Capital moved, and the trillion track broke out the night before.
Since the beginning of 2022, the outlet of "prepared dishes" has suddenly erupted, and the A-share market has frequently set off a rising tide. Among them, the prefabricated vegetable leader - Guolian Aquatic Products rose by more than 119% in the year, which can be called a dark horse in the stock market in the New Year.
Although the mainland prepared vegetable industry has just started, the huge consumer market and the promotion of capital are bound to accelerate the evolution and iteration of the entire industry, which will test the procurement ability, research and development speed, transportation and distribution, and consumer insight of enterprises.
At present, it seems that the new retail platform with upstream procurement, research and development, production capacity and distribution capabilities has a first-mover advantage, and may be the largest win in the future competition.
A new outlet for capital in 2022
Money with a keen sense of smell is "hunting" a new outlet for 2022: prepared dishes.
Since 2022, the prefabricated vegetable concept stocks of A shares have risen sharply against the trend, and have been fiercely swept away by market funds, and individual stocks in the track have soared collectively, and they have set off a rising tide many times. Among them, Guolian Aquatic Products is the leader of prefabricated vegetable concept stocks, as of the close of January 21, The largest increase of Guolian Aquatic Products in the year exceeded 119%, in addition, the stock prices of Fucheng Shares, Haixin Food and Delis rose by more than 50% during the year.
In addition, Yike Food, a new stock blessed with the concept of prefabricated dishes, landed on the ChiNext board on January 18, and the opening day soared by more than 222%, with a total market value of more than 16 billion yuan.
On the evening of January 11, Guolian Aquatic Products issued an announcement that it signed a "Cooperation Framework Agreement" with Shanghai Hema Network Technology Co., Ltd. to cooperate with Hema to deeply develop prefabricated dishes for aquatic products such as shrimp, tilapia, and crayfish, and said that it would use Hema's online and offline channels to force the C-end market.
Holding hands with the box horse, directly triggered the imagination of the market, on January 12, Guolian Aquatic Products directly won the 20CM up and down board, and the subsequent 2 trading days were also strongly sealed, in just 4 trading days, the stock price increased by as much as 89%, and the total market value increased by 4.2 billion yuan to 8.9 billion yuan, setting the best historical record since 2015.
According to the data, Guolian Aquatic Products takes the development of aquatic food as the leader, and has now developed into a multinational enterprise group integrating seedlings, aquaculture, aquatic feed, aquatic scientific research, food processing and production, and trade, and has created four whole industrial chains of shrimp, tilapia, crayfish and deep-water cages.
Hema has 300 stores in major cities across the country, online and offline integrated sales channels, and a cold chain distribution system that takes 30 minutes to get home, which is the most urgently needed resource for Guolian Aquatic Products, so it adds imagination space to market funds.
At the same time, third-party research institutions also strongly recommend the prefabricated vegetable track. Among them, Huachuang Securities said in the latest research report that under the promotion of various factors, the market size of prefabricated dishes may increase to 700 billion. Shanxi Securities is more optimistic, and the space scale of mainland prepared vegetables is expected to reach 340 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 18% year-on-year. In the next 3-5 years, the mainland prepared vegetable industry is expected to become the next trillion catering market.
All indications are that the prefabricated vegetable track in the capital market has been recognized by funds and may become the first outlet in 2022.
Competition accelerates, 4 key points of decisive victory
As the name suggests, a "pre-made dish" is a specialty that requires only a simple heating or stir-frying process to be served directly on the table. It uses modern standardized central kitchen for centralized production, scientific packaging, and uses freezing technology (minus 18 degrees) to preserve, ensure the freshness and original taste of dishes, and finally transport them to the tables of downstream consumers through cold chain transportation.
The rapid growth of the market and the huge market prospects have attracted a large number of players to enter the game. According to the research report data of Guohai Securities, the number of prefabricated vegetable-related enterprises is about 20,000. Judging from the current industry pattern, the prefabricated vegetable track is still in the early stage of low concentration and horse racing.
As prefabricated dishes become a new outlet, capital accelerates into the game, and the probability will accelerate the progress of the industry reshuffle, eventually spawning the head players of this track.
