China Net Finance, April 24 Yiming Food has achieved a turnaround in 2023.
Recently, Yiming Food released its 2023 annual report. During the reporting period, the company achieved operating income of 2.643 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.66%, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 22.2372 million yuan, compared with -129 million yuan in the same period last year.
In December 2023, an investor asked Yiming Food on the interactive platform whether the company has a plan to maintain the continuous growth of its main business profits? In this regard, Yiming Food replied that it will continue to increase the number of franchised stores, improve the performance of single stores, and simultaneously develop distribution and direct sales business;
The above-mentioned investors are not unreasonable to question whether the performance growth of Yiming Food is sustainable. In 2022, Yiming Food had a loss of more than 100 million yuan, and in the first three quarters of 2023, Yiming Food achieved a net profit of 4.5778 million yuan, 20.56 million yuan and 10.3062 million yuan respectively, but it turned into a loss again in the fourth quarter, with a loss of 13.2068 million yuan, but the loss range narrowed compared with the fourth quarter of 2022.
Doubling revenue from online channels
As for the reasons for the revenue growth in 2023, Yiming Food mentioned in its annual report that online sales, school milk business and large customer business have increased significantly, and at the same time, the number of franchised stores has increased, which has led to the growth of franchised store revenue in 2023.
In recent years, Yiming Food has continued to develop online channels. In 2022 and 2023, the sales of online channels will be 30.6285 million yuan and 68.1667 million yuan respectively, a year-on-year increase of 44.63% and 122.56% respectively, accounting for 1.26% and 2.58% of the total revenue, while the revenue from East China will account for 90.71% and 88.43% respectively. Some industry insiders said that for Yiming Food, it is still not easy to really go out of East China and face the national public.
While Yiming Food's online sales have increased significantly, operating costs have also risen. In 2023, the operating cost of Yiming Food's online sales channel will increase by 127.45%, which will also lead to a decrease of 1.29 percentage points in its gross profit margin to 39.75%.
According to Yiming Food, the company's e-commerce team carries out refined operations through business data to benchmark excellent stores.
In terms of channel expansion, we will continue to strengthen existing channels, continue to develop KOC talents, form a new retail mode of short video delivery matrix and output product + content; By continuing to deepen the local life of Douyin, forming a three-dimensional account distance array with communication energy, in-depth research on the operation of the member mall, and forming a methodology in marketing methods, product planning, user interaction and data decision-making.
The total number of stores increased to 2,058
In addition to online channels, the franchise of milk bar stores has become another "magic weapon" for Yiming Food to turn around its losses. By the end of 2023, Yiming Food has a total of 2,058 stores in operation, including 1,440 franchised stores, 618 directly operated stores, and 43 stores have been contracted to be opened.
According to the reporter's understanding, Yiming Food's franchise model has two types: "independent operation" and "trusteeship operation". Among them, the independent operation is the franchisee directly involved in the store management, the model claims "0 franchise fee", but needs to pay training fees, cooperation deposits, equipment costs, etc., the minimum investment threshold is 220,000 yuan, and the custody business model is to entrust Yiming Food to operate and provide professional services, the franchise fee of the model is 50,000 yuan, and the minimum investment threshold is 256,000 yuan.
In 2023, Yiming Food franchised stores increased by 345, but decreased by 179, with a net increase of 166, and directly operated stores increased by 40 and closed 77, with a net increase of -37.
Why do Yiming food stores "open and close at the same time" on a large scale? Many accounts claiming to be franchisees posted on Xiaohongshu that "joining Yiming Milk Bar is not profitable". However, Yiming Food mentioned in its annual report that in the face of external environmental challenges in 2023, the company will improve its terminal service capabilities and increase its employee ability training system on the basis of customer-centricity, so that the performance of single stores will steadily improve. At the same time, Yiming Food plans to continue to optimize supply chain resources and cost management in 2024, and reduce the investment cost of a single store by 10%.
In its annual report, Yiming Food emphasized the company's "1, 3, 4, 11 strategy". Among them, "1" is a strategic main goal, that is, to achieve the number of milk bars in East China 6,600.
The performance of Yiming Food fluctuated, and the stock price in the secondary market also fluctuated a lot. Especially since November 2023, its stock price has fluctuated by more than 90%. As Yiming Food's 340 million restricted shares were "lifted" on December 28, 2023, whether the company's senior management has a plan to reduce their holdings has become the focus of investors' attention. Yiming Food responded on the interactive platform in early February: Regarding the arrangement after the lifting of the ban on restricted shares, the company will strictly abide by relevant laws and regulations for information disclosure.
Can Yiming Food's future performance continue to grow? Will executives reduce their holdings and cash out? China.com financial reporters will continue to pay attention.
(Editor in charge: Wang Qingyu)