There is a short video titled "The Takeaway Brother Who Finally Met the Black Swan" in a certain sound, with 1.185 million likes. In the video, the delivery brother is 185cm tall and has an outstanding temperament, dressed in black overalls with black leather boots, kneeling on one knee to show customers whether the packaging of the black swan cake delivered to the door is intact and undamaged.
Open the comment area, in addition to Yishui's old color embryo message, some netizens have popularized science: "The black swan brand can be called the 'Rolls-Royce' of the cake industry", "The price is more than 1,000 yuan, and the most expensive one is 1999999 yuan", "The service staff in the store are all flight attendants, and the recruitment of delivery staff strictly requires a bachelor's degree or above, proficient in bilingualism, a height of 180cm +, and a good facial feature".
Such an eye-catching cake is from the 32-year-old baking brand - Hollyland, inspired by Luo Hong, the founder of Hollyland Group.
A filial piety triggers entrepreneurial inspiration
Luo Hong was born in Shimian County, Ya'an, Sichuan. In 1991, 25-year-old Luo Hong wanted to give her the most exquisite cake on her mother's first birthday after retirement. But he ran all over the city and didn't find the one that met his expectations, "Mothers all over the world raise their children, and they don't know how many meals to cook, but there is no cake shop that can make children express their love." So, Luo Hong simply opened a cake shop by herself and named it "Xililai".
In Luo Hong's understanding, cakes are not only commodities, but also blessings to relatives and friends. At the beginning of the business, Luo Hong first found a retired professional cake chef, however, although the master had good craftsmanship, the design was too simple and the same, so Luo Hong asked overseas relatives to mail the materials and start the design himself. Immediately afterwards, Luo Hong asked the classmates of the partner to take down a façade in the downtown where most of the office workers in Ya'an City had to pass through at that time no matter what. In order to promote her brand, Luo Hong bought hydrogen balloons from Chengdu. In the 90s, hundreds of hydrogen balloons with propaganda words were lifted into the sky at the same time, and everyone in the town looked up and a steady stream of customers flocked to Hilly.
In 1992, Luo Hong decided to set her sights on a larger market, and opened the first cake store in the best area of Lanzhou with 100,000 yuan, and at the same time changed the name of "Hillyland" to "Hollyland". At that time, state-owned enterprises and other units have ordered and emphasized that "no beating and scolding customers" at the moment, Luo Hong aimed at this opportunity, using the innovative model of front store and back factory, now ordering and selling to launch customized services, customers can not only see a dazzling array of cakes, but also witness the whole process of cake production. With the double blessing of quality and service, Hollyland appeared to be bursting on the opening day.
The success of the Lanzhou market has allowed Luo Hong to see the potential of chain operation. Since 1994, Hollyland has expanded to Jilin, Liaoning, Heilongjiang and other northeast markets, and has rapidly developed to more than 100 chain stores. Today, Hollyland has become a well-known bakery brand in China, mainly producing and operating cakes, breads, pastries, medium pastries, coffee drinks, moon cakes, glutinous rice balls, zongzi and other products.
The Black Swan brand has witnessed the ups and downs of Hollyland
In 2003, Hollyland introduced the KFC airborne team and hired Xie Liwei, who has a KFC management background, as a professional manager. In 2004, under the leadership of Xie Liwei, Hollyland underwent a major expansion, expanding the number of stores from more than 300 to more than 450 within a year. At the beginning of 2006, Luo Hong boldly delegated power, he said: "I have too many hobbies, too many ideas, and too emotional. Emotional people should be responsible for dreaming, and the company should be handed over to rational and capable people to take care of. ”
However, the rapid expansion caused Hollyland to suffer from a series of problems such as insufficient staff training, reduced service levels, and impaired product consistency. It wasn't until 2007 that Luo Hong realized the seriousness of the problem and returned to Hollyland.
