The joint venture of "Coffee with you", South Korea's largest coffee brand, went bankrupt in China. The whereabouts of the legal representative?

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"Coffee with you" was once the largest coffee chain in South Korea. The Korean coffee franchise myth, which once had more than 5200 stores in South Korea and more than 219800 stores worldwide, has completely collapsed in China.

In 2012, "Coffee accompany you" entered China, claiming to open 5000 stores in three years, which is full of ambitions, but when opening to the 700th store, coffee has huge problems with you.

Coffee accompany you, joint venture in China declares bankruptcy

South Korea's largest coffee chain Coffee with you (Caffe Bene) Coffee Co., Ltd. (Shanghai) Investment Management Co., Ltd., a joint venture in China, suffered a debt crisis for many years and finally went bankrupt. The company has been included in the blacklist of enterprises that break the law seriously, and the whereabouts of the legal representative is also unknown.

According to the interface news, the Shanghai Fengxian District people's Court issued a notice on October 9, saying that the creditors of Coffee (Shanghai) Investment Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Coffee with you Shanghai Company") should declare their claims to the manager of the Shanghai company before November 9, 2018. The first creditors' meeting is scheduled for the afternoon of November 16, and creditors who declare their claims in accordance with the law have the right to attend the creditors' meeting.

Two months ago, on August 13, Fengxian District Court ruled to accept the bankruptcy liquidation case of Coffee Co., Ltd. in Shanghai, and appointed Beijing Pacific Century (Shanghai) Law firm as its administrator on August 15. The Shanghai Coffee Company was founded in 2013, and Coffee Management Co., Ltd. is its sole shareholder, and the latter was blacklisted by the court in 2015 on the blacklist of enterprises that broke the law seriously. The reason is that "through the registered residence or place of business can not be contacted for three years." The legal representatives of both companies are Yu Xifan.

The 88 registered trademarks held by "Coffee with you" with an estimated value of more than 5000 million yuan were unexpectedly left unhandled, and finally failed after a 24-hour online auction.

What kind of company is China Enterprise Investment Group? Public data show that the China Enterprise Investment Group is a cross-industry, trans-regional joint-stock company, mainly involved in real estate, finance, aquaculture, tourism, associations and services and other fields. Its chairman, Lu Changqing, has a series of halo-like titles such as "President of the World Outstanding Chinese Business Association", "Chairman of China Private Entrepreneur Association" and "Chairman of China Zhejiang Merchants Association".

On the face of it, this cooperation between China and South Korea shows a trend of "strong cooperation". At the beginning of the cooperation, Korean coffee accompanies you to put aside its bold words and will challenge Starbucks' position in the Chinese market. At present, Yu Bofan's whereabouts are unknown, and he has been ordered by the court to restrict consumption.

According to the data checked by the Enterprise Credit Information reference platform, the coffee management company accompanies your Shanghai company through coffee. There are 230 enterprises investing in China and 199 holding enterprises. Industrial and commercial information shows that most of these enterprises are in the state of "cancellation, revocation" and "abnormal operation". Both companies are involved in more than 300 lawsuits.

Coffee accompany you was founded in 2008, is South Korea's largest coffee chain, in addition to coffee, but also engaged in a variety of high-end tea, lattes, fruit juices, waffles, bread and other products. There are more than 219800 chain stores in China, the United States, the Philippines and other markets around the world. In 2012, Coffee accompanied you to enter the Chinese market, set up a joint venture company Coffee Management Co., Ltd., set up seven districts and quickly opened stores, mainly in China's first -, second-and third-tier cities.

Coffee with you first landed in China in 2012, and then a wave of "coffee with you" swept the country, and the first store opened in Wangjing, Beijing.

Around 2013, "Coffee with you" rushed to Jinan on a large scale, and in a very short time, as many as six shops appeared in popular business circles such as Quancheng Road, Honglou and Bayi overpass.

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South Korean divestment

In 2008, Coffee opened its first shop with you in South Korea, and then expanded into the largest coffee chain in Korea at the rate of 100 stores a year. In March 2012, coffee accompanied you to enter the Chinese market, but not with "pure Korean" ancestry, but through the Sino-Korean joint venture Coffee Management Co., Ltd. to accompany you to expand and operate the Chinese market.

According to the data disclosed by the Beijing Enterprise Credit Information Network, in 2013, the three major shareholders of the company were China Enterprise Asia-Pacific Investment Co., Ltd., Jin Shanqi (President of Caffe bene, Korea Co., Ltd., Vice Chairman of Coffee Management Co., Ltd.) and Coffee Hong Kong Holdings Co., Ltd., with contributions of 25 million yuan, 10 million yuan and 15 million yuan respectively. According to 2014 data, Jin Shanqi's contribution decreased from 10 million yuan to 5 million yuan, while that of Coffee Hong Kong Holdings Co., Ltd. increased from 15 million yuan to 20 million yuan.

