Hoarding has become a topic of concern for every household under the epidemic. Not only are refrigerator freezers selling out of season, but the demand for fresh ingredients has also catalyzed the sale of food sealers.
Last week, the "refrigerator freezer became popular: WeChat search index rose by 96%, and some e-commerce channels sold out of stock | At the bottom of the article "Made in China", multiple reviews also mention the purchase of food vacuum sealing machines.
On the Little Red Book, the topic of #Vacuum Sealer has been viewed 14.12 million times, and many related notes have mentioned the demand for hoarding goods under the epidemic, or the new office worker's "weekly preparation" plan. The store monster market data also shows that the sales and sales of the sealing machine in the past 30 days have doubled year-on-year.
Sealing machine in the past 30 days of large market monitoring list, picture source store monster
Will the vacuum sealing machine be another recent explosive category after the refrigerator freezer?
01 In the era of hoarding, the vacuum sealing machine really sold crazy?
Under the background of the suspension of some logistics operations caused by the epidemic and the suppression of consumer demand, the vacuum sealing machine has not diminished.
In the live broadcast room of Li Jiaqi, the "top stream" of e-commerce live broadcast, the vacuum sealing machine of Suber was listed on March 27 and April 17, and the phenomenon of the same product frequently on the shelves in the live broadcast room is enough to glimpse its market demand. The recommendation and trial of the sealing machine was carried out on the spot in the live broadcast room, and after only 3-5 minutes of explanation, the goods under the promotional price were sold out.
4.17 Screenshot of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room
According to the Tmall list on April 20, the sales volume of sealing machines has reached 44,493 in the past 7 days, and 124,516 in the past 30 days, accounting for 36% of the sales in the past 7 days. It can also be seen from the data of the store monster that the click index of the sealing machine has once again produced a more significant growth trend since the epidemic in March this year.
Sealing machine in the past year click index curve chart, picture source store monster
The principle of the vacuum sealing machine is to use vacuum technology to deaerate, use vacuum bags, vacuum boxes, etc., to provide a certain preservation effect for food and prevent food oxidation and deterioration. Household food vacuum sealing machine can extend the shelf life of food, assist in the cooking method of sous-vide cooking, and avoid the skewers of various foods in the refrigerator. In addition, there are also many foods that are not suitable for vacuum packaging and must use vacuum inflatable packaging, such as crunchy and fragile foods, easy to agglomerate foods, easy to deform and oily foods.
In the brand recommendation list of various vacuum sealing machines, the top of the list are basically leading kitchen appliances such as Suber, Jiuyang, Xinbao, and Xiaoxiong.
It can be seen from the revenue data that in the past five years, their compound revenue growth has exceeded double digits, of which Xiaoxiong Electric Appliances has seized the Internet e-commerce dividend, and the compound growth has reached 36.16%. Jiuyang's products are involved in many long-tail categories, and it is also the first company in the above-mentioned enterprises to produce vacuum sealers, and has a considerable depth of excavation of the kitchen scene. Suber has a long history of development in China, a large brand reputation, and an absolute leading edge in business scale. The model of Xinbao shares is more special, mainly overseas OEM, 70% of the income comes from overseas, but the sales of agent brands are very good, such as "Mofei" has become an Internet celebrity explosion, and the monthly sales of Mofei's vacuum sealing machine reach 1000+.
From the real retail data, the brand effect of the vacuum sealer does not seem to be obvious, and among the top five sales of the sealing machine, only Suber is in the third place. Taobao data shows that in the official flagship stores of the four brands of Suber, Jiuyang, Xinbao and Xiaoxiong, the monthly sales of the most popular vacuum sealer products are only 7k, 2k, 1k and 800+ respectively.
In Taobao's "Sealer List", the first product with monthly sales of 17,000 comes from an ordinary electrical appliance manufacturer, Zhejiang Qunhai Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhejiang Qunhai"). The main products of the company, which are based in Pingyang County, Wenzhou, are vacuum sealing machines and vacuum sealing bags for household food. According to the official website, the company currently has six production lines, with an annual production of 500,000 vacuum sealing machines and 2.4 million square meters (about 420 tons) of vacuum bags (rolls), of which more than 70% are used for export.
