Author | long
Source | Venture capitalist
The silent capital market has always been the shadow of the howling sword and light sword of the horse, often staging the real drama of "brothers turning against each other, husband and wife parting ways, and fathers and sons breaking off their righteousness". But there is such an individual, as a co-founder, who can not talk about gains and losses in the face of uneven distribution of benefits, can send charcoal in the snow when the enterprise is in crisis, and can ignore the previous suspicions when returning to "eliminating" his own company, which is indeed a rare light in the chaotic capital world.
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In the past two days, the 2019 Forbes China Rich List has arrived as scheduled, and most families and individuals are still on the list, but the Haidilao, which everyone knows well, has not seen the figure of Daniel Zhang.
As the majority shareholders of Haidilao, Daniel Zhang and his wife still ranked 19th in the Forbes China Rich List last year, ranking 19th with a wealth of 7.7 billion US dollars, while Shi Yonghong and his wife's wealth was 3.65 billion US dollars, ranking 66th.
But this year, only the Shi Yonghong family is on the list, with a wealth value of 55.15 billion yuan ranked 32nd, where did the Daniel Zhang couple go?
▲ Source: 2019 Forbes China Rich List The Shi Yonghong family ranked 32nd
Before answering this question, it is important to understand how Forbes made the list.
Forbes China Rich List is a list formulated by the American financial magazine Forbes for China, and the Chinese rich list is updated once a year, and nationality is equivalent to "tickets".
However, in September this year, forbes Asia list announced Singapore's latest richest man, is a Daniel Zhang from China, which is a positive confirmation of the rumors that Daniel Zhang have immigrated to Singapore, and more interestingly, the emergence of Daniel Zhang also broke the record that Singapore's richest man has not changed in ten years. Therefore, on this year's list of China's richest people, there is only the name of the Shi Yonghong family.
▲ Image source: Forbes Asia list
However, this does not mean that the control of Haidilao will change. Because for a long time, Daniel Zhang have been the real controller, and co-founder Shi Yonghong exists, it seems that he has always focused on doing one thing: sending charcoal in the snow and adding icing on the cake.
The reason for this has to start from the dusty past.
Most people have eaten Haidilao and heard the story of the founder Daniel Zhang who built a hot pot empire from a blue-collar counterattack. As everyone knows, behind Haidilao, there is another person who is indispensable, he is the co-founder of Haidilao, known as the "fire captain" - Shi Yonghong.
When he met Daniel Zhang, the honest and honest Shi Yonghong was only 14 years old, and he was deeply attracted by the younger brother who was a few years younger than himself and had a hot pot-like personality. At that time, although Daniel Zhang was young, he was enthusiastic, impulsive, and intelligent, and he was able to complement his personality, and the two of them quickly played together.
With the passage of time, the two brothers also grew up and had the idea of making money, but Daniel Zhang, who graduated from technical school, and Shi Yonghong, who had a secondary school education, really had no skills, and Daniel Zhang, who loved ideas, decided to open a hot pot restaurant that Sichuanese people love to eat with his good brothers.
In 1994, Daniel Zhang said that his wife and Shi Yonghong and his wife opened a shop together, and took a very "weird" name - Haidilao. The word is derived from a Hu card term in mahjong, although it does not have much meaning, but it is funny, easy to remember, and highlights the unique humor of Sichuanese people.
After taking the name, it is to raise the starting capital. At that time, it was necessary to open a store for 8,000 yuan, but Daniel Zhang could not come up, Shi Yonghong fully supported the Daniel Zhang together, and finally divided the shares equally, two couples, 4 people each accounted for 25%.
▲ Shi Yonghong
With the help of 4 tables, the era of Haidilao's "four legs standing" began.
The advantage of the name of the hot pot restaurant coupled with the reputation of 4 people for quality service, Haidilao's reputation quickly flowed from the small county town of Jianyang to the surrounding area.
