Image source @ Visual China
Wen 丨 Red Food Network
2021 is finally over.
A lot has happened in the restaurant industry over the past year. Some restaurant companies have successfully listed, and some restaurant companies have announced the closure of stores; some restaurant companies have successively obtained huge financing to vigorously develop, and some restaurant companies have left the market due to the break of the capital chain of cost fluctuations; and some restaurant companies have frequently been on the hot search because of such and such problems, causing such and such problems...
This year, the catering industry has experienced a lot, but also gained a lot.
Today, Red Food Network will review this unique year with you to see what major events have occurred in the catering industry in 2021.
Meat, vegetables and condiments have risen one after another, and the catering industry has suffered three price increases
Price increases may be one of the most frequently talked about words in catering companies in 2021.
From the beginning of 2021, the dark cloud of rising prices has hung over the restaurant industry. In the first wave of price increases at the beginning of the year, the price of pork, mutton and other meat rose high, the price of pork in some areas even exceeded 40 yuan / kg, and the average price of beef also rose to 76.95 yuan / kg.
At the same time, the price of some basic ingredients such as cabbage, eggs, green onions, millet spicy and so on is also like riding a rocket, one price a day. For example, cabbage 1.6-2 yuan / catty; garlic burst through 2.5 yuan / catty; millet spicy 30 yuan a catty...
In mid-October 2021, the catering industry ushered in a second wave of price increases, this time not for meat, but for vegetables.
At that time, leafy vegetables basically broke through the ten yuan mark, ushering in a new high in vegetable prices in recent years, and the topic of #vegetable price rise was also on Weibo hot search, which caused a serious impact on restaurants that need to use a lot of vegetables almost every day. At that time, Lao Xu, the owner of a spicy hot shop in a city village in Guangzhou, sighed: "If we continue like this, we will only have to work for the landlord." ”
At the end of the year, I thought that everyone could prepare for the peak season at the end of the year, and as a result, the catering industry suffered a third wave of price increases, this time it was a collective price increase of condiments!
In just two weeks from the end of November to the beginning of December 2021, many large seasoning manufacturers collectively announced price increases, and seasoning manufacturers such as Kitchen Bang, Lee Kum Kee, Hengshun Vinegar Industry, and Jiajia Food collectively issued price increase notices, with increases ranging from 3% to 10%. Suddenly, the panic of rising prices swept through the catering industry.
This round after round of raw material price increases is like a "wheel war", which crushes catering enterprises in turn and makes catering people breathless. What is even more frightening is that these will continue to affect the catering industry in the future.
At the "2022 Economic Blue Book Press Conference and China Economic Situation Report" hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, experts expected that the increase in CPI in 2022 will be expanded compared with 2021. Most people in the industry also believe that under the influence of various global situations, the price of bulk agricultural and sideline products will continue to rise, and in the future, back-end supply chain companies may continue to cope with rising costs by raising prices.
This means that in 2022, the prices of major raw materials will continue to rise for a period of time, and restaurant companies will continue to be under pressure. Restaurateurs must be prepared for long-term responses, choose long-term strategies rather than short-term tactics, and proactively explore strategies that balance costs and markets.
Diners and restaurants are fined, and national legislation stops food waste
As early as August 2020, the central government pointed out that the phenomenon of catering waste was shocking and distressing, and stressed the need to resolutely stop catering waste. Then, anti-waste and anti-waste have begun to become the focus of heated discussions in the catering industry.
In 2020, various measures have been taken across the country to increase the publicity of anti-catering waste, such as advocating to guide rational consumption and not to induce consumers to over-order; appropriate rewards for "disc" customers; and advocating the implementation of the "N-1" dining model.
By 2021, the state will step up its efforts to reduce anti-catering waste to the legislative level. On April 26, 2021, the draft Anti-Food Waste Law was released and submitted to the National People's Congress for deliberation, triggering heated discussions in the industry.
The draft requires that catering service operators can charge consumers who cause obvious waste the corresponding fees for disposing of kitchen waste, and the draft also proposes that catering service operators must not induce or mislead consumers to order excessive food, and takeaway platforms should prompt consumers to order in an appropriate amount in a conspicuous way...
