30% off? Xicha response: There is no major layoff, it is normal personnel adjustment and optimization

On February 9, according to the media, Heytea was implementing layoffs internally. "After confirming with a number of Heytea employees, the main information includes: the internal layoffs have been initiated a few years ago, and some more will be laid off in the next year, involving 30% of the employees overall."

The report also pointed out that the information security department of Heytea was all laid off, and the store development department was laid off by 50%; the laid-off employees will be compensated by normal N+1, and they can also choose to transfer internally to other departments, such as technical posts to business posts.

However, according to the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" quoted the views of Xicha, the relevant rumors are false information, the company does not have the so-called large layoffs, and a small number of personnel adjusted to normal personnel adjustment and optimization based on year-end assessment.

According to public information, in 2012, Xicha originated in an alley called Jiangbianli in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, and opened a new era of tea drinking with a cup of original cheese tea. As of November 2020, Heytea has more than 660 stores in more than 55 cities in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

At the beginning of 2022, in the wave of new tea price increases, Heytea chose to reduce prices in the opposite way, which attracted market attention. It is understood that the price of pure tea beverages sold by Heytea at that time was reduced by 3-5 yuan, the price of 5 fruits was reduced by 2-3 yuan, and the price of cheese was reduced by 1 yuan. For example, one of the star products, Zhizhi Mangmeng, was reduced from 32 yuan to 29 yuan, while pure green Yan was reduced from 13 yuan to 9 yuan.

In response to the price reduction behavior, Xicha responded to the media that some tea drinks of Heytea have seen price reductions ranging from 1 to 7 yuan, in order to allow users to drink Xicha more conveniently and at low cost.

However, some media quoted analysts at that time, saying that "the price reduction of Heytea this round is more to reduce the rental-to-sales ratio and the proportion of manpower after increasing the turnover of the store." This price reduction is a phased strategic behavior, which further squeezes the profit margins of low-end opponents. (Wen | Tang Guo, author of "Finance and Economics" Weekly)