Source | Radar Finance
Author | Meng Shuai
The catering track, which has been frequently exposed to various chaos, has new incidents. Following Zhang Liang's spicy hot was previously accused of "hanging mutton and selling pork and duck meat", Banu hot pot was also involved in the turmoil of "fake mutton". However, the direct protagonist at the center of the whirlpool of public opinion this time is not Banu, but Chaodao self-selected hot pot, a sub-brand of Banu Group.
Recently, the short video platform blogger "Monkey Big Wrist" posted a video on social networks saying that the Chaodao hot pot restaurant in Beijing's Hopson Hui sells "fake mutton". After the incident, Chaodao self-selected hot pot said that it had sent the relevant products for inspection as soon as possible, and the mutton dish would be temporarily removed from the shelves before the results of the market supervision department's investigation came out.
According to the bulletin board of the store involved in the Chaodao incident, its main food raw materials are uniformly distributed by Banu Central Kitchen. As a brand founded by Du Teng, the son of Banu founder Du Zhongbing, Chaodao is inevitably pushed to the cusp of the hot pot giant Banu behind the scenes. On September 7, Banu's latest response showed that the lamb rolls sold on Chaodao did contain duck meat.
It is worth mentioning that Banu, which has a high per capita consumption, has always taken "productism" as its brand concept, and Banu has been involved in the turmoil of the "sky-high potato" incident before, and the "fake mutton" incident that occurred on Chaodao Island has made the outside world question the reliability of Banu's central kitchen.
Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng pointed out that the incident cast a shadow on Banu's brand image, and then Banu should react quickly, give corrective measures, and clarify or even apologize to the public, so as to save its brand effect.
In addition to the turmoil of the "fake mutton" incident, the hot pot track where Banu and its sub-brand Chaodao are located is riding the spring breeze of the catering industry to pick up. Despite its Banu background, Chaodao is not yet large, with only 4 stores in Beijing. While the industry continues to recover, the competition facing Banu and Chaodao may become more intense.
Banu's Chaodao hot pot was accused of selling "fake mutton"
"I don't think about anything else, I'm just afraid that my future children will come out to eat a meal, and even find a brand to eat will have to worry about whether there is food safety (problem)", on September 4, a blogger on the short video platform posted a video pointing out that the Chaodao self-selected hot pot restaurant in Beijing's Hopson Hui shopping mall sells "fake mutton".
When the blogger bought lamb at the store, the merchant told him that the goods he bought were not only freshly shaved, but also distributed by the central kitchen, and "we even produce the base ourselves." When the blogger asked if the goods he bought were real lamb, he also received an affirmative answer from the merchant, "That's necessary, we are one with Banu."
Later, the blogger took the purchased lamb to be tested, but it showed that it contained duck. When the blogger went to the store again, the store manager was asked whether the lamb rolls in the store were real lamb, and still gave an affirmative answer without hesitation, "No problem, I'm sure."
It is worth mentioning that the blogger who exposed the existence of "fake mutton" in Chaodao's self-selected hot pot this time is the same blogger who previously exposed Zhang Liang's spicy hot "hanging mutton to sell pork and duck". As of press time, the topic of "Banu's hot pot is accused of adulteration of mutton" has attracted more than 970,000 views on Weibo.
After the incident aroused widespread attention from the outside world, Chaodao Self-selected Hot Pot responded to the matter by releasing relevant instructions on its official public account on September 5. Chaodao Self-selected Hot Pot said that the company is actively cooperating with the market supervision department to investigate, and will send relevant products for inspection as soon as possible, and is currently waiting for further results. In order to protect the rights and interests of customers, Chaodao decided to temporarily remove the lamb dishes involved before the final investigation results of the market supervision department came out.
