Chinanews client, Beijing, July 28 (Zuo Yukun) For many companies, listing is the only way for them to mature. So in your opinion, how long does it take for a brand to become mature? 5 years, 10 years, or...400 years?

　　Recently, a number of Chinese time-honored brands have knocked on the door of the A-share market to show their talents in the ocean of capital. Among them, there are 400-year-old scissors, 300-year-old grilled chicken, 99-year-old rice dumplings...Do you expect them to "grow against age"?

The picture shows Ding Jican, the inheritor of Zhang Xiaoquan's scissors forging skills, showing various styles of scissors polished. Photo by China News Agency reporter Wang Gang

Zhang Xiaoquan "sharpening the knife to A shares"

　　Recently, Zhang Xiaoquan Co., Ltd. ("Zhang Xiaoquan" for short)'s listing application was accepted by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and plans to go public on the ChiNext. If successful, Zhang Xiaoquan, who is "nearly 400 years old", will become the first listed company in the A-share category.

　　Zhang Xiaoquan scissors are well-known in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Its history can be traced back to 1628 in Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty. The craftsmen of the Zhang family used ancestral craftsmanship supplemented by Longquan Goodsteel, and their reputation is full of Hangzhou. Through the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China to the present, Zhang Xiaoquan Scissors became the first batch of "Chinese Time-honored Brands" approved by the Ministry of Commerce in 2006.

The picture shows Ding Jican, the inheritor of Zhang Xiaoquan's scissors forging skills, forging a model of scissors. Photo by China News Agency reporter Wang Gang

　　In the knife industry, there has been a legend of "Zhang Xiaoquan (1628) in the south, Cao Zhengxing (1840) in the middle, and Wang Mazi (1651) in the north". However, with the innovation of smelting technology, the fate of these legendary protagonists is different.

　　In May 2020, Wang Mazi, who had been losing money for several years, was formally acquired by a knife-scissor company in Guangdong. "Beijing Wang Mazi" has become "Guangdong Wang Mazi"; and the youngest Cao Zhengxing's production has dropped sharply after 1995. Suspension of production.

　　Although Zhang Xiaoquan is currently the best-developed among the three, like many time-honored brands, his brand has changed hands many times. According to the prospectus, Zhang Xiaoquan's actual controllers are Zhang Guobiao, Zhang Zhangsheng, and Zhang Xincheng. Although they are all named Zhang, the three of them have no blood relationship with Zhang Xiaoquan. Zhang Guobiao and Zhang Zhangsheng are brothers, and Zhang Xincheng is Zhang Guobiao's son. The three together hold 71.83% of Zhang Xiaoquan's equity.

　　From the latest performance data, during the three years from 2017 to 2019, Zhang Xiaoquan’s operating income was 335.5568 million yuan, 401.3347 million yuan, and 479,559,300 yuan, and net profit was 48,841,600 yuan, 43,808,500 yuan, and 72,300,700 yuan. .

　　This time, Zhang Xiaoquan intends to issue no more than 25% of the shares, and raise 455 million yuan of funds for production capacity construction, supplementary liquidity and enterprise information construction. Zhang Xiaoquan said that the company has always adhered to the mindset of a century-old brand to start a second business, integrating the traditional scissors industry with new technologies.

Big names gather, time-honored brands line up for "electric shock"

　　Zhang Xiaoquan's family is naturally not the only time-honored brand that wants to bloom in the capital market.

　　Like Zhang Xiaoquan, he wants to be the first crab in the industry, and China National Tea Co., Ltd. A few days ago, it disclosed the draft of the prospectus and intends to apply for listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

　　As a subsidiary of the centrally-owned COFCO Group, the first batch of "China Time-honored" Chinese Tea IPOs have already implemented a mixed reform before the IPO, introduced the prestigious Hopu investment, and realized the employee shareholding plan, striving to become the A-share "first tea" Shares", breaking the embarrassing pattern of no listed tea companies in the A-share market.

　　In addition, in a country where food is the most important thing for the people, companies related to "eating" are naturally not inferior. Two time-honored gourmet food brands are currently conducting pre-listing counselling work.

　　The first is Shandong Dezhou Braised Chicken Co., Ltd., known as "China's No. 1 Chicken". In May 2018, in the special evaluation of the brand value of China's time-honored brands initiated by the former General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China, "Dezhou Braised Chicken" entered the list of the top 20 Chinese Laoyu brands with a brand value of 903 million yuan.

