Chinese's love for hot pot has been passed down for more than 2,000 years - as early as the Western Han Dynasty, hot pot has been favored by the princes at that time, and the hot pot has been found in the cultural relics of the tomb of the Marquis of Haixia; and in modern times, hot pot is still very popular, and has formed a market of up to hundreds of billions. A boiling soup pot, led to the growth of the hot pot seasoning market, early manual frying is difficult to meet the rapid growth of the market demand, can not guarantee the hot pot base, flavor taste standards are unified and stable quality, so the hot pot base assembly line production is the trend of the development of the industry, humble hot pot base is undoubtedly a "boiling gold mine".
Out of the hot pot base comes the Chuan baby
In 2008, a "Chuanwazi" named Tang Lei opened a string incense shop in Meishan, the wenchuan earthquake area, and the unique taste made the store's business hot. In just a few years, Tang Lei's skewer franchise stores have rapidly expanded to thousands, in the face of the booming skewer business, Tang Lei saw the "Sichuan flavor seasoning" business, Tang Lei believes that standardized and standardized substrate will be one of the keys to determining the competitiveness of a skewer shop, hot pot shop or even a chain brand.
Tang Lei, founder and CEO of Chuanwazi Food
In 2012, Tang Lei founded Pengshan Chuanwazi Food Factory, which has built Chuanwazi into a central kitchen for Sichuan flavor seasonings and a standardized service provider for Chinese Sichuan flavor. The regular army "Chuanwazi" officially entered the field of compound condiments.
Facts have proved that Tang Lei's judgment is accurate, with the increase in income level, the proportion of the population of foreign food continues to increase, driving terminal catering to show a trend of chaining, standardization and takeaway, compound condiments can help restaurant standardization, de-chef, efficiency, in the B-end demand continues to rise, the process of catering chaining accelerates, and with the change in the demand of restaurant enterprises, Tang Lei also actively responds to the upgrade, for the catering chain to carry out professional seasoning customization services.
In 2018, Chuanwazi's business model and growth potential were favored by the grassroots Zhiben of New Hope Group and became a strategic holding subsidiary of New Hope Group. New Hope has given Chuanwazi a strong empowerment in food safety management, supply chain factory upgrading, R&D investment, and the introduction of outstanding talents. In the same year, the Chuanwazi Tmall flagship store was officially opened, and the tentacles were extended to the C end.
In 2019, with a total investment of 300 million yuan, the AAA-level intelligent ecological factory covering an area of 120 acres was put into operation, integrating industry-leading "automation, informatization, intelligence and visualization" management, with an annual production capacity of more than 150,000 tons. At the same time, a food research institute was set up to create a high-tech research and development laboratory. Based on the blessing of the company's software and hardware strength, Chuanwazi has created a personalized, intelligent and professional flexible customized supply chain, and the To B-end business has gradually begun to transform and upgrade to provide highly standardized one-stop cooking solutions, and strive to create a standardized meal service provider. Now it has served more than 15,000 restaurant chain brands nationwide, including large-scale chain catering brands such as Haidilao, Xiaolongkan, Dezhuang Hotpot, Hefu Lao noodles, and Weikemei, as well as internationally renowned condiment brands.
On the C-end, as a ready-to-use seasoning, Chinese compound condiments are simple to use, and can be directly mixed with ingredients to make finished products, which solves the problem that young people will not do it and has no time to do it, and is welcomed by young people who have poor cooking skills and want to enjoy food.
Chuanwazi "B + C" two-wheel drive model, but also brought unexpected effects, Tang Lei revealed that many guests in the hot pot shop to eat Chuanwazi sauce, will take the initiative to go to the retail channel to buy. This makes Tang Lei truly feel that the years of efforts of the B-end can also be truly recognized in the hearts of consumers.
The rise of chain catering and the blessing of the lazy economy, China's compound condiment market still has huge growth potential - public data show that China's compound condiment market size has increased from 55.7 billion yuan in 2013 to 109.1 billion yuan in 2017, with an annual compound growth rate of 15.83%, and it is expected to reach 166 billion yuan before 2021.