In this note, Chaodao also further introduced the procurement process of this mutton, "This lamb dish is independently purchased by Chaodao, supplied by Zhengzhou Senang Trading Co., Ltd., and the manufacturer is Jiuzhouyuan Food Processing Factory, Chaoyang Township, Shuangcheng District, Harbin. ”
Below this description, Chaodao also posted a supplier commitment statement printed with "Jiuzhouyuan selected lamb hot pot produced by Jiuzhouyuan Food Processing Factory, Chaoyang Township, Shuangcheng District, Harbin City, supplied by Zhengzhou Senang Trading Co., Ltd. to Chaodao hot pot, the raw material of Jiuzhouyuan selected lamb hot pot is pure mutton, not mixed with other meat quality", as well as materials including supplier business license, mutton manufacturer food production license, etc.
In response to the instructions posted by the super island, the blogger responded by posting a video on the afternoon of September 5. The blogger said that when he bought it, he was told by the store that there was a central kitchen, and the bulletin board said that "the main food raw materials are distributed by the Banu Central Kitchen", but Chaodao said in the statement that the lamb dishes were purchased independently by Chaodao, so the blogger bluntly said that he "put the responsibility on another supplier". And Banu, who was frequently mentioned in this storm, was also questioned by the blogger whether there was also a problem.
On September 6, the affected Banu hot pot came out to respond to the storm. Banu issued a statement on Weibo saying that Chaodao is indeed a sub-brand of Banu Group, and although it has been operated by an independent team since its inception, Banu Group has unshirkable responsibility for supervision and management of Chaodao. The feedback from this blogger made him realize that there may be some problems with his supervision of Chaodao. If the final result is true, the Banu group will investigate it to the end.
Regarding consumers' doubts about the lamb sold in Banu stores, Banu assured in this statement that the "Inner Mongolian grassland lamb" sold in its stores was directly purchased by the Banu procurement team in Inner Mongolia and monitored the whole process. Any subject in the whole society will conduct a random inspection of Banu mutton at any time, and if it is found that the raw materials of mutton are untrue, Banu will pay a hundred hundred for it. At the same time, Banu also invited Douyin bloggers and influential bloggers in the field of food safety to investigate and experience Banu's food procurement process in the statement.
Some analysts pointed out that behind the crooked road of "hanging mutton and selling duck meat" is because the cost of pure mutton is higher, affected by the desire for profit, some lucky merchants or suppliers replace more expensive lamb with relatively cheap chicken, duck and pork, in order to compress costs in exchange for greater profits.
On the afternoon of September 7, Banu released its latest response, saying that the latest report results showed that the lamb rolls sold on Chaodao did contain duck ingredients. For this purpose, customers who have consumed lamb rolls at the Chaodao store will be compensated 1,000 yuan, covering 13,451 lamb sold since the opening of the Chaodao Hopson Hui store on January 15, 2023, involving a total of 8,354 tables. At the same time, Chaodao Hopson Hui Store, Fengke Wanda Plaza Store, Longde Plaza Store and Shijingshan Wanda Store will be completely closed for rectification and comprehensive investigation from now on.
"Son pit daddy"?
Radar Finance noted that the public account of the release of the hot pot of Chaodao Island is affiliated with Beijing Orange Dream Catering Management Co., Ltd. Tianyan inspection shows that the company was established in January 2020 with a registered capital of 15 million yuan, and the legal representative, executive director, manager and beneficial owner are all Du Teng, and Du Tamp is the son of Du Zhongbing, the founder of Banu Hairy Belly Hot Pot.
According to the equity information of Tianyancha, Beijing Orange Dream Catering Management Co., Ltd. is 100% wholly owned by Beijing Tamped Catering Management Co., Ltd., while Beijing Tamped Catering Management Co., Ltd. is 100% wholly owned by Banu Hairy Belly Hotpot Co., Ltd.
When it comes to the brand development of Banu hot pot, it can be traced back to 20 years ago in 2001. Since its inception, Banu Hairy Belly Hotpot has received two rounds of financing. Tianyan investigation shows that in March 2020, Tomato Capital participated in the equity financing of Banu Hairy Belly Hotpot, and the transaction amount of this round of financing was nearly 100 million yuan. In September last year, Banu Hairy Belly Hotpot completed another Series A financing. In addition to the old benefactor Tomato Capital, Microlight Venture Capital entered the market as a new investor.
