In the office of Dexin Food Supervisor in East Lake High-tech Zone, Qiao Yantong was leaning on the sofa, crossing his legs and reporting work to his leader.
From drinking a cup of milk tea after a meal to ordering a cup of coffee after work, many urban white-collar workers' love for new tea drinks and coffee has directly turned into a big industry by drinking new tea drinks, freshly ground coffee and other freshly made drinks.
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Relevant raw and auxiliary ingredient suppliers have also benefited from the rain and dew, and Dexin Food is no exception.
Dexin Food was established in 2012. It is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of ready-made beverage ingredients. Its main products include beverage concentrates, flavored syrups, beverage ingredients, etc.
The products produced by the company are mainly supplied to major customers such as Starbucks, Coffee Justice, Mixue Bingcheng, Shuyishao Xiancao, Naixue's Tea, etc.
Beverage syrups and flavored syrups are the main sources of income for Dexin Food, with their combined income reaching more than 80%.
Starbucks is Dexin Food's largest customer. Since the beginning of the year, its sales have been 128 million yuan and 79 million yuan respectively, accounting for .25% of the current sales revenue. Its contribution to Dexin Food's revenue is evident.
Qiao Yantong is slightly chubby and has just turned thirty-five this year, which is when people reach middle age and are most energetic.
He lit a soft jade stick, touched the green stubble that had just grown on his head, and complained to the leader Zou Xianbao beside him: "The coffee controversy has also taken action."
"Today, one of their people came to chat with me. They didn't say much, so let's forget it. The most outrageous thing is that they brought a little girl over to ask questions. I found an excuse to sneak back directly after we had a meal."
Qiao Yantong spat into the trash can with a look of disdain.
"Really? In my impression, coffee's righteous people are not ignorant, and their attitude doesn't look like they are doing things. They don't know how to deal with the world?"
Zou Xianbao looked at the stock interface on the computer screen and wondered.
"It was fine when everyone was enjoying themselves in the past, but now the two families are at loggerheads. I don't want to waste public relations expenses on traitors like us, which is understandable."
Qiao Yantong put out his cigarette butt in the ashtray. As a front-line salesperson, he naturally has a different understanding of human nature.
The overt and covert battle between Starbucks and Coffee Justice has actually never stopped since the beginning.
Coffee Justice started its business by not only trying to get Starbucks customers, but also poaching people from Starbucks.
As an industry insider close to both Coffee Justice and Starbucks, Qiao Yantong knows very well that Coffee Justice has made great efforts to poach people from Starbucks since its financing.
The main recruitment target is middle and high-level managers, and the salary offered by Coffee Justice for some positions is more than 1.5 times higher than that of the same position at Starbucks.
Taking Jiangcheng as an example, about 1/7 of Starbucks employees in Jiangcheng market have been poached by Coffee Justice, and nearly 1/4 of the employees working in high-end hand-brewed coffee positions in some important stores have been poached.
Taking a well-known recruitment website as an example, Coffee Justice released a total of 207 recruitment information in Jiangcheng, including 93 recruitment information for part-time workers and baristas.
Followed by various technical personnel and functional operation talents, each reached 10,000 yuan, and the recruitment salary of some senior executives reached 10,000-15,000 yuan per month.
This was definitely an exaggerated income in 2013.
Coffee Justice is expanding offline, so poaching can quickly build a mature employee team and quickly expand the business.
Starbucks has been working in China for many years, and its talent reserve mechanism and welfare system are more complete. In fact, poaching has limited impact on Starbucks.
But Starbucks did not sit still. After secretly visiting coffee stores in Jiangcheng and Shanghai, global executives immediately deployed two powerful countermeasures:
The first step to counterattack: launch a takeout business, reach strategic cooperation with takeout software on the market, and counterattack the characteristic direction of coffee justice. This is also Starbucks' first time in the world.
The second counterattack: Starbucks forced suppliers to "take sides" and cut off supply from upstream.
Including Dexin Food, Starbucks has issued notices to upstream suppliers of food, packaging materials, machinery and equipment, requiring them to "choose one of the two" and no longer supply competitors including Luckin Coffee.
In fact, Coffee Justice includes many partners including coffee machines, paper cups, light snacks, etc., all of which are the same suppliers as Starbucks.
Starbucks has more than 50 retail stores in 51 countries around the world, with approximately 5 million customers visiting every week.
From a handful of coffee beans to a cup of coffee, it takes a long supply chain.
In the end, Starbucks implemented a complete evaluation system and database for suppliers in order to establish a global, single supply chain.
It can accurately evaluate the performance of each supplier, thereby increasing the bargaining chip in contract negotiations with suppliers, allowing cooperative suppliers to have greater distribution volume, and ultimately reducing logistics costs.
This strategy is to cut off the supply from the source and attack from the upstream.
Coffee Justice also deeply understands the importance of suppliers.