Recently, the compound condiment brand Chuanwazi Food completed nearly 300 million yuan A round of financing, led by Gaorong Capital, Xiamen C&D and related institutions to follow the investment, after the completion of this round of financing, will be mainly used for investment and mergers and acquisitions, digital supply chain and brand building, and this round of financing together, as well as the comprehensive renewal of the Chuanwazi food brand - to give the brand young, enterprising, and constantly exploring the brand tone, Chuanwazi officially launched a new brand logo, released a new brand proposition of "seeking freshness, intelligent wa era".
Capital entry opens up new differentiation
Product strength, research and development power, scale power and innovation power are the business economics that Tang Lei has always adhered to and implemented.
In terms of creating products, Tang Lei is in line with the principle of "only choosing the right one and not choosing the expensive". Based on data insights, ChuanWazi found that the lowest demand logic of current users: in the entire catering scene, consumers' new consumer demands for the "fresh and spicy" category are higher than those of the "spicy" plate, and obviously, the traditional hot sauce can no longer meet the young consumer group.
In the C-end market of 100 billion, the head brands such as Lao Gan Ma have built industry barriers and brand influence for many years, and how to innovate around new consumer demands is the first problem that Chuanwazi must solve. Relying on the 13 years of deep cultivation in the B-end market, Chuanwazi has 15 professional R&D teams and 5 professional quality testing teams, as well as more than 100 domestic first-class catering chefs to provide technical support, with solid internal strength. Externally, new hope's resources for the entire group are another solid backing for Chuanwazi. With the blessing of many bottom cards, Tang Lei focused on the more subdivided sauce categories of compound condiments and opened the field of "fresh sauce" competition.
A "fresh" word is enough to seduce many people and stop many enterprises. In Tang Lei's view, no standardization means that there must be pain points, which is mainly due to the fact that it is difficult to ensure the supply of peppers all year round.
Therefore, Chuanwazi has carried out year-round pepper procurement in Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangdong and Guangxi, relying on the logistics and transportation advantages of the New Hope Cold Chain to ensure that it can be completed from the source of picking to transportation to production and production within 3 days, which is enough to leave most people behind.
Chuanwazi's roasted pepper sauce breaks through the traditional hot sauce category, and the taste of pickled hot sauce is more than that of pickled hot sauce
fresh. Just look at the materials, it is enough to tempt people to water - Sichuan baby roast pepper sauce raw materials are of high quality, carefully selected Sichuan local season fresh and tender erjing strips, compared to the vine pepper and peppercorns of the "sun like fire", it pepper is long, spicy but not dry; picked mellow season farmhouse rapeseed oil, strong taste, thick taste, original fragrance authentic; selected purple skin single head garlic, full, garlic is tempting.
During the epidemic in 2020, Chuanwazi roasted pepper sauce set a record of selling 500,000 bottles in 3 minutes in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, and then won the "CCTV Finance", the market awareness increased rapidly, the explosive products out of the circle, and successfully opened a breakthrough for Chuanwazi to penetrate into the C-end market.
With differentiated product positioning and surprising winning tactics, the popular single product "roasted pepper sauce" as the core slowly cut into the large category, forming several star series such as bibimbap sauce, hot pot base, seasoning and convenient fast food. But Chuanwazi is not satisfied with this, jumping out of the focus of consumers' family life scenes, Chuanwazi launched a convenient carry, adapt to the fast-paced life of the "one-person food" small canned roasted pepper sauce, into the family life journey, camping and other more diversified dining scenes.
In 2021, Chuanwazi maintained the momentum of sustained and rapid development, marched all the way, and won the recognition and affirmation from the same industry, partners and consumers, and won a number of honorary commendations, including "315 Ingenious Brand", "2021 Peace of Mind Award - Annual Sichuan Flavor Seasoning Brand", "2021 New Consumer Brand Future Unicorn TOP100", "2021 TBI Annual Most Growing Brand Award" and so on.
