A piece of cake was fried by oxen to thousands of yuan, Lady M closed mainland stores, clerk: American brand will not let it open

Five years after the authorization of the United States brand, Lady M, a red cake brand, who has already opened more than 20 stores in the Mainland, suddenly announced that it would shut down all mainland stores.

"I am also helpless, but the American brand will not let it go." Lady M Guangzhou Swire Huixian shop staff lamented Time Finance.

At noon on July 21, Lady M's operator Shanghai Mestern Salary Catering Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai pastoral salary") issued a statement stating that the company was Lady M Confections CO. , LTD. Authorized, as the exclusive operator of the Lady M brand products in Mainland China, the Lady M brand should be closed for Lady M's existing stores in Mainland China.

Picture source: Lady M official Weibo

Shanghai pastoral salary said that all physical stores in Mainland China will terminate operations on September 10, 2022. The termination date is the termination day of the Lady M pre -payment card. Consumers can still consume at Lady M physical stores and online mini -programs (including normal use Lady M pre -payment cards) before the termination of operation.

Lady M Store staff confirmed the above information to Times Finance.

The news that is about to close the store does not seem to affect the business of Lady M store. In Lady M Guangzhou Taikoo Hui store, even on the afternoon of working days, it is basically in a state of full seats. Some cake styles have even sold out of stock. After buying cakes, consumers also deliberately took pictures. A consumer told Times Finance that after hearing the news of Lady M's closing the store, he deliberately took the time to check in. "There are not many people now, and they basically line up on weekends."

Lady M Guangzhou Taikoohui Store. Source: Time Finance

Times Finance also noticed that the takeaway order of the store has been in a state of explosion, and the staff should be overwhelmed and continuously pack out the orders.

Regarding issues such as the relocation of the store and the relevant staff to stay in the store, Time Finance called Shanghai pastoral salary. As of press time, it has not been replied. Lady M store staff said to Times Finance that he is not clear at present, and the specific situation needs to wait for the company's follow -up notice.

Open high in the Mainland

Lady M's story in the Chinese market can be described as "high open and low".

In September 2017, Lady M's first store in Mainland China in Shanghai Guojin Center opened, which caused extremely popular and even slightly out of control. Consumers need to queue up for five or six hours, and each piece of cakes with a price of 60 to 80 yuan is sold by the ox by 100 to 200 yuan. Among them, the products called French -style thousands of cakes are the most popular, and even the scalpel was called 1899 yuan (6 inches) and 2599 yuan (9 inches).

Part of Lady M products and pricing. Source: Time Finance

In August 2019, the unit price of Lady M was a limited -edition Mid -Autumn Festival moon cake gift box (12 pieces) with a unit price of 598 yuan. After being fired by the ox, the price of the single box ranged to 916 yuan to 2198 yuan. Between yuan and 183 yuan.

Lady M was the title of "Hermes in the cake industry". However, with the coming of the epidemic and the influence of the influencer, Lady M's life began to become less good.

In 2021, Lady M continuously closed and adjusted a number of stores in Beijing. The former Beijing First Store Chaoyang Dayue City (3.580, -0.02, -0.56%) store and Sanlitun Taikuli store closed. It was originally located in the center of the central area of ​​the second floor. The location of the Xidan Yuecheng Store also relocated to the more marginal area of ​​the southwest corner of the same floor.

Similar to evacuating or reducing the storefront from the golden point has also appeared in Shanghai and other places. According to reports, at the Shanghai Huanjian IAPM shopping mall, Lady M's shops were replaced from the shop next to the subway entrance to a position with a smaller area and a normal line effect.

Lady M's site selection in the Mainland is basically located in high -end shopping malls in the center of major cities. The reduction and adjustment of its stores is related to its high exposure and high rent.