At the media communication meeting announcing the lawsuit, it was not only announced that legal actions would be taken against Starbucks' suspected monopolistic behavior, including filing lawsuits in relevant courts and filing complaints with the national anti-monopoly administrative law enforcement agency.
It also launched the "Blue Partner Program" and invited the world's top six suppliers to the platform.
In fact, choosing one of the two is actually a difficult problem for suppliers.
In the raw material supply service transactions for Starbucks, the largest supplier, Dexin Food has a smaller say, which also leads to its high accounts receivable.
Anyone with common sense in economics knows that if a company's accounts receivable account for a large proportion of its total assets, it will be extremely detrimental to the development of the company.
The reality of accounts receivable is that after the customer takes the item, the money is still in the customer's hands.
In this way, although the operating income is included in the calculation, the cash is not in your hands.
These operating income are purely free income and have no cash inflow.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! If there is only a pitiful amount of monetary funds left on the books, I really don’t know whether the company can continue to operate. This is the so-called income quality, and the profit quality is too poor.
This cash flow will be directly related to the company's operation and management level.
An increase in an enterprise's accounts receivable will inevitably lead to a decrease in cash flow, and a corresponding decrease in accounts receivable will inevitably lead to an increase in cash flow. The two are negatively correlated.
Although accounts receivable can increase revenue and profits, they cannot increase cash flow. The company ultimately makes money rather than profits.
Regarding the high level of accounts receivable, Dexin Food has long wanted to change the status quo, but there is no way and it has been difficult to implement.
Because Starbucks, the number one customer of accounts receivable, has always been a well-known leading company in the industry and has relatively strong financial strength, the recovery of accounts receivable seems to be guaranteed.
However, long-term reliance on the sales contribution of large customers such as Starbucks has also led to Dexin Food's high accounts receivable and greater risk of bad debts.
In cooperation with major customers, Dexin Food's voice is obviously in a passive position.
As the gross profit margin of the main business has declined year after year, the company's profits have been further compressed, and the requirements of major customers have become more important.
Therefore, when choosing one of the two options, Dexin Food decided to rely on Starbucks, its long-term number one major customer.
The two big moves that Starbucks made will lead to bloodshed.
The coffee industry is large but the circle is small. There are only a few suppliers, especially key suppliers. With Starbucks’ strength and scale advantage, these suppliers will still carefully consider their partners.
This time, the "choose one from two" and "delivery" initiatives launched by Starbucks are clever moves, which can be said to hit the crux of coffee justice.
"Actually, if Coffee Justice really wants to talk sincerely, it's not impossible to sit down and have a chat. It's a pity to hear you say that."
Zou Xianbao is a typical pioneer. During his tenure, he directly promoted the explosion of upstream and downstream industries with the development of new products of Dexin Food's plant-based beverage thickener. He is a person with great vision.
After all, businessmen are still talking about business after all. If newly entered customers can bring more incremental income and benefits to suppliers, hasty "choose one of the two" is often difficult to succeed.
Before this, there have been many "choose-one" competitions between Tmall and JD.com, Penguin and 360, etc. in the Chinese market, but each time they failed to stop the rise of latecomers.
"Brother Zou, I've been with you for so long. What kind of attitude can I negotiate with and what kind of price can I offer to betray you? Then I know in my heart that the other party doesn't want to have a good chat at all."
Qiao Yantong lit another cigarette, flicked the white ashes, and shook his head.
Coffee is a righteous person who doesn’t understand human nature and sophistication. How can he possibly negotiate things into a successful outcome? How can there be such a good thing in the world?
After the two chatted for a while, Zou Xianbao left the company in advance.
...
"Dongdongdong."
Qiao Yantong was getting ready to get off work when there was a knock on the door of his office.
"Please come in."
He thought it was a subordinate who came in to report to him, but when he opened it, he found that it was not the case.
There was a young man standing at the door, wearing a casual-looking T-shirt with a familiar smile on his face. He nodded and said hello: "Is this Manager Qiao?"
"who are you?"
As a big salesman, Qiao Yantong didn't know how many people he knew in Jiangcheng. He thought about it and was sure that he didn't know each other.
"I'm Gu Yun from Coffee Justice. I heard that an employee had a chat with Manager Qiao before, but it didn't go well."
The young man stretched out his hand with a smile: "I want to talk again in another way."
Qiao Yantong thought about who Gu Yun was. He always felt that the name sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember who it was.
After all, at Coffee Justice, he was only in contact with Ren Hongwen, the director in charge of raw material procurement, and he was far from familiar with other executives, or even Gu Yun's name.
But as a veteran, he quickly caught the key word "employee" from Gu Yun's tone.
This time, it seems that coffee justice is not for ordinary people.
He immediately stretched out his hand and shook it with Gu Yun: "Hello, Mr. Gu, nice to meet you."
