Source: What's Worth Joining (ID: SMZDJM)
Author: Wang Xinlei
The outbreak of this wave of epidemics in many places before and after "May Day" has once again brought catering and dine-in in Beijing, Zhengzhou, Shenyang and other places into a standstill, and brands such as Xibei, Haidilao, and Unigroup have "set up stalls to survive".
If the "store closure" is only the direct harm caused by the epidemic, and "head investment ecology, second- and third-line acquisitions, and old-fashioned new product mergers and acquisitions" are the deep impact and reform of the epidemic on the catering industry.
Recently, the traditional dessert giant "Manji Dessert" and the new tea brand "Xiaoman Tea Field" completed the merger.
After the overall consumption is cold and the industry has entered a period of calm integration, the tea drinking pattern has been basically fixed. The merger of Xiao man's choice and man ji is conducive to both sides to create a common second growth curve.
Image courtesy of Man Kee Dessert & Koman Cha Tian Guan Wei
And the birth of the "New Manji" is not accidental. In the future, the catering industry will accelerate towards "mergers and acquisitions".
01
Will the merger of the two companies be 1+1>2?
Looking at the name alone, "Xiao man tea field" seems to be a sub-brand of "manji dessert". In fact, before the merger, the two companies were independent brands.
Founded in Hong Kong in 1995, Man Kee Dessert focuses on the concept of dessert afternoon tea.
After the establishment of Manji Shanghai headquarters in 2010, it began the road of large-scale expansion in the mainland. With the direct operation model and its own central factory system, relying on the dividends of shopping malls, Manji was all the rage around 2010, and the number of mainland stores was once close to 500, becoming a "sweet memory" of a generation.
Image from Manji Dessert's official Weibo
Xiaoman Tea Field is a new tea brand established in 2019, starting with Chelizi, focusing on high-end fresh fruit tea, and since its establishment, Xiaoman Tea Field has completed a total of 4 rounds of financing, with a cumulative financing amount of more than 10 million US dollars.
In 2020, the first store in XiaomanChatian opened in Chaoyang Joy City, Beijing. The Cherry Tea Series, which is built around the core category of Cherry, has attracted a large number of customers with the high-value concept of "Cherry Freedom" and the super high appearance of the product, and the dessert drink "Cherry Bomb" created by 12 Cherry has become a hot product in the store.
The image is from Xiaoman Chatian's official Weibo
Xiaoman Tea Field was born in Cherry, based on high value. At present, it has covered three high-value fruits and more than 20 products.
However, compared with the head brands such as Xicha and Naixue, Xiaoman Tea Field is not large in volume, and adopts the "boutique small shop" model, with a total of 15 stores in the country, and the monthly effect of the store is 8,000 yuan.
02
Will the merger of the two companies be 1+1>2?
Different from the merger between similar consumer brands in the past, the merger of Manji Dessert and Xiaoman Tea Field is the first "marriage between new and old" in the new consumption field.
36Kr analysis believes that traditional consumer brands have a stable chassis (excellent products, operating systems and cost control), but lack of insight into the "front end" and lack of brand power; new consumer brands rush to the "front end", but the back-end support capabilities are often insufficient.
This time, "New Manji" can make up for these two ends, on the one hand, drawing on The product innovation ability of Xiaoman Tea Tian as a new brand, on the other hand, relying on the powerful central kitchen and its own factory of Manji Desserts.
Can the "merger" of the two brands achieve 1+1>2? The possibilities can be seen from the brand tonality of "Xiaoman Tea Field".
The founding team of Xiaoman Tea Field is the post-90s, and their team culture shows the "anti-consensus" of post-90s young people.
The image is from Xiaoman Chatian's official Weibo
What is "anti-consensus"?
Founder Liu Zizheng said, "For example, many people's entrepreneurial practices, that is, they can't do high-end, they do the so-called cost performance, constantly compress the supply chain, and there are a lot of ultra-low unit prices."
We feel that the industry has been devastated by the "consensus" and is getting lower and lower. The word "cost performance" is in a certain sense pulling down the potential of consumer brand entrepreneurship. And we have some different thinking, is can we not do the cost performance?
