Shu Shangbin, Founder and CEO of Shucai Network: In the era of catering navigation, opportunities and challenges coexist|Titanium Media 2024T-EDGE Global Consumer Innovation Forum

On April 13, Titanium Media Group and Haikou Fuxing City Internet Information Industrial Park, under the guidance of the People's Government of Xiuying District, Haikou City, held the "Global 2024T-EDGE Consumer Innovation Forum" to discuss how to break through the blockages and blind spots of Chinese brands going overseas driven by new technologies and new models such as digitalization, intelligence, socialization, and personalization, and how to promote the quality and upgrading of the consumer industry under the new going overseas.

On the afternoon of April 13, Mr. Shu Shangbin, founder and CEO of Shucai Network, delivered a keynote speech entitled "Opportunities and Challenges in the Age of Catering Voyage" at the 2024T-EDGE Global Consumer Innovation Forum of Titanium Media.

Shucai Network is a leading global supply chain solution platform, providing digital services for nearly 100 outstanding enterprises, including Yang Guofu Group, the largest Malatang chain in China, Bantiandemon, the largest grilled fish restaurant chain, Sanhua Intelligent Control, a global manufacturing giant, and Meidian, a leading institutional catering technology company in China.

Mr. Shu Shangbin, founder and CEO of Shucai Network, holds a bachelor's degree from Peking University and a master's degree from the University of Tokyo, with a bachelor's degree from Peking University and a master's degree from the University of Tokyo.

In this forum, Mr. Shu Shangbin said that the trend of the globalization of the whole catering industry in the future is too obvious, and now the overseas Chinese catering market is very large, reaching about 260 billion US dollars, but it only accounts for 10% of the international catering market, and it is predicted that it should be able to grow by 40%-50% to more than 400 billion US dollars in two or three years.

Going to sea is a big job, and Shu Shangbin feels that "people" are the most important. Chinese catering brands are constantly going out, who are the future "people" in the overseas market? It turns out that the first generation of immigrants who opened restaurants overseas are struggling for survival, and now they are group army operations, and they all want to do a big business, make profits faster, and better realize capitalized operation. This is also more and more demanding for enterprises to find partners.

Shucai also hopes that its supply chain management solutions and other software solutions can better match Chinese F&B companies, allowing them to go overseas.

The following is a transcript of Shu Shangbin's speech, edited and sorted out by Titanium Media APP:

I used to study AI and work as an Internet company. Now I don't position myself as an IT practitioner, I position myself as a supply chain practitioner. At the beginning, I made an O2O fresh e-commerce platform, because I felt that I could reduce the dimension from the Internet, but I was hit by the traditional industry. Later, I was in Shanghai to do a full range of food distribution for China's larger group catering companies, and I was deducting and searching accounts every day, but after all, I had no physical experience and lost a lot of money.

In 2018, I started working as my current solution company. Because we have lost a lot of money and understand how the industry loses money, our team can now tell customers how to make money without losing money, and use our solutions to help customers achieve healthy growth of their businesses. I feel that the main value of our company at present is to break down the barriers between technology and industry language, and provide a better management plan.

In the future, the whole trend of globalization is too obvious, and we hope that the supply chain solutions and other software solutions we provide can better match Chinese catering companies and enable them to go overseas.

Here are some simple figures: the overseas Chinese catering market is now very large, reaching about 260 billion US dollars, but it only accounts for 10% of the international catering market, and it is predicted that it should be able to grow by 40%~50% in two or three years, reaching more than 400 billion US dollars. These brands displayed now are familiar to everyone in China, such as Mixue Bingcheng, Bawang Chaji, Haidilao, Yang Guofu, Bantian Demon, etc., these brands continue to open stores abroad. In addition to the fierce competition in China, they also have their own considerations, why they want to open stores overseas, and why they want to open stores at such a time.

