85C or step coffee to accompany you, general manager Xie Jiannan quit.

The news of the resignation of Xie Jiannan, the general manager of 85C, has aroused widespread concern in the industry. behind the concern is the confusion of enterprises in the face of today's speed and scale of development. During this period, there are both generality and individuality. However, 85 degrees C chose to practice internal skills.

Senior executives exit

Making a high-profile appearance and leaving the stage sadly is the true reappearance of the career of many professional managers. Now there is another one, Xie Jiannan, general manager of 85C (Taiwan brand).

In an interview with the media in early 2013, Wu Zhengxue said publicly, "85C in the mainland, what you do well is to open a store quickly and grow revenue quickly; what you don't do well is management, and I want to ask a 'master' to help."

Xie Jiannan is what Wu Zhengxue calls a master. It is just that the process of turning Xie Jiannan's dream into reality has not been smooth.

Public information shows that in Xie Jiannan's plan, if it is fast enough, 85C stores in the mainland will be open to commission by the end of 2013 (excellent employees will undertake the operation, but the hardware equipment will still be funded by the parent company. is the transition mode of open membership). At the beginning of his appointment, 85C already had 324 stores in the mainland.

In fact, it was the end of 2014 when the plan was finally implemented.

According to the information on the 85C official website, the first bronze medal awarded by the 85C development franchise is Hangzhou in November 2014. This behavior is praised by the industry as the official launch of its commissioned business plan in the mainland, and it has also become a major business transformation in the past seven years of expansion in the mainland market. At this time, the number of 85C stores in the mainland has exceeded 475.

The market has not yet waited for the introduction of the 85C policy to join in the mainland, but Xie Jiannan has become a thing of the past. However, for the reasons for Xie Jiannan's resignation, the 85C side kept quiet to the New Financial Watch reporter.

"ordinary employees don't know, and what they know can't be said, it's too sensitive." The 85-degree C 1 employee told the New Financial Watch reporter. On joining, the employee said, "We do not have commissioned stores, do not join stores, but do not rule out the possibility of not joining in the future."

Xie Jiannan's "joining" plan during his term of office is not limited to the mainland. In March 2014, 85C launched a new franchise system in Taiwan. in the face of the media, Xie Jiannan said that he would replace the existing "voluntary franchise" with "authorization". It is hoped that the relationship between headquarters and franchisees will be upgraded from the past "commodity trading relationship" to business partnership, joint operation and profit sharing.

In addition, Xie Jiannan also adjusted the price of the 85C Taiwan market. At that time, Xie Jiannan was full of confidence as to whether the price increase would affect revenue. He believed that it was good for long-term operation.

"I don't know whether Xie Jiannan is too high-profile, or whether there is a deviation in the implementation of his development strategy. At the end of 2014, there were rumors about Xie Jiannan's departure." The aforementioned practitioner said.

The sign that can be seen from the public media reports is that in January this year, Taiwan media reported that after taking office, Xie Jiannan, general manager and chief executive of F-Food, was relieved of his power due to the drop in revenue of 85C, so Li Dingzhong, the supervisor, became the general manager of the market.

In response to the rumors, apart from emphasizing that he is still in power, Xie Jiannan is still obsessed with the "entrusting" mechanism implemented by 85C in the mainland. He stressed that compared with many large-scale baking companies in the mainland, 85C has gradually lost its advantage.

With the smooth promotion of the new system, more costs can be saved in the future and operational growth can be further enhanced.

However, two months later, F-Food issued another announcement, the core content is that from April, Xie Jiannan transferred to the group consultant, the post of general manager will be held by Wu Zhengxue. It is worth mentioning that when Xie Jiannan resigned, the number of 85C stores on the mainland was nearly 500.

Miss a good opportunity

Xie Jiannan's resignation has been mixed in the industry. However, in terms of the current development of 85C in the mainland, Wu Jian, director of the China Food and Beverage Industry Research Institute, told New Financial Watch, "if 85C gives up the strategy of joining and developing, it will have a positive impact on its brand in the long run." If you open up to join, the scale of 85C in the mainland will expand, but the negative impact on the brand will be greater. "

At the same time, he stressed that Xie's departure, because of his short tenure, will not have a far-reaching impact on 85C.

The information learned from 85C is: "at present, 85C has to practice its internal skills in the mainland, the running-in of internal personnel and the training of talents have been done step by step, and it is also necessary to close stores with poor revenue and open some good stores. The goal is to make a rapid change across the country. When the internal skills are practiced to a certain extent next year, there should be an outbreak. "

But right now, many picky consumers are alienating 85C.

"in the morning, I specially went to the nearest 85C to buy coffee and bread. There were not many people and the experience was not good." Suoji consulting senior consultant Wade said.

He went specially because the day before, he shared his observation on the development of 85C in the mainland with the New Financial Watch reporter. Wade, who is based in Shanghai, has been immersed in the baking industry for many years, and the first stop of 85C on the mainland in 2007 was Shanghai.

In the eyes of Wade, 85C is a baking chain, not a coffee chain. Although 85C is named after "coffee tastes best at 85 °C", "in terms of the layout of its products, coffee, bread and cake, it also belongs to the baking company." Wade said.

