Text/Fang Wenyu Editor/Jiang Yuyu is over fifty years old and has entered a business across industries. After the listing dream was postponed for two years, Zou Qifang led the "first stock of China's high-end oral chain" to return to the public's attention. On March 22, Riel Grou

failed to go public when it expired and was unable to redeem it. Riel was burdened with about 4 billion yuan of current liabilities and was insolvent for two consecutive years.

Now that he has successfully passed the level, Zou Qifang's burden has been reduced a little, and his net loss of 460 million in half a year has made him dare not relax for a moment.

loses the iron rice bowl and opens the road to entrepreneurship

is a foreign language translation, but it has launched a dental clinic. It is a magical story no matter how you hear it.

Zou Qifang worked as a construction worker at the age of 16, was admitted to at the age of 25, was at the age of 29, worked as a translator at the age of 39, and went to Wharton, USA to study. When he founded Rel Dental in 1999, he was already 46 years old.

Entrepreneurship originated from accidentality, and dreams have long been sprouted.

After graduating in 1982, Zou Qifang was assigned to work in the Foreign Economic Department of Tianjin Medical Bureau, responsible for foreign affairs including technical exchanges and trade exchanges. Realizing that he knew nothing about the pharmaceutical industry, Zou took the initiative to apply to study in a pharmaceutical factory.

At that time, foreign-funded enterprises began to invest and build factories in China. Zou Qifang met the first joint venture in Tianjin's pharmaceutical industry - Sino-US SK. He chose to lose his "iron rice bowl" and switch to the joint venture pharmaceutical factory, becoming the fourth Chinese employee of Sino-US SK.

is market-oriented and attaches importance to consumers. Zou Qifang also injected the business ideas he gained from Sino-US SKK into the future Riel Dental.

Through investigation, Zou Qifang found that China has a large market gap in oral services, and the hospital's services and facilities do not match social development. Therefore, the positioning of Ryer Dental, grasping the middle class and doing high-end dental care, was established since then.

In April 11999, 46-year-old Zou Qifang opened the first Ruier dental clinic in Beijing International Building , and then introduced the dental implant technology of Nobel BIocare, becoming the first oral service agency in China to use its dental implant products.

The clinic at the beginning of its business was ignored. Although Zou Qifang was anxious, she did not stop taking action for a moment.

On the one hand, he cooperated with his alma mater, University of Pennsylvania , and trained clinic employees in a professional and systematic manner; on the other hand, he began to instill a new concept into his employees: Riel is to provide services. Compared with doctors, anyone in our clinic is a service staff.

adheres to this concept, and Riel serves guests of the Polish Embassy, ​​ US Embassy , China Merchants Bank , and GE China, and finally ushers in explosive growth.

Currently, Ruier Group currently owns two brands: Ruier Dental and Ruitai Dental. As of September 30, 2021, Ruier Group operates 111 hospitals and clinics in 15 major first- and second-tier cities in China.

Over the past decade, the cumulative number of patients has been served by about 7.4 million. In the fiscal year 2019-2021, the average customer price is 1,015.7 yuan, 1,022.1 yuan and 1,105.1 yuan respectively, based on the number of annual medical treatments.

High-paying care for doctors, and they have suffered losses for years.

"To provide customers with a perfect consumption experience, they will pass it on word of mouth." Zou Qifang said, "Rel belongs to the retail medical service industry, and the most core thing is service. If you do this, you will not be able to survive." The follow-up rate of

customers verified this view.

Finance 2019-2021 and the 6 months ended September 30, 2021, the follow-up rate of loyal customers of Riel Group (i.e., the percentage of patients who went to the clinic/hospital again after six months from the first visit, excluding follow-up consultations for the same treatment) was 42.1%, 41.4%, 45.8% and 47.6% respectively.

Among them, about 22% of new patients in fiscal year 2021 were introduced through recommendations of existing patients, and the customer satisfaction during the trailer record period was 97%.

Dental reserve is a very important part of oral chain.

As of September 30, 2021, Riel Group has 882 full-time dentists, of which more than 50.7% of full-time dentists have master's degree or above, 38.5% of full-time dentists have more than 10 years of industry experience, and the retention rate of full-time dentists with 3 years of work experience is 95.8%. The high retention rate of

is related to the favorable treatment provided by Zou Qifang.

During the reporting period, Riel Group's employee welfare expenses accounted for 50.5%, 50.7%, 50.9% and 54% of the revenue costs respectively.

Among them, for the six months ended September 30, 2021, employee welfare expenditure was 353 million yuan, an increase of more than 30% year-on-year.

Full-time dentist earning millions a year is not a dream. In the fiscal years 2019-2021, the average performance of full-time dentists was RMB 1.377 million, RMB 1.288 million and RMB 1.875 million, respectively.

Zou Qifang spent a lot of money to retain talents, and also put the Ruier Group in the quagmire of years of losses.

In the past three years, Ruier Group's profitability has been getting worse every year, and its loss increased from 304 million yuan in fiscal year 2019 to 326 million yuan in fiscal year 2020, and further expanded to 598 million yuan.

plunged on the first day. Imagination space geometry

For Zou Qifang, the challenge has just begun.

Due to the downward trend in the overall environment and unsatisfactory financial report, the share price of Riel Group fell by 9.71% on the first day of listing, and as of the closing, it was HK$13.2 per share.

has failed to stop Zou Qifang's expansion pace after years of losses. As early as 2017, Riel Group launched the "Thousand Stores Plan", saying that it will have thousands of stores in 2025. In the past five years, this goal has only been achieved by more than 10%.

expansion will inevitably affect operating performance and financial status in the short term. In order to make a profit, Zou Qifang had to gamble. He hopes to quickly expand new markets and acquire new patients.

Take the Chongqing market, which it entered in 2015 as an example. In the fiscal year 2016-2021, the number of dental chairs alone increased from 80 to 217, with an annual compound growth rate of 35%.

In this regard, Zhou Wei, an investor of Ruier Group, believes that the biggest problem of the dental chain is that when expanding and establishing a new clinic, senior doctors need to be selected as directors or senior doctors.

"When the scale is insufficient, this mobilization will have an impact on the performance of the original clinic, but after the scale reaches a certain level, this becomes Riel's advantage and a new balance point can be found."

From this point of view, increasing revenue or profit may be just the pain of breaking through the dormant period of Ruiel Group.

has a clear purpose, in order to serve patients efficiently and with high quality. Zou Qifang was also not stingy. During the reporting period, the relevant expenditures of information technology infrastructure were 32.1 million, 34.4 million, 37.7 million and 22.4 million respectively.

, with white hair on Zou Qifang, said in his speech at the listing ceremony, "Listing is an important milestone in the development history of Ruier Group, and it is also a new starting point and a new driving force for our development. Ruier will forge ahead to become the 'world's leading dental medical group'." The premise is that under the leadership of Zou Qifang, Ruier Group will take every step steadily and insist on providing good products and services.

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