Hidden for 700 years, this intangible cultural heritage snack still does not have a single chain brand nationwide: Yinjiang mung bean vermicelli has secured 1.2 million yuan in angel round funding, with the ambition to expand its "coarse grain fast food" business from the deep mountains of Guizhou to the entire country.

Hidden in the deep mountains of Guizhou for 700 years, this intangible cultural heritage snack is about to step out of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau to seize the blue ocean of the national fast food track. Recently, the Yinjiang mung bean noodles chain catering project in Guizhou has officially launched its angel round financing, planning to raise 1.2 million RMB by transferring 15% of the equity. The raised funds will be used for the construction of the first model directly-operated store in Shijiazhuang, the preliminary establishment of the supply chain, brand marketing and team building, to polish the single-store profit model.

Yinjiang mung bean noodles is a county-level intangible cultural heritage of Yinjiang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County in Guizhou, which originated in the Ming Dynasty with a history of more than 700 years. It takes rice and mung beans as the core raw materials, and is made through traditional processes of selecting, soaking, grinding and baking. The finished product is emerald green in color, chewy, resistant to boiling and will not make the soup cloudy. It also has the dietary therapy effect of clearing heat and dehumidification, can be blanched, stir-fried or served cold, adapting to all consumption scenarios including breakfast, main meals and midnight snacks. However, for a long time, this characteristic delicacy has been limited to some counties in Tongren, relying on local manual workshops for production, without unified production standards or large-scale chain brands, and has never been able to go out of Guizhou. With the upgrading of domestic food processing technology, the problem of standardized production has been solved, and this intangible cultural heritage delicacy hidden in the deep mountains has finally ushered in a window of opportunity to go national.

Chen Weiting, founder of the project, has 30 years of experience in enterprise operation and management and 15 years of front-line experience in marketing planning. He worked in Shenzhen for 15 years and entered Guizhou for investment in 2009. At present, he has completed the preliminary market research, cost calculation and overall implementation planning of the project, finished the learning of intangible cultural heritage production techniques, store site selection investigation and core supplier evaluation. Once the financing is in place, the implementation of the first model store can be launched. The project plans to take Shijiazhuang as the first pilot in the northern market, first polish the product standardization system, supply chain system and single-store profit model through directly-operated model stores, open compliant franchising after verifying core operating data, and finally realize national expansion to build the first national chain brand of Yinjiang mung bean noodles in China.

The project builds differentiated barriers relying on four core advantages: First, the scarcity of the category. As an officially certified intangible cultural heritage delicacy, it comes with natural cultural communication attributes. The coarse grain combination of rice and mung bean forms a clear distinction from the homogeneous wheat and starch noodles on the market. There is no mature mung bean noodle chain brand across the country at present, which is a typical blue ocean track. Second, the low-risk model with light assets. The project adheres to small-step trial and error, only invests millions of yuan in the early stage to build model stores, and compresses labor costs and material losses relying on the standardized SOP system, with controllable risks. Third, the diversified profit structure. It breaks the traditional noodle operation model that only makes profits from dine-in, covering dine-in, food delivery and enterprise group meals at the same time. In the long term, it will also expand the retail business of pre-made mung bean noodles, with stronger ability to resist market fluctuations. Fourth, the stepwise and controllable supply chain layout. In the early stage, it relies on the OEM factory in Guizhou origin to produce semi-finished products in a standardized way. In the middle stage, it builds a regional transfer warehouse in Hebei to reduce logistics costs. In the long term, it plans to build its own central processing plant to realize independent control of core materials, and gradually expand profit margins.

The domestic snack and fast food market has exceeded the scale of one trillion yuan, and the chain rate continues to rise. Brands such as Kuafu Fried Skewers, Agan Crispy Pancake and Sangu Maocai have verified the commercial feasibility of national chain operation of local characteristic snacks. At present, when choosing catering products, consumers are paying more and more attention to health attributes, cultural attributes and cost performance. The intangible cultural heritage coarse grain snack just fits this consumption trend, and the segmented track where Yinjiang mung bean noodles is located is almost blank. Taking the lead in layout can quickly occupy users' minds. According to the project plan, in the short term of 1-2 years, 50-100 stores will be deployed in Shijiazhuang to verify the adaptability of the northern market; in 2-3 years, the full expansion across Hebei Province will be completed, and a provincial-level supply chain system will be built; in 4-5 years, national expansion will be launched, self-owned processing capacity will be improved, and the project will strive to become the head brand of characteristic snacks in China.

The project adopts the business model of "direct operation polishing + franchising expansion". The core revenue covers the operating profit of directly-operated stores, franchising service fees and the price difference of core material supply. In the long term, the profit channels will be broadened through pre-made retail products. Financial calculation shows that the optimistic expected annual revenue of a standard franchised single store can reach 900,000 RMB, with a benchmark net profit margin ranging from 15% to 20%, and the optimistic expected payback period of investment is only 7-10 months, with a clear profit model.

Talking about the original intention of starting the project, Chen Weiting said that he has been in Guizhou for many years, and he is well aware of the product charm of Yinjiang mung bean noodles. He has also seen too many excellent regional delicacies that can only be trapped in small places unknown to the public due to lack of standardization and branding. "We hope to make this 700-year-old intangible cultural heritage delicacy a healthy fast food that consumers across the country can eat, not only building a chain brand with growth space, but also helping intangible cultural heritage delicacies find a new path of market-oriented inheritance. This project has low trial and error cost, high differentiation, stable rigid demand in the track, and has both safety and growth space. We look forward to working with investors who are optimistic about the intangible cultural heritage catering track to develop this category."