A sealing machine product on Taobao
Under the background of "batch zero integration" and "factory direct sales", the wholesale end also reveals a market boom. According to statistics, as of the third quarter of 2020, 58% of the 1.02 million small household appliance-related enterprises in the mainland are distributed in the wholesale and retail industries. Alibaba's B2B platform 1688 shows that Zhejiang Qunhai has a total of 18 vacuum packaging machine products in sales, positioning covering factory direct sales and foreign trade customization, and the hottest one has 9,000+ transactions in 30 days.
Yuxiong Handicraft Factory, also located in Pingyang County, had the highest vacuum sealing machine turnover (2.3 million+) in 1688, and 50,000+ units were sold in 30 days, far exceeding the second place 20,000+ units. In the last 90 days of order receiving dynamics, vacuum sealer products accounted for most of the share. The person in charge of the factory told 36Kr that the number of wholesale orders in recent days has been increasing, and it used to sell more than 2,000 units a day, and now it can sell more than 1,000 units a day.
1688 A manufacturer homepage
The increase in sales of the B2B end is due to the fact that the current small household appliance market mainly relies on online channels, and various e-commerce promotional activities have helped growth. According to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, the current home appliance retail market has fully transitioned to a pattern dominated by the online market and assisted by the offline market. Even for large household appliances such as air conditioners and electric water heaters that need to be installed at home, the proportion of online channels has accounted for more than 50%. Relevant manufacturers told 36Kr that customers who purchase sealing machines wholesale are mainly from online e-commerce channels such as Douyin, Pinduoduo, and Alibaba.
On the other hand, the kitchen small appliance category continues to lead in the home appliance industry in terms of export scale and growth rate. In 2021, under the background of the general decline in the prosperity of home appliance exports, the growth rate of kitchen appliances continued to lead, and the export volume increased by 29.7% year-on-year. The 1688 product page shows that many sealer manufacturers not only support overseas e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Shopify, Shopee, etc., but also have many customers wholesale to Alibaba International For sale.
According to the data, in addition to the above two, there are more than ten vacuum packaging related manufacturers located in Pingyang County, Wenzhou. In the list of advanced manufacturing projects in the "14th Five-Year Plan" of Pingyang County, the plan of "annual output of 1500 sets (sets) of food vacuum packaging machines and paper cup machine plant construction projects with a total investment of 150 million yuan" was proposed.
02 The outlet came too suddenly, what is the vacuum sealer industry experiencing?
Market demand has soared, and under the outlet, the entire industry is also facing opportunities and challenges at the same time.
The person in charge of Zhejiang Qunhai told 36Kr that due to the relevant impact, the sales of their own vacuum sealing machines fell by 35% compared with the original expectations.
For Zhejiang Qunhai, which accounts for 70% of export products, the decline in sales may be related to changes in the export environment. According to the data released by the General Administration of Customs, in the first two months of 2022, China exported a total of 549.11 million units of household electrical appliances, a decrease of 7.9% over the same period last year, and it is difficult to reproduce the growth trend of the scale and growth rate of home appliance exports last year.
Secondly, the disturbance of the epidemic has intensified, and logistics and distribution have become bottlenecks. The industrial park of kitchen appliance enterprises is mainly in Zhejiang, while the Shanghai epidemic spilled out in some parts of the Yangtze River Delta, the high-speed blockage points in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces increased, and the freight volume index of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai was significantly lower than that of the whole country from late March, which affected the logistics and supply of vacuum sealing machines and other commodities to a certain extent.
The popularity of food sealing machines is mainly affected by the promotion of the epidemic, as a typical long-tail category in the field of kitchen appliances, there is a large room for future penetration. The total sales volume of kitchen appliances in W13-14 (3.28-4.10) in 22 of the Jingdong platform increased by 39.9% year-on-year, and the growth rate (25.35%) accelerated significantly compared with Q1. It can be seen that consumers' demand for such kitchen appliances has shifted from optional items to essentials to a certain extent. For young people who originally relied more on takeaway and fast food, traditional kitchen appliances such as microwave ovens and refrigerators may become a necessity for life, and there is also a new round of opportunities for improvement in the penetration rate of emerging kitchen appliances such as multi-functional pots, air fryers, and vacuum sealers.
