Small noodles, fried skewers, pre-made dishes, popular track caterers discuss the new trends in the industry

Under the new wave of consumption, the catering industry has also set off a metamorphosis that conforms to the changes of the times, and this 100-billion-level track has launched a new game.

Under the general trend of rising prices in the catering industry in these years, it can be seen that more and more new brands trying to lock in new groups of people, new scenes, and seek higher added value have emerged.

New brands and new formats continue to emerge, and while the catering industry continues to diversify and develop, it has also attracted more and more capital participation. In just two years, the catering industry has been listed, investment and financing events have been frequent, and many points have blossomed and the amount is considerable.

According to the data of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, as of August 2021, there were 86 investment and financing incidents in the catering industry, and the amount of investment and financing reached 43.91 billion yuan, more than twice that of 2020; there were also dozens of financing projects with more than 100 million yuan.

This grand situation has even been called the "second round of capital cycle in the catering industry".

In the early years, most catering brands were not interested in capitalization operations such as "financing and listing", and many investment institutions were discouraged because of the high difficulty of standardization of catering enterprises, especially Chinese food.

In recent years, why has the catering industry, which was once unpopular with capital, turned popular? Why are fundraising and IPOs so intensive?

When the concept of new catering is frequently mentioned, what exactly is new catering? Does the rise of this concept mean the arrival of a new cycle in the industry? In the face of the ever-changing food and beverage industry, how to become a brand that crosses the cycle?

On March 18th, 36Kr Future Consumption held a conference with the theme of "New Catering, Chinese Catering Ushers in a New Cycle?" The "New Catering Online Forum" invited five executives of top investment institutions and leading players in the new catering industry to discuss the changes and future of new catering under the trend of hot traffic position and market division.

Online forum: Hongyi Investment Managing Director, Baifu Holdings CEO Wang Xiaolong, Meet Small Face Co-founder Su Xuxiang, Kwa father fried skewer founder and CEO Yuan Zelu, Zaihui partner Huang Jianfeng, Benwei Fresh Food founder Xiao Xin and 36Kr Future Consumption Editor-in-Chief Xie Kangyu had a wonderful discussion.

The following is an excerpt of the speakers' sharing content, "Future Consumption" is compiled according to the transcript of the speech:

"How do you define a 'new restaurant'?"

Hongyi Investment Managing Director and CEO of BaifuKu Holdings Wang Xiaolong:

Our understanding of new catering mainly refers to innovation, which is mainly reflected in the business model and all aspects of operation and management.

For example, as far as the business model is concerned: traditional catering used to be basically offline store dine-in. With the change of the times and the advancement of technology, in fact, almost the vast majority of catering stores now include online and offline operations. In addition to dine-in, online content is becoming more and more abundant, such as takeaway and community operations and short videos.

From the operation management, there are also many this innovation, such as the production of products. Like the products of small noodles and the form of small noodles produced on the streets of Chongqing, there is a big difference, and there are Qua Father fried skewers, the original fried skewers are particularly small shops on the street, and Kwa Father took the fried skewers to some shopping malls where there is a lot of traffic to operate.

There's also brand marketing. Originally, it relied on the natural traffic of the store, and now there are various means, such as public domain, private domain, membership, public number and so on. From the experience of so many years, the new catering mainly refers to the user operation model.

The original traditional catering is basically around the store to do operations, with the change of the times, there is now a more obvious sign, more and more companies began to operate around the user, the store is just a carrier, or just a terminal for him.

The last key is that the times are progressing, technology is developing, embracing new technologies, and becoming more and more the most important embodiment of the new catering. If the technical means of various Internet platforms can be grafted onto the brand and operation of our catering, I think there will really be a very big opportunity.

Yuan Zelu, founder and CEO of Kwafu Fried Skewer

The core of our understanding of new catering is actually that everything finally returns to the organization, and I think it is a new organizational form. Whether it is organizational structure or organizational strength.

I give our example, in fact, our store is more infinitely closer to retail, just less like a restaurant. Our own store is very small, the essence of the retail business, coupled with the concept of digital tools and methods, in fact, retail plus digital is e-commerce. So in our organizational structure, many people from traditional industries will feel that our organizational structure is not more like traditional catering, more like the Internet.

For example, our operation has its own business sub-team, and in the past, we may have recruited an operation director, or recruited the general manager of a regional branch. That actually requires a person to master perhaps four or five abilities, he will not only engage in business, but also engage in expansion, but also engage in data analysis, but also engage in market analysis, but also to do hrbp. In fact, after we dismantle this ability, professionals do professional things. So we actually disassembled the working methods of traditional catering.

