Minshang Daily reporter Lin Jin comprehensively sorted out
You may not have heard of the "Philippine Dining King" Happy Bee that makes McDonald's bow down, but you must know the "King of Yonghe".
Chen Juezhong, a fast-food giant based in Jinjiang, Fujian Province, is one of the top ten richest people in the Philippines; his Happy Bee Food Group has the largest fast food service network in the Philippines, with more than 2,000 branches. In 2004, Chen Juezhong acquired an 85% stake in Yonghe Dawang and became the owner behind the famous Chinese food brand.
In 2018, Chen Juezhong and Chen Yunzhong returned to their hometown in Jinjiang, saying that no matter where he went, his favorite food was peanut soup, which was the most hometown flavor. Every time I come back, I have to eat a few bowls.
He has swept 90 million Filipinos with his "localized" Western-style fast food, such as pineapple sandwich beef burger and honey steak rice. Its brand Happy Bee, Super Group Chinese Fast Food, Greenwich Pizza, and Big Mill French Fast Food composed of the catering kingdom accounted for 60% of the Philippine market, and even McDonald's and KFC could only catch up after it.
In Chen Juezhong's view, the difference in regional food culture and eating habits is not the key reason why China's fast food industry cannot become bigger. He said: "The restaurant industry is not like the Internet industry, its reason is very simple: There is no shortage of good chefs in China, such as a bowl of beef noodles, it is easy to make it yourself, but if you let each chain store make a bowl of beef noodles every day, it is difficult to ensure that the quality is the same every day." Chain stores can take different products as the main focus according to the eating habits of different regions, and the most important thing is standardized implementation and problem solving. The challenge now is how to do it well all the time. ”
01
A glass of ice cream, break out of the world
Chen Juezhong entered the catering industry, which was completely influenced by his father.
Chen Juezhong's ancestral home is Fujian, and when his father was 13 years old, he went to Manila, the Philippines, and later opened a Chinese restaurant, and the business was quite good. Chen Juezhong has been helping in restaurants since he was a child, and he has a deep understanding of the catering business. After graduating from college, he and his brother borrowed a sum of money and started a business selling ice cream.
Due to learning to do business from an early age and having a bright mind, the ice cream business is booming. In the following two years, five stores were opened, and the business products expanded from single ice cream to burgers and other products. In order to let the company have a better development, Chen Juezhong also went to the United States for a 3-month inspection, which benefited a lot.
After returning to the Philippines, he transformed all ice cream shops into fast food chains, officially established the brand "Happy Bee", kicked off the prelude to brand management, and gradually occupied a place in the Philippine catering industry.
02
Take the enemy as a teacher and defeat McDonald's
In Chen Juezhong's view, the catering industry is not a high-tech field, but mainly delicious meals and fair prices. On this basis, large-scale operation must continue to innovate and attract consumers with delicious things.
To compete with McDonald's, he adjusted his strategy. In the face of the clown logo at the door of McDonald's, Chen Juezhong positioned his corporate logo as "a lively and cute little bee" to highlight the quality of filipinos' diligence and happiness, and suddenly won the favor and love of Filipino men and women, young and old, and quickly produced a unique public relations publicity effect of "in order to get close to happy bees, happy to eat fast food".
"Happy Bee" also targets the Filipino family level, providing food more suitable for locals, Happy Bee's fried chicken tastes crisp and does not have mcDonald's spicy; happy bee noodles are a bit sweet, because the taste of Filipinos is sweet, and McDonald's noodle tomato sauce is more suitable for American tastes; Happy Bee also sells a variety of mango products, Filipino rice noodles and honey steak rice and other Chinese foods, which McDonald's does not have.
Chen Juezhong boldly learned from the successful operation mode of McDonald's, and gradually formed three major management tricks of "perfect business model, strong brand effect and franchise system", accumulated the "food, service, cleanliness, affordability" fast food business 8-character scripture, targeted to compete with McDonald's, with "soil" characteristics to overcome the "foreign" brand, while making great efforts in taste.
Under a series of measures, Happy Bee not only won the competition, but also surpassed McDonald's in the number of local branches, with a market share of more than 60%. By the 1990s, it was the first fast food company to go public in the Philippines.
03
Acquire multiple brands and build a fast food kingdom
In order to stay in a long-term leadership position in the fast food chain, Happy Bee acquired Greenwich Pizza in 1994, and in 1996 Happy Bee became the only franchise of Big Mill in the Philippines.
Subsequently, Through mergers and acquisitions, franchises and other means, Chen Juezhong successively included fast food brands such as "Greenwich", "Big Mill" and "Chaoqun" to the account and established his own fast food kingdom.
Several of the Happy Bee Group's brands have their own uses in Chen Juezhong's hands, using "Happy Bee" against McDonald's, Kenderson Chicken and other burger fast food, and "Greenwich", "Supergroup" and "Big Mill" franchises against Pizza Hut. The four brands are aimed at different consumer groups: Happy Bee for families with young children, Greenwich for teenagers, Supergroup for wage earners, and Big Mill for the high-income bracket.
In February 2004, Happy Bee acquired 85% of the shares of Yonghe Dawang for 22.5 million yuan. Chen Juezhong entered the market through a backdoor and entered the Chinese mainland market. Under the meticulous layout of Chen Juezhong, today's Happy Bee Group is already the largest chain catering enterprise in the Philippines, with more than 4500 stores worldwide. Chen Juezhong is also known as the "King of Chinese Catering" by the outside world.
"Father often said that if you are a tailor, your clothes should look good; If you are doing catering, the taste must be good. Chen Juezhong always took his father's words to heart and applied them to the enterprise.
Chen Juezhong is one of the representatives of outstanding overseas Fujian businessmen, and from his success, we can see the excellent characteristics of Fujian businessmen displayed in him; for example, he has the spirit of "openness" and "expansion", and for example, he pays attention to "relocating the land" in traditional culture.
Charity is another remarkable feature of Fujian businessmen. After their immigration, they have a strong concept of geography, kinship, and ethnic affinity, and they get help from their fellow villagers when they "go abroad", and after they get rich, they also actively return to their hometown and return to their homeland.
Source: Catering 020 Way, Liu Xian said, Beijing cuisine headhunter, etc