Picture source: Shandong Dezhou Braised Chicken Co., Ltd. official website

　　According to the official website of Dezhou Braised Chicken Company, over ten years of development, Dezhou Braised Chicken has achieved sales from 50 million yuan to 540 million yuan excluding tax, and profits from insolvency to 100 million yuan. In the next ten years, the goal of Texas Braised Chicken is to sell 5 billion yuan in annual sales and 800 million yuan in profits.

　　The other is Zhejiang Wufangzhai Industrial Co., Ltd. Wufangzhai, which can sell 400 million rice dumplings a year, was born in 1921 and will celebrate its 100th birthday next year, but it is a model of "people who are old and not old."

　　On the Dragon Boat Festival in 2020, Wufangzhai, Hema Xiansheng, and Xicha jointly launched many customized and innovative zongzi that meet the preferences of young people. At the same time, it has also cooperated with Leshi, Zhong Xuegao and other cross-border cooperation to launch "Salted Egg Yolk Meat Dumpling Flavored Potato Chips" and "Dumpling Flavored Ice Cream", which brings premium prices to products and also gives Wufangzhai brand a steady stream of vitality .

Image source: Weibo @五芳斋

　　If you don’t advance, you will retreat. In the era of new species, new categories and new brands, some time-honored brands are seeking to go public, and some have been successfully listed.

　　At present, there are nearly 50 time-honored listed companies in the A-share market, mainly in the fields of liquor, traditional Chinese medicine, catering, and condiments. Needless to say, the “leading” Kweichow Moutai with a market value of more than 2 trillion yuan; Haitian Weiye, whose market value has soared from 38.386 billion yuan to 400 billion yuan in six years, is also exemplary; Pien Tze Huang and Yunnan Baiyao are also examples. Good example.

　　This phenomenon has also attracted the attention of business people. Chen Ailian, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wanfeng Auto Holding Group, proposed in May to give special support to the listing of time-honored companies, hoping to establish a long-term protection mechanism for time-honored brands.

Listing is not the end, the capital market does not believe in age

　　But successful listing does not mean a successful counterattack. On the other side of the "Moutais" scenery, many time-honored enterprises still face many obstacles in docking with the capital market.

　　In May 2020, the 162-year-old Tianjin Goubuli, who was listed on the New OTC Market, was delisted. Goubuli steamed buns, praised by the Empress Dowager Cixi as the "longevity of food", have become "renignited". The most criticized point is the price.

　　According to media reports, it was originally a bun with civilian food. The cheaper one costs five or six yuan, and the more expensive one costs twenty to thirty yuan. The high price has made the "thin-skinned stuffing with eighteen pleats" goubuli degenerate from "the word of mouth is praised" to "the mouth is all puck".

The picture shows Goubuli steamed buns. Photo by Lu Dazhong Image source: CTPphoto

　　I don't know when, the "time-honored brand" that was supposed to be the endorsement of local specialty products was put on the opposite side of word-of-mouth. After Goubuli’s delisting, some netizens sighed: "Goubuli forgot that he was just a bun, just like Quanjude forgot that he was just a duck."

　　Quanjude’s 2019 financial report shows that total operating income was 1.566 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 11.87%; net profit attributable to the parent was 44.627 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 38.9%, directly falling back to the 2005 level, which is also its performance since 2017. It was the third year of decline and triggered an inquiry letter from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

　　In the context of the catering industry being affected by the epidemic, Quanjude’s 2020 semi-annual performance forecast shows that the company's first half of the year is expected to lose 152 million yuan to 139 million yuan, and self-help is imminent.

　　The reason for the decline in sales of Quanjude, the oldest listed restaurant brand, is actually the same as Goubuli, which is too expensive. In response to this, on July 24, Quanjude announced on its 156th birthday that the price of vegetables will be reduced by 10% to 15% and all store service fees will be cancelled, so as to put down his body to cater to mass consumption.

　　"Capital is nothing but a boost after all. Although time-honored brands have IP blessings, they still need to return to the essence of business if they want to rejuvenate." Some industry insiders said, otherwise, let alone going public, it would be hard to get on the table. (Finish)