news

evening of september 23

yonghui supermarket and miniso respectively

shanghai stock exchange and hong kong stock exchange issued announcements

announcement display

miniso to acquire 29.4% stake in yonghui superstores

after the acquisition, it will becomeyonghui superstores' largest shareholder

as soon as the news came out,

miniso's stock price once fell by more than 30%

miniso spent nearly 6.3 billion yuan to acquire nearly 30% of yonghui’s shares

the stock price fell sharply

yonghui supermarket announced on the evening of september 23 that its shareholders dairy farm, jd world trade and suqian hanbang intend to transfer the shares through an agreement.transferred 1.913 billion shares, 367 million shares and 387 million shares of the company to guangdong juncai international trading co., ltd. respectively.

after the completion of this transaction, the company's largest shareholder will be changed to juncai international.together they hold 29.4% of the company's shares.smart talent international and its controlling partyminiso will work with yonghui supermarket to transform into a quality retail model.yonghui supermarket stated that there is still uncertainty as to whether the above matters can be ultimately implemented and when they can be completed.

on the same day,miniso announced on the hong kong stock exchange that it would acquire 29.4% of yonghui superstores' equity for rmb 6.3 billion, including 21.1% held by dairy farm and 8.3% held by jd.com in yonghui supermarkets.

september 24,yonghui supermarket(sh601933, share price 2.48 yuan, total market value 22.51 billion yuan)opening limit up;

andminiso(hk09896, share price hk$25.05, market value hk$31.55 billion)hong kong stocks fell by more than 30% at one point.as of the closing of the day, the stock price fell 23.86% to hk$25.05 per share, with a market value of 31.1 billion yuan.the market value evaporated by 10.3 billion yuan in one day.

miniso chief financial officer zhang jingjing said in a conference call:it is expected that after the acquisition of 29.4% of yonghui supermarket’s shares is completed, miniso will become yonghui supermarket’s largest shareholder.

according to the announcement of miniso, after the completion of the transaction, miniso is expected to become the largest shareholder of yonghui superstores, further expanding its offline retail footprint.miniso official website

yonghuipoor performance in the past three years

accept the "pangdonglai model" adjustment

as china's "first fresh food stock", yonghui supermarket was once the most promising supermarket chain in china.

when yonghui supermarket was first established, the fujian-based founders zhang xuanning and zhang xuansong focused on the fresh food sector and took a differentiated development path. the fresh food area of ​​the first yonghui supermarket that opened accounted for about 60% of its area.

with its business strategy of direct sourcing from the source, yonghui superstores quickly broke out from the gap between major giants and successfully landed on the shanghai stock exchange in 2010. in 2015 and 2017, jd.com and tencent successively invested in yonghui superstores.in 2018, yonghui supermarket’s market value exceeded 100 billion yuan, and the number of chain supermarkets exceeded 1,000 in 2020.

in the new retail era, yonghui supermarket has not performed well in recent years due to competition from online shopping, community group buying, and same-city delivery. from 2021 to 2023, yonghui supermarket's net profit after deducting non-operating items was -3.833 billion yuan, -2.565 billion yuan, and -1.976 billion yuan, respectively.the cumulative loss in three years was approximately 8.375 billion yuan.

data map of guangzhou tianhe yonghui supermarket. source: information times

as both revenue and net profit declined, yonghui stopped losses by closing stores.according to reports,in the first eight months of 2024, yonghui supermarket closed 136 stores, closing 73 stores in just two months from july to august.

for example, in august this year, the second floor of hengrun plaza on beijing road pedestrian street in guangzhouparknshop yonghui supermarket (mingsheng plaza)closed.on may 29, 2022, the parknshop yonghui tianhe metropolis plaza store located in yuancun, tianhe district, guangzhou also announced its closure.

yonghui supermarket’s stock price has also been falling.since 2024, the company's stock price has once dropped to 2.08 yuan per share, hitting a new low in nearly ten years, and has fallen by nearly 90% compared to the high point in 2018. at this time, miniso's acquisition of yonghui can be described as "bottom-fishing".

however, yonghui is also seeking breakthroughs and changes：

as early as a few years ago, yonghui supermarket tried to make adjustments on its own, but the results were not particularly ideal. there are many reasons, such as unclear strategic positioning, which led to the failure of many business formats such as super species, mini yonghui, and yonghui life; and wavering between the affordable and high-quality routes, which not only easily lost high-end customers, but also hardcore fans. "

in june and july this year, yonghui supermarket began to carry out "pang donglai-style" adjustments and reforms on its two stores in zhengzhou, which achieved good results.subsequently, yonghui supermarket announced at the end of august that it would start independent store adjustments in 10 cities including hefei, hangzhou and fuzhou.

after 19 days of closure, yonghui zhengzhou xinwan plaza store achieved sales of 1.88 million yuan on the first day of reopening, nearly 14 times the average daily sales before the adjustment, and nearly 13,000 people visited, 5.3 times the average daily customer flow before the adjustment.

