"Malan Ramen" exits its hometown of Lanzhou

"The Chinese fast food that may be the first to come out" has recently walked out of its birthplace in 1993.

Recently, Lanzhou Malan Ramen Fast Food Chain Co., Ltd. issued a "cancellation announcement" in the "Gansu Economic Daily", saying that "deregistration is planned due to shareholders' resolution." Since then, the chain brand representing "Lanzhou Ramen" has officially announced its withdrawal from Lanzhou.

As early as 1999, the only two Malan noodle restaurants in Lanzhou closed one after another, and their headquarters moved to Beijing with the parent company, Bluestar Group. Nonetheless, the symbolism of the "first brand of Chinese fast food chain", which has passed its heyday, has once again attracted the attention of the outside world.

Eight-year empty shell was cancelled

Lanzhou is not only the birthplace of "Malan Ramen", but also the place where Ren Jianxin, general manager of its parent company Bluestar Group, started his business.

As for saying goodbye to the homeland, the supervisory office of the Northwest Branch of Bluestar Group explained that "Lanzhou Malan Ramen Fast Food Chain Co., Ltd." is currently only an empty shell and has no stores in Lanzhou, so it has decided to cancel it.

In 2005, Lanzhou Malan Ramen Fast Food Chain Co., Ltd. had its business license revoked due to its failure to participate in the 2003 annual corporate inspection, but has not liquidated its claims and debts so far. The liquidation work will be handled by the Supervisory Office of the Northwest Branch of Bluestar Group.

The interests of franchisees are not affected

The headquarters of "Malan Ramen" in Beijing said that the cancellation of its Lanzhou company was purely an "internal" matter. A staff member said, "This is equivalent to your family moving from Lanzhou to Beijing, and then canceling the Lanzhou hukou."

He emphasized that there is no problem with the company itself, and it will not affect the interests of franchisees.

According to reports, the franchisee signed a franchise contract with "Malan Ramen", which is Malan Ramen Fast Food Chain Co., Ltd. As a result, the company believes that the media's over-reporting "doesn't make any sense."

Transformation cannot hide the decline

The eight years since the headquarters of "Malan Ramen" moved from Lanzhou to Beijing is a process of expansion, contraction and readjustment.

"Malan Ramen" is similar to "CRRC Auto Repair", another franchised brand of Bluestar Group. Many state-owned enterprises acquired by the group over the years have become the human resource pool for franchise expansion. Its official statement is that franchise stores around the world "facilitate the placement of wealthy personnel from chemical companies." In fact, at the beginning of the foreign investment promotion of the two major franchise brands, laid-off employees were selected as franchisees first in the form of "mobilization meetings", in an attempt to avoid the negative impact of mergers and layoffs.

The irrational expansion due to people brings high risks in high growth rate. In recent years, unfavorable news about Malan Ramen has been reported frequently in various places.

Due to taste and price factors, Malan Ramen was not recognized by local consumers in Lanzhou and was forced to close. Subsequently, 20 in Shenyang, 7 in Fuzhou, and the only one in Nanchang were all delisted within three years. There were even 7 branches in Beijing that were shocked by the local food hygiene blacklist.

Although Malan Ramen's franchise stores have appeared in Los Angeles, Paris, and Singapore, the expansion of the domestic market is unfavorable, so it has to start a major adjustment.

In May 2005, Liu Yawen, the host of CCTV's "Life" column, became the new general manager, and immediately opened a "Malan Leisure Dining Bar" model store in a prime location in Beijing, catering to high-consumption groups with new packaging. "At present, the casual restaurant Malan is just one of our attempts to improve our reputation that has been declining for a while." A year later, her goal has not been achieved. The dishes of the model store are no different from other stores, and it is difficult for consumers to agree with it, and the upgrade plan of Malan Ramen has also been put on hold.

Details determine success or failure

"Malan ramen, pull a large piece", the commercial bestseller "Details Determine Success" once pointed out the problem. Details, especially those that directly relate to the nature of the franchise, are something that cannot be overlooked in reviving Malan Ramen.

The founders of the other two franchised brands of Chinese fast food, "Laojia Meat Pie" and "Tian Teacher's Braised Pork Donburi" had a similar problem with Malan Ramen, "Take fried dough sticks, as long as you eat it at night Get up and knead the noodles three times, then the fried dough sticks must be delicious, so how to supervise this?" Quality requires both hardware and software guarantees.

The success of franchising starts from the details lies in the common ideal of the franchisee and the headquarters, as well as a set of quantifiable standard system.

Currently, Malan Ramen is learning from past expansions and contractions. As the key to the taste of the noodles, Malan Ramen is promoting the unified delivery of soup ingredients in more than 70 stores in Beijing.

In Shenyang and other cities, the seven seasonings of Malan ramen were "selected locally by each store", but franchisees often chose two of them, resulting in different tastes in each store, which was unpleasant for consumers. The unified logistics system will undoubtedly greatly improve the execution of the standard.

Franchising is no small matter. From the taste preference survey of the regional market to the seasoning logistics distribution system, it may be related to the sustainable development of the franchise.

The author is an associate editor of the CEConline website.