Zhou Peng, A Migrant Worker: How To Make The Stall Business Into A National Chain

A few months ago, the national food and snacks chain brand Zhou Heiya signed investment cooperation agreement with Tian Di venture capital and received 60 million yuan of capital injection. This shows that Zhou Heiya, who has already been the hottest in the country, is taking another big step forward. Then, looking back at the weekly black duck more than a decade ago, we can easily see how a wage earner stalls. business Become a chain brand today.

Clever, almost lose the vegetable market. business

The 19 year old Zhou Peng, who was at the Ming Street market in Wuhan to help the big sister's sauce duck stalls, had never expected that after more than 10 years, he owned his own national chain brand -- Zhou black duck. Recalling the history of the black duck's bitter start, Zhou Peng was filled with emotion.

In the middle of the night, the duck gets up in the middle of the night, and the duck is boiled in the morning. The ten ducks and eight ducks are sent to the hotel one by one. They do not have time for breakfast. After delivery, it is noon. They buy ducks, slaughtered ducks, and salted. At night, they check out at the hotel at six or seven. It is time for others to have dinner. At the most difficult time, Zhou Peng bought 50 Fen two bread at noon, plus 60 Fen bottles of soft drinks. In the early days of small business, Zhou Peng's dream was to make money to change this poor life.

In 1995, Zhou Peng first started her business by setting up a stove next to the big sister's processing room, cooking the sauce in the open air, and selling the same way to her sister's retail outlets. This is actually a imitation of a Wenzhou duck shop owner. In Zhou Peng's view, the business of Wenzhou's boss is super good. He also delivers to the hotel. He can sell one hundred or two hundred in a day, compared to his own business of selling more than 10 salted duck every day. This is astronomical.

Zhou Peng is very clear about the color, flavor and popularity of his own sauce duck, which is far from the "Wenzhou boss". At this time, he played a smart trick, "it was speculation." He used the Wenzhou boss's sauce duck as a sample to the hotel owner to supply it to the hotel at a low price advantage. Just now, Algus Hotel can sell several sauce duck every day, and then the sales volume slowly decreases. After half a month, it is hard to digest one. When the owner of the hotel found Zhou Peng cheating, he broke up with him and refused to pay the previous account.

"It is impossible for us to win long term business by means of cheating." Zhou Peng realized that a simple principle which many people could not really understand. Bad business has gotten worse. Zhou Peng once got into a crisis of lack of money. For cheap pictures, Zhou Peng rented a broken room with no windows beside his elder sister's home.

Worse things are still behind. Zhou Peng, who had no money, slept like a log that night. When he woke up in the morning, he found that his clothes were stolen by thieves. The most important thing was that he had lost 1800 dollars for his business. Zhou Peng, who was plunged into the "economic crisis", was robbed of this robbery.

The loss of the business and the loss of the beeper that the older generation did not seem to have bought, and the anxious father scolded the "black sheep" to drive his son home for work. Zhou Peng, on the other hand, cried on his knees and begged to stay: "where to fall, where to climb up!" a series of blows made Zhou Pengan decide: "it's not good to duck the duck to death."

Run the spice market frequently, ask the spice boss to find out the flavor and efficacy of aromatherapy, borrow spices and ancient books to study word by word until late at night, buy hundreds of ducks and repeatedly test, "clearly feel that their seasoning is very positive, but the stewed duck is not tasty." Zhou Peng deliberately bought the sauce duck from Wenzhou's boss, and later discovered that the growth period of the local ducks was long, "boiling, tasty, and compact." After overcoming this "technical difficulty", Zhou Peng's stewed duck came out of the pot with a glittering and brilliant chocolate color. It was black after exposure and oxidation in the air. Zhou Peng spent months trying to find an unforgettable taste. The smell came from Zhou Peng's drooling, which he often used to give when he was a child. He also tasted the sweet smells of his sweet heart when he went to the market.

How important is sufficient cash flow?

The small business that is hard to do is going to continue. At that time, a boss was willing to give him a duck at 16 yuan / credit, each 2 yuan higher than others. To this day, Zhou Peng is still very grateful to the boss: "if he hadn't been willing to keep the credit on account and keep the business going, there would be no Zhou Heiya today."

"Cash flow is very important in business." Zhou Peng concluded. When doing the hotel business, the closing of the small hotel ran accounts, the hotel credit and dragging accounts were very serious. What made Zhou Peng most sad is that a big hotel not only did not pay the money, but also beat Zhou Peng who came home to pay the bills. "He owes me a debt, and I still need to be beaten! There is such a truth!" the helpless Zhou Peng began to rethink that there was great risk in doing hotel business, and cash on hand was hard to return quickly. At the end of 1996, Zhou Peng began to consider: "the business of sending a hotel is not my way out, and it is more secure to set up stalls in the vegetable market." At that time, Zhou Peng gave up many hotel cooperation, and only selected several highly creditworthy hotels to continue to supply.