After the draft regulations were exposed, many people in the catering industry expressed their approval and looked forward to the introduction of relevant regulations. There are also many people who are worried about the landing and implementation of policies: on the one hand, if they are not implemented in accordance with the regulations, the restaurant itself may be warned and punished; on the other hand, once the restaurant is strictly enforced, it may offend consumers and affect the restaurant business.
At the end of November 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Anti-Food Waste Work Plan", proposing to strictly supervise the relevant information of food waste, prohibit radio stations, television stations, and online audio and video service providers from producing, publishing, and disseminating programs or audio and video information that waste food, such as mostly eating and overeating, and refusing to make corrections or serious circumstances, and imposing fines, circulating criticisms, or suspension of programs for rectification.
The "Anti-Food Waste Work Plan" quickly landed, making a group of "big stomach kings" eating and drinking bloggers instantly dumb, and the country's determination to oppose food waste can be seen.
Although the draft "Anti-Food Waste Law" is still in the deliberation stage, when the boots will land is still unknown, but the Red Food Network believes that from the perspective of a series of national actions, legislation to stop catering waste is the trend of the times, and catering people must always be prepared to meet the accompanying market changes!
The "first share" of the pre-made dish was born, and the track was hot overnight
In 2020, due to the epidemic, many enterprises are on the verge of closure, closing stores and laying off employees, but it has also brought new opportunities to the catering industry, and pre-made dishes are one of them.
Starting from 2020, the "spillover noodles" of prefabricated dishes have influenced from back-end producers to front-end restaurant enterprises, and then developed into entrepreneurial enterprises, and various pre-made vegetable products have also mushroomed. For example, Haidilao has launched a series of convenient dishes on its major official platforms; Xibei has used its own WeChat Mini Program Mall to sell prefabricated dishes; Meizhou Dongpo not only sells in its own WeChat Mini Program Mall, but also cooperates with Wumart Supermarket to open 4 semi-finished vegetable stores in Beijing.
△ Image source: WeiZhixiang official Weibo
On April 27, 2021, the birth of the "first share of prefabricated dishes" Weizhixiang completely pushed the development of the prefabricated dish track to a climax, making the prefabricated dish a fragrant feast in the market.
With the popularity of Weizhixiang's "first share of pre-made dishes", Zhenwei Xiaomeiyuan and Meizhou Dongpo's Wangjiadu Food have successively obtained tens of millions of financing, and Xibei's "Jia Guolong Kung Fu Cuisine", which specializes in semi-finished dishes, has opened more than 200 stores...
In the 2021 Tmall "Double 11" war, prefabricated dishes have become the "blockbusters" of major e-commerce platforms with super high transaction volumes.
In general, because of its convenient, fast, variety and good taste, pre-made dishes quickly captured the hearts of young people who could not cook, thus opening the door to the blue ocean market. But in the process of rapid development of prepared dishes, it is also accompanied by a series of problems. For example, the taste is difficult to personalize, it is difficult to store problems, etc. In the future, how to iterate on the products and markets of pre-made dishes will be left to time to test.
The valuation of 1 store of Mo Mo Dim Sum Bureau is 100 million, and the catering ushered in a financing boom
In 2021, capital investment in catering will not only surprise catering people, but also make other industries look at it.
On June 25, 2021, the Mo Mo Dim Sum Bureau of the new baking circuit received a round of financing of hundreds of millions of yuan from today's capital, which is the fourth round of financing of mo mo dim sum bureau in 2021, after this round of financing, the valuation of mo mo dim sum bureau reached 2 billion yuan, and the valuation of a single store exceeded 100 million yuan.
At the same time, Hutou Bureau Standard Chartered Cake Co., Ltd. also completed nearly $50 million in Series A financing in 2021, and its single store valuation was as high as 375 million yuan; Master Bao's more than 100 stores received an investment intention letter with a valuation of 10 billion yuan.
