Source: True Stories Laboratory
Slightly mishandled, chicken is easily old and woody, but the Chinese still eat it out of the second largest consumption after pork. Eat it when you're sick, eat it when you want to lose weight and gain muscle, eat it when you're unhappy, a chicken not only produces nutritional value, but also produces emotional value.
Capital and tens of millions of chicken-related catering brands are also eyeing it, hoping that it will have a wealth effect. From the first generation of KFC in the chicken industry to the new chicken steak of Internet celebrities in recent years, all of them have opened to the scale of 10,000 stores. Chickens are also vulnerable, though. Many people have eaten chicken and have eaten psychological shadows, dark spots, bloodshots, and unknown inclusions. Some merchants helplessly "said": It was caused by chicken fights.
#01, Chinese's chicken eating map
At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, a person named Tian Rao in Lu called the chicken "German bird", which was quite high.
He said to Lu Aigong, "Chickens have five virtues. Wearing a crown on his head, Wen also; The chicken's feet are powerful, and the martial arts are also; Dare to fight the enemy, bravely; Seeing food greeting each other, Ren also; Vigil does not lose time, letter also. ”。
After speaking, he jumped to Yan Country and became the prime minister. This sentence means to satirize Lu Aigong for not seeing his talent as a "virtuous bird".
In later generations, the public may still not remember the talent of the chicken, but remember its nutrition. Usually, many people may take a high look at the more expensive mutton and beef, but once they are physically and mentally injured, they will still think of chicken at the first time.
This kind of dietary psychology precipitated by Chinese for thousands of years has directly achieved the status of chicken in the mainland as the "second oldest in the family".
In the statistical world, there are various ways of data to show how powerful Chinese eat chicken.
First of all, on the mainland, the amount of chicken raised and the consumption of chicken meat are almost equal. In recent years, the mainland has slaughtered an average of 11 billion chickens a year, and almost all of these chickens have directly entered the stomach of Chinese, and all of them have achieved internal circulation. Since there is not enough to eat, the mainland also imports.
Specific to the locality, as a big province that eats chicken, the first cow is Guangdong. In 2023 alone, 800 million chickens will be eaten (data from the National Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Center), and it is true that "no chicken can get out of Guangdong alive".
According to the China Statistical Yearbook 2022, Guangdong's per capita poultry meat consumption in 2021 was 49.2 catties, twice the national average. In Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Guangdong, Guangdong is 3.2 times the consumption of Beijingers, 1.7 times that of Shanghainese, and more than 6 times that of Qinghai, which has the lowest consumption of poultry meat in the country.
After Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan are both tropical and subtropical regions.
The traditional Chinese view of dietary therapy is that in South China, where dog days are spent every day, the temperature is high, people sweat a lot, and the body is easy to weaken. And as a relatively neutral sexual taste, it is not easy to get hot when eating chicken, so it is more suitable for hot weather.
The practice of eating chicken by Chinese is also abundant.
For example, Shandong Dezhou grilled chicken, which is not only a time-honored brand in China, but also an intangible cultural heritage of China.
The practice of grilled chicken in history began in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, there is a "Jia Jiancai roast chicken shop" in the west of Dezhou City, after an unreliable young man burned a chicken over the fire, the boss Jia Jiancai unexpectedly got inspiration and came up with a new cooking method - boiled over high heat, and then simmered over low heat, the heat should be first martial arts and then text, and the martial arts are orderly, so the name of the grilled chicken is "grilled" is due to this.
Since then, Texas Grilled Chicken has been out of control and has become the top class in a century. In 2021, Texas Grilled Chicken sold for 700 million yuan.
Figure | Sculpture in front of the Texas Grilled Chicken headquarters building
When I arrived in Shanghai, the local people were most willing to benchmark with Peking duck, which was Shanghai oil chicken, also known as white chopped chicken. The chicken skin is yellow and bright, the meat is white and clean, and it is known for its fresh and tender taste. It started in the Qing Dynasty, but the first time it became the top stream was in the forties of the last century.
