"I read China in coffee."

On weekend mornings, children run and play while eating freshly baked raspberry muffins; at dusk, middle-aged men look up in contemplation and organize a day's work; in the middle of the night, young entrepreneurs sit around their notebooks to discuss the details There are lovers, girlfriends, partners, no matter the time sooner or later, they can enjoy the freedom and happiness brought to them by the same space, this mysterious destination is "diffuse coffee".

Since the first store was opened in Beijing Lido Hotel in 2011, this large-space coffee shop, which is always located next to parks and communities, characterized by steel structure and glass curtain walls, has spread across the country like dandelion seeds and is popular among Chinese people. But few people know that its founder is a Korean. Industry insiders commented that it has to be admitted that, in addition to global Korean enterprises such as Samsung and Hyundai, Man Coffee can be said to be one of the "most" successful enterprises run by Koreans in China.

Recently, Wing Weekly interviewed Xin Zixiang, founder and chairman of Man Coffee, and asked the nearly 64-year-old man to tell the secret of his success.

Frenzied expansion:

120 stores in 3 years

Pay back in 14 months

The interview was made at Aijiangshan No.2, another Korean catering industry owned by Hsin Tzu, in his own underground office. Seeing the reporter's sudden visit, he instantly cheered up during the lunch break, lit a cigar and said, "I've been very busy lately. I've been busy with open coffee!"

Xin Zixiang operates three major catering brands in China: Aijiangshan, Man Coffee and Creative Restaurant. There is no doubt that Man Coffee has come to the fore and reached the state of "explosion". He confidently introduces that at present, a coffee shop can recoup its initial investment in an average of 14 months. There are 70 stores open across the country and 50 stores under renovation and construction.

But he was not satisfied with the scale of 120 stores in three years. He took out a two-page list of stores under preparation from his portfolio and pointed out: "too slow, still too slow!"

According to his figures, the number of cafes in South Korea was 2800 in 2007 and 18000 this year seven years later. For China, this is undoubtedly a golden age for the development of cafes.

His goal is to open 3000 coffee houses within 10 years. Such a development cannot be achieved by himself. As a result, Man Coffee adopts the expansion mode of direct operation and cooperation. Xin Zi said frankly that the partner he needs needs to have the strength to open five stores in a region or city, which means that the partner is by no means an ordinary individual.

Keen observation: Chinese coffee consumption is different.

Back to the original topic: what is the origin of Xin Zixiang's success? He thought for a moment and replied, "success comes from his thorough observation of the Chinese people." During his nearly 10 years in China, he has found that Chinese people like to get together. Of course, restaurants are an option, but restaurants are divided into high, middle and low grades. "the identity gap is very large." Xin Zixiang said, but in the coffee shop, the price of a cup of coffee is only 24 yuan, people do not feel the identity gap.

Chinese coffee consumption also has its own characteristics: in South Korea, people usually only consume coffee in cafes, but the Chinese seem to prefer to eat something else. As a result, Man Coffee added a lot of freshly made muffins, the price of each dessert is about 50 yuan, the profit is higher than coffee.

Diffuse Coffee Restaurant also seems to make up for Chinese dissatisfaction with Starbucks: Starbucks is small and cramped, with spacious and bright buildings; Starbucks encourages you to take away, and diffuse Coffee says you are welcome to spend the day with your computer; Starbucks opens its store in the high-priced CBD, while diffuse Coffee chooses mild sites such as parks and communities.

Xin Zixiang also found that even if smoking is banned, Chinese cafes are often filled with smoke, so simply the entire second floor is designed as a smoking area, so people can choose the environment. In addition, the old elm dining table full of age traces and antique sofa chairs of different heights make people come to the coffee, just like coming to the home of an old friend, without being nervous about losing the bright new paint at the corner of the table.

On the one hand, it lowers the rent cost, which accounts for the highest proportion of costs in business, while driving up the level of consumption and increasing the profit of individual products, so is the secret of the success of diffuse coffee.

The law of cooperation: cooperate only with the Chinese

Read the Chinese people, understand the rules, do rice sausage business start, business life Xin Zi Xiang, the current self-confidence is also straightforward. The secret of his success in making rice sausages is to segment the market.

