It is widely rumored in the industry that Dayun Express became the first national express delivery company to receive PE investment. However, how to upgrade the management standardization system while ensuring the development speed? Compared with PE investors, what is the investment value and development potential of Dayun Express?

Go or not?

The last set of ERP management system of SAP costs tens of millions, which is not only a small expense for an unlisted enterprise, but also a huge project with no turning back.

However, according to Tengyun Nie, the founder of Dayun Express, the answer to this question is beyond doubt. Starting a business for more than ten years, he deeply realized the importance of IT management system in express delivery companies.

"Nie Dong is an entrepreneur who knows IT systems best in the express delivery industry," a PE investor who has had in-depth contact with Dayun Express told reporters. It is this that is also an important reason why they are determined to invest in this company. In the eyes of PE investors, such companies have the potential to go further.

It is said that the goal set by Dayun Express is to complete the corresponding equipment, including personnel, vehicles and venues, when the annual business growth rate reaches 60%. In particular, it is increasingly necessary for venues to "dig deep holes and accumulate grain" in order to estimate the business volume in the next five or even ten years.

At the same time, whether it is the founder team thinking about how Dayun "develops" or the external investors aiming at the listing of enterprises, they all hope that enterprises can standardize a little, and then standardize a little, such as going to SAP system, establishing transit stations, gradually merging some outlets into direct sales, and starting financial standardization, all of which require time, energy and money.

It is widely rumored in the industry that Dayun Express became the first national express delivery company to receive PE investment. However, how to upgrade the management standardization system while ensuring the development speed? Compared with PE investors, what is the investment value and development potential of Dayun Express?

Start with the specification of "scrambled eggs with tomatoes"

IT is a long and challenging road from the unification of work clothes to the management and repurchase of franchisees, the upgrade of background IT systems and the construction of standardized management system of Dayun.

At the end of Yinggang East Road in Qingpu District, Shanghai, it is the headquarters of Dayun Express (full name "Shanghai Dayun Freight Co., Ltd."). Covering an area of tens of thousands of square meters, there are several low-rise buildings. The only thing that catches the eye is the unified "tomato scrambled egg color". Whether it is buildings, vehicles or people coming and going, they are all red letters on a yellow background.

In this regard, Zhou Baigen, senior vice president of Dayun Express, told the reporter: "The use of a unified red letter on a yellow background is for our vehicles to be particularly conspicuous and relatively safe when driving outside."

When he said this, Zhou Baigen sat in front of the reporter, wearing the standard summer work clothes of Dayun Express and a red T-shirt with a yellow background. Tengyun Nie, chairman of Dayun Express, who came to meet the reporter, also wore the same clothes. If it weren't for Zhou Baigen's introduction, the reporter couldn't see any difference between him and other employees. It is said that this chairman, who is only in his thirties, basically doesn't travel by plane, but by train or car, which makes it easier to inspect the express delivery business of various sites.

Behind Zhou Baigen's overalls is the promotion of dress in all stores of Dayun Express. This network has more than10,000 service sites, including franchisees and Dayun, covering more than 2,000 cities above the county level. In order to achieve standardized management, Dayun Headquarters has promulgated many management regulations, and dress code is one of them, which is promoted by the chairman.

These express delivery companies that we are familiar with today, except SF Express, are basically directly operated. Most other express delivery companies adopt franchise system, but the structure of franchisees is different. A PE person who has been paying attention to the express delivery industry told reporters that some big express delivery companies may have several franchisees in Hubei, Wuhan and Wuchang. Every single business will be subcontracted at different levels, and these franchisees will get a single money for each order, which is a strong incentive. It is this incentive mechanism that makes the courier company and the franchisee form a unified interest body and realize the daily delivery of goods.

The participation of franchisees reduces the operating cost of the headquarters of express delivery companies, and the operating efficiency of franchisees is also higher than that of direct sales; However, the disadvantages of the franchise system are also obvious: if the management of franchisees is not strong, it may be more prone to goods loss and delayed delivery than direct express delivery companies.

In 2003, Chairman Dayun began to think about the development model of the enterprise after solving the survival problem of the enterprise through the most difficult period in the initial stage of entrepreneurship. If Dayun Express wants to achieve stable and high-speed "development" rather than just making money, then some drawbacks of the franchise system must be overcome. The countermeasures that Dayun came up with are: First, establish transit stations, and then gradually let franchisees in provincial cities return to direct sales; Then, through online IT software and hardware, standardize the operation process and realize standardized management.

For example, before Dayun established the Wuhan transfer station, the goods in Hubei were distributed by the provincial capital franchisees in Wuhan; After the establishment of the transfer station, the goods will be transported to the transfer station first, and then the Dayun express staff of the transfer station will distribute the goods to the franchisees in Xiangfan and Shiyan. In this way, Dayun Headquarters will control the "things" in its own hands, and will also sink the management to the local market.

Dayun Express: Running while "operating"

After establishing dozens of transfer stations across the country, Dayun Express began to accept some franchisees as direct sales. Zhou Baigen told reporters that through joint ventures, acquisitions and other means, the company has now recovered provincial cities for direct operation, and will start to incorporate prefecture-level cities as needed.

