Text: Red Meal Network
In the blink of an eye, 2023 will reach the end of the year. If you want to use a few key words to describe the changes in the catering industry this year, "joining" must be on the list.
Since the beginning of this year, it seems that every hot category track has risen a wave of "retaliation" franchise entrepreneurship, and franchise has also become the main battlefield for major chain restaurant companies.
Looking back on the catering franchise market in 2023, which major events impress you the most?
By taking stock of the more concerned events in the catering industry, I hope to bring some thinking and enlightenment to catering people.
New tea drinks have entered the "all-franchise era"
A new tea franchise battle that began at the end of 2022 will run through the entire 2023.
Since November 2022, after Heytea officially opened its business partner program, the market trend of tea franchise has begun to change. Since the beginning of 2023, the new tea drink franchise war has become increasingly hot. Up to now, in addition to brands such as Tea Yan Yuese and Grandma's hand-made, the relatively head new tea brands have basically opened up to join. So far, the new tea beverage industry has basically bid farewell to the era of full direct sales.
In February, Gu Ming announced its northward expansion, allowing Shandong, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Anhui provinces to join.
In April, Lele Tea announced the opening of its franchise business, and has now entered the 2.0 franchise era, mainly promoting the small store model. It is expected that the total number of Lele Tea stores will reach 1,000 in 2024.
来源：乐乐茶LELECHA微博
In June, Guigui Tea officially announced the official opening of the national franchise, and has converted 60% of the directly operated stores in East China into franchises.
In July, Nai Xue's tea officially launched the "Partner" program, and according to the data disclosed by Nai Xue in the third quarter, it added a net of 166 franchise stores. It is expected that the scale of franchise stores will reach 2,000 next year and the year after.
In September, Shanghai Auntie's light store was opened to join, and the first batch of open cities were Weifang, Linyi, Suzhou and Langfang.
In November, Cudi's milk tea brand Tea Cat was unveiled, and Cudi associates can join before December 31, and the Tea Cat franchise business will be fully launched in January 2024 (target cities are in the first and second tiers, provincial capitals and prefecture-level cities).
Behind the boom in new tea beverage franchises, the chain rate of brands has been further improved.
At present, under the promotion of joining, the ecological pattern of the new tea beverage brand has been preliminarily determined, and the Wandian Club has begun to take shape. Founded in 2008, there are currently 7,800+ stores in the country, Gu Ming, a tea brand founded in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province in 2010, has nearly 9,000 stores so far, Shanghai Auntie, founded in 2013, has more than 7,500 stores nationwide, and the total number of stores has exceeded 7,000.
In addition, the improvement of efficiency is also an important part of boosting the chain layout of tea brands. For example, Heytea and Naixue have made certain breakthroughs in the research and development and application of smart devices, laying the foundation for joining and speeding up.
For example, at the end of November last year, the official announcement was made to open up the business partner plan. After more than a year of development, up to now, Heytea has entered more than 210 cities, and the number of stores has exceeded 3,000, including 2,200 business partnership stores.
Comments:
In the entire catering field, in 2023, we will join the particularly crazy category track, and tea drinks will definitely be on the list. According to the estimation of the Red Meal Industry Research Institute, the market size of ready-made beverages will reach 261.3 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 22.8%.
Among them, joining is an important booster. However, as the big data of red meal shows, the growth rate of the mainland freshly made tea market has begun to slow down, and it has generally entered a mature period. Almost every segment has seen the emergence of relatively top brands, and the competition between brands has further intensified. It remains to be seen who will become the next brand to break through 10,000 stores.
Luckin opens to join with stores, and the coffee brand "you chase me"
The franchise heat wave of the coffee market in 2023 is as good as that of new tea drinks.
According to a report released by the research institute World Coffee Portal, the total number of branded coffee stores in China has approached 50,000, with a growth rate of more than 58% in the past 12 months. China has become the country with the most branded coffee outlets in the world.
The growth of China's coffee market is largely due to the fact that coffee brands have conquered the city through the franchise model.
Since the second half of last year, whether it is a tea brand entering the coffee market or an old player in the coffee track, various local coffee brands have coincidentally landed in various cities across the country through the franchise model.
