Per capita consumption of more than 2,000 yuan, need to book 3 to 4 months in advance, only serve 10 customers a year, 6:30 pm punctual meal, the menu is all handed over to the chef to set.
Recently, a restaurant in Shanghai called "Chinese Cuisine Touzao" (hereinafter referred to as "Toutzao") has been controversial.
There is a great contrast between the higher unit price and the amount of dishes in a single dish, and is it the craftsmanship, service or vanity that customers pay for? Is the operation of this type of high-end catering sustainable, and how does the gross profit margin compare with that of mass catering?
The meal sharing system does not mean "Chinese food Japanese cooking"
Some people think that the head stove is suspected of "slaughtering customers", and some people think it is worth eating.
Previously, the pictures circulating on the Internet showed that the amount of mapo tofu and dry fried beef river provided by the head stove was only "one chopstick", and some people thought that its "slaughtering customers" was seriously suspected, and some people labeled the restaurant as "Chinese food Japanese". However, some consumers have publicly stated on Weibo that in fact, there are 15 dishes in a meal, which can be eaten, and the quality is also worth this price, while some of the pictures circulating on the Internet are just taken out of context.
Haihua, an investor in the tout stove restaurant, told the first financial reporter: "In fact, the concept of 'Chinese food Japanese work' is attached to us by the outside world and KOLs, etc., and we have never felt that it is 'Chinese food Japanese work'. Haihua said: "In fact, China's meal sharing system culture is much older than our shared meal system culture, and there was a meal sharing system after the Northern Song Dynasty, so the meal sharing system is something that we Chinese ourselves." ”
Before the opening of the touzao, at the same address, it was a Japanese food store called Sasaki, and the decoration of the touza was only slightly renovated on the basis of Sasa. Therefore, the outside world feels that the head stove is in the "Chinese food day". The head stove adopts the Omakase model in the Japanese material. Omakase means "please" in Japanese, which means no menu form, and the chef decides the menu.
"Some of Japan's culture originated in China, and they are all oriental cultures, so I did a renovation of the decoration." The original idea was to use the bar in Chinese food, and I felt that the bar format allowed customers to see the chef cooking and talk to the chef. This is actually very missing in our traditional Chinese food. Haihua told the first financial reporter.
For the online controversy, Haihua said that after the whole team saw these controversy evaluations, the mood was affected to a certain extent. "But then a lot of customers came to our restaurant because they knew that there was something in this restaurant, and we were targeting that small group of people."
Is the unit price high and the net interest rate high?
With such a high unit price, will the head stove make more money than the popular restaurant?
"It opened in January, and now it's not losing money, but it certainly won't make any money at the beginning, because we have a large investment, including research and development costs. I think it may be half a year before the profit period is stable. In fact, like any catering format, the net interest rate of more than ten percent. Haihua revealed.
Based on this calculation, the unit price of the first stove is 2,000 yuan, the daily turnover is 20,000 yuan, the opening is 26 days a month, the monthly turnover is 520,000 yuan, and the monthly net profit does not exceed 100,000 yuan.
"For us, investing is definitely going to be profitable." Haihua's company not only invested in the restaurant today.
"From catering brands with a per capita price of 100 yuan to a few thousand yuan, we have investments. Whether a restaurant is good or not, we only have one evaluation criterion, that is, to see whether this restaurant makes money, because this restaurant makes money well, so he can make money, and the market is very smart. Haihua believes that the net interest rate of high-priced restaurants is not necessarily higher: "Because the turnover has a ceiling, the head stove eats 10 people every day, and the price is fixed." He's not like I opened a hot pot restaurant today, I can queue up maybe 100 tables, maybe 200 tables, sales are imaginative. ”
According to reports, the highest cost of the head stove is ingredients and labor, followed by store rent. There are 9 people in the infield, 6 chefs and 3 waiters, including the financial, operational and research and development expenses of the outfield.
According to the analysis of Wen Zhihong, an expert in the restaurant chain and the general manager of Hehong Consulting, the gross profit margin of popular catering (excluding labor, rent, etc.) is about 50% to 60% on average, but the gross profit margin of high-end catering may be higher, and the cost of ingredients only accounts for 20% to 30%. However, the labor cost and rent cost of high-end catering are also very high.