It is said that there are six overlords of oil chicken in Shanghai: Xiao Shaoxing, Zhang's, Xiao Pudong, Qin Huang Chicken, King of Kings, and Zhending Chicken. I don't know if the taste is still "alive".
If you want to say that the best at making chickens is Guangdong Province.
White-cut chicken, ginger and scallion chicken, soy sauce chicken, pork belly chicken, salt-baked chicken, kiln chicken, crispy hanging chicken, old hen soup...... As long as there are chickens, Cantonese people can make a table full of Han people. Qingyuan Chicken, the "celebrity among chickens", also appeared on the reserved dishes in the state banquet menu.
Figure | Clay kiln chicken, the childhood experience of Cantonese people
The older generation is particular about eating chicken, and for the majority of the new generation of young people, eating chicken must not only stimulate the taste buds, but also make people happy.
When I was born in the 80s and 90s, what I looked forward to the most was to get good grades in exams and eat KFC. Up to now, dating, falling in love, and going crazy, Korean-style fried chicken has become a new favorite of young people, and they are on fire.
Some young people call their love of chicken "pig addiction". "As we all know, the most recommended diet during the fat loss period is to eat chicken breast, breadcrumbs wrapped in high-quality fat + protein, and then paired with fat house happy water, together it is equivalent to no food and no calories."
It makes people incomprehensible to see, but happiness can overflow words. But young people still have a long way to go to become the world's "top chicken eater".
According to data from Zhiyan Consulting, the per capita consumption of chicken in the mainland in 2022 will be less than 10 kilograms, compared with the per capita chicken consumption of nearly 50 kilograms in the United States, and the mainland is only one-fifth of that of the United States; From a global point of view, the per capita consumption of chicken in mainland China is also at a low level in the world, only half of the world average.
However, although the per capita scale of eating chicken is not as good as that of muscular Europe and the United States, the gap is an opportunity, and eating chicken is still promising.
#02, the most profitable restaurants in China are all cooking chicken
After decades of precipitation, in fact, eating chicken is a big industry in the mainland, and many people have already dug gold from it.
One of the important industry drivers is the major chicken catering and retail brands.
In the past, the parents of the post-80s generation ate chickens, and they bought a live slaughter in the market. But thanks to the catering brands that cook chickens into various finished products, chickens have been further commoditized and sold at higher prices.
In 2020, a market research agency concluded that about 60% of the output of chicken in mainland China was consumed by group meals and fast food. Among them, many wealth stories were born.
In 1987, China's chicken-eating generation began to appear on the stage of history.
That was the first KFC store that opened in Beijing's Qianmen, and it is still there today, when the name of the store was still called "KFC Hometown Chicken", and it exploded as soon as it opened, and many people admired it to eat fried chicken burgers.
According to news reports, KFC had 79 employees in its first batch at that time, and they were selected from more than 2,000 applicants, and then the operation manager was invited from Singapore for training.
Within 3 months of opening, the average daily sales of the front store reached more than 40,000 yuan (it was still very good to be a 10,000 yuan household at that time), and 1,300 fried chickens were sold daily, which was the first of 7,700 KFC chain stores in the world at that time.
Figure | KFC Hometown Chicken opens
Three years later, in 1990, McDonald's also came to China and opened its first store in mainland China in Luohu Dongmen Commercial Street, Shenzhen.
Now, KFC and McDonald's have already become China's giants, with KFC stores in China accounting for 34% of its global stores and McDonald's stores in China accounting for 14% (2022 data). Among them, KFC China will have an annual sales of more than 8 billion US dollars in 2023, and Yum China, the parent company behind it, will rely on KFC for about 75% of its annual revenue, and the remaining 20% will rely on Pizza Hut.
KFC and McDonald's, two international giants, have made a lot of money in China, and have attracted some bloggers to explore the secrets. Why are they so good at making money, and finally come to the conclusion that overseas giants have changed the traditional habit of Chinese to buy whole chickens, but split them into various parts and sell them at high prices.
