The prefabricated vegetable industry as a whole is currently in the stage of blue ocean competition, and has been divided into two tracks, to B and to C.
Practitioners say
Longda Cuisine told reporters that in the traditional catering business model, in the case of completing the cutting of dishes in advance, it takes at least ten minutes from customer ordering to the meal on the table, while pre-made dishes only need to be simply heated for a few minutes to be served. Therefore, in terms of speed of serving, pre-made dishes are far better than on-site stir-frying; and reducing the preparation time of dishes also helps to improve the turnover rate and increase the overall revenue of catering stores.
In addition, the use of pre-made dishes will also help restaurants to further reduce operating costs such as personnel salaries. Because the pre-made dish only needs to be reheated, the requirements for job skills and professional experience are not high, so no professional chef is required to complete the production of the meal. A more obvious advantage is that cutting off the operation of the back kitchen can further control the cost of catering enterprises.
Prepared dishes sold in supermarkets. Beijing News shell financial reporter Yan Xia photo
This time, capital sniffed the business opportunities of the lazy economy, and prepared dishes became the "new top stream".
"No washing, no cutting, no seasoning" "Hard dishes, XiaoBai also easily gets it" "Chicken, duck, fish, meat and crab, one table at a time"... Although I am not familiar with the three words "prepared dish" that come into view, the advertising sentence is "piercing the heart". In the end, Xiao Zhang and his wife, who planned to celebrate the New Year in Beijing this year, were impressed and planned to use this as a Chinese New Year's Eve meal to entertain their friends.
With the obvious advantages of simple production and low price, prefabricated dishes have quietly conquered young consumers who are fed by takeaways. But the ambition of the merchant is far more than this, the Beijing News shell financial reporter noted that the price of thousands of yuan of "New Year vegetable series gift box" listed less than a month has been sold out, yellow croaker, Dongpo meat and lion head behind the market track "grab food".
Since 2020, the field of prefabricated dishes has been favored by capital, and many companies have obtained financing, and listed companies such as Arowana have also rushed to the outlet. The industry continues to heat up, and the pain points are gradually exposed - compared with overseas developed markets, the mainland prepared vegetable industry as a whole is still relatively backward, and a number of enterprises are still in the stage of "horse racing".
Chinese New Year's Eve rice and serve prepared dishes
At lunchtime, Xiaomei (pseudonym) after 95 skillfully heated her own fish-flavored meat shredded rice in the unit. In the days of saving money, such pre-made dishes have been with her for months.
"I loved eating KFC chicken nuggets, and then I found that Taobao could buy the same instant food sold by the supplier, which opened the door to pre-made dishes." During the interview, Xiaomei showed the shell financial reporter the brand she usually likes to buy, "10 yuan a piece, cheaper than takeaway, but also better than takeaway."
From chicken curry, beef potatoes to braised pork with shiitake mushrooms, there are up to 7 kinds of home-cooked dishes, and the price of 5 bags ranges from 46-72 yuan. "My main purpose in buying prepared dishes is to save money." Xiaomei's lunch at work is mainly solved by takeaway, since the pre-made dish replaced the takeaway, she roughly calculated that the monthly food bill can save about 900 yuan.
Under Xiaomei's Amway, many colleagues join the team of prefabricated dishes, usually communicate which brand is delicious and cheap, plant grass and protect from each other, "the current purchases are very delicious, and the taste of the restaurant is similar."
Xia Cute (pseudonym), who is also a north drifter, planned to stay in Beijing for the Spring Festival, and purchased 4 boxes of Chinese New Year's Eve rice pre-made dishes early. According to the plan, she also sent a gift package of prepared dishes to visit relatives and friends this year.
Prepared dishes. Courtesy of respondents
"I bought the Buddha jumping wall average price of 30 yuan / can / person, ceramic cans are very good-looking, the packaging is tall, you need to thaw and steam, you can make rice to eat, the portion is OK, that is, the mushrooms inside are a bit more, the taste is not as strong as those eaten in the restaurant, but considering that it is very cheap, it is acceptable." Xia Aiguo told reporters: "The biggest attraction of pre-made dishes to me is that I am willing to sacrifice a little taste and convenience in exchange for eating cheap pre-made dishes at home." ”
Shell financial reporter learned that the so-called pre-made dish refers to the dish that has been washed, cut, matched, and processed, and then packaged and saved in a series of ways such as freezing or vacuum, and consumers only need to eat it through simple cooking or direct opening after purchase.
