The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of this year has dealt an unprecedented blow to the catering industry across the country. The catering market is gradually recovering, but it shows a polarized trend of the strong getting stronger and the weak getting weaker.

At present, the operations of most catering companies across the country have recovered to 70%-80% of the pre-epidemic level, and some brands have fully recovered and even exceeded the pre-epidemic level.

However, due to the long-term closure of stores, a sharp drop in turnover, and a sharp increase in cash flow pressure, a considerable number of catering companies are facing the dilemma of a broken capital chain.

Data shows that in the first half of this year, the national catering revenue was 1460.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 32.8%, and the growth rate was 42.2 percentage points lower than the same period last year; the catering revenue of units above the limit was 311.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 30.2%.

At the same time, canned bean juice, low-temperature fresh stewed Zhang Fei beef... More and more "regional hits" are entering the national market through the catering retail of 3R dishes.

 

01

Old brands are no longer afraid of "deep alleys covering the aroma of wine"

3R means Ready to Cook, Ready to Heat, Ready to Eat (ready to cook, ready to heat, ready to eat), which brings together three types of fresh food: cooked food, semi-finished products and pastries.

As consumers' desire to eat better and easier grows, many time-honored brands are now working hard to develop 3R foods, and deliver products to all parts of the country through supply chain upgrades and new retail.

 

On July 16, Hema Fresh announced the sales data of its 3R brand Hema Workshop in Shanghai. After three years of establishment, it has cooperated with time-honored catering brands, craftsmen, and Internet celebrities to produce more than 1,300 kinds of food, with a monthly turnover of over 100 million yuan.

Ning Qiang, general manager of Hema 3R Division, said that Hema Workshop hopes to help users solve the four major problems of not delicious, not fresh, no time, and not knowing how to make.

“In the past, Zhang Fei beef products included Zhang Fei beef room temperature leisure pre-packaged products, and some Zhang Fei beef low-temperature fresh marinated products, which only covered the Sichuan and Chongqing regions. Now through new retail, we have finally gone out. ”

As a time-honored brand that has been famous since the Qianlong period, Wen Ping, chairman of Sichuan Zhang Fei Beef Co., Ltd., said that due to the extremely high requirements for temperature and freshness, and the fact that beef is a high-priced commodity, Zhang Fei Beef, which has always wanted to go beyond Sichuan and Chongqing, had some headaches.

As of June 30, in less than two months, eight room-temperature side dishes and 14 low-temperature fresh marinated products of Zhang Fei Beef have been put on the shelves in more than 200 stores in 13 cities across the country. “

This allows Zhang Fei Beef's 0 to 4 degree products to achieve fresh reach. It enables consumers across the country to quickly and freshly enjoy the original specialties in just two months, making the sales of Zhang Fei Beef brand in foreign markets exceed the sales in the local market ten times. ”Wen Ping said that after only three months of cooperation, the monthly sales of Zhang Fei Beef increased from 200,000 yuan to 2 million yuan.

Another time-honored brand from Beijing that has also "gone viral" is Huguosi. "Huguosi Douzhi was launched in May this year. This is the first time that Huguosi Douzhi has stepped out of snack shops and entered the circulation field." Kang Zebo, manager of Beijing Huguosi snacks of Jude Huatian Holdings Co., Ltd., said, "We hope that consumers can buy Douzhi like buying Coke."

Before, Douzhi was sold in Huguosi stores, and consumers bought the boiled hot drink in the stores. The Douzhi from the fresh food e-commerce cooperation is stored in cans, which is more convenient for consumers to carry and make it at home, without having to go to the store to enjoy the food.

Kang Zebo said that as the consumer group changes, Huguosi hopes to better promote the products of the time-honored brand and acquire more young online consumer groups through cooperation with fresh food e-commerce platforms.

It is reported that the sales of canned bean juice have grown from a store selling a few bottles or dozens of bottles a day to thousands of bottles.

