中国最大鸡排店要IPO了

This article outlines the full development trajectory of Zhengxin Chicken Steak, from its founding, planned IPO, to its decline from peak business. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Development history: Founder Chen Chuanwu started his business in the 1990s, opened the first Zhengxin snack shop in 2000, cut 90% of its SKUs to focus on chicken steak and rebranded to Zhengxin Chicken Steak in 2012. In 2013, impacted by the avian flu outbreak, the brand shifted to a franchise model. Leveraging low entry barriers, high profit margins and affordable positioning, it expanded rapidly, exceeding 10,000 stores in 2017 to become China's first fast-food snack chain with 10,000+ locations — three years earlier than Mixue Ice City & Tea. It hit a peak of 25,000 stores in 2021.

2. Current decline and root causes: Today, Zhengxin only operates just over 9,500 stores, meaning more than 10,000 locations have closed in less than five years. Core reasons include over-saturation from high-density store openings that squeezed per-store profit, eroded quality that eliminated its value-for-money advantage, weak new product iteration, intensifying competition from peer brands, and chaotic franchise management that triggered a brand trust crisis.

Using the rise and fall of Zhengxin Chicken Steak as a case study, this article summarizes lessons and experiences for F&B brand development, offering multi-dimensional references for brand operation:

1. Actionable success takeaways: Target the value-oriented mass lower-tier market with precise positioning, eliminate redundant SKUs to focus on a core product, and simplify supply chain and management complexity; seize industry inflection points to open franchising against the trend and capture market share quickly; invest heavily in marketing by hiring celebrity spokespeople and partnering with hit variety shows to build brand awareness quickly, while low-barrier franchising attracts large numbers of entrepreneurs to drive rapid store expansion.

2. Pitfalls to avoid: Overpursuing store scale and high-density expansion creates internal cannibalization that cuts per-store profits; neglecting product quality and value proposition erodes brand reputation rapidly; slow product iteration fails to keep up with market changes, leading to severe brand aging; lack of management oversight after large-scale franchise expansion leads to food safety incidents that trigger trust crises and eventual market share loss. Sustained brand vitality depends on alignment with current consumer trends.

Against the backdrop of the current F&B industry landscape, this article sorts out opportunities and risks for small and medium-sized F&B sellers and franchisees, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Attainable model opportunities: The affordable snack segment still holds stable demand in lower-tier markets. The core-single-product model, characterized by small store footprints, low labor requirements and simple operations, is well-suited for small and medium-sized entrants. Focusing on a core product effectively reduces operational and supply chain complexity, making it easier to scale quickly.

2. Risks to watch out for: High-density store openings in the same region severely squeeze per-store profits; brands that open franchising on a large scale are prone to management失控, while inconsistent quality drives customers away quickly; categories like fried chicken have low entry barriers, leading to intense market competition and significant customer diversion from new brands, which easily causes revenue declines.

3. Key lessons to learn: Brands must grasp industry windows of opportunity to secure prime locations, while also upholding product quality, maintaining value-for-money positioning, iterating new products continuously, and delivering solid in-store operations to sustain long-term profitability.

This article sorts out the development and changes of leading F&B chain brands, offering multi-dimensional insights for upstream F&B supply chain factories, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Product design and production requirements: When leading chain F&B brands adopt a core-single-product growth model, they generate large-scale standardized production demand from upstream suppliers. Their value positioning also requires factories to control production costs and deliver standardized products with consistent quality.

2. Business opportunities: The 10,000-store expansion of leading affordable snack brands brings explosive growth opportunities to corresponding ingredient supply chains. Partnering with leading chain brands delivers long-term, stable large-volume orders that drive rapid scale growth for factories.

3. Insights for transformation and growth: The decline of downstream leading brands directly impacts factory order volumes. Factories need to pay close attention to downstream brands' product iteration needs, develop diversified production capacity, align with chain brands' supply chain management requirements, advance digital management, improve delivery efficiency and quality control capabilities, and build resilience against industry volatility.

This article sorts out the current status and pain points of China's chain F&B industry, pointing out clear business directions for F&B-related service providers, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Industry development trends: China's chain F&B industry has transitioned from the early aggressive expansion phase to a consolidation phase focused on refined operations. A large number of early leading chain brands have seen widespread store closures, and overall industry growth has slowed. Statistics show that more than 70% of chain F&B brands have recorded zero per-store sales growth, with nearly half recording sales declines of more than 5%.

2. Core customer pain points: Brand owners generally struggle with difficult franchise system management, declining per-store profitability, slow product iteration, brand aging, and high food safety risk. Small and medium-sized franchisees and independent stores face intensifying competition, compressed profit margins, and insufficient operational capabilities.

3. Business development directions: Service providers can develop digital franchise management systems, food safety traceability solutions, and new product R&D support services for brand owners, while offering customer acquisition growth and cost control support services for small and medium-sized independent stores. This allows providers to capture new service demand during the industry consolidation period and expand their business scope.

Through the case study of the rise and fall of Zhengxin Chicken Steak, this article provides references for the operation and development of F&B-related platforms, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Existing industry problems: Many F&B brands overexpand franchising to grow quickly, opening too many stores in small geographic areas that severely damage per-store profitability and erode brand reputation. Many brands also struggle with product aging, chaotic management, and declining quality, which creates risks for platform merchant recruitment and operations.

2. Optimizable merchant recruitment strategy: When onboarding new brands, platforms should conduct pre-onboarding due diligence on brands' product competitiveness and operational capabilities, prioritize onboarding brands that align with current consumer demand, and disclose potential risks such as high-density expansion and chaotic franchise management to franchisees.

3. Operation management and risk mitigation: Platforms can help onboarded brands formulate expansion plans to reasonably control regional store density, share expertise in chain management and quality control with brands, adjust the platform's brand portfolio, mitigate systemic risks brought by irrational industry expansion, and capture growth opportunities during the industry consolidation period.

This paper documents the development of China's affordable fast-food snack chain sector, sorts out new trends and emerging problems in the current chain F&B industry, and offers high reference value for industrial research. Key content is as follows:

1. Industrial development history: China's fast-food snack sector established the "open franchising + lower-tier market" expansion model as early as the 2010s. Zhengxin Chicken Steak reached 10,000 stores in 2017, three years earlier than Mixue Ice City & Tea. The aggressive land-grab expansion model quickly grew the market and proved the commercial viability of the affordable snack franchising model.

2. New emerging industrial problems: A large number of early leading chain brands are now facing widespread store closures, and the industry as a whole suffers from stagnant growth. Statistics show that in 2023, more than 77.2% of chain F&B companies saw zero per-store sales growth, and 45.7% recorded sales declines of over 5%. The sector broadly struggles with brand aging, slow product iteration, unregulated franchise management, eroded value-for-money advantages, and intense cutthroat competition.

3. Research insights: Success in F&B chain operation at every stage depends on alignment with current consumer demand pain points. Growth models that rely solely on aggressive expansion are unsustainable. Long-term product competitiveness and operational capabilities are the core drivers of sustained brand growth. This case provides a typical reference for research on the iteration of chain F&B business models.