Green vegetables, kelp, potatoes, balls, etc. are blanched and placed in a bowl, poured with thick bone broth, a few spoonfuls of sesame sauce, chili oil, garlic juice, sprinkled with chopped coriander, and a bowl of hot Mala Tang is good.

Unlike Wenheyou, Chayanyuese, Momo Dim Sum Bureau and other Internet celebrity catering brands that ran out of Changsha, Mala Tang in Northeast China is more universal. Although there are not many outstanding brands, the taste of Mala Tang in the streets has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Sichuan's Mala Tang is the most authentic in Northeast China. Malatang originated in Sichuan, but flourished in the Northeast. The founders of Zhang Liang Malatang, Yang Guofu Malatang, and Xiaomanjiao all came from the Northeast. But apart from Zhang Liang and Yang Guofu, there are basically no brands with more than 2,000 stores.

Why did the Northeast rule Malatang? Why is there nearly 6,000 chain stores in a bowl of roadside stalls with an average per capita 20 to 30, and a listed company is about to emerge? Why is so little capital coming in? In addition to Yang Guofu and Zhang Liang, are there any other brands that can break the game?

Northeast "Yang Jiajun" ruled Malatang

Malatang originated in Sichuan, and Northeasterners never deny it. But if you look for Mala Tang in Sichuan, you will find that it is regarded as a "foreign object" by the locals.

Li Boqing, a famous storyteller in Sichuan, once said: "I saw a lot of netizens from other places asking me on Weibo, which is the best Mala Tang in Sichuan. I will reply here uniformly, Sichuan has never sold such a thing as Mala Tang. We don't know what Malatang is. We only know hot pot, chuanchuan, cold pot chuanchuan, bobo chicken, and maocai."

In terms of origin, Sichuan is indeed the birthplace of Mala Tang.

From Yibin, Sichuan to Wushan in the Three Gorges, due to the turbulent water flow, and the fibers were stretched, they built stones on the riverside, set up a clay pot, scooped up a few scoops of river water, picked up some branches to make a fire, and everything was made from local materials. After boiling, add chili, pepper and other seasonings to taste, this is the prototype of Mala Tang.

Later, when the hawkers on the dock saw the business opportunities, they modified the dishes and stoves, placed them on both ends of the load, and shouted while walking. The people who sold labor by the riverside and Qiaotou became regulars around the burden, and Malatang walked from the riverside to the shore.

The three characters of Mala Tang come from the 6 characteristics of authentic Sichuan hot pot: hemp, spicy, hot, crisp, fresh and fragrant. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the snack Mala Tang appeared on the streets of various cities in Sichuan, and it developed in full swing in the mid-1990s.

In the spicy arena of Sichuan, there are too many competitors for Mala Tang. All kinds of skewers and vegetables have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and Mala Tang quickly lost its status in the arena. Coupled with the city management's rectification of the city's appearance, Sichuan Mala Tang slowly disappeared.

However, Mala Tang, which was put into the "cold palace" by Sichuan, did not disappear, and was brought to the Northeast all the way. Unexpectedly, Mala Tang was completely accepted by the people of Northeast China and redefines its "ma". But if Yang Guofu didn't change the beef bone soup base and Zhang Liang didn't add sesame paste, it might be another story.

In the early days, the people who made Mala Tang in Northeast China came from the magical village of Harbin, Bin County. It can be said that most of the Mala Tang brands that can be seen on the market are from the Northeast, and even most of them are from Bin County.

According to Tianyancha data, there are currently nearly 174,000 Mala Tang-related enterprises in my country. Among them, over 99% of the relevant enterprises are individual industrial and commercial households, and over 97% of the relevant enterprises have a registered capital of less than 1 million.

From the perspective of regional distribution, Jilin Province and Heilongjiang Province ranked the top two with about 22,000 and 16,000 respectively. In Bin County, which has the "Hometown of Mala Tang", there are more than 330 Mala Tang-related enterprises. Based on the total area of 3,843 square kilometers in Bin County, there is an average of one Mala Tang for every 11 square kilometers. Walking on the small streets of Bin County, you can see Mala Tang shops every few meters.

Yang Guofu was the first from the Northeast to improve Mala Tang, and he is also the most famous; Zhang Liang drew inspiration from Maocai, and followed closely; Bianyue Mala Tang was "born" in Yang Guofu, and he was regarded as a rising star. In addition, there are some famous brands such as Ma Yutao Mala Tang and Hongxingyuan Mala Tang.

Interestingly, Yang Guofu is the cousin-in-law of Zhang Liang's aunt's family and the brother-in-law of the founder of Bianyue Malatang. Other Mala Tang brands are more or less related to Yang Guofu.

