In the context of the great cooling of new consumption, pre-made dishes may be one of the few tracks that has received relatively high attention from capital.
The outbreak of the epidemic has accelerated the speed of pre-made dishes on the family table, and has also promoted the layout of many companies in pre-made dishes. In the past year or so, many prefabricated vegetable projects in the primary market have completed financing, such as the "Wheat Mother" contacted by 36Kr, which received strategic investment in Yuanqi Forest last year.
Headquartered in Hangzhou, Mai Zi Ma is a home-made food brand for the C-end. Mai Zi Ma's parent company, Hangzhou Fengyi Food Co., Ltd., was established in 2016, initially mainly for chain catering enterprises, hotels provide prefabricated ingredients, such as green tea restaurants, lanes, old man oil fried shrimp, etc. More than 80% of the restaurant chains around Hangzhou are its customers.
At present, Mai Zi Ma has launched home-cooked dishes such as Laotan sauerkraut fish, boiled beef, sweet and sour tenderloin, small crispy meat, chicken soup shrimp lion head, suck finger beef bone, tomato brisket, etc., as well as steak, beef cake and other products, a total of more than 20 SKUs, of which the explosive single product boiled beef sold 600,000+ boxes on the whole network, and the brand's annual channel sales increased by 400%.
Recently, Hang Seng released the "White Paper on the Prepared Vegetable Industry" released by the China Prepared Vegetable Industry Alliance, showing that Maizi Ma Sauerkraut Fish has become the TOP1 of the relevant product quality list, and its other explosive boiled beef has become the TOP2 of the "Online Prepared Vegetable Best Seller List".
Wheat mother products, courtesy of the interviewee
Mainly family groups, force in the high-end market
The outbreak of pre-made dishes at the B-end is inseparable from the joint action of restaurant chaining and the rapid development of takeaway. The epidemic has stimulated the demand of the C-end market of prepared dishes and cultivated consumers' awareness of prepared dishes.
When Mai Zi Ma appeared in 2019, the sound of prefabricated dishes on the C-end was far less than now. Founder Weng Bocheng told 36Kr that the reason why he stepped into the game so early is because he has insight into the fact that more and more women have become the backbone of the workplace, according to the National Bureau of Statistics data, in 2018, the proportion of female employed people in the country reached 43.70%, many of them have formed a family, takeaway fast food is difficult to meet the family scene of three meals a day and diet health, but in the face of fast-paced life, heavy work pressure, these people do not have enough time and energy to cook.
"There are about 600 million households in China, even if only 1% of the people accept it, that is 6 million households, so this market is very large." Therefore, Weng Bocheng founded Mai Zi Ma to help families solve cooking problems and "make cooking easier". Mai Zi Ma positioned herself in the high-end brand, Weng Bocheng said that this is a brand decision made according to the user's choice, "Mai Zi Ma's users are 88% female, and concentrated in the north of Guangjiang, Zhejiang and Shanghai areas," which also shows that the faster the pace of social life, while the income level of the same people, will use money for time, efficiency first concept, and pre-made dishes are a good solution to the three meal problems in their lives. ”
In terms of product pricing, Mai Zi Ma is generally higher than other brands, such as its three boxes of sauerkraut fish are priced at 129 yuan, and the price of three boxes of competitors is only 69 yuan. Weng Bocheng revealed that the reason why the product is more expensive is that the quality requirements of each production link are higher, and the choice of raw materials is also based on natural fresh quality as the first priority, such as the sauerkraut fish selected by sauerkraut fish, and the Taier sauerkraut fish comes from the same supplier, using the ancient method of gaogutan to marinate for 180 days; the fish is killed fresh, "from fishing to slices, the interval is up to three hours to maintain its freshness"; in addition, the wheat mother fish fillet yield rate is only 130, "20% lower than the industry, so the taste of meat is stronger, the same 250g, Wheat mother fish contains more meat."
Wheat mother sauerkraut fish, courtesy of the interviewee
In order to ensure the freshness of dishes after thawing, in terms of quick-freezing technology, Mai Zi Ma uses the -196 °C ultra-low temperature freeze lock technology, which is 10 times more expensive than ordinary quick-freezing technology. In terms of logistics and transportation, Mai Zi mama is transported by SF cold chain air transport to ensure that 90% of customers can receive products the next day. In his view, pre-made dishes are more out of immediate consumption, many people order because they want to eat at that time, and too long transportation time will consume consumer expectations.
The daily customer unit price of Maizi Ma is between 150 yuan and 160 yuan, and the unit price of the customer can reach more than 300 yuan during the New Year Festival. In the 2022 cargo festival, its sales increased by 2300% year-on-year, and its monthly sales were close to 30 million. In 2021, MaiZima's revenue exceeded 100 million yuan, which is expected to triple this year. Weng Bocheng told 36Kr that in the absence of a big promotion, the repurchase rate of Mai Zi Ma within 30 days was 26.8%.
At present, online, Mai Zi Ma has opened up channels such as Tmall, JD.com, and Douyin; offline, Mai Zi Ma has entered the channels of China Resources Vanguard, Century Hualian, Wal-Mart, Hema and Pupu.
2B+ 2C walk on two legs and spend 250 million yuan to build a new factory
According to public data, the current domestic prefabricated vegetable market size is about 300 billion yuan, the penetration rate is only 10% to 15%, and the ratio of to B-end and to C-end is about 8:2.
According to Guohai Securities Research, the core economic indicators of China's current social structure are very similar to those of Japan in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Japanese prefabricated dishes increased at a rate of more than 20% per year. By analogy, prefabricated vegetables are also expected to usher in a period of rapid growth in China, and in the next 6-7 years, China's prepared vegetable industry can grow into a trillion-dollar market.
But it is undeniable that whether it is now or in the future, the scale of the B-end of the prepared dish is far greater than that of the C-end.
"Although the 2B market is bigger, but there are already tens of thousands of companies in the country, the competition is scattered, and the brands that do well are only a few hundred million, such a competitive pattern is not conducive to running to the leading position, and the 2C market has just started, the potential is greater, and the opportunities are more." When talking about why it is extended from the B-end to the C-end, Weng Bocheng said so.
Wheat mama boiled beef, courtesy of the interviewee
This does not mean that the company will not pay attention to the B-end business, "at present, online accounts for 50% of the company's overall share, offline C-end accounts for about 25%, and then the catering 2B sector accounts for about 25%, next year will become three points of the world, accounting for the same proportion." ”
Weng Bocheng told 36Kr that the 2C end of the prepared dish will have a low and high season, and the B-end business can decompose the resulting capacity problems and provide grain and grass for the development of the 2C business. More importantly, after years of polishing the 2B business, the team has accumulated experience in supply chain, research and development, production, sales and other aspects, "Our team is very young, both the ability to do 2B, but also the brand ability." In terms of research and development, Mai Zi Ma invited Taiwanese food expert Xu Zhenhan and a number of Michelin star chefs to conduct dish research and development.
Last year, Mai Zi ma also invested 250 million yuan to build a new factory, covering an area of 50 acres in two phases. In his view, prefabricated vegetables will surely grow tens of billions of enterprises in the future, and there are at least three or five, and there is a chance to build barriers in the supply chain. "If the prefabricated vegetables do less than five hundred million business, OEM can also be, but put the vision on 2 billion, or even larger, only heavy assets, deep ploughing supply chain is possible."
It is reported that the first phase of the Maizima factory will be put into operation in June this year, and the second phase is scheduled to be put into operation in 2023. At that time, the total annual output value of Wheat Mother can reach 1.2 billion yuan.
Editor| Qiao Qian