Deep Sound Original · The author | Li Xindi
Six years ago, 300 blonde, half-naked Spartan muscle men lined up on the streets of Beijing, delivering salads to passers-by.
Although the ending ended with the muscular man being subdued by the police, the brand "Sweetheart Rock Salad" that planned the incident entered the public eye. In just two years, Sweetheart Rock Salad gained 1 million users and sold 16,000 cans of light food salads every day.
Image source: Network
Also six years ago, Li Na, a rarely "commercialized" tennis star, handed over her image and credibility to the new elements of the light food brand. On the day of the opening of the New Elements Li Na co-brand store, Scott and Li Na, one of the founders and chefs of the New Elements brand, jointly unveiled the restaurant and lit up the brand logo of new elements & Li Na.
Healthy and elegant light food restaurants opened all over the country for a while. 2015 to 2018 was the golden age of light food tracks. According to the incomplete statistics of the red food network, in the past four years, at least 1 billion capital has poured into the light food market, and a large number of light food brands have gained capital favor.
However, the light food track did not go to prosperity, but instead took a sharp turn and cooled down rapidly. By 2019, the management of sweetheart rock salad that raised three rounds of financing disappeared and the business was shut down; at the end of 2021, new elements announced bankruptcy liquidation, and wagas were rumored to be seeking to sell. Shortly after going public in November, Sweetgreen, another U.S. fast-food light-food restaurant, was one of the fastest-growing U.S. restaurant companies in terms of revenue, known as the "Apple" of the restaurant world and the "Starbucks" of the salad world.
In the meantime, the light food track and other new catering tracks have also begun to diverge – from the first ten months of 2021 alone, tea, coffee and noodles have raised 39, 24 and 20 respectively. From the perspective of the amount of disclosure, the disclosed financing amount of tea, coffee and noodles reached 19.528 billion yuan, 5.804 billion yuan and 2.180 billion yuan respectively. But the light food track is not taken care of. According to IT Orange, from 2019 to 2021, the number of financing projects in the light food track will not exceed five per year, and the amount of financing is only a fraction of that of the popular track, and some light food brands that were once popular by capital will no longer have financing.
As a light food track advocating the concept of "healthy catering", it caters to the needs of Z generation young people to lose fat and health, and also conforms to the trend of healthy development; but this track tends to be flat in the primary market, what is wrong with the light food business? Through the analysis of the business model of the light food industry and the dialogue with a number of light food catering practitioners, "Deep Sound" attempts to explore the reasons for the rise and fall of the light food catering track.
A supply chain model
Light food is not a specific food, but a catering format built around the concept of healthy dining. At present, the domestic light food format is mainly divided into two types: catering format and online customized meal format.
Among them, the light food catering format is specifically divided into chain self-operation, chain franchise and single store.
The chain's self-operating light food and beverage brands include wagas, New Elements, and sweetgreen, an American brand that was listed on the U.S. stock market last year. This kind of catering enterprise is similar to the business model of many well-known domestic restaurant listed companies such as Haidilao, Jiumaojiu, and Sipping, and prefers heavy assets, because their business scope covers the upstream and downstream of the catering industry chain, from raw material procurement to dish research and development processing and warehousing logistics, to store expansion and brand building.
This model has a strong ability to control various businesses, but the management is also more difficult, because managers not only need to control the price of raw materials, but also to grasp all aspects of the supply chain, whether the stores can be profitable, and food safety issues are all issues that enterprises need to pay attention to, and any problem in any link will have a significant impact on business operations.
Especially in the case of the ongoing epidemic, self-operated light food enterprises with heavy asset models are easily hit hard. For example, the new element of bankruptcy liquidation at the end of 2021, the announcement on its official website clearly states that "because of the epidemic, the company has been plagued by a heavy financial situation." ”
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More light food catering brands on the market are mainly based on the asset-light franchise model, and the store area is small, and pure takeaway stores account for the majority.
Through consulting the customer service of the domestic chain light food brand Shaye Light Food, "Shen Xiang" learned that the franchise cost of the brand in Beijing totaled about 160,000 yuan, including a franchise fee of 68,000 yuan, an annual management fee of 5,000 yuan / year, equipment 15,000 to 20,000, the decoration of a pure takeaway store of 10,000 to 20,000 yuan, and a rent of 10,000 / month (down payment of 5 months). Another chain of light food brand Super Deer Team cost about 100,000 yuan to join in the Beijing area (excluding decoration and rent).
