Chinanews.com, November 28th (Zuo Yuqing, Zhongxin Finance and Economics) After the first year of divorce, Wang Xiaofei and Big S beat the World Cup and once again topped the list of hot searches.

Some netizens witnessed the incident on Weibo's hot search list, and some followed the entire "series" in the live broadcast room of Wang Xiaofei's mother Zhang Lan.

　　The founder of the catering brand "South Beauty", Wang Xiaofei's mother, and the former mother-in-law of the well-known artist Big S, these labels together form people's impression of Zhang Lan.

Although there were a lot of controversies at one time, as the founder of the catering brand South Beauty, Zhang Lan once established her own business empire in the catering industry.

Started from scratch South Beauty

　　In 1991, Zhang Lan, who worked in Canada for two years, returned to China with 20,000 US dollars of hard-earned money to start a business.

In 2000, after ten years of catering experience and capital accumulation, Zhang Lan opened the first South Beauty Sichuan restaurant in Beijing International Trade Center, entering mid-to-high-end catering.

South Beauty Beijing International Trade Store.

The picture is from the WeChat public account of South Beauty.

　　In 2002, South Beauty went out of Beijing and landed in Times Square in Shanghai. Since then, it has successively opened stores in Tianjin, Chengdu, Qingdao, Shenyang, Nanjing, Suzhou and other places. .

Zhang Lan was once on the Hurun Rich List, with a net worth of 3.1 billion yuan at its highest.

　　At that time, Zhang Lan made such a bold statement: "I want to be the Louis Vuitton of the catering industry, and I want to open stores in New York, Paris, Milan, London, Switzerland, Tokyo... I hope there are places with Louis Vuitton. There is South Beauty."

Disaster financing ends up making wedding dresses for others

　　In 2008, Zhang Lan sought capital support in order to expand its scope of listing, and reached a gambling agreement with the investment bank company, that is, South Beauty must complete the listing within 4 years, otherwise the investment bank company has the right to ask Zhang Lan to redeem the shares at a high price.

At that time, an investment banking company invested 200 million yuan and obtained 10.53% of the equity of South Beauty.

　　However, in the following years, South Beauty's road to listing was full of twists and turns.

In 2011, South Beauty was also exposed for food safety issues such as "dead fish pretending to be live fish" and "twice-cooked oil", and improper handling of crisis public relations, which triggered a crisis of trust among consumers.

Zhang Lan who is bringing goods in the live broadcast room.

Screenshot from Douyin.

　　After the A-share and Hong Kong IPOs failed, Zhang Lan had to sell 82.7% of the shares to CVC, a European private equity group, to repay the principal and interest of the investment bank company. CVC thus became the largest shareholder of South Beauty.

As the founder, Zhang Lan only holds 13.9% of the shares.

　　In 2015, due to the poor management of South Beauty, CVC reneged on the acquisition of equity, and Zhang Lan was involved in the arbitration case.

According to media reports, Zhang Lan's authorized lawyer denied the rumor of being "kicked out of the board of directors", saying that he had voluntarily resigned from the positions of director and legal representative of related companies in South Beauty at the end of 2013, and no longer participated in the daily operation and management of South Beauty.

　　After Hong Kong Baohua finally took over South Beauty, Zhang Lan, who had been brilliant for 15 years, was finally completely out.

Can Ma Liuji's untimely live broadcast bring goods back to life?

　　Zhang Lan, who quit South Beauty, did not completely quit the catering industry.

Another Sichuan cuisine brand "Maliuji" founded by Wang Xiaofei and her partners in 2020 encountered an epidemic as soon as it opened. Huo Maliuji's prepared dishes, instant food and other products.

　　And after the divorce dispute between Wang Xiaofei and Big S fermented again, Zhang Lan's live broadcast room also received more than 100 million likes, driving the sales of Maliuji's pre-made dishes.

Among them, the sales of hot and sour noodles, grilled sausages, and Laotan sauerkraut fish all exceeded 100,000, and the hot and sour noodles were sold out immediately. The official flagship store of Maliuji was also listed on Douyin's "Home Convenience Store List" TOP3.

　　While supporting his son in the live broadcast room, he recruited the audience in the live broadcast room, "You can black sister Lan, you can spray sister Lan, but you have to take away such a good product." Zhang Lan also brought the mattress at the request of netizens. It is a humorous response to the "sky-high price mattress" in the dispute between Wang Xiaofei and Big S.

　　According to media reports, Zhang Lan has been live broadcasting for 10 hours or even 12 hours a day.

She said: "Under the epidemic, catering stores are still affected, so online and offline must be paralleled. What I can do is to bring goods online for Maliuji."

As of November 28, the number of fans of Zhang Lan's Douyin account has exceeded 6.3 million.

　　According to third-party data, as of November 28, the number of fans on Zhang Lan's Douyin account has exceeded 6.3 million, and the number of fans in the past 30 days has increased by 336,000.

　　However, when the traffic ebbs and the netizens who watched the fun dispersed, can Zhang Lan still be able to drive Ma Liuji?

Some people in the industry pointed out that the traffic brought by gossip is temporary, and the hard power of catering brands still depends on their own products.

　　"I am still struggling in the vortex of slander and right and wrong, and I am still trying to find a way out." Zhang Lan once said in his autobiography "My Nine Lives".

Zhang Lan, who has passed the year of ear obedience, has not given up yet.

(Finish)