△ Image source: Mo Mo Dim Sum Bureau official Weibo
In the flour noodle track, Hefu Lao noodles announced the completion of nearly 800 million yuan E round financing, met Xiao Mian announced the completion of more than 100 million yuan financing, and Wuye Mixed Noodles completed 2 rounds of financing in just 20 days;
In the coffee track, Luckin Coffee completed 250 million yuan of financing, Nova Coffee completed 200 million yuan of financing; the financing of the new tea drinking track was as high as 14, and the more well-known tea brands such as Michelle Ice City, Naixue's Tea, Xicha, and Shanghai Auntie all received a considerable amount of financing.
2021 can be said to be a veritable year of catering capital. But in the second half of 2021, catering people also obviously feel that catering financing began to show a trend of gradual cooling, Wang Pu, vice president of Wangju Capital Investment, said in the "Second China Catering Brand Festival", at present, catering financing has begun to return to normal and return to the rhythm of rationality, he said that in the next 2022, catering investment and financing will be more rational.
In the face of the cooling of capital, catering companies may work harder than in the past year to do business in 2022, that is, it is time to "really rely on their skills to eat".
NaiXue went public, restaurant companies have sprinted to IPO, and the catering industry has set off a wave of listings
On June 30, 2021, Nesher's tea was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the "world's first tea drinking stock".
The listing of Nesher also seems to have opened the prelude to the listing of domestic chain restaurant companies in 2021. On September 6, 2021, the supplier behind the restaurant chain, Qianwei Central Kitchen, was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange; on September 10, the "first share of the tavern", Helen Division, successfully landed on the Hong Kong stock market.
In addition to these enterprises that have been successfully listed on the market, the hometown chicken and the old lady uncle of the rice fast food track, the honey snow ice city of the new tea drinking track, the purple swallow baiwei chicken of the brine circuit, the fishing king of the hot pot track, and the green tea of the dinner track have all announced sprint IPOs.
△ Image source: Nai Xue's tea official Weibo
At the same time, many restaurant companies are also rumored to be about to be listed or to be listed, such as Wen Heyou, Village Base, XiCha, Banu Mao Belly Hot Pot... Even Xibei, who once declared that it would never be listed, made a statement in 2021 to consider going public at the right time.
In 2021, the listing trend of restaurant companies is extremely positive and hot. There is no doubt that the door of the capital market has been opened to many restaurant companies, which to some extent also confirms that the catering industry has great potential. In the future, how many listed companies can run out of the catering track, we will wait and see!
Fat brothers and other catering brands have been fined for food safety, and the catering industry will enter the "Year of Food Safety" in 2021.
On August 23, 2021, the topic of "fat brothers and crab pots use a lot of expired ingredients" appeared on Weibo hot search, which suddenly involved the catering company in the whirlpool of public opinion.
Subsequently, the fat brothers who could not withstand the pressure apologized through their official Weibo and closed the store involved in the business for rectification. In October 2021, the two stores of the fat brothers were fined 500,000 yuan by the Chaoyang District Market Supervision Bureau and the Fengtai District Market Supervision Bureau in Beijing.
Soon after, the fat brothers were fined again by the Beijing Haidian District Market Supervision Bureau and the Shanghai Yangpu District Market Supervision And Administration Bureau for exceeding the standard of bullfrog veterinary drug residues in Beijing Shangdi Hualian Store and Shanghai Wujiaochang Store.
In just a few months, the fat brothers of the net red restaurant have been frequently exposed, all due to food safety problems.
△ Image source: Fat Brothers official Weibo
This year has also become the "food safety year" that many catering companies pay attention to.
Two Starbucks stores in Wuxi were closed for changing the shelf life label of ingredients and continuing to use expired ingredients; the chain hot pot shop Huofengxiang invested by Zheng Kai was smelly yellow throat and recycled lettuce, and was suspended for rectification and punishment; Yoshinoya was interviewed for making the meat foam of Mapo tofu became smelly and sour, and the stores involved were closed for rectification; and in addition to the above incidents, Michelle Ice City, Chabaidao, Haidilao, Wallace, Yang Guofu spicy hot... All of them have been exposed to food safety problems in 2021.
In 2021, when food safety problems are frequent, it has also sounded an alarm bell for restaurant companies, and at the moment when the industry's food supervision is increasingly strengthened, any small details of restaurant companies will be magnified and will be extremely harmful to the brand.
In the future, restaurant companies should do a good job in store control and staff training, and prevent problems before they occur, rather than reflecting and apologizing after the incident.