The restaurant is getting bigger and bigger, absorbing more waiters and customers, in order to control the overall situation more steadily, Daniel Zhang put forward an idea: Haidilao must have a manager, I recommended myself.
The three people heard about it, and did not Daniel Zhang, and passed it unanimously. For them, no one is willing to stop the development of Haidilao.
Time came to 2004, with the growth of Haidilao, Daniel Zhang, who had the absolute right to speak, put forward a new idea, he hoped that the wives of both sides could withdraw from the front line and take care of the family, Shi Yonghong did not say a word, agreed.
Seeing Haidilao jump from 4 tables to a 10 billion empire, Daniel Zhang has a new outlook for the future development of the company, this time he wants to prepare for the listing, but bigger problems also arise.
▲In 1994, the first Haidilao hot pot restaurant in Jianyang City, Sichuan Province Image source: official website
At that time, the equity distribution was still the same as before, with two couples each accounting for 50%.
As we all know, the most taboo thing about equity is 50% of each share, because once shareholders have different ideas, it is simply a matter of minutes to split the board of directors, like Yu Yu and Li Guoqing's break today, which has a great relationship with equity distribution.
In the initial period, Haidilao's equal share sharing can be seen as modest, fair and loving, but once the company has the intention of listing, it must solve the contradiction of equal equity division.
Shi Yonghong understands Daniel Zhang and what kind of Haidilao he wants to build, so when Daniel Zhang strongly purchased 18% of the equity of Haidilao from Shi Yonghong and his wife at the price of "original capital contribution" in 2007, Shi Yonghong could only choose to complete and quit the management of Haidilao.
If you want to ask Shi Yonghong how he felt at that time, then in the book "Haidilao You Can't Learn", there is such a passage describing his mood: "If you don't agree with what you can do, it has always been his decision." ”
Standing in the center of Vanity Fair, Daniel Zhang won, but was also surrounded by overwhelming skepticism. The media said that this was a "robbery" of equity.
But Shi Yonghong's heart is clear, small business depends on feelings, and big business talks about system.
After withdrawing from Haidilao, Shi Yonghong did not really marginalize. He revolves around the supply chain with Haidilao genes, strives to penetrate the catering vertical industry, and in several crises, saves Haidilao's derivatives.
Revitalize the U Ding Poo dish
In July 2012, Gou Yiqun, Yang Lijuan and Yuan Huaqiang, who had worked in Haidilao, funded the establishment of U Ding Mao Cai.
But even if the three people are familiar with the operation mode of Haidilao, they have not been able to use it for themselves. In the two years of entrepreneurship, only 3 stores were opened, and the loss of manpower and material resources was countless.
Just when the three people had no way to do anything, Shi Yonghong, who learned of this matter, immediately joined the lord of Youdingyou with his wife Li Haiyan, poured out his money to help, and held a total of 63.8% of the shares after investment, becoming the actual controller of Youdingyou, and could directly control U Dingyou.
In addition to financial support, Shi Yonghong has also brought a lot of manpower and supply chain resources.
For example, Liu Yang, financial director, Fan Peng, secretary of the board of directors, Li Yuesong and Zhou Xiuhua, core technical personnel, were introduced, and several of them worked in Haidilao and its subsidiaries before joining U DingMaocai.
In the supply chain, Shi Yonghong copied Haidilao's approach, providing ingredients, substrates and even distribution systems, which greatly reduced the marginal cost of the brand.
Standing on the shoulders of the giant Haidilao, U DingMao Cai returned to profitability and rang the listing bell on April 18, 2017.
What is more worth mentioning is that Shi Yonghong did not sit on the profits of the fisherman, but withdrew on the eve of the bell ringing, and handed over the equity obtained to the hands of Zhang Shuoyi, the younger brother of the Daniel Zhang, after a complicated transaction, which means that after the listing, Zhang Shuoyi will replace Shi Yonghong and become the biggest beneficiary of U Ding Mao Cai.
Entered the hot pot seasoning market
For foodies, eating hot pot only needs to focus on three things: service, ingredients and hot pot base.