This makes the company different from Taiwanese stores as soon as it enters the mainland. Wu Jian believes that in the mainland, 85 degrees C is a traditional baking business. "in Taiwan, 85C is dominated by coffee, supplemented by baked goods, but on the mainland, it's just the opposite. Because of the blurred positioning, 85C has lost its accurate consumer population in the mainland. Careful observation, 85 degrees C consumers, what age group have. Wu Jian said.

The reality is that in Taiwan, the 85C competitor is Starbucks, while in the mainland, its competitors have become Christine, Bread Xinyu, Holly, Paris Bei Tian and so on. Compared with many large-scale baking enterprises in the mainland, 85C has gradually lost its advantage.

Wade's first-hand experience is that 85C gradually slows down, especially its expansion in first-tier cities, leading to a shift to second-and third-tier cities.

"at first, the practice of poaching store managers from foreign companies such as KFC, offering high salaries and promising visions failed to support 85C to go further. After the enterprise has experienced a process of rapid development, the 'own people' who have gradually grown up have gradually become the main force of 85C, although they have saved costs, but the 'quick' talents have opened the gap with other competitors after all. " Wade said.

In addition, 85C "has always attached great importance to food safety". However, in the past few years of its development in the mainland, it has still not been able to avoid occasional food safety incidents, so that it has been evaluated by the industry as "emphasizing expansion rather than management."

In Wade's view, the brand value of 85C has been declining in the eight years of development in the mainland. "if affordable coffee is its core competitiveness, McDonald's and KFC are offering freshly ground coffee at a price friendly to the people, and the number of stores is far more than 85C; if the core competitiveness is baked products, then it faces more competitors, and the personalized difference of the product is not obvious."

85C believes that its current core competitiveness is the effective combination of beverage, bread and coffee, and put forward the ready-made and ready-made sale of baking.

But Wade disagrees. "most bakeries can make and sell now."

"overall, the five-year period from 2007 to 2011 is a prime time, and the entry of 85C into the mainland coincides with this period. Although, now also achieved the scale of nearly 500 stores, but this number is no surprise, at best, is stable. It is a pity that in the best time, 85C did not establish the distinct positioning and image of its brand, and then build up its wide fan base. " Wu insisted.

Competition intensifies

To make matters worse, 85C, in addition to dealing with its own problems, it also needs to face the cruel situation of intensified competition in the domestic baking industry. The contraction of 85C seen by Wade in first-tier cities and the expansion in second-and third-tier cities is considered to be a sign of cost savings.

However, the aforementioned 85C employees believe that in first-tier cities, the number of stores is relatively saturated, so it is inevitable to go to second-and third-tier cities. In second-and third-tier cities, consumers' purchasing power is not much different, and rents and personnel costs are relatively low, which is more promising.

At the same time, "Baking industry competition is fierce, reshuffle is also relatively easy." At the same time, the entry threshold of the baking industry is not high, and the strict enforcement of food safety and other relevant laws make various costs continue to grow. as a labor-intensive industry and service industry, the degree of competition is self-evident. " The employee said.

The trouble is much more than that, and 85C may have more to face in the future.

"85C encountered a bottleneck, in addition to its brand positioning in the mainland is not very clear, what is more important is the changes in China's current financial environment, causing the baking industry to encounter cross-border competition from the Internet and other competition in many aspects." Wu Jian said.

He said, for example, that a company in Shanghai, which makes only one cheesecake according to the constellation, had sales of 80 million yuan last year, as well as competition from traditional catering enterprises. Beijing, a catering group, has as many as one million members. The company says it costs about 20 yuan to make a cake, but the cake will sell for at least more than 100 yuan in specialty stores.

"for a community restaurant, there is a lot of room in the hall, so we can develop members online and put an extra cake cabinet offline to participate in the competition for market share in the baking industry. If this cake is sold for only 60 yuan, it will be a serious blow to the traditional chain baking enterprises. " Wu Jian said.

Also, the emergence of the ultimate single item.

Wu Jian said that at present, as far as the operation of the baking industry is concerned, standardization is relatively easy to achieve, and distribution is also easy to implement. Some cities have appeared to make only one kind of bread, which is very good, relying solely on the craftsmanship of the master to enter the baking industry.

"it is not a concept of leisure, but a concept of product. An analysis of 85C shows that it has a wide range of products, such as bread, cake and almost baking. in this way, it is not conducive to building the competitiveness of its products in the pursuit of fashion and fresh target groups. " Wu Jian stressed.

Unexpectedly, because of the easy imitation of the baking industry, the new products of the owner have just been on the market, and there are also in the counter of the West. Over time, each store, except for different signs, the furnishings and products in the store are not very different.

"in short, cross-border competition from the Internet, competition from the traditional catering industry to expand business categories, coupled with the ultimate products of many groups in the baking industry. Today's baking chains are under a lot of pressure. This current situation is not only 85 degrees C to face, but the entire domestic chain baking enterprises have to face. " Wu Jian stressed.

In his view, both 85C and other baking companies need to comply with changes in the shape of the economy. "how to deal with the impact of an uncertain market is a big problem. As a matter of fact, enterprises can cope with the impact of the uncertain market not by scale but by brand. Therefore, enterprises at this stage should pay more attention to themselves and keep their roots. Brand is actually more important than scale. "

If the 85C aspect of the "practice internal skills", the expression will pay more attention to their own pace of development to adapt to market changes, the future is worth looking forward to.

(source: new Financial Observer, author: Huai Chunju)