Wenheyou denies large-scale layoffs: normal staff changes
Wenheyou denies large-scale layoffs: normal staff changes, a number of Wenheyou employees said the company launched a round of large-scale layoffs before the year, after the year, a new round of layoffs is still continuing. Wenheyou denied large-scale layoffs: normal personnel changes.
Wen and Friends denied large-scale layoffs: normal personnel changes 1
February 17, Wen and Friends large-scale layoffs news further fermentation, the market continues to discuss.
It is understood that a few days ago, a number of Wen and Friends employees revealed to the "fast consumption", Wen and Friends has started a round of large-scale layoffs before the year, the number of people cut more than 60% of the number of departments. The employees involved in this layoff, most of whom were hired after July 2021, are mainly involved in the immersive theater project to be launched in Changsha and Nanjing Wenheyou project.
In response to this news, the blue whale financial reporter had contacted Wenheyou's core management staff for confirmation, and the other party said, "We have no layoffs." However, then, Wen and friends of the relevant brand responsible person responded to the reporter, said: "Layoffs belong to the company's business adjustments generated by the normal personnel changes, in fact, the company's multiple positions are still recruiting, after the year will also have new personnel on board. The company's various projects are now in the process, there will also be new projects and business come out one after another."
Peak fall, Wen and friends out of the province water and soil?
It is understood that Wen and Friends brand was first born in 2011, when it was in the hands of the founder Wen Bin, is still just a stall selling fried ribs. Subsequently, 5 years, Wenbin successively expanded Wenheyou old Changsha lobster house, Wenheyou big sausage, Wenheyou stinky tofu, etc., intended to Changsha local specialty snack business to the pinnacle.
Until May 2018, when "Super Wenheyou" debuted at Hisense Plaza in Changsha, Wenheyou ushered in an advanced version. "Its restored an old Changsha community of the 1980s in a 7-story, 20,000-square-meter space," said an article describing this Super Wenheyou.
As expected, Changsha's "Super Wenheyou" caused a sensation after its launch, with "average daily traffic of more than 10,000," and "a daily turnover rate of up to 10 times per table, "Platform broadcast volume of more than 160 million"...... such achievements are numerous, but also its success, so that the brand reputation, but also let the founder of the Wenbin firm determination to go out.
In fact, before this, Wen and You's crawfish and snack stores have long been laid out across the country, numbering as many as a thousand. However, the super Wenheyou did not officially go out of the province until 2020. At that time, in the capital of nearly 100 million yuan of financing, Wen and friends hesitantly out of Changsha, south to Guangzhou, and in the following year, once again into Shenzhen.
At first, the response in Guangzhou and Shenzhen was good, especially in Shenzhen, where the opening had created a "40,000+ numbering" situation, which allowed the market to see the possibility of copying Wenheyou off-site. But after the heat, Wen He You began to face the plight of the plummeting crowds and the withdrawal of merchants.
In early January this year, according to a report by the New Beijing News, compared with the spring of 2021, when it first opened, the Shenzhen Wenheyou people flow plummeted, a number of stores in the field of the door is closed, a main focus on the 1980s retro style of the store in the withdrawal of the state. In addition, Guangzhou Wenheyou was also exposed to a number of local merchants withdrew, part of the dining area closed, the door in front of the cold situation.
Combined with the recent layoffs of new projects in Nanjing, many people believe that Wenheyou is facing a watery situation outside.
Want to be the food industry Disney, Wen and Friends can output what?
Once highly sought-after, and even boasted that it would be "China's food industry Disney" Wen Heyou, why did it not continue to be brilliant? In the Zhihu platform "how to evaluate the Guangzhou City Wenheyou" this topic of discussion, may be able to see the clues.
In the comments below the topic, a local Guangzhou netizen said: "I can't agree with the function of Guangzhou Wenheyou to preserve the city's memory. As a Guangzhou resident who has never left the city except for traveling, I would never recommend Wenheyou to any of my friends who are traveling to Guangzhou. In terms of the architectural environment, apart from some piling up of detailed elements, the whole building has no local characteristics and is not very different from the Changsha store, so the locals have no ****ing clue. Back a million steps even if it is considered to imitate the characteristics of the urban village, I can not understand why in Guangzhou to specifically look at the urban village."
