Jiuxian Network is called "gambler" in the industry because of the listing VAM agreement, and the "gambler' life is not good.
Recently, a number of Jiuxian network franchisees revealed to Sina Finance that a large number of Jiuxian network franchisees have terminated their contracts, the main reason is that the supply price of many wines on Jiuxian Network exceeds the market retail price, there are contract disputes between multiple parties, and hundreds of thousands to millions of rebates are in arrears.
Franchisees pointed out that the proportion of contracts that have been terminated or reached 20%, in addition, there are many franchisees and Jiuxian Network disputes, are in the process of terminating the contract or terminating the contract after the contract expires.
A former mid-level manager of Jiuxian Network confirmed the above statement to Sina Finance. He said that the franchisees of Jiuxian Network do have a lot of complaints, the wind evaluation is not good, some franchisees have indeed terminated, and the willingness of the remaining franchisees to renew their contracts is very low, but he did not disclose the specific proportion.
At present, the termination of the contract has not been confirmed by the Jiuxian network.
In the past year, Jiuxian has experienced listing failures, huge debts, excessive debt ratios, and lawsuits by investors.
The time left for it to strike back is very limited.
Rebellion: high supply prices, cumbersome terms, poor wind evaluation?
"52 degrees Wuliangye Jin secret 500ml (Jiuxian network wholesale price) 249 yuan a bottle, Jingdong retail price of 660 yuan a box of 6 bottles, equivalent to 110 yuan per bottle, Jiuxian network to our franchise store wholesale price is more expensive than Jingdong retail price." Customers are not stupid, how can anyone still buy it? ”
Li Mi, a franchisee of Jiuxian Network, told Sina Finance, "Such price differences abound, and it is difficult to do business well." "In the view of many franchisees of Jiuxian Network, there is a problem of high prices in Jiuxian Network, which directly leads to poor sales of international famous wines."
In addition, Jiuxian.com defaulted on the rebate of city partners (that is, the general franchise agent of Jiuxian.com) for one year, and some partners were owed hundreds of thousands to millions.
Franchisees are fleeing the wine fairy network. In their view, there are three reasons:
First, there is a problem of high price in the supply of Jiuxian Network, resulting in franchisees taking high prices and being unprofitable;
Second, in the years of cooperation with Jiuxian Network, there are many problems in contracts and terms, and the heart is exhausted;
Third, regional partners cannot get paid, lack motivation management, and there are many obstacles to communication with Jiuxian Network.
Lin Xi (pseudonym) is a former middle-level manager of Jiuxian.com. He told Sina Finance that Jiuxian.com has begun to build an offline store since 2019 - Jiuxian.com International Famous Wine City, and looks forward to driving offline sales online. This year, the first batch of contracts of the franchise store of Jiuxian Network will expire one after another, "The cooperation style evaluation in the past few years is not very good, and a large number of franchisees in the future are likely not to continue to cooperate." Previously, I have received complaints from some franchisees, but there is nothing they can do. ”
Li Mi revealed that there may be about 20% of franchisees who have terminated their contracts, and there are many franchisees who have disputes with Jiuxian Network and are in the process of terminating their contracts or terminating their contracts after the contract expires. However, this data has not been confirmed so far.
Dark clouds: huge debts, bet maturity, failure of listing
In the past year, Jiuxian Has experienced listing failures, gambling failures, and huge debts. Whether it can survive in 2022 is particularly important for Jiuxian Network.
In line with the Jiuxian.com prospectus disclosed by the CSRC in August 2021, the updated IPO prospectus specifically indicates "debt repayment and liquidity risk". Jiuxian.com's debt ratio (consolidated) in the reporting periods of 2018, 2019 and 2020 was 67.04%, 74.12% and 70.32%, and the cash from operating activities came from bank loans, which were 126.6 million, 264.2 million and 348 million respectively during the reporting period.
It is worth mentioning that Jiuxian Network has obtained 11 rounds of financing, with a total financing amount of more than 1.8 billion yuan. At present, the shareholder list of Jiuxian Network includes a number of investment institutions such as Woyan Capital, Zhuhai Puluojiuxian and Oriental Fuhai, and Sequoia Capital is one of the important shareholders holding more than 5% of the shares.
However, the equity attributable to the parent shareholders in the prospectus was only 680 million. In other words, more than 1.8 billion yuan of financing has evaporated most of it.
In December 2017, the actual controller and controlling shareholder of Jiuxian.com signed a VAM agreement with 45 shareholders of the investor, stipulating that if Jiuxian Failed to complete the initial public offering of shares and go public (except due to the reasons of the investor) as of December 31, 2018, the investor had the right to require the company and its actual controller to repurchase all or part of the equity of the company acquired by the investor. In December 2019, Hao Hongfeng and Jiuxian E-Commerce signed the Supplement to the Shareholders' Agreement with 41 shareholders, extending the above period to December 31, 2021.
According to a number of cases in the judgment documents, the individual investors who participated in the financing at the time sued Jiuxian.com, demanding that the original financing conditions (principal +10%) be honored.
According to people familiar with the matter, Jiuxian Network is considering taking back franchise stores and changing to direct operation, but the inventory problem of franchise stores will further consume the already tight cash flow of Jiuxian Network.
For the self-help strategy of joining jiuxian network to change direct operation, industry insiders told Sina Finance that the liquor industry is not a very good industry that can be developed by "buying more", but an industry with "brand value" and "expensive to sell" as the core logic. The logic of the existence of jiuxian network is to sell more liquor in quantity, rather than selling liquor brands with a higher sense of value, so it will not be supported by the head liquor, so the development of jiuxian network is doubly difficult.
"If Jiuxian Network wants to continue to develop, it needs to be able to 'dance with famous wine'. However, at present, the famous wine is making efforts to e-commerce, realizing two-legged walking, leaving a limited time for the wine fairy network to turn around. ”
Intensification of internal volumes: the rise of live broadcasting, the giants themselves came down
In fact, the dilemma of Jiuxian Network is also greatly affected by external factors - at present, liquor e-commerce has once again become a fragrant feast, and famous wines such as Moutai and Wuliangye have paid more attention to the layout of e-commerce after the change of leaders, and at the same time, the short video platforms of e-commerce have also begun to sell wine.
On April 1, Moutai opened its online e-commerce purchase channel to the outside world for the first time, "i Moutai", attracting a large number of consumers to rush to buy, with 6.22 million people making an appointment to subscribe within 1 hour of the first day of launch.
Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in the Chinese food industry, told Sina Finance that in the medium and long term, e-commerce is conducive to increasing the sales of series of wines, achieving "walking on two legs" and reducing the operational risk of Moutai.
On the other hand, live e-commerce companies such as Douyin and Kuaishou are constantly cutting the cake of the liquor market.
According to media reports, Douyin is setting up a liquor self-operated e-commerce team, which will rely on the Douyin platform to achieve short video live broadcasting of liquor, and is now recruiting e-commerce liquor procurement and sales related personnel. Prior to this, the short video of Douyin liquor products has sprung up, and the big V bloggers such as @Hongbin-Bartending and Drunken Goose Lady have tens of millions of fans.
Live selling wine has become an important part of Douyin e-commerce. The data shows that the monthly sales scale of Douyin liquor category has reached 80 million, and in the second half of 2020, the monthly sales volume of liquor category has increased by 70% month-on-month. Liquor e-commerce is becoming a big gold mine for Douyin e-commerce.
In this way, the time left for the Jedi counterattack of the Wine Fairy Net is really not much.