcheng. In the innovation of other varieties, old Tongcheng has nothing to do.
The iron law of modern catering is "there is no parking space, it is difficult to have a table". Because of insufficient parking spaces, Old Tongcheng gradually lost its "geographical position". In addition, since then, private catering enterprises have mushroomed, consumers have more choices, and horizontal competition has further divided the market.
It should not be ignored that the failure of several investment projects hollowed out the foundation of the old Tongcheng, and also made the enterprise bear huge debts, forming a situation in which the building collapsed and the decline was irreversible, and a tragedy of prosperity and decline was bound to repeat itself.
Dai, the current general manager of Laotongcheng, said that Laotongcheng had carried out fund-raising transformation in 1998, but its operation was not satisfactory after reopening. Last year, the land was requisitioned for the cross-river tunnel project, and the business building was demolished, so it was closed after the Spring Festival.
"Nobody wants to go bankrupt, especially in this way." Dai said gloomily.
Time-honored brands become "endangered species"
The decline of "Old Tongcheng" is only a microcosm of Wuhan's time-honored brand.
"If it is an animal, the old brand is definitely an endangered species." Gong Xinhua, deputy director of the catering service management department of Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Commerce, said. 10 years has passed, and the old restaurants in Wuhan, like the old Tongcheng, have gradually disappeared from people's sight, including Fu Qinghe, Qi Wanshun and Guo.
At present, there are only three or four old brands in Wuhan that insist on cooking traditional food. It is estimated that
The total annual output value is less than 6.5438+million yuan, which is less than the sales of a medium-sized hotel. The situation of the old Tongcheng reminds us of our deep worries about the time-honored restaurants in Wuhan.
Wuhan Greater China Restaurant, founded on 1930, is famous at home and abroad for Chairman Mao's "only drinking Changsha water and eating Wuchang fish". In 1980s, more than 70 kinds of fish dishes were developed in Greater China, and a nationally famous fish feast was held. The monthly turnover of the hotel is more than 300,000 yuan, and there are more than 20 national first-class and first-class chefs. It was the only national second-class catering enterprise in Hubei at that time and won the title of "China Time-honored Brand".
However, like Laotongcheng, since the mid-1990s, the Greater China Restaurant has been in a crisis of survival and has closed its doors for many times. In August, 2000, a private enterprise in Wuhan invested140,000 yuan for the whole purchase. Since 2002, restaurants have closed down one after another to make a living by renting out facades. Now Greater China has been changed into a hotpot restaurant.
Another time-honored brand in Wuhan, Laoda Xingyuan, was once famous for its fish dishes all over the country. It was difficult to reverse this trend in the 1990s. After merging with New World Studio, it closed its doors and dissolved eight years ago because of a series of unsolvable problems. Cai Lin, which has a history of one hundred years, barely survives in a difficult situation.
At the beginning of this year, there were 12 "old brands" left in Wuhan. Due to the closure of the old Tongcheng, only the Four Seasons Beauty, Wufangzhai, Furong, Xiaotaoyuan, Game Fragrance, Records, etc. are left to retain their original brands, while Chunming Mansion, Xinxing Mansion, Dehua Mansion and Laohuibin are left to maintain their business by renting out facades.
The preliminary investigation results of Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Commerce show that the situation of Wuhan time-honored brands varies widely, but most of them are in poor condition. There are four factors that lead to the decline of time-honored brands: some are because the operating mechanism of state-owned enterprises is inflexible and the development momentum of enterprises is insufficient; Some old shops are facing relocation due to urban demolition; Due to personnel changes, it is difficult for some time-honored brands to maintain their original flavor. In addition, with the improvement of people's living standards, even if the old brand maintains its original characteristics, people still
I feel that "new is not as good as old".
Seeing the decline of these once famous restaurants, the old Wuhan people are full of regret and nostalgia.
Survive in a difficult situation
Under the circumstance that Wuhan time-honored brand was almost completely annihilated, Wufangzhai, a 60-year-old Wuhan time-honored brand, successfully realized its own phoenix nirvana and became the only bright spot among the time-honored brands.
At the beginning of this year, when the old Tongcheng quietly closed down, Wuhan Wufangzhai and Zhejiang Jiaxing Wufangzhai Industrial Co., Ltd. tied the knot. Zhejiang Jiaxing Wufangzhai will invest 65 million yuan to hold Wuhan Wufangzhai, specializing in the production of "Wufangzhai" products. The newly-launched industrialized production line of Wuhan Wufangzhai Restaurant has also recently obtained the QS certificate issued by the Provincial Bureau of Technical Supervision, and its dumplings have been stationed in 260 supermarkets in the province. The production capacity of enterprises has also been greatly improved, from 1-2 tons per day to more than 5 tons.
