#精品长文创作季#
Standardized but lacking innovative dishes and efficient but uneven service may be the last straw that overwhelms the "Italian Sand County".
Author: Liao Huiwen Editor: He Xiang
出品：零售商业财经 ID：Retail-Finance
Japanese companies that open Italian restaurants in China are making crazy money again!
On April 12, Saizeriya, a Japanese affordable restaurant chain brand, released its consolidated financial report for the second quarter of fiscal year 2024 (September 1, 2023 ~ February 29, 2024).
According to the financial report, during the reporting period, Saizeriya's operating income was 104.6 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 24.8%, operating profit reached 5.934 billion yen, and net profit was 2.5 billion yen, a sharp increase of nearly six times over the same period last year.
Source: Saizeriya's financial report
With the resumption of customer flow, the number of customers and the average order value in Japan performed well, and sales in existing stores increased by 22%. Overseas, in addition to the increase in revenue from existing stores, the revenue of 46 new stores is also improving. In addition, due to the adjustment of the menu, the number of customers who placed additional orders increased, and the average order value increased by more than 2%.
What is the reason behind the fact that this "poor ghost economy" and open-minded pre-made food restaurant is also doing well in Asia, which is dominated by the Chinese market?
01 Revenue and profit soared
Specifically, during the reporting period, Saizeriya's operating income was 104.634 billion yen (about 4.940 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 24.8%, the operating profit reached 5.934 billion yen (about 280 million yuan), an increase of 5.6 times over the same period last year, and the net profit was 2.554 billion yen (about 121 million yuan).
Source: Saria's latest financial report
Regionally, the domestic business turned around and achieved an operating surplus of 34 million yen (a loss of 1.6 billion yen in the same period last year). As a result of the menu adjustment, the number of customers placing additional orders increased, and the average order value increased by more than 2%.
The sales volume of the Asian business was 37.292 billion yen (about 1.765 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 33.2%, and the operating profit increased to 5.556 billion yen, which played a driving role in the expansion of performance.
Source: Saria's latest financial report
Saizeriya's strong performance in the Asian market reflects that it has not only seized the opportunity in the current consumption trend such as "extreme value for money", but also greatly strengthened the consumer's recognition of the brand.
According to Narrow Door Restaurant, the number of new stores opened in the second quarter of fiscal year 2024 (September 1, 2023 ~ February 29, 2024) is 29.
Source: Narrow Door Dining Eye
Although Saizeriya has maintained its store expansion in the global market, in terms of food research and development expenses, the financial report shows that there are "no related matters".
It can be seen that Saria's existing dishes are still attractive to consumers and can maintain good returns.
Source: Saria's latest financial report
It is worth mentioning that, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, at the press conference on the day of the earnings release, President Hideji Matsutani said, "We have not changed the policy of not raising prices" and kept the performance expectation unchanged for fiscal year 2024 (ending August 2024). Sales are expected to increase by 15% year-on-year to 211 billion yen, and net income is expected to increase by 26% to 6.5 billion yen.
Source: Little Red Book
The author searched for keywords such as "Saizeriya" on social platforms and found that among the many praise posts, there are many contents such as "Saizeriya hides how to eat", "Challenge 3 people to eat Saizeriya for 100 yuan", and marketing methods such as "Poor Ghost Paradise" with Internet celebrities and check-in attributes can be said to have been played by Saizeriya.
02 Extremely compressed costs and limited benefits
Saria, what do you rely on to make money?
It's an Italian restaurant, but it's still Japanese in its bones. Saizeriya has always believed in the SPA model of "connecting production to terminal sales" that has been implemented by UNIQLO to the end.
On the one hand, Saizeriya has established its own complete supply system, independently carrying out various key industrial chain nodes such as dish development, food production, processing, and distribution.
Saizeriya also has its own farms, processing plants, and wineries in Japan, Australia, and Italy, and is responsible for the supply of vegetables, meat, and wine. The lettuce is locally sourced from Japan, the meat comes from its own Australian farms, and the wine comes from its own winery in Italy.
In terms of supply chain, Saliya has realized direct procurement and direct processing, thus ensuring the high efficiency of "raw materials-stores", the low cost of "ingredients-meals" and the high profit of "operating costs-sales".
On the other hand, there is no chef in Saizeriya's restaurant, and it sells pre-made dishes openly.
It is reported that Saizeriya implements a rotation system to ensure that no employee is redundant and implements the ultimate efficiency to the end. Nippon TV once reported on Saria's serving time, "It only takes 9 minutes and 58 seconds to complete 15 dishes".