Initially, prefabricated dishes came into being with the industrialization of catering, which is a product catalyzed for catering enterprises to improve the efficiency of preparing dishes, so the main sales channel is the B-end. Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic and the retailing of catering, the C-end consumption of pre-made dishes has increased significantly, and it has gradually moved from the kitchen after catering to the family table.
Near the end of the year, Shell financial reporters searched for keywords such as "Chinese New Year's Eve rice pre-made dishes" and "Spring Festival pre-made dishes" on major e-commerce platforms and found that many stores were out of stock. Some sales staff told reporters: "This year's pre-made dishes are particularly hot, under the epidemic, many people do not want to go out to gather to buy vegetables." ”
It is worth mentioning that the pre-made dish is not only convenient and low price.
Shell financial reporter learned that the Tiger Age Edition of Lixiangguo's "New Year Dish Series Gift Box" includes ten new dishes such as spicy red fire yellow croaker, Hongyun wine stuffy Dongpo meat, Huaiyang Qing stewed lion head and other ten new dishes, on Tmall, the overall price is 999 yuan (899 yuan after discount), the gift box opened pre-sale on Tmall, Jingdong and Mini Program Mall and other platforms on December 29, 2021, and sold out on January 26, 2022.
Wang Lin, head of Lixiangguo, said in an interview with Shell Financial Reporter that this is the first time to launch a Chinese New Year's Eve rice pre-made dish, which is somewhat unexpectedly welcomed; next will launch a one-person Buddha jumping wall product, as well as several prefabricated menu items with the highest voice in the New Year gift box.
In Wang Lin's view, Chinese New Year's Eve rice pre-made dish products are sought after, although there are reasons for the New Year atmosphere and platform promotion, in addition, it is inseparable from the blessing of marketing methods such as live broadcasting of New Year goods.
Entering the lazy house economy gilded, "saving time and effort at home to eat a meal"
Founded in 2017, Pot Circle Food Hui is a family food company with prepared vegetable products, such as Buddha jumping wall, pork belly chicken, Yellow River carp, red stewed lamb and so on. Chu Xueyou, CMO (chief marketing officer) of Pot Circle Food Exchange, told Shell Financial Reporter that its Chinese New Year's Eve rice pre-made vegetable products were also sold out through omni-channel.
"After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the lazy house economy rose against the wind, and at that time we began to think about how people can save time and effort to eat a meal at home when everyone is generally at home to prevent the epidemic." Chu Xueyou said that this idea has been thinking about it for several months in the senior management team of Pot Circle Food Hui, and it has gradually landed with the normalization of epidemic prevention and control.
"In May and June 2021, we began to develop and design pre-made dishes, and in September of the same year, the first products were released." Chu Xueyou believes that the sales of Chinese New Year's Eve rice prefabricated dishes can be so hot, mainly poking consumers to solve the pain points of three meals: "First, some dishes themselves are time-consuming and labor-intensive; secondly, there are some dishes that everyone wants to eat but will not do; there is a group of people who hope to experience the fun of cooking, but they do not want to be too troublesome, their appeal is to simply make a dish with full color and flavor, and they can also take photos to send a circle of friends; fourth, for some elderly people, they hold a table of Chinese New Year's Eve rice that the family eats. It's hard work in itself. And pre-made dishes can easily solve all of the above problems."
Pre-made dishes are in a frenzied suction momentum. Recently, Daily Excellent Fresh released the 2022 Spring Festival consumption trend forecast report, saying that the red system, auspicious new year flowers and "haoqi" high-end prepared dishes on its platform are expected to achieve more than 2 times growth during the Spring Festival.
"Chinese New Year's Eve approaching, all kinds of prepared dishes will once again enter the public Chinese New Year's Eve menu from niche tables. The report shows that with the improvement of cooking technology and the maturity of the prefabricated vegetable market, during the Spring Festival this year, all kinds of high-end pre-made dishes with an average price of more than 80 yuan will become a new choice for consumption. Daily Excellent Fresh told Shell Financial Reporter.