In fact, there are many comments like this.
It is understood that in recent years, Wenheyou from based on the "main Changsha sentiment" gradually developed into "a city of one product", intending to integrate into the local culture. As the official public number of Guangzhou Wenheyou introduced: belonging to the Guangzhou people's Wenheyou; and as Shenzhen Wenheyou renamed "Old Street Oyster Market", claiming that it is the first independent regional characteristics of the IP, based on the Shenzhen and create a new field. Unfortunately, this series of attempts, in exchange for consumers "do not understand", the customer flow of the sharp decline.
In this regard, Chanson Capital Executive Director Shen Meng said that the characteristics of Wen and Friends is the night culture of Changsha, if changed to the local characteristics of the target market, it is not what Wen and Friends is good at, and can not play the advantages of Wen and Friends, into an outsider to the local community to make local characteristics, this is quite difficult. Therefore, instead of going to a city of one product, short to attack the long, it is better to completely Changsha and Wen and Friends of the characteristics of the play to the extreme, to do their own specialty, but with the local people can accept the marketing approach to attract customers.
However, he also pointed out that Changsha's nightlife culture is both leading and unique in the country, including the original TV Xiangjun set off a wave of domestic variety shows, where there are not only practitioners of professionalism, but also the support of the market atmosphere, but the culture of other cities may be very different, and can not let Changsha's mature night culture into the local.
Therefore, how to better solve this problem, or Wen and You in the next development of the direction of the more need to consider. "Where is the positioning? What is the output? How to output? Figure out these three issues, Wen and Friends prospects are still considerable." Industry insiders said.
According to previous media reports, Wenheyou has been preparing for an IPO since 2020, and is expected to land on the Hong Kong stock market in 2024. And before that, Wen and Friends is actually folded, fade out of the market? Or will break through the difficulties and realize the listing?
Wen and Friends denied large-scale layoffs: normal staff changes2
Following the wave of Internet layoffs, the new consumer industry also has companies to follow the layoffs.
On February 16th, according to a report by FMCG, a number of Wenheyou employees said that the company started a round of extensive layoffs a year ago, and the number of people cut in some departments exceeded 60%; after the year, a new round of layoffs is still going on.
In this regard, Wenheyou public relations responsible person responded to the interface news that layoffs belong to the company's business adjustment of normal personnel changes, the company has a number of positions are also recruiting, at the same time, the various projects are now in the process, there will be a new project and the business successively come out.
The data show that born in 2011 in the hands of the founder of the Wen and Friends of the Wen Bin, from the initial stall selling fried pork ribs to start, a few years to expand the lobster, sausage, stinky tofu, and other categories, resulting in a super Wen and Friends of the fire. 2021 June hundreds of millions of yuan after the C round of financing, the valuation of the Wen and Friends of the 10 billion yuan, the highest valuation of one of the domestic new consumer catering and culture companies.
Driven by capital, Wenheyou hesitantly went out of Changsha, went south to Guangzhou, and then entered Shenzhen and Nanjing. However, after the departure of Wen Heyou encountered a lack of water and soil. Some analysts have pointed out that layoffs are only a part of Wenheyou's "decadence", and that the restaurant industry's "top stream" has long been out of the picture.
Exposed to layoffs, wage deduction
According to the employee who broke the news, Wen and Friends layoffs came very suddenly.
A week before this year's Spring Festival, Wen Jiake (a pseudonym), who joined Changsha Wenheyou an immersive theater project, was told that the project was called off, received a layoff notice from the company. When he was "optimized", Wen Jiake had been on board for less than three months and had not yet passed the probationary period.
It is reported that the project involved in layoffs, Wen and Friends to realize the vision of "dining Disney" to land a similar to the float parade fee project.
Public information shows that the founder of Wenheyou Wenbin has repeatedly said to the public, Wenheyou want to do "catering Disney", "we are doing catering, but not just do catering, but also to tap into the local culture of the city. If only located in the restaurant, there will be business limitations."
Wen Jiake said in the revelation that Changsha Wenheyou created the immersive theater project precisely to emulate Disney. The project, which was to cover the entire six floors of Changsha Wenyouhe, was a lot of work, but it didn't move forward smoothly.
