User:Andrewpengyu/Little Sheep Group

 Little Sheep Group Limited is a company founded in 1999 in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China. It specializes in operating hot pot restaurants, condiment and meat processing.

Little Sheep currently has over 300 chain restaurants in China (including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) and also the United States, Japan and Canada.

In 2007, it was awarded the most popular Chinese hot pot restaurant by Chinese Restaurant Association. It was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on June 12, 2008. It became the first China's branded catering enterprise that listed in Hong Kong.

Little Sheep posted ¥2 billion in revenues in 2010, or 2% of dining-out receipts in China, according to Pei Liang, secretary-general of the China Chain Store & Franchise Association.

In 2011, Little Sheep was sold to Yum! Brands Inc, a U.S.-based fast food franchise conglomerate (headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky). Yum agreed in May 2011 to acquire Little Sheep for $587 million; however, the deal was delayed for four months as the Chinese Ministry of Commerce conducted an antitrust investigation. Little Sheep was delisted from Hong Kong Exchange in February 2012 in the end. In 2016, Yum! Brands spun off their Chinese operations into Yum China, which includes Little Sheep.

Origin
According to legend, the commander of the ancestors of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan, went south and expedited for seven days. Searching the mountains and catching four fat sheep, Kublai Khan was overjoyed and asked his subordinates to kill the sheep and set them on fire. At this moment, soldier rushed in and reported that the enemies were approaching. The chef was anxious, cut out ten pieces of thin meat with a knife, and stirred in boiling water for a few times. When the color of the meat changed, the chef immediately put them in a bowl and sprinkle with coarse salt. Kublai Khan ate a few pieces and turned around to lead the army to defeat the enemy. Later, Kublai Khan chose this dish as "instant-boiled mutton".

Founding
Zhang Gang is the founder of Little Sheep. There are two versions of how Little Sheep is created in Baotou. First, Zhang Gang developed a method of eating hotpot without cooking, so he opened a hotpot restaurant with a few friends. It was puller and soon out of control; the other was that Zhang Gang and a friend had a meal together and found out that the hot pot was delicious and easy to promote, so he spent a lot of money to buy the hot pot base receipt and began to develop the little sheep hot pot.

Finally, Zhang Gang and others worked out a recipe for Little Sheep. Before opening the restaurant, everyone was worried about what to name the restaurant. One day, Zhang Gang casually said "Little Sheep", and his daughter-in-law immediately said: "The name is good, and it is related to mutton lamb. I'm sure I can't forget it after eating, and it's easy to remember." And then, "Little Sheep" was born.

On August 8, 1999, the first "Little Sheep" of the "Inner Mongolia Little Sheep Catering Chain Co., Ltd." was opened at No.22 Wulan Road, Kun District, Baotou City. It is such a small shop.

Development
Due to the good operation of the first Little Sheep restaurant, founders successfully opened two Little Sheep Hot Pot restaurants in Qingshan District and Donghe District of Baotou City two months later, and the business was equally well. This allows the founders of Little Sheep to see the hope to start the chain-store operation. They started to open more Little Sheep restaurants in out countries in China since April 2000. In early 2001, the Little Sheep meat product processing base was established.

In May 2001, Shanghai Branch of Inner Mongolia Little Sheep Catering Chain Co., Ltd. was established (there are currently 30 direct investment restaurants).

In January 2002, the Beijing branch of Inner Mongolia Little Sheep Catering Chain Co., Ltd. was established (there are currently 15 direct investment restaurants). In January 2002, Shenzhen Branch of Inner Mongolia Little Sheep Catering Chain Co., Ltd. was established (there are currently 18 direct investment restaurants).

In November 2002, Little Sheep Hotpot Store was opened in Chengdu, entered the most competitive hotpot market in China, and challenged Sichuan hotpot brands. It achieved the income record of 170,000 yuan one day.

In January 2003, the Little Sheep Condiment Base was established.

In November 2003, Little Sheep's first overseas chain store opened in Los Angeles, USA.

In September 2004, Inner Mongolia Little Sheep Catering Chain Co., Ltd. ranked among the Top 500 Chinese companies.

On November 12, 2004, "LITTLE SHEEP" and its logo were recognized as China Famous Trade Mark.

On October 12, 2005, the first directly operated store were opened in Toronto, Canada.

In June 2006, it was again selected as "China's 500 Most Valuable Brands" with a brand value of 5.677 billion Yuan.

On June 22, 2007, Little Sheep was selected for the third time as the "China's 500 Most Valuable Brands" and was ranked in 104th place in the Top 500 Chinese companies with a brand value of 5.916 billion Yuan.

On November 11, 2007, at the fourth annual of Top 100 Chinese Restaurants Awards in New York, USA, it won three honors: Chinese Best 100 Local Cuisine, Chinese Best 100 New Restaurant, and Chinese Best 100 Healthy Cuisine.