The two brands, Luckin Coffee and Cudi Coffee, have achieved a net growth of more than 10,000 in the past year, an astonishing growth rate.
Qifentian's coffee brand Qingxing Coffee, Tianlala's coffee brand "Ka Xiaotao", and Shanghai Auntie founded "Shanghai Coffee", including the "Lucky Coffee" founded by Mixue Bingcheng earlier, have all adopted the franchise store model without exception. At present, the number of stores nationwide has exceeded 2,000.
And in order to grab franchisees, coffee brands are also riveting.
According to its official WeChat data, as of November 23, Luckin has approved the location of 696 stores, of which 177 have been opened. In addition, brands such as Kaxiao, Cudi, Qingxing Coffee, NOWWA Coffee and other brands are exempted from franchise fees, 0 yuan franchise fees, time-limited subsidies and other measures to attract the attention of franchisees.
For example, NOWWA Nova Coffee reported that it plans to sign 1,000 new stores by the end of the year, and exempt 50,000 yuan of franchise fees for newly signed stores, with a total of 50 million subsidies;
Thanks to this, the store data and market size of Chinese coffee are expected to soar further.
From the latest store expansion plan of the chain coffee brand, it can be seen that this heat wave of coffee franchise will continue to 2024 or even 2025. For example, PEEKOO Coffee, a new Chinese coffee brand founded in March 2022, currently has more than 60 stores nationwide, and is expected to reach 300 next year, and on October 17, according to Guo Jinyi, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Luckin Coffee, the number of Luckin Coffee stores has exceeded 13,000 and the number of customers has exceeded 170 million. It is expected that by the end of this year, the number of Luckin Coffee stores will exceed 15,000, and recently, Qian Zhiya, chairman and CEO of Cudi Coffee, also proposed in an internal letter that Cudi will reach 20,000 stores worldwide by 2025.
Comments:
There is no doubt that with the accelerated expansion of coffee brands, the scale of China's coffee market will further expand. At this stage, we can't say how China's coffee market will enter the endgame, but all catering categories have their life cycles, for entrepreneurs and franchisees, we must judge the situation and seize the opportunity of dividends, but also be vigilant about the rapid cooling of the market after overheating.
Ramen category track to join the "dark war"
Two years ago, it was the year of the explosion of the crazy rise of new ramen brands. At that time, the capitalists were crazy about "eating noodles", and there were many star VC institutions such as Hillhouse Venture Capital, GSR Venture Capital, Sequoia Fund, Tencent Investment, and Shunwei Capital who were optimistic about the ramen track. At the most prosperous, the valuations of Ma Jiyong and Chen Xianggui, the two upstart brands of ramen, exceeded 1 billion yuan, and Zhang Lala raised 3 rounds of financing within a year.
However, just over a year later, the capital is no longer injected, the ramen track seems to have changed, and the popularity of the above brands has also decreased.
Since the beginning of this year, these ramen brands have made new moves, such as adjusting pricing, adjusting product lines, promoting set meal combinations, etc., and increasing the speed of expansion with the help of franchises.
In November, Chen Xianggui officially opened to join. In addition, the content of the "About Agui" column in Chen Xianggui's official Weibo shows that Chen Xianggui has opened 210 directly-operated stores in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou and other cities, and plans to expand to 500+ stores nationwide in 2024.
In the same month, Zhang Lala also issued a document to celebrate the brand's successful signing of 300 stores, and officially announced the recruitment of business partners across the country, among which the top 10 partners who successfully signed a contract can also receive 50,000 yuan of store opening funds.
Whether it is a new opening to join or a preferential policy to join the franchise, the intention of Lanzhou beef ramen brand to accelerate the expansion of stores with the help of franchise is obvious, and there is even a sense of "grabbing" franchisees between brands.
In addition, Hefu Lao Noodles's newly expanded sub-brand "Alan Family Beef Noodles" last year has also achieved rapid expansion with the help of franchises, and red meal big data shows that the number of Alan stores is close to 50.
