In the past year, Hema and Sam have been in a constant dark war, but they didn't expect Sam to be not only unaffected, but to open stores everywhere, and even caused Zhengzhou Jinshui District, Central Plains District and other districts to compete for settlement. Unexpectedly, it was recently reported that Hou Yi, the founder of Hema and Daniel Zhang, the former CEO of Alibaba, intend to join forces to bid for Hema and bid $2 billion. The news of Hema selling itself has been rumored one after another, is it really a rumor?
People familiar with the matter deny the rumors,
But not for nothing?
On April 21, it was reported that Hema founder Hou Yi and former Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang were interested in joining forces to bid for Hema for $2 billion. On the same day, the media learned from a source close to Hou Yi that the news was untrue, "nonsense, there is no such thing at all." Including the previous mention that Hema was acquired by COFCO, it is also nonsense. The person said.
As many people know, Hou Yi officially retired in March this year because he reached the age of 60, and served as the chief honorary advisor of Freshippo, as the founder of Freshippo, Hou Yi is undoubtedly the one who wants to own Hema the most. Another rumored protagonist, Daniel Zhang, after stepping down as chairman of Alibaba, officially announced on March 21 that Daniel Zhang had joined, and co-managed with founder Liu Xiaodan to explore the new future of M&A funds. Daniel Zhang has the grace of knowing Hou Yi, and Hou Yi has always been Daniel Zhang's favorite general. Before the establishment of Hema, Daniel Zhang and Hou Yi met for more than three months and drank N cups of coffee, and then gave money, resources and technology to have the later Hema. At this time, Hema became Ali's "abandoned son", but it was Hou Yi and Daniel Zhang's "own son", and they joined forces to bid, and everything was reasonable.
At the same time, on March 27, 2024, Hou Yi posted a circle of friends, saying that he would hand over the procedures on the last day and leave a photo to commemorate it.
Then the circle of friends was silent for a long time, and it was not until April 20, 2024 that Hou Yi broke the silence and posted the circle of friends again.
"May you and I be able to watch the wonders, keep moving forward, and keep loving", one of the most important sentences: "60 years old is a new starting point". The new starting point, combined with the news of the 2 billion joint bidding, really makes people think about it.
The two bigwigs joined forces to buy Hema also caused a heated discussion in the industry, among which some bloggers analyzed: 1. First of all, the business sectors of Hema, Yintai and RT-Mart are very clear that Ali wants to strategically exit, so who to sell to and what price to sell is actually only a matter of time, not a matter of face. As for the big factory, every time they refute the rumor, they will not say what is wrong with the rumor, such as the time, place, amount, transaction party(s), and transaction progress. The lower the number of words to refute rumors, the higher the proportion of true content in rumors. Otherwise, the rumor refutation party can directly say that we will definitely not sell, or we will definitely not sell to former executives. Therefore, the people who eat melons can pay close attention;
2. There have indeed been precedents in the Ali system for internal executives and external investors to buy their own businesses, but they are relatively small businesses that have not attracted attention, according to this convention, so the above "rumor" does have the possibility of existing. Daniel Zhang also officially announced that he had joined the Morning One Fund a few days ago, if the Morning One Fund felt that the price was appropriate, it was reasonable to participate as one of the investors;
3. Because Lao Cai retired without warning, it is rumored on the Internet that Hou Yi, the founder of Freshippo, is not a normal honorable retirement, and there are unspeakable reasons. At that time, Daniel Zhang had always supported Hema to try the new retail model at a loss, and finally ended up with chicken feathers, and Cai Chongxin's speech some time ago was also interpreted as dissatisfied with Daniel Zhang's work performance in recent years. Then Daniel Zhang and Hou Yi were investors in Hema within Ali back then, and the other was the substantive founder of Hema and must have faith and feelings for Hema , from this point of view, it is too normal for the two to find some investors to participate in the acquisition of Hema. This incident itself is also helping the old club to get rid of the hot potato quickly.
The indecisive Hema horse,
The road ahead is stormy
Since its establishment, Hema has explored more than 10 business formats. In addition to "Hema Fresh", there are also retail stores "Hema F2", community supermarket "Hema MINI", shopping center "Hema Mini", front warehouse "Hema Station", community vegetable market "Hema Vegetable Market", smart food pick-up cabinet "Hema Pick'n go", membership store "Hema X Membership Store", community group purchase "Hema Neighborhood", discount store "Hema Outlet", boutique supermarket "Hema Premier", etc., some business attempts failed not long after.
At the strategic level, there has been an announcement on the resumption of membership opening in the Hema APP, which intends to resume the card opening and renewal services of X Gold Member/X Diamond Member on April 24, and at the same time will upgrade and adjust the rights and interests of the original member. At this point in time, it has been less than half a year since Hema adjusted its membership policy and suspended new members in December 2023. At that time, Hema responded to the media that the ultimate goal of de-membership is to ensure the "double-line price reduction" of Hema fresh stores, "so that everyone can buy more cost-effective goods without threshold, instead of needing a ticket". Hu Chuncai, a senior retail expert, analyzed, "Hema has been constantly trial and error, and the main consideration of canceling the membership system was to further lower the threshold and develop more customers, and after a period of implementation, it should be that the gross profit and sales volume have not met expectations, so now the membership system has been restored." ”
More than that, in the past year, Hema has undergone its biggest transformation since its inception. In mid-2023, Hema will start a new revolution and launch "Yishan Price", trying to change its supply chain system through a discounted business model. In October 2023, Hema officially launched the discount reform, first of all, to reduce the price of more than 5,000 products in Hema Fresh offline stores, involving dairy products, biscuits, convenient fast food, water drinks, cleaning and care products, frozen meat, poultry and aquatic products and other major categories of goods, the price of which will generally drop by 20%, and set up an "offline exclusive price" area in the store.
"Selling the best products cheaply is the ability to do so." In November 2023, at the Hema 2023 New Retail Supply Conference, Hou Yi said that the discounted business model is not to sell cheap goods, but to sell good goods cheaply. From the perspective of the trend of global retail development, discount management has been integrated into the operation of the world's leading retailers, facing the future, change is the only way out.
One month later, the Hema APP adjusted its membership policy and stopped opening new paid members, and paid members who have not expired can still renew their fees through the Hema App normally.
Looking back, the current Hema is indeed in a difficult situation, and once dared to form a balance with Sam, but now many changes and indecisive moves at the strategic level have made it lose its balance weight. In addition, the pressing issues facing Hema are how to retain the hearts and minds of the people, how to balance the cooperative relationship with small and medium-sized suppliers, and the problem of regular employees being turned into temporary workers...... With all kinds of problems continue to be exposed, can Hema get out of the labor pain?
This article is synthesized on Sister Sala's Workplace, RyanbenCapital, Lianshang.com, etc