"Erduoyan" Tianjin production base
Tianjin North Network News:In the Mid-Autumn Festival, Tianjin, which is building an international consumption center city, has a wonderful bloom of an international catering industry exposition that is fragrant and burning. Many people know for the first time from the exhibition that Baoxuan Fishery House, Tianjin Cuisine Collection, Erduoyan, Dafu Lai, Cheese Forest and Crab House, these famous catering brands, are now owned by one person-Zhu Baojun. In the past two years, affected by the epidemic, the catering industry as a whole has suffered a lot, and many operators have suddenly left the market. However, Zhu Baojun, a native of Tianjin, has managed three century-old brands-Erduoyan, Dafu Lai and Chihlin. What secrets did he master?
As long as the people like it, nothing can go wrong.
Zhu Baojun first made his name in Tianjin catering industry, and he was Baoxuan Fishery House. That was 20 years ago. At that time, Tianjin Wei’s catering industry competition was not too fierce. Tianjin people who love to eat and know how to eat like to go to Baoxuan Fishery House to get together. One thing they like is fresh ingredients and many dishes, and the other is affordable. Big waves wash sand, this restaurant has been standing at the forefront, quietly opened several branches, diners say that a restaurant can run for ten years, it must be a duty to add skills.
In 2012, Erduoyan, one of Tianjin’s "Three Musts", began to reform and introduced private investment. Zhu Baojun moved his heart and took the initiative. At that time, the operation of "Erduoyan" was relatively sluggish, and the fried cakes were still made manually and traditionally, with limited production capacity. As a native of Tianjin, he has a deep affection for "Ears and Eyes" and a very simple understanding of century-old brands: "Throughout history, century-old brands are snacks and folk dishes. Therefore, as long as you don’t leave the people and don’t forget what the people like, you can’t run away and make mistakes. "
Zhu Baojun, who is full of ambition, has made an all-round overall plan for "Ear Eye". His idea is grounded and should follow the trend: inheritance is not copied, innovation is not separated from the book, and delicious food is king.
First of all, of course, we should start with the taste of fried cakes. The traditional fried cakes with ears and eyes are all filled with bean paste. People liked them before 1970s, but they were not very impressed after 80s and 90s, especially after 00. In order to catch the taste buds of young people, they tried to introduce many new flavors, such as chocolate, red fruit and even tuna, beef with black pepper, etc. According to the market sales data, four new flavors of chocolate, red fruit (hawthorn), black sesame and taro were finally determined, while the traditional bean paste stuffing was firmly retained because it was the root.
Judging from the comments of netizens on the public comment APP, young diners are still very enthusiastic about the reform of "Ear Eye":
"The fried cake is packed in paper bags, and it won’t get dirty when eaten. It’s still the old taste of traditional fried cake, but the taste is very different. The improved noodles are softer and thinner, and the skin is more crisp. I prefer this one now." "Originally, I had no feeling for fried cakes. I bought a new taste of hawthorn, and it tasted good. The sweet and sour taste of hawthorn just neutralizes a little greasy fried cake. " "Known as one of the" three unique "has its own uniqueness. It adopts the face spray fermentation process and Liu’s fried stuffing method, which has just been fried and chewed. " "In the fried cake shops in the northeast corner and the Drum Tower, you can always see people waiting in line to buy fried cakes. There are sixty or seventy people in a long queue." ….. Now there are more than twenty Erduoyan fried cake shops in the streets of Tianjin.
Integrating ingenuity into industrial production provides a new path for the development of time-honored brands
Zhu Baojun’s drastic transformation of Erduoyan fried cake took three years to transform it from pure manual to industrialization. He built a production and processing base with constant temperature and humidity of over 40,000 square meters, and built a scientific and controllable fried cake production line. At present, the daily production capacity of fried cake workshop can reach 200 thousand, and the daily production capacity of stuffing workshop can reach 20 tons.
This leads to a controversial topic: old brands and old tastes, manual industrialization, ok? Some old diners who are looking for the old flavor still come to the door, saying that the fried cakes with ears and eyes in their memories are a little sour, but now the fried cakes are not sour. Is it because of industrialization that they are "not authentic"?
The person in Erduoyan Fried Cake Shop explained with a smile that the noodles of Erduoyan Fried Cake were made, and the handmade production lasted from early morning to evening. Therefore, the fried cake in the morning is definitely the best. By noon, the noodles are over-fermented and taste sour. Over time, the old customers think that acid is the old taste. In fact, now industrial production has locked the precise time of fermentation, and acid-free fried cakes are the best.
"Sticking to handwork or industrialization cannot be generalized, but it depends on the variety." Zhu Baojun said that cooking Chinese food is always done by hand, because it depends on people’s skills and experience. Fermentation processes such as fried cakes, steamed buns and steamed buns must be industrialized production, which is better than manual control through digital precision control.
Zhu Baojun even thinks that the long-term sustainable development of time-honored brands has a new path by simply relying on handwork, although it is ingenious, but it is not easy to become bigger, and integrating ingenuity into industrial production.
According to his idea, "Erduoyan" implemented a "dual track system" in brand reconstruction: the conventional Erduoyan fried cake paved the way of industrialization and digitalization; The Ear Eye Club, which focuses on exquisite dining, adheres to the manual route. The former can be "overwhelming" through high cost performance, while the latter can "stand on the ground" in personalized experience services.
Close to customers, close to customers and close to customers again.
