Plummeting by hundreds of millions! Why is China's most "addictive" high-speed rail snack getting more and more popular?

In the eyes of foreigners, there are three most unnatural foods in China:

One is spicy strips, the second is pine eggs, and the third is phoenix feet.

It is estimated that 80% of the chicken feet in the international market end up in China. From January to November last year, China imported nearly 500,000 tons of chicken feet, and Guangdong, the largest quantity, alone accounted for 230,000 tons.

But the industry boss of pickled pepper chicken feet, Youyou Food, seems to be tied to his feet.

Recently, Youyou handed over the worst report card of operating income since its listing, with revenue falling below 1 billion and net profit falling below 100 million.

For more than 20 years, "Youyou" has almost become synonymous with pickled pepper and phoenix feet, and it seems to be singing all the way, but the crisis is also approaching step by step.

Young people love to eat chicken feet so much, why is the originator not fragrant?

"I only have one bottom line for starting a business, just don't jump off the building!"

It may be hard to imagine how much Chinese love chicken feet.

It is estimated that the Chinese can eat 200~30 billion phoenix claws every year, which may not be intuitive.

Compare with China's annual broiler slaughter of less than 10 billion, a chicken only has two paws, so it is clear that China's chicken feet produced in a year are not enough for Chinese to eat, and they have to rely on foreign imports.

For Chinese, the magic of chicken feet is that the taste is really different depending on the method:

Grilled chicken feet, braised chicken feet, cold chicken feet, steamed chicken feet with soy sauce... According to the records of the State Intellectual Property Office, the first person to apply for a patent for "bubble phoenix claws" is called Lu Youzhong.

Before specializing in the chicken feet business, Lu Youzhong was still the owner of Youyou Restaurant.

But the competition in the restaurant is extremely fierce, and whether there is a signature dish that can be used directly determines the life and death of the restaurant.

Seeing that the business was not improving, Lu Youzhong couldn't sleep in a hurry. Until one day, Lu Youzhong was eating at home, although the table was already full of dishes, his wife still did not forget to bring his soul mate on the Sichuan dinner table - kimchi.

Sichuan people love to eat kimchi, and China Kimchi City is located in Meishan, Sichuan. At that time, Lu Youzhong suddenly had an inspiration: since Sichuan pickles can be soaked in everything, it is better to "do something" on pickled peppers first.

As a result, Lu Youzhong pioneered the launch of a series of pickled pepper dishes.

Master Lu's brain hole is indeed very big, other people's pickles are pickled radish and cabbage, he simply made the back pot meat, fish, bullfrog, chicken feet and even side dishes into pickled pepper flavor, but he didn't expect to eat Chongqing people directly.

The foodies spread ten, ten to hundred, and Lu Youzhong's restaurant soon became popular. In just four years, Lu Youzhong opened four restaurants in Chongqing and Chengdu, earning 5 million.

But soon, the 5 million will be compensated by Master Deer.

In 1997, 42-year-old Lu Youzhong made the most bold decision in his life: he closed all the restaurants when the business was booming, founded Youyou Food Company, and devoted himself to the study of pickled pepper food, pickled pepper phoenix feet is the main product.

In today's words, Youyou belongs to a white-label business, with no spokesperson, no advertising, and no fame.

Master Lu's stupid way is to bring his own products to be pushed in supermarkets, railway stations, and docks in Chongqing, and give the products for free for others to taste.

The process of pushing is hard and sad, "Chaotianmen Wharf has a large flow of people, I will visit the grocery store with the staff, one by one, it doesn't matter if it can't be sold for the time being, just help us put it, in short, let the market see Youyou's pickled pepper phoenix feet, and know that there is such a snack." ”

But before it sold out, Lu Youzhong was taught a lesson by two things:

First, the products produced in large quantities by Youyou suddenly swelled during transportation, and all the products must be thrown away; second, the initial phoenix feet must be cut by hand, which has low efficiency and poor quality control, which affects sales.

This time, he really realized the level of difficulty in opening a restaurant and a company - taste, technology, and supply chain are all indispensable.

