March 21 is the day of the vernal equinox in geography, after which the direct point of the sun begins to move northward, marking the official beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. But the "beauty" created by Chen Guang single-handedly, after experiencing the cold winter, does not seem to wait for the spring flowers to bloom.
Chen Guang
On March 22, Beijing Weimei Everbright Daily Cosmetics Co., Ltd. declared bankruptcy due to insolvency. At this point, the beauty chain giant, which once had more than 9,000 people, has settled the dust.
At the same time, Chen Guang's career in the new retail track shows a different picture. On March 23, the cross-border mall of the Heymi platform was officially upgraded, "opening the Canadian and American markets", and many new products are also being planned...... The whole Heymi, down to the dealers, up to the global CEO, are very optimistic about its future.
Why did the former beauty chain giant enter the new retail?
01
Gorgeous turn
Housewives build beauty empires
Chen Guang, a native of Liaoning, was first assigned to a local song and dance troupe as a dancer after graduation, and then transferred to the trade union of a research institute affiliated to the Shenyang Construction Engineering System.
Later, Chen Guang developed the translation service business, using the student resources of many local foreign language departments in Shenyang, and was able to provide services in 16 languages at most, and once became a translation service agency designated by some local government departments. This experience not only gave Chen Guang a preliminary business experience, but also accumulated some funds for her later entrepreneurship.
After getting married, Chen Guang moved to Beijing with her husband, and after working as a housewife for a while, she planned to start a business again. Because he likes makeup, Chen Guang decided to open a beauty shop.
At the end of 2001, Chen Guang's first beauty shop opened. Subsequently, Chen Guang registered Weimeidu Company, and began to introduce the beauty product technology of a Canadian company by virtue of his original relationship as an immigrant student. However, at that time, the company only sold formulas, so Chen Guang began to create his own brand, select a site and set up a factory in China.
Since 2004, Chen Guang began to take the road of franchise expansion. "Chinese people want to be bosses the most," Chen Guang said, "Most of the people who join Weimeidu are women and do not have high education, but they really become bosses." Thanks to the franchise strategy of not paying franchise fees and management fees, in just four years, Weimeidu has more than 1,600 franchise stores. By 2008, Weimeidu had developed into a beauty chain brand with more than 1,600 franchise stores and the largest market share.
The rapidly developing aesthetics soon won the favor of capital. In July 2008, Yangzi Fund, an internationally renowned venture capital fund, and Weimeidu Group signed an agreement, with the former injecting US$15 million into the latter. Weimeidu became the first beauty company in China to introduce venture capital.
In 2009, Weimeidu was strongly shortlisted in the top 120 franchise chains in China in 2009, ranking first in the beauty chain industry. Since then, it has been on the list for 14 consecutive years. According to the data released by the list, by 2021, the sales scale of Weimeidu will reach 1.213 billion yuan, and the total number of stores will reach 9,924.
02
A road of twists and turns
Twice listed and encountered business difficulties
When he received the investment in 2008, Chen Guang said that he would consider listing on the main board of Hong Kong or the United States. In 2014, Chen Guang's long-awaited listing plan was finally launched. In September of that year, Jiangquan Industrial, a listed company, announced that it planned to acquire 100% of the shares of Weimeidu Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. at a price of 1.6 billion yuan. After the completion of the transaction, Chen Guang and Liu Donghui will become the actual controllers of Jiangquan Industrial. This means that after the completion of the acquisition, Weimeidu will also complete the backdoor listing and become an A-share listed company.
However, the backdoor listing plan did not succeed in the end. The reason is that this acquisition agreement requires Chen Guang and Liu Donghui to promise that the net profit attributable to the parent company after deducting non-profits from 2014 to 2016 shall not be less than 97.4356 million yuan, 150 million yuan and 184 million yuan respectively. The net profit of Weimeidu from 2011 to 2013 was 32.7752 million yuan, 43.0342 million yuan and 48.8854 million yuan respectively, and the net profit growth rate in 2012 and 2013 was 31.30% and 13.60% respectively. To achieve the goal of 97,435,600, the net profit of Weimeidu in 2014 needs to increase by at least 99% compared with 2013. As a result, Weimeidu terminated the plan on the grounds that it disagreed with the profit forecast compensation agreement in the plan.
