The "Yonghe Soy Milk" brand is a well-known brand in the catering industry founded by Taiwan Hongqi Food Co., Ltd. in 1982. In 1995, it crossed the Taiwan Strait and came to the mainland for development. Now I will unravel the inspirational entrepreneurial history of Yonghe Soybean Milk for everyone, I hope it can help you.
Part 1 of the inspirational entrepreneurial history of Yonghe Soybean Milk
Yonghe King is a national fast food chain enterprise. The products it sells are soybean milk, fried dough sticks, various porridges and Chinese-style food that suit Chinese tastes. snacks. The store has a dedicated website, an online ordering mailbox, and a 24-hour telephone delivery hotline. As long as you gently dial the number with your finger, Yonghe employees will deliver the hot food as quickly as possible. into your hands.
On December 12, 1995, the first restaurant of "Yonghe King" was born on Shuicheng Road, Changning District, Shanghai. As of April 2004, "Yonghe King" has opened in Beijing, Nearly 80 directly-operated branches have been opened in 5 cities, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Shenzhen, with a total staff of more than 3,000. It has become a large catering group based on promoting Chinese cuisine and specializing in Chinese fast food chain operation and management. The success of "Yonghe King" has undoubtedly become the target of imitation by major Chinese fast food restaurants, and it is well deserved to be called "China's McDonald's selling fried dough sticks" by people in the industry.
To paraphrase Tolstoy’s famous saying: Good companies are all similar, and bad companies each have their own shortcomings. That is to say, good companies do well in various aspects such as operation, management, corporate culture, etc., while bad companies often have shortcomings or bad things in one way or another. Let’s take a look at what makes Yonghe King extraordinary in business:
Differentiated products
Shanghai people don’t like eating steamed buns very much. Typical Shanghainese do It can be seen from this that I can’t figure out the difference between steamed buns and steamed buns. The traditional breakfast of Shanghainese people is generally called the "Four King Kongs", which are soy milk, fried dough sticks, flatbread, and rice balls. These items are generally run by individual vendors and sold on the streets, so you can imagine how hygienic they are. In order to save costs, vendors generally reuse the oil used to fry fried dough sticks. It has been scientifically proven that regular consumption of such fried food is extremely harmful to human health and can easily cause cancer. In addition, alum is added to fried dough sticks, which is not suitable for the human body if eaten in large quantities. The products of "Yonghe King" have unique flavor and clean environment. Therefore, compared with the soy milk and fried dough sticks that have been gathering dust at roadside breakfast stalls for decades or hundreds of years, their products have achieved differentiation. The oil used for frying is 100% natural salad oil, and the oil is replaced immediately after one use. For the processing of fried dough sticks, foreign flour is imported, which not only enhances the crispiness of the fried dough sticks, but also reduces the risk of frying. The intake of alum allows diners to eat with confidence and stay healthy.
While others do Manchu and Han banquets and banquet-style Chinese food, Yonghe only operates a Chinese fast food market; others are open for 11 hours a day, while Yonghe is open 24 hours a day; others only open a phone delivery business, and Yonghe has become the first in the country A restaurant that offers online ordering and delivery. These greatly facilitate customers, and also help Yonghe win over those office workers who are busy working in the office building and have no time to come down for a meal, and find a good place for those "people returning from the city at night" to have late-night snacks.
Products must be unique in order to leave a deep impression on customers, especially food, which is a one-time consumer product and must be complete in color, aroma and taste. Yonghe's fried dough sticks are made one-third longer than ordinary fried dough sticks sold on the roadside. Every piece of tableware that holds food in "Yonghe King" has been carefully selected and designed, so that customers can feel not only the process of eating, but also the process of slowly enjoying the food.
High-end prices
At that time, fried dough sticks on the streets of Shanghai generally sold for only 50 cents, but "Yonghe King" sold for 2 yuan. Other items such as soy milk, rice balls, and scallion pancakes are also many times more expensive. In addition to fixed costs such as renting stores, training staff, and importing high-quality raw materials, the company's original intention to set such prices at the beginning was to expand the consumption level and take a high-end route, ?Yonghe King? It is clear that the target customer groups of McDonald's and KFC are teenagers and children under the age of 20, so when their first store opened in Shanghai at the end of 1995, they followed the road of "high quality, hygiene and high price".
