A monthly salary of 5,000 is not worthy of eating hot pot? Well-known brands are scolded on hot searches

Wen| Red Food Network He Peiling 

Is Banu in trouble again?

“Don’t eat Banu Hotpot with a monthly salary of 5000 is not a service to the people at the bottom. Recently, a screenshot of Banu Tripe Hotpot founder Du Zhongbing speaking at a seminar on the development of Tripe Hotpot was circulated on the Internet. Related topics were posted on Weibo hot searches, causing a lot of controversy.

On February 27, Du Zhongbing responded that he hoped everyone would not misunderstand his true meaning, and also said that I was under great pressure because everyone had been scolding Banu for a long time.

What the hell is going on?

01. Banu urgently clarifies!& ldquo; A monthly salary of 5000 yuan and not eating hot pot is a misunderstanding

In the response video, Du Zhongbing clarified that the online screenshots were taken out of context.

Du Zhongbing said that hot pot is not about serving the people at the bottom of the class. If you don’t eat hot pot with a monthly salary of 5000 yuan, just eat some malatang and other words are not said together. If you say them together, it will distort his true intention.

△ Photo source: Du Zhongbing’s Douyin Screenshot

Later, he explained the background of these sentences: When talking about the development of the hot pot industry, I said that hot pot was still very cheap in the past, but with the development in recent years, it has become more and more expensive, even exceeding many Chinese food., making it increasingly difficult to consume hot pot at the bottom. Of course, this is not a good phenomenon, but if a brand does not have its own positioning, it is even more difficult to do well. Because if you want to build a brand well, you must have your own standards and trade-offs so that your company can operate for a long time. Everyone has been scolding Banugui for a long time, and I am under a lot of pressure.& rdquo;

Du Zhongbing further stated that his original intention was to hope that new students would delay gratification and use more of their limited income for self-improvement. ldquo; If everyone’s financial conditions are not so good, especially if students have just entered society and only have a salary of 5000 yuan, bear with it and avoid high consumption, eat less hot pot, or even avoid hot pot or banu, and delay it. Satisfaction and spending money on your own growth will make you better and better. This is my true intention. If I don’t express myself clearly, it’s my reason and mistake. rdquo;

Banu brand also responded to this. According to Jiupai News, regarding Du Zhongbing’s controversial remarks, Banu’s customer service said that what he meant was that it was indeed difficult for everyone to make money, especially young people who had just entered society and had a lot of expenses. Occasionally, they can eat Banu, and don’t overdraw them in advance. Enjoy, the visitors are guests, and Banu is very happy to serve every customer who arrives and will not chase them away. rdquo;

△ Picture source: Banu Tripe Hotpot official Weibo

The remarks posted online were Du Zhongbing’s speech at the seminar on the development of tripe hot pot. A staff member of the Sichuan Hot Pot Association, the organizer of the event, said that what Du Zhongbing meant was that Banu is a quality company, not that it costs 20 – 30 yuan to eat hot pot. They pay attention to the freshness and traceability of the ingredients. They do not make hot pot with poor ingredients. They want to express that the ingredients are safe and the consumption is relatively high. Everyone misunderstood it.“”“ rdquo;

In fact, the reason why these remarks have caused controversy is related to the positioning of Banu’s mid-to-high-end hot pot. There are many netizens on Weibo and other platforms who complain about Banu ‘s gui. As the number one brand of Maodu Hot Pot, Banu’s per capita price is about 130 yuan. Compared with other chain hot pot brands, the overall pricing is high. Red meal big data shows that the per capita price of Haidilao and Qianou Hot Pot is 97.4 yuan and 112.9 yuan respectively.

According to the Securities Times, Du Zhongbing said at the seminar that some consumers believe that the price of Banu is too high and will disclose financial statements in the future to allow consumers to have a clearer understanding of the value of Banu products.

02. The hot pot track is crazy and cheap. What to do with expensive hot pot?

“The controversy surrounding the monthly salary of 5000 yuan without eating hot pot reflects the changes in the hot pot track in recent years.

In the past few years, the unit price of hot pot has continued to rise. For example, Haidilao’s financial report data shows that the unit price of Haidilao passengers has climbed from 97.7 yuan in 2017 to 110.1 yuan in 2020. From 2021 to the first half of 2023, the unit price of passengers will still remain above 100 yuan.

At the beginning of 2023, Banu was on a hot search because of the sky-high price of potatoes. A customer in Xi’an claimed that Banu only had five potatoes priced at 18 yuan per serving, which triggered netizens to complain.

A hot pot meal often costs hundreds of yuan. More and more consumers feel that they are being stabbed by the price of hot pot. As a result, the living space of expensive hot pot is increasingly squeezed.

Especially last year, there was a serious oversupply in the hot pot industry, with more than 300,000 stores closed a year. Competition in the industry further intensified. In order to survive, a number of brands successively lowered prices.

In May, Xiabu Xiabu Hotpot announced that the price would return to the old days, and the overall price of the new menu dropped by about 10%; the per capita consumption of Haidilao dropped from 110.1 yuan in 2020 to 97.4 yuan in the first half of 2024; In July, Chen Jishunhe Beef Hotpot announced a large-scale price cut, returning to the era of 28 yuan fresh beef”……

Haidilao has also launched a series of sub-brands that focus on affordable hot pot, such as Boipai Zhenxian Small Hot Pot, which costs only 30 yuan per capita. It has also renamed the Hailao Hot Pot launched in 2023 to Xiaohi Hot Pot. The per capita has also dropped further, from 80 yuan to around 60 yuan.

However, a number of small hot pot brands that focus on cheap prices and focus on sinking the market are taking advantage of the trend to expand and quickly compete for territory. For example, Qianwei Yiding, Weispicy, Shangbaiwei Small Hot Pot, etc., the per capita price is around 30 yuan. As of now, the total number of stores has reached more than 360, more than 860 and more than 310 respectively.

△ Picture source: Photo by Hongcan.com

Some leading brands have achieved growth from the price-for-volume strategy, such as Haidilao. Its financial report data shows that the turn-over rate has increased from 3.3 times per day in the same period last year to 4.2 times per day, close to 4.8 times per day in 2019.

For expensive hot pot, in addition to price cuts, attracting consumers by improving product quality or differentiated positioning is also one of the means to break through.

For example, Banu, in Du Zhongbing’s view, hot pot is different from Chinese food, and people can see the good ingredients. ldquo; The hot pot business is about selling ingredients. There are Haidilao and Banu. The ones sold are relatively expensive. Behind this is the support of quality and ability.” rdquo;

Du Zhongbing also revealed at a seminar on the development of tripe hot pot that the operating data of Banu stores performed well last year. As of the end of last year, Banu Mutripe Hotpot had opened more than 140 direct-sales stores across the country, with a comprehensive net profit margin of 9% and an average turnover rate of about 3.7 times. Since 2024, the number of banu tables has increased by 12% year-on-year, the number of consumers has surged by 15.1%, and the turnover rate has exceeded the industry average.

In addition, the popular mountain hot pots in the past two years have broken through in terms of scene, focusing on mountain style aesthetics + fresh ingredients, and the per capita price can generally reach about 150 yuan. In addition, for example, a batch of Yungui Sour Soup Hot Pot can also bloom everywhere in first-tier cities by virtue of differentiation to avoid the competition between Sichuan and Chongqing hot pot in the Red Sea.

For hot pot brands, cost-effectiveness and differentiated features must always be available to them in order to regain their place in the fierce competition.