Wang Guoping, a senior retail expert, told Times Finance that under the epidemic, Lady M used the online celebrity effect and social attributes to basically fail. "This type of product is not high. If there is a lack of Internet celebrities and social attributes, only commodity attributes are left, and they will be replaced by affordable products." Wang Guoping said.

Right now, Lady M has many competitors in the Chinese market, and brands such as Naixue, Xisha, Starbucks and other brands have also cross -border to the baking industry, and the epidemic has accelerated the "inner volume" of the entire industry.

Meituan data shows that the scale of China's leisure food industry has exceeded trillions as early as 2018, and baking foods are the largest categories of them. In 2021, the market size of baking pastries exceeded 280 billion yuan, and it will exceed 300 billion yuan in 2022.

Initially, Lady M became popular in China with its own brand net red halo and explosive products in China, and expanded it, but its category was relatively single and lacked the moat.

"For example, online celebrity products such as Lady M Cake and Mousse Cake basically have no threshold in the production process. Once they become explosives, everyone will imitate it." Wang Hongdong, a catering analyst, and the founder of the meal treasure, told Times Finance. Wang Hongdong believes that although Lady M has burst into fire, compared with other popular catering brands, it still belongs to the niche brand, and the expansion prospect is not good. "In order to maintain brand tone, stores will be opened in high -end shopping malls, which also limits their location. It is also the main reason why they have entered the Chinese market for more than 20 stores in the past 5 years." Wang Hongdong said.

American companies become "peaches picking people"?

The official website shows that as of now, Lady M has 27 stores in Mainland China. In addition to the first -tier cities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Lady M also opened stores in Hangzhou, Nanjing, Xiamen, Ningbo, Tianjin and other places, and built three central factories in East China, South China and North China. Lady M currently has more than 50 stores around the world. This also means that in just 5 years, under the trading of Shanghai pastoral salary, Lady M's number of stores opened in Mainland China has exceeded half of its global stores.

According to public information, Shanghai pastoral salary is based on the Lady M US company's license contract. During the five -year license period, it opened and operated stores in five provinces and cities in Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. However, the five -year license contract expired on April 9, 2022, and the two parties will no longer renew.

It does not mean that this brand will disappear in China. In mid -July, Lady M US company announced that it will fully adopt a direct -operated model to operate Mainland China.

In order to maintain the expansion in the Asian market, Lady M U.S. companies also plan to make financing to supplement ammunition.

In early June this year, according to Bloomberg report, Lady M will make a new round of financing with a valuation of $ 600 million, its scale is $ 20 million. Bloomberg quoted people familiar with the matter saying that Lady M is currently evaluating investors' interest with financial consultants, and a new round of funds will be mainly used to expand the Asian market share, strategic acquisition of other baking brands, and more stores in China.

The end of the cooperation between the two parties, for Shanghai pastoral salary, the hard work of its many years may be billed, and the brand power accumulated will also be transferred to the American brand. For the American brand of "picking peaches", cutting directly with Chinese operators means that the brand's previous layout in the Chinese market may be pushed down.

Wang Guoping pointed out that so far, Shanghai pastoral salary has not had a too good operating strategy for the Chinese market. It is easy to break the game by online celebrities, but it needs to be reused to innovate in it and store image. Attributes, make normalized commodity attributes. Lady M's Internet celebrity play is impacted by other Internet celebrity brands, affected by the epidemic, and failed to transform successfully. The United States will definitely have new strategies to break the situation. Different methods mean different trading forms, the value of existing assets needs to be re -evaluated.

According to Wang Guoping, for Shanghai pastoral salary and Lady M US company, generally there will be clear indicators for license contracts. Direct termination means that the operating data of Shanghai pastoral salary has not reached the contract indicators over the years. "If the US company wants to acquire stores in Mainland China, it needs to evaluate whether it has sufficient value. The store is rented from the mall, but the rent is limited; the brand is the brand. It's not big. "Wang Guoping said to Times Finance.

Edit: Xing Zhibin

Source: Time Weekly

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