【Title】Huang Guangyu secretly meets Chen Zhengguo, chairman of Leerle, Gome Supermarket and Leerle cooperate to "point to hard discounts"
Recently, the news of the secret meeting between Huang Guangyu, the former richest man in China, and Chen Zhengguo, chairman of the hard discount supermarket brand Leerle in Changsha, Hunan Province, has been widely spread on social platforms. Huang Guangyu, the founder of Gome Group, visited the retail chain in Changsha, Hunan Province at night and signed a cooperation agreement. However, the two sides are silent about the progress of cooperation. Both Gome Supermarket and Leerle are actively promoting this cooperation, which has aroused widespread attention from the industry and consumers.
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Leerle, a hard discount supermarket brand originating from Changsha, Hunan Province, has recently actively spread the news of its cooperation with Huang Guangyu, the former richest man, on the official accounts of major social platforms. Not long ago, Huang Guangyu, the founder of Gome Group, visited the headquarters of Leerle in Changsha, Hunan Province at night, and was personally received by the founder Chen Zhengguo and the senior management team. After the visit, the two sides held closed-door talks and signed a cooperation agreement. However, when Jiemian News asked Leerle to verify the progress of the cooperation, the relevant person in charge refused to respond.
At the same time, Gome Supermarket also continued to promote the cooperation with Leerle through its Douyin account, saying that the two companies had finalized the cooperation and jointly "pointed to hard discounts". It is worth noting that the official Douyin account of Gome Supermarket has stopped updating for 4 months, and this publicity cooperation has undoubtedly brought new attention to Gome Supermarket.
Founded on July 25, 2023, Gome Supermarket (Guangdong) Co., Ltd. is a "trendy fashion metaverse super store and a global new retail live chain experience store focusing on consumption to benefit the people and a better life". Its business model integrates offline physical stores and online live broadcasts, mainly selling snacks and water drinks, and is positioned as a discount snack store with member discount gameplay. In November 2023, the news that Gome plans to open 10,000 Gome supermarket retail stores within three years has attracted attention, but the follow-up development does not seem to be smooth.
Founded in Changsha, Hunan Province in 2011, Leerle is inspired by the "joy of the world after tomorrow" in "The Story of Yueyang Tower". The original intention of Leerle is to save students money and provide authentic products at low prices. By compressing the cost of supply chain, warehousing and logistics, human efficiency, and its own brand, Leerle creates more room for price reduction of goods. In 2019, Leerle began to gradually change the loose franchise to a close franchise, and developed a partnership direct store. By 2023, the number of Leerle stores will exceed 4,000, of which more than 90% are franchised stores. In 2023, there will be more than 1,000 Leer Letuo stores, with an annual sales scale of more than 40 billion yuan, and the highest annual sales scale of a single store will reach 1.176 billion yuan. According to a report by 36Kr Hunan, in 2024, Leerle plans to break through 10,000 stores through Leerle Huimeng, with a revenue of more than 100 billion.
Although Leerle's performance is considerable, it has not entered first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Leerle's stores are mainly located in the "worst" spots such as the second floor or basement of a popular business district near a university town, and the main customers are college students, the elderly, and even husband and wife shopkeepers. On Xiaohongshu, many college students share their reasons for choosing Leerle because of its cheapness and proximity. For example, the 2 yuan Nongfu Spring sells for 0.9 yuan in Leerle, and the 5 yuan Oriental Leaf Leerle sells for 3 yuan.
[Heated discussion among netizens]: Some netizens believe that the cooperation between Gome Supermarket and Leerle will further enhance the popularity of Leerle and bring new customer flow to Gome Supermarket. Some netizens feel that the cooperation between the two companies will help Gome Supermarket further expand in the field of discount snacks. Some netizens said that as a regional supermarket brand, Leerle is expected to achieve a broader market layout through cooperation with Gome Supermarket. In the author's opinion, this cooperation will bring a mutually beneficial and win-win situation for both parties, and also provide consumers with more diversified shopping options.