Shell financial reporter learned that daily excellent fresh has also conducted a survey on the mainstream population of the prefabricated vegetable market, "At present, the prefabricated vegetable users on our platform are about 25 years old to 40 years old, of which the 30- to 40-year-old crowd accounts for nearly 50%, and the proportion of women is relatively large." ”
According to the "2022 Taobao Chinese New Year's Eve Rice Report", on the eve of the Spring Festival, the "meat index" of the Chinese New Year's Eve rice prepared dish set also increased compared with last year, with an average of nearly 10 meat dishes in 12 dishes, and the average calorie rose from 1518 kcal/person last year to 1763 kcal/person, and the "big fish and big meat" returned to the Chinese New Year's Eve table.
"Semi-finished prefabricated dishes increased by 181% year-on-year on the eve of the Spring Festival. According to the statistics of prefabricated vegetable merchants, semi-finished dishes with regional characteristics such as fan bone, pork belly wrapped chicken, pepper chicken, and Buddha jumping wall are preferred by the post-70s and post-80s people. The report shows.
Trillion Track: The battle for prefabricated dishes has begun
Anxin Securities Research Report shows that the mainland prepared vegetable industry has begun to take shape, the market size is about 210 billion yuan, by 2025 the industry scale is expected to grow to about 600 billion yuan. In addition, there is no shortage of optimistic predictions from enterprises that as the mainland prepared vegetable industry gradually matures, with reference to Japan's 60% penetration rate, the mainland prepared vegetable industry is expected to achieve a scale of more than 3 trillion yuan.
The outlet has appeared, and the capital has heard it.
Since 2020, the field of prepared dishes has been favored by capital, and many companies have obtained financing. Among the many investment institutions, there are Qingsong Fund, Zero One Venture Capital, Donghe Capital, Yuanjing Capital, Innovation Factory, Xingtuo Capital, Zero2IPO Asset Management, Yusheng Capital, etc.
According to the data of enterprise investigation, since 2013, a total of 71 investment and financing incidents have occurred in the prefabricated vegetable track, and the total amount of disclosed financing has exceeded 1 billion yuan, involving 42 projects. From the perspective of financing time, 2015-2016 is the peak period of financing, there are 14 and 17 financing events respectively, and financing in 2020-2021 has heated up again, of which there are 11 financings in the prefabricated vegetable track in 2021.
In addition to the potential companies in the field of prefabricated dishes, A-share listed companies are also actively "opening up the territory", and among the layout companies, Sanquan Foods, Guolian Aquatic Products, New Hope, Arowana, Anjing Food, Longda Cuisine, Haixin Food, Weizhixiang, Tianbang Shares and so on have appeared.
"At present, the takeaway and group meal market faces many problems such as small and scattered practitioners, food safety hazards and so on." In an interview with Shell Financial Reporter, Arowana said that the company intends to promote food consumption "new food shang", and believes that "in the catering industry, prefabricated dishes are becoming a dazzling star track." ”
For getting involved in prefabricated dishes, Longda Cuisine told Shell Financial Reporter that the standardized production of prefabricated dishes has become an important means for catering enterprises to achieve chaining and cost reduction and efficiency. While takeaway continues to penetrate rapidly, the delivery time is constantly compressed, and pre-made vegetable bags have become the choice for many takeaway restaurant companies to improve efficiency.
As one of the earliest production enterprises to enter the field of prefabricated dishes industry, Guolian Aquatic Products will have an income of about 730 million yuan in prefabricated dishes in 2020. "In 2020, the company's prefabricated dish operating income accounted for a small proportion of the overall operating income, and the company will continue to adjust the product structure, increase the research and development and launch of prefabricated vegetable products, and improve the added value of the company's products." League of Nations Aquatic Products said.
From the various actions of Guolian Aquatic Products in recent years, it is not difficult to see the continuous development in the field of prepared dishes. Among them, two strategic cooperation in July and September 2021, the layout field directly refers to prefabricated dishes; in January this year, Guolian Aquatic Products cooperated with Hema, and the content also mainly focused on the development and marketing of aquatic prefabricated dishes; on January 26, Guolian Aquatic Products signed an agreement with a small rice cabinet, and also plans to cooperate in the development and market promotion of aquatic prefabricated dishes.
With the take-off of stock prices, Delix continues to release the "ambition" in the field of prepared dishes: in 2020, the volume of prepared dishes in the narrow sense (excluding low-temperature meat products) is more than 400 million, and the revenue growth in 2021 is relatively fast, and it is expected that the revenue scale of prepared dishes in 2022 will be about 1.2 billion yuan. At present, the company's prefabricated vegetable production capacity has not been fully released, and it is expected that in 2022, with the expansion of the outlet and the growth of B-end customer resources, the doubling of prefabricated vegetable revenue is more feasible.