Yan Auntie's Eight Treasure Rice Pudding, Xinghualou Handmade Braised Lion's Head, Zhu Laoda's Huzhou Pillow-shaped Zongzi, which have been popular for more than 50 years, Nanjing Gu Nandu, which owns Green Willow House Restaurant, Ma Xiangxing Restaurant, Yongheyuan Restaurant, Jiangsu Restaurant, Liuhuachun Restaurant, Sichuan Restaurant, etc., Xinghualou Group, which owns a large number of time-honored famous enterprises such as Xinya Cantonese Restaurant, Gongdelin, Xinghualou, Shen Dacheng, Lao Zhengxing, Xiao Shaoxing, and Xi'an Catering Group, have long been engaged in cooperative processing of semi-finished products, and have achieved "semi-finished products delivered to home - consumers participate in cooking - family dining", and have handed in a beautiful report card in terms of sales.

 

02

Promote the integration of catering and retail

Why are many time-honored brands keen on producing 3R food? What impact will it have on the industry in the future?

In the view of Ning Qiang, general manager of Hema 3R Division, the creation of the 3R system will promote the integration of catering and retail.

“3R is a classification we define ourselves based on the market classification method and the classification method of customer needs. Simply put, it is the products that are 'ready to eat', 'heat up at home' and 'can be eaten through simple cooking'.

3R is positioned to provide consumers with solutions for three meals a day, providing catering solutions for ready-to-cook (RTC), ready-to-heat (RTH) and ready-to-eat (RTE).

Ning Qiang told reporters that most of the fresh short-shelf-life 3R foods such as pasta, cooked food, and semi-finished products have a shelf life of only 4-7 days and need to be stored at 0-4 degrees, so they have extremely high requirements for supply chain, inventory management, and distribution efficiency.

Ning Qiang believes that the development of 3R can solve the problem of growing consumer demand, but there are still technical problems, standardization problems, distribution problems, and the handling and loss of a large number of short-shelf-life products at the terminal in the industry.

“But we are willing to meet customer needs first, improve efficiency first, and then work with the industry to classify the more difficult formats, so that consumers' kitchens at home are cleaner and their fresh food diets are healthier. ”

During the epidemic, consumers' enthusiasm for semi-finished products continued to rise, and fresh food categories have also become a new consumption trend.

According to Ning Qiang, during this year's Spring Festival, the best-selling Hema Workshop semi-finished products had an average daily sales volume of more than ten times the usual.

In the United States, where offline supermarkets are highly competitive, providing fresh cooked food in supermarkets can help merchants achieve higher sales and maintain consumer loyalty. According to a set of data released by Progressive Grocer recently, 70.3% of retailers’ consumption in the cooked food section is higher than the previous year, and nearly 90% of retailers believe that the cooked food section is important.

Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng also predicted that the market share of individual semi-finished products is expected to increase significantly in the next three years. In China, whether it is the successful Ito-Yokado and Metro, or the once glorious Yonghui and RT-Mart, cooked food is indispensable even if it is not a money-making tool.

However, for cooked food products, insights into consumer preferences, endless innovative thinking and product development iteration speed are more important factors besides technology.

There are many brands like Zhang Fei Beef that are sold in supermarkets in Sichuan Province across the country. They cannot expand their business and they have to face the homogeneous competition of "fighting each other".

In the context of 3R becoming a trend, technology-driven iterative upgrades of cooked food will be an important solution. For the entire industry, the most needed thing is to improve efficiency first by leading enterprises and promote the whole industry to classify the business formats.

Industry insiders said that the key to solving product homogeneity is to productize regional time-honored brands in bulk and give catering brands the ability to commercialize and brand. On the one hand, it is to solve logistics problems through cold chain technology and channel opening, and on the other hand, it is to solve the problem of taste differences in different regions through big data, so that customers' fresh food diets are becoming more and more abundant and healthy.

 

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03

Signature dishes of restaurants are sold in supermarkets

Hand-torn chicken is hung in a glass cabinet, and zongzi, sugar-coated fire cakes, and fried lotus root boxes are lying flat on the counter... After the upgrade and renovation, the Carrefour Shuangjing store has added special food from Ziguangyuan.