So, he turned to food experts from Southwest University for help, first solved the fermentation and preservation technology of soaked food, and then spent eight years to develop a fully automatic chicken foot cutting machine.

And these technologies and investments are "bottomless" until they are successful:

"In 2000, I lost 5 million yuan to make pickled pepper and phoenix feet, and closed all four restaurants. I also borrowed money from the bank and didn't pay it back. I cried, but I didn't cry in front of people, I cried behind my back, it was really bitter and bitter. ”

Nine years later, Youyou Food's revenue broke 100 million, and it was also listed as the first stock in the pickled pepper phoenix claw industry.

Lu Youzhong said, "When I started my business, I only set a bottom line, that is, I didn't jump off the building. ”

The helplessness of the "King of Chicken Feet":

was overtaken by Internet celebrities and mended by rumors

1 billion in revenue, sounds like a pretty big number.

But on closer inspection, Youyou's chicken feet have not had a good time in the past few years, and it can even be said that they are at the peak of their debut, and then they went downhill:

Compared with himself, from 2021 to the first three quarters of 2023, Youyou Food's revenue fell from 1.220 billion to 1.024 billion, and then to 759 million, almost stuck in place.

Compared with competitors, in 2019, when Youyou Food landed on the A-share market, the Internet celebrity brand Wang Xiaolu was born, and then it only took 3 years to break 1 billion, and the growth rate directly killed Youyou.

Now Youyou's predicament is almost the same as Wahaha in previous years.

They all have fist products, and they are all former kings of channels, but they are far behind in innovation and marketing, and they have also been taught a lesson by their peers.

1. The more successful you are, the more you dare not transform

In the past, Youyou had a place of pride, that is, the pickled pepper phoenix feet were too resistant!

A chicken claw once accounted for more than 80% of the entire revenue, and until last year, pickled pepper and phoenix feet still accounted for more than 7% of Youyou Food's performance income.

And just when Youyou was living with pickled pepper and phoenix claws, the innovation of the "enemies" was as bold as Lu Youzhong back then - the younger generations were barefoot and not afraid to wear shoes, and quickly exploited several loopholes in the king of chicken feet.

For example, if Youyou's chicken feet have bones, Wang Xiaolu will take a bite to get rid of the bones; Youyou's chicken feet will mainly be used in big supermarkets, and Wang Xiaolu will storm convenience stores in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

If you are a chicken feet foodie, you will definitely find that the country under the mouth of pickled pepper chicken feet has been snatched away by lemon chicken feet.

The lemon boneless chicken feet in the live broadcast room have made Chengdu Yamaya earn 300 million yuan a year, with an annual growth of 100%;

Youyou has developed new varieties such as pepper-flavored phoenix feet and sauerkraut phoenix feet, but the sales are not satisfactory.

Youyou's single-product model is right, but it leaves countless opportunities for competitors to overtake, and it also makes itself more and more passive.

2. The more "first brother" he is, the more he is slandered by rumors

However, compared with the product, the power of rumors has a stronger impact on Big Brother.

At that time, Wahaha's Nutrition Express, because there was a film after drying, there were outrageous rumors that Nutrition Express was made of condoms.

And this extremely normal protein gel phenomenon is no match for the rapidly spreading rumors, which made Wahaha lose nearly 12.5 billion.

In 2017, there were cases of human infection with H7N9 avian influenza in 16 provinces in mainland China, and rumors spread that eating pickled pepper and phoenix feet could be infected with avian influenza.

Later, a video of "pickled pepper phoenix claws are resistant to storage is actually because of nuclear technology" on the hot search.

It is a popular science post, which talks about pickled pepper phoenix feet that can only be stored for 3-5 days, and can be stored for a long time through irradiation sterilization through the application of nuclear technology.

As a result, some rumors immediately began to forward the pseudo-popular science articles of "shocking body" in the group, which directly evolved into "Shocked! Pickled pepper phoenix claws are actually preserved by nuclear radiation!"