At the same time, the average payback cycle of the two brands is about 6 or 7 months. Sooky, one of the founders of Shaye Light Food, told Shen Xiang that after the return of the original, the monthly profit of stores in first- and second-tier cities was about 30,000 to 50,000.
Takeaway-based light food franchise is a relatively simple business: the franchise model allows light food companies to operate more quickly, because their store operations are operated by franchisees themselves, and the company will charge franchisees franchise and management fees, and only need to provide relevant services for franchisees, carry out overall brand promotion, and do not need to be responsible for the profit and loss of individual stores. As a franchisee, light food takeaway entrepreneurship is not only less costly, but also requires less human resources, and light food catering is simple to make, without hiring a special chef to operate.
Light assets and low thresholds have enabled light food franchise brands to expand rapidly. According to "Deep Sound", the number of takeaway stores (stores) in The Sand Wild Light Food and the Super Deer Team have exceeded 400 by the end of 2021. The number of new elements of self-operated restaurants and wagas officially announced stores is 36 and 160+ respectively.
The number of independent light food stores or takeaway stores is also huge, and they are hidden in the corners and corners around various universities and companies. Similar to light food franchise stores, the threshold for this kind of store to start a business is very low, with more than 100,000 investment, and three or four people without catering experience can set up a store. However, because these single stores are too small, it is more difficult to form a brand effect and consumer cognition.
However, whether it is a chain of self-operated, chain franchise, or single store, the core of their operation lies in the food supply chain - if the supply chain is not well controlled, the operating efficiency of catering enterprises will not only be greatly reduced, but also food safety will be difficult to guarantee. In particular, most of the dishes of light food catering involve fruits, vegetables, etc., and have higher requirements for the quality of ingredients, so they have higher requirements for storage and transportation.
Another online customized meal format mainly refers to the customized meals that are provided to consumers online for a certain period of time.
Take the subscription-based weight management brand "Dong Eat" as an example, which mainly provides a package plan with a cycle of 3 days, 7 days to 21 days, consumers place orders through online channels, frozen products are delivered to home through the cold chain every three days, and frozen food can be stored in the refrigerator and eaten after microwave or boiling heating.
Based on online, it means that such brands do not need to develop offline stores and franchisees, mainly based on online user operation and brand promotion; but at the same time, because they want to provide consumers with fresh three meals a day, this also means that their requirements for the supply chain will be higher, and the entire business model will be heavier. According to 36Kr's report in 2018, the first factory of "Dong Eat" was established with cooperative investment, and it will also consider building its own supply chain in the future. In terms of cold chain logistics, "Dong Eat" mainly uses JD.com or SF, which is shipped from multiple warehouses across the country.
The difficulty of the online customized meal model lies mainly in the supply chain, which greatly increases the operating costs and risks of enterprises.
Xiao Wang, an entrepreneur who had carried out online customized meals around 2016, told "Shen Xiang" that the cost of self-built central kitchens was higher for startups, so the company mainly chose to cooperate with external central kitchens for meal production, but when cooperating with external central kitchens, the company could not ensure the quality of meals, "For example, in a meal on a certain day, the leaves of the central kitchen were not sorted well, and users would complain." In addition, the cost of cooperation with cold chain logistics companies such as SF is relatively high, which also causes the company's operating burden, and finally this light food entrepreneurial project ended in failure.
Xiao Wang's entrepreneurial project was an early model of online customized meals. Customers can choose weekly meals, monthly meals or quarterly meals according to their own needs, the price ranges from 600 to 7000 yuan, and the company distributes them through third-party cold chain logistics according to customer time after the daily meal. This makes supply chain costs very heavy.
Nowadays, online customized meal brands are more standardized, and some brands are even getting rid of excessive supply chains, such as "super zero" and "mint health" choosing to make food into room temperature food, and "Dong Eat" has now developed a "room temperature version" package, which actually reduces the requirements on the supply chain.
The customer service of the super zero flagship store on the Tmall platform told "Deep Ring" that its "seven-day burning card full meal" product will be sent to consumers at one time, and it can be saved at room temperature. The official APP of "Peppermint Health" also shows that its "21-day Mint Life Full Meal" product is stored at room temperature and does not need to be refrigerated. It is worth noting that "Peppermint Health" received two rounds of financing from Shenzhen Venture Capital, Fosun Group and other institutions in 2021, with a current valuation of 2.8 billion yuan, which is one of the few sustained financing projects in the track in recent years.