The target customers are middle- and high-income earners between the ages of 18 and 45, thus maintaining the misalignment with the target group of foreign fast food customers, that is, not directly competing with them, but maintaining a balanced and complementary state with them. In addition, taking into account the overall environment, in Shanghai in the mid-1990s, residents had some money in their pockets, and their lives were not as budget-conscious and restrained as they were in the 1980s. People pursued a more comfortable consumption environment and high quality services. Moreover, Shanghainese like to seek novelty, change, and follow fashion, so the high price does not deter people, but instead sets off a small wave in society. It has truly turned "Yonghe Soy Milk" into a fashionable brand, making people willing to spend more for it. This not only ensures the income of the restaurant operation, but also lays a good foundation for future development, which is conducive to the expansion of the length and depth of the product portfolio.
Smart chain The development and expansion of Yonghe King has not always been smooth sailing. In 2001, due to the addition of new direct-operated stores, it was difficult to keep up with subsequent funds. By the end of the year, the company had lost 50 million. In fact, like other companies that open chain stores, Yonghe has been doing a money-burning business in the company's initial stage. Before the scale benefits of chain operations are realized, it will inevitably lose money. Take "McDonald's" as an example. They need to open more than 70 stores in a city to break even; while "Café's" needs 35 stores in Hong Kong to break even; as for "Yonghe King", it needs at least 50 shop. The most important thing to run a chain store is to have talents with proficient management experience. For this reason, Yonghe also hired a headhunting company to find senior managers from peers. Lin Youao said: "Management cannot be improved overnight, and the level of management directly determines the future operating level of the enterprise." We are looking at long-term interests. ? In addition, the Yonghe King headquarters attaches great importance to the contractual spirit of franchisees. Because once a franchise store does not abide by the law, conducts illegal operations, and has problems with food preparation, resulting in inconsistent food tastes, it will ruin the entire "Yonghe King" brand and make the brand in the minds of consumers. status declined.
Follow-up stores
In daily life, we can naturally find that there is a branch of "KFC" within twenty or thirty meters of McDonald's. Home is definitely positioned head-on against the competition, and the smell of competition is very strong. ?Yonghe King? is not to be outdone, and basically adopts a follow-up strategy. Wherever your foreign fast food opens, my Chinese fast food will follow. Yonghe believes that since the store locations selected by McDonald's and KFC must first of all be a gathering place for people, and secondly, after all, the consumer groups of Chinese food and Western food are different, there is a complementarity between Yonghe King and them. competitive relationship. For example, Science Academy South Road in Beijing is adjacent to the Renmin University of China to the west and Shuangan Shopping Center to the south. The small area is 120 meters from north to south and 80 meters from east to west. There are actually more than 10 fast food industry experts gathered here. The west side of Science Academy South Road starts from the south. Lined up in a row to the north are the American "McDonald's", China's "Yonghe King", and "Banmuyuan" owned by Banmuyuan Fast Food Co., Ltd.; to the east are Japanese fast food "Noodles", China's "Banmuyuan" Wonton Hou and the Western-style Malan Ramen are located on the south side of the T-intersection. Almost all of them are close to each other, and their stores are about the same size. Competition is both a contest and an exchange. Excluding competition based on geographical location, it can best reflect the gap between the two sides. Only by seeing the gap can progress be made. Lin Youao believes that compared with Western-style fast food, Chinese food has more types of food. This is the advantage of Chinese food and it is easier to attract more customers. But this is also a disadvantage of Chinese food, because with so many types of food, it is difficult to control the quality. But in the long run, Chinese fast food will never lose to Western fast food.
In terms of store decoration, Yonghe King has also been keeping up with the times and constantly seeking innovation and change. Yonghe found in market research that the consumer level is extending downward, from the original 25 to 45 years old to 21 to 45 years old. This shows that its target customers are getting younger and younger. Therefore, for the decoration of each store, Yonghe changed from the antique style of the second-generation store to the casual style of the third-generation store. A flagship store has also been opened on Huaihai Road in Shanghai.
Compared with McDonald’s’ eye-catching light box advertisements and its eye-catching logo, Yonghe King is indeed a bit inconspicuous, but the bright red door: reveals the traditional Chinese festive atmosphere. It can win the recognition of ordinary people.
The store logo is an image of a kind-hearted old man who is similar to KFC fast food. This is the image of Li Jinpeng, the founder of Yonghe King. Perhaps it is this kind old man who laid the foundation for Yonghe King's approachable business style.