Since the beginning of this year, catering companies such as Huatian Eryouju, Huguosi Snacks, and Meizhou Dongpo have all entered supermarkets, exploring new ways by innovating products and opening "stores within stores".

This new cross-border cooperation between restaurants and supermarkets has not only facilitated citizens' consumption, but also become a new driving force for boosting offline consumption.

Last Saturday, the Carrefour Shuangjing store was re-launched after more than 20 days of renovation. Ziguangyuan, which has a history of 100 years, appeared next to the fresh food area to make and sell special snacks. The "store within the store" of dozens of square meters was filled with the aroma of meat cakes, hand-torn chicken braised in traditional sauce, braised beef, and sesame biscuits, which made people line up immediately.

"It's an old brand. Now you can buy signature dishes without going to a regular restaurant. It's really convenient." Sister Sun, who came to buy vegetables with a cart early in the morning, directly picked hand-torn chicken and zongzi cake.

The relevant person in charge of Ziguangyuan introduced that the daily turnover of this "store within the store" is up to 13,000 yuan, and the peak hours of queuing are from 10 am to 12 pm and 5 pm to 7 pm every day.

At present, Ziguangyuan has appeared in 70 large supermarkets and community stores such as Carrefour and Jingkelong, and it is expected to open 120 stores this year.

“We are also negotiating with Bianyifang Group to introduce more than ten old brands under it, such as Duyichu, Laozhengxing, and Jinfang, to create a 'old brand street' in the store. ”A relevant person in charge of Carrefour said that by carrying out cross-border cooperation between restaurants and supermarkets, more categories of goods can be provided to existing customers of the store, and more customers can be attracted to visit the store. This year, Carrefour will renovate all stores in Beijing and introduce more special restaurants in areas with conditions.

 

04

Profitable as soon as the store opens, staple food is popular

 

In addition to Carrefour, Supermarket Fa, Wumart, and other supermarkets in Beijing are also accelerating the pace of cooperation with catering. Catering companies are developing new products to facilitate supermarket customers to buy home.

 

Meizhou Dongpo mini stores have also appeared in Supermarket Fa and Wumart supermarkets. Currently, 5 Wumart stores have introduced Meizhou Dongpo mini stores.

The stall of Meizhou Dongpo in Wumart Tiancun store is filled with a variety of dishes, including semi-finished products such as Maoxuewang, instant fresh food such as shredded chicken cold noodles, braised meat, steamed buns, and frozen products such as Dongpo braised pork with a longer shelf life.

The store also has bagged and boxed fast food such as Meizhou Dongpo sausage, luncheon meat, and Dongpo braised pork rice. The staff said that nearby stores deliver fresh dishes every morning and restock at noon, among which shredded chicken cold noodles are the most popular among supermarket customers.

At Supermarket Fa Yongding Road Store, the first supermarket mini store of the time-honored brand Eryouju has been open for more than a month. The reporter saw at the scene that Eryouju's meat patties and buns were packed in fresh-keeping boxes and sold by box, with a shelf life of one day. There were also more than a dozen cold dishes and stewed dishes on site.

Aiming at the consumption characteristics of supermarkets, Eryouju has also developed portable delicacies such as treasure rolls. According to the staff, this place has just been open for more than a month, and the staple food is the most popular.

The relevant person in charge of Huatian Group revealed that Eryouju's first supermarket mini store has basically achieved profitability. At present, time-honored brands such as Tongheju and Qingfeng Baozi Shop under Huatian are also negotiating cooperation with relevant supermarkets.

 

Summary:

With the rise of the new retail wave, fresh supermarkets have further integrated the supermarket + catering model into their bones.

JD 7Fresh not only opened a bar in the catering area, but the food hoarding craze during this year's 618 period has also doubled its transaction volume year-on-year. Even Daily Fresh, which is known for its pre-warehouse model, has begun to launch a semi-finished product series.

However, catering standardization and retailization are the pain points of 3R food.

The catering industry and convenience stores have launched semi-finished products, but problems such as supply chain, R&D capabilities and distribution are difficult to solve for the time being. It is difficult for them to break through in a short period of time, which also leads to a large number of consumers' needs not being met.