"Retail Business Finance" believes that Saizeriya benefits from the central kitchen, but also is limited by the central kitchen. Behind catering to the user's "ultimate cost-effective" consumption preference, it is inseparable from Saizeriya's extreme compression of supply chain, store environment and even labor costs.
The seemingly excellent direct sales model inevitably faces food hygiene problems. Even if the service is standardized, it is still difficult to control the accuracy of food quality. On platforms such as Black Cat Complaints, there is no shortage of complaints about Saria's food hygiene.
Source: Black Cat Complaint
As of April 2, 2024, there are 459 stores in Saizeriya, mainly in first-tier cities and new first-tier cities, and the location is also inclined to non-core locations in first-tier business districts.
Source: Narrow Door Dining Eye
In all the praise of the "Samon" cultists about Saria, the word value for money is inseparable.
But if you only look at the price, in fact, Saizeriya has no advantage. In 2024, the average customer price of Saizeriya will be 47.82 yuan, which is much more expensive than McDonald's 27.87 yuan. Even in the field of Chinese food, there are many brands such as Mr. Rice and Lao Xiang Chicken that are cheaper than it.
Source: Narrow Door Dining Eye
In terms of store decoration, Saizeriya often uses the hardware facilities and even soft decoration left behind by the store to reduce the upfront investment of newly opened stores. In this way, Saliya not only makes people feel "at home" at an affordable price, but also the store decoration is minimalist, and the "king of commoners" is well deserved.
Haidilao, which is also in the catering industry, is still thinking about "Does this regular employee have to sign a sign?" when its employees are all about who has more skills and who provides high emotional value to customers?"
According to the official website of Guangzhou Saizeriya, it has 1,300 regular employees and 2,000 hourly employees.
Source: Saizeriya Guangzhou official website
And with the continuous improvement of consumers' demand for service quality, we do not know whether the service of temporary workers will lay a mine for Saria's future. But it is foreseeable that the menu that is only standardized but lacks innovation, and the efficient but uneven service may be the last straw that will overwhelm Saizeriya one day.
How and where should she spend her money?
03 The "poor ghost economy" that took off, the food safety that was planted
Recently, Saizeriya announced an increase of 30 million US dollars (equivalent to 216 million yuan) in its Guangzhou subsidiary.
The plan to increase the capital and build a factory shows Saizeriya's confidence and determination in the Chinese market, and also indicates its further expansion in the Chinese market. And Saria, who previously focused on China's first-tier and new first-tier cities, what should she take to enter the sinking market?
The investment and financing of the catering industry has advanced by leaps and bounds after 2020, and for a while, all major formats are vying to be the "first share". The rise of Meituan and Ele.me food delivery platforms has attracted countless restaurants to settle in, but Saizeriya is still standing still and slowly expanding stores at an average rate of more than 40 stores per year.
Source: Internet
In the age of the "mobile phone eats first" Internet era, it may be difficult for Saizeriya to give consumers a reason to enter the store - simple store decoration, unsurprising pizza pasta, and acceptable taste.
If it is said that the Western food track took off ten years ago, it relied on the information gap to earn consumers, and in recent years, more and more affordable Western foods such as Zunbao pizza and Tustin are on the rise.
Moreover, even Sam's, a brand that has always been highly bound to the "middle class" and is nicknamed the "thousand-yuan supermarket", has recently been recommended by many netizens on social media, and the self-created "Sam's nine-piece poor ghost package" has caused widespread discussion for a while. The "poor ghost economy" track is also overcrowded.
For most consumers, the price and taste of pre-made dishes are not as important as food safety.
According to iiMedia Research, in 2020, the size of China's prefabricated food market was 288.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.1%, in 2021, China's prefabricated food market was 345.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.8%, in 2022, China's prefabricated food market reached 419.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.3%, and this year's Spring Festival sales season (as of January 26) the national prefabricated food sales were about 130.753 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 43.6% The main sales areas are concentrated in East China, South China, North China and large and medium-sized cities across the country. As a result, the trend of comprehensive toC in prefabricated dishes has been formed.
In terms of the traceability of dishes, Laoxiang Chicken recently conducted a self-inspection and formed the "Laoxiang Chicken Dish Traceability Report", which has won unanimous praise from inside and outside the industry. In this way, Saria, who has always been known for "selling pre-made dishes openly", should also keep the bottom line of food safety.
How will Sariya's future be written?
Presumably, only by insisting on doing a good job in quality control, maintaining their own brand image, and tapping brand power can they keep the "moat".