How "rolled" is the mooncake in 2021?

Strange tastes, national tide elements, cross-border combinations...

How "rolled" is the mooncake in 2021?

"Qing painting enamel pattern lid jar" pattern Forbidden City mooncake brocade box

The "Star Moon" gold leaf mooncake at the Jinsha Site Museum

I didn't expect that even the mooncake was rolled up!

Museum joint name, cultural and creative gift box, blind box... On the occasion of the Mid-Autumn Festival, mooncakes have become a sought-after commodity again, and major mooncake brands have done their best to "compete for glory", and this year's mooncake industry has blown up a cultural and creative joint brand wind. But they never expected that this year's biggest competitor was actually a "spirit cake" printed with the hospital's exclusive logo.

"A box of spirit cakes, eat the spirit all day." This is the "secret code" that netizens in the "circle" often use to ridicule themselves. Two days ago, the mooncake gift box that they originally sold for 78 yuan - "Mooncakes at No. 600 Wanping South Road" was fried to 1288 yuan on the Internet.

Every year it is squeezed and sold every year, because the mooncakes are really profitable. According to the annual reports of listed companies, their gross profit margins are as high as nearly 60%. Therefore, the analysis believes that even in the face of rising raw material costs this year, mooncakes are still a good business.

The mooncake industry with high gross profit margin has attracted competition from major enterprises and formed different factions. "The competition for mooncakes is far more intense than imaginable." Some companies said in an interview with reporters.

Desperately play out of the flower mooncake world

Mooncake merchants can be described as exhausted, and all kinds of mooncakes compete for glory. Mooncake as a seasonal FMCG, every second in the market is a "race against the clock", all kinds of mooncakes have been on the hot search, in the mooncake industry "inner volume", consumers will never know what the next popular mooncake is.

Shape flavor flower

"Ice cream" and "bottle" have a variety of shapes, "snail powder" and "crayfish" have different tastes

According to the Tianyancha app, China's patent application information related to "moon cake" exceeds 10,000, and there are more than 1,800 in the current state of validity, most of which are appearance patents, and the moon cake in the shape of a bottle is one of them. The patent introduction shows that the "bottle mooncake" is shaped like a bottle. In addition, the strange mooncake patents include "river crab mooncake" and "ice cream mooncake". As a patent for appearance, these mooncakes are shaped in the shape of a river crab and an ice cream, respectively. In addition, there are also hollowed-out circular mooncakes, separable multi-layer mooncakes, etc., and there are many kinds of patterns.

In addition to these strange-looking mooncakes, there are also many mooncakes with various ingredients. Snail powder flavor, crayfish flavor, mustard salmon flavor, hairy crab flavor, fresh meat flavor, milk tea flavor... All kinds of strange mooncakes, everything you need.

A peppery soup mooncake, on an e-commerce platform, shows that 6 mooncakes with beef peppery soup flavor need about 109 yuan to buy, and 8 ordinary peppery soup flavor gift boxes need about 230 yuan. Love peppery soup and also love mooncakes. Peppery soup, mooncakes put together, this wonderful collision and combination, is the taste of Henan is not wrong.

According to the product introduction, the ingredients are beef, fungus, shiitake mushrooms, peanuts, gluten and so on. According to the merchants, the merchants behind this mooncake were originally authentic Peppery Soup Restaurants in Henan, and the taste was absolutely authentic. Despite this, the reporter found that this mooncake has not yet sold much.

This year, the most "devastating" snail powder mooncake came out, and the filling is made of sour shoots, snail meat, tribute dishes, rice noodles and so on. Judging from the product introduction, the skin of the snail powder mooncake is black and shiny, which is very similar to the asphalt road under the high temperature. According to the merchant, this is the reason for the addition of cuttlefish juice to the skin.

How does it taste? According to the comments of guests who have eaten: "The skin is thin and filling, the taste is very unique, and there is a little spicy." It is not at all the horror taste of "Chang'e and Wu Gang don't want to go down to the mortals" speculated by some netizens who have not practiced.

In addition, there are also hairy crabs, vinegar poppers and fresh meat composed of fillings, bite down to feel the vinegar beads burst on the tip of the tongue of the hairy crab fresh meat popping beads mooncake; shrimp meat made of q bomb shrimp meat with fresh meat to make stuffed spicy crayfish mooncakes; salmon, fish roe, seaweed and sushi salmon mooncakes seasoned with mustard seasoning... All kinds of stuffing, only you can't think of it, no merchant can't do it.

Crossover fun slip

The hospital museum has made a moon cake, and there are many businesses and blind boxes

"Overnight, it was as if all of Shanghai was looking for mooncakes at 600 Wanping South Road." No. 600 Wanping South Road refers to the Shanghai Mental Health Center, and this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, this mooncake from the hospital became a "net red model".