But soon, another plan of Chen Guang surfaced.
In December 2015, Weimeidu acquired part of the shares of NextEye, a South Korean listed company, for 56 billion won (about 300 million yuan) and became the controlling shareholder of NextEye, and Weimeidu was able to go public through a backdoor listing.
Prior to that, NextEye was mainly engaged in the manufacture and sales of inspection equipment, producing liquid crystal display (LCD) visual inspection equipment, including liquid crystal thin film inspection equipment, liquid crystal glass damage detection equipment, three-dimensional (3D) measurement equipment, etc. After Weimeidu became the owner, Chen Guang gradually focused on cosmetics for NextEye.
NextEye's financial report shows that in 2016, the revenue of its cosmetics business was only 0.7% of the total revenue, but this proportion climbed to 31.2% in 2017, and the proportion was as high as 48.2% in 2020, becoming the main business of NextEye, and the revenue of this part of the business mainly comes from China, that is, the Weimeidu franchise business.
The reporter learned that there is no requirement to join Weimeidu, and only one fee needs to be paid to open a store in the name of Weimeidu, and this fee will be used as the cost of purchasing Weimeidu products and instruments. The follow-up franchisee's operating income is all owned by themselves, and the beauty does not charge a commission, and even the franchisee can choose other brands of products.
According to the analysis of industry insiders, the essence of this model of Weimeidu is to sell products in a franchise model, and the continuous hematopoietic ability of subsequent franchisees is limited. Coupled with the impact of the epidemic on physical stores, it is difficult for this model to develop healthily and long-term.
Indeed, NextEye's cosmetics revenue began to slow down in 2019, and almost halved in 2020, reaching only 8.643 billion won (about 47 million yuan) in 2023. This also had an impact on NextEye's overall performance. Since 2019, NextEye's revenue has declined sharply, falling to 17.749 billion won (about 96 million yuan) in 2023, with a dismal performance. On August 14, 2023, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court issued a reward announcement that pushed Chen Guang into the public eye: the beauty of the thunderstorm.
The "unfulfilled legal documents" mentioned in the announcement refer to a debt of 163 million yuan owed by Beijing Weimei Everbright Daily Cosmetics Co., Ltd. to China Minsheng Trust Co., Ltd.
In March 2024, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court issued an announcement showing that, according to the accounting, the maximum value of all assets of Weimei Everbright, including monetary funds, land use rights and the value of projects under construction, totaled 235.5 million yuan, and it was insolvent. In the end, Weimei Everbright was declared bankrupt.
Chen Guang and Liu Donghui have also become judgment defaulters, and have been issued consumption restriction orders many times.
03
Cross-border cooperation
Join hands with direct selling bosses to explore new retail
In July 2023, Chen Guang set up a subsidiary through NextEye and established Weimei Hemi Biotechnology (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., and together with Zhang Honglin, who is quite famous in the direct selling industry, he began to build the Heimi platform.
On December 3, 2023, the HIME global cross-border e-commerce platform officially started operation, and the platform mall mainly sells cosmetics, skin care products and a health care product called GeneAKG.
Buy 100PV products (about 990 yuan) in Heymi Mall to become a distribution agent, enjoy 15% direct commission and 10% market reward commission; If you buy 300PV products (about 2970 yuan), you can become a municipal agent, enjoy 30% direct commission and 15% market reward commission; Purchasing 500PV products (about 4950 yuan) can become a provincial agent, enjoy 40% direct commission and 20% market reward commission, and give 2 additional provincial agent points, additional points need to repurchase more than 100 pv products to activate, otherwise there is no referral bonus.
In addition, according to the performance of the promotion market, Heymi has set up a total of 9 awards at different levels, namely primary one-star agents, two-star agents, and three-star agents; Intermediate one-star diamonds, two-star diamonds, three-star diamonds; High-grade one-star black diamonds, two-star black diamonds, three-star black diamonds. According to dealers, if you get a $100 market reward commission for two consecutive weeks, you can be upgraded to a one-star agent; To move up to Diamond, you'll need to earn $20,000 in weekly market rewards commissions.