It can be said that Yang Guofu revitalized Malatang by himself, and brought out a "corps" to rule the Malatang rivers and lakes together.

Anyone can sell Mala Tang, but only Northeasterners sell it on a scale.

Why Northeast

In 1990, Yang Guofu defected to his aunt in Harbin and set up a stall in the night market on Jianshe Street.

"Huachen Fast Food", a hot and spicy restaurant, quickly attracted the attention of Yang Guofu. In 2000, Yang Guofu rented a basement and a half at a monthly rent of 500 yuan, and began to stir-fry and study Mala Tang.

After several overturns, Yang Guofu tried to replace the soup base with beef bone soup, and also added rock sugar and milk powder, which became a spicy soup that can drink soup. The soup is milky white, and the taste is salty with sweetness. One sip of the thick soup wards off the cold and warms the body. Soon, Yang Guofu's Mala Tang won unanimous praise from customers, and "Northeast Mala Tang" was born.

In 2003, Yang Ji Mala Tang was officially established, and the business continued to boom. Relatives and friends were also moved, so Yang Guofu took everyone to work together without charging any franchise fee. In 2005, Yangji Malatang developed to the scale of twenty or thirty, and officially changed its name to "Yang Guofu Malatang".

Also in 2005, when Zhang Liang saw that his brother-in-law's shop was booming, he gave up his job in wine sales and joined the Mala Tang army. On the basis of the bone soup Malatang, he added the sesame sauce that Northeasterners love to eat.

When the sesame paste replaced the original "hemp", the bone soup was superimposed with a mellow taste, which was more popular among Northeasterners. According to reports, Zhang Liang sold more than 2,000 bowls of Mala Tang in a single day.

Both Yang Guofu and Zhang Liang's business are getting better and bigger, and they have both started to join. In 2009, Yang Guofu pioneered the method of weighing the kilograms. Flexible purchases are more favored by customers. The business has reached a new level, and the number of franchisees has also expanded rapidly. Soon, Yang Guofu's franchised stores exceeded 800, and he could earn 3 million in one year from the franchise fee alone.

Due to the low threshold for joining and the uneven quality of franchisees, the problem has gradually emerged. After Yang Guofu found out, he stopped the franchise in time, began to standardize and rectify and established a standardized food processing factory.

Yang Guofu’s vice president Xu Mingzhe once revealed that between 2009 and 2010, Yang Guofu’s store scale was about 300, most of which were opened by relatives and friends. , and the quality is uneven, causing damage to the brand image.

But it was also during this period of determination to rectify that Yang Guofu unified the brand identity and store style, standardized and normalized the joining process, etc. These series of measures have laid the foundation for the rapid development of the chain.

In 2012, Yang Guofu basically covered the entire Northeast market, and the local Mala Tang market gradually became saturated. As a result, Yang Guofu entered the Beijing market and began to expand wildly across the country at the rate of opening 1,000 stores every year, and went south.

In 2015, after entering Shanghai, Yang Guofu moved the headquarters from Harbin to Shanghai. In 2018, Yang Guofu spent 400 million to build a supply chain factory in Chengdu, which can meet the seasoning demand of 12,000 franchised stores.

On the other side, Zhang Liang followed step by step. In 2013, Zhang Liang moved its headquarters to Harbin and opened its first branch in Beijing. In the following year and a half, it quickly grew to 400. In 2016, Zhang Liang Mala Tang opened its first overseas branch in Japan.

In the past two decades, Lanzhou Ramen, Shaxian Snacks, Braised Chicken, etc. have bloomed everywhere, but Mala Tang has always had a place, and it has become more and more popular.

The data shows that in 2019, the number of national stores of Yang Guofu and Zhang Liang Malatang was the same, both reaching 5,000. Even after the shuffling of the epidemic in the past two years, Yang Guofu and Zhang Liang are far ahead in the number of stores.

Today's Northeast Malatang has opened thousands of chains, and the fast-food model has been copied in its entirety, quietly moving to all parts of the country and overseas.

According to the prospectus, as of September 30, 2021, the total number of Yang Guofu restaurants was 5,578, including 4 self-operated restaurants in China, 5,554 franchised restaurants, and 20 overseas franchise restaurants.

Earlier, Yang Guofu also revealed that by 2025, the total number of domestic and foreign stores will reach 10,000. You know, after more than 30 years of deep cultivation in China, there are only more than 6,000 KFC stores.

Yang Guofu took the lead in IPO, which may start the globalization of Northeast Mala Tang.

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