However, frozen food can ensure the freshness of ingredients at low temperatures, which is difficult to do with room temperature food, and the actual experience of consumers may be greatly reduced.
Unflattering investors
In fact, there is no shortage of participants in various formats of the light food industry.
In terms of self-operated light food catering, in addition to the new elements declared bankruptcy and the wagas that have been rumored to be seeking to sell, the chain light food self-operated restaurant companies currently on the market also include gaga Xianyu, which has more than 20 chain stores in Kunming, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, as well as more smaller chains or single self-operated light food restaurants.
This type of catering brand is mainly opened in the CBD business districts and high-end shopping malls of first-tier cities, providing consumers with pasta, coarse grain rice, salads, fruit and vegetable juices, sandwiches, coffee and other products. According to Dianping data, the unit price of wagas is more than 80 yuan, while the unit price of several other chain light food restaurants is more than 100 yuan. High-end locations and high unit prices mean that such catering brands are mainly aimed at high-end consumers with small groups.
Light food franchise brands and light food single stores, because of the low cost of opening the store, the product price is low, so the coverage is wider. At present, the large-scale chain light food projects include sand wild light food, super deer team, sand green light food, etc., mainly to provide consumers with fitness meals and salads, etc., and the unit price of customers is about 30-40 yuan. According to the official statement of Shaye Light Food, it has covered 60 cities in China; public reviews show that the super deer team has also sunk to lower-tier cities such as Taizhou, Langfang and Beihai.
Whether it is a remote university or industrial park, open a takeaway platform, you can also search for light food takeaway stores, it seems that as long as there are young people, there is a light food market.
In the field of online customized meals, the current industry participants mainly include dong eating, super zero, mint health, etc. Taking "Dong Eat" as an example, its "non-sugar 21st nutritious meal" was priced at 1420 yuan after the coupon on March 15, with an average daily consumption of 67.6 yuan; the price of similar products of "Peppermint Health" on March 15 was 1309.9 yuan, with an average daily consumption of 62.3 yuan; the price of similar products of "Super Zero" was 1059 yuan, with an average daily consumption of 50.43 yuan.
It can be seen that the unit price of online customized diners is not high compared with the first two models, so it is highly sought after by young people, and the number of fans of the three brands in the Taobao flagship store alone exceeds 600,000, 1 million and 1.72 million, respectively.
At the same time, enterprises in the online customized meal format will also develop other related businesses, such as Dong Eat and Super Zero, which also sell fat-reducing meal replacement products, while Peppermint Health is positioned as an Internet weight and health management service provider, providing consumers with integrated solutions including healthy food, healthy content, subscription-based membership services, etc.
Despite the large number of participants, there are fewer projects in the primary market that receive financing and even fewer that can sustain financing.
The projects that will be financed in 2021 are Dong Eat and Mint Health, of which Tong Eat has obtained three rounds of financing with a post-investment valuation of 400 million yuan; Mint Health has raised funds to the D+ round in the past ten years, with a post-investment valuation of 2.8 billion yuan. Another online custom food brand, Super Zero, received three rounds of financing in 2020 and before. In addition, most similar projects on the market are not financed.
In terms of light food and beverage, gaga Xianyu has no financing news after receiving 180 million yuan of investment from Legend Capital in 2018; the super deer team has obtained 12 million yuan of angel round financing in 2020; the most recent financing of shalu light food and lustful salad, which is still alive in the market, is 2016 and 2017; and Shaye light food, which has opened more than 400 stores in China, has never received financing.
There are many reasons why the light food track is not recognized by capital, and different formats have common reasons, but there are also personality reasons.
The common reason is that many investment institutions believe that the matter of losing weight by eating is itself anti-human, the diet with less oil and less salt does not meet the taste of Chinese, it is difficult for users to repurchase, and the company's business model cannot run through.
This is indeed a soul torture for light food brands. For example, light food chain self-operated brands, they are mainly for the high-end market, but at the same time, because light food catering tastes light, only those who are really willing to pursue this healthy diet can become high-stick consumers of such restaurants. High-end + light food, so that the sticky consumer group of this format has become very small.