However, in fact, irradiated food does not contain radioactive nuclear elements, and is only used to kill bacteria, and even tastes better than high-temperature sterilized or low-temperature refrigerated food.

In order to avoid sprouts, the garlic and potatoes in the greenhouse will also be irradiated to extend the shelf life.

The irradiation technology was rumored to be "nuclear radiation", and this outrageous rumor naturally bore the brunt of the harm to Youyou, who mainly pickled pepper and phoenix feet.

So far, the dependence on pickled pepper phoenix feet, conservative marketing, the lag of new product research and development, and the surrounding rumors have become the dead knot of this old company.

A time-honored brand trapped by chicken feet,

In fact, there is a life-saving card!

Is the chicken feet category a good business?

The answer is yes.

Chicken feet not only supported a number of Internet celebrity snack brands, saved the live broadcast rooms of a number of celebrity Internet celebrities, but also found a way to live for Internet celebrity stores that could no longer be rolled: Yan Lu Tang, the pioneer of tiger skin glutinous chicken feet, opened more than 100 stores a year, expanding from Wuhan to all parts of the country.

And the rumors about chicken feet are spreading, the essence is because the threshold for this category is indeed extremely low - whether it is raw materials or methods, it is not complicated.

This also means that many times all kinds of small manufacturers are not willing to spend money and time to study anti-corrosion technology, and many can only achieve brine vacuuming.

This also led to the more popular the chicken feet were sold, and the more infamous they were.

The police once seized 700 kilograms of poisonous chicken feet in the workshop, without any food production license, and also found a large amount of hydrogen peroxide, sodium hydroxide, and gutter oil.

Even the live broadcast room of the head Internet celebrity may not stand the test.

When Mi Zijun, the king of big stomachs, was selling chicken feet in the live broadcast room, there was a "weird" scene:

The director of the live broadcast room kept reminding fans that "there is lipstick in the lucky bag in the upper left corner", and in the "lower right corner" of the live broadcast screen, a cockroach is at a loss surrounded by thick chicken feet......

Although there are many Internet celebrity brands, people like Youyou, who are willing to study preservation and antiseptic technology in a down-to-earth manner, can eliminate a large number of enterprises.

The reason why Youyou can fight your way out of the encirclement is not only because its taste is special, but also because it is soaked rather than marinated.

The chicken feet soaked in the sauce are sour and spicy, satisfying people's unwilling to be lonely mouths and stomachs, making many people obsessed with them to this day, and also becoming a code for many pregnant women to satisfy their cravings during pregnancy.

However, the sweet and sour flavor of the phoenix claw is sour, but there is no vinegar in the ingredients, because it is fermented by lactic acid bacteria and biopreserved.

Chicken feet are all small pieces because they are cut into pieces and then cooked, which sterilizes and inactivates them, and can also remove broken bones.

Finally, the irradiation technology is used to ensure that the chicken feet will not swell and puncture the packaging, and the three-layer defense line ensures the taste and antiseptic, which is the lesson of the blood that Lu Youzhong bought for 5 million that year.

Taste and quality are the life-saving cards against opponents.

Lu Youzhong is 70 years old this year, and Lu Youzhong, who is standing in his old age, announced a plan to train a successor as early as 2020, and the person who cultivated it was his daughter Lu Xin.

Just like the three fires that Zong Fuli took over, Wahaha is no longer conservative and slow, a large number of freezers have been spread into the store, and the self-produced freezers are in full swing.

The more successful a brand is, the easier it is to rely on it, and the more successful a product is, the more difficult it is to accommodate new products.

If China's old brands want not to be poached by others, they still rely on their own products to be hard enough and dare to innovate as they did when they started their businesses.

What you have to do is not only to ensure the quality of the ace product pickled pepper phoenix claw, but also to study the needs of users, develop more innovative new products, and compete with Internet celebrity brands.

Strictly speaking, innovation failure is not called failure, and it is called real failure for fear of making mistakes and standing still and being eliminated by the times. Because in the cruel world of business:

Taking the initiative to attack is the best defense.

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