First of all, the staff has not been configured, Wen Jiake encountered their own not familiar with the field of the game, but also can only be tough; secondly, the IP theme of the setting changes, more than two months, the script program has experienced seven or eight major adjustments, the senior management of the project body has never reached a unified opinion.
Until the entire project was called off, Wen Jiake received a layoff notice along with other colleagues doing content planning and design.
At present, Wen and You have opened "Super Wen and You" in Changsha, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and Nanjing is the fourth city that Wen and You is going to land.
In February 2021, Wenheyou announced its entry into Nanjing, with the intention of selecting a site at No. 132 Changle Road, Qinhuai District, Nanjing, and positioning itself in the development of Nanjing culture, themed entertainment and trendy fashion themes, with a total investment of 500 million yuan, and is expected to be completed and open by the end of 2021.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year, and the project is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
And this layoffs, also affected Nanjing Wenheyou. According to the project was laid off employees Hong Yu (a pseudonym), he did for Nanjing Wenheyou Ming Dynasty culture.
In December 2021, Hong Yu and the rest of the team were suddenly told that the Ming Dynasty culture was no longer being done, and that it would be changed to the Six Dynasties culture. After being recalled from Nanjing, Hong Yu received a layoff notice from the company, again for the reason that "the project was suspended and the staff had to be optimized".
Because Nanjing is a new project, to "optimize" the number of people far more than the Changsha project, "from the heyday of more than 60 people, cut to about 20 people, I heard that there will be cut.
It is reported that this round of layoffs involves a number of departments other than Wen and Friends Catering, some departments "optimization" ratio of up to 60%.
In addition to layoffs, the employees who stayed behind also faced wage deductions. Wen and Friends of the staff wages will not be paid in full each month, 10% of the performance pay will be pressed to the end of the year when the year-end bonus one-time payment, and 2021, the whole staff no year-end bonus.
For the layoff information, Wenheyou responded that the layoffs belong to the company's business adjustment of normal personnel changes. At present, the company is still recruiting for a number of positions, and there will be new people on board after the year, and the company's various projects are advancing, and there will be new projects coming out.
Expansion outside of Changsha has been blocked
Changsha, where culture and entertainment have always been strong, has given birth to a lot of Netflix brands, of which Wenheyou is one of the most popular.
The history of Wen Heyou's business is described in a report by the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, which said that at the age of 22, Wen Bin quit his job as a salesman for an automobile company, and with a start-up capital of 5,000 yuan, he set up a stall on the streets of Changsha, promoting deep-fried pork ribs.
In addition to the 4,000 dollars spent on the cart and other necessary expenses, the remaining 1,000 dollars, Wenbin all smashed in the sign. In the words of Wenbin, this is called "brand awareness".
The signboards have made a big impact, Wenbin's "sharp ribs" gradually became a popular snack, queuing up more and more people.
At the time, Yang Ganjun, the co-founder of Wenheyou, was a sausage supplier, and Wenbin was his customer. The two became acquainted, and together they opened the "Old Changsha Frying House", which officially established the Wenheyou brand.
Since then, as the business became more and more popular, between 2012 and 2016, Wen and You added sub-brands such as Wen and You Lobster House, Wen and You Changsha Sausage, Wen and You Stinky Bean Curd, Toast Around Six, and Humble Art Noodles under the brand.
Data shows that by 2015, Wenheyou had eight stores in Changsha itself, with cumulative revenues of more than 100 million yuan and gross profits of more than 40 million yuan.
In 2017, Wenheyou, located in Dufujiangge, had to be demolished due to the transformation of the old city. Seemingly an ordinary relocation, Wenbin seized the opportunity to further the "city culture" as a marketing gimmick, grafted into the snack business.
In 2018, after obtaining a strategic investment of not less than 70 million yuan from Tangrenshen Group, the Wenheyou Changsha Hisense Plaza store opened at a cost of nearly 100 million yuan. Unlike previous stores, more than 100 merchants were introduced into Wenheyou, which mainly focuses on Changsha folk snacks, and Wenheyou was upgraded to a 7-story "Super Wenheyou" covering 20,000 square meters.