According to the fiscal year 2020 and the first three quarters of 2021, the operating income of Delis's prepared vegetable-related products accounted for about 11.22% and 9.79% of the company's overall operating income, respectively; among them, the gross profit margin and net profit margin of pre-made vegetable-related products in the first three quarters of 2021 were about 20% and 2.78%, respectively.
Choice financial terminal data shows that as of the close of trading on January 28, the number of A-share prefabricated concept stocks has expanded to 32.
The influx of capital has led to the continuous heating up of the industry stock price, the sector as a whole once achieved 6 trading days in 9 trading days, individual stocks continued to rise, its China United Aquatic Products Three Board, Delis Seven Board, Zhangzidao rose for 5 consecutive trading days.
The stock price was high fever, the regulator began to shoot, shell financial reporter combed and saw that Guolian Aquatic Products, Delis, etc. have been issued a letter of concern, requiring the company to respond to the actual operation of its prefabricated vegetable-related business, market position, industry development and market environment changes.
At present, from the index point of view, the market of the prefabricated vegetable concept plate has begun to fall, from 1059.69 points on January 13 to 932.68 points on January 28.
As of the close of trading on January 28.
Enterprises are piling up "horse racing", and it is urgent to avoid inferior ingredients
The fire of prepared vegetables is not without hidden worries behind it.
Wu Siying of Anxin Securities said that compared with overseas developed markets, the mainland prepared vegetable industry as a whole is still relatively backward, and there are still characteristics such as small sales areas, obvious regional characteristics, many participants, low industry concentration, and fewer enterprises above designated size, and many enterprises are still in the stage of "staking land".
For the public, low prices and a long shelf life inevitably make people question, "why can it be so cheap", "will it be unhealthy", "the unit price of a few dollars to dozens of dollars or even hundreds of dollars ranging from prefabricated dishes, in the end is good or not?" ”
During the visit of the shell financial reporter, it was found that at present, pre-made dishes are not common in offline supermarkets, and there are not many types, mainly meat, such as plum meat, sauerkraut fish, etc. Many purchasing consumers are mainly testing the psychology of the water, "buy it back and taste it, if it is not delicious, it will certainly not be bought next year." ”
In this regard, a number of industry insiders told reporters that from the source, the freezing technology of professional manufacturers can ensure that the ingredients are successfully locked fresh, and no preservatives are added, which is actually a concept with quick-frozen dumplings. In addition, the team of the Dish R&D Center is a professional and experienced chef, which is essentially guaranteed, but it is difficult to adjust, and no product can meet the taste of everyone.
Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng said that the pain points of the current prefabricated vegetable industry market are mainly reflected in two aspects, on the one hand, there is no national standard; on the other hand, the consumer side of the prefabricated dish recognition, acceptance may not be high, some consumers will think that the nutrition of the prepared food has been lost or the ingredients are not fresh, which will cause hidden dangers in food safety. In the future, how to match and meet the core needs of the consumer side will be an urgent issue and problem for the entire prepared vegetable industry.
"In recent years, the prefabricated vegetable industry has a tendency to flock to the hot pot, too many enterprises to the self-service hot pot this product, and the different styles, higher technical content and more complex major cuisines of the stir-fry dish investment is not much; this industry needs a special industry self-regulatory organization, agree on rules, to avoid some enterprises in order to excessively pursue low cost and good taste and use inappropriate ingredients, the use of inappropriate technology." Gao Haiping, an analyst at Gao Gang Consulting, said.
Longda cuisine told Shell financial reporter that pre-made dishes are an industry that puts forward quite high requirements for enterprises from all aspects of raw materials, logistics, processing and sales, and it is necessary to achieve economies of scale and precise regulation of logistics and warehousing links through the intensive production of upstream ingredients to ensure the efficient operation of enterprises and reduce unnecessary losses.
What is visible to the naked eye is that the prefabricated vegetable industry as a whole is currently in the stage of blue ocean competition, and has been divided into two tracks, to B and to C, the wheel of history will not go backwards, but it remains to be revealed where it will go.
Beijing News shell financial reporter Yan Xia Editor Wang Jinyu Proofreader Guo Li