- Chief Business Intelligence
- Chief Business Intelligence
Introduction: After the loss of nearly 9 million yuan in the "fake mutton incident" on Chaodao, Du Zhongbing seems to be no longer obsessed with his multi-brand "catering ecology".
Recently, according to the national enterprise credit information publicity system, in early March, Du Zhongbing, the founder of Banu Mao Belly Hot Pot, withdrew from the "Peach Niang Rice Small Hot Pot".
At present, Du Zhongbing and Banu have completely withdrawn from the ranks of Taoniang shareholders, which means that the fate between Banu and Du Zhongbing and Taoniang has been exhausted, and the two brands no longer have any relationship.
It is worth mentioning that before Banu withdrew, in October last year, Mu Jian, the founder of the Taoniang brand, also chose to withdraw.
This small hot pot brand, which was once regarded as a sub-brand of Banu, was abandoned by the largest shareholder in less than three years after its establishment, and even the founder withdrew, and the next development of the Taoniang brand was ill-fated.
On June 1, 2021, its first store opened in Changying Tianjie, Longhu, Beijing.
This kind of small hot pot for one person is not a new thing, the earliest is Xiabu Xiabu with the innovative category of "small hot pot", which successfully rose rapidly in the hot pot track that was already in the Red Sea at that time.
Relying on the characteristics of high quality and low price and good experience, Xiabu Xiabu is not only loved by the student party and migrant workers, but also successfully listed.
It's just that as the former "king of small hot pot", Xiabu Xiabu has not had a good time in recent years, losing money for three consecutive years, with a net loss of 293 million yuan in 2021, a net loss of 353 million yuan in 2022, a net loss of about 180 million yuan to 200 million yuan in 2023, and a cumulative loss of about 800 million yuan in three years.
Although the small hot pot category has set off a new boom in recent years, and even attracted the attention of catering bigwigs such as Haidilao, Little Sheep, Nancheng Xiang, Yoshinoya, etc., it can be verified by the turmoil of the Taoniang brand that its imagination space is obviously limited, and the small hot pot track is a "difficult to bite" bone.
Banu left the "peach girl" and concentrated on the main business
For the establishment of Tao Niang's small hot pot, its founder Mu Jian said in an interview with the media that he met Du Zhongbing, the founder of Banu, by chance, and the two hit it off with the idea of creating a "small hot pot" when they collided ideas.
So, in October 2020, the Tao Niang Xia Fan small hot pot brand was established, and Banu provided supply chain and strategic support to it.
Different from the traditional hot pot, Tao Niang has a fixed dish matching, focusing on 8 different flavors of dishes such as spicy beef pot, pork belly chicken pot, stinky tofu fat intestine pot, etc., which are directly cooked by the kitchen and then served on the table, supplemented by side dishes, snacks and special drinks.
After Xiabu Xiabu gradually increased its customer unit price, it was frequently complained and dissatisfied by consumers, so Tao Niang set the customer unit price at about 30 yuan, trying to accept the fat that Xiabu Xiabu dropped.
It's just that Tao Niang, who has taken advantage of the "east wind" of consumption downgrade, has not been developing smoothly.
According to the information disclosure of its official account, the Taoniang brand has opened a maximum of 28 stores, and as a result, after opening for franchise in 2023, the number of stores will not increase but decrease.
According to the information of the one-stop query platform of catering big data, as of April 2024, the total number of Taoniang stores nationwide is 21, and 4 stores have been closed in its home base Beijing.
You must know that when Tao Niang was first founded, she was full of confidence.
It has publicly stated that it will expand to 13 stores in Beijing by the end of 2022 with a direct sales model, and plans to reach 30-40 stores in 2023.
That goal now seems out of reach.
Perhaps it is the loss of confidence in the future development of Tao Niang, and on the other hand, it may be based on the operating pressure of its own main brand that allows Banu to "run away".
However, Du Zhongbing's move is inevitably reminiscent of a public opinion crisis of Banu's brand last year.
In September 2023, Banu Group's sub-brand "Chaodao Self-selected Hot Pot" was exposed to adulteration of mutton rolls, for Banu, which has always focused on "productism", the impact this time is not small.
Du Zhongbing once said in an interview that the ultimate goal is to be a catering ecology, not a single brand.
However, Chaodao, as a sub-brand of Banu Group, Banu was also "seated", although Du Zhongbing said that "if it weren't for my son, Chaodao and Banu would have nothing to do with it".
Du Tam, the son of Du Zhongbing, the founder of Banu, appeared in the live broadcast room to apologize
In order to regain the trust of consumers, in addition to being fined more than 440,000 yuan by the Market Supervision Bureau of Chaoyang District, Beijing, Banu spent a lot of money to pay for Chaodao's mistakes, and paid 8.354 million yuan to customers who had consumed mutton rolls in Chaodao stores, involving a total of 8,354 tables.
This turmoil can be said to have made Du Zhongbing fall behind, and also made the future "catering ecology" he envisioned waver.