At the time of opening, when the social media card planting culture was prevalent, through the community planting, short video marketing screen, Wenheyou became the mecca of the netroots card, the popularity of the moment.
Coupled with the integration of barbershops, billiard rooms, bed and breakfasts, and art galleries, this grounded approach quickly opened up traffic entrances for Wenheyou.In October 3, 2019, Changsha's Wenheyou Lobster House lined up more than 7,000 tables, and released 16,000 numbers in one day, setting a new record in the restaurant industry.
The success of Changsha Wenheyou soon attracted the attention of capital. Tianyecha shows that in February 2020, Wenheyou received nearly 100 million RMB in Series A financing from Gahua Capital; in April 2021, Wenheyou's Series B investors were Sequoia China Fund, IDG, and Warburg Pincus, amounting to 500 million RMB, with a post-investment valuation of over 10 billion RMB.
With the support of capital, not only firm Wenbin to "catering Disney" ambition, but also to provide support for its expansion beyond Changsha. As for the expansion plan, according to the words of Feng Bin, CEO of Wenheyou, plans to open about 20 urban Wenheyou in the next five years.
The first stop of "Super Wenheyou" was in Guangzhou, where in July 2020, the 200 million yuan, 5,000-square-meter Super Wenheyou landed next to the TaiKoo Hui mall in the central Tianhe district of the CBD.
At the beginning of the opening, the number of seats in the queue of Guangzhou Wenheyou once reached more than 2,500, and the average queue length reached 4 hours. However, the good times did not last long, some media reports, and then because of the decline in customer traffic, the wind pipe Hui barbecue, pork chops a brother hot and sour rice noodles and a number of well-known businessmen have left from the Guangzhou Wenheyou.
According to media reports, a year later, Guangzhou Wenheyou changed its name from "Super Wenheyou" to "Guangzhou Wenheyou", and many of the store's merchandise was also changed. In the past has been taken as the main focus of the crayfish, replaced by seafood.
In April 2021, Shenzhen Wenheyou opened, four times the size of Guangzhou. However, even with the introduction of "Guangming pigeon", "Shajing oyster" and other household name stores, Shenzhen Wenheyou and also Guangzhou, after the opening of the initial burst of fire after becoming "cold". "
2021
In September 2021, the original signboard of Shenzhen Wenheyou was taken down and replaced by a new signboard "Old Street Oyster Market". Wu Xian, general manager of Shenzhen Wenheyou, said that after the adjustment and remodeling of Shenzhen Wenheyou, it will present a cyberpunk-style market of the future, including seafood market, vegetable market and marketplace.
Now, Wenheyou Nanjing store is still in preparation, but has been rumored layoffs, many people believe that Wenheyou outside is facing a situation of incompatibility.
The difficult cross-regional integration
Changsha local victory, but the expansion of the outside failed to deal with the love of food in Shenzhen, Guangzhou people, Wen Heyou where the problem is?
"Our initial idea is to promote Hunan culture, the culture of Hunan, through the food this carrier, to promote out." Wenbin has told the media that Super Wenheyou is not just a place with only food, but a richer platform to showcase the culture of the city.
But after leaving Hunan, there is one problem that cannot be avoided in any replica-type expansion across the country, and that is the difficulty of replicating culture across geographies. The diversity of living customs dictates that it is difficult to replicate a regional culture across the country and have it accepted and loved by all consumers, both in terms of continuity and the maintenance of freshness.
Zhu Danpeng, a researcher at the China Brand Research Institute, pointed out that Wenheyou has a very deep regional cultural color, and as a Changsha Netflix hot spot, it has its own limitations, which is that it cannot satisfy and match consumers from other regions except Changsha.
Although Wenheyou has now realized this problem, by focusing on the localized market culture, upholding the concept of one city, one store, one store, the diversified cultures and cuisines are gathered and displayed in a centralized place and integrated into the local culture. Unfortunately, at present, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, two places Wen and Friends "bold" type of reform, the results are very little.
In addition, regardless of the Wenheyou publicity of its city culture how eye-catching, most consumers come to consume food and drink, in the final analysis, the quality of food and drink (taste, quality) is the key to retain people. However, Wenheyou's dishes are often criticized for not tasting good enough to repurchase.