If the human body is used as a metaphor, Dayun Express Headquarters is like the heart, then the transfer station is like the nerve center, and the passage between provincial cities is like the aorta; Prefecture-level cities are like ordinary blood vessels; The county-level cities and rural areas below are like capillaries. Chairman Dayun believes that it is an ideal management structure to directly operate the backbone network of transfer stations and provincial capitals, with the headquarters controlling the logistics, capital flow and information flow of the whole network, supplemented by the collection and distribution of goods by city and county franchisees, which can not only ensure the management strength and standardization of the headquarters, but also give full play to the business advantages of franchisees.

In order to realize this idea, Dayun should not only realize the direct operation of the backbone network, but also need IT investment. This year, the company spent tens of millions on launching SAP, followed by more than 6,543.8 billion IT hardware budget. Dayun hopes that after these software and hardware are put in place, IT can manage the delivery and receipt of goods by each courier, manage the transportation path of goods, and technically ensure the management of franchisees, couriers and goods.

"chicken ribs" e-commerce

Express companies have become a hot industry in the eyes of PE funds, which is also related to the rapid development of e-commerce. In the e-commerce industry, if a good e-commerce is a gold mine, then the courier company sells mining tools.

Zhou Baigen told reporters that e-commerce business now accounts for more than 40% of the company's total business volume and will account for half by the end of the year. The business volume of 20 10 company increased by 60%, and the e-commerce business dominated by Taobao increased by more than 80%.

Anyone who shops on Taobao will know that the courier fees of several private courier companies are very cheap. For example, for goods with the first weight not exceeding 1 kg, in the Yangtze River Delta region, the freight rate is 5 yuan, and the highest is 6 yuan; Shanghai to Beijing or Shandong only needs 10 yuan.

Zhou Baigen said frankly that this is the price for ordinary customers. Like those big sellers on Taobao, such as one-time delivery 1000, they give lower freight. After Dayun Express takes orders, many orders will be transferred to franchisees for delivery. The main freight is earned by franchisees, and the profit is meager.

This is a situation that all express delivery companies doing e-commerce business have to face: if they don't do this business, their market share will shrink immediately; In this business, all you earn is shouting, and you can't make much money.

Moreover, while the e-commerce business brings the rapid growth of the company's business, it also needs the company's personnel, vehicles and venue equipment to match.

So if Taobao suddenly has a big promotion, the first thing that can't stand is definitely the major express delivery companies. Last year, Taobao's "Singles Day" was fully promoted, which immediately made many employees of several major express delivery companies remember "Singles Day" from now on.

Liu Zilong worked in Wuxi Transfer Station of Dayun Express about1October1kloc-0/last year. In the week before and after that day, the number of Taobao pieces soared, more than twice as much as usual. First of all, they have a lot of work to do when they pick up parts from customers, and then they go to the transshipment center to sort them slower than usual. Finally, more than a dozen overtime cars are transferred every day.

Liu Zilong told reporters that before and after the well-known Mid-Autumn Festival, Valentine's Day and other holidays, the company will arrange personnel and vehicles and equipment, which can better cope. "We are usually afraid of festivals; But I am more afraid of such an unprepared holiday. At that time, many colleagues worked fourteen or fifteen hours a day. I hope that when Taobao wants to promote sales in the future, it is best to promote by category, such as textile promotion these days and snack promotion these two days. "

To some extent, e-commerce business is a bit "chicken ribs" for large express delivery companies. However, Zhou Baigen has no intention of giving up. Instead, he came up with a countermeasure: "We started warehousing business in Guangzhou and Shanghai, and let these big sellers store the goods in our warehouse. In this way, everyone saves the part-taking process, we can earn more storage fees, and such customers will be more stable. "

But the warehousing business means the need for a larger transit station. With the rapid development of business, the transshipment station of Dayun Express has developed from the initial 1000 square meters and several thousand square meters to the current 10000 square meters. Because there are many vehicles coming and going in the express delivery industry, the venue is very open, and it is best for Dayun to find a venue other than a standard factory building.

With the soaring prices, the cost of employees. Zhou Baigen told reporters: "Dayun Express has thousands of employees. This year, the average salary of our employees has increased by 20% or even 30%. In addition to personnel costs, logistics costs such as gasoline and tolls are also increasing year by year, and most of the company's income is eaten up by personnel and logistics costs. At present, the company will improve the level of mechanization and automation, and will optimize transportation routes and control logistics costs through IT systems. Now the express delivery industry is developing rapidly. In any case, mechanization and informatization in the future will definitely be one of the directions. "

As a PE investor who has been tracking the express delivery industry for a long time, Bai Tao, executive director of Shanghai Fosun Chuangfu Investment Management Co., Ltd., told reporters that express delivery is an industry with high barriers both internationally and domestically. On the one hand, the express fee for a single commodity is very low, on the other hand, the warehousing, logistics and IT costs of express delivery enterprises are very high. Therefore, for national network express delivery companies, it is impossible to make a profit without massive business support. He analyzed that the breakeven point of national express delivery companies is 1 100 million orders per year, and there are seven or eight express delivery companies in China that reach this business volume, which is also the reason why the international and domestic express delivery industries are highly concentrated.

Bai Tao believes that compared with overseas express delivery companies, the automation level of domestic express delivery companies is still quite low. There are few people in the distribution center of ups in the United States, and the efficiency of its automatic sorting equipment is 100 times that of manual operation. With the development of automation technology in China and the mandatory labor costs in China, the automation level of express delivery companies will also increase rapidly. Compared with the scale of hundreds of billions of four overseas express delivery companies, China's express delivery companies still have a long way to go.