As he said in one of his annual speeches last year, "There's always something wrong with stepping on the gas, but it's always okay to hit the brakes." ”
Du Zhongbing, the founder of Banu Mao Belly Hot Pot
At the end of December 2023, Du Zhongbing also said in his annual speech entitled "The Power of Focus", "Banu currently has no plans to set up a new sub-brand, and the business of the sub-brand will be temporarily slowed down in 2024. ”
On March 8 this year, the three companies held by Du Zhongbing completely withdrew from the ranks of Taoniang shareholders, accounting for a total of about 63.3956% of the shares, making them the largest shareholders.
At a time when the whole industry has entered a stage of low gross profit, it may be the right choice for Banu to focus on the main business of hot pot and not to be a second brand.
Is the business of small hot pot still easy to do?
Hot pot is indeed a hot and hot track, and the category of small hot pot is indeed a hot spot of "hot pot".
It's just that in the trillion-dollar catering market, small hot pot is no longer a high-quality track.
Although it is a flat version of hot pot, the low unit price of small hot pot means low gross profit, and the competition in the hot pot industry is too fierce, and the price war alone is not a long-term solution.
But if there is no cost performance, consumers can choose other catering categories, after all, small hot pot is actually very similar to fast food such as Malatang and Mao Cai, which are all stewed with various vegetarian and meat dishes in one pot.
However, there is neither the experience of traditional hot pot, nor the convenience of spicy hotpot, nor the taste of steamed dishes.
In 2021, Jiemian News once commented on small hot pots such as Tao Niang: fast food hot pot is an unsustainable false proposition, which was born by the epidemic and will disappear after the epidemic.
And in order to fight the price war, many unscrupulous merchants will "demonize" on food and choose cheap ingredients to ensure the cost, which is why in recent years, more and more customers have complained, "small hot pot is like a soulless hot dish", "small hot pot is not a flat replacement for hot pot, it is so unpalatable", "beef is the same as canned food fed to cats", ......
Therefore, the business of small hot pot is not hot pot, but it is really a difficult business to be affected by the concept of hot pot in terms of efficiency and cost, which shows that its road has not yet been run.
Therefore, it may be reasonable for Tao Niang to be abandoned, but the development has not met expectations, and the prospects that can be seen in the future are not large.
Cost performance alone is not enough
Consumers want a "quality-price ratio"
The entry threshold for the small hot pot track is not high, and it is rare how to make a single store maintain stable profits.
In addition, the category of hot pot is a great test of the supply chain capabilities of enterprises, and consumers who come to eat hot pot have very strict requirements for ingredients, and "freshness" is their main demand.
In addition, if the small hot pot type of small shop wants to play a certain supporting role in performance and enterprises, its scale is very important, and only scale can reduce the upstream cost, after all, the cost can be reduced in order to finally give the price to consumers.
The category of small hot pot was able to become popular before, and it was inseparable from the key factor of "cost performance".
But as the cost of catering is increasing, the service and quality of the brand are getting worse and worse, which can be seen from the performance of Xiabu Xiabu, and the performance has fallen together with its reputation, consumers think that it "has long lost its original intention", and was complained that it spent 200 yuan to eat a portion of oden, beef and mutton seemed to have been frozen for several years, and most of the shrimp slides were starch......
Not only is the price getting higher and higher, but also in recent years, it has been involved in many food safety storms due to inadequate supervision, which has deeply hit consumers' recognition of the brand.
Once relied on the label of "cheap price, large quantity and full", Xiabu Xiabu was favored by young people at first, but now it has long been abandoned by young people.
Although consumption has been downgraded, in catering, consumers not only pursue cost-effectiveness, but also pursue quality-price ratio. They want to spend less money and enjoy the quality that is not bad, and they want to be well fed and well-fed.
What's more, a small hot pot of 30 yuan a meal is really not cheap in the Chinese fast food track.
Shandong's well-known fast food chain Chao Yixing, 4 yuan of vegetarian dishes and 8 yuan of Jinan heritage specialty meat, with 2 yuan of rice and free unlimited refill of corn paste, 14 yuan can be full.
Nancheng Xiang has launched a 20 yuan self-service small hot pot, and the vegetables are free to eat, unlimited, and the ingredients and rice are also free, and the cost performance directly kills similar brands.
Even the hot pot giant brand Haidilao has launched the takeaway brand "Haidilao Meal Hot Pot Dish", betting on the "one person meal" package, although the unit price is not cheap, but Haidilao, a big coffee with capital, resources, supply chain and other advantages, has developed 500 points in less than 1 year.
Therefore, if a small brand wants to enter the small hot pot track, it will naturally not be able to grab the big brand.
It can only be said that Tao Niang is in such a competitive track, and the road ahead is more auspicious.
Have you ever eaten a small hot pot with peach girls?What do you think about this?Welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss, express your opinions or opinions, thank you.
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