On March 7, the reporter noted that recently, Yum China released its 2021 annual report, announcing the termination of operation of its Chinese fast food brand "Oriental White". As of December 31, 2021, there are 5 Oriental white stores in China, and all stores are scheduled to be permanently closed in 2022.
The reporter's inquiry found that the official website of The Oriental White currently only has the words "the official website is being upgraded, please wait", and the result of the franchise telephone is an empty number. According to the Dianping website, the DongfangJianbai store, which was originally located at Beijing South Railway Station, was also marked as "closed for business".
The headquarters of Dongfang Jiebai is located in Shanghai. On April 27, 2005, a Chinese fast food chain called "Oriental White" opened in Xujiahui. Global catering giant Yum Group announced that it is the fifth largest catering brand launched by the group after KFC, Pizza Hut Express and Taco Bell, thus officially entering the Chinese fast food market.
"The East is white" is said in Su Dongpo's "Former Chibi Fu", "Guests are happy and laughing, washing cups are more drinking, the core is exhausted, and the cups and plates are in disarray." In the boat, I do not know the whiteness of the East." Yum Restaurant Group uses this as a signboard to enter the Chinese food market, which shows the consistent style of its localization strategy. In the oriental white stores, traditional varieties of Chinese food such as rice, porridge, noodles, buns, and soy milk are readily available, and plum vegetables and meat rice, sweet and sour small steaks have become the main ones.
Yum China said in its 2021 annual report that it decided to terminate the operation of Oriental White on the grounds that "the brand has been seriously affected by the new crown epidemic".
"Dongfang Isbai as a sub-brand under Yum, but has not formed a brand effect and scale effect, the reason behind it is related to its own differentiation ability and innovation is not strong, and there is no iteration of upgrading." Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng said that Western food and Chinese food are two different systems, interlaced like a mountain, "Chinese food pays attention to accurate docking, if you use foreign simple standardized chain thinking to do Chinese food, the effect will definitely be greatly reduced." ”
Some insiders believe that local Chinese fast food chains have developed rapidly in recent years, and business models such as "central kitchen" and "franchising" are no longer patents of "foreign fast food". The greater challenge facing Dongfang Jiebai is that although it claims to be positioned as a Chinese-style fast food, the main dishes are indeed chicken steak, pork steak rice, etc., and the categories cover breakfast, lunch, dinner and afternoon tea, and there is unclear positioning and fall into the embarrassing situation of "being a home hit".
The reporter noted that this is not the first time that Yum China has suffered setbacks in the Chinese food business line. In 2012, Yum China acquired the hot pot brand Xiaofei Sheep for nearly HK$4.6 billion, and together with the shares it previously held, Yum's shareholding ratio was as high as 93.2%, making a high-profile entry into the Chinese food market. However, after the small fat sheep, which was listed in Hong Kong and was known as the "first stock of hot pot", was included in the Yum banner, it was becoming increasingly "emaciated" and the business stagnated. According to the 2021 annual report, as of December 31, 2021, Xiaofei sheep has more than 240 stores around the world, of which 220 stores are franchise stores. In its heyday, there were more than 700 small fat sheep stores.
According to the financial report, Yum China's total revenue for the full year of 2021 was US$9.85 billion, an increase of 19% from US$8.26 billion in the same period last year. As of December 31, 2021, there were more than 11,700 restaurants. Yum China has a number of well-known catering brands, in addition to the well-known KFC and Pizza Hut, the company's catering brand portfolio also includes Xiao Fat Sheep, Huang Jihuang, Lavazza, COFFii & JOY, Taco Bell and so on. Among them, Lavazza has expanded from 4 stores to 58 stores.
Image source: Oriental Both White, Yum China