Make sauce to accompany Generation Z
The concept of consumption is iterating, and the concept of diet is also updating, which is common with the new era. Keeping up with the rhythm of the market, food companies can maintain strong vitality. In the past decade, the compound condiment track has always shown a trend of hollowness and two big ends, which has also given enterprises like Chuanwazi the opportunity to develop rapidly, but if you want to run further on this track, research and development capabilities, channel control capabilities, and brand recognition are indispensable.
As a "latecomer" in the C-end sauce market, how does Chuanwazi achieve the latecomers? The wine aroma is also afraid of the deep alley, and how to drink with a good product is also a delicate job.
When the traditional sauce brand is still using the traditional offline distribution model, Chuanwazi, who has observed the transformation of the industry, has already extended its tentacles to the line, and in 2018, Chuanwazi, who established an e-commerce business department, decided to make the roasted pepper sauce into a "hot product".
In 2020, Chuanwazi began to cooperate with Li Jiaqi, the head of the live broadcast, to promote products such as "Chuanwazi Roasted Pepper Sauce" and "Oil Spicy Seeds". Even Jiaqi's mother personally recommended the roast pepper sauce, which was full of praise.
Through the layout of online e-commerce, Chuanwazi has won a good reputation and considerable sales volume among C-end consumers, through the three-party linkage of e-commerce platforms, Internet and channels, and with big data insight into market demand for product research and development, using new media for communication and promotion, on many social media such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, carry out grass content output, build a social media ecology under the omni-channel perspective, and complete the transformation of marketing innovation.
Working together online and offline, in 2021, Chuanwazi handed over a brilliant report card, and the average growth rate of Chuanwazi's omni-channel sales in the past three years reached 42%.
Behind the eye-catching data is the perfect combination of Chuanwazi product power, marketing power, channel power, and brand power, compared with the consumption and use of the product itself, the construction of user experience is a more long-term thing. Chuanwazi pays special attention to user experience, not only to have a full understanding of the characteristics of crowd consumption, but also to tailor personalized products and services for users to achieve a perfect user experience.
In the newly completed brand renewal, Chuanwazi is newly positioned as a "meal companion", in addition to focusing on the value of brand function, giving the brand a warm brand connotation, providing consumers with spiritual comfort, launching a unified brand theme: "fresh and spicy, accompanied by meals", interpreting the overall connotation of the product with "fresh spicy and flavorful", with "accompaniment" as the core of the main line of communication, playing a differentiated emotional card, narrowing the distance with consumers, and strengthening the emotional bond between the brand and consumers to meet the post-epidemic era. The psychological need for warmth and companionship among young consumer groups.
When the first post-90s generations, who are not very good at cooking, begin to get older, it also means that their spending power is stronger. Unlike other consumer goods, people always have a long-term affection for taste, and after being occupied by the "freshness" of Chuanwazi, "buying it" can become a pleasant consumption habit.
"Brand power is the source of long-term traffic of enterprises, and the values behind them also have more social and cultural connotations, which is even the only way for enterprises to truly achieve evergreen foundations." The real ideal state of the enterprise is that the user is not only attracted and applauded by the product, but also deeply attracted by the brand values and cultural trends behind it. In Tang Lei's eyes, Chuanwazi is such a brand, originating from the Sichuan flavor family, adhering to the tradition, absorbing the essence of northern and southern dishes, creating delicious at the same time, passing on the Sichuan flavor and going to the world.
The rapidly developing compound condiment market, the "star" that has been hidden in the upper reaches of the supply chain, is rapidly rushing to the front of the curtain.
"In China's compound condiment track with a wide audience base, Chuanwazi has innovatively opened up the incremental market of fresh sauce and built trust with consumers through this category." Han Rui, a partner at Gaorong Capital, said that the young founders and team of Chuanhuazi not only have a keen observation of the perspective of consumers, capture the needs of a new generation of consumer groups for convenience and health, but also have a firm determination to invest in digital supply chain and product research and development innovation, which is one of the reasons why Gaorong Capital chose Chuanwazi.
In the future, Chuanwazi Food will adhere to the long-term doctrine, break through the boundaries of thinking, continuously tap the explicit needs of consumers, develop more new products, strengthen the omni-channel layout, and accompany the dining time of 1.4 billion Chinese consumers with fresh food.