Who pays for high-end dining?
The first financial reporter noted that in Shanghai, there are not many restaurants with the label of "Chinese Omakase". For example, restaurants such as Luar and Tang Xiang have per capita prices of about 2,000 yuan. In the public reviews, the reviews of diners are also mixed. Some consumers think that the service and quality are very good, and some consumers think that it is not worth the money.
Wen Zhihong believes: "This kind of high-end restaurant is actually in foreign countries, especially in Europe, Japan, these markets are still many, such as Michelin two-star, three-star restaurants, many are similar to this model." The audience of this type of restaurant is mainly high-end gourmets, diners and tourists who like to pursue this fresh experience, and some mid-to-high-end banquet needs. ”
What are the value points that consumers who pay for it get?
Li Xin, a consumer who has eaten the first stove, believes that "15 dishes are actually enough to eat, and the amount of spring rolls is quite large." In case you don't have enough to eat, you can also ask the chef to add some more. The taste is good, but the dishes are still more traditional, and the price is not low. However, I feel that the novelty of the dishes and the sense of on-site ceremony still need to be strengthened. ”
Haihua believes that consumers in high-end restaurants need to pay for the chef's craftsmanship. The value of many dishes in Chinese food does not come from expensive ingredients such as abalone and shark fin, but actually from the craftsmanship of the top chefs in China.
In Wen Zhihong's view, this kind of high-end restaurant of "Chinese food and Japanese production" pays more attention to the comprehensive experience of cooking, ingredients and the quality of dishes, especially the value of the chef's fresh cooking, so it is usually difficult to talk about the cost performance from the perspective of ingredients, because its main value point is not in the ingredients.
Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in the Chinese food industry, said: "With the upgrading of consumption, the consumption level of Chinese consumers has changed from the previous three levels to the current six levels - ultra-high-end, high-end, mid-high-end, mid-end, low-end, low-end. For ultra-high-end restaurants, in fact, customers are willing to pay more for the tone of the brand, the integration of scenes and the differentiation of operating models. The question is whether the restaurant has given due service and quality under such a high per capita consumption standard. ”
"If it's just a 'Chinese Japanese food' restaurant, it will not go long, because Chinese food and Japanese food are different in cooking techniques, hot food, cold food. At the end of the day, this type of restaurant sells not simple dishes, but the environment and atmosphere. The price that the restaurant sells is not worth it, and a large part of it is the sense of service and ambience you provide. It is okay for merchants to make a gimmick for a while, just as a short-term marketing behavior, but in the long run, there must be matching value to consumers, otherwise such a restaurant is difficult to develop for a long time. And under the current epidemic, many restaurants have stopped dine-in and changed to takeaway, so that the environment and atmosphere are gone, if it is a takeaway model sales, it does not reflect the advantages of such restaurants. Zhang Honglie, founder of Food Intelligence Manufacturing and senior consultant of Shuhai supply chain, analyzed the first financial reporter.
At the same time, such high-end restaurants for a small number of customers also need to find high-quality and unique culinary talents and high-quality waiters. However, at present, the recruitment and employment of the catering industry as a whole are very difficult, especially after the impact of the epidemic, the recruitment and retention of employees has become more and more difficult. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the highest value of the number of employees in the mainland catering industry appeared in 2013, and then gradually declined, and began to pick up around 2017, but the recovery was not large. According to data from Shanghai Yuezi Enterprise Information Consulting Co., Ltd., in general, the monthly salary of food safety researchers with 3 to 5 years of experience is about 15,000, which is not attractive compared to other industries. Taking Internet companies as an example, the salary of many fresh graduates can meet this standard.
The first financial reporter learned in the interview that there were catering enterprises that spent 400,000 annual salaries and could not recruit suitable pastry research and development personnel. Therefore, if high-end restaurants such as Touto want to develop for a long time, they must also retain high-quality talents, gain customer reputation, and control labor costs, and it is not easy to do all this well.
(Li Xin and Haihua are pseudonyms in the text)