Giants such as Haidilao have announced the closure of stores, and the evil consequences of the industry stall expansion have begun to appear
On November 5, 2021, Haidilao issued an announcement that it decided to gradually close about 300 stores with relatively low passenger flow and less than expected operating performance by December 31, 2021. Haidilao said that the closure of stores was caused by the rapid expansion strategy formulated by the company in 2019, specifically due to the mistakes in store site selection, team building cannot keep up with the pace of expansion, and talent shortages.
As soon as the news came out, the catering industry was full of opinions, some people felt that even a giant like Haidilao could not hold up, and the cold winter of the industry had arrived; some people expressed understanding, believing that Haidilao found an error and stopped losses in time, which was conducive to future development.
In fact, in 2021, the store closure due to stall expansion is far more than a brand of Haidilao.
△ Image source: Haidilao's official Weibo
In November 2021, Cha Yan Yue Se announced the temporary closure of 80 stores in Changsha, which is also the third centralized closure of Cha Yan Yue Xie in 2021; in August 2021, Cha Yan Yue Also announced the decision to close 200 loss-making stores in an announcement issued by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; earlier in April, Le Le Tea also closed stores in Guangzhou, Chongqing, Xi'an and other places, and began to focus on the first and second tier markets in East China.
Most of the reasons for the closure of these brands are consistent with Haidilao: due to the repeated impact of the epidemic, some stores have suffered serious losses and have to close stores to stop losses.
In fact, by opening stores, closing stores, and reopening stores to continuously update new blood, to achieve the purpose of promoting metabolism and achieving benign development, it is actually a normal phenomenon for restaurant companies. Taking the initiative to close stores strategically within the controllable range is an indispensable survival rule in the operation process of restaurant enterprises.
However, the red food network also reminds you that large brands have the capital of trial and error, and small and medium-sized enterprises should be cautious. In 2022, there are still many uncertainties in the market, and we must be more cautious about opening stores and expanding. Surviving, living well, is still the first priority.
"Meat sandwich steamed buns" and "peppery soup" all charge franchise fees, and trademark rights protection has caused a storm
In 2021, a series of catering trademark rights protection incidents have arisen one after another, which is ironic.
In mid-to-late November 2021, a number of merchants in Henan who used the words "Xiaoyao Town" and "Tongguan" were sued for infringement by the "Xiaoyao Town Hu Spicy Soup Association" and the Shaanxi "Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun Association", and were told to either pay high compensation fees or pay fees to the relevant associations for continued use.
On November 26, the State Intellectual Property Office responded to the trademark dispute of "Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun in Xiaoyao Town": "Tongguan Meat Sandwich Bun in Xiaoyao Town" does not have the right to collect franchise fees. Subsequently, the two associations have stopped the relevant rights protection acts, and the trademark rights protection incident has "settled the dust".
Shortly after the two incidents subsided, in December 2021, restaurants in many parts of Sichuan were sued by Shanghai Wancuitang Restaurant Management Co., Ltd. for using the word "green pepper" in the name of the store and the name of the dish. Subsequently, a number of restaurant owners who were sued began a joint counter-litigation. In the end, the legal representative of Wancuitang Company announced the withdrawal of all lawsuits.
In addition to exposing the relevant provisions of laws and regulations such as the Trademark Law and other laws and regulations involving geographical indication trademarks that are too general and extensive, the turmoil over the protection of trademarks such as Tongguan Meat Sandwich Bun and Green Peppercorns has also exposed the weak trademark awareness and poor awareness of rights protection in the catering industry.
In the future, such disputes believe that in the catering industry will not be uncommon, catering enterprises must now do a good job in trademark registration and protection, to avoid the recurrence of trademark squatting, or their own hard-working brand but can not be retained.
The monthly salary of the employee is less than 3,000 yuan, and infighting breaks out in the tea face
On December 17, 2021, Cha Yan Yueshi triggered an "internal war" because of the salaries of employees.
The cause of the matter is that some Changsha employees in Chayan complained in the work group, and the original salary of about 5,000 yuan was reduced to about 2,000 yuan, and the commission was only 8 yuan, and life was difficult. As a result, an employee in Wuhan rebuked him that "if morality is not worthy of the position, there will be disasters, and how much money can be taken with how much ability" has been taken," thus triggering a "spit war" from the bottom employees to the management.