On social media platforms, many netizens who have been to Wenheyou commented that Wenheyou's food is of an ordinary standard, and the taste is not worthy of its reputation, which is almost the same as that of the stall snacks outside, but without the economy and flavor of the stall snacks, so that they come over to take a picture and punch the card and then go away.
Zhu Danpeng pointed out that, similar to the Wen and Friends of such a scene of experiential dining model to go far, the quality of food is still the key, consumers card to card, and ultimately return to the essence of food.
Wen and Friends denied large-scale layoffs: normal staff changes3On February 9 this year, the media broke the news that Xijia laid off 30% of its staff, and the information security department was cut in its entirety. Although Xi tea first time response that the rumors are not true, but still in the hearts of consumers set off waves.
Subsequently, the storm of Xi-cha began to spread among the major Internet companies.
February 17, according to the self media "fast consumption" report, a number of employees broke the news that, Wen and friends have started a round of large-scale layoffs in the year before, the number of people cut more than 60% of the number of departments; after the year, a new round of layoffs are still continuing.
Although Wen and Friends public relations related to the person in charge of the external response, said, "layoffs belong to the company's business adjustments generated by the normal staff changes, in fact, the company's multiple positions are still recruiting, and after the year will have new personnel onboarding. The company's various projects are now in the process, there will also be new projects and businesses come out one after another." But did not specifically respond to the content of the above employee revelations.
As a favored new consumer restaurant brand, Wenheyou has so far completed 2 rounds of financing of more than 100 million yuan. Today, with a valuation of 10 billion yuan, it has jumped to become the top stream in the catering industry. Behind the rumors of layoffs, what happened to Wenheyou?
Behind Wenheyou's layoffs
According to Wenheyou's employee Wenjiake's revelation, most of the employees who were laid off, most of whom joined after July 2021, were mainly involved in Wenheyou Changsha's proposed launch of the immersive theater project and Nanjing Wenheyou's project.
At first Wen Jiake thought it was her own problem, and when she tried to further negotiate compensation, HR said: the project has not been finalized is not their own problem?
As one of the employees in charge of the Changsha project, she said that the project had to cover the entire Changsha Wenyouhe's six floors, the workload is not small; during this period, the setting of the project's IP theme changed, the senior management did not reach a unanimous opinion, and the script program went through a number of major adjustments, and it was not finalized until a week before the Spring Festival of 2022 when they were notified of the layoffs.
Although Wenheyou's official reply was that it was normal staff optimization, in reality, this layoff may not be normal for Wenheyou.
After Wenheyou received a strategic investment of nearly 100 million yuan from Jiahua Capital in February 2020, the map of "Disney in the restaurant industry" began to expand outward.
In July 2020, Guangzhou Super Wenheyou landed in Guangzhou's commercial landmark Taikoo Hui, with an area of 5,000 square meters and three floors high, and there was also a frantic queuing of customers at the beginning of the opening. But three months later, Guangzhou Super Wenheyou's customer traffic decreased significantly, and many tenants withdrew.
Some people think that this is the result of Wen He You expanding too fast, not successful enough commercialization, strategic mistakes, or the general environment of the market, but in fact, for Wen He You such a huge flow of new consumer catering, no matter whether it is commercialization or expansion, or perhaps to go back to the most fundamental level to discuss.
Rising in the city, falling in the city
The essence of the business model of Wenheyou, and the food court is not much different.
Just from the current point of view, most of the offline food court did not form a unified theme style, stores can decide their own style features after paying fees, which leads to the entire business complex is difficult to leave a clear impression in the minds of consumers.
And Wenheyou breaks this point, Super Wenheyou is more like a restaurant operator, restore the city life style of Changsha in the 1970s and 1980s, all kinds of food and beverage snacks, leisure stores, and the layout of the facilities and landscape have Changsha's local characteristics. Through its nostalgic theme scene to create, as a complete `IP package output, set dining, beauty, entertainment and other composite business, the formation of a cultural tourism business complex.
But this is exactly what limits Wenheyou's expansion. Wenheyou's means of realization include two kinds, one of which is not charging rent, property fees, etc., and is shared through store revenues, and the other is charging a certain amount of rent and property fees.