Many people are used to turning on their mobile phones to find local food lists when they travel for food. If the coordinates are Tianjin, you can search for the guide of Black Pearl Restaurant on Meituan APP, and four restaurants will pop up: Four Seasons Hotel Jinyun Jinhaouse, kokorowa (aquatic store), Tianjin Cuisine Collection (Zhongbei Town Store) and Erduoyan Club (Gulou Store). The latter two are under Zhu Baojun’s command.
"The year before last, these two restaurants suddenly became black pearls, and I was very surprised myself." Zhu Baojun’s words sound a bit "Versailles".
Some people speculate that he is the president of Tianjin Cuisine Association, and he is close to the water tower, so he has found an acquaintance to open the back door. "Not really!" It was only after the fact that he learned that the selection of the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide was a blind test in which the US Mission invited special gourmets from all over the country to visit the restaurant unannounced. There were very strict selection rules, and the selection process was audited by a special audit company.
The "award-winning" of Zhu Baojun’s catering brand stems from his market-oriented thinking and response. He started catering in 2000. When he first ran Baoxuan Fishery House, a Beijing reporter commented that "Baoxuan Fishery House is like a military coat, and anyone can wear it", which means that his restaurant can do everything, but it can’t do anything well. This remark stung Zhu Baojun. In the subsequent operation, he resolutely formulated the strategy of "layered operation" according to the demands and tastes of consumers ── different from the operation of Erduoyan fried cake shop, his positioning for big restaurants is family dinners, business banquets, etc., and he must take pains to be exquisite in order to stand out.
Anyone who goes to Erduoyan Club for dinner will be deeply impressed by the exquisite dishes, tableware and dining environment there. If you order a special dish, there will be a small label of the chef on the side of the dish. "What we are looking for now is the best chef to fry oxtail and be the best chef to cook cod … To meet the strict requirements of diners for food now, the online star rating is bound to be high."
You may not think that Zhu Baojun has never dealt with online platforms before, and thinks that catering people just fry every dish in a down-to-earth way, because the wine is not afraid of the depth of the alley. Erduoyan Club (Gulou Branch) and Tianjin Cuisine Collection (Zhongbeizhen Branch) have been listed in the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide for three consecutive years, and both online traffic and the number of visitors to the store have achieved great growth. From the data point of view, in the first half of this year, compared with 2019, the online traffic increased by 34.3%, and the foreign consumers who came here increased by 27.2%.
A new generation of consumers prefer to order takeout, and the epidemic has boosted this trend. Erduoyan also actively followed up and launched the takeaway and errands business. Zhu Baojun was pleasantly surprised to find that take-out can not only increase the operating income, but also expand the coverage of stores. Originally, a store could only cover 3 kilometers of nearby consumers. Now they see from the background that the farthest take-out order has been sent to a place 12.6 kilometers away from the store, and the operating radius has been fully expanded by three times. Zhu Baojun thought that in the future, all Erduoyan stores will go online for take-out, and redesign the take-out menu for different scenes such as afternoon tea and midnight snack.
Today, live broadcast with goods has become the standard of e-commerce. Erduoyan has also opened an official account on short video platforms such as Tik Tok, and visually presented the production process of fried cakes to the audience through video, telling the past history, and really circled a lot of new products this year.
Digitalization also makes their interaction with consumers more direct. Zhu Baozhen, who used to "only grasp the trend and only manage the strategy", has now begun to pay attention to online big data and also read the messages of consumers.
The new inheritance of the old brand has just begun.
Last year, Zhu Baojun acquired two other century-old brands: Dafu Lai and Cheshire Forest. The former has a history of 300 years. The latter is the first western restaurant in China.
Dafulai, known as "Tianjin people’s community kitchen", covers breakfast, lunch and dinner for the convenience of the people and is the best choice for many citizens to eat crispy rice. In Zhu Baojun’s chessboard, Dafulai will be the main battlefield of his digital layout. He plans to open at least 600 points in Tianjin within three to five years, mainly relying on take-away. "We will definitely manage all the stores in Dafulai digitally." At present, some stores have introduced the information system designed by Meituan for the catering industry, and the process of ordering and taking meals has been greatly optimized.
The revival of the century-old Shilin has always been eagerly awaited by Tianjin people. Zhu Baojun had a plan long ago, and the old building of Xiaobailou Qishilin is being renovated and restored. He can’t help but reveal that after opening, he will make use of the promotion advantages of the Internet to turn the second floor into a nostalgic "punch-in" restaurant, and the third floor will make authentic French food. In addition, they will also conduct online and offline multi-scene marketing for classic products such as chocolate and coffee candy, so as to revitalize them.
Zhu Baojun is also very keen on the general trend of urban development. He said that the municipal government launched a work plan to revitalize the old brand three years ago, and now it is building an international consumption center city, "to make the old brand shine on its proper stage". He is also more soberly aware than ever that the time-honored brand must actively embrace digitalization if it is to rejuvenate. "The reason why Erduoyan can be passed down for a hundred years is that every generation of helm knows the necessity of integrating into the tide of social development. Today in the 21st century, the tide of social development is digitalization, and traditional catering must be transformed and upgraded accordingly in order to better serve the new generation of consumers. "
Zhu Baojun did not deny that he had plans to go public in the future. The scale effect brought by digital operation gave him confidence. He said, "Some people may go public to make money, but I won’t, because I am from Tianjin and have the feelings and blood of Tianjin people. I want to do practical things for this city and my hometown!" (Jin Yun News Editor Liu Ying)