At present, Wufangzhai has developed into a new enterprise with modern management scale integrating catering, food processing, commercial trade and automobile transportation.
Zhang Yongli, head of Wuhan Wufangzhai, said that Wufangzhai is the first catering enterprise in Wuhan time-honored brand to move from manual workshop to industrial production, and the restructuring of Wufangzhai will open up a new road for the survival and development of Wuhan time-honored brand.
Wufangzhai, where business is booming, can be said to be the last real highlight of Wuhan's old-fashioned catering. His successful experience also shows that only by fully tapping the unique historical and cultural heritage, actively exploring the market, vigorously innovating and rapidly establishing a modern enterprise system can the old-fashioned restaurants be "thoroughly remoulded" in the tide of market economy.
Dehua, a time-honored brand in Wuhan with a history of over 70 years.
Dehua rice cake, as a famous snack in the restaurant, officially signed an exclusive agreement with Jiangcheng Restaurant and Sunny Restaurant at the end of last year. After Dehua rice cakes enter the sunny day, restaurants will develop honey rice cakes, golden soup rice cakes, Wuchang fish rice cakes and other related dishes on this basis, and Dehua rice cakes, an old snack, will survive.
However, the gratifying momentum of Wufangzhai cannot hide the overall decline of Wuhan's time-honored brands, and its Dehua rice cakes are only struggling to survive in the cracks of the market.
Confusion of time-honored brand
The closure of the old Tongcheng attracted the attention of the relevant departments of Wuhan Municipal Government to Jiangcheng time-honored brand.
On March 15, Jiang, deputy director of Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Commerce, said in an interview that revitalizing time-honored brands is the top priority of the city's business work. At present, the Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Commerce has drawn up a multi-pronged plan to revitalize the "old brand" of catering, and the recently closed old Tongcheng has been included in the key restoration targets.
The plan will screen the "old brands": First, the "old brands" with development prospects will be included in the revitalization goal. Focus on its regional characteristics, cultural background, popularity, operating conditions, assets, etc. Guide the "old brands" that are still operating to develop chains and support them to become stronger and bigger; Focus on restoring the old Tongcheng and Cai in name only. The second is to introduce social capital. Some "time-honored brands" will be auctioned, tendered and leased.
In terms of policy, while promoting the "time-honored brand" to establish a sense of competition, it actively solves problems for it; For enterprises that purchase, merge or lease time-honored brands, we will study specific policy support measures in terms of the use of intangible assets of time-honored brands, the handling of historical burdens of time-honored brands, and the placement of personnel.
At the same time, the revitalization of "time-honored brands" will be included in the urban construction and development planning and the development planning of commercial outlets. In the new construction, development and structural adjustment of various commercial streets, priority is given to the relocation and stationing of "old brands".
Liu, president of Wuhan Catering Association, believes that more resources should be attracted to intervene in the reform of time-honored brands. "New brands and private capital can participate. In terms of cooperation methods, capital injection and investment management mechanisms can be used to revitalize old brands. "
Dai, general manager of Laotongcheng, said that the newly opened Laotongcheng can no longer be a state-owned enterprise, and it is necessary to carry out shareholding system reform. "No matter which scheme is adopted, we plan to build a model store first, and then attract social funds to open franchise stores and expand the influence of Old Tongcheng."
The introduction of government support policies really makes people look forward to the revitalization of time-honored brands. However, whether Wuhan time-honored brand can really be thoroughly remoulded, the reporter still has deep worries.
As early as a few years ago, when Cai, a famous snack bar in Wuhan with a history of nearly a hundred years, went into decline, it attracted the attention of Jiangcheng media and government. Relevant departments also held a seminar to discuss the reorganization and revitalization of time-honored brands. Cai, and other time-honored brands also reorganized in an attempt to revive their glory.
However, restructuring did not solve the problem. Due to poor management and other reasons, Ji not only failed to "resurrect", but his golden signboard also vanished again. Other time-honored brands are still closed in the storm and are heavily in debt. The revitalization of Wuhan time-honored brand seems to be in the foreseeable future.
Nowadays, the collapse of Laotongcheng has once again attracted people's attention to Wuhan time-honored brands. However, after the heated discussion, can the old Tongcheng be brilliant again? Is the fate of Wuhan time-honored brand repeating the mistakes made a few years ago, or can it be reborn in the market tide?
Time-honored brands have both advantages of inheritance and disadvantages of not adapting to the modern market economy. Today, the restructuring and reform problems faced by time-honored brands cannot be solved overnight.