Comments:
In the past, the ramen category market belonged to the situation of having categories but no brands, and the market concentration was low, which provided a broad imagination space for innovative ramen brands, and capital also poured in. But obtaining financing is only the first step, and without the transfusion of capital, how to achieve sustained and rapid new growth is a question that all ramen brand entrepreneurs need to think about together. Joining will not be one of the shortcuts, and the red meal franchise will continue to pay attention.
Most of the star catering brands that have become popular by joining have fallen into a mess
The model of joining star restaurants to do the "fan economy" will face more severe challenges in 2023. Those star catering brands that rely on franchises to expand rapidly have almost all overturned one after another, and almost none of them have ended up well.
Xianhezhuang, founded by Chen He, has expanded 800 stores in just 2 or 3 years. However, this year, Xianhezhuang has withdrawn from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and other cities. Red meal big data shows that up to now, there are only more than 100 stores in Xianhezhuang in operation.
Han Han's "Nice to meet you", in 2018, he began to expose a large number of bankruptcies, and his franchise store in Tianjin was also sued to the court for unpaid wages. In October this year, the brand was exposed to a loss of hundreds of millions, and it is now a pleasure to meet that all of your stores have been closed.
In December, the milk tea brand endorsed by celebrity Guan Xiaotong was forcibly held for 4.3 million yuan due to a franchise contract dispute, and both the company and the legal person were restricted from consumption.
Comments:
The purpose of joining a celebrity restaurant is to obtain traffic with the halo of a star, and there is no problem with this model itself. However, the reason why star catering brands frequently thunder is because they have not run through the business model, and have not taken products and services as the core, and have achieved large-scale expansion by taking the fast recruitment route and hyping up the heat with great fanfare. Therefore, for entrepreneurs who want to be a star catering franchise, they should keep their eyes open when selecting and inspecting projects in the future, and improve the basic knowledge of project evaluation.
The overseas franchise boom has set off, and the overseas franchise market is also surging this year
In February, Zhengxin Chicken Chop sounded the global investment charge, and set the development goal of "100,000 stores and 100 billion output value" in the world.
On March 9, Heytea restarted its overseas expansion after five years and will open partner applications in overseas markets in Southeast Asia such as Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. So far, Heytea has opened 1 store in London, Melbourne, Australia, Vancouver, Canada, and Kuala Lumpur, USA, and the first store in Seoul, South Korea is currently under fence. As of December 19, the open cooperation area on the Heytea Business Partnership Assistant's WeChat Mini Program shows that the overseas markets that have been opened include South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, etc.
At the end of March, two Luckin stores in Singapore opened for soft opening. In April, its store in Guoco Tower, Singapore's tallest building, opened for soft opening.
Luckin Coffee's store in Singapore, source Luckin Coffee Weibo
Also at the end of March, Dodomi Noodles, a brand of He Yong Group, released a plan to increase the layout of overseas markets in 2023, saying that it will gradually unlock overseas countries and regions such as Canada, the United States, and Australia in the future.
In April, Wei Tongrong, the founder of Fish Together, also said at the 2023 Global Franchisee Conference that this year, Fish Together will not only improve the speed of opening stores in China, but also accelerate the expansion of overseas markets, and deploy franchise stores in overseas cities and countries such as New York, Dubai, and Canada.
At the beginning of May, Taiwanese milk tea brand Yifang Fruit Tea also announced that in addition to setting up branches in Paris, London, Edinburgh, Tokyo, Bangkok, New York, San Francisco and other overseas cities, it will also open franchise opportunities to Italy.
Also in May, the first European store of Sangu Maocai opened in Cologne, Germany, according to its official disclosure information, Sangu Maocai will actively develop the franchise model overseas.
On October 1, Tianlala's first overseas city landed in Indonesia, and six stores in Jakarta were opened.
On November 20, Zhang Liang Malatang announced its attack on the Southeast Asian market. It is understood that Zhang Liang Malatang has opened and is preparing 15 stores in four countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
In December, Tanyu officially announced the opening of global franchises, and has now opened franchise stores in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and other overseas countries.
Comments:
Franchise has been very mature in overseas markets, and has the advantages of fiscal and tax standard costs and labor costs, which can ensure the quality standards of products and services of franchised stores and unify business strategies, so franchise with stronger replicability has always been the preferred business model for Chinese food enterprises when going overseas.