On June 12, 2008, Inner Mongolia Little Sheep Catering Chain Co., Ltd. was successfully listed in Hong Kong

Until January 2010, Little Sheep Company had a total of more than 60,000 employees, drove more than 240,000 people in related employment, and increased more than 200,000 farmers and herdsmen's income. It also posted ¥2 billion in revenues in 2010, or 2% of dining-out receipts in China, according to Pei Liang, secretary-general of the China Chain Store & Franchise Association

Acquisition by Yum! Brand
On May 13, 2011, Yum! Brand announced that it intends to acquire Little Sheep Group Co., Ltd. at a premium of approximately 30% in cash. After the acquisition, Little Sheep Group will be delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The transaction has been approved by relevant regulatory agencies such as China's Ministry of Commerce. Because Yum! Brand and Little Sheep Group are relatively large, according to the law, this transaction is subject to China's anti-monopoly.

After acquisition in February 2012, Yum! Brand currently holds approximately 93.2% shares of Little Sheep, Zhang Gang and other founders own the rest of shares. Yujing Su, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yum! Brand's China Department, said,“ Yum's Brand will use its extensive experience in operating restaurants to further enhance the brand value and influence of Little Sheep, in order to make Little Sheep a strong leader in Chinese hot pot market. " Zhang Gang was also confident that Little Sheep will have a brighter future in the international market.

Current Situation
Yum! Brand's management system is different from Little Sheep's original management system. Because of the huge difference, lots of talented managers chose to quit. At the same time, Yum! Brand closed a large number of poorly managed and poorly located stores without many commercial interests. When Little Sheep was at its peak, there were more than 720 restaurants, but there are only less than 200 restaurants, Yum! Brand wanted to reduce the number of restaurants and focus on high-potential ones.

In recent years, with the rapid development of catering industry, especially hotpot market, the traditional marketing model can no longer meet the needs its future development. More and more catering companies have invested in the online marketing and build its own specialties. Little Sheep, as the leader of hot pot restaurant chain, is now trying to develop its own network marketing in this competitive industry.

Company Culture
For many years, it has positioned itself on development and expansion. The company built a vertically integrated large industry chain development model to go abroad and face the international market. The product base, meat industry base, material center, and other institutions have established a long-term stable standards, and it has determined food safety guarantee systems based on different countries. It also establish a direct management and franchise system to adopt the expansion and development strategy. The goal of Little Sheep Company is to deepen the new food method of “simmering lamb without dipped in complex ingredients”.

Little Sheep strives for a new and distinctive Mongolian catering culture to raise the company's popularity and make more consumers to accept it. Because of high quality guarantee, unique features, and fair prices, "Little Sheep" brand is winning the good reputation among consumers in China.

Cooking Method
The hotpot "instant-boiled mutton" has been eaten in China for a long time, but the traditional hotpot lamb mutton is only dipped in complex ingredients. In addition, the special smell of raw lamb is not accepted by southerners in China, so lamb mutton was regional. "Little Sheep" has made innovations on the basis of traditional"instant-boiled mutton", pioneering the method of "simmering mutton without dipped in ingredients": a pot-base soup made from dozens of nourishing condiments. By changing cumbersome ingredients, this method removes the special smell of lamb while retaining its delicious flavor. This method is more convenient than the tradition "instant-boiled mutton", which is suitable for the healthy and fast food concept pursued by modern people.

Meat Quality
At the same time, the special meat for "Little Sheep" is selected from the pure and natural pollution-free Inner Mongolia grassland. Xilinguole Grassland(锡林郭勒草原) is located in Inner Mongolia. Xilinguole grassland has become one of the world's four most famous grasslands due to its wide range of types of flora and fauna. Its rich aquatic plants provide sufficient natural food for sheep without supplementary feeding. Xilinguole grassland has high-quality natural grassland area of ​​more than 180,000 square kilometers and a unique geographical position of 45 ° north latitude, which has created the natural quality of pastures and bred fertile Mongolian sheep, such as well-known "Wuzhumuqin Sheep(乌珠穆沁羊)", "Sunite Sheep(苏尼特羊)", and "Wulatetan Sheep(乌拉特滩羊)". only six-month-old lamb will be selected, because the meat is fresh and tender, not smelly or stale.

Menu
The Little Sheep has been serving high-quality lamb, beef, and other specials. Signatures include Lamb-lover Platter, Signature AAA Lamb Rolls, Mongolian Style Roasted Lamb Shank, Premium Beef Cube, Premium Grain Feb Beef New Zealand Origin, Handmade Squid Paste with Fish Caviar, and so on. Mongolian Wine is Little Sheep's special Mongolian drinking. Light soup-type base, Spicy Hotpot Base, and Tomato fondue base are three special hotpot bases of Little Sheep.