On March 23, 2024, Heymi Mall will be officially upgraded to "access the Canadian and American markets". "Hey Mi Mall will have as many as 700 good products in the future", the dealer told reporters, Hey Mi Mall will increase new explosive products from time to time, and it is currently planned to put on the shelves in the second quarter of 2024 "Global Patent NO.1 Negatively Charged Skin Care Products", the third quarter on the shelves "The closest cancer cell blocker to cure cancer", and the fourth quarter on the shelves "Drink a slimming oral liquid for a pound".
At the meeting of Heymi, Zhang Honglin once said that "investing in Heymi will help you bring a completely different life" and "This road will go very beautiful". The whole Heymi, down to the dealers, up to the global CEO, are very optimistic about its future.
Zhang Honglin's confidence comes from his years of experience in the direct selling industry.
Zhang Honglin
Zhang Honglin, graduated from Fu Jen University in Taiwan in 1987, officially entered the direct selling industry in 1994, and worked in the Taiwan branches of direct selling companies such as Avon, Youshana, and Shaklee from 1994 to 2009. In March 2011, Zhang Honglin joined Sunhope, which was his first participation in the direct selling market in mainland China.
In January 2013, Zhang Honglin was appointed as the executive general manager of Tianfu Tianmeishi, at that time, Tianfu Tianmeishi was at the critical moment of applying for the license, but the core team exodus caused by the adjustment of the system broke out. In the first half of 2012, due to the dissatisfaction caused by the restructuring, the founder of the core system and its market backbone left collectively, and the chief operating officer of Greater China, Cai Hongming, general manager Zhang Zaiji and other senior executives all resigned.
After Zhang Honglin took over, he began to seek change. Previously, Tianfu Tianmeishi sold tea products as the main line, but after Zhang Honglin arrived, the concept of "Tianfutong" free call mobile phone was introduced into its direct sales system; In addition, Zhang Honglin also moved a company with eyelash growth liquid as a whole and signed an agency contract with Tianfu Tianmeishi.
According to media reports, the performance of Tianfu Tianmeishi in 2012 was only 30 million, but the performance in 2013 reached 130 million yuan, and in 2014, it achieved a performance of 500 million yuan. In 2017, Tianfu Tianmeishi appeared on the "Top 100 Global Direct Selling Enterprises" for the first time, with a performance of 2.02 billion yuan that year.
Zhang Honglin has indeed made good achievements in Tianfu Tianmeishi, but during his trading, Tianfu Tianmeishi is also constantly scandalized. In 2019, some media reported that Tianfu Tianmeishi had been involved in capital rumors four times since 2010.
In February 2019, Zhang Honglin left Tianfu Tianmeishi, and since then has been the executive general manager of Weiyun Life (Fujian) E-commerce Co., Ltd., mainly responsible for the operation of "Skyline Mall". The mall mainly sells cosmetics, and Zhang Honglin claimed that the annual turnover before the epidemic was about 180 million yuan.
However, after two years of operation by Mr. Zhang, the mall was eventually shut down. THE REPORTER FOUND A LOT OF PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS ABOUT "SKYLINE MALL" AND "SHARING ECONOMY" ON THE WECHAT PUBLIC ACCOUNT "JUJUBOBO" WITH WEIYUN LIFE (FUJIAN) E-COMMERCE CO., LTD. AS THE MAIN OPERATING BODY, BUT THE OFFICIAL ACCOUNT STOPPED UPDATING AFTER AUGUST 2021, AND THE LINKED MALL COULD NO LONGER BE OPENED. The reporter also found that some of the pictures in these promotional materials are the same as those of Heymi's promotional materials. Obviously, the model of the Hey Mi platform was formerly known as the failed "Skyline Mall".
After the thunderstorm of Weimeidu, Chen Guang urgently needed a new platform and a new model to carry the existing cosmetics business; After the closure of "Skyline Mall", Zhang Honglin also urgently needed a new carrier to start a new project. So the Hey Mi platform came into being. Chen Guang and Zhang Honglin may be the life-saving straws that each other grabbed in the predicament.
The former beauty chain giant and the well-known trader, whether such a combination can be exchanged for the rise of the market, it is left to time to give a real answer.
Author|Hu Yue
Source: Knowledge Economy