Coca-Cola said harshly inside: this year dry down the Yuanqi Forest

Sina Finance learned that the year-end awards of the main department of Yuanqi Forest have not been issued, and although the front-line employees have received the year-end awards, they have shrunk significantly compared with previous years. According to another source, both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have issued an "ultimatum" to the Yuanqi Forest: this year it is bound to eliminate the Yuanqi Forest Bubble Water.

Many signals show that the life of the Yuanqi Forest is not very good.

"Both music have met and are determined to take down the Yuanqi Forest"

"Not optimistic" about the Yuanqi Forest, a senior executive in the FMCG industry directly concluded.

But Tang Binsen, who came from a game background, does not care about the rules in these circles, he wants to break the silent traditional beverage circle more. Friends who were close to Tang Binsen described him as like a Mongol iron hoof, with empires and territory as far as the eye could see. The Yuanqi Forest Line dropped the freezer and seized the position of the Farmer Mountain Spring, which was a direct door-to-door provocation.

On the other hand, industry insiders close to the middle and high level of Coca-Cola told Sina Finance: "Coke said that in 2022, there will be no more sparkling water in the Yuanqi Forest on the market; both sides have held meetings and are determined to destroy the Yuanqi Forest." ”

Unlike the gun-grazing fire of Nongfu Mountain Spring, the Yuanqi Forest has touched the lifeblood of the two pleasures.

In terms of categories, sparkling water and Coca-Cola have similarities. Liangle's biggest concern is that if Genki Forest continues to promote the unhealthy health of sugary drinks (including cola), coupled with parental control over their children's Coke, Coke is likely to lose memory among the next generation of children and be replaced by a generation that drinks sparkling water.

For example, in March 2018, Yuanqi Forest launched the real circle-breaking product 0 sugar 0 calorie soda sparkling water, and 7 months later, Heytea launched a low-calorie steviol glycoside as a sweet source of beverages, which is said to be 90% lower than sucrose tea calories. Heytea tries to combat the impact of the sugar-free consumption of bottled beverages by introducing low-calorie sweeteners in freshly made teas in offline stores.

Sina Finance visited a number of offline supermarkets and found that the most popular online sales of Yuanqi Forest are still sparkling water.

Unlike traditional Internet celebrity products, Yuanqi's sales have gradually shifted towards offline. This means that Yuanqi Forest is facing the same pressure as traditional enterprises to deal with offline personnel management. An obvious indicator is that the number of salesmen in Yuanqi Forest is increasing, and a large number of salesmen have also diluted the year-end bonuses of old employees.

However, Ma Lei, an observer in the tea industry, also directly pointed out the expansion risk of the Yuanqi Forest: "Farmers and Wahaha are cutting people, and before one person could achieve sales of more than 2 million; but in recent years, it is to add people, and there may not be actual benefits, and the line is too rolled." "However, the high cost of beverage logistics is naturally not suitable for online sales, and offline is the inevitable trend of Yuanqi Forest."

In December last year, according to media reports, Yuanqi Forest was making extensive adjustments around the organizational structure, and founder Tang Binsen would focus more on channels, sales management and product research and development. This move was interpreted by industry insiders as bearish.

"Tang Binsen personally grasped the channel, indicating that their life is not good." A former senior analyst of a head FMCG company.

Another weak move is that Yuanqi Forest has been doing new retail since the second half of last year and selling smart cabinets. "New retail is like a convenience store, the valuation will not be too high." Traditional FMCG companies have grown to a certain extent and then begun to do new retail, and Yuanqi Forest should be forced to do smart cabinets. "The aforementioned head FMCG enterprise former high-level analysis.

It is said that the valuation is inflated, and the new consumer investment is cooling

On the other hand, investors' enthusiasm for new consumption has decreased overall, a statement that is already very clear in 2021. Since the second half of 2021, the number and amount of new consumer financing have declined significantly. According to industry statistics, there were only 127 new consumer investment and financing events in August, down 17% from 153 in July.

"Valuations are inflated and returns are unclear," an investment insider told Sina Finance.

In November 2021, there were media reports that Yuanqi Forest was about to complete a new round of financing of nearly US$200 million, led by Temasek, and followed by sequoia China, Warburg Pincus Capital and other old shareholders. Subsequently, the valuation of Yuanqi Forest also rose several times in a year's time, reaching a new high of $15 billion. In the same period, Master Kong's valuation hovered around $12.5 billion, lower than yuanqi forest.

"Compared with Master Kong and Unification, the cost and profit margins of Yuanqi Forest are placed there, compared to these two, he is inflated; it cannot be said that it is a special case of Internet celebrities or Internet genes, online sales are easy to peak, Yuanqi is now also the majority of offline sales, and traditional FMCG companies are more and more like", the former high-level analysis of the head FMCG enterprises mentioned above.

At the end of last year, Cha Yan Yue was exposed to salary civil strife, and at the beginning of 2022, the news of layoffs in Xicha and Wen Heyou also broke the cold water for the cooling of new consumption. Taking Wen Heyou as an example, wen heyou received B and C round financing last year. Among them, the B series investors are Sequoia China Fund, IDG and Warburg Pincus Capital, with an amount of 500 million yuan. Sources close to Wen Heyou have revealed that the valuation of wen heyou is more than 10 billion yuan.

However, Wen Heyou's road to overseas expansion was not smooth. In July 2020, Guangzhou Wenheyou opened with an area of 5,000 square meters and a three-story building; in April 2021, Shenzhen Wenheyou opened, four times the size of Guangzhou, but the two stores fell into a cold operation after experiencing a brief hilarity at the peak of their opening. After the opening of Shenzhen Wenheyou for half a year, it directly changed the signboard, "Super Wenheyou" became the "Old Street Oyster Market", and the decoration style, settled merchants, and catering categories were all changed.

Searching for guangzhou super Wenheyou related shops on the public reviews, Chen Tianji, Grandma Beef Miscellaneous, Wynn Hotel and other well-known old stores in Guangzhou have a rating of about 3.5 points, with a low score.

epilogue

In the new consumption track, Yuanqi Forest and Xicha are all head enterprises. The situation at the beginning of the year was not sunny, and news of layoffs, shrinking year-end awards, and store closures came out one after another. If you look optimistically, it is that after the rapid development, enterprises have begun to make internal adjustments, and perhaps it will also be a transformation to consolidate internal strength.