I open a snack shop in the county, and I can sell 2 million during the Spring Festival

China-Singapore Jingwei, February 14 (Yan Shuxin, intern Zhang Xumin) After entering January, Li Xiaodong, who opened a snack shop in Sheyang County, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, obviously felt a little too busy. "We started with only six employees in the store, but then we added two on a temporary basis. Li Xiaodong said.

Li Xiaodong predicts that during the Spring Festival peak season this year, the total turnover of his store will reach nearly 2 million yuan, double that of last year.

Although the turnover is high, there is not much money really earned. "Now consumers are very price sensitive, so our gross profit is not high, the main thing is to run volume. Li Xiaodong said.

For Li Xiaodong, who runs a snack shop in the county, the Spring Festival is a tough battle every year, and this year there are some new changes.

Turnover will double during the Spring Festival

Five years ago, Li Xiaodong joined a small store of the Three Squirrels Alliance, which is the first offline store of Three Squirrels in Sheyang County, and it is currently the only one. In June 2023, Three Squirrels opened the first batch of 5 stores in its own brand community snack store, and Li Xiaodong also seized the opportunity to upgrade the store to a community store.

"After the upgrade, the store area is larger and the SKUs (minimum stock keeping units) are more abundant. In the past, the store was only 60 to 80 square meters, but now the whole store is nearly 200 square meters, and the number of SKUs has increased from about 150 to 1,900. Li Xiaodong said.

Li Xiaodong spent about 700,000 yuan on this store upgrade, and he expects the payback cycle to be eight months, "After the Spring Festival, you can basically return to the cost." ”

For the snack industry, 1-2 months before and after the Spring Festival is the peak sales season of the year, and Li Xiaodong has also made preparations early, investing more than 1 million yuan just to stock up. "There are more group purchase orders in January, and the days before and after the Spring Festival are mainly retail orders, and on the whole, group purchase orders in the peak season of the Spring Festival this year account for about 80%, mainly gift boxes. From the price point of view, the gift box of about 69 yuan to 110 yuan sells better. ”

Li Xiaodong's group purchase information released in the circle of friends

According to Li Xiaodong, the monthly turnover of the store can reach about 330,000 yuan, and the gross profit is about 22%. In the more than 40 days before the Spring Festival, the total turnover of the store can reach nearly 2 million yuan. "In the same period last year, it was about 700,000 yuan, and it is expected to double this year. ”

Zhang Beibei, who runs a snack shop in Hubei, is looking forward to this year's Spring Festival season.

Zhang Beibei, a native of Zhijiang, Hubei Province, has opened a local convenience store for 6 years, and in October 2023, he changed careers and joined an offline store of BESTORE.

In Zhang Beibei's view, compared with opening a convenience store by himself, joining a snack store is more worry-free. "I don't have to worry about the supply of goods, the headquarters distribute the goods together, which is much easier than opening a convenience store before. ”

Snack shops also have a good income.

Zhang Beibei's store is mainly retail, with a store area of about 90 square meters, covering seven or eight hundred kinds of snacks under the brand. BESTORE has a total of four offline stores in Zhijiang, and unlike other stores in the city center, Zhang Beibei's store is a community store, and the turnover of these four stores can be regarded as a medium level.

"The store is our own, and it is opened at our own doorstep, which saves the cost of rent, and the overall profit is okay. Zhang Beibei invested about 300,000 yuan to open a store, and according to her estimates, she should be able to return to her capital within 12 months.

In order to welcome the first Spring Festival after the opening of the store, Zhang Beibei planned how to stock up early this year, that is, starting from January, the amount of purchases will be increased one by one. "Some snacks that usually sell well are also slowly increasing their purchases. In general, in the period before the Spring Festival, tens of thousands of yuan more goods were purchased each time. ”

Combined with the experience of opening convenience stores in previous years, Zhang Beibei expects that the daily turnover of the store will exceed 10,000 yuan during the period before and after the Spring Festival.

During the Spring Festival, Zhang Beibei's shop is open for business. Li Xiaodong also said that he would arrange for the clerk to take a day off after the Spring Festival.

Zhang Beibei's snack shop Photo courtesy of the interviewee

It depends on high cost performance

For Li Xiaodong, the increase in turnover is largely due to the upgrading of stores. The store upgrade is not only the expansion of the store and the increase of SKUs, but also the adjustment of the product price system.

"What we're focusing on now is high-end value for money. In the past, we used to pay 19.9 yuan a bag of macadamia nuts, but now it has been adjusted to 9.9 yuan a bag. Community stores rely on the repurchase rate, and high cost performance can bring high repurchase rate. Now consumers are very sensitive to price, so our gross profit is not high, the main thing is to run volume. Li Xiaodong said.

Last year, snack brands including Three Squirrels and BESTORE were implementing price reduction strategies for their products.

