Author | Restaurant boss internal reference internal ginseng Jun
Pork knuckle rice
Are you still "harvesting" workers in batches?
Recently, a chain pork knuckle rice store in Beijing called "Enough Yue· Authentic Longjiang Pork Knuckle Rice · Soup" has caused heated discussions on the Internet. The reason is that although the store has a score of 4.7 on the takeaway platform and sells 3,000+ orders per month, the actual location of the store is next to the waste garbage station.
According to news reports, there are more than 10 pork knuckle rice-related stores near this waste garbage station, and most of them are around 2,000 orders just by looking at the monthly sales of the takeaway platform.
As soon as this incident came out, not only did netizens question the food safety of the working meals of migrant workers, but the traditional catering category of "pork knuckle rice" also attracted market attention again.
Nei Sanjun opened his mobile phone to search for nearby pork knuckle rice takeaways, and found that some other stores of "Enough Yue" in Beijing also have monthly sales of up to 5000+ orders. The platform shows that a pork knuckle rice is in the price range of 20~30 yuan.
As far as the head chain brand is concerned, the "Pig Horn · Minnan Pork Knuckle Rice" established in Fujian in 2016 has opened a new high in the past two years, according to the data of the dining eye, the number of brand stores exceeds 500, and has expanded to Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, Hubei and other places.
According to public information, the annual revenue of the pig horn brand reached 1 billion, and its Xiamen sand boat store opened in the first two months, with an average daily turnover of more than 10,000 yuan, and it turned over about 4 times at noon. Recently, Pork Horn and Pork Knuckle Rice also announced that it would settle in the canteen of Huawei's headquarters, and there was a long queue on the opening day.
According to incomplete statistics from Tianyancha data, as of September 2024, there are more than 31,000 enterprises related to "pork knuckle rice", and nearly 6,000 have been established within one year. With so many new entrants, pork knuckle rice still has its unique advantages and potential in the catering market.
In fact, pork knuckle rice is still stuck in "low-end fast food"
The last time the pork knuckle rice was hot, it was not a positive thing.
In January this year, a newly opened pork knuckle rice restaurant in Pidu District, Chengdu, hung a lot of banners at the door, saying that Ma Yun, Ma Huateng, Liu Qiangdong, Ren Zhengfei and other top business circles sent congratulations, and the merchants responded that this was just a gimmick for opening publicity. Netizens said that although it attracted attention, this opportunistic approach made people lose their desire to enter the store to consume.
In fact, the highlight of the track of pork knuckle rice is still staying around 2021-2022. At that time, the financing news of pig horn · Minnan pork knuckle rice attracted market attention. According to the "2022 New Catering Industry Research Report", in 2021, the number of orders for pork knuckle rice on Meituan Takeaway exceeded 70 million, and the number of dine-in stores grew by 41.6%, making pork knuckle rice a new popular product that year.
After 2022, the pork knuckle rice category has basically lost its popularity.
From the perspective of the market structure, the pork knuckle rice industry presents the characteristics of "many, small, scattered and chaotic", most of the market share is still supported by a large number of small and independent mom-and-pop shops, and the scale of leading brands in the industry is not significantly prominent.
According to the data of the meal, at present, the top three stores of the pork knuckle rice chain are: Xu Dachuan chopped pepper pork knuckle rice, pork horn· Minnan pork knuckle rice and Lin Ji Longjiang pork knuckle rice, all of which do not exceed 600, and the total number of pork knuckle rice stores in the country is less than 5%.
At present, there seems to be a greater risk in joining the pork knuckle rice.
A head pork knuckle rice once publicly shouted "30 seconds to eat, no need for a chef, 2 people can open a store", which attracted entrepreneurial whites, and some netizens directly complained that "I am the victim of its franchisee, with a net loss of more than 100,000"; A second-hand recycler owner shared that a boss joined Pork Knuckle Rice in February this year and was forced to leave the market with a loss of 870,000 yuan, with a picture of a delicately decorated store. Netizens commented, "Pork knuckle rice is so tall and it gives me a bad feeling" and "A store that can be opened for 80,000 yuan has 870,000 yuan".
Most of the pork knuckle rice on the market is still self-employed, and although the low-price business strategy can attract consumers in the short term, it also makes it difficult for pork knuckle rice brands to get rid of the "small and scattered" situation.
Although small stores are flexible and have low operating costs, merchants often rely on low-cost operations, and are prone to shortcomings in site selection, hygiene and supply chain management. In order to survive in the fierce market competition, some businesses even have to continuously reduce costs. The general lack of branding and standardized management has led to uneven food safety, hygienic conditions and service quality of pork knuckle rice. The exposure of "enough Guangdong" has only revealed the corner of the chaos in the market industry.
brief summary
Compared with other categories, pork knuckle rice has obvious disadvantages in terms of brand premium ability, consumer loyalty, and scale effect.
There are also some pork knuckle rice brands that are trying to innovate. For example, the Pork Horn · Minnan Pork Knuckle Rice store has been upgraded, and the Xiamen Qishan store has been renovated, transforming from "Pork Knuckle Rice" to a "Chinese Casserole Pot" restaurant, with the main dishes such as Minnan Pork Knuckle, Spicy Catfish Pot, Internet Red Cheese Rice Cake Chicken, and Classic Casserole.
This kind of innovation may allow pork knuckle rice to move away from the label of "low-cost fast food" and move closer to "high-quality fast food", improve its sense of value in the hearts of consumers, and even attract more demanding consumer groups. However, it will take time to answer how much splash it can stir up and whether it will be competitive in the long-term market.
Traditional categories such as pork knuckle rice still have certain opportunities and development space in the current catering market, especially in the period of economic uncertainty, consumers tend to choose fast food with higