Due to the "sudden death of employees on the first day of work", Michelle Ice City is on the hot search again.
According to a number of netizens in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, "At the Honey Snow Ice City Milk Tea Shop in Xintiandi, a female employee died just after going to work. The reporter asked the relevant staff of Mi Xue Ice City today, and the other party said that the incident was true: "Just an hour after work, the little girl suddenly fell to the ground, and the clerk directly dialed 120 and 110 to call the police, but there was no rescue." Specific public security organs are already under investigation and awaiting the final findings. ”
The reporter noted that this "new tea giant" with 20,000 stores is accelerating the diversification of brands while frequently "running red lights" on the road of "food safety" and "enterprise employment".
Want to "contract young people to be happy"?
As one of the largest chain tea brands in China, Mi Xue Bingcheng Company's every move has attracted market attention. The reporter recently found that Henan Mixue Bingcheng Beverage Co., Ltd. has undergone industrial and commercial changes, and the business scope has added liquor business; Internet sales; daily necessities sales; toys, animation and amusement supplies sales; daily mask (non-medical) sales. In addition, its affiliate "Snow King Investment" took a stake in Henan Chicken Packing Catering Enterprise Management Co., Ltd., holding 30% of the shares.
Fried chicken, beer and milk tea are known as the three elements of happiness for contemporary young people. In other words, Michelle Ice City, which has 20,000 stores, wants to "contract the happiness of young people"? In this regard, Michelle Ice City said: "It is just a normal corporate investment action. ”
However, it is not difficult to see from the history of "bursting red" in Mi xue ice city that it seems that every step has stepped on the hi point of contemporary young people.
Screenshot of the video of The Ice City B station
In 2021, the Mi Xue Ice City advertising divine comedy unexpectedly out of the circle, "you love me, I love you, Honey Snow Ice City Sweet Honey" is popular, playing more than 15 million in station B, and the fire is all over the country. The mascot "Snow King" is also gradually becoming known. Many young people who have not drunk The Snow City have also been attracted to the store. As of now, not only is the B station often millions of plays, Weibo and snow king related topics also have more than 100 million reads, and on platforms such as Douyin, a casual search is 1w+ content.
"If you understand The Ice City, you will understand this young people." Some people believe that with the popularity of the Snow King again and again, Honey Snow Ice City has also successfully passed the IP of the Snow King and "stirred" into the hearts of young people.
Aoyi News once reported that since its inception, Michelle Ice City has positioned its brand as the food and beverage that young people love. Founder Zhang Hongchao started his business in 1997 and took less than 4,000 yuan of start-up capital to sell shaved ice in the streets of Zhengzhou, Henan Province. In 2000, he upgraded the stall selling shaved ice to a store and named it "Honey Snow Ice City". In 2006, with the "1 yuan 1 piece" ice cream to open the market, gradually began to grow and develop.
In 2020, the development of Michelle Ice City pressed the "fast forward button". On September 30, 2020, according to the information of the Henan Securities Regulatory Bureau, Mixue Bingcheng Co., Ltd. intends to be listed on the A-share market for IPO, and has completed the IPO counseling filing. If the listing is successful, Michelle Ice City will become the second share listed on the tea drinking track after Nai Xue's tea. In January 2022, Mi Xue Ice City completed the first round of financing of 2 billion yuan, and Meituan Dragon Ball and Hillhouse Capital jointly led the investment.
Different from the high-end positioning of Naixue's tea deep ploughing in first- and second-tier cities, the main position of Michelle Ice City is concentrated in second- and third-tier cities across the country, and the stores in the sinking market account for more than 80%, which is called "the first cup of milk tea for small-town youth" by netizens.
Now, after more than 20 years of development, Michelle Ice City, which has about 20,000 stores, is no longer a new tea drinking company selling ice cream and milk tea. In addition to rapidly developing the market, Michelle Ice City is also constantly developing new categories and breaking the boundaries of consumption.
Screenshot of the Lucky Coffee Mini Program page
In 2017, the coffee brand "Lucky Coffee" incubated by Michelle Ice City was officially launched, and as of January 2022, the number of lucky coffee stores has exceeded 500.
In 2021, Snow King Investment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Michelle Ice City, invested in a new tea beverage brand in Guangdong, "HuiCha", which has a main bubble tea business.
In October 2021, Michelle Ice City opened the first Snow King Castle Experience Store in Zhengzhou Guomao, where users can not only diy ice cream by themselves, but also experience coconut milk braised noodles, steamed bun ice cream and so on.
Recently, there are media reports that Henan Zhengzhou Fulujia (the brand was renamed Fulujia in February this year) convenience store and Mixue Ice City have a close "kinship" relationship. Although Mi Xue Bingcheng denied and said: "There is no equity association with fulujia and no business cooperation relationship." ”
It is close to Fulujia Brewery and Fulujia Convenience Store. Image source Public Comment Network
However, there are still views that from the site selection of Fulujia and Mixue Ice City to the launch of joint products and other actions, the two companies have an inseparable connection.
It is worth noting that Fulujia craft beer under Fulujia Convenience Store is speculated by the industry that it may be "a step for Mi Xue Ice City to enter the beer market." ”
Earn 200 million less to help franchisees tide over the difficulties?
Reducing store costs through supply chain advantages is the "low-cost secret" of Mixue Ice City. A former franchisee of Mi xue bingcheng told reporters: "Through the unified ingredients of the factory and the unified delivery to the stores, the number of recruitment of store staff and the loss of materials during on-site production of stores can be reduced." ”
The franchise fee is the main source of profit for Michelle Ice City. The reporter learned that the franchise fees of Michelle Ice City in provincial capitals, prefecture-level cities and county-level cities are 11,000 yuan / year, 9,000 yuan / year, 7,000 yuan / year, plus daily management, store equipment, raw materials, decoration and rent, about 350,000 yuan can be spent to open a franchise store. According to the average annual franchise fee of 8,000 yuan per franchisee and the scale of 20,000 franchise stores, The annual franchise fee income of Michelle Ice City is 160 million yuan.
Secondly, Michelle Ice City is also responsible for providing franchisees with the needs of equipment, raw materials and packaging materials in stores. In other words, the more materials the store consumes, the more Honey Snow Ice City earns.
However, in the past two years, domestic tea competition has been fierce, with many new Internet red brands, high store density, and the impact of the epidemic and other factors. Joining Michelle Ice City is not as profitable as "imagined." According to a set of data circulating in the franchisee: "Now when joining Michelle Ice City, there is a 20% possibility of closing the store at a loss, a 30% probability of making money, and a 50% break-even." ”
The relevant person in charge of Mi xue ice city told reporters that during the epidemic prevention and control period, the stores in many areas of the country have been affected by the epidemic spread in many places and multiple points, and there has been a suspension of dine-in, no contact point to pick up meals, and the relative reduction of offline store traffic, especially many stores in medium- and high-risk areas have closed their stores due to sealing.
The above-mentioned person in charge said that in March 2022, Michelle Ice City issued an internal support policy of "reducing and waiving franchise fees", which will reduce the franchise fee for one year for all franchisees in the operating state of stores before December 31, 2021, with a total reduction of nearly 200 million yuan. At the same time, Michelle Ice City also launched a "super 50% material price reduction policy." "Reduced-price materials include a variety of materials such as ingredients, packaging materials, consumables and so on.
Illegal use of child labor and repeated breaches of food safety red lines
In the view of some insiders, the franchise store of Michelle Ice City has strong autonomy, but at the same time, it also poses a certain challenge to the management of Michelle Ice City. "In order to save costs and make profits as soon as possible, many franchisees will not fully implement the standardization and standardization of personnel management training and processes."
Shortly after the "sudden death of employees" incident, in early April this year, the Mixue Bingcheng Beverage Store in Tiantai County, Zhejiang Province, was fined 12,500 yuan for "illegal use of child labor". It is understood that the child laborer is a 15-year-old school dropout girl, "after arguing with her parents, she ran away from home in a negative mood." With the help and counseling of the Tiantai County Education Department and psychological counselors, psychological counselors, "parent-child relationship has improved", changed girls have now returned to school.
The person in charge of the store involved in The Ice City said in response to the media, "Because I made a wrong decision to have this situation, I was really wrong at that time." The store's director said that according to his own information, the girl "is a child abandoned by the family and then comes out to find a job." I probably recruited her out of responsibility, feeling that this child was too pitiful. ”
In addition, the Mixue Bingcheng store has also been exposed to food safety problems many times, and on March 17, 2022, a store in Meixue Bingcheng, Jingchuan County, Gansu Province, was fined 10,000 yuan for using expired raw materials. In September 2021, the Mixue Bingcheng store in Zhengzhou City was fined 90,900 yuan for the use of overdue food raw materials. On May 14, 2021, The Zhengzhou Yong'an Street store, Jinan Daguanyuan store and Wuhan Mahu Commercial Street store under Mixue Bingcheng were exposed to a series of health chaos, including tampering with the validity period of Kaifeng ingredients and using semi-finished products of overnight tea soup milk syrup.
"The one-sided focus on expansion of brands is very easy to form scattered violations." Shen Meng, executive director of Chanson Capital, pointed out: "Most of the brands of new tea drinks are franchise chains, and when the headquarters management radius is too large, so that the management ability is insufficient, and the franchisees themselves are not strict in management, there will be violations. He suggested: "Although the market competition is fierce, the brand still cannot relax the requirements for store operation, and only the brand itself can strengthen its management to eliminate flaws as much as possible." ”
Michelle Ice City's milk tea products have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, can its diversification attempts continue to capture the hearts of young people? Can Michelle Ice City do a good job in quality control, avoid problems caused by its own expansion, and hurt consumers? Everything will take time to verify.
Aoyi news reporter Guan Yuhui Zhang Jieying