For example, in KFC, the price of a whole chicken is now 29.9 yuan, and if other parts are bought separately, chicken wings are 12.5 yuan for a pair, a large chicken leg is 22.5 yuan, chicken nuggets are 12.5 yuan/5 yuan, and chicken rice is 12 yuan.
KFC McDonald's this split to sell rampant for many years, was Wenzhou Hua Huaiyu and Hua Huaiqing two brothers to subvert, they in 2002 in Fujian Normal University founded Wallace began to launch "whole chicken products", at that time only 10 yuan a piece, relying on "cheap" to storm the sinking market, become the chicken industry Pinduoduo. KFC's whole chicken products were only released in 2009. Wallace called it an imitation, and the public could only hehe about it.
In the end, Wallace relied on cost-effective pricing + partner store opening + sinking market three-piece set, and in 2023, the number of stores nationwide has exceeded 20,000, with an annual revenue of more than 7 billion yuan.
Figure | Perhaps more famous than Wallace is its nickname
However, compared to KFC's high gross margin money-making model, Wallace's gross profit margin is touching. According to its disclosure, in 2022, Wallace's gross profit has further dropped from 5.96% in 2018 to 4.24%, and it basically does not make money by selling chickens to consumers, but by selling semi-finished products to its own 20,000 stores.
The two revenues account for 97.55% of the total revenue by selling raw materials, dry goods and frozen goods, which is very similar to the model of Mixue Bingcheng - in 2022, 85% of the revenue of Mixue Bingcheng comes from selling ingredients and packaging to its own stores.
After Wallace, the story of fried chicken's wealth is not over, and the industry trend is: to make a certain part of the chicken into a hit. And the most popular potential is chicken steak - after high-temperature frying, it is easy to crispy and tender meat.
In 2000, Chen Chuanwu, a native of Wenzhou, opened a small shop in his hometown that sells what is popular in the market, and in 2006, he officially established today's Zhengxin Chicken Chop. In 2020, the number of Zhengxin chicken steak stores nationwide exceeded 25,000, and although 10,000 stores were later closed, in 2023, the media generally reported that Zhengxin chicken steak's annual income also reached 7 billion yuan.
Figure | Zhengxin chicken cutlet
In addition to fried chicken, there are also chicken brands that start with other cooking methods in the market, such as Laoxiang Chicken, which was founded in Hefei in 2003 by Shu Congxuan, a native of Feixi, Anhui Province, and currently has more than 1,000 stores, with chicken-based dishes and a revenue of 4.3 billion yuan in 2021.
In 2018, Shu Congxuan announced the acquisition of Wuhan Yonghe, and directly obtained more than 30 breakfast restaurants from the latter at that time, which set off a wave of great attention in Wuhan, where the competition for various cuisines is fierce.
Generally speaking, young people eat chicken to gain emotional value, and these bosses harvest emotional value realization.
#03, the winner behind the chicken industry
The story of the chicken's fortune looks very enticing and attracts more players into the game.
As far as fried chicken is concerned, after Zhengxin Chicken Cutlet, many brands have emerged in the market, such as "Linyu Fried Chicken Thigh" (founded in Qinhuangdao in 2010), "Called a Fried Chicken" (founded in Shanghai in 2013), and "Called a Fried Chicken" (founded in Hubei in 2017).
Some of them not only have similar names, but most of their development models are brand route models - that is, to expand brand awareness, and then quickly return blood and open stores through franchises to form a large-scale revenue effect.
In 2023, there will be 1,490 restaurants in Linyu fried chicken thighs, 2,967 fried chickens and 3,640 fried chickens. Behind these stores, we can also see the enthusiasm of the majority of small and micro entrepreneurs to join the chicken industry.
Behind this is the judgment of many people on entrepreneurship in the fried chicken industry: low investment cost, fast return on investment, wide audience, suitable for all ages, affordable and delicious.