In fact, from the analysis of the business model of prefabricated dishes and the upstream and downstream supply chains, the key points for the success of player competition in the future track mainly include four aspects: the procurement ability of the most upstream ingredients and agricultural products, the ability of rapid research and development and production in the middle end, the cold chain transportation network at the back end, the sales channels, the distribution ability of the last kilometer, and the ability to understand the needs of young consumers.
Specifically, the upstream procurement of ingredients directly determines the quality, safety and cost of the finished prepared dish, which is one of the most critical links.
The rapid R&D and production capacity of the mid-range, large-scale central kitchen is an essential ability for large-scale and standardized production of prefabricated dishes, which directly determines the standard taste and food safety of prefabricated vegetable products.
The properties of prepared dishes determine that all finished products must be transported in the cold chain, and as a mass consumer goods, strong sales channels and last-mile distribution capabilities are particularly important.
Finally, the ability to gain insight into the needs of young consumers, C-end consumers are the biggest blue ocean of prefabricated dishes, and young consumers are becoming more and more receptive to pre-made dishes. According to the survey of Ai Media Consulting, users in first- and second-tier cities buy more prepared dishes, of which the number of customers in East China is larger, and more than 80% of the survey users consume pre-made vegetable products every week.
Such groups have a higher pursuit of quality of life and are willing to try new things, and insight into their consumer needs can directly affect the final sales of prepared dishes.
The new retail giant may become the biggest winner
It is not difficult to see that as a consumer track, prefabricated dishes not only test the rapid insight of enterprises into the needs of young consumers, but also test the integrity of the industrial chain before, during and after enterprises.
From the business model of prefabricated vegetables, it can be clearly seen that the upstream, middle and lower reaches of the track mainly include the upstream agricultural and aquatic enterprises, the research and development and production enterprises of prefabricated vegetables, catering enterprises, and new retail enterprises.
Taking the new retail representative Hema as an example, it has 300 stores in major cities across the country, and the online and offline integrated sales channels have been very mature, and the cold chain distribution system of 30 minutes to home is also one of the core advantages of the prefabricated vegetable track.
At the same time, Hema has a large number of young users in first- and second-tier cities, closer to consumers, able to quickly obtain consumer feedback, and innovate and improve products.
In addition to the terminal sales capacity, Hema has also built its own central kitchen in various places, which is closest to the source of ingredients and ensures the quality, safety and price of the prepared vegetable field to the greatest extent. According to official sources, the Hema Central Kitchen project in Wuhan and Chengdu will be put into use in June this year. At that time, specialties such as pork rib lotus soup, pearl dumplings, crayfish, and semi-finished hot pot products will be delivered to Hema stores in Wuhan, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing and other central and western cities through pre-made dishes.
In addition to independent production and processing of prepared dishes, Hema has also reached strategic cooperation with many well-known catering enterprises to form a complementary effect. According to incomplete statistics, there are currently more than 100 catering enterprises that have reached cooperation with Hema, including Shanghai Old Hotel, Meizhou Dongpo, Jinling Hotel and other well-known nationally renowned long-established brands. This also greatly enriches the prefabricated dishes of Hema, which is almost the most abundant retail platform in the industry.
In addition to the new retail platform, the strength of chain catering enterprises should not be underestimated.
Among them, Jia Guolong, the head of Xibei, is full of confidence in the prefabricated vegetable track, gathers the resources of the whole company to pounce on this track, and directly launches the all-prefabricated cuisine brand - Jia Guolong Kung Fu Cuisine, with a target of 100 billion yuan in ten years.
After years of word-of-mouth accumulation, catering enterprises have a wide brand audience. At the same time, the efficient procurement ability at the source can reduce costs and obtain higher efficiency. However, most of the pre-made dishes need to be delivered in the form of refrigeration or freezing, and catering brands, whether relying on offline stores or traditional e-commerce channels, cannot solve the problem of last-mile delivery and become a major constraint.
Finally, it is the prefabricated vegetable production and foundry enterprises represented by Guolian Aquatic Products, mainly based on traditional food processing enterprises, catering to the outlet, and beginning to transform to prefabricated dishes, the core advantages of such enterprises are procurement and production capacity, but they are far from the terminal consumers, and the future competitiveness is weak.
Therefore, the author believes that in the future competition of the prefabricated vegetable track, the new retail platform with upstream procurement, research and development, and production capacity has the advantage of being a first mover.