Lin Jianhong left his job and the whole family stalled

On June 30, Business Observer received a reply from the whole family about the rumors of the departure of its Chinese mainland CEO Lin Jianhong, and the whole family confirmed that Lin Jianhong had left, and the successor of the CEO was currently under careful consideration, and the relevant functions were temporarily carried out by Wei Yingxing, chairman of Dingxin Group.

One

Lin Jianhong

Lin Jianhong joined Quanjia in November 2015 as the company's CHIEF Executive Officer, responsible for Chinese mainland market. The "number one person" at the operational level of the Lin family directly reported to Wei Yingxing, chairman of Dingxin Group.

Zhu Hongtao, the "second-largest person" under Lin Jianhong and the "second person" at the operational level of China FamilyMart, left FamilyMart three years ago before Lin and went to a domestic convenience store company. At that time, many middle and high-level members of the family were either "poached" by their opponents or voluntarily left their jobs, and there was a wave of personnel shocks.

This time, for Lin Jianhong's departure, Business Observer received three versions of the statement.

The first statement comes from the official family, who said that Lin Shi proposed to leave for personal reasons, and will continue to be an adviser to The New Group after that.

The second version of the theory is related to the family acquisition.

Some market participants told Business Observer that the family had decided to sell earlier, but a few days ago, it was rumored that the acquirer had abandoned the acquisition. "It was abrupt to give up because it was a basically agreed rhythm. The reason for the abandonment is not clear, it should not be a question of price. ”

Hearsay parties to the acquisition include CITIC and Chia Tai Group. "The negotiations have reached the point of personnel replacement. Therefore, with the departure of Lin Jianhong, other relevant responsible persons and people in charge of the development and commodity departments of the whole family have also changed, and Lin Jianhong has not appeared much since April. ”

For this rumored version, "Business Observer" asked the whole family China official for verification, and the other party clearly replied that "the acquisition theory" does not exist, and this matter is purely fictitious.

"Business Observer" also looked for acquisition rumors from market people close to the whole family and people in the family business ecology, and the reply was: "With my understanding of the chairman, it is impossible to give up, and the change of personnel in the commodity and development departments is just a change of guard." ”

"Previously, the CEO had made it clear to the people around him that it was impossible for the whole family to sell to Chia Tai. For example, do you look at any company in the world that can run two world-class convenience store brands at the same time? ”

The third version received by The Business Observer says that Lin's departure was related to the family stall.

The family has fallen from the top brand of foreign convenience stores for many years, and the competition of peers has intensified, and it is internally constrained by the entanglement of the interests of the japanese and Taiwanese investors of the whole family. As the chief executive, both ends are constrained, and it is better to choose a good branch to live. Some market participants said that Lin's departure is most likely to find a better "next home".

In the past year, the family has opened only 166 convenience stores.

This allows Rosen, who has previously followed the number of family stores and is the "second oldest" of foreign convenience stores, to complete the surpassing of the whole family with a "big score" at the end of 2020. The number of new stores opened by the family last year was probably only 1/4 of Rosen's.

And last year was not the "trough" of the family store. The year before, FamilyMart had only added 230 convenience stores throughout the year, all behind Rosen and after 7-11.

Convenience stores are "small business districts" manufacturing-oriented retail formats. Only with the scale of the outlets can we complete the coverage of the city and digest the logistics system behind the stores and the cost of the fresh food factory.

If there are not enough stores, the supply chain will be unstable. If the supply chain is unstable, it will cause the store to not open. Convenience store industry insiders refer to the state of convenience store development as "only to step on the accelerator and go forward".

To a certain extent, the development power of stores has been lost, and the entire system of convenience stores may decline.

Two

Internal distress

Market sources told Business Observer that the expansion of FamilyMart stores slowed down last year, mainly due to "internal difficulties".

"The whole system of the whole family is still running very well, there is no problem, the number of stores is surpassed by opponents, and the expansion is slowing down, not because of strong external competition, but because the internal volume restricts the external development, resulting in us wandering around in place."

"In terms of operation, the whole family did not drop the chain at all. This year, the whole family is proposing to increase steadily under the premise of seeking quality. This year, we resolutely closed a lot of high-loss stores, and reopened many new stores, focusing on rent reduction and stop loss, and the entire focus of operation was to work throttling. This is precisely what the whole family has neglected in the past. I believe that the overall data of the whole family will improve a lot this year. ”

At the beginning of this year, the family FA Miyun super online, covering beauty and beauty, world wine, fruits and vegetables, digital home appliances, pet life and other five major categories, the whole family said that the current business progress is good, in line with expectations. At the same time, the whole family also began to promote the annual fee system of the privilege card, and began to deepen the paid membership system. The latter may continue to strengthen the repurchase and stickiness of family members.

