Rebirth: Starting from the Cafeteria

"It's hard to run a restaurant in peace!"

Du Shaojie has remained on hold for the time being. Apart from improving the quality of food and service, the stores have not taken any other measures.

Sometimes he was really speechless. Even if he avoided trouble, trouble would come to him. He realized that he was a person who attracted bad luck.

Next, Xichuan Restaurant will focus on tapping its internal potential.

The restaurant has worked hard on management, service and food quality. It is positioned in the mid-to-low end with a high cost-performance ratio. In fact, it is no worse than Shuxianglou in every aspect, which makes it very attractive to low-end customers.

[Shuxianglou] is positioned in the mid-to-high-end market and will attract some high-end customers.

The focus of competition between the two parties is the customers in the middle.

After a period of observation, Yu Jianxin and others concluded that in the current competition between the two sides, Xichuan Restaurant has a slight advantage.

"Our customers have diverted some of their past revenue, which is the main reason for the decline in turnover and profits."

"I think this decline is temporary. Just think about it, Shuxianglou opened a new store and put in a lot of advertising, but the effect is not very good."

Du Shaojie still seems very optimistic, and this problem can be understood if we look at it from a different angle.

The other party invested so many resources, but the impact on [Xichuan Restaurant] was very small, which shows that the other party is not an opponent at all.

Even if a company is rich, it cannot invest unlimited resources. Once the other party stops investing, the balance of victory will immediately tip towards [Xichuan Restaurant].

Yu Jianxin and others felt that what the boss said seemed to make some sense, but they also felt that something was wrong.

No one delved into this issue. Du Shaojie's words made them see the dawn of victory, and they were no longer as tense as before.

"Boss Du, this is the menu of Shuxianglou that I collected."

Later, Yu Jianxin handed Du Shaojie a few pages of menus.

Du Shaojie picked it up and took a look. Unfortunately, he didn't find anything special. This menu was almost the same as the one from several years ago, with the same signature dishes.

Of course, some things are hard to determine just by looking at the names of dishes.

So he asked someone to go to Shuxianglou and pack up a table of food. It was almost lunch time, so everyone started eating right away.

When Wang Yongli and others came back, one exquisite dish after another was placed on the table.

"You know what, the other side's dishes are very particular about the presentation, and they look really pleasing to the eye. Of course, the dishes made by our restaurant also pay attention to the appearance, so we are even in this respect."

Du Shaojie made a comment and then invited everyone to eat.

He also tasted them himself. These dishes still had a strong Shuxianglou flavor, and there was no obvious improvement compared to many years ago.

"Of course, this also shows that the quality of their dishes is consistent and of good standard, slightly inferior to that of [Xichuan Restaurant]."

Du Shaojie was not flattering himself. These dishes of the other party could be called "fine products". No wonder they dared to scale up on such a scale.

Service has always been the shortcoming of Shuxianglou. The company has also consulted many customers these days, and they all said that the service quality of the other party is far worse than that of Xichuan Restaurant.

"To sum up, the appearance of their dishes is comparable to ours, but the taste is slightly worse than ours, and the service level is far behind ours."

Du Shaojie made a summary but did not mention the relative cost performance.

Because the positioning of both parties is different, there is no comparison.

"Let me tell you, based on Mr. Du's analysis, I think we just need to do our best and there is no need to deliberately keep an eye on the other party."

A smile appeared on Yu Jianxin's face. He knew very well that it was absolutely impossible for Shuxianglou to replace Xichuan Restaurant.

Moreover, the influence brought by the other party will be eliminated soon and will not shake the leading position of [Xichuan Restaurant] in the mainland at all.

"Okay, hurry up and eat. Then do whatever you need to do after dinner. I'm in a hurry to get to Hong Kong."

A stone in Du Shaojie's heart fell to the ground. He never underestimated any opponent, and of course he would not deliberately exaggerate his opponent and scare himself.

After dinner, he took Wang Yongli and others to Hong Kong.

He asked Winnie to find out about Shuxianglou's preparations for listing. It was said that the other party's financial data did not meet the standards and was currently in the stage of making up for its shortcomings.

After that, Du Shaojie stopped paying attention to this matter and took a good rest for a few days.

In just the blink of an eye, the listing application of Shuxianglou was approved, which made him a little confused.

Isn’t the speed of making up for the shortcomings too fast?
The stock of [Shuxianglou] was listed for trading soon, and its performance was average, which disappointed many people who were paying attention to this company.

After the fundraising funds were in place, [Shuxianglou] immediately issued an announcement to change the use of the funds.

Relying on the Shuxianglou stores across the country, the other party began to rapidly expand its layout, with Sichuan snack shops appearing one after another.

These stores sell Sichuan snacks, such as [Red Oil Wontons], [Braised Beef Noodles], [Potato Intestine Rice Noodles], [Hot and Sour Rice Noodles], [Bobo Chicken] and so on.

