The Korean founder of Man Coffee tells you the secret of making coffee money.

It takes 14 months to recover the cost, with a daily turnover of X10,000 yuan (confidential). More than 100 stores have been opened and decorated in three years, but the speed of the rocket has a diametrically opposite name-"Man" coffee. Since the first one opened at the Lido Hotel in Beijing in 2011, the large-space coffee shop next to the park and community has always blossomed across the country like dandelion seeds. Some people even evaluate it as the "most" successful enterprise run by South Koreans in China, apart from Samsung and Hyundai.

Crazy expansion: looking for Chinese who can open "five stores"

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 was instantly refreshed during the lunch break, lit a cigar and gradually entered the state.

"what have you been up to lately?" In the face of the reporter's first one, Xinzi, who had sharp eyes behind the round-rimmed glasses, answered straight to the point: "I am busy opening a shop, busy opening up coffee!"

Xin Zixiang operates three major catering brands in China: Aijiangshan, Man Coffee and Creative Restaurant. There is no doubt that Man Coffee has stood out from the three major industries and reached a state of "explosion".

He confidently introduced that at present, a diffuse coffee store can recover its initial investment in an average of 14 months. Take the newly opened Tongzhou store as an example, its daily turnover reached X10,000 yuan (confidential) within six days of opening. There are 70 stores open across the country and 50 stores under renovation and construction.

But he was obviously not satisfied with the scale of 120 stores in three years. He took out two pages from his portfolio and was preparing a list of stores. He pointed to it and said, "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. This kind of development cannot be achieved by relying solely on his direct stores in Beijing and Shanghai. Therefore, he must find a "reliable" partner in Beijing. In addition to Beijing and Shanghai, Xin Zi said frankly that the partners he needs need to be able to open up to five stores in a region or city. This means that in China, where there is an inch of land and money, this partner is by no means an ordinary individual.

Keen observation: satisfying the unique consumption habits of the Chinese people

Even with high demands on partners, Man Coffee has undoubtedly attracted a large number of Chinese businessmen who want a piece of the pie. So, 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."

After nine years in China, he found that Chinese people like to get together, whether they are chatting or eating, they all need an occasion, which is the third destination besides the company and home. Of course, the restaurant is a choice, but the restaurant is divided into high, middle and low grades, rich people may eat thousands of meals, while ordinary people eat a meal only about 50 yuan. "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, the price is cheap, the environment is relaxed, but people do not feel the identity gap.

In addition, every year, about hundreds of thousands of Chinese return from studying abroad, and coffee has undoubtedly become a necessity of life. But enough cafes are far from enough.

Chinese coffee consumption also has its own characteristics: in South Korea, people generally only consume coffee in cafes, but Chinese seem to prefer to eat something else, especially desserts.

As a result, coffee added a lot of freshly made ice cream muffins, the price of each dessert is about 50 yuan, the price is higher than coffee, but the cost is much lower than coffee.

Of course, diffuse coffee also seems to make up for the Chinese dissatisfaction with Starbucks: Starbucks is small and cramped, and its buildings are spacious and bright; Starbucks encourages you to take away, Man Coffee says, you are welcome to spend the day with your computer; Starbucks opens its store in CBD, where land prices are high, while Man Coffee opts for parks, communities and other mild land prices. Differentiation has become a unique kill of Xin Zixiang.

In the case of smoking, for example, Xin Zixiang found that even if there was a no-smoking sign, Chinese cafes were often filled with smoke, so the entire second floor was designed as a smoking area. People can choose their environment.

He also opened the coffee shop in the university because he found that Chinese college students like to review their lessons in the coffee shop rather than in the study room. As a result, the Man Coffee Shop and the University of posts and Telecommunications stores have opened one after another.

His carefulness is also reflected in many aspects: childish bears with different colors after ordering, exotic lighting, old elm dining tables full of traces of age, and antique sofa chairs of different heights, all let people come to the coffee, just like coming to the home of an old friend, not nervous about losing the bright new paint at the corner of the table.

On the one hand, because the location has lowered the land cost, which accounts for the highest cost in business, while it has raised the level of consumption and increased the profit of individual products, so is the secret of the success of the coffee.

The law of cooperation: cooperate only with the Chinese

After reading the Chinese people and understanding the rules, Xin Zi Xiang, who has been a businessman all his life, is now confident and straightforward. And the secret of his success in making rice sausages to earn the first bucket of gold is market segmentation.

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's 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 also 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 the 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. Speaking of this, Xin Zi is in high spirits and full of passion, like a college student who has just walked out of school and is about to start a business.

But the seasoned he also said bluntly that his collaborators in China were Chinese, not Korean. "in China, good land and good resources are all in the hands of the Chinese people. Of course I have to cooperate with the Chinese people."

Impression of Beijing: it will be the best city in the world

An exhibition of Picasso paintings was held in Tokyo, Japan, for 10 days and 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.

For example, if you are in Beijing, a kindergarten, from 5000 yuan a month to 180000 yuan a year, 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, but only partners?

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

Wing Weekly: what are the requirements for partners?

Xin Zixiang: the strength to open 5 stores 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: what do you think is the key to successful business?

Xin Zixiang: 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 the waiter's training is to let the waiter recognize the bear.