When asked about the difficulties of Korean businessmen in the development of China, he only gave a simple answer: "No, there are no difficulties at all."

There was a story that the coffee shop Lido No.1 was deserted at the beginning of its opening, but Xin Zi Xiang calmly said, wait, wait, wait. Nine months later, guests from Lido store swarmed in.

He told reporters that just like his newly founded Korean beer fried chicken restaurant, people need a place where they can both eat and drink. As long as things are right, all that is left is to wait.

Isn't Man Coffee afraid of imitators?

Xin Zixiang replied that the differential positioning made the coffee win at the beginning of the positioning, and as soon as the flashpoint arrived, the latecomers could not catch up even if they wanted to. In addition, the coffee itself is constantly innovating and evolving. He is now working with farms in Brazil to introduce the concept of "farm-table" (farm to table), so that drinking coffee knows not only where the coffee comes from, but also the stories of growers and farmers. They will also invite world-class baristas to have a taste of the coffee.

He said that similar novel ideas keep popping up in his mind every day and will be put into practice when the time is ripe.

He said bluntly that his partners were Chinese, not Korean. "in China, good land and good resources are in the hands of the Chinese people, and of course I have to cooperate with the Chinese people."

Impression of Beijing:

It will be the whole world.

The best city

An exhibition of Picasso paintings, held in Tokyo, Japan, for 10 days, was watched by about 30, 000 people, as well as in South Korea, but in Beijing, the number was 100000.

When asked about Beijing, Xin Zixiang excitedly cited the above example, which was even more exciting than talking about coffee.

He said: compared with other places in the world, the attraction of Beijing is huge. When you come to China on business, in addition to working, you can also see the best art exhibitions, receive high medical care, and receive very high-quality education. Its urban resources are very rich and colorful.

For example, if you are in Beijing, a kindergarten, from 5000 yuan a month to 180000 yuan a month, there are people spending, and it has a very diverse consumer population.

Of course, these bad things like haze need to be solved by means of science and technology, but there is no doubt that Beijing will become more and more powerful and eventually become the most powerful city in the world.

Dialogue

Wing Weekly: why does Man Coffee not accept franchisees, just partners?

Xin Zixiang: I don't join because this form is difficult to manage. In addition to Beijing and Shanghai, other cooperation, Man Coffee has a considerable stake, so the cooperation will respect the views of the headquarters.

Wing Weekly: what are the requirements for partners?

Xin Zixiang: he is a passionate person.

Wing Weekly: how many people are there in the main team of Man Coffee, and how many are Chinese?

Xin Zixiang: there are about 50 people in the team, only 5 are Koreans, and the rest are Chinese.

Wing Weekly: what is the key to the success of the coffee shop?

Xin Zixiang: a good location.

Wing Weekly: how do you sum up your success?

Xin Zixiang: to maintain vitality and fighting spirit, and the most important thing-diligence.

Wing Weekly: last question, how did the waiter recognize so many bears?

Xin Zixiang: (laughs) each bear has different colors and clothes. The focus of our training is to let the waiter know these bears.

Conclusion

Compared with Starbucks in the United States and Costa in the United Kingdom, and Pacific Coffee, which is backed by China Resources Mountain, Man Coffee, a coffee brand with no background, no brand story, and no abundant capital, has developed to such an extent in a short period of three years, which is a miracle. The key to success is still the differentiation route after coffee market segmentation and the observation of Chinese consumers'in-depth texture.

One day after the interview, the reporter chose to write in the Man Coffee in Wangjing and accidentally looked up and found a familiar figure in the private room on the second floor-a cigar smoking, dressed in casual clothes and full of spirit. So the reporter sat in the same place to observe.

He sat in the private room, chatting with his friends while looking out silently. In this way, I sat for a whole hour, during which I came out to communicate with the waiter several times: once told the waiter that the music was too low, and once because the air conditioning temperature was relatively low. This has also fulfilled a lot of rumors that there is a special seat of President Xin in the coffee.

Indeed, there are some habits that the Chinese themselves may not be able to say, but all this is seen by a person who has read through China and thoroughly read the secrets of business.