Including our management of franchise operations, there are actually three kinds of operations, user operations, product operations, and business operations. As far as we think that our franchisee is actually a merchant in the e-commerce industry, then we are actually a company that builds a platform, the operation of the merchant, and the Internet has a very mature way of working, or cognitive concept. So once your organization has undergone a major change, you'll find that you can keep absorbing a lot of cross-industry talent.

So in fact, in the final analysis, we feel that the wandian chain is a single store model multiplied by organizational power. You will find that the single-store model of excellent catering enterprises is excellent, which is the premise of ensuring profitability. For any stage and any period of excellent restaurant chain brand, it is definitely a single store model is polished to 80 points and 85 points at the moment, and the core is how to improve the organizational strength.

The improvement of organizational strength may be in different eras, and its approach is the same. Maybe twenty or thirty years ago. Maybe we say the previous generation or the relatively old restaurant brand, he may use the family style, or what kind of apprenticeship system and so on. In fact, he is all trying to improve this organizational strength.

That's the new catering of our generation, and I think digitalization may be the only solution. In fact, the essence of digitalization is ultimately to improve your organizational strength, including the efficiency of the organization, including the way you connect within the organization, and the direction of the flow of information within you.

We think you can intuitively see what kind of achievements you have made, but behind it is the profound changes in your organization that will lead to great changes in various decisions and decision combinations. So we think this may be new catering new in organizational innovation.

"How do you see the changes that have taken place in the catering industry in the past two years?"

Meet Xiaomian co-founder Su Xuxiang

If we study the development history of McDonald's and Starbucks, we will find that the Current Chinese Catering Industry is still in its infancy, and China's Catering Industry may become faster in the future. Because the perfection of some industry conditions is still related to the acceleration of the development of some basic areas in China. Just like our generation of entrepreneurs can be very happy, there are some molded supply chains to form and so on, to provide services for us.

At the same time, there are many technology industries, in the process of serving us, like these software made by Mr. Huang, he just mentioned a very important concept, that is, there is a suite. Especially for catering companies, many things do not have to be developed by themselves, and they can find the right kit.

In addition, all aspects of society, including the maturity of financial markets, etc., these changes are the reasons for the rapid development of the modern catering industry. Of course, there is another very important reason, just mentioned is the change of cognition, but also because these soils are mature, so Kochi talents will see opportunities in this regard and come to this track to start a business. We can see that in fact, catering is opening faster and faster every year, and some brands claim that direct brands can expand hundreds of stores a year.

In fact, the peak of entrepreneurship in the catering industry we have experienced two waves, one wave is one or four years and five years, but then after some small troughs, and then now it is fast again. In fact, after we go through these cycles, we will think instead, what is unchanged, and what may change is different every time. In addition to maintaining our ability to learn quickly and keep up with the rhythm of change, I actually think it is more important to grasp some of the unchanging things in the industry, and to ensure that we are still that strong after the big wave.

So I think the changes in catering in recent years have been very fast, and may be more accelerated, because the surrounding environment is becoming more and more mature, and there will be more new catering brands in the future, and eventually an industry as mature as the developed countries we see.

The founder of this flavor fresh food Xiao Xin

Regarding the trend of prepared dishes, it is actually related to the stereotype of catering retailing and retail catering. The requirement for to B efficiency has led to a significant standardization of the needs of the entire supply chain. Therefore, whether from the perspective of cost or from the perspective of meal efficiency, the demand for prepared dishes will be more obviously exposed.

And in the context of the special era of the epidemic, everyone is too long at home. The cooking skills of this generation are far less than those of the previous generation. From the spring festival during this period, the sales of grilled sausages and prepared vegetable products of the original flavor of fresh food can be seen, everyone is at home, and there is a scene demand for a dinner to show their hands.

The need for pre-made dishes to C also showed up. But in essence, I think the conceptual fire far exceeds the fire in the actual market. Especially in the field of to C, it really does not solve the problem of prefabricated vegetable consumption scenarios. So we feel that in fact, if we look at it from the perspective of capital focusing on these two years, we feel that it is actually in the early stage of industry change, or in the early stage of a reddish. Everyone needs more capital to support each company to make mistakes and support more brands in the track.

In addition to providing support in terms of capital, scale and resources, in fact, the good companies that win in the end are all companies with good supply chains. This is the same as new retail, the supply chain is divided into two categories, one is the real supply efficiency, that is, the resource problem of the product. Another aspect is research and development.

We think one of the biggest changes in the past two years is that we think the biggest trend is that whether it is making pre-made vegetable products, or in order to make this pre-made vegetable product better used in the B-end, then research and development is a crucial part.