Online customized meal formats are also facing the problem of difficulty in re-purchasing. Xiao Wang admitted to "Deep Sound" that for this kind of customized fat-reducing meal, consumers will generally treat it as a product similar to a functional health product. "The average person may repurchase it once or twice, and then repurchase it again with the idea of trying when the product is new. In our opinion, this repurchase rate is already very good. ”
In addition, online-based customized catering formats are more standardized than offline catering stores, rather than using fresh ingredients, which can improve operational efficiency and ensure food safety, but the taste of products may be greatly reduced. On the Little Red Book, many users recorded their experience of insisting on eating "21 days full meals" of brands such as Dong Eat and Peppermint Health, and their opinions on such products were obviously differentiated, and many of them experienced that "the taste is too single to stick to".
At the same time, customized meals are generally advertised under the slogan of "you can lose a few pounds in a few days", but once consumers lose less weight than expected, they will also think that they have paid iq tax and refuse to repurchase such products.
The reason why franchised light food chain brands are not recognized by capital is mainly because this model makes the brand weak in its ability to control stores, resulting in frequent food safety problems and service problems, and many franchised brands also have the problem of weak brand strength.
Established for many years, Shaye Light Food, which has developed a strong chain store network, is limited by the "franchise system". Sooky, one of the founders, told Deep Sound that the company has not found a suitable investor, "many investors on the one hand will worry about the market is not large enough; and most of the named light food and beverage brands on the market are basically in the franchise model, investors will still worry about the supply chain, and whether it can be standardized." ”
Sooky introduced that as a relatively large-scale chain light food brand in China, Shaye Light Food not only built its own supply chain, but also made most of the ingredients into standardized prefabricated products to sell to franchisees, ensuring the taste of the ingredients to the greatest extent; it also provides supply chain services to other catering brands.
But even if it tries to ensure the supply chain and standardize, most of its store ratings on Dianping are around 3.5 points, which is not very high. "Deep Sound" saw that in the evaluation of some stores in Beijing, some consumers pointed out that the ingredients were not fresh or even moldy, and more consumers said that they were unwell after eating.
This comes down to the franchise model, which prevents brands from exercising strong control over stores — Sooky said, "After we explain to the store, most franchisees will still purchase from our company." "Including in remote areas such as Xinjiang, the company's food supply system is difficult to cover, and the ingredients in these places are mainly purchased by franchisees locally." This means that not all franchisees source ingredients from their companies.
Only from the perspective of the catering franchise model, whether light food is a good project compared with other categories is also a problem.
A manager of the investment headquarters of the Super Deer Clan told "Deep Sound" that the Super Deer Clan has another fast food brand "Runaway Cat Yuanqi Roast Meat Rice", which has the same cost of joining the super deer clan brand. According to the investment brochure provided by the manager, the Super Deer Clan brand was established in 2017, while the Runaway Cat brand was established in 2020; by the end of 2021, there are more than 800 Runaway Cat stores nationwide, while the Super Power Deer Clan brand store is 470. The speed of the two stores is fast and slow, and it is clear at a glance.
Although there are still problems in the light food project, whether it is Xiao Wang, who has failed to start a business, or Sooky, who has a smooth start-up, is very optimistic about the light food industry, and they believe that the pursuit of health is the general trend of the future, so this market is still a blue ocean. Sooky told Deep Sound that the company is still looking for investors to grow its business better.
At present, the bottleneck faced by the light food track is mainly because the business model is not yet perfect.
Now, some entrepreneurial turnarounds are engaged in more standardized meal replacements and functional food tracks similar to light food concepts, such as the founder of The Salad in 2019 who founded the food replacement brand wonderlab, which received investment from Temasek. Super Zero, Dong Eat, and Peppermint Health are not only focusing on "standardizing" online customized meals, but also making efforts to replace pre-packaged food, as far as possible to get rid of the high requirements of the catering model on the supply chain.
In addition, light food seems to have become an accessory to some tracks, such as overseas brands Starbucks and Costa, as well as new domestic consumer brands Luckin and manner are making light food. These categories that originally have stores, people, and supply chains can be said to be easy to "reduce the dimension and strike" light food.
The future of the light food track is yet to be seen. But what is certain is that industry players need to explore more mature business models for a "healthy lifestyle" to have a future.