Although Banu Hotpot is not a catering brand that has been directly pointed out to have problems this time, Banu Hotpot, the parent company of Chaodao, has also been on the cusp of public opinion. In February this year, Banu hairy belly hot pot was on the hot search because of the "sky-high price potato" incident. At that time, a consumer ordered a "selenium-rich potato" priced at 18 yuan while eating at the Banu hot pot restaurant in Xi'an SEG Shopping Center. When the dish was served, the customer found that there were only 5 potatoes in the whole dish.
In this regard, Banu explained at the time that due to management errors, customers misunderstood the amount of potatoes, and the online video "18 yuan a piece of selenium-rich potatoes only 5 pieces" is actually a small amount, and the price of the Xi'an store is 9 yuan.
A month later, Banu Hotpot still removed the controversial selenium-rich potatoes, and Banu explained the reason for the removal as "the selenium content of the processed finished product was lost due to soaking, and the selenium content of some batches of products did not meet the standard".
However, after the storm of the "sky-high potato" incident, Banu hot pot took this as one of the marketing points. Radar Finance learned through Dianping that at present, Banu hot pot has launched "sky-high potato" packages priced at 256 yuan and 462 yuan in many stores, corresponding to meals for two and four people respectively.
Banu Hot Pot introduced that in addition to including all the popular dishes in Banu, this set menu will also give away some additional dishes to consumers. For the "sky-high potato" set, Banu Hotpot said that the package is to make customers get benefits, which is a sincere move by Banu. However, the "Sky Potato" package is only available for limited use during off-peak hours.
In fact, compared to other brands, the per capita consumption of Banu is not low. According to the data of Narrow Door Restaurant, the per capita consumption of Banu Hairy Belly Hot Pot is 136.75 yuan, the per capita consumption of Chaodao Skewer Hot Pot is 101 yuan, and the per capita consumption of Haidilao, which has more than 1,000 stores, is only 103.83 yuan. Even compared with the per capita consumption of 140.42 yuan of Coucou hot pot, which is positioned as a mid-to-high-end under Xiaku, Banu hot pot is not much different.
Compared with the service-oriented characteristics of Haidilao, Banu hot pot focuses on the concept of "product first", and Banu even shouts the slogan of "not excessive service, everything is exquisite". Regarding "productism", Du Zhongbing once explained that many people talk about "productism" and think that it is enough to polish the product well. However, in his view, the key to "productism" lies in "ism", and the most important point of "ism" is the brand strategy based on function, taste, quality, nutrition, etc.
According to the official website of Banu Hotpot, at present, Banu has more than 100 directly-operated stores, 3 central kitchens, 1 base processing plant, and more than 7,000 employees. In 2020, Banu's new central kitchen, which invested about 150 million yuan, was officially unveiled, adhering to the concept of "can be cold and fresh without freezing, can be natural without addition, and can be used on the same day without overnight" to create the third generation of supply chain in the catering industry. However, the "fake mutton" turmoil involved in Chaodao this time has undoubtedly made the central kitchen built by Banu with heart questioned by the outside world.
According to Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in the Chinese food industry, the image that Banu hotpot has been presenting to the public is to adhere to the line of "productism". But with the exposure of this incident, consumers will inevitably put question marks on Banu's products and business philosophy. Whether this incident is a problem of Banu or a subsidiary needs to be further explained through the company's quality internal control system, and this incident will cast a certain shadow on Banu's brand image.
The scale of the superisland has not yet formed a climate, and the competition in the industry is becoming more and more fierce
Turning his attention to the protagonist of this incident, Chaodao founded by Du Teng, the son of Du Zhongbing, the founder of Banu, was born in 2020. In a tweet released by the public account in July 2020, Chaodao emphasized that it "strictly inspects the source of ingredients, the central kitchen controls production, delivers fresh food at 0-4°C every day, and strictly enforces the waste time of all products..."