Nowadays, research and development is becoming more and more refined, and most of the original catering companies are actually internal, that is, internal chefs are developing. The prepared dish is actually completely different, it is different from the traditional catering research and development, and most of the current catering research and development estimates are not the same. It turns out to be about making a dish and replicating it in each restaurant as much as possible. Now, if you make a pre-made dish, you have to set the taste, set the industrialization, and do the industrial standard of reheating. In fact, these are a big challenge for every catering enterprise and prefabricated dish enterprise.

For example, at the end of last year, the low-temperature pre-made dishes jointly launched by Benwei Fresh Food and The Hundred Years Yufu: Dongpo Meat, Double Pepper Marinated Fatty Sausage and Simmered Old Duck Pot, etc., we need to spend a long time to develop and test, so that users can really taste the same taste and taste as the dishes just out of the restaurant at home.

In fact, this requires the optimization and iteration of the entire socialized system, and also requires the financing of a large amount of capital, and I believe that the influx of capital into this industry is becoming more and more rational. After rationalization, we will see that the enterprises that have taken the money or the direction of capital production will increasingly go to the back end, rather than just blindly pursuing scale. Benwei Umami also hopes to continue to lead the development of the low-temperature prepared food industry through continuous exploration in product research and development, product sales and marketing.

"Is the food and beverage industry ushering in a new cycle, and how can it become a brand that crosses the cycle?"

From our point of view, the catering industry itself, especially in China, does not actually have a clear cycle problem. This is different from many other industries, because this is, after all, a consumer goods industry, and the whole market size has actually been steadily rising.

In addition to the interference of the epidemic in recent years, this is an external shock. The real feeling of the cycle of the enterprise, in fact, I think is the enterprise itself, in the process of development, there is some stagnation, a feeling generated.

For example, many people will discuss whether the category has a cycle, this in fact, I do not particularly agree with such a point of view, such as Chongqing small noodles, he is because the current cycle has reached the rising stage to be born to meet small noodles, I don't think so, because the market environment that everyone faces is the same, he can stand out when he meets small noodles, and he overcomes various problems encountered in the original business process of this category, especially the problem of chaining. Similarly, the kuako-fried skewers are not entirely new. So from that point of view, I don't think the industry itself is exactly cyclical like a lot of industries.

Of course, now the market is also facing a challenge, that is, the speed of emergence of new brands in recent years is too fast, capital in this process, one side plays a good role, is to promote the rapid upgrading of the industry, but also to provide young entrepreneurs with good operating conditions, that is, there are enough resources for innovation.

But on the other hand, I think there is still a negative aspect, which actually leads to the supply of the entire catering industry is relatively excessive, to a certain extent, it actually violates the growth law of the catering industry. There are also some good and bad, quick success and short-term profits, some of the infrastructure of some enterprises is not sound enough, such as insufficient operating systems, and even organizational efficiency is not strong, so it may grow up quickly, which will not work for a while.

Making others feel that this is a cyclical problem, in fact, I think it is not, it is still an organizational problem. So from that point of view, I think the current one is really affected by the epidemic, and the whole industry is fluctuating violently, but it is not a cyclical problem.

Re-hui partner Huang Jianfeng

The essence of the cycle is that catering enterprises can develop healthily for a long time. For a business to go through cycles, I personally think there are four major elements. They are organizational capabilities and corporate culture, product strength, user experience, and online operation capabilities.

In terms of public domain traffic, we can help customers in the operation of reviews, Ele.me and Meituan stores, through our own Kirin system and very professional operating partners to help customers complete the acquisition of organic traffic on the platform, reasonable advertising placement, and communicate with the platform to communicate subsidy programs.

We'll also help customers analyze and respond to reviews to improve some improvement suggestions and enhance the restaurant's user experience. In addition, we will help customers improve the transaction volume, orders and customer unit price of Ele.me and Meituan through our system analysis capabilities and operational capabilities.

In terms of membership management, we can help customers precipitate the platform of public domain traffic into the private domain first. All members are labeled and analyzed to analyze the spending power, frequency of consumption, and consumption preferences of these customers. Then our system can intelligently give suggestions, at the right time, to different characteristics of customers to issue different amounts or types of coupons, to attract customers to achieve re-purchase. This system also has the functions of stored value and mall. For reasons of time, I will not dwell on them here.

In addition, we now have a douyin anchor team of hundreds of people, who can help customers get traffic and enhance store business on douyin by visiting stores, live broadcasting, and customizing personalized videos.

Finally, we are now trying to do some of our own incubated brands, such as powder stalls, dry these brands once we test mature, will also be open to the outside world to join. It is hoped to help some catering enterprises that want to enter the catering industry or have weaker competitiveness to participate in the development of the catering market more competitively.