From a debt of one million to a net worth of 6.4 billion! "Pickled phoenix claw king" Lu Youzhong is recognized as one of the business legends, a hotel owner actually invented Youyou pickled pepper phoenix claw under the culinary talent and chance and successfully applied for a patent, and also brought the company to the market with this fist product, which is really remarkable.
It's just that in the bubble phoenix claw track, in addition to vertical friends such as Qishuang and Yongjian, there are also cutting-edge Internet celebrity players such as Wang Xiaolu, and there are also three squirrels and good stores and other dimensionality reduction chasing, and even the old lo-mei giants Zhou Heiya and Ziyan have to come to join in a wave of excitement, and for a while, the wolf has more meat and less meat.
The hidden worries behind the halo of Youyou Food have already emerged, and the heroes are competing for the Central Plains, rolling out of the sky of leisure snacks, can Lu Youzhong have the last laugh?
01,00 don't like "bubble phoenix feet"?
At that time, whether it was a high-speed rail trip or a long-distance bus, you can easily see young people who are gnawing, I believe that many post-80s can empathize, but now this grand occasion is difficult to reproduce, especially on social platforms, you can often brush some complaints about the taste of friends, is it possible that the taste of the post-90s and post-00s has changed?
The times are changing, young people's consumption preferences keep pace with the times are the norm, like to have friends and don't like to have friends, in fact, are normal, there is no need to ask for full blame, but the author believes that there is another point that cannot be ignored, for many young and middle-aged generations born in the 80s and 95s, there are friends who are popular out of the circle in the past few years, they do not have too many alternatives to choose from.
And now, in addition to Youyou, Laiyifen, Spicy Daughter-in-law, Three Squirrels, Yanjin Shop, Baicaowei and many other well-known snack brands have one or several phoenix claw products, and in addition to pickled pepper flavors, there are also Wang Xiaolu, who focuses on tiger skin and phoenix feet, etc., for a time, braised chicken feet, braised chicken feet, boneless chicken feet, roast chicken feet, lemon chicken feet and so on are in full bloom.
Offline, you don't need to go to the supermarket to choose, any street corner pickled vegetable shop, you can easily buy their own production and self-sale of "pickled pepper phoenix feet" and "tiger skin phoenix feet" and other products.
Therefore, it's not that young people don't like to eat chicken feet, it's just that young people have more channels and brands to choose from.
Of course, food safety is a red line, which cannot be touched, even if netizens only eat pickled pepper and phoenix feet a few times a year, and only once they have encountered a suspected food safety problem, they may be afraid of the well rope for ten years, and on social platforms, whether it is a black cat complaint or a 12315 announcement, there are many cases of netizens complaining and even claiming Youyou Food, which is also where Youyou Food needs to be paid attention to.
In addition to food safety, dietary health has also become a more important indicator for the contemporary post-00s, especially after experiencing the baptism of "science and technology and hard work", netizens are extremely sensitive to the ingredient list, and will take the initiative to eat less or simply remove some snacks with heavy oil, heavy salt and various additives.
02, how to break out of the "stall" dilemma?
The unsatisfactory financial reports and high inventories, the "two mountains" placed on Lu Youzhong's desk, made this king of phoenix claws anxious.
In 2023, the company's total operating income will be 966 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.68%, the net profit attributable to the parent company will be 116 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 24.38%, and the non-net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies will be 89.3395 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 36.84%; The net profit after deducting the non-attributable to the parent fell to 100 million yuan for the first time in 10 years after Youyou Food's listing;
In fact, there are early signs of such a decline:
In 2021~2023, the net profit attributable to Youyou will be 220 million yuan, 154 million yuan and 116 million yuan respectively, and the net profit attributable to the parent after deducting non-profits will be 173 million yuan, 141 million yuan and 89 million yuan respectively, that is, the net profit of Youyou Food has been declining for 3 consecutive years, which is definitely not good news;
According to the first quarter report of 2024, during the reporting period, the company achieved revenue of 275 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.96%, the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 43.2879 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.77%, and the non-net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 34.6525 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.42%.
While earnings are lackluster, inventories remain high:
During the reporting period, Youyou Food's pickled pepper phoenix claw output was 14,928.61 tons, down 13.67% year-on-year, sales volume was 14,720.16 tons, down 17.82% year-on-year, and inventory was 230.12 tons, a year-on-year surge of 389.81%; The inventory of pig skin products was 28.32 tons, a year-on-year increase of 104.45%, the inventory of dried beans was 5.91 tons, a year-on-year increase of 207.29%, and the inventory of peanuts was 24.79 tons, a year-on-year increase of 332.75%......
Based on such a premise, it is not difficult to come up with the following analysis:
In 2023, the pickled pepper and phoenix claw category will achieve a revenue of 722 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.67%, and a gross profit margin of 28.84%, a decrease of 1.20%.
Youyou has formulated a series of measures very early, including increasing the research and development of non-pickled pepper phoenix claw products, strengthening the KPI assessment of non-pickled pepper phoenix claw products, etc., but the ideal is plump and realistic.
As early as 2015, Lu Youzhong thought that he couldn't rely on the hen of pickled phoenix claws to lay eggs, so he developed pickled pepper bamboo shoots and pickled pepper bean curd peanuts and other categories, but the sales were very average, and the high inventory in front was also proof;
Lu Youzhong once planned to achieve 30% of the revenue of non-pickled pepper phoenix claw products in 2019, but only achieved 16.2% of the revenue that year, barely reaching half;
In 2023, the revenue of Youyou's non-pickled pepper and phoenix claw products will increase to 25.26% of the main business, but the goal of 5 years ago has not been achieved, that is, the risk of a relatively single product structure has not been fundamentally resolved.
The rest of the products are relatively weak and failed to replicate the explosive effect of pickled pepper phoenix feet, which is the same as the dilemma of Weilong's spicy strips for Weilong
Lu Youzhong once said that to make the pickled pepper pork skin to a scale of 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
After all, how difficult it is to invent a "popular way to eat" that has a similar effect to pickled pepper phoenix feet!
In 2023, Youyou Food's R&D expenditure will be 3.391 million yuan, accounting for only 0.35% of revenue, and there will be only 23 R&D personnel, accounting for 1.93% of the company's total number.
Simply developing in the category and hoping to win by quantity, it will eventually be in the increasingly homogenized market, infinitely involuted, and fall into a passive price war, but in the case of rising raw material prices and national development not meeting expectations, it may be difficult for Youyou to accept the marketing style of directly sacrificing gross profits.
Of course, for Youyou, there is also good news, for many years to deepen the offline channels of Youyou's offline e-commerce platform sales have been in a state of little than nothing, less than the company's revenue of 3% of the online sales share there is still a lot of room for optimization, which means that if Lu Youzhong changes his thinking, pay attention to online marketing, the online e-commerce platform may be able to become a new performance growth point of Youyou.
The "second curve" far away in the sky may also be close at hand!