I'm going to talk about something different. I was thinking about how to design a nautical model for restaurateurs to think about how to go to sea. I sometimes talk to restaurateurs about where they plan to open their shop first. I was thinking that this is a question of how to set up routes, many companies choose to start stores in Southeast Asia, because there are many Chinese in Southeast Asia, and it is also convenient for Southeast Asian food ingredients to import and export, and big brands such as Haidilao also open many stores there, and it is also convenient to find partners who understand the local market. However, there is a difference in what you mainly do when you get there. Some of them simply sell domestic menus and want to serve local international students and local Chinese. Some want to revamp their menus to attract more white customers.

For example, there is a leading restaurant brand in Germany, and more than 50% of it is eaten by Germans. A few days ago, I saw that they were doing a joint venture with a Chinese in Germany, preparing to do local management. However, they will also adjust the decoration and menu of the store, in fact, there are some changes. We call it, optimize your menu based on local conditions, and there is no need to change some of them, and China will be whatever it is.

Their respective considerations are different, so they will set different development sequences. Everywhere they go, they learn about the local culture, especially religious issues. For example, Southeast Asia has halal problems, how to solve halal problems, they have their own laws, they have their own population density, and so on. Unlike China, everyone thinks they are all human. In many cases, the location of catering sites is selected in places with large effective foot flow, and the overall rules of the business district are relatively clear. But when you go to a new country, and the population of that country may not be as large as that of Shanghai, there is no way to get the Chinese store model over. Therefore, they need to consider the problem in the context of the situation.

Also, how long will the company stay in the new country? Because a lot of brands know they have a brand lifecycle. China's catering brands will have to change their brands after three or five years of opening, but going overseas is a big job, and it is impossible to only work for a year after going, and there are not so many leeks to cut, and it is not easy to find partners.

Then there is the issue of "people", after the goal is set, where are the people, where is the money, and what are the specific things. I think "people" are more important, in addition to the people who help you open the store, there are also partners. For example, local legal authorities, local tax officials, logistics providers, etc. These professional partners are a very big problem for Chinese restaurant owners.

Because it turns out that it is not so complicated for them to make money, it is relatively simple for them to open stores all over the country, especially for large franchise brands, as long as there is a model out, they can make money. But after going to sea, I found that my resources were not enough. This is thanks to certain chain brands that have been doing it abroad for so many years. As far as I know, the first thing many catering brands do when they go overseas is to poach people from other catering brands that are already there.

But there is also a problem with this, people come and go, brands keep going out, who are the "people" in the future?

It turned out that it was the first generation of immigrants who opened restaurants overseas, and everyone said that I wanted to survive so I had to work hard, but now it is a group army operation, and everyone has to do a big business, and we must be able to go public and operate capitalized. They have a high level of requirements for finding partners, which is a problem. The other question is, if you think of it as a partner, when it comes to the question of what equipment is on this ship, that's very interesting.

I chatted with the leaders of Fuxing City, and they mentioned the settlement system for cross-border multi-currency accounts. As far as I know, restaurant owners have a headache with this kind of thing, and they can't get money out. How to help them settle well and make them not think about gray channels is very crucial.

There is also the issue of digitalization, and I do a digital solution for a global supply chain for a customer. In the case that they have opened stores in Germany, the United States and other countries, how to get overseas suppliers to order, how to better manage, this solution is also quite complicated. How the data is transmitted involves a variety of laws and regulations. For our service providers, we also need to keep learning. Of course, there are also some owners who will say, I want to open a store there, but I haven't thought about how to develop it in the long run, so I can just find someone to open a store.

To put it simply, these are very theoretical things, and I may have specific experience, but if you really want to open a restaurant overseas, you will encounter all kinds of problems.

Personally, I think it's a good opportunity to go overseas, including myself planning to open a store in Tokyo. The current era is like Zheng He's seven voyages to the West at that time, circling the earth almost three times. I think about it now in disbelief, and I think that the real ancient Chinese were great. Now is also a huge opportunity for those of us, and we also have the opportunity to take a lot of people to see overseas, instead of just making Chinese restaurants famous in China. (This article was first published on Titanium Media APP, author | Liu Dafang, editor - Fang Yu)