2024 is the first decade of meeting Xiaomen. Ten years ago, Chongqing small noodles with their unique taste emerged in the Chinese catering track, and ten years later, it has become a representative benchmark in the industry. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary, the 10th anniversary brand innovation and development seminar was organized in Guangzhou on July 3, inviting many senior media and industry leaders to explore the development and precipitation of the encounter with small noodles, and to discuss the new trends and opportunities of the Chinese catering track.
Meet the small noodles: from a store to a business, to a brand
Meet Xiaomian takes Chongqing Xiaomian as the super engine of the enterprise to create a prestigious business territory. Adhering to the principle of doing a small thing well, so that more people will not be in Chongqing and meet small noodles. In 2014, the first Encounter Noodles opened, and in 2024, the 300th Encounter Noodles will be completed. Chongqing's taste and humanity are blooming everywhere, and small noodles can be found in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, etc.
Today, Meet the small noodles has become a representative benchmark for the catering sub-category, and has been certified by Sullivan to be the No. 1 seller of small noodles in Chongqing, China, the No. 1 sales volume of pea noodles in China, and the No. 1 sales volume of hot and sour noodles in China in 2023, which has been highly recognized and praised by the market, industry, and consumers. After ten years of development and precipitation, Yuxiao Noodles has changed from a small street shop to a value brand.
In the low tide period, how can catering companies go against the tide?
On the afternoon of the 3rd, Meet Xiaomian and many senior media and industry leaders had a multi-faceted discussion on how catering companies can adapt to the new market environment.
Among them, it is specifically mentioned that the current hotly discussed "thousands of stores" model is actually a lever, the offensive potential is very fast, but the defensive pressure is also magnified several times.
Before 2023, Chinese catering will be favored by capital, and the noodle restaurant track will have a star formation composed of Hillhouse Venture Capital, Tencent Investment, GSR Venture Capital, Sequoia Fund, etc. The new brand quickly ascended to the position and launched a market snatching attack; The old brand completed a new round of financing to accelerate the expansion of the country. Hundreds of stores and thousands of stores a year have become the trend of the industry, but under the verification of the market, the speed of new openings is not as fast as the speed of store closure, and the closure rate of some brands has reached 40%, which is twice the average closure rate of restaurant enterprises.
Although store expansion can concentrate on the outbreak of brand potential energy and make the market valuation of enterprises higher, it also means that enterprises must have a stronger ability to resist risks and withstand pressure, so as to drag the "behemoth" formed by expansion to cope with the continuous changes in the market, capital withdrawal and black swans.
The industry is changing, and consumption is changing. The seminar also pointed out that "the consumption vane has changed: food consumption has not been downgraded, but advanced."
The sudden outbreak of the epidemic, the turbulence of the international situation, the slowdown of economic growth and other major changes in the environment have caused the public to be anxious and thinking about uncertainty, and the refinement of consumption and self-satisfaction have shifted to rationalization; The rapid development of social platforms has accelerated the transparency of information of restaurant enterprises, and the dishes, word-of-mouth, characteristics, and services are all at a glance; The habitual use of takeaway group buying has led to high price sensitivity among consumers, and the consumption habits of the public have entered a new stage.
Food consumption has been upgraded from "eating enough" to "eating well" and then to "eating well". From satisfying only the appetite to "feeling the same body and mind", the quality, taste, parity, and service of the food are the benchmarks, and whether it can provide emotional value, cultural identity, social currency and other factors affect consumers' recognition of the brand. Last year's popular Zibo barbecue is an example, with strong barbecue consumption power, driving 100 billion GDP. A small barbecue not only brings deliciousness, but also heals everyone's emotional wounds and provides social value.
The 1.0 stage of expanding the market has passed, and the Chinese catering industry has entered the 2.0 stage of inward cultivation.