The Shanghai Mental Health Center, also known as the Shanghai Mental Hospital, comes with its own topics and heat, making this mooncake full of "self-deprecating attributes". This mooncake is printed with the words "Shanghai Mental Health Center" and "smhc 1935", and there are many flavors such as milk cheese, green apple green plum, coffee chocolate and so on. According to media reports, the mooncakes launched by the Shanghai Mental Health Center are not for sale, and the price of 78 yuan is only available to internal employees, and must be purchased in the canteen with rice cards, but this does not prevent it from "going out of the circle". On September 11, according to the "Look at the News" video, the mooncake of the Shanghai Mental Health Center was sold at a price of 599 yuan and 699 yuan on a second-hand platform, and even some netizens broke the news that the price of 1288 yuan was 16.5 times the original price.

In addition, perhaps seeing the dividends brought by the "national tide" wind in the first half of the year to brands such as shoes and clothing, cosmetics, etc., the traditional food of the mooncake was also marked with the label of the national tide this year, and in the Hema store, the national tide mooncake became one of the sales categories.

If we talk about packaging creativity and cultural connotations, the major museums undoubtedly have considerable advantages - for example, the Palace Museum, which is far ahead in the field of cultural creativity, has launched the "Yuan's Heart" Jin Box series, the "Forbidden City Architecture" series and the Forbidden City Skill Inheritance Series in one go, which are gorgeous and atmospheric. The National Museum, Shaanxi History Museum, Shanghai Museum, Jinsha Site Museum, etc. are not far behind, and have launched their own special cultural and creative mooncakes.

This year's mooncake merchants have also launched more new ways to play. Such as mooncakes× silk scarves, mooncakes× wine, mooncakes × kites of cross-border combinations of goods...

Achieving "strong alliance" through IP cooperation has also become a popular way to play this year, and Sichuan brand Aidale is one of them. On September 16, the person in charge of the Adalle brand introduced to reporters that this year, the company and Changhong and others made a joint name together, hoping to give customers some freshness, as well as jointly promote the spread of the entire Sichuan cultural customs.

While continuing to launch Dunhuang co-branded mooncakes, Liangpin Shop has added the popular blind box play. According to reports, the special blind box launched by the company includes mobile phone lanyards, wooden seals, sticky notes, sachets and other objects, which are also the same peripherals of the cultural and creative products of dunhuang research institutes.

Under fancy marketing, the price of mooncakes of some manufacturers has also gone up. The reporter saw in the Häagen-Dazs Tmall flagship store that a gift box mooncake jointly customized by Häagen-Dazs and the Louvre was as high as 998 yuan, even if the coupon was used, the price was as high as 798 yuan. And this is not the highest priced mooncake jointly branded by Häagen-Dazs and the Louvre.

Cater to new needs

Merchants are looking at the big health track Low sugar mooncakes have triggered a consumption boom

From the "Wuren Mooncake" to this year's "Low Sugar Mooncake", the taste and marketing method of the mooncake are constantly updated. In this regard, Daoxiangcun said in an interview with reporters that the scale of the mooncake market continues to expand, and the trend of brand concentration is becoming increasingly obvious. In addition to price, consumers pay more attention to the taste and quality of mooncakes. Especially affected by the epidemic, consumers' demand for "healthy mooncakes" has increased. Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in the Chinese food industry, believes that the development trajectory of mooncakes follows the economic development trajectory of the entire China.

Some merchants look at this year's hot health track, and launched a healthy mooncake including plant meat and low sugar, especially low-sugar mooncakes, although it was not launched for the first time this year, but it triggered a consumption boom under this year's health trend.

Daoxiangcun told reporters that this year's mooncakes, on the basis of years of oil and sugar reduction, launched sugar alcohol mooncakes and low-sugar mooncakes, which were liked by consumers with a "healthy and low-sugar" lifestyle. In addition, Cantonese mooncake brand Maxim's also launched a low-sugar series of mooncakes this year.

When the reporter visited a Hema fresh store in Beijing's Chaoyang District, the store employee told reporters that the best seller in the store at present is the low-sugar mooncake launched by Maxim's. The employee said that young people are more inclined to buy low-sugar mooncakes for health reasons. Employees of another Wumart supermarket also said that the buyers of low-sugar mooncakes are mainly young people, and some young people buy them for health reasons to send to their elders, while older consumers are not inclined to buy more expensive low-sugar mooncakes for price considerations.

However, in early September, some netizens were on the hot search for diarrhea after eating the mooncake gift box sent by Zhihu, and whether the low-sugar mooncake was really healthy also caused consumers to worry. On September 8, Zhihu said in the apology letter that the factory products have been tested by the producer and independent third-party institutions and meet the relevant quality standards of the food industry, but ignoring the maltitol used to replace sucrose may cause some people to become intolerant and cause physical discomfort, and have contacted to recall all mooncakes.

The plant meat mooncake has not been accepted by most consumers since its launch. On August 3, Shen Dacheng, a long-established brand in Shanghai, posted on Weibo that it would launch a plant meat mooncake that would simulate the organization and taste of meat with soy protein and wheat protein, and said that "compared with ordinary mooncakes, the protein content is higher, the saturated fatty acid content is lower, and the calories are lower..." After the Weibo was issued, it caused controversy among consumers, and at present, Shen Dacheng's official Weibo, related Weibo has been deleted.