However, it is worth noting that although it is the general trend for Chinese food to go overseas, it is not possible to make a profit or lose money by opening up the franchise business overseas, and there are still many matters that need to be paid attention to by the brand, such as in law, it is necessary to comply with the franchise laws and regulations of different countries and regions, in addition, it is necessary to pay attention to whether the employees are stable, whether the franchise model is perfect, and whether the relevant industrial chain is mature enough.
The Internet celebrity category has accelerated its rise through joining, but it is hot and cools down quickly
There are many Internet celebrity categories that have become popular this year, such as roast duck, five-yuan self-service sugar water, and new Chinese-style steamed buns...... The reason why these categories can quickly gain popularity is also inseparable from the support of franchisees.
Red meal big data shows that from November 2022 to November 2023, the number of Mao Roast Duck stores nationwide increased from 385 to 3,632, an increase of 843% year-on-year.
Under the heat, the major roast duck specialty stores have accelerated their store expansion with the help of the franchise model. Wu Mei Mao Roast Duck in Rugang District 1 will open more than 150 new stores in 2023, and Li Xuqing Mao Roast Duck will open more than 50 new stores in the past 4 months.
The five-yuan self-service sugar water format has become popular, and franchisees have also begun to hunt for the "unmanned sugar water shop" project, and large and small brands have emerged in an endless stream. Qia Bingji, Shanyin, Quanji, Shiji, Chunjiao Grandma, Mingfa, Hefa, Ahan Sugar Water Shop, etc., are all unmanned self-service sugar water brands that have sprouted in the past one or two years. Among them, there are also brands that have shouted that they will open 1,000 stores within the year.
In the first half of this year, under the "boom" of new Chinese-style steamed buns, many entrepreneurs have poured into this track. Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Qingdao and other cities have appeared a number of "steamed bread shops".
It's a pity that the popularity of some Internet celebrity categories always comes and goes quickly, but the reality is not so wishy-washy.
In June this year, the new Chinese-style steamed buns began to go out of business, and the five-yuan self-service sugar water brand not only stalled in development, but also on social platforms and second-hand platforms, there have been a number of self-service sugar water shop transfer equipment posts. More industry insiders bluntly said that there will be a large number of five-yuan sugar water shops that will fall this winter.
Comments:
The reason why some of the Internet celebrity categories are born and die quickly is that on the one hand, the vitality of the category itself is not strong, or it is too niche to expand on a large scale, and in the case that the "sickle hand" is becoming more and more "professional", some entrepreneurs are unfortunately "harvested".
However, among the Internet celebrity categories that will become popular in 2023, not all Internet celebrity categories are pseudo-demand or short-lived, but whether the category can survive forever depends not on short-term traffic but on long-term deep cultivation.
0 yuan to join, reduction and exemption of franchise fee...... There are more and more "routines" for catering to join
At the beginning of this year, the catering industry picked up, giving many restaurant chain brands the hope of "grabbing people" and "grabbing shops" and accelerating expansion. In 2023, when investment is becoming more and more cautious, the low-threshold investment method has become a rigid need for entrepreneurs. In order to be better in terms of scale, many chain catering brands are following preferential franchise fees, providing technical support, and even reducing franchise fees, and launched "0 yuan to join", in which there are more and more tricks and "routines".
For example, T97coffee said that the offline turnover will not be commissioned, and 100% of the cooperation fee will be refunded within one year.
There is also Cudi, before March 31, 2023, the contracted stores can reduce the service fee of up to 100,000 yuan per store for a limited time, and at the same time, a minimum guarantee policy is also set up, if the franchisee incurs a loss, Cudi Coffee will make up the difference in the loss.
In addition, in order to attract associates to join, Cudi has also introduced a subsidy policy. For example, orders less than 9.5 yuan will be settled at 9.5 yuan, the distance between the site and Luckin is 1.5 yuan, 150 meters is 1 yuan, and 200 meters is 0.5 yuan, more than 1 store has a 0.5 yuan subsidy, and the rent is more than 15,000 yuan has a 0.5 yuan subsidy, and the maximum subsidy is 2.5 yuan.