yonghui zhengzhou hanhai haishang store opened on august 7. as of august 22, the average daily sales volume was 1.08 million yuan, 8.2 times the average daily performance before the adjustment, and the customer flow increased nearly 10 times.

miniso founder responds to acquisition

to create a "chinese version of sam's club"

miniso spent 6.3 billion yuan to acquire 29.4% of yonghui superstores' equity, at a price of 2.35 yuan per share, buying at a low point. however, this "bottom-fishing" transaction bought a loss-making asset after all, which puzzled some miniso investors.ye guofu, founder of miniso, said in a conference call that night that investors should trust their own vision. "many people don't understand it, and this is my opportunity."he said.

ye guofu (file photo) image source: daily economic news

when asked about the reason for acquiring yonghui supermarket, ye guofu first talked about pang donglai.

"on july 30 this year, i went to zhengzhou, henan province, and visited the first store that pang donglai helped yonghui to renovate. i saw that there were a lot of people in the afternoons for two consecutive weekdays." ye guofu said in a telephone conference on the evening of september 23.“later, pang donglai opened its second yonghui supermarket. i went there again in august and business was just as booming. i thought this was a huge opportunity,” said ye guofu, so he finalized the investment.

ye guofu analyzed: "the decline of traditional supermarkets is due to competition from e-commerce, but more importantly, it is due to their own reasons. if you carefully study offline supermarkets, you will find that they used to be 'second landlords'. you sell the products, i deduct a few points, and it has nothing to do with me whether the sales are good or not. they are gradually moving away from the real needs of consumers."

"there are only two paths for the ultimate future of global retail: low-price retail and specialty retail. miniso, sam's club, and costco all belong to the latter." he said he has always been a fan of costco, but in the past two years he has discovered that there are better models in china than costco and sam's club.that is the pangdonglai model.

"my wife went to sam's and saw the purple sweet potato there was very good, but she took it and put it back. why? the portions at sam's were too big. if my children were not around, they would not be able to finish them in a week," said ye guofu.in comparison, pang donglai pays more attention to customer experience, respects employees more, is more suitable for chinese families, and does not have a membership system.

"i am extremely excited about the pang donglai model that yonghui is currently adjusting. we have also seen changes from the adjustment data. the successful adjustment of several stores fully demonstrates that the pang donglai model can be replicated throughout the country and can be replicated in yonghui."ye guofu calls the current yonghui "the fat donglai version of yonghui"he also believes: "yonghui's mechanism is very good. if it continues along this path, its business will be completely transformed in the next few years and will definitely create a new benchmark for china's retail industry."

it is reported that ye guofu started his business by selling 10-yuan stores. in 2003, ye guofu changed his cosmetics store into a 10-yuan store and started selling small accessories, which was later named "aiyaya". by 2010, aiyaya had nearly 3,000 stores with an annual retail sales of 1.8 billion yuan. in 2013, ye guofu founded miniso, and the first store was opened on the pedestrian street in huadu, guangzhou.

industry insiders:

the pangdonglai model is highly regional

not easy to copy

"the temporary success of several stores is still a long way from a true transformation. after all, yonghui supermarket still has more than 850 stores across the country, and the successful sample data is less than 1%," said wen zhihong, a chain operation expert.

new retail expert bao yuezhong also expressed reservations about whether the adjustment and reform of pangdonglai can be promoted on a large scale across the country.。

because the market environment in first-tier cities is completely different from that in third-tier cities where pang donglai is located.

"the competition pressure from peers in third- and fourth-tier cities is also smaller than that in first- and second-tier cities. once a retail company is established in a small place, it is easy for it to form a leading scale advantage in that region, and it is not easy for external companies to break this advantage," explained wen zhihong.

in contrast, first- and second-tier cities can accommodate more brands because the market is large enough. take beijing as an example. although there are local supermarket companies such as wumart and supermarket, yonghui, walmart, and hema can also survive, but correspondingly, the competition is more intense.

bao yuezhong said"pang donglai is essentially a business created by a special person in a special market and environment. it is a special case in the retail industry and has strong regional and special characteristics. but at the same time, its standardized replication ability is very weak."

more importantly, pang donglai’s adjustments to yonghui supermarket are currently mainly concentrated at the store level, but have not yet truly touched yonghui’s management structure.

consumer perception

in recent years, the performance of physical supermarkets has not been as good as that of online fresh food supermarkets. some stores of carrefour, yonghui, and other supermarkets have been closed, but offline supermarkets such as sam's club and pangdonglai remain popular.

ms. zhu, a resident of haizhu district, guangzhou, said that although it is convenient to order food on her mobile phone, she prefers to go to physical stores and select fresh ingredients herself. "miniso is good, and i also want to go to pangdonglai. it is very inconvenient that there is no large supermarket near my home. i hope that new offline supermarket formats will emerge soon."

source: guangzhou daily compiled from china newsweek, national business daily, eastday, china securities journal, yonghui supermarket announcement, miniso announcement, china economic net, jiemian news, beijing business daily