Although Gu Yun looks very young, no matter what position the other party holds in Coffee Justice, it is right to call him an honorific.
"Manager Qiao, where is your boss?"
"The boss has left in advance. I have full authority to represent him. If you have any questions, just talk to me."
Gu Yun sat down and chatted with Qiao Yantong for a while. The latter then realized that Gu Yun was the big boss of Coffee Justice, and his attitude immediately changed a lot.
He had never thought about the possibility that Gu Yun was self-made. For a rich second generation who started his own business at a young age, he could not be as casual as he was with a young female lawyer.
After the basic information was exchanged, Gu Yun raised the green water ghost on his wrist, looked at the time, and asked.
"It's past seven o'clock. I ordered a table of food at R&F Wanda Realm. Manager Qiao, please give me some respect. Can we sit down with you?"
Speaking of five-star hotels in Jiangcheng, we have to mention R&F Wanda Realm, which is the royal hotel used by the head office leaders when they come to Jiangcheng.
When he heard it was R&F Wanda Realm, Qiao Yantong's throat moved.
Among the seven emotions and six desires, appetite is indeed the most ferocious.
"Forget it, Mr. Gu, I'm losing weight and usually don't eat at night."
Compared with his culprits Zhong Leyi and Ren Hongwen, Qiao Yantong is a veteran, and he still has some scruples about being the leader of a large company. He knows that this meal is not so easy to waste and he cannot eat it easily.
"It's just a meal, and Manager Qiao isn't fat either. Do you need to think about it for so long?"
Gu Yun smiled: "Business cannot be done without righteousness, so come to me personally. Even if you don't eat, it's okay to chat, right?"
"It's okay to chat."
Qiao Yantong thought for a moment, his eyes wandered around Gu Yun's young face, and finally nodded.
"Then thank you Mr. Gu for your hospitality."
······
After leaving the company and coming downstairs, Gu Yun drove his Tesla over and motioned for Qiao Yantong to get in the car.
"Brother Zou, what kind of car is this?"
After Qiao Yantong got in the car, he took out his mobile phone and sent a message to Zou Xianbao: "Coffee Justice has not given up. Gu Yun came to talk to me."
Zou Xianbao's reply was quick: "This is a Tesla model S, a million-dollar luxury car. Why is he looking for you?"
Qiao Yantong replied: "It's probably about Starbucks again. What should I say? He is the boss and should have the final say. Should we talk or not?"
small book booth
Zou Xianbao: "You make up your mind. If we can't negotiate anyway, we can go with the price offered by Starbucks. We won't lose anyway. If Coffee Justice can give us more benefits, for the development and future of the enterprise, you must know which one is easier."
Which one is more important?"
Qiao Yantong: "No need to say anything, Brother Zou, okay, I understand."
After Qiao Yantong put down his phone, he chatted casually with Gu Yun for a while.
The electric car was going very fast, and the two of them arrived at the R&F Wanda Realm Hotel located in the core area of Chuhe Han Street in Jiangcheng, adjacent to the East Lake.
The five-star hotel overlooks the Chu River and has a panoramic view of the bustling city. The famous Pinzhen Chinese Restaurant is Gu Yun's dining place booked in advance today. It specializes in exquisite Cantonese and local cuisine.
The splendid private room has a quiet and comfortable dining environment, and the music is also very comfortable.
During the meal, Qiao Yantong had been waiting for Gu Yun to chat about the main topic, but he seemed to have no intention of chatting at all. He was just chatting about which restaurant in Jiangcheng was delicious and where the scenery was good.
"Mr. Gu, I've finished eating and will go back first."
It's not a feast without wine. Qiao Yantong had a very relaxed meal. Gu Yun didn't make him drink or make some scenes. The two of them were like old friends for many years. They didn't talk about work or pressure, they just talked casually.
Having a light meal in a nice environment.
It's just that the drinks and cuisine are all top-notch.
"Manager Qiao, it's still early. Let's go for a walk and get a massage to break up the sweat."
It was less than ten o'clock after the meal, when Gu Yun stopped Qiao Yantong who was about to leave the table and invited him to take a rest together.
"No, no, no, no, it's not appropriate, Mr. Gu, I generally don't like this."
Qiao Yantong felt a little embarrassed this time. Gu Yun didn't ask for anything and accepted the one-stop service arranged by the big boss himself. He felt really bad about it.
"Are you married?"
"No."
Qiao Yantong scratched his head and replied.
"Then how many times do you refuse? A group of pretty girls, in the best years of their lives, don't ask you for a house, a car, or a lot of savings. The key is that they still have
She will make you happy. Such a good girl is only worth 1288 for massage. Don’t you really want to try it?”
Gu Yun pointed to the nearby Grand Hyatt International Club and took Qiao Yantong for two steps.
The latter took a few small steps at first, and after a few seconds, he stopped pretending and switched to long strides.