Not only the coffee industry, but also tracks such as hot pot, snacks and fast food, especially some small restaurants, have offered big moves such as "instant reduction of franchise fees", "limited-time specials", "free brand use fees", "free decoration design fees", "free equipment" and "base materials".
Comments:
The risks of joining are clichés. It's just that no matter what kind of franchise method, behind it, in addition to wanting to make quick money, there is also a brand that wants to use the scale effect of the store to enhance brand competitiveness and achieve expansion.
No matter how many routines there are for catering brands, this is not the only criterion for judging whether a franchise project is good or not, and whether it is worth entering the game. But as entrepreneurs, what we need to be wary of is not to impulsively join a brand that we don't know well because of short-term or literal interests.
The state is heavy on the rectification of quick moves, and the chaos of catering franchises is expected to be curbed
Behind the outbreak of "retaliation" franchise in major categories, there is a hidden and lucrative gray industrial chain of "fraud in the name of joining". But after this year, this gray industrial chain is expected to be cut off.
On June 25, the Ministry of Commerce, together with the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the State Intellectual Property Office, issued the Notice on Improving the Comprehensive Supervision System and Promoting the Standardized and Orderly Development of Business Characteristics (Draft for Comments). The relevant work requirements of franchising have been publicized and standardized, among which the beverage, catering, retail and other industries will be subject to key supervision in accordance with laws and regulations. Local departments of commerce, market supervision, public security and other departments will also regularly jointly carry out special clean-up and rectification of commercial franchising, and focus on exposing and handling a number of cases of violations of laws and regulations.
In fact, not only the introduction of relevant policies, but since 2023, local courts have become more and more vigorous in dealing with cases related to quick recruitment and joining. Courts in many places have more than once characterized "quick recruitment" as "fraud". Some of the convicted employees of the fast recruitment company will not only face fines, but also suffer "prison time".
For example, on June 7, four members of a fraud syndicate in Nanjing were sentenced to 5-12 years in prison and fined 20-2 million yuan. In October, Shanghai also disclosed the first case of "routine joining" contract fraud, in which 69 people involved were sentenced, of which 7 were sentenced to more than 10 years in prison and fined.
From the new measures of the relevant departments, as well as the trial results of the above cases, it means that the state has begun to crack down on the fast recruitment of criminal forces, which is bound to play a relatively large deterrent role for those enterprises that are still using the fast recruitment model to cheat. Kuaizhao companies basically have no way to live, and it is an inevitable result to go to crime.
Comments:
The gray industrial chain of "quick recruitment" has been on the edge of laws and regulations for many years, which can be described as harmful. In order to cut leeks and make quick money, the fast recruitment company is full of tricks. And many entrepreneurs have no experience and don't know how to distinguish, and they accidentally become "leeks", and finally have no way to complain, so they can only consider themselves unlucky. But fortunately, the country's efforts to rectify the chaos of quick recruitment and joining are being strengthened.
However, with the more and more cheating skills of the fast recruitment company, I would like to remind all entrepreneurs again that they must keep their eyes open when looking for a franchise, find a serious business brand, understand the qualifications of the other party, and read the terms and conditions when signing the contract.
epilogue
In the past, there was a lot of negative news about some catering brands because of joining, so that the word franchise was once tied to cutting leeks, and for a while, everyone talked about joining the color change.
2023 is a year when the value perception of franchise will be reshaped, and many catering companies that have adhered to direct sales in the past have collectively changed their routes and joined the camp of franchise expansion, and the entire catering market is full of vitality.
In the view of red meal franchise selection, the catering industry has now entered an era of deep stock competition. At this time, the opening of franchises is conducive to chain restaurant enterprises to lock in high-quality shops, achieve large-scale chain development, and occupy more advantages in this "stock competition".
But it is undeniable that 2023 will also be the most competitive year for the catering franchise market. After a year of rapid development, the stage of "grabbing tickets" for chain catering brands in major categories has basically been completed. Therefore, some industry insiders predict that it will be too late to join next year. Will this become a reality? Will the restaurant franchise window continue until 2024? We will reveal the answer again this time next year.