"Business Observer" believes that the family's store expansion slowed down last year, or there may be several reasons.

First of all, it is related to the heavy impact of the convenience store industry on the epidemic environment last year. Under the epidemic situation, the store operation of FamilyMart, which is mainly based on office buildings, business circle centers, and park stores, has been greatly impacted. As soon as the epidemic came, new stores and new franchises naturally slowed down.

Second, Shanghai is the home market of the whole family, the family's store density in Shanghai is very high, basically has seamlessly penetrated into every street in Shanghai, shanghai convenience store market for many years to maintain a total of 6,000 saturation. Shanghai tends to peak, which means that the main market of FamilyMart Shanghai, which is the first convenience store in Shanghai, has also seen the ceiling relatively.

Third, in the outer port area of Shanghai, the whole family of "fighting alone" cannot fight with the local regional leader, Rosen who plays "big franchise", 7-11 and other opponents who can "regional authorization". For example, compared with Lawson, the family's current four cities except Su, Xi, Chang and Hangzhou are because of the layout of the early years, maintaining the first-mover advantage, and the number of stores in other cities has gradually been surpassed by Lawson and 7-11.

The fundamental problem is that the "top-level design" of the whole family is missing. The disaster caused Xiao Qiang, the contract lawsuit between FamilyMart China and the japanese side of the whole family is unresolved, involving high-level energy at the same time, how can the following employees unswervingly devote themselves to development?

Some market participants told Business Observer that the authorization given by the Japanese side of the whole family to the Dingxin Group FamilyMart Mainland expires in June this year. The FamilyMart has a condition for renewing the brand authorization, which requires the designated area to be limited. That is to say, in the areas not authorized by the Japanese contract of the whole family, Dingxin Group cannot expand and open stores in these areas. "Because of the restriction of the authorization problem, the family development department personnel in the past could not let go of their hands and feet." Some market sources said that since the intensification of the contradiction with the Japanese side, the personnel of the family development department have only been able to develop stores in the regional cities they have entered in the past two years, and all other new areas cannot be developed.

In the view of the Dingxin Group, the conditions proposed by the Japanese family are extremely harsh. According to the "Business Observer", the Japanese side of the whole family gave The Dingxin Group three choices, either to withdraw from the operation of the mainland family; or to limit the area according to the requirements of the Japanese side, and the Dingxin Group can only operate in the authorized business area; or increase the brand authorization fee, that is, from the previous regional authorization, to the need to charge brand usage fees for each single store on an annual basis, and the rate is not low.

"For Dingxin Group, it is quite difficult to accept either one." Market participants told Business Observer that at present, the two sides have completely lost mutual trust. Especially the japanese side of the whole family, it seems that they have completely lost trust in the Dingxin Group.

Three

Pending

The contract dispute between FamilyMart and Japan's parent company, FamilyMart, family home holdings, which was prosecuted in court in 2019, has not yet been resolved.

It is reported that the current point of contention between the two sides is the disparity in the identification of brand licensing fees.

"The brand royalties identified by the two sides differ several times in the middle. However, no one is willing to make concessions, and no one is willing to give up their own interests. ”

However, in this entanglement of operating rights, Dingxin Group seems to have fallen into a more passive situation. From the perspective of time alone, this lawsuit has been fought for more than two years, which has delayed the family's mainland business for more than two years.

"More than 2,000 franchisees in FamilyMart are all franchise contracts signed with FamilyMart, and if there is no FamilyMart brand, there are too many problems that need to be solved." Some market participants said that Dingxin Group needs to re-sign contracts for each franchisee, and also legally and effectively terminate the previous contracts.

FamilyNet China replied to Business Observer that the operation and operation of FamilyMart are normal at present. As for the contractual aspect, it is not convenient to explain based on the principle of confidentiality.

Market participants believe that Dingxin Group is not subject to the Japanese family at present, it is better to emulate the "one-night flop" of South Korea's CU, abandon the family brand, and perhaps stimulate the "secondary entrepreneurship" passion of Dingxin Group.

At present, the Dingxin Group, which is waiting in the suspense and has not completely broken with the Japanese side, seems to be quite in line with Wei Yingxing's style of doing things - steady, which is the unanimous evaluation of Wei Yingxing by the outside world.

However, what is more certain is that even if the mainland assets of the whole family are to be sold, if the lawsuit with the Japanese side is not resolved, the mainland assets of the whole family will always be a "hot potato".

Chia Tai Group, an earlier party to the acquisition, is the operator of 7-11 in the Thai market. It is also the majority shareholder of ITOCHU Corporation, the parent company of the family. If we can take over the acquisition of FamilyMart's mainland assets, the contradiction between FamilyMart's mainland stores and the Japanese side may be easier to mediate.

"Now everyone is waiting, waiting for the final result." Family members said.