Lu Liang, the founder of Cha Yan Yue, personally went down to "tear up" with employees, and revealed that the company lost more than 20 million yuan per month during the epidemic period, bluntly saying that employees did not "empathize" with the company's losses, and thus the contradiction escalated.
After that, the work group chat records were made public, and The tea face was the first place in the hot search list of the day.
△ Image source: Cha Yan Yue color official Weibo
Eventually, founder Lu Liang issued an apology letter in response to the matter and apologized to the employees. He said that due to the impact of the epidemic, the performance of Chayan's stores has been greatly reduced, coupled with the temporary closure of stores, some employees have no work arrangements, in order to solve the problem of insufficient working hours for employees, the company has made a round of temporary adjustments to salaries.
An internal contradiction, fermented into an Internet hotspot, but Cha Yan's employees did not get better pay, Cha Yan was also criticized by many consumers, corrupting the popularity of passers-by, which can be described as a "lose-lose".
Many "lively" catering people, while lamenting the absurdity and drama of this incident, also deeply appreciate the difficulty of catering operation and staff management.
For restaurant companies, having brand awareness and topicality is a good thing, but poor management and chaotic management will make these advantages "lose" overnight. In the catering industry that will always lack people, how to manage employees well in the future, how to give employees better treatment and the future, manage people well, and retain people will be a problem that everyone has to think about.
The first case of franchise fraud was detected, and there was a lot of chaos in the new tea drink franchise
In May 2021, the Shanghai police reported and detected the first case of "routine franchise" contract fraud in Shanghai that used a fake brand milk tea investment website to attract franchisees and defrauded franchise fees with fictitious performance capabilities, involving more than 50 milk tea brands such as "Huadiandian" and "Chazhilan".
In this case, the police arrested more than 90 criminal suspects such as Jin Mou and Wang Mou, destroyed a number of false investment websites, and seized a large number of false authorization documents, contract documents, telephone lists, OEM milk tea and other items involved in the case, involving an amount of more than 700 million yuan.
With the cracking of this franchise fraud case, the "quick recruitment companies" were also exposed in front of the public.
It is understood that most of these franchise frauds use high returns, low investment plus celebrity endorsements as a gimmick to attract entrepreneurs to enter the game, and then hollow out the entrepreneurs' home foundation by charging franchise fees and material fees, marketing fees, etc., and then there are problems on various excuses and even missing.
Taking "Chazhilan" as an example, the so-called brand side hired the star Ma Yili as an endorsement, and invited Ma Yili to stand on the platform many times, and used this to hype up and harvest a large number of "leeks". After the "Cha Zhilan" lie was punctured by the police, Ma Yili had to apologize publicly on Weibo.
For example, the milk tea shop "tea anchor" endorsed by Zheng Kai was exposed to suspected fraud, involving hundreds of millions of dollars; the "happy formula" endorsed by Li Weijia also exposed the problems such as franchisee store losses and no way to refund fees, and triggered the franchisee's "door-to-door" rights protection incident.
The gray industrial chain of "quick recruitment company" has been on the edge of laws and regulations for many years, which can be described as harmful. In order to cut leeks, they have a variety of tricks, which is really deceiving the dead and not paying for their lives. And many entrepreneurs have no experience, do not know how to distinguish, accidentally become "leeks", and finally complain that there is no way, can only think that they are unlucky.
Here, Red Food Once Again reminds entrepreneurs that when looking for a franchise, you must find the right brand side, understand the qualifications of the other party, and sign the contract must see the terms.
brief summary
Looking back at 2021, store closures, food safety, rights protection... The emergence of every major event affects the hearts of the catering people, but the catering people have also shown super resilience, passing five levels and cutting six generals, and surviving strongly. At the same time, in 2021, with the help of capital, the entire industry has also been more vigorous than ever.
All the past is the prologue, and all the future is to be expected. Looking back at 2021, catering people have experienced a lot and gained a lot, and 2022 will be a year of turmoil in the catering industry, let us open our arms and welcome the new year together.