According to a person close to Coffee, the relationship between Coffee and your shareholders is not harmonious. Coffee with you Korean shareholders have been reducing their investment in coffee companies in China since 15 years ago. At present, the South Korean side of Coffee with you has withdrawn, leaving only the Chinese equity of Coffee with you. "Coffee with you is a headache for Chinese shareholders who are considering whether to get their South Korean shares back." South Korean shareholders have stopped injecting capital since the end of 14 years, according to another person familiar with the matter.

There are also various speculations that coffee accompanies you with a broken capital chain: South Korea withdraws its capital because of infighting in the company, squeezing out South Korean shareholders; Coffee accompanies you, China Enterprise Asia Pacific Investment Co., Ltd., one of your shares, put the money into investment, but the investment failed.

Kang Hoon, 49, founded Hollis Coffee in 1998, served as a "Coffee with you" representative in 2010, founded KH in the same year, founded Mangosix in 2011, and bought two coffee shops last year. At 05:46 local time on the 24th, Kang Hoon committed suicide in the bathroom of his home in Ricao District, Seoul, leaving no suicide note. The police said: "the company is in a financial crisis. Jiang Xun sent a text message to a friend on the 23rd that he was very tired."

Coffee accompanies you to close stores one after another and pay arrears.

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Shareholder infighting

According to the official website of Coffee, the chain stores that accompany you around the world are located in South Korea, China, the United States, the Philippines, Cambodia and other countries, with nearly half of them in China. The importance of the Chinese market for coffee accompany you is self-evident, but in the face of the sticky situation, the joint venture Coffee Management Co., Ltd. has not sent a signal to the headquarters for help, and the South Korean headquarters has not sent a message that it will lend a helping hand to the outside world.

A person who once worked for coffee to accompany you revealed that in the process of coffee cooperation with your brand, there have been frequent conflicts between China and South Korea.

The expansion of Coffee with you mainly depends on joining. Public information shows that of its more than 900 stores in South Korea in 2014, only more than 30 are directly branded, and the rest are franchisees. In the Chinese market, the way of joining is divided into 50% to 50%, 40% to 60%, or 100% contribution to the franchisee. Coffee accompanies you to inspect the location of the store, specialize in training, and so on.

How much does it cost to open a coffee shop with you?

Take a store of about 200square meters as an example, according to the calculation of the coffee company, the total cost is about 3 million yuan. This includes 350000 yuan for entrusted operation and management fees, 100000 yuan for staff training, 600000 yuan for interior design and decoration (3000 yuan per square meter), 100000 yuan for on-site supervision, 800000 yuan for equipment and furniture, 100000 yuan for signboards and images, 100000 yuan for MD goods and consumables, 100000 yuan for POP advertising and event planning, 100000 yuan for logistics deposit, 90,000 yuan for initial materials, Fees such as 100000 yuan for license processing and 350000 yuan for entrusted business deposit.

Franchisees later found that almost every item in this long list of fees had the problem of overpriced or fictitious names. For example, it costs 100000 yuan to apply for industrial and commercial licenses and various certificates. For example, Kimberly-Clark M39 double-headed semi-automatic coffee machine, the wholesale price is about 50, 000 yuan, coffee with you is priced at 120000 yuan. For example, a variety of margin, franchisee and coffee to accompany your cooperation, in fact, is a joint venture to open a store, there is no shareholder to another shareholder margin reason.

If coffee accompanies your company through more than 600 franchise stores across the country, it should also attract more than 600 million yuan. Even if half of this money is spent on store operation, it will not be as chaotic as it is now.

It is rumored that the Chinese investment group took the money to invest overseas, but the investment failed, resulting in a break in the company's internal capital chain. At the same time, its coffee company does not want to take care of your shop, resulting in many stores across the country not making money or even losing money.

Out of dissatisfaction with the coffee company, the franchisees put up banners to protest.

Blind expansion, fiasco ended!

More than 95% of "coffee accompany you" are franchisees, and its standardized management has not been done well, resulting in the lack of guidance and control mechanism, coupled with the poor ability of store operation and management. There are different products and even different menus in different stores, which exposes the problem of imperfect purchasing links.

Once the capital chain breaks, it will bring about a complete collapse. To open a restaurant, we should also pay attention to quality, and at the same time, we should also follow a strict process to manage and prepare for long-term sustainable operation. In the case of "running out of ammunition", local stores can only purchase raw materials locally, and even the most core raw materials, coffee beans, are purchased at will, directly leading to the decline of coffee quality and inconsistent taste, which is undoubtedly a devastating blow to a chain coffee brand.

Some netizens commented: "the main purpose of Korean coffee shop chain is to circle money, not how to make a cup of coffee that makes customers satisfied."

The practice of wanton expansion is really undesirable. "Coffee with you" is running out of steam. Declare bankruptcy in China!

"Coffee with you" can no longer accompany you.

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