In 1997, Zhou Peng invited his elder sister from Sichuan to help. Under the eaves of the friends of Wuhan Aviation Road electric market, a glass container with glass covers was set up to sell the sauce duck, and the sign on the glass cover was "Zhou Ji strange duck". At the beginning of the business, a sauce duck was sold for 22 yuan. That piece is the most deserted lot in the vegetable market. Compared with the dazzling products on other stalls, some of the sauce duck on Zhou Peng stalls are lonely and unable to afford their appetite. A month later, the best business of the business was sold for 132 yuan. The worst day was to sell only one. "I didn't earn a cent, I really lost heart, I had the idea of retreat. Two months' rent is paid, and only two months are needed. " If it hadn't been for two months' rent, Zhou Peng would have been forced to lose his home. {page_break}

Squeezing out the duck and making the first pot of gold

In the next month, business became even more difficult. There were three competitors on the street. The business of most stalls is deserted. Only a newly arrived business named Ruyi duck is very popular. Ruyi duck opened a new marketing strategy to let Zhou Peng see one. On the first day of the opening ceremony, the duck sold the leaflets and sold the ducks on the first day, which sold only 10 yuan / yuan, far below the market average price of more than 20 yuan. Waiting for the team of three or four ten people to buy ducks to be dragged to their own doorways, the first day they could get the booth at 2 o'clock. The second sister, who was so anxious and envious, repeatedly persuaded Zhou Peng, who was disheartened: "you can see, where can they sell 10 yuan a duck?"

At three in the afternoon, Zhou Peng, who had no hope of business, reluctantly ran to the vegetable market. He found that all the others were picking up the remaining ducks. But the ducks were really cheap. After bargaining, Zhou Peng bought 62 at a price of 6.6 yuan.

On the first day, they sold 10 yuan for one, and the business was no better than the duck, but it was slightly better and earned a little money one day. Second sister is very experienced in doing business. She told Zhou Peng that if he arrived at the market earlier than the duck, he could win some customers who were not willing to queue up. On the second day, Zhou Peng and his sister began to shout at the market stalls at 7:30, opening two or three hours ahead of the first day. The second sister is very clever. She sold several more times than the first day. A week later, the price of the duck was adjusted to 12 yuan / A, and Zhou Peng's marinated duck remained at 10 yuan. The price advantage was obvious.

Zhou Peng has found the knack of distributing commodity prices reasonably. He bought the duck in general from 5 yuan to 8 yuan, but the price must be 10 yuan. Through price adjustment and sharp price advantage, business suddenly became hot. A few months later, Ruyi duck became the loser of the week's odd duck and ended in closing.

At the end of the year, Zhou Peng has more than 10000 yuan on the book. By the year 1998, Zhou Peng's business was excellent, because it was delicious, and even after that, it could still sell well. When the business is best, sell more than 500 units a day and sell it at two or three p.m. many times before. The business is getting better and better. Zhou Peng then set up second stalls in Dajiang Road market, and a few fellow villagers were invited to help. According to Zhou Peng, he made 300 thousand yuan that year and felt for the first time that he had a sense of accomplishment in doing business. At that time, there were only a few employees in the small workshop.

Small business goes straight to the bottom.

In 1999, there was a memorable thing for Zhou Peng and Zhou Peng. At that time, the price of raw ducks increased, and the normal ducks of the 240 day growth period were 17~18 yuan, and 23 yuan after the brine. The cost of buying ducks increased, and Zhou Peng saw a cousin buying only two or three yuan for 6 months. Buying a duckling can save more than 10 yuan, which is not a small sum. Zhou Peng can not resist the temptation. After that, he hoarding more than 10000 ducklings.

At that time, Zhou Peng was obsessed with playing cards and less business. In the winter of 1999, the sales of sauce duck dropped from more than 100 to more than 10 or even a few. Customers also complain: "your duck is not as good as before." At first, the second sister could only cover up the "secret" of the duckling as raw material with a series of reasons such as "not ready for the good". Finally, one day, the elder sister really couldn't bear to tell Zhou Peng: "brother, you earn more than tens of thousands of more than 10000 ducks, but you have lost your business!"