But this "fake mutton" incident is actually not the first time that Chaodao has been exposed to negative news. Prior to the dispute over the sale of "fake mutton", the cancelled Nongda South Road Branch of Beijing Chaodao Skewer Catering Service Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Beijing Orange Dream Catering Management Co., Ltd., an affiliate of Chaodao, was ordered to make corrections and given a warning by the Haidian Market Supervision Administration in December 2021 for the problem of people without obtaining health certificates coming into contact with food for direct consumption.
According to statistics, with the background blessing of Banu, Chaodao has opened 4 stores in Beijing, namely 3 Chaodao skewer hot pot stores and 1 Chaodao self-selected hot pot store. However, such a volume obviously has a big gap with many predecessors in the hot pot industry. According to Tianyan investigation, Chaodao, a brand of Banu, has not received external financing for the time being.
Radar Finance learned through Dianping that the average consumption of Chaodao's three Chaodao String Hotpot stores in Beijing was 102 yuan / person, while the Chaodao self-selected hot pot (Hopson Hui store) involved in the turmoil had an average consumption of 98 yuan / person. As of press time, the store has received 1578 reviews at the bottom of the homepage.
It is worth noting that in these more than 1,000 reviews, you can see regular comments such as "taste like", "good service", "fresh ingredients" and so on. However, 64% of the evaluations that mentioned the portion size were small, and there were as many as 111 reviews such as "slightly less hairy belly", "shrimp seems to be less than before", and "the amount of vegetables per plate is small".
As the impact of the epidemic on people's production and life gradually fades, the hot pot track market where Banu and Chaodao are located is ushering in a comprehensive recovery, but the gradual recovery of the industry also means that the competition between Banu and Chaodao may become more intense.
According to the financial report released by Haidilao not long ago, in the first half of 2022, Haidilao recorded revenue of 15.155 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 24.58%. In the first half of this year, Haidilao recorded revenue of 18.886 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.61%, changing the year-on-year decline in revenue in the same period of the previous year. However, compared with the revenue of 20.094 billion yuan in the first half of 2021, there is still a certain gap in the revenue of Haidilao in the first half of this year.
In terms of profits, Haidilao has made a lot of money. According to the financial report, in the first half of this year, Haidilao's profit reached 2.259 billion yuan, and the profit in only half a year was close to the net profit level of 2019, while Haidilao was still in a loss of 267 million yuan in the same period last year. In order to provide customers with better services, Haidilao has also successively piloted personalized projects such as concert bus pick-up, hair washing service, and night market stalls.
The hot pot brand with the same turnaround performance is actually not only Haidilao. According to the financial report released by Xiazhuan, in the first half of this year, Xiazhuxiahu recorded revenue of 2.846 billion yuan, an increase of more than 30% compared with the revenue of 2.156 billion yuan in the same period of the previous year. In terms of profit, Xiazhuan Xiazhu turned from a loss of 278 million yuan in the first half of 2022 to a profit of 2.12 million yuan in the first half of this year. Although the scale of this profit is not large, it has successfully extricated itself from the loss predicament.
In addition to the continued competition of old hot pot brands, there are also many new entrants who have poured into this track. Radar Finance learned through the search of the keyword "hot pot" through Tianyan Check that there were as many as 69,274 enterprises established in the past year, of which more than 670 had a registered capital of more than 1 million.
Some people in the catering industry pointed out that compared with the high per capita consumption of Banu, Chaodao has played a role in helping Banu hairy belly hot pot to explore the price range to a certain extent. Compared with Chaodao skewer hot pot, Chaodao self-selected hot pot is a new category opened by Chaodao at the beginning of this year, which turns skewers into small dishes on the basis of retaining the form of open stalls and customer choice, which may be due to the consideration that skewers are closer to snacks and the unit price of customers is relatively low. However, at a time when consumers are paying more and more attention to food safety, quality is still the original intention of catering brands to never forget.