Reflect the "anxiety" and "inner volume" of the mooncake enterprise

According to Ai Media Consulting data, China's mooncake sales increased from 13.18 billion yuan in 2015 to 20.52 billion yuan in 2020, showing an upward trend. With the normalization of epidemic prevention and control and the people paying more attention to traditional festivals, the demand for visiting relatives and friends will continue to recover, and it is expected that the sales scale of Chinese mooncakes will reach 21.8 billion yuan in 2021. The mooncake industry of 21.8 billion yuan can accommodate many factions and various enterprises.

High corporate/gross margin

There are companies that rely on selling mooncakes

Support the revenue "half of the country"

For the mooncake production enterprises, some netizens commented: "Hard work for two months, lie and earn a whole year." ”

The mooncake sales window is short, only two months before the Mid-Autumn Festival, but many companies can support the "half of the country" of revenue by selling mooncakes every year.

In the A-share market, there are relatively few enterprises with a high proportion of mooncake production in revenue, including Guangzhou Restaurant (603043.sh), Yuanzu Shares (603886.sh), Tao Li Bread (603866.sh), *st Mai Qu (002719.sz) and so on.

According to the financial report, from 2017 to 2019, guangzhou restaurants' revenue from selling mooncakes alone was 898 million yuan, 1.038 billion yuan and 1.192 billion yuan. In 2020, Guangzhou restaurants earned 1.378 billion yuan from selling mooncakes, accounting for 41.9% of the total revenue, and the gross profit margin reached 58.37%. It can be seen that selling mooncakes in the first two months of the Mid-Autumn Festival alone can bring 40% of the income of Restaurants in Guangzhou.

Another mooncake giant, Yuanzu Shares, in 2017, the revenue of the mooncake gift box was 618 million yuan, accounting for 35.64% of the total revenue of the enterprise, and the gross profit margin reached 67.83%. In 2018 and 2019, the revenue of mooncake gift boxes was 695 million yuan and 829 million yuan, respectively. By 2020, Yuanzu shares, including mooncakes, rice dumplings, etc., sold more than 40 million boxes of Chinese and Western-style pastry gift boxes, with revenue reaching 1.388 billion yuan, gross profit margin of 55.96%, and revenue accounting for about 56%.

In 2020, *st Maiqu's "holiday food" revenue was 70.482 million yuan, with a gross profit margin of 53.16%, and revenue accounted for 8.05%. The sales revenue of tao li bread for the whole year last year was 118 million yuan, an increase of 11.19% year-on-year, and the gross profit margin was 34.43%.

According to CCTV financial reports, Dong Kezhi, director of the overseas business department of Suzhou Daoxiangcun Group, said that the company exported more than 20 containers and more than 5 million mooncakes in 2021, which increased by 70% compared with the export of mooncakes in 2020 this year.

Market/competition is fierce

Concentrated market share with seasonal attributes

Competition is particularly fierce in a short period of time

At present, the small mooncake has supported the market value of tens of billions, and the market size continues to increase. Ai Media Consulting data shows that from 2015 to 2020, China's mooncake sales showed an upward trend, from 13.18 billion yuan to 20.52 billion yuan, and it is expected that China's mooncake sales will reach 21.81 billion yuan in 2021.

According to the "2020 Mooncake Data Consumption Report", the sales scale of domestic Mid-Autumn Mooncakes has been continuously increasing. In 2015, the output of mooncakes was 328,000 tons, with sales of 13.18 billion yuan, and the output of mooncakes in 2019 was about 364,000 tons, an increase of 1.4% year-on-year; sales were about 19.67 billion yuan, an increase of 7.9% year-on-year. In 2019, China's mooncake sales reached 1.38 billion, that is to say, each Chinese can be divided into one.

At the same time, the market share is becoming more and more concentrated in the head market, and a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises are out.

According to the data of Tianyancha, in 2020, the number of mooncake enterprises registered was 2522, down 11.5% year-on-year; at present, there are 23,000 mooncake-related enterprises in China, which is less than the end of 2020. From January to August 2021, the number of new registrations of mooncake enterprises was 783, down 51.3% year-on-year.

On the other hand, because of the seasonal nature of mooncakes, there is no longer a market after the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the competition in a short period of time is particularly fierce. The strange taste of mooncakes is endless, which also shows the "anxiety" and "inner volume" of mooncake companies.

At present, mooncake players are mainly divided into three camps: established catering enterprises, baking/pastry companies, and cross-border enterprises. In recent years, more and more cross-border players, such as Xi tea selling milk tea, Naixue tea, and good shops selling nut snacks, etc., all want to get a piece of the pie.

Compared with the first two, cross-border enterprises themselves have their own traffic, have a certain brand effect and topic degree, and are more likely to become "Internet celebrity explosions", but the "2020 Mooncake Data Consumption Report" pointed out that cross-border enterprises generally adopt the OEM model, and often do not have advantages in terms of technology and formula. (Reporter Yu Yao, Qiang Yamilling, Peng Xiangping, Dai Jiajia, Intern Guo Wenyi, Comprehensive Daily Economic News)

Source: Chengdu Business Daily