Text | Three stones
Office workers who often eat with Fulao Noodles on the first floor of Shanghai Bund SOHO will not think that the middle-aged man who suddenly appeared in the store at noon on November 1 and took the customer's remaining half box of pork cartilage diced rice was Li Xuelin, the founder of Hefu Noodles.
"Pork cartilage diced rice is a new product on the menu recently switched, when the guest was already gone, and there was no way to ask in person what was not to taste, so he tasted it himself to see what was wrong." A person in charge of the noodle product end of Hefu said.
Although "800 million yuan of financing, the amount of financing in the wound category has reached a new high" has become the focus of public opinion, but for the only "first build the supply chain and then build a store" in the market, the product is their lifeblood.
"Our team has been thinking about it since day one: how to not be like fireworks, which quickly decline after brilliance. We want to be a longer-lived, larger-scale, better-product, better reputation enterprise, the most difficult thing in the catering industry may be the three words of sustainability, but we still have to do it. ”
A bowl of noodles, a plate of rice, it looks like fast food, but Li Xuelin and Hefu Noodles have to do more than that.
Whether it is catering or the retail industry, there is a saying that "those who have the supply chain get the world", but a store has not been opened and invested heavily in the construction of the supply chain, which may only be the same as the government fish noodles.
According to the data of the Red Food Brand Research Institute, the total number of noodle restaurants in the country is currently conservatively estimated at about 400,000, but among the 1225 flour brands included, more than 70% of the brand stores are within 50, and few brands have opened more than 500 brands.
In Li Xuelin's view, the rich dishes, diverse tastes and complex production process of Chinese fast food make standardization more difficult and the requirements for the supply chain are higher, a mature, efficient and controllable supply chain, the role of store expansion and operation is immeasurable, "to be precise, Hefu Lao noodles is a brand and product-driven company. ”
Obviously, from the very beginning, Hefu Noodles was not a "small business" of dozens of noodle restaurants.
In 2012, the 15,000-square-meter Hefu Central Kitchen was completed and put into use, which can meet the standardized operation of 1,000 stores. The whole process of cold chain distribution is unified in stores across the country, and the original taste of soup noodles is maintained to the greatest extent.
In September this year, the noodle production base of Hefu Fish Noodles was also announced. The base has an annual output of 20,000 tons, which is the head level in the raw and wet noodle industry, can support the supply of 1500 stores, and has the country's unique automated noodle winding technology, automated packaging and transportation process, to ensure that products from the base to warehousing, logistics, stores, non-destructive nutrition, quality and appearance. With the completion of the new production base, there is also a high-standard inspection department established at a cost of tens of millions of yuan for Hefu Lao noodles, which can ensure the quality of raw materials and products in multiple dimensions.
At present, the information management of Hefu Fish noodles has also achieved good results. Its central data warehouse can realize real-time and accurate operation control of stores across the country, formulate store sales plans and distribution with 99% accuracy, reduce product over-allocation and shortage of goods caused by lagging information circulation, and effectively improve the operation and management efficiency of stores.
Driven by the supply chain and information management system, Hefu Noodles can be quickly copied nationwide. Despite the impact of the epidemic, the number of new stores in Hefulao noodles also reached 71 in 2020, which is only 3 less than in 2019. In the first half of this year, the number of hefu noodles nationwide reached 340. Today, that number has expanded to around 400.
According to the internal news of Hefu Lao noodles, the size of the store will further grow next year.
Many industry analysts will mention the story of Li Xuelin and his team in the early stage of entrepreneurship, spending 10 million yuan to fly in the world to study noodles, but what is really worth discussing is actually another "10 million" - Hefu noodles Since its inception, the loss and scrapped products have been tens of millions.
Among them, although there were "tuition fees" paid by the industry at that time, there were also some products that met national security standards, but the quality fluctuated slightly, and did not meet the requirements of hefu, which was also identified by hefu as needing to be destroyed. Li Xuelin said, "Hefu not only can not touch the red line, but also must automatically and consciously raise its own and industry standards, so as to maximize the expectations of consumers." ”
Exceeding expectations is also reflected in the control of products by Hefu Fish noodles.
In the internal scoring system for the development of new products, the highest score is not the 100 points that people usually imagine, but 120 points. Obviously, the high limit is to let the team develop with more than expected goals from the beginning.