In order to create a unique cultural scene in the city, Wenheyou introduced most of the non-chain, small-scale old, they do not want to invest more costs, from the street to the center of the willingness to transfer to the business district is relatively low, in the early stage of the expansion, Wenheyou can only "regardless of the cost" of the introduction of these businesses.
But with the decline in customer traffic, the early tenants are leaving one after another, although Wen and Friends gave the rent, publicity support, but the flow of unstable so that it is difficult for tenants to control the number of stock, income and pay is often not proportional.
The reason for the traffic predicament may be because Wenheyou's positioning is difficult to replicate.
In Changsha, Wenheyou is a rising star in the restaurant industry with a "top stream". With the theme of the 80's urban culture scene, in addition to food, it also covers a number of experiential scenarios, such as marriage agencies, dance halls, barbershops, dry cleaners, community committees, fruit stores, movie theaters, etc., its unique "urban culture + special features" is the most popular.
But after getting out of Changsha, the need to adapt to local conditions to adapt to the needs of local consumers is not an easy task. What Wen wants to do is to become a window for foreign tourists to understand the city, but Wen, who was born and raised in Changsha, couldn't build such a window in Guangzhou.
Young people's preferences shift with the arrival of new things, and what Wenheyou can attract is that young people come here to take photos, while the weak cultural roots of the city are not enough for Wenheyou to create a cultural space with a distinctive regional style in a city other than Changsha. Although the decoration style refers to the local characteristics, but lack of local genes, consumers do not buy.
Will Wen Heyou's dream of becoming a Disney restaurant come true?
The duck is the first to know when the water in the spring river is warm, and capital is always the most sensitive. From last year, retail, catering and other enterprises have been affected by the epidemic and closed stores, then the impact of the epidemic spread to the Internet factory, layoffs, contraction of the news has been spreading.
By the epidemic hit the catering industry ripples more than, following the sea salvage announced the closure of 300 stores, sip feed said closed 200 loss-making stores and no longer expanding the store, the young people are favored tea drinks can not escape a disaster, the tea YanYueYeSe announced the closure of a number of stores, hi tea announced layoffs.
As a new consumer track "dark horse", Wenheyou has been attracting attention from the capital market. 2020 February, Wenheyou, after receiving nearly 100 million yuan of investment from Jiahua Capital, shouted the slogan "to create a restaurant industry Disney".
Subsequently, major investment institutions have "come to the door", Wenheyou CEO Feng Bin once said, Wenheyou operation in these years, the initiative to find up hundreds of investment institutions.
Plenty of money, capital optimistic, Wen and Friends can create a "catering Disney"?
First of all, look at Disney's industrial chain: around the main axis of animated movies, designing different IP characters and storylines. Through the brand value framework business model, and continuous development, to create a creative industry chain. For example, people who like Mickey Mouse will go to see the series of movies again and again, and will buy a variety of peripheral collections.
And Wenheyou is different from it, Wenheyou itself is an IP, through the cultural IP, marketing and other means to obtain traffic, to earn the money of the whole industry chain.
When people are in Wenheyou, will be its 80s city culture influence into it, once out of Wenheyou, this emotional link is gone, become a joy to talk with friends. Disney's IP but the product of time, is the memories of generations, each IP is a classic that can not be replicated, and the story created by Disney, these exclusive and scarce IP has a correlation, tandem among them.
What Wen and You have created is not a scene with relevance, what it has created is just a generation of memories. Most of the people who like Wenheyou are middle-aged people who had a ****ing feeling in the 80's, or "Generation Z" who go to the card out of curiosity and the herd mentality. And this time-consuming and labor-intensive to create the 80s urbanization scene, is very easy to copy, but also very easy to be eliminated.
From this point of view, Wenheyou can not become Disney, but its original "restaurant + culture + real estate" business model is a new benchmark in the restaurant industry. In the catering track of serious homogenization, Wen and friends with their own characteristics and style quickly out of the circle. But Wen and Friends rely on the "sentiment" card is not enough, standing on the end of the catering, or need to find more in line with their own development routes and business models, in the future to continue to expand on this road, Wen and Friends facing the challenge is not small.