Good reputation
Compared with the overwhelming advertising strategies of KFC and McDonald’s, Yonghe King is much more economical in this regard. The first two are often launched New products are promoted with great fanfare using various promotional methods such as advertising, sales promotion, publicity, corporate sponsorship, etc. However, Yonghe basically does not do any advertising, and if it does, it will not do a single new product. Product advertising, but to promote the overall brand concept of "Yonghe King". For example, in an advertisement for her company’s film: It is said that white-collar workers work overtime until midnight, and the female white-collar buys Yonghe soy milk for the male white-collar, and the male white-collar also buys the female white-collar to eat, and then types a line of big characters? Yonghe is your home. To be honest, it is not easy to make an advertisement selling flatbread and fried dough sticks so fashionable.
Yonghe believes that they do not rely mainly on advertising to attract customers, but mainly rely on word of mouth. Enhance the reputation of "Yonghe King" by improving customer satisfaction. Because a highly satisfied customer will speak favorably of a company's products and brand, purchase more of the company's new products, ignore competing brands and advertising, and be insensitive to price, it is better to be more loyal to the customer than to spend large amounts of money on advertising. Conduct research, develop products that suit customer tastes, and provide customer-satisfying services.
Unique management
When the partners of Baring Investment came to Yonghe King for inspection, what impressed them most was that although Yonghe only had more than 10 chain stores, it had A relatively systematic management system has been established with the help of computer information management and a semi-military training and training upgrade system for employees. In order to quickly expand its stores, Yonghe King quickly developed five teams: training, development, planning, product management, and engineering. But King Yonghe’s strongest points are finance and training. King Yonghe has a thick book of financial statements. The bank thinks that we are the best customers, and Barings likes us for this. ?Lin Youao said. Fast food is a cash business, and finances must be transparent. Only in this way can the spirit of financial independence be reflected. If the finances are not done well, the foundation will be laid in vain. So far, each region of King Yonghe has an independent financial system, and the head office has never interfered.
Yonghe has a very complete employee training plan. Newly recruited employees undergo a three-day military training with the purpose of cultivating employees' organizational discipline, tolerance for hardship and team spirit. Next comes various professional trainings. For example, the employees responsible for making dumplings must know very clearly the proportion of meat and vegetables in each dumpling filling, how much water and oil to put in, and how long to cook the dumplings to ensure they are cooked just right. wait.
Beautiful prospects
Profits and wealth are generated while meeting and creating various human needs, so even a humble small business will be successful as long as it is done well. Can achieve great fame. From the perspective of the development prospects of the entire Chinese fast food industry, there are very large business opportunities. With the increase in income levels and changes in customs, fewer young people in mainland China cook at home, and more and more people are used to going to restaurants. Come more and more. Even those who know how to cook still like to go out for a change of taste. There should be a lot of room for development in the fast food industry in the future. From a global perspective, there is no decent Chinese fast food, and the goal of "Yonghe King" is to develop a brand in the Chinese fast food industry, not only to turn Yonghe King into "China's McDonald's", but also to compete with McDonald's in the future. Go to its hometown in the United States and enter the European and American markets.
In fact, catering inherently represents a culture. What Chinese people eat in Western restaurants is Western culture, and what foreigners eat in Chinese restaurants is Chinese culture. If serious Western food is equivalent to a kind of "elegant culture", then Western fast food is a kind of "popular culture". And Chinese fast food like "Yonghe King" should represent China's "traditional market culture". How to inherit and carry forward this traditional culture in the new era and still maintain its own characteristics and advantageous position in the follow-up of successors is an issue that Yonghe King needs to consider in its future operations and development.
The total length of the fried dough sticks sold by Yonghe King today is equivalent to the height of seven Oriental Pearl TV Towers. We look forward to "Yonghe King" establishing the Pearl Tower of Yonghekou Group around the world, and at the same time becoming a fast food brand for Chinese people.
Part 2 of the Inspiring Entrepreneurship History of Yonghe Soybean Milk
Three Realms
Since starting my business, my life has experienced the three realms mentioned by Wang Guowei. The first realm: "Last night, the west wind withered the green trees. I climbed up to the tall building alone and looked across the road to the end of the world." ?The second realm,??The belt gradually becomes wider and finally regrets it, and the beauty disappears and makes people haggard. ?The third realm,? The crowd searched for him a thousand times, but suddenly looked back, and found that man in a dimly lit place. ?The west wind withers the green trees?
When I was in school, I felt that I was uneducated and incompetent. I studied navigation. However, I later went into business by chance, including working part-time while I was studying. Exceeded goods are closely related to food.
