On September 12, 2023, Wanchen's snack retail brand merger media conference was held in Beijing. New Distribution, as an industry in-depth observation media, was invited to attend and witness the conference. At the conference, Wanchen announced that its four snack chain brands—Haoxianglai, Laiyoupin, Luxiaochuan, and Yadiyadi—would be merged under the name 'Haoxianglai', and on this basis, accelerate synergy and integration in brand image, market expansion, operations, digitalization, and culture. Wanchen's brand merger is a major event in the snack hard-discount industry. It will further consolidate Wanchen's leading position in the industry and also push the integration of the snack hard-discount industry into the fast lane. Based on this conference, there are several points worth noting. Brand Merger, Stores 3,300+ Wanchen started with the mushroom business and entered the bulk snack industry through acquisitions in 2022. It currently owns four snack retail brands. 'Haoxianglai' has about 1,700+ stores in 62 cities nationwide, and 'Laiyoupin' has about 1,000+ stores in 68 cities nationwide. 'Yadiyadi' has 400+ stores, mainly covering Jiangxi, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Fujian, and Sichuan. 'Luxiaochuan' has 230+ stores, covering Jiangsu, Shanghai, Fujian, and Guangdong. In 2023, the industry entered a period of explosive growth, with major brands expanding across regions and accelerating store openings. From January to August alone, the four brands under Wanchen opened 2,000+ new stores, exceeding the total number of stores opened by these brands in the past 10 years. Wanchen's total store count has reached 3,300+, placing it in a leading position in the industry in terms of scale. In terms of synergy among the four chain brands, Wanchen first started with the supply chain, and then gradually moved to brand-level merger. In April 2023, Wanchen achieved supply chain integration for the four brands, gaining greater cost advantages through unified procurement. As the number of stores continues to expand, operating under different brands is not conducive to market synergy, nor to the improvement of franchise services and the consistency of consumer experience. With this merger, Wanchen's stores will operate under the unified 'Haoxianglai' brand name, facing the market with the same brand, the same image, and the same culture. At the conference, Wanchen announced a partnership with the well-known marketing consulting firm Hua & Hua, and will release a new super brand symbol on October 11 to strengthen the position of its snack retail brand 'Haoxianglai' as a national leading brand in consumers' minds. Bulk Snacks, Consumption Upgrade Although Wanchen started with mushroom products, it has long been involved in food and retail, and has increased its investment in the bulk snack industry since 2022. At the conference, Wang Zening, the actual controller of Wanchen, explained the thinking behind this. Retail is a super industry related to national economy and people's livelihood. Over the past 20-plus years, the Fortune 500 list has been changing, but Walmart has always occupied a very prominent position. Internet companies like Alibaba and JD.com are actually also in the retail industry. This is an industry full of imagination. At the same time, snacks are a market with a scale of 1.6 trillion yuan. Wanchen hopes to find suitable opportunities in this industry. The current economic situation is complex and changeable. While developing rapidly, Wanchen must also be responsible to shareholders, employees, franchisees, and suppliers. It must maintain high-speed growth while also being able to cross cycles. The bulk snack format with affordable prices, high efficiency, and low gross margins is exactly such a model. Globally, companies like Walmart, Aldi, and Don Quijote, which have crossed economic cycles, all have these characteristics. Snack stores gain consumer recognition and quickly capture the market with affordable, high-quality products. Many believe this goes against the consumption upgrade trend in recent years. Wang Zening stated: Consumption upgrade is not about letting consumers in first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen spend more money on more expensive products, but about letting 1.2 billion mass consumers spend less money to buy more and better goods. Compared with traditional offline channels with multiple layers of markup, bulk snack stores have higher supply chain and delivery efficiency, and can provide consumers with better quality-price ratio products. Compared with e-commerce channels, bulk snacks also have advantages in immediacy and shopping experience. The Wanchen team shares similar values and vision, and recognizes the long-term value of crossing cycles. This brand merger means that 'Haoxianglai' will upgrade from a regional brand to a national brand, better leveraging its scale advantages and creating more advantageous value for consumers and franchisees. Mergers and Integration, Accelerated Development New Distribution believes that Wanchen's official announcement of the merger of its four brands is a major event for the industry. There are several points worth noting. First, the response of leading players. Although Wanchen is at the forefront in terms of store scale, due to multi-brand operation, it cannot truly amplify its scale advantages in terms of market awareness or internal synergy efficiency. The brand merger is just the beginning. With subsequent integration and synergy in market expansion, brand investment, operations, and culture, 'Haoxianglai' upgrading to a strong national brand will definitely put more pressure on other bulk snack brands. How competitors respond is worth watching. Second, the development and response of regional small players. Since this year, news of industry mergers and acquisitions has been continuous. Wanchen's brand merger will strengthen the trend of industry integration. According to relevant industry information, New Distribution has learned that many local chain brands with 100-200 stores are already seeking cooperation with leading brands. From the development trend, this may be a good outcome. With the crazy expansion of bulk snack stores, good locations and stores are scarce, which inevitably leads to price wars. As leading brands expand, some small and local brands find it hard to cope. How regional small players will develop and respond is worth watching. Third, the attitude shift of upstream brand manufacturers. Because they do not follow the distribution rules of brand owners, early bulk snack stores were an alien channel for brand owners. However, due to consumer recognition, bulk snack stores have grown rapidly and have become a channel that many brand owners have to pay attention to. But different brand manufacturers have different attitudes. At this conference, senior executives of well-known brands attended and spoke, marking the recognition of this channel by mainstream first-line brands. It is foreseeable that snack hard discount will gradually become one of the mainstream channels in the industry. As the snack hard-discount industry accelerates, New Distribution has always stood from the perspective of the FMCG industry, reporting the latest industry news, sharing the underlying logic of industry models, and interpreting the latest development trends of snack hard discount. Just on October 9-11, the 5th China FMCG Conference and the 1st China FMCG Distributor Conference will be grandly held in Shenzhen. On October 10, a special forum on snacks and discount stores will be held, and the "2023 China FMCG Snack Hard Discount White Paper" will be released for the first time. Through field surveys and research, it will deeply interpret the challenges and opportunities of snack hard discount for distributors and brand owners. We believe this will be a comprehensive and in-depth report in the industry, not to be missed!