Zhou Peng, who was sober from the game, realized that he had made a fatal mistake when he saw that the business was going to be destroyed. This lesson made him memorable: "resolutely do not fake goods." Though he almost lost his business in his determination, Zhou Peng realized that correcting it in time is better than losing all business. In order to turn around the business, Zhou Peng no longer sells the sauce duck single product, starts to manage the duck wing, the duck neck, the duck's hand, the chicken wing tip and so on. Business is improving rapidly, but sales of sauce duck products are not as good as before.

Bad luck, business lost 500 thousand in 7 days.

Another important reason for the gloomy business in 2000 is the impact of all the fake and spicy ducks everywhere. Zhou Pengmeng developed a simple sense of brand protection. So he went to the patent office to apply for a patent, but he didn't do it for a long time. Later he realized that he should go to the industrial and commercial bureau, the registered trademark.

The stall business went downhill and the production workshop was very unstable. In a year, he moved and moved three times. Later he spent about 400000 to buy a piece of land beside HanKou Railway Station, and built four storey buildings. At that time, there were three or four workers in the small workshop, and the small workshop had a simple division of raw food and cooked food.

With the new venue and new beginning, Zhou Peng has the desire to be bigger. Every time a farmer returns to Beijing, he is welcome to bring Zhou Peng's duck. In 2002, Zhou Peng cut in from the capital and prepared to open up a big market. In 2002, Zhou Peng killed 300 thousand yuan worth of ducks for the north. When the Spring Festival passed in 2003, Zhou Peng, who was preparing to give full play to his fist, pulled a truck of duck that had been slaughtered to Beijing.

Unfortunately, he caught up with SARS. At that time, the government was very strict in the management of poultry stores, and the business license was impossible to be approved. After a month without opening in Beijing, people have been exhausted. A month later, "SARS" took the lead, and the sauce duck store named "Zhou black duck" was finally opened. Unlicensed business is alarming every day, especially when strangers are asked. When the storefront was open to the seventh day, it happened: the store was sealed up, and the $1.2 million equipment was confiscated. The sauce duck shop was closed down.

And then he transported hundreds of thousands of ducks to Wuhan? He didn't want to give up. Zhou Peng returned to the frozen duck's storeroom and prepared to start shop again. But the next scene left Zhou Peng in despair. There was a problem with freezing, and all the ducks deteriorated. Zhou Peng was forced to give up all frozen goods, and even worse, he spent thousands of dollars cleaning up the spoiled duck. In Beijing, Zhou Peng ended up losing 500 thousand yuan.

According to Zhou Peng's observation, a few months later, the "double Yang" and "Long Ya" business of doing the marinated duck business went into the Beijing market and opened shop everywhere. Zhou Peng could only sigh that his luck was worse than that of SARS. When the "expedition" was defeated, the business in the rear of Wuhan began to fail because no one was managing. Zhou Peng began to realize the importance of internal management.

300 thousand yuan to buy "open shop" lesson

In 2004, Zhou Peng had the desire to make big black ducks again. At that time, he learned that there were dozens of stores in Chongqing where there were dozens of shops for making "stewed chicken". Bruny vegetables can be made so big! Zhou Peng suddenly had full confidence in the brand of Zhou duck.

Franchised stores are one of the ways to expand rapidly. Zhou Peng saw a company open 34 stores, "we taste better than them, the quality is higher than them, and many relatives want to join." In 2006, confident Zhou Peng opened 11 franchises in Nanchang, earning about 200000 yuan quickly. {page_break}

"Fake goods are all over the sky, but the quality of franchisees is difficult to control, even though they are managed by relatives." This is the bitter fruit of blindly open shop. Zhou Peng immediately took action to severely punish the shop, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to collect the rest of the store at a high price. "The biggest risk in our industry is the food safety crisis, and it's difficult to control the quality of joining." this is the lesson Zhou Penghua bought for 300 thousand yuan. Later, a friend of Ningbo made several calls to join the weekly black duck at a high price of 1 million, and was still rejected by Zhou Peng. "I can't make this cut!" Zhou black duck can do better and bigger if it does not join. It's not better. Although we shop now very slowly, we do not sleep in fear. " When he joined in Nanchang, Zhou Peng couldn't sleep steadily all night. "According to the last lesson, today, more than 200 stores of the week's black duck appear in the form of Direct stores." Zhou Peng said.

When Zhou Peng thought about expansion in 2005, he thought: the quality of products is no problem, but the first is lack of people, the second is lack of venues. "How many shops are there? How much is enough for the seventy or eighty square meter production workshop?" until 2008, they found 90 mu of land, and now the project has been built more than 50 thousand square meters. "From 2005 to 2006, Zhou Heiya just stayed in the bud of thought, and became a real business after 2007."

