New bottle of old wine?The Chinese version of "Wal -Mart" Yonghui Supermarket is trapped in transformation

In August this year, Yonghui Supermarket closed the storm. On August 8th, Yonghui Warehouse Supermarket in Shijiazhuang White Square, Hebei stopped opening. This was the first warehouse store closed by Yonghui. Subsequently, Yonghui Supermarket issued an announcement of suspension of business. On the 22nd and 24th, it closed Puxin Store and Xiyuan Store located in Fuzhou, Fujian, Fujian.

In the past 4 years, Yonghui Supermarket has been adjusted at the store. According to data from the China Chain Business Association (CCFA), the number of Yonghui supermarket stores has gradually declined since 1440 in 2019. In 2020, it reduced by 18.6%of the stores. In 2021, it reduced by 7%, only 1090. According to the data of Yonghui official website, as of August 24, the number of Yonghui stores was 1052.

In recent years, traditional retail and epidemic has repeated impacts, community group purchases, live broadcasting e -commerce diversion, and decline in store passenger flow. The transformation of offline retail leader Yonghui Supermarket is also a common crisis facing the industry.

In the event of a loss of losses, Yonghui Supermarket's pressure inside and outside

Yonghui Supermarket was once the Chinese version of "Wal -Mart" that investors had high hopes.

In 2010, after Yonghui Supermarket landed on A shares, the stock price went straight up and became the "fragrant citron" in the eyes of capital. In August 2015, Jingdong announced an investment of 4.3 billion yuan to invest in Yonghui Supermarket; in 2017, Yonghui received another 4.2 billion yuan investment. Yonghui, who was highly anticipated, touched to 11.72 yuan per share in 2018, with a total market value of 106.4 billion yuan.

The good times did not last long. The 2018 annual report of Yonghui Supermarket showed that the company's net profit had fallen sharply for the first time and plummeted by 40.8%year -on -year. According to its 2021 annual report, the company achieved total operating income of 91.062 billion yuan, a decrease of 2.29%year -on -year, and a loss of 3.944 billion yuan.

As of August 25, the total market value of Yonghui Supermarket was about 31 billion yuan, down 75.4 billion yuan compared to the highest market value in 2018.

Yonghui's sleepy is also a common problem for traditional offline merchants.

From the perspective of the traditional retail industry, affected by the life cycle of the hypermarket model, the "one -stop" shopping is declining. Factors such as overlapping epidemics, the store's traffic declines, and the performance is worse.

Judging from the severe external competitive environment, online retail is gradually eating offline merchant super core business. In the field of its core competitiveness, Yonghui needs to compete with community group purchase and fresh vertical e -commerce companies; in terms of non -fresh fresh business, it is necessary to face comprehensive e -commerce giants such as Taobao and JD.com.

Fortunately, the external pressure of the supermarket format is gradually slowing down. It is understood that since the second half of 2021, community group purchase has become calm, small platforms withdrawn, large platform expansion and subsidies have decreased, which objectively improves the competitive pattern of the chain supermarket industry. However, due to the life cycle, the transformation of offline business super formats is imminent.

New bottle of old wine? Where should the new retail break through?

Yonghui Supermarket has been actively seeking changes. As early as 2016, Yonghui officially established Yonghui Yunchuang, deeply cultivating new retail business, trying to run out of the "second growth curve".

In the "Hema Fresh Sheng" of Ali, Yonghui set up a smart retail business "Super Species" with a hybrid retail business of "high -end supermarkets+fresh food+O2O" mixed formats; in order to deeply cultivate community services, Yonghui opened "Yonghui Life" ; Similar to the positioning, there are Yonghui MINI stores that also serve the community and the main fresh category.

The new retail that could not run became Yonghui's unspeakable heart disease, shrinking business and broken arm stop loss became a top priority. As of April 2021, Yonghui Yunchuang has closed more than 70 % of the super species stores, with only more than 20 remaining stores. Coincidentally, Yonghui MINI stores also ushered in closure in 2020, with only 156 at the end of that year. Yonghui Life has also been closed in 2019. Yonghui Supermarket's newly added 75 stores in 2021 does not contain Yonghui Life.

Faced with weak business and stock price, retail and market expert Ding Liguo told the media: "Yonghui needs new stories to make investors confident in it."

In the field of retail, why can't Yonghui tell a good story?

"Yonghui tried various formats. It is difficult to say that it is based on market judgment, demand trends, and the life cycle of the format. Chief Expert Lai Yang told a reporter from the China City Daily, "A successful new business has unique consumer value. When developing a new business, Yonghui needs a clearer overall planning and organizes the team based on this."

The warehouse membership store has achieved results at the beginning of the water test. Yonghui's 2021 financial report shows that in May 2021, the warehouse membership store model began. As of the end of the year, 53 were opened, and the high -speed growth of 32.9%of the same store was obtained.

However, there are also opinions in the industry that Yonghui does not really get rid of the constraints of the hypermarket model. According to consumer feedback, Yonghui Warehouse Store is more like a red label hypermarket "changed a shell", which is a "new bottle of old wine".

"The core competitiveness of Sam supermarket is that its global supply chain is convenient for large -scale procurement, improving the bargaining model itself." Lai Yang said that the demand for "one -stop shopping" is gradually being eaten by online retail, storage stores The pattern is not the end of the transformation, and it will also go downhill in the future. "Yonghui needs to work in the format of truly combining with its own advantages."

How to keep the fresh "moat" in the era of cloud consumption

Fresh is the "moat" of Yonghui Supermarket. The advantage is that high -frequency needs and instant consumption, and the defect is high loss. There are a lot of players in the track. One is a platform retail headed by Meituan, and the other is fresh e -commerce represented by Ding Dong's food, and the third is a traditional offline supermarket represented by Yonghui Supermarket.

In fact, Yonghui has won the "supermarket to home" business. According to the 2021 Report, "Yonghui Life" has covered 1,000 stores by self -employed business, achieving sales of 7.1 billion yuan, an increase of 21.1%year -on -year, and the average daily single volume is 264,000. The sales sales were 6.03 billion yuan, and the average daily single volume was 173,000.

Yonghui is moving towards digitalization and reinforcing the fresh "moat". On September 8, 2021, Li Songfeng, CEO of Yonghui Supermarket, sent an internal letter for the first time, saying: "It is necessary to use technology Yonghui as a strategic guidance and focus on the omni -channel digital retail platform" based on fresh and customer -centric. Target."

In order to solve the management difficulties that are not overwhelming, Yonghui also adjusted the "theater system" to "provincial and district system" to change the direction of flat, flexible, and younger.

However, in terms of new retail business, Yonghui needs to be further adjusted. "In the future, the hypermarket will only become more and more difficult to make a profit. Some consumers of some commodities will not buy frequently and the turnover rate is low." Lai Yang predicts, "In the future, the strong fresh supply chain, and the traditional merchant will turn to the direction of super turn. The small fresh supermarket that is closer to consumers will be the general trend. New retail cannot rely on 'opening small stores', but to study the business law of small formats. "

■ China City News Reporter: Fang Ziwei

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