All new products in Hefu are subject to the rigorous test of "3+1+3". "The first 3 times were all small tests, and after the first try, I had to continue to try them twice to confirm that there was no problem with the reproducibility of the taste." 1' is a batch pilot test to confirm whether it can be mass-produced, and whether the taste can remain stable after mass production. Synchronously, the products participating in the pilot test must also be adjusted in the store, and the results of the customer survey are evaluated whether to test sales. Gong Ziwei, president of the Hefu Noodle Product Research Institute, introduced, "According to the results of the customer mediation and trial sales, we also have to evaluate the final on-the-menu." If not, then as a reserve product. If you are on the menu, you must also carry out 3 large-scale tests, carry out large-scale mass production in the workshop, and adjust the flavor and material combination according to the trial situation each time. ”
There is an unwritten rule within the hefu that every day at noon, as long as there is no special arrangement, Li Xuelin will participate in the trial and score, and sometimes he will personally go down and adjust the cooking method and recipe with the R& D team.
In addition, For R&D personnel to go out to "taste", Hefu Fishing Noodles not only does not set a ceiling, but also takes the initiative to make requirements. It is said that in order to improve the flavor of the drink, the product department specially "lost" a research and development personnel to Changsha, and drank the tea for 3 days.
Similarly, take the recent Chongqing Qiaotou Fat Sausage Noodles and Chongqing Qiaotou Beef Noodles in the new menu of Hefu Lao noodles as an example, "As long as I hear that there is a good local shop in Chongqing, I will quickly fly over and go back and forth on the same day." A member of the R&D team said, "This is very happy for foodies, but for us, first of all, it depends on whether the appearance is attractive enough, and secondly, it smells the aroma and tastes the tao." In this process, to observe what ingredients are there, more to rely on the sense of taste to distinguish, you must remember the taste type. Most importantly, you have to eat the corresponding cooking method and come back to study and adjust it. ”
Another reason why Hefu Fish noodles are so invested in the product side is that the competitive landscape has quietly changed.
For example, when you meet small noodles, Chongqing small noodles have always been categorical and unbranded, but meeting small noodles subverts the "dirty, chaotic, slow" image of traditional small noodle street shops and walks out of its own unique style. Up to now, Meet Xiaomian has completed 5 rounds of financing, and the market valuation is nearly 3 billion yuan.
Ma Jiyong, Zhang Lala, Chen Xianggui and other "Lanzhou" cutting-edge brands are also rising, although the store has not yet exceeded 100, but there has been capital injection.
The 800 million yuan financing of Hefu Lao noodles has made the powder noodle track become unprecedentedly hot, and it has also brought "trouble" to itself to a certain extent. "We're thinking more about how to make Peacefu live longer now. We have been thinking since the day we started, how to make a larger scale, better reputation, better products, able to go through a longer cycle of enterprises, how not to be like fireworks, shine and then quickly decline. In this regard, Li Xuelin gave the answer: multi-brand, globalization.
As a result, there are small noodle wines, fortuna food stalls, and more sub-brands that may appear in the future.
The differentiated price bands brought about by the diversified brand matrix are conducive to conquering consumers in different circles and regions, and can also maximize the use of the supply chain system. However, a number of rapidly polished and iterative brand models have also put forward higher requirements for the product development end of Hefu.
Attentive diners may find that the slogan of Wasi noodles has recently quietly changed from "Hefu noodles, Chinese flavor" to "soup health, noodle strength". At first glance, the "tone" is not as big as before, but on the other hand, isn't good soup and good noodles just one of the specific Tastes of China?
It is understood that the flour of Hefu Fishing Noodles is made of wheat core flour, which is known as "10 kg of flour out of 1 kg", supplemented by a unique formula system and multi-layer multi-channel calendering noodle making process, so that the noodles are cooked for a short time, the entrance is smooth and Q bomby and long-soaked, and the entrance is still chewy.
It is worth mentioning that Hefu Lao noodles also use the leading fresh noodle liquid nitrogen rapid cooling technology to transport the whole cold chain, and retain the flavor and taste of fresh handmade noodles under the premise of ensuring product safety.
In terms of soup, the soup base of Hefu Lao noodles uses fresh ingredients such as beef bones, pork bones, tomatoes, and onions, and adopts the traditional soup process, which is boiled at high temperature and simmered for a long time under high pressure, so that the nutrients in the bones can be fully integrated into the soup. Hefu Noodles is also paired with a secret herbal formula, making the whole product conform to the traditional concept of "herbal health".
It was revealed that in order to restore the pure bone broth flavor, Hefu Lao noodles did not do a moderate concentration process, and the product was only frozen by liquid nitrogen. After the frozen soup pack is transported to the store, it only needs to be thawed 10 minutes in advance when used, which can restore an original soup.
Up to now, there are more than 100 products developed or upgraded by Hefu Noodles every week. A new product from the reserve research and development to about 400 stores across the country on the same day, the fastest only 30 days.
But in Li Xuelin's view, this is not enough, because the amount of new products is very important, and the "new product sense" is equally important, "What we hope to see is that the new product can bring enough surprises to consumers and really exceed everyone's expectations, of course, these still need time and data to verify." ”
This may be Old Li's dish.