Before starting my own business, I sold sewing machines, worked as a real estate agent, set up a street stall, and drove a taxi. Compared with selling sewing machines or selling houses, I think making food is a relatively simple matter. But if the food is made and eaten unsafely, it will become a tipping point, so I trembled from a small shop to getting involved in a simple product? Selling low-temperature soy milk.
By 1985, I had accumulated hundreds of thousands of yuan in capital, and I found two partners. One of my partners stopped doing it after two months. He said it was too hard and he couldn't see the future, so he stopped doing it. Another colleague said that this was more difficult than selling sewing machines. He had been working for half a year, but there was no hope. At that time, the monthly performance was only a few hundred thousand NT dollars, and he quit soon.
So I had no choice but to cooperate with my brother. In the process of starting a business, I also realized that there are majors in food, so I asked him to go to the Food Research Institute to study food majors, and then imported them into the company. inside, and put the standard of good food into operation. In Taiwan, Yonghe Soymilk is the first professional soymilk factory to obtain Taiwan’s Excellent Food Certification. Our soy milk has also passed the US FDA certification and is qualified for export to the US market.
I think self-requirements are very important. When the government does not regulate requirements, you can first make a certification condition yourself. This is the value of self-affirmation. In the second stage, "As the clothes get wider and wider, you will never regret it, but you will feel haggard because of the beauty." Fifteen years ago, I came to mainland China for the first time. When I was having breakfast in Fuzhou, I drank a cup of soy milk and a steamed bun for one yuan and asked me for thirty cents. I remember that the landlady was grabbing the dough sticks with her hands and giving them the banknotes to me. The banknotes were so greasy that they felt dirty even in her pocket. So I think this is an opportunity to make eating convenient, hygienic and clean for everyone, and this model is relatively rare in mainland China.
After that, I started to take action. Initially, I entrusted a friend in Fujian to help OEM Yonghe soy milk products and do a trial sale. I sold soy milk to places such as Chengdu, Wuhan, Changsha and Fujian, but every time I went to collect the bill, I was forced to become an alcoholic. I realized that without building a brand, you can’t sell a lot of it. Large resources are invested in the marketing market.
Later, I opened my own store in Shanghai, using self-built channels and a step-by-step strategy to develop. So far, Yonghe Soy Milk has more than 500 stores. Of course, there are many Yonghe franchises on the market, and copycats are also everywhere. Data shows that there are more than a thousand copycat stores. Therefore, I think Yonghe Soybean Milk still has a lot of room for development in meeting this basic consumer demand.
We have established a regional alliance model this year. This is based on the needs of friends from all over the country who want to join and cooperate. We are a joint venture with the company. We call it three supply routes: economic, commercial and human. In this case, you need to strengthen the industrialization, standardization and simplification of the development of catering.
In the past, the eating habits of each place had different tastes, but with the rapid development of chain stores, in order to meet the needs of the economic structure, you must prepare a lot of standardized and standardized products in central factories. , so that customers can enjoy it through simple operations in the store. Western fast food has done very well in terms of standardization and standardization, while Chinese fast food still has some bottlenecks, but I believe these bottlenecks will be gradually solved through innovative mechanisms.
In the field of industrial production, there are many advanced equipment and technologies for you to apply. You can keep the good factors in soybeans and remove the bad ones. The temperature in China sometimes differs by more than ten to twenty degrees between the southern and northern temperatures. If the beans are not soaked enough, the beans will be underdeveloped and there will be no pulp when ground. If they are soaked too much, they will have precipitated, which will be harmful to the body.
We use advanced technology to break through the past tradition. We can cook the beans in a few seconds without losing any nutrients and with a high safety factor.
In addition, since 2005, we have developed a business other than fast food chain? Soy milk powder. With the rapid economic development, we can no longer meet the needs of the consumer market with fresh grinding.
In this stage, you have to extend into the future and be at the forefront, rather than waiting for the opportunity to come. People have searched hundreds of times for him?
Thinking about the future, let me talk about the third realm of life,? People have searched for him hundreds of times, but suddenly looking back, that person is in the dim light. ?Everyone wants to look back in the third realm and see that his achievements today are fruitful and satisfactory.
I think the main needs of human beings in the future are health, health, greenness and economy, and soy protein has a lot of room for development in this area. For example, for our vegetarian products made from soy protein, whether in Southeast Asia, Europe or the United States, the growth of the vegetarian population is very impressive, and the entire Chinese market is still in its infancy. Therefore, this is a new direction. People who make catering and food can learn more in this direction and have the opportunity to create a new brand in the future.