According to the research report of Dongxing Securities, during the Double 11 in 2023, the sales of leisure snacks will be 12.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.4%, accounting for 21.7% of the sales of the food and beverage industry. Among them, the average prices of the top brands of three squirrels, baicaowei and BESTORE fell by 7.6%, 16.1% and 0.5% year-on-year respectively on the Tmall platform, and 15.7%, 23.8% and 11.3% respectively on the Jingdong platform, and the average prices of the three leading brands on Tmall and Jingdong fell by more than 10 percentage points year-on-year.

Dongxing Securities believes that the decline in sales of leisure snacks is mainly due to the channel changes experienced by leisure food in recent years, and the rapid rise of snack stores focusing on cost-effective snacks in the context of consumption downgrade, which has had a certain impact on traditional e-commerce channels. Under this market trend, the decline in the average price of top brand products reflects the adjustment of brands in the direction of high cost performance to conform to the market trend.

In fact, as early as the end of 2022, the three squirrels had clarified the core strategy of "high-end cost performance". According to the relevant person in charge of the three squirrels, since 2023, the three squirrels have improved the quality and reduced the price through supply chain integration and strengthened internal management, so as to maintain the terminal price at a benign level on the premise of ensuring basic profits.

At the end of November 2023, BESTORE also announced that it would implement the largest price reduction in 17 years for the first time on the business side, with an average price reduction of 22% and a maximum price reduction of 45% for 300 products.

At that time, Yang Yinfen, chairman and general manager of BESTORE, said in an open letter that BESTORE would launch a new round of reform around the theme of "strengthening business innovation and comprehensively improving operational efficiency", and the purpose of the reform was to make product prices more affordable to the people on the basis of adhering to "good products".

"At present, many of the products in our store have been adjusted to the member price, which is much cheaper than before, and the sales of some products have also increased slightly compared with before, such as the egg yolk crisp, shaqima, original and seaweed crispy crepes with a membership price of 9.9 yuan, etc., are selling better, and before the implementation of the member price, the price of most of these products is more than 12 yuan. Zhang Beibei said.

Li Xiaodong introduced that at present, under the advantage of high cost performance, the repurchase rate of stores can reach 50%-60%, "most of them are old customers." ”

In addition to relying on price to attract consumers, opening a store in the community also requires insight into the needs of surrounding residents.

"There is an elementary school near our store, and some children will come to the store in the morning to buy bread and water, and parents who deliver their children will also take advantage of this time to buy some snacks if they need it, so we usually open at 7:30 in the morning and until 10:00 in the evening, which is earlier than other stores. Zhang Beibei said.

The performance of a number of snack companies is expected to increase

Under the trend of price reduction and discounting, the performance of many snack companies is expected to increase in 2023.

Among them, Black Sesame turned losses into profits, and it is expected to achieve a net profit attributable to the parent company of 41 million yuan to 55 million yuan, compared with a loss of 140 million yuan in the same period last year, and the net profit attributable to the parent company in 2023 will increase by more than 50% year-on-year.

The performance of a number of listed snack companies is expected to increase in 2023 Data source: announcement of listed companies

Zhongxin Jingwei combed and found that behind the performance growth, in addition to the decline in raw material costs, many companies mentioned "optimizing product structure" and "omni-channel coverage".

Yanjin Shop mentioned that in addition to the advantage of bulk, the company is fully committed to the development of quantitative packaging, small commodities and mass sales products to meet the snack needs of consumers in various scenarios, and at the same time, in addition to maintaining the advantages of the original KA and AB supermarkets, it focuses on the development of e-commerce, snack mass merchandisers, CVS, campus stores, etc., and has in-depth cooperation with the current popular snack mass merchandiser brands such as Snack is very busy, Zhao Yiming, and Snack Youming, and has planted grass and drainage with anchors on the Douyin platform, and the brand influence and channel potential energy continue to increase. Omni-channel joint efforts to promote the rapid development of large items such as quail eggs and casual konjac.

Three Squirrels also said that in 2023, the company will implement the general strategy of "high-end cost performance", basically build a new basic market of "all categories and all channels", and achieve sustained and stable growth in revenue since June, especially in the fourth quarter of the New Year's Festival.

The three squirrels also revealed that as of January 16, the company's 2024 New Year Festival sales time process has reached two-thirds, and omni-channel sales have exceeded the total amount of the full cycle of the 2023 New Year Festival.

"In 2024, the company will continue to firmly and more thoroughly implement the overall strategy of 'high-end cost performance', and focus on strengthening emerging channels and focusing on strengthening large single products of nuts and snacks in the layout of 'omni-channel and all-category'. The three squirrels said.

(The views in the article are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice, investment is risky, and you need to be cautious when entering the market.) )

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Editor in charge: Chang Tao and Li Zhongyuan