At present, the barriers of the catering industry have been lowered, the track has been broadened, the categories have increased, and the stickiness of dietary preferences has been reduced, which has accelerated brand iteration and industry competition, reduced the sustainability and stability of the development of catering enterprises, and failed the market efficiency of store expansion. The Chinese catering 1.0 stage is ebbing, and the new catering environment is promoting the awakening of restaurant enterprises to 2.0.
In 2.0, the core competitiveness of enterprises should shift from "quantity" to "quality", and the internal driving force of the brand has become an important "hematopoietic". By focusing on the construction of brand moats and insisting on maintaining brand vitality with innovation and technology, we can achieve a greater first-mover advantage in the industry as soon as possible. Capital blood transfusion is only a stage, and only by forming a joint force of brand effect and scale effect can we avoid becoming a member of "naked swimming".
Pass a test of resilience with "small steps and slow walking".
2021 is a big year for the financing of the Chinese catering track, and Meet Xiaomian has also completed its fifth round of financing, and its valuation has tripled in just 3 months. In the face of a bonus signal for the brand, Xiaomian did not choose the capital expansion strategy of "running in big steps", but shielded the noise and impatience of the market, and took its own path with "small steps and slow walking".
"3" is a long-term strategic formula for meeting small noodles, "3" polishes the "3" construction, enhances the self-hematopoietic function, and does long-term high growth with the internal drive of the brand.
The "3 polishing" are: polishing product quality, building "super single products" Chongqing small noodles, bowl mixed noodles, and hot and sour noodles around the brand cultural DNA, and making Hua Dan single products into "boutique" flavors; Polishing the product matrix, focusing on the characteristics of Chongqing Jianghu restaurants, adding "less but fine" small items such as barbecue, copying hands, snacks, and small pot boiled vegetables, continuously optimizing and improving the repurchase rate, and at the same time cutting into the retail line to break the limitations of the food scene; Polishing the business model, meeting the needs of user scenarios and emotions, stretching the business time period, and creating a distinctive "full-time noodle restaurant", breakfast 678, hi 5 working meal, 9.9 afternoon tea, 7 o'clock midnight market, and the launch of 24-hour stores can not only improve store performance, but also become brand differentiation.
"3 Construction": supply chain construction, the development of asset-light pressure reduction mode, and mature and perfect supply chain enterprises to open up cooperation, design a "rich but not miscellaneous" exclusive supply system; Brand building, insist on telling a bowl of Chongqing culture noodle story, and reach users with multi-form content. Cross-border co-branding is carried out to open up the circle, daily content is built into a social field, public welfare practice is used to convey the temperature of small noodles, and good content and good actions continue to deepen the culture and enterprise spirit of small noodles; Intelligent construction, build a digital system, introduce intelligent kitchenware, and continue to optimize store operations, membership system, customer experience, staff training, product standards, etc.
During the "store closure wave", Narrow Door Dining Eye shows that from 2021 to 2023, there will be 55, 43, and 91 new stores in Xiaomian respectively, achieving contrarian growth at a steady pace, and further consolidating the long-term benefits of "self-hematopoiesis". The persistence of "walking slowly in small steps, cultivating hematopoiesis" has forged the resilience of the enterprise, and also achieved it to pass through the long-term cycle in a complex and changeable and fiercely competitive environment.
Chinese noodles, the world meets
Today, China's catering market has entered a 5 trillion market, and the vigorous development is underneath the surface of intensified competition. There is no doubt that the brand's self-hematopoietic ability and internal drive are becoming more and more important. In the second half of the burst of market vitality, we met Xiaomian with a positive and optimistic attitude, and deployed the strategy of relying on the domestic base camp to develop overseas markets. Mr. Song, the leader of Meet the Noodles, said that he would actively expand the overseas market, take the first store in Hong Kong as the starting point, dig deep into the opportunities in the overseas market, and promote the Chinese Noodles to meet the world.
In the past ten years, I have been calm when I met Xiaomian, and I have grown steadily step by step; In the next ten years, the encounter with the small noodles will take root downward, awaken inward, and spread the temperature of the small noodles to everyone.