Reporter Xu Jie trainee reporter Wang Jun
Recently, Jiufang announced that it has obtained a series of financing of more than 100 million yuan, with a valuation of 5 billion yuan, which is called in the company's own mouth: it is temporarily the highest among the entrepreneurial new retail liquor companies that have been publicly valued. However, this round of financing has attracted many questions, including product sales, company valuations, and the company's business model.
Is the company's valuation inflated?
According to public information, in April 2015, Zhang Chuanzong, the founder of Wanshijiufang, launched a crowdfunding campaign, and 49 partners from traditional IT, education and training, home appliances and other industries responded, and 3 months later, Wanshijiufang was officially established. Different from traditional liquor companies, Jiushifang is positioned as an industrial Internet enterprise with sauce wine as its core business. In order to join The Nine Fangs, you must pass the training of three masters, namely Liu Jun, President of Lenovo China, the current Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nine Fangs, Zhang Chuanzong, the former General Manager of the Multi-Regional/Multi-Division Department of Lenovo Group, and the current Founder/CEO of the Nine Fangs, ma Jinsong, the former General Manager of the Largest Distribution Company of Lenovo Group, and the current Co-Founder/President of the House of The Nine Fangs.
This round of financing is led by Kaihui Fund, followed by Pernod Ricard's Chuangxiang Huanju Investment Fund. However, some insiders believe that the valuation of the liquor direct supply platform established in 2006 in 1919 is only 7 billion yuan, and the valuation of Jiufang, which has been established for only six years, is the valuation of Jiufang inflated?
According to the data released by Huangshijiufang, in fiscal 2019, the company's sales exceeded one billion yuan, and it is expected that sales in fiscal 2020 will reach 2 billion yuan. "Startup sales tend to grow exponentially." The founder of a liquor company told the "Securities Daily" reporter that if there is 1 billion yuan in sales, there should be 3 times the market sales rate, and the valuation of 3 billion yuan should be similar.
Shen Meng, executive director of Chanson Capital, told the Securities Daily reporter that the possibility of wanton speculation in Jiufang is greater. "If there is a lack of transparency in the private placement stage for the key information of financing, such as investors, investment amounts, performance, etc., then basically the amount of financing may have moisture. In addition, as a liquor distribution company, the company's sales should only be flowing water, so the yield should not be high. The use of the price-to-sales ratio to support the valuation is because of poor profit performance, and the general traditional industry lacks rationality in using the price-to-sales ratio, after all, it is difficult to maintain long-term high growth like the Internet service industry. ”
Cai Xuefei, a consulting manager and liquor marketing expert, told the "Securities Daily" reporter that Jiufang belongs to cross-border wine, in the strict sense, they are not traditional liquor merchants, but a group of people who understand the integration of resources to make liquor, and the purpose of making liquor is not to make money for products like traditional liquor merchants, in fact, it is money to earn capital, which can be seen from the planning of listing.
"During the '14th Five-Year Plan' period, Jiufang will complete the overall IPO listing work, strive to create a listed company with an annual turnover of 10 billion yuan and a total market value of 100 billion yuan, and strive to enter the camp of the top ten enterprises in China's liquor industry." Zhang Chuanzong said at a recent financing conference.
The business model has been questioned
Founded six years ago, Jiufang currently has 4,000 new retail sales terminals, including more than 100 new retail co-creation platforms, 1,500 new retail experience stores, and 2,500 new retail distributors. The sales outlets of Jiufang have covered 31 provinces and cities, more than 200 cities, and thousands of county-level administrative units, from Xinjiang to Shanghai, from Heilongjiang to Hainan, you can see the new retail experience store of Jiufang. At present, 30,000 people have become the new retail partners of Jiushifang.
But this business model was once questioned as "direct selling.".
According to media reports, the "Responsibilities, Rights and Interests enjoyed by crowdfunding shareholders" released by Jiufang shows that "all shareholders have the responsibility of promotion, sales and endorsement" and "docking rudders and even national connections and platforms". The model of "10,000 yuan deposit, 10,000 yuan to buy goods, crowdfunding to low prices, secondary crowdfunding to sell at a higher price" is used in the view of Cai Xuefei, a liquor marketing expert, which is "directly pressed to the crowdfunding shareholders".
There is no advantage in the price of the product
Different from other liquor platforms, Wanton Jiufang does not only make wine, but also lays out special rice, high-end cooking oil, tea, craft beer, organic wine, etc. Zhang Chuanzong said in public that these are not in conflict, they are all around the user's life demands, and Jiufang has even launched high-end suit customization, management training and other services.
The "Securities Daily" reporter found in the public account of The Company that there are not only sauce and wine products on the company's official mall, but also tea, craft beer and other above products. However, the reporter found that the price of many products in the market did not have an advantage. Take Guangzhou's time-honored Tao Tao Ju as an example, a curly crisp biscuit egg roll gift box (480g), the price of tmall flagship store is 96.8 yuan, after the coupon 90.8 yuan, but the price in the Wanjiu mall is 105 yuan, which is about 15% higher than the flagship store price. In addition, deyun adult skimmed milk powder original 1KG / bag of products, Tmall flagship store price of the original price of 158, preferential promotion price of 79 yuan, new registered members can also receive coupons to reduce 10 yuan, to the hand price is estimated at 69 yuan / bag, but in the Wanjiu mall, the price of the same specifications is 79 yuan / bag.
Why is it that the third-party sales platform is not as cheap as the flagship store? Is there an advantage in the pricing of The Company? In this regard, the Securities Daily reporter communicated with the customer service staff of the Wanjiu Mall, who replied that although the price was relatively high, it was worth the money.
In addition to not having a price advantage, many of the products in The Mall have high sales but have not had any evaluations. For example, the sales volume of honey products such as Nanjia Tibetan Honey and Sacred Wild Bee Treasure are all 2000+, but in the evaluation column, good reviews, middle reviews, bad reviews, and pictures are displayed as 0. The "Securities Daily" reporter asked about the matter, but the other party did not reply.
Source: Securities Daily