For example, in the past, the cost performance of milk tea was to say that people sold 30 and I sold 15, but we think we can use other ways to do the cost performance? For example, can I sell for 40, but provide 68, 88 experiences"?
It is this kind of "counter-common sense" that makes "Xiaoman Tea Field" unique in the extremely inward-coiled tea industry.
At the beginning of its birth, Xiaoman Tea Field relied on the two major selling points of "Cherry" and "Cup Dessert" to go out of the circle, and successfully circled young people with high-priced fruits and high value, and was called "the most different tea drink".
With cherry as the selling point, The small full tea field is a hit. Later, Xiaoman Tea Field launched a new product matrix with the most expensive grape "Qingwang Qingti" as the selling point, which was once again widely praised.
Chen Weijia, an investor in Xiaoman Tea Field, believes that the penetration rate of chain brands in the tea drinking track is a very clear trend, and we are optimistic that Xinmanji will provide differentiated supply in tea + desserts.
As a cutting-edge tea brand with continuous verification of product innovation ability in the industry, Xiaoman and Manji, which has a long history, will produce a 1+1>2 effect.
03
Investment, M&A, integration
It will become the main theme of the "post-epidemic era" of catering
The birth of the "New Manji", the dominant person behind it can be said to be the power of capital.
First of all, capital dominates the unity of "Full Dessert" itself.
In June 2021, ADV Capital Partner completed mergers and acquisitions in Hong Kong, South China and East China, and integrated its stores in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Mainland China, as well as its cross-regional functional management headquarters.
Manji Dessert's business development over the past 10 years has been limited by the separation of brand and scale, and this acquisition is also the first time in the history of Manji to achieve the unification of global brand and scale. Manji Dessert is also the first holding merger and acquisition of AD Capital in the Chinese catering sector.
Image from Manji Dessert's official Weibo
Secondly, Liu Zizheng is also an investor.
In 2019, Liu Zizheng was still working for The well-known private equity firm Warburg Pincus Investment. As the youngest investor of Warburg Pincus Investment, Liu Zizheng, who has led or participated in the investment of well-known projects such as Mobike and Geek+, has made small achievements in the investment industry.
In 2019, Liu Zizheng left the organization and recruited core executives from Starbucks, Xicha, Meituan, Forrest Gump and other core executives to create Xiaoman Tea Field.
Third, catering has entered the "post-epidemic era", and synergy and symbiosis have become the best way out.
For Xiao man tea fields, the volume is too small, and it lacks the right to speak.
For ManJi Desserts, the popularity of Hong Kong-style desserts has receded and a new way out needs to be found.
After the merger of the two brands, Liu Zizheng, founder of Xiaoman Tea Field, will become the president of Zhigang Group (the parent company of Manji Desserts) and the co-CEO of Manji Desserts.
And after the merger, "New Manji" will also open the road to upgrading and open new format stores. The new flagship store will be positioned as a medium-sized and large store of about 200 square meters, and will launch a new dessert concept.
For example, desserts are "snack-oriented", "gift-based", and "all-day", and through these practices, the transformation of desserts to light food replacements is promoted.
At the same time, there is also an important action, that is, to return to the basic model reconstruction. Because the traffic brought by compounding and fancy showmanship in the past was not durable, the gross profit margin and repurchase rate were not supported.
In fact, after the overall consumption is cold and the industry has entered a period of calm integration, the tea drinking pattern has been basically fixed, and the merger of "Manji Dessert" and "Small Man Tea Field" is conducive to both sides to create a common second growth curve.
When the head brands have "ecological investment", when the second-tier brands of catering have either sold shares or sought acquisitions, we also predict that Gu Ming and Tea Baidao are also about to invest. Returning to the merger of Manji Desserts and Xiaomanchatian itself, Xiaoman's new sharp potential energy is enough to hedge the manji brand's once-aging experience.
In the future, investment, mergers and acquisitions, and integration will become the main theme of the "post-epidemic era" of catering.
Time and place: |, 2022 Guangzhou Poly World Trade Center Expo