Little Red Book related notes
On the kitchen small appliance track, leading brands will continue to benefit with the high growth of the industry. Guotai Junan Securities pointed out in the report released yesterday that while the epidemic has brought short-term bearishness, it is also accompanied by the clearance of tail brands in the industry, the competition pattern is being optimized, and the leading share is expected to be further improved. For example, Suber is constantly expanding new categories, increasing marketing efforts in social e-commerce, live streaming and other channels, and continuing to follow up the demand growth of third- and fourth-line small household appliances, perhaps further occupying an advantage in competition.
Similarly, affected by the economic environment and market sinking, the scale of low-cost low-end SKUs has been expanding, and non-head manufacturers have unique price advantages. A person in charge of a manufacturer told 36Kr that low-priced goods are more likely to "run through" at present.
03 In addition to household use, the large market for sealing machines may still be commercial
In addition to household use, vacuum sealers are more widely used in the production end of the food industry. Scenes such as takeaway, prepared dishes, and fresh ingredients are the main categories of commercial food vacuum sealing machines.
First, the takeaway industry has a large capacity and an amazing growth rate, and the safety of food safety and packaging materials cannot be ignored.
According to the "2021 China Chain Catering Industry Report", China's catering industry grew strongly in 2021, with annual revenue reaching 4,689.5 billion yuan, an increase of 18.6% year-on-year; of which the takeaway market size was 811.7 billion yuan, accounting for nearly 20%. Among them, the "2018-2019 China Online Takeaway Industry Research Report" pointed out that 78.7% of the respondents are most concerned about the "food safety (hygiene)" problem of takeaway food, and 53.2% of the respondents are more concerned about the takeaway packaging material.
Good sealing, safe packaging materials, and customizable takeaway packaging are becoming the only choice for takeaway catering operators who want to increase the number of takeaway orders and repurchase rates, and improve the reputation of store brands.
Second, the rise of pre-made dishes and quick-frozen dishes after the epidemic has also ushered in a small outlet for vacuum sealing machines in the industrial chain of catering equipment-related accessories.
Pre-made dishes refer to the food raw materials pre-processed semi-processed or full-processed, and then taken frozen or vacuum packaging preservation, consumers only need to heat after purchase, or through the combination of ingredients in the pre-made dish packaging for simple cooking, a short period of time can be made. Most of the prepared dishes are vacuum-packed, and the vacuum treatment inside the bag is carried out to effectively isolate oxygen, avoid contamination of dishes, and ensure the freshness and quality of meals. Prepared foods often face very critical problems such as warehousing, logistics and distribution, retail, etc. If you want to withstand the long-term test from food preparation to sales, you need to choose food packaging with high barrier packaging materials to achieve priority fresh safety.
Ai media consulting data show that in 2021, the scale of China's prepared vegetable industry is estimated to be 345.9 billion yuan, an increase of 18.1% year-on-year, and it is expected that china's prepared vegetable market will maintain a rapid growth rate of about 20% in the future, and the total amount of prefabricated dishes is expected to be more than 3 trillion yuan. According to this estimated volume, the resulting market demand for packaging bags, packaging boxes, plastic wrap, labels, cartons, packaging machines and other industrial chain links can reach 100 billion.
Third, vacuum plastic sealing of fresh ingredients has increasingly become a must for fresh e-commerce and supermarkets. Many fresh meats began to use conformal packaging, that is, different from traditional vacuum packaging and frozen packaging, which not only extended the shelf life, but also effectively protected the appearance of the food itself. This product is packaged in a film that is completely attached to the meat, creating a vacuum-like environment that insulates air and bacteria better than vacuum packaging.
Decal packaging, image source network
With the improvement of food technology level, the application of vacuum packaging technology will become more and more extensive, and the types, styles, performance, and quality of vacuum packaging equipment will change and improve. According to the prediction of Zhongyan Puhua, in the future, the vacuum packaging machine will realize large-scale, continuous and intelligent, improve the packaging speed and quality, adapt to the packaging of more types of materials, and improve the packaging variety and material preservation time.