Wen Heyou fell to the "top" throne Layoffs came earlier than dreams

Reporter Li Haoyue trainee reporter Wang Jun

Wen Heyou, who had been hotly searched for more than 50,000 tables in the store, was laid off on February 17. On the same day, the securities daily reporter asked Wen Heyou to verify whether the layoffs were true. Relevant people of the company said that it is a normal personnel change caused by the company's business adjustment, and the company's various projects are now in progress, and there will be new projects and formats one after another. However, the other party did not respond to the reporter's question on whether the Nanjing Wenheyou Store opened as scheduled.

In 2019, Wenheyou opened its popularity across the country because of its own retro label and strong Changsha characteristics, attracting many consumers outside Changsha to punch in. In February 2020, Wen Heyou received nearly 100 million yuan of investment from Jiahua Capital and shouted the slogan of "building a Disney in the restaurant industry". In the first half of 2021, it completed two consecutive rounds of BC financing, and the valuation reached 10 billion yuan after the end of the C round of financing. Wenheyou CEO Feng Bin once said that in the years of Wenheyou's operation, there are hundreds of investment institutions that have taken the initiative to find.

With abundant funds and optimistic capital, Wen Heyou began to lay off employees.

It was difficult to leave Changsha

According to tianyancha data, Wenheyou is a brand of Hunan Wenheyou Cultural Industry Development Group Co., Ltd. At present, it has a series of brands such as Wenhe Youlao Changsha Fried Society, WenheYoulao Changsha Lobster Restaurant, Wenheyou Large Sausage, Wenheyou Stinky Tofu, M M CH, Wenheyou Lao Changsha Takeaway and so on.

On February 17, a number of media reported that Wenheyou employees broke the news that the company had launched a round of large-scale layoffs a few years ago, and more than 60% of the departments were laid off. However, the layoffs continue, with most of the laid-offs joining after July 2021, mainly involving the immersive theater project that Wenheyou Changsha plans to launch and the Nanjing Wenheyou project.

Nanjing is the fourth city that Wenheyou will land as a local brand in Changsha after Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Previously, the opening queues of Guangzhou Wenheyou and Shenzhen Wenheyou could not last in the following days, not only that, Wenheyou also began to modify the original style of the stores in the two places.

In July 2020, the "Super Wenheyou" brand landed in Guangzhou, but a year later, Wenheyou changed the "Super Wenheyou" to "Guangzhou Wenheyou", in addition, many of the goods in the store were also changed. In the past, crayfish, which had been used as the main theme, was replaced by seafood. The "Securities Daily" reporter found in the public comments that the bad reviews given by Users in Guangzhou were mainly concentrated on the "unpalatable" dishes.

Wen Heyou CEO Feng Bin also said that Wen Heyou suffered the biggest loss in Guangzhou, and the company has reflected on its playing style in Guangzhou. This kind of "water and soil dissatisfaction" occurred again in Wen Heyou's march into Shenzhen.

In April 2021, on the opening day of Wenheyou Shenzhen Store, the row number exceeded "40,000 +". However, in less than half a year, the Shenzhen store was renamed "Old Street Oyster Market", and the main crayfish was replaced by oysters. It is reported that Shenzhen will usher in a second style change.

Earlier, Wu Xian, general manager of Shenzhen Wenheyou, told the media that after the adjustment and transformation of Shenzhen Wenheyou, it will present a cyberpunk-style future market, including seafood markets, vegetable markets and bazaars. The Wenheyou Nanjing store has not yet officially landed and has been exposed to layoffs.

How feasible is "Disney in the Restaurant Industry"?

The "Securities Daily" reporter found that in April 2021, Shenzhen Wenheyou carried out an immersive theatrical performance called "Qi Dream". Some bloggers introduced in the Little Red Book that the whole drama is in the crowded Shenzhen Wenheyou, blending with ordinary tourists.

For the concept of Wen Heyou, Wen Bin, the founder of Wen Heyou, has said many times in public that it is to become the "Disney of Chinese gastronomy". It is not difficult to find that Wen Heyou is committed to achieving this goal.

However, Disney's success was not easy to imitate. Disney has revenue such as ticket fees, merchandise, food and beverage fees, and hotel accommodation fees. In contrast, Wen heyou's source of income is relatively single, mainly from catering, shop rent, business profit sharing and other aspects of profit, as a tourist city of Changsha Wenheyou fully enjoy this dividend, but Guangzhou, Shenzhen but the response is flat, especially Guangzhou store.

"Wen and You's desire to become Disney is not a match from the perspective of the operation side." Zhu Danpeng, a researcher at the China Brand Research Institute, told the Securities Daily reporter that Wenheyou has a very deep regional cultural color, as a Changsha Internet celebrity punch card, it has its own limitations, that is, it cannot meet and match consumers in other regions except Changsha.

In Zhu Danpeng's view, compared with Guangzhou, Shenzhen's urban history is shorter, and the "immigrant" attribute is more prominent. "The demographic structure of Guangdong and Shenzhen affects the business gap between Wenheyou and Wenheyou, and compared with other first-tier cities, Shenzhen has a very high proportion of foreign population, and this urban demographic characteristics match Wenheyou's positioning as a traffic punch card."

It should be noted that other new restaurants similar to Wen Heyou's style have begun to appear on the market, which may mean that the resistance of Wen Heyou to the next city is getting bigger.

"Securities Daily" reporter browsed the Little Red Book and found that Jinan, Wuhan, Shenyang and other cities that Wenheyou did not enter have many restaurants that "imitate" the Wenheyou model, and the popularity is equally hot. Even if some people point out that this may be a copycat and there is infringement, a blogger who promotes local eating, drinking and entertainment in Wuhan said when introducing the local dining room, "It does not matter whether it imitates Wen Heyou, it really shows the Wuhan in our memory, which is successful." ”

Will Wen Heyou be hindered when he enters the above cities in the future? Wen Heyou did not reply.

In the view of Xu Xiongjun, founder of Jiude Positioning Consulting Company, doing catering and doing brand must have differentiation and soul. In this way, we can really attract people, attract consumers, retain consumers, and form word of mouth and IP.

Mu Yang, former CEO of Home Food Delivery and vice president of "Restaurant Boss Internal Reference", admitted to Securities Daily that the emergence of the same type of store is very unfavorable to the expansion of Wenheyou's subsequent new market. "For an upgraded food city, an understanding of the city's culture and dining culture is a key success factor."

"An important problem facing Wen Heyou is how to maintain the freshness of the scene by consumers, which is more difficult." Zhu Danpeng said that if the scene experiential catering model like Wen Heyou wants to go long, the quality of catering is still the key, and consumers punch cards to punch cards, and ultimately return to the essence of food.

(Edited by Cui Man Cai Shandan)