In terms of service, there are Daniel Zhang such managers who are strong and soft on the outside, naturally do not have to worry more; The purchasing department has to complete the ingredients alone, and there is no need to worry; Only in the cost and quality control of hot pot base, it is impossible to unify. To this end, Haidilao extended its tentacles to the hot pot seasoning market early.
But at that time, internally, the "side effects" of the early management personnel's withdrawal began to appear, and Daniel Zhang had to take the girder and carry the rapidly growing Haidilao, and the pressure doubled;
Externally, the seasoning market still has Haitian flavor industry, Lotus MSG and other seasoning companies occupy the market, by the capital high, Haidilao wants to take a lot of energy to grab food, Daniel Zhang one person is really lacking in skills.
At the time of crisis, Shi Yonghong stepped forward again.
In 2013, while saving U Ding Fake Vegetables, Shi Yonghong took over the hot pot base department that was split off from the Haidilao system, and began to invest in the research and development and development of hot pot base production, and later developed into Yihai International.
▲Source: Haidilao's official website
In the process of operation, Daniel Zhang did not forget to give Shi Yonghong a "green light":
On the one hand, let Yihai International use the Haidilao trademark in perpetuity without privileges; On the other hand, let Yihai spices become the special hot pot base of Haidilao, so the condiments and self-boiling hot pots we see in supermarkets today are actually from Yihai International.
Backed by the big tree of Haidilao, Yihai International has achieved great success.
From the 13-year spin-off to the end of 18 years, in just six years, the company's revenue increased from 500 million yuan to 2.68 billion yuan, and the net profit increased from 20 million yuan to 550 million yuan, after the listing, the stock price was even more soaring, and Shi Yonghong also rose from supervisor to chairman, completed the transformation of the role, and the title of "fire captain" once again resounded throughout the hot pot empire.
▲Source: Qichacha
In 2018, Haidilao was successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with a market value of more than HK$100 billion, based on the highest share price of HK$19.6 on the day. The three founders who had been "kicked out" by Daniel Zhang all returned to Haidilao, with Shi Yonghong and Shu Ping serving as executive directors and Li Haiyan as supervisors.
▲ Four elders, the number of shares currently held in Haidilao Source: Oriental Wealth Network
Today, Shi Yonghong's equity in Haidilao has been worth tens of billions, coupled with the value given to him by Yihai International and Shuhai Company, which specializes in fresh dishes, Shi Yonghong has become the next "Daniel Zhang", which is almost inevitable.
But this also makes people have to think, behind the "seizure of power" Daniel Zhang, did most people only see the appearance and ignore the strategic interests behind Haidilao?
Looking back on the first half of the two brothers' lives, Youyou's heart is more touched.
Shi Yonghong is benevolent, and has never played a zero-sum game with Daniel Zhang, fighting to the death, but choosing to take Haidilao as the axis, constantly optimizing other businesses in the Haidilao industrial chain, and maximizing the interests of the enterprise with actions.
Daniel Zhang is moralistic, with a tough attitude in his mouth, but behind his back, he does not forget to support his good brothers and strives to make the cake bigger and bigger.
Today's Haidilao, what you can't learn is not only the business model, management methods, and marketing methods, but also the highly consistent tacit understanding and indestructible trust of the two elders of Haidilao.
About author:Youyou, a senior business and financial observer, provides in-depth and cutting-edge business perspectives, pays attention to industry investment opportunities, evaluates classic cases and characters, and serves entrepreneurs. Please contact the original author for authorization to reprint!
Resources:
Shi Yonghong, the founder of Haidilao, who was kicked out by his partners, how did he become a wise and foolish winner?
"Even if you learn Haidilao, you won't learn to Daniel Zhang" Source: Huashang Taoluo Author: Chen Yaoshi
"Hotpot Industry Investment - Yihai International Company Analysis &18 Annual Report Analysis" Source: Global Long-Short Hedging Objective Strategy Author: Zhou Mi Merlin