In 2019, after the three squirrels went public, they walked out of 10 price limits in a row, and the founder Zhang Liaoyuan became the richest man in Anhui with a value of 11 billion. Netizens ridiculed: Anhui has supported high-tech industries for so many years, but I didn't expect to finally support the richest man who sells melon seeds.
The three squirrel stores, which were once all over the CBD, shopping plazas, and large supermarkets, finally couldn't resist the pressure and ushered in a wave of store closures: 117 of the 118 self-operated stores were closed, and only one was symbolically retained.
Gambling on Taobao and offline, Zhang Liaoyuan, the former richest man in Anhui, paid a painful price for the wrong decision.
What's even more unlucky is the franchisees, who use real money to support the development of the three squirrels, open stores offline, and brand the three squirrels. In exchange, it was abandoned, more than 40% of the franchise stores were closed, and the remaining franchisees actually bought from the online store to the store to resell, they said: the online price is cheaper than their purchase price.
The price management of the three squirrels highlights the word "chaos".
For the same snack gift box, the online store sells 136 yuan and has a profit of 20 yuan, but the store has to sell 158 yuan to have the same profit. What's even more exaggerated is that the similar gift box is only sold for 99 yuan in the live broadcast room.
Some franchisees suspect that the three squirrels are forcing them to leave in this way.
Since 2020, under the siege of low prices of brands such as BESTORE, Qiaqia, and Baicaowei, the sales of the three squirrels have continued to decline, and major shareholders have left the market one after another, resulting in an evaporation of 70% of the market value.
Zhang Liaoyuan also fell from the throne of the richest man in Anhui, and his worth was only 3 billion, which was far from the 10 billion worth at his peak.
An industry expert said: The current situation does not allow Zhang Liaoyuan to hesitate any longer, first lower the price and then say, the franchisee cries for his father and mother, and that is also a matter of the future.
Three squirrels were pushed to the edge of a cliff, and only one could survive on the line and on the line
Zhang Liaoyuan is a typical self-made man.
After graduating from secondary school, he didn't want to enter the factory, and he saw a middle-aged man scavenging on the street, leaning on his back under the scorching sun, rummaging through plastic bottles in garbage cans, and fighting with others in order to grab a bottle.
This scene touched Zhang Liaoyuan a lot, and he secretly swore that even if he starved to death, he would not pick up garbage.
Relying on a lot of energy, Zhang Liaoyuan kept trying new industries, brushing paint, selling pirated discs, opening restaurants, and reselling clothes, all of which made a fortune until he gambled on Taobao in 2012.
That year, he and a few brothers opened a Taobao store, and the business was very simple: buy goods from a snack factory, combine them into different gift boxes, affix the trademark of "three squirrels", and sell them on Taobao, similar to the premium version of Want Want gift bags.
Unexpectedly, the success of this model was surprising, and the sales of the three squirrels broke through the 1 billion yuan mark in only two or three years, shocking the entire snack industry.
After Ali went public, Taobao increased its support for the three squirrels and put on a shiny new dress for this "miscellaneous brand": Tao brand.
With the blessing of the Tao brand, this squirrel soared into the sky, with sales exceeding 10 billion, successfully listed on the GEM, and walked out of 10 daily limits in a row, with a market value of 36 billion, and Zhang Liaoyuan became the richest man in Anhui with a value of 11 billion.
Some netizens ridiculed: Anhui has supported high-tech industries for so many years, but I didn't expect to finally support the richest man who sells melon seeds.
Listing is a double-edged sword, after Zhang Liaoyuan sat on a wealth of 10 billion, investors put forward higher growth requirements for the three squirrels, and they asked Zhang Liaoyuan: When will sales exceed 100 billion?
Zhang Liaoyuan understands that online alone is not enough to support the "100 billion dream" of the three squirrels. So, he shouted the slogan of "10,000 stores and 100 billion" - he plans to open 10,000 stores within 5 years, and sales will exceed 100 billion. But today, 5 years later, the three squirrels only have 1 self-operated store and 7 billion sales.
After 5 years of hard work, he returned to the pre-liberation period overnight.
Although, Zhang Liaoyuan emphasized: The business situation of the three squirrels in 2023 is developing in a good way. For example, the net profit increased by 69%, and the sales of the official live broadcast room were 3-5 times that of their peers, but these figures could not withstand deep scrutiny:
Behind the 69% increase in net profit is only 220 million in absolute terms. The sales scale is about the same, and the net profit is as high as 800 million, which is nearly 4 times that of the three squirrels.
Why is the net profit difference so much when the sales of the two companies are about the same?
One reason could be that the three squirrels are overspent on marketing.
Last year, after abandoning offline stores, Zhang Liaoyuan bet on live broadcast to bring goods, frantically bought traffic on platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, and cooperated with more than 300,000 anchors of all sizes to give supplies below the market price or high pit fees to grab market share in the live broadcast track.
According to data, at least 50% of the traffic in the live broadcast room of Three Squirrels is bought.
Crazy buying traffic stopped the decline in sales, but it also consumed valuable cash and overdrafted the brand.
After the listing, Zhang Liaoyuan wanted to tear off the label of the three squirrels "Tao brand", change the asset-light OEM model to the asset-heavy direct sales model, and improve the gold content of the brand.
Opening offline stores, increasing prices, and taking the high-end route are all in line with the strategy of high-end brands.
As a result, instead of turning the three squirrels into a high-end brand, the offline store almost killed the company. The low-price market was taken advantage of by Qiaqia, Baicaowei and BESTORE, and sales continued to decline. forced Zhang Liaoyuan to give up offline and return online, paying a painful price.
It is worth noting that in the upstream of heavy assets, Zhang Liaoyuan did a good job, and the three squirrels built their own factories, got rid of their dependence on foundries, and built their own procurement system, holding the pricing power in their own hands. This may become the killer feature of the future and the low price of the three squirrel rolls.
Returning to the development of the three squirrels, it can be clearly found that listing is a watershed in the development of enterprises. After listing, driven by capital, trying to get rid of the dependence on Taobao, Jingdong and other platforms to obtain a higher stock price, the result was more than worth the loss, and the offline defeat returned, and the online was eaten by peers.
It's been on the market for 5 years, and I'm busy and lonely.
Perhaps, it was better for the three squirrels not to be listed in the first place.
Author: 9527