No matter what you do, it's best to stay in your comfort zone all the time, otherwise you may fail.
There is such a farmer in Anhui, who started by raising chickens, and now he can sell 8.5 billion a year.
He spent 4 million yuan to name the company, which is now known as "China's McDonald's" and "the light of domestic products".
This boss is Shu Congxuan, the founder of Hometown Chicken.
So, how did Shu Congxuan earn 8.5 billion a year by selling chickens?
How delicious is the hometown chicken to be called "China's McDonald's"?
Get in touch with chickens
In 1962, Shu Congxuan was born in a peasant family in Feixi, Anhui Province.
Unlike many other business CEOs, he only has a high school education, but education does not represent knowledge, and knowledge does not represent ability.
He has experienced a poor life since he was a child, and he has a dream of getting rich.
When he was 20 years old, Shu Congxuan wanted to start a business after returning home, and set his sights on the chicken industry.
There was an idea, but it turned out that there was no money.
In desperation, he took out the bride price of 1,800 yuan that he was going to marry his daughter-in-law.
Shu Congxuan used the money to buy 1,000 chickens and planned to build a hatchery at home.
It may seem to many laymen how simple it is to raise chickens, just feed some feed.
It's easy to have one or two chickens, but what about 1,000? It takes a lot of energy.
The most important thing is that Shu Congxuan is not raising those chickens that grow faster, but the old hens of Feixi that take 180 days to grow.
In the first 7 years, Shu Congxuan often slept with chickens, so he knew the growth environment and habits of chickens well.
He later said in interviews that if he blindfolded him and put his hand in a chicken coop, he would be able to tell if the chicken was hungry or thirsty, and even tell if the chicken was sick.
Shu Congxuan also relied on his tenacious will to make the chicken business more and more prosperous.
In 1990, he has become the largest professional chicken farmer in Hefei.
In addition to raising chickens himself, he also mobilized local farmers and taught them his own chicken-raising skills.
After a short period of time, the chicken farmers led by Shu Congxuan were able to produce 600,000 chickens per month, and after selling these chickens, they could get more than 3 million profits a year, and in 1984 he became an advanced individual industrial and commercial household in Hefei.
However, raising chickens is only the lowest job in the industrial chain, and Shu Congxuan also wants to extend his industrial chain.
The birth of the hometown chicken
Shu Congxuan wants to make money, but he will not leave the industry related to "chickens".
Because in his opinion, after many entrepreneurs have money, they want to expand their business territory, and also invest in real estate, entertainment, etc., but most of them lose money.
Therefore, if a person wants to make money, the most important thing is to be able to work deeply in the field he is familiar with and tap the potential value.
Shu Congxuan is like this, although he has money, he still wants to engage in industries related to "chickens", but he has no inspiration for a while.
Until the arrival of an invitation letter opened Shu Congxuan's train of thought.
In 1999, Shu Congxuan received an invitation to fast food franchise training, and it was from this training that he learned about the catering industry.
After a series of research, he decided to do a Chinese fast food chain industry chain.
Before starting his business, Shu Congxuan first carried out a series of dish research and development, and developed a special old hen soup.
In 2003, Shu Congxuan founded the predecessor of Lao Xiang Chicken in Hefei: Feixi Old Hen.
When he started his business, although he followed the example of KFC and McDonald's, he took a different route from them.
KFC is mainly Western food, and the raw materials for making food are mainly instant chicken, but Lao Xiang Chicken is mainly Chinese dishes, using Feixi old hens, which are stewed with Nongfu Spring, which is more nutritious.
As soon as Feixi Old Hen opened, it was loved by the locals, and then Shu Congxuan opened many branches in Anhui in a row, all of which were successful.
But there are also problems behind the success, because Shu Congxuan found that his store was not profitable, and even lost money.
After calculations, he found that the cost of raw material procurement and production was too much, and according to his method of doing business, it was no wonder that he did not lose money.
In desperation, Shu Congxuan had to go on the field in person and manage it himself, and finally turned losses into profits.
But just the local fire in Anhui can't satisfy Shu Congxuan's ambition, what he needs is to bloom everywhere.
But if Feixi old hen wants to go out, she faces a problem, that is, popularity.
In Anhui, most people know that Feixi old hens are very nutritious, but they are not well-known in other places, and customers definitely don't buy it.
So Shu Congxuan spent 4 million yuan to invite the internationally renowned consulting company Lautrau.
You must know that Lautrau Strategic Positioning Consulting Company serves the world and has successively provided consulting services for Hewlett-Packard, Burger King, JDB Herbal Tea, and Xiangpiaopiao Milk Tea.
After the investigation, the Lautrau company also put forward a suggestion for Shu Congxuan, that is, to change the name of the store to "hometown chicken".
In 2012, after having strategic positioning, Laoxiang Chicken decided to start the layout of the whole country, and even entered first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in 2020.
In Shanghai, it took only 2 years for Lao Xiang Chicken to have 100 directly-operated stores.
McDonald's in China
After the hometown chicken became popular, it took 12 years to achieve a turnover of 1 billion, and then it took 2 years to break through 2 billion, and it only took 1 year to break through 3 billion.
By 2023, Laoxiang Chicken will have 1,200 directly-operated stores across the country, with sales of 8.5 billion yuan in one year, and 110 million yuan in taxes for the state.
In 2020, Shu Congxuan also found cross talk actor Yue Yunpeng and hired him as the spokesperson of the hometown chicken, and the popularity of the hometown chicken was opened again.
But although the development of hometown chickens is in full swing, in Shu Congxuan's eyes, the catering industry is changing, and new phenomena often appear.
Therefore, as the younger generation becomes the main force of consumption, catering companies must also adjust their strategic positioning in time.
After that, Shu Congxuan creatively proposed the concept of "family kitchen", hoping to open the store directly into the community and provide customers with more convenient Chinese home cooking.
Relying on advanced strategic thinking and high-quality diet, Lao Xiang Chicken has won many honors.
In 2018, it ranked fourth in the list of Chinese fast food companies, behind KFC, McDonald's and Burger King.
In 2022, Lao Xiang Chicken will become the first brand in China's Chinese chain fast food industry, known as "China McDonald's".
It is known as the "light of domestic products" together with brands such as Hongxing Erke and Mixue Bingcheng.
But for Shu Congxuan, he hopes that the hometown chicken can break through 10,000 stores, and then the hometown chicken can be called a national brand.
However, according to the existing business philosophy of Lao Xiang Chicken, this goal is really possible to achieve in the near future.
After all, Shu Congxuan set a lot of goals for himself when he was 23 years old, earning 100,000 at the age of 30, 10 million at the age of 50, and 100 million at the age of 60.
Shu Congxuan, who is 62 years old this year, has already exceeded the target task.
Shu Congxuan started by raising chickens and has been dealing with chickens all his life, which is his comfort zone.
He will not change careers, because he firmly believes that as long as he does a good job and does a solid job in an industry, he can still become a billionaire.
Sources:
1. China Daily: "Shu Congxuan: "Family Kitchen" is the Mission of Hometown Chicken"
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1657780521572873801&wfr=spider&for=pc
2. Yiyang Radio and Television: "Shu Congxuan opens up hometown chickens to join, the price is close to the people, and it is called "China's McDonald's"
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1797202161128559143&wfr=spider&for=pc
3. Yueyang Daily client: "As a local fast food enterprise, how does Lao Xiang Chicken go from a regional brand to the whole country?"
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1736832200908848494&wfr=spider&for=pc
If you like this episode, please click "Follow" and don't miss the next episode.
[Disclaimer] The content and pictures of the article are from the Internet, and this article aims to advocate positive social energy and no vulgar and other bad guidance. If it involves copyright or character infringement issues, please contact us in time, and we will delete the content as soon as possible!