Eradicate family ills, and small workshops complete metamorphosis.

In 2006, Zhou Peng founded Hubei Zhou black duck food Co., Ltd., looking forward to the transformation of modern enterprises. He felt that he had difficulty in managing 44 people. "Big business, my brain is not good enough, and I will graduate from primary school without diploma, and I will not manage. I will definitely invite people." Most of the 40 people are family members who are hard to manage. This is Zhou Peng's biggest concern. "I've heard a lot of family businesses fall out mostly over decentralization, and once the business is bigger, they are eaten up." In addition to taking the initiative to receive training in corporate management, Zhou Peng was also looking for suitable candidates for business management. He found Zhu Yulong, a former senior manager of Wu Shang Hao headquarters, to join the core team.

"The brain burned out? If you spend so much money, invite outsiders to manage your own business, and how reliable your relatives are," the family was puzzled. When Zhu Yulong just took over the internal management, many people were not convinced. Several relatives management had broken into the office and threatened Zhu with a knife. The final result of these people was dismissed. In order to get everyone's understanding, Zhou Peng repeated the video clips of emperor Sun Wu, who was authorized by Sun Wu training, to kill the emperor's favorite princess, and showed it to his family again and again. "I want to warn you that everyone must obey unified management." After top-down rectification, there is no family member in the company's top management team. "Our family is very diligent, able to do things and do basic work well," Zhou Peng believed in Zhu's management ability and felt very steadfast in his mind.

In 2007, the week black duck began to form a new core team, the management team expanded to five people, and the production process was further refined. "Enterprises can no longer stay in manual workshop mode. In fact, there were some simple division of labor in 2005, but they were not perfect. The whole process is still improving. " Curing, roasting, brine and other processes need to be decomposed according to standardized operation. "Just like McDonald's central kitchen, the master teacher has no craft, so long as the standard production week of black duck tastes."

"Now most of the company invested in the process and equipment transformation", and this is the Zhou Peng Zhou Peng who has been engaged in the production of marinated duck for many years. Every workshop in the factory is equipped with production control points. There are batches and records of ducks, from raw ducks to cooked food shops, to quality control and packaging. The preparation of brine and seasoning is also controlled by strict standardization to ensure the lasting stability of the flavor and quality of the week black duck. "A duck takes 8 hours and 36 processes from semifinished products to finished products." Zhou Peng said.

According to market research, the company repositioned the product. The product was transformed from the original table food to the leisure snacks mainly based on duck products. The consumer group focused on the 15~25 year old woman. Then focus on this group of consumer groups targeted to develop products, brand promotion. "In the future, we may also consider developing new products for those outside the group. We do not exclude that we will consider setting up new brands under the weekly black duck or finding suitable targets for acquisitions. In the next 35 years, we need to consider expanding rapidly and realizing the great integration of industries." Zhou Peng said.

In 2008, the company entered a rapid development year. The scale of the staff expanded from more than 60 to more than 400, and the storefront also increased from 8 to more than 50, with sales exceeding 100 million yuan. "This is the result of modern management," Zhou Peng tasted the sweetness of doing business. Now there are more than 200 stores, all over Hubei, Jiangxi, Hunan, Beijing and Shenzhen. They also set up production bases in Wuhan, Shenzhen and Nanchang.

Zhou Peng is a person who is willing to accept new things, and his learning ability is beyond everyone's imagination. "Because there is no culture, very eager to knowledge, like a sponge itself does not contain water, others pour some water can be easily absorbed. The books on financing and IPO should be looked at, and investors should at least know which places are cheaper.

"At the beginning, even the trademark and patent were so simple that they couldn't make clear. They had eaten without the loss of trademarks and had been pushed out by fake stores. This is also very exciting for them to learn. Now we have registered trademarks in seven regions, namely, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea. Trademarks in European and American countries are also being applied. This is the first step in preparing to go abroad.

Zhou Heiya's corporate culture is "root culture": "we do not want" leaves "to grow rapidly, open a few thousand stores; we should step up the" root "culture of management team and product quality, and root and leaf. This is Zhou Peng's experience in running the company.

Nowadays, the market of bran industry is rather chaotic. Whether it is product, business mode or brand management, it belongs to the primary stage. The week black duck sees more opportunities. "I think Zhou black duck can walk from the workshop to the brand because it has a dream. At first, it may be purely money making. Now the dream is to set up a benchmark for the industry and lead the industry transformation. Although we have not yet realized it, we have been striving to go in this direction. Our goal is to be a century old shop.