The snacks were targeted at ordinary consumers, were affordable, tasted authentic, and soon became popular across the country.

It was only then that Du Shaojie and the others realized that the other party had not intended to compete with [Xichuan Restaurant] from the beginning. Their strength was there and [Shuxianglou] could not compete at all.

So they took a different approach, Sichuan snacks became their profit growth point, and their goal was to open 1000 stores across the country.

At this point, the share price of [Shuxianglou] skyrocketed, and was sought after by a large amount of funds. Du Shaojie had learned another trick, but looking at this situation, it was too late for [Xichuan Restaurant] to follow suit.

This was actually a joke, he had no intention of making Sichuan snacks.

Du Shaojie was not angry, he just felt a little upset. This kind of mentality is like seeing someone who is not on good terms with you suddenly become rich, there will always be some emotional changes.

He then made an appointment with Pang Weidong and Xu Bo to go fishing at sea. After coming back, he adjusted his mentality and returned to Shenzhen with the two of them.

As soon as Du Shaojie arrived at Bailian Catering Management Company, Yu Jianxin told him with a smile:

"The revenue and profits of [Xichuan Restaurant] have returned to their peak state. [Shuxianglou] does not pose any threat at all."

Du Shaojie answered perfunctorily and started asking questions out of boredom.

One thing he wanted to confirm was whether the northwestern snacks that Northwest Noodle House specialized in were challenged by Sichuan snacks.
"There is still an impact, but the other party did not deliberately target [Northwest Noodle House], so the overlap between the two stores is not high."

Yu Jianxin and others answered his questions.

Du Shaojie did not continue asking questions. He walked around the company and left.

Time flies.

The competition between [Xichuan Restaurant] and [Shuxianglou] may not seem fierce on the surface, but in fact, the competition between the two is everywhere.

From the beginning to the end, [Xichuan Restaurant] had the upper hand over the opponent, and the gap between the two sides even showed a tendency to gradually widen.

The Sichuan snacks under [Shuxianglou] have become mediocre after their initial popularity.

Du Shaojie didn't seem to care much about this opponent. After returning to Guangzhou, he lived a low-key and leisurely life as before.

Now, the operation of the entire catering company has returned to a stable state, with revenue and profits steadily increasing. Yu Jianxin and others have completely relaxed.

"Wynn, prepare the car. I need to go to the association."

In a blink of an eye, it was time for the provincial association re-election, and Du Shaojie went to the association in advance.

As expected, he received the support of the majority of directors, and even the current president said in person that he was willing to "step down."

In the subsequent re-election, Du Shaojie was elected president without any suspense, and his confidant Luo Santong also became one of the vice presidents.

"Mr. Du, congratulations!"

After Ye Weiming and Jiang Dongyuan learned about this, they set up a table to congratulate Du Shaojie.

"Thank you both!"

Du Shaojie picked up the wine glass, drank the wine in it, and then expressed his gratitude to the two of them.

To be honest, the president does not have much power, but one thing is that his voice in the industry cannot be ignored.

"Boss Du, I thought I had met my match before, but I didn't expect that Shuxianglou is not even qualified to be your opponent."

Ye Weiming was deeply moved. He couldn't understand why someone would challenge Du Shaojie in the catering industry.

There are too many examples before. Du Shaojie never fails and always has the last laugh.

"I think Shuxianglou is not trying to bring me down, but to make it easier to cash out after going public. Now many customers have complained that the other party's ingredients are not good, which shows that this is a side effect of strict and successful control."

Du Shaojie didn't say much. The other party had become obsessed with performance and was desperately cutting costs, even at the cost of lowering the standards for selecting ingredients.

Good performance expectations also kept the share price of Shuxianglou running at a high level, making it convenient for Yin Qiang and others to cash out after the lock-up period.

But this is just a beautiful wish, whether it can be achieved depends on luck.

"Boss Du, you don't plan to expose them?"

Ye Weiming spoke without beating around the bush and asked directly if he wanted to provide the other party with some fun.

Du Shaojie shook his head slightly. The catering industry has its own particularities. As long as the other party does not use unqualified raw materials, there will be no risk.

In addition, things like cost control are secrets within the industry, and telling them out would offend many people.

There is no need for him to be the evil one.

"Now is not the right time. If we act rashly, we will become the target of public criticism."

After hearing what he said, Ye Weiming said no more.

After dinner.

Ye Weiming took the two of them to the resort where they used to live.

The owner of this place has changed several times. It is now run by a businessman from Taiwan and the project is similar to before.

The three of them didn't go singing, but went straight to take a shower and then enjoyed a professional massage.

Afterwards, Jiang Dongyuan left early, and Du Shaojie and Ye Weiming went to the coffee shop to sit for a while. (End of this chapter)