Based on the public information of Zhengxin Chicken Steak, Linyu Fried Chicken Thigh, Called a Fried Chicken, and Called a Fried Chicken, "True Story Research Room" made a map to show their franchise costs and return cycles.
It looks very good, but whether it is really as advertised by the brand that the chicken business will be successful, the answer is, of course, not necessarily.
Taking Zhengxin Chicken Chop as an example, in 2020, Zhengxin Chicken Chop had more than 25,000 stores nationwide, but later closed 10,000 stores. The reasons for the closure must be varied, from the location to the franchisee's personal business ability, bringing together various risk factors.
According to an article, the store closure rate of Zhengxin chicken steak is 19% between 2022 and 2023, which is much smaller than the nearly 30% closure rate of emerging fried skewer brands in the market.
It can only be said that this kind of data may be useful for investors, because the smaller the store closure rate, the more it proves that the brand has entrepreneurial value and financing value. But for tens of millions of ordinary entrepreneurs, if they are not careful, they will lose their real money.
If the risks in the business process are common to all industries, for the food industry, the public is most concerned about "food safety".
On the black cat complaint, a search for Zhengxin chicken steak keywords found nearly 600 complaints in the search results, more than half of which reflected food safety problems.
In 2022, in Fuzhou, Fujian, a consumer broke the news that he found a large number of black objects attached to the chicken steak halfway through eating chicken steaks, and immediately returned to the store to explain, "The store didn't take it very seriously, so it was bruised, and I asked how the bruising was generated?" The shopkeeper told me that the chickens were injured in a fight in the cage, and this kind of problem is unavoidable. ”
This is also the case with other brands. In fact, since chicken has gradually entered the fast food retail world, people have also "grown a lot of knowledge" with chicken.
In 2012, the most concerned issue was the "45-day instant chicken", that is, it only took 45 days for a chicken to go from the moment it was ready to the table.
At that time, the public knew for the first time that the breeding speed of chickens could be so fast, and they expressed their worries, not knowing what kind of technology and ruthless work was used in it.
Although there was a lot of popular science later, pointing out that the quick chicken is not equal to the hormone chicken that was later exposed (according to the agricultural department, the quick chicken is actually a broiler, also known as a fast chicken, from the 80s of the last century, the broiler out of the cage time has been shortened from more than 60 days to more than 30 days, an average of 1 day per year, determined by the breed and breeding technology), but until now, as consumers pay more attention to physical health, many people's attitude is to eat in moderation.
Consumers who have spare energy will continue to pay attention to the supply chain construction of the brand, and they will find that behind brands like KFC, there is still an "invisible winner" - that is, chicken supply chain enterprises.
For example, Sunner Development (founded in 1999 in Nanping, Fujian Province), China's largest white-feathered broiler manufacturer, basically earned its first pot of gold by entering the KFC supply chain system, similar to Foxconn and Apple. How well KFC has developed in China for decades, Sunner Development will make as much money.
In 2023, Sunner Development's revenue will be 18.4 billion, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies will be 660 million. It disclosed that in the white feather chicken market, Sunner Development aims to occupy 40% of the market share.
Basically, white feather chickens have half of the mainland's chicken consumption. The slaughter volume of broilers in mainland China is dominated by white-feathered chickens, yellow-feathered chickens and small white-feathered broilers. Among them, in 2023, white-feathered broilers will account for 55.3% and yellow-feathered broilers will account for 27.6%.
Now, one of Sunner's ambitions is to continue to strengthen the brand mentality of "Sunner = Fried Chicken" at the consumer level. Why?
It turned out that Sunner had long been determined in the past few years to make chicken products directly.
More precisely, it wants to vigorously develop the consumer-oriented chicken prepared vegetable market. In the second half of 2022, Sunner Development launched the "Domineering Pistol Legs", and it is disclosed that the sales volume has exceeded 100 million.
This is very complicated for some terminal enterprises that have purchased its goods and nourished its growth.
It turns out that raising chickens can also be "troubled".