Ajisen ramen owes 280,000 yuan in taxes for more than two years, but the noodle track is still very hot

Ajisen ramen was exposed to being in arrears and in business difficulties, the new noodle restaurant brand is accelerating its rise, and the noodle shop track is still very hot.

Produced by | NBS New Product Sketch Author | Wu Wenwu

01 Ajisen ramen was exposed to being in arrears in taxes for more than two years

Tianyancha APP shows that recently, Ajisen Ramen Catering Service (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. added a new tax arrears announcement, the amount of more than 280,000 yuan, the tax arrears are real estate taxes, the release unit is the State Administration of Taxation Meizhou Meijiang District Taxation Bureau, this tax arrears have been owed from 2019 to now.

The topic of "Ajisen ramen has been in arrears for more than two years and has been collected many times" quickly aroused market attention and hot discussion on the Internet.

Ajisen ramen, mainly Japanese ramen, with large bone broth as its signature, has set off a wave of Japanese ramen, and it is the "first bowl of Japanese ramen" eaten by many consumers.

Ajisen Ramen opened its first store in Hong Kong, China in 1996, entered the Chinese mainland market in 1997, and by 2018, had more than 800 stores worldwide. As early as 2007, Weiqian (China) was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and its founder Pan Wei was once the richest woman in Chinese catering, worth more than HK$6 billion.

However, in recent years, most of what we have heard has been negative news about Ajisen ramen, such as declining performance, store closures, food safety issues, etc.

The intensification of competition in the catering market, coupled with the sudden outbreak of the epidemic, has seriously impacted the operation of Ajisen ramen.

Ajisen ramen's financial report shows that in 2020, Ajisen ramen lost 99.2 million yuan, down more than 224% year-on-year. Although in the first half of 2021, Ajisen Ramen turned a profit, achieving revenue of 1.041 billion yuan and net profit of 49.66 million yuan in the previous year, but soon the performance declined again, and in the second half of last year, the performance of two quarters fell continuously year-on-year.

Ajisen Ramen closed 27 stores in the first half of last year, and the number of stores is now 707.

Ajisen ramen's market value fell even worse, with the total market value of Ajisen ramen falling more than HK$1.39 billion as of the close of trading on Feb. 21 compared to HK$18 per share, which was once high in 2011.

In the view of NBS new products, in addition to the influence of external factors in the market, the brand aging of Ajisen ramen, self-contained, food safety hazards frequent, in 2011 was exposed that its large bone broth is made of soup powder, soup mixed with "big bone door", in early 2019 was exposed to "corruption door", the brand image plummeted.

Poor service, slow eating, expensive and unpalatable are the experiences that many consumers perceive as Ajisen ramen.

In fact, not only Ajisen ramen, but also many established noodle restaurants such as Master Kong beef noodles are facing operational difficulties.

02 A noodle track that continues to be popular

In stark contrast to the current business status of Ajisen ramen, noodle tracks in the Chinese catering market have developed in full swing in recent years.

The new noodle shop brand has risen strongly, and the noodle track has entered the era of "new noodle shop".

For example, brands such as Meet Small Noodles, Chen Xianggui, Hefu Lao noodles, Wuye Mixed Noodles, and MaJi Yonglan Beef Noodles have developed rapidly in recent years.

These new brands have characteristics in store decoration, branding, products, marketing and other aspects, such as Hefu Lao noodles with "health noodles in the study" and distinctive Chinese book design elements.

Even Lu Zhengyao has set his sights on the noodle track in 2021 and created Fun Noodles.

Capital loves to eat noodles, and a large amount of social capital pours in to further activate the noodle track.

According to the "2021 China Catering Investment and Financing Big Data Report", from the perspective of the number of financing, the focus of domestic capital investment last year was such as flour noodles, brine, rice meals, etc.

According to incomplete statistics of guanchao new consumption according to public data, in 2021, there were 24 financing incidents of Chinese noodle brands, 15 financing brands, and the total amount of financing was nearly 10 billion yuan, of which 9 were offline stores.

IDG, Sequoia Capital, CICC Capital, GSR Venture Capital and other well-known investment institutions at home and abroad have poured in, Country Garden Venture Capital also invested in Small Face in March last year, and Tencent has invested in two consecutive rounds of Investment in Hefu Fishing Noodles.

Entering 2022, the popularity of the noodle track continues unabated, and the market has reported that there are already noodle brands planning to sprint to the capital market.

Recently, invested by a number of investment institutions, the valuation of up to 7 billion yuan of Hefu Lao noodles or will sprint to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this year, competing for the "first share of Chinese noodle restaurant".

Yang Guofu spicy hot is sprinting IPO, if the future and Fulao noodles as scheduled listing, it is expected to set off a wave of catering companies listing.

03 Under the noodle track boom, cold thinking is also needed

The strong rise of major new chain noodle restaurant brands, the influx of social capital, and the noodle track boom in 2022 are continuing.

However, in the view of the new NBS products, under the boom of noodle tracks, it is still necessary to think coldly.

First, the market bubble phenomenon of the noodle track is serious.

With the help of capital, the new noodle restaurant brands have adopted the market strategy of financing, burning money and constantly opening stores, opening hundreds of stores in a short period of time.

Investment institutions have requirements for investment projects such as revenue, efficiency, and turnover data, and fast has obviously become a hot word for noodle tracks.

Now the bubble of the noodle track is already obvious, this bubble will only blow bigger and bigger in the future, and we need to be wary of the bubble bursting.

Second, the sustainable profitability of the noodle business.

Catering belongs to mass consumption, many consumers believe that the price of a bowl of noodles is as little as 20 yuan a bowl, more than 40 yuan a bowl, noodle restaurants must be very profitable.

At present, mainly relying on financing expansion and store operating income, these new brand noodle restaurants in the store decoration, marketing and operating costs in many aspects of the cost is not small, and Fulao noodles until the first half of 2021 to turn around the loss.

The sustainability of the profitability of the new noodle restaurant is the key, and Li Xuelin, founder of Hefu Noodles, also said: "We are now thinking more about how to make Hefu live longer, and the most difficult thing in the catering industry is sustainability." ”

In the long run, new noodle restaurants are often positioned as high-end, refined and high-quality, but the capacity of the first- and second-tier markets is limited after all, and the road to market sinking in the future will not be easy.

Third, under the fast pace, food safety problems still occur.

A bowl of hot noodles still needs to pay attention to food safety issues, and there are still occasional food safety incidents in the noodle shop industry.

For example, in July 2021, there was a dead rat incident at a Hefu noodle store in Shanghai. According to public information, Hefu Fish noodles Shanghai Company has been fined many times from 2014 to 2020 for false publicity and food cases.

The capital hot noodle restaurant track hopes to find the next "Haidilao" and the next "China's McDonald's" in the catering track.

This noodle track boom will continue for a long time in the future, and whether there will be a chicken feather left after the boom, only time can tell us the answer in the future.