After returning, Luo Hong halted all expansion and closed more than 300 stores nationwide. Luo Hong looked at the pile of operation manuals in the office and angrily instructed the employees to burn them all. In Luo Hong's heart, Hollyland is a brand founded because of love, and the KFC team has hurt Hollyland's roots with Western management experience.
Photographer is Luo Hong's favorite identity in addition to her cake career. During the trough period of Hollyland, Luo Hong often pinned her emotions on the landscape and took hundreds of thousands of photos. In November 2009, Luo Hong photographed a group of black swan works in the snow, and the mysterious, noble and elegant figure of the black swan instantly inspired his creativity and recalled his original intention of making cakes. Luo Hong decided to make one of the best and most delicious cakes in China.
At the beginning of its establishment, he told the R&D staff of Black Swan that no matter how much money he lost, he had one goal, that is, to bring out a top team in five years.
The black swan cake is like a work of art, incredibly beautiful, not only all the world's top raw materials are selected, but also the shape of each cake black swan is different. For example, the price of 3999 yuan of the beauty of the city, the black swans and roses on the cake are all carved out of Issomat candy, the thinness of each petal is 0.1 mm, and a pair of swan wings on the cake alone will be carved more than 12,000 knives. The surface of the cake is Madagascar's black chocolate, the inside is cut with European cream, and the yak milk of the plateau is combined with the rich taste of French red wine and Madagascar vanilla.
The 9-layer wedding cake named "Admired by the World" by Black Swan is directly priced at 1999999 yuan. This cake is 220cm high, the tray is made of sterling silver, the stand is all made of Swarovski crystals, the overall production has to be completed by 5 cake chefs working 14 hours a day, about 30 days, and the final delivery of this cake is 4 million Rolls-Royce.
The black swan carries Luo Hong's ultimate artistic aesthetics and creativity, and the success of the brand has also given Luo Hong and Hollyland the confidence to make a comeback. In 2016, Hollyland recovered.
The time-honored brand has turned into a "trendy brand"
In recent years, Hollyland has quickly emerged from the circle among young people and has become a representative of a new force in the baking industry.
In 2014, Luo Hong's two sons, Luo Hao and Luo Cheng, joined Hollyland. The brothers inherited their father's talent for business, and their first move into the company made Hollyland popular again.
In the first year of the company, Luo Hao and Luo Cheng went to Japan to visit the thatched house, invited Zhongshan Mannan to cooperate with Hollyland, in 2015, Hollyland launched a new product "semi-cooked cheese", which combines the sweetness of milk and cheese to taste like pudding, with a delicate taste and fragrant aroma, which is deeply loved by consumers. One year later, the sales of semi-cooked cheese exceeded 100 million. As one of Hollyland's star products, the popularity of semi-cooked cheese has not declined in the past 9 years.
This transformation made the father and son smell business opportunities, so Hollyland began to delve into a variety of novel pastries, while ensuring the taste, successively launched honey cake, Hokkaido cake, smoothie lava, Okatsu cloak roll and other popular products.
At the same time, Hollyland has started a crazy co-branding model, cooperating with IPs such as Sanrio, Barbie, Disney, Bubble Mart, Buzz Lightyear and so on. In August 2022, Hollyland launched a Harry Potter-themed co-branded gift box, and the sales of Hollyland's online flagship store soared 2.5 times that month. According to the data of the Magic Mirror market, from July 31 to October 31, 2022, the number of discussions on the Harry Potter co-branded series reached 18,356 on major social platforms, and the number of interactions reached 2.199 million. With high-quality content and exquisite co-branded products, Hollyland has turned fans of popular IPs into potential customers of its own brand time and again, making young people want to stop.
Advertising man Yu Bo once said that the future baking industry is not the food industry, should belong to the fashion industry, when the cake is no longer just a luxury to only eat on a birthday today, its existence and the coffee in the hand of the nature, and dessert is the art decoration on the table, can be eaten, photographed and socialized, belongs to the walking fashion items. Under the leadership of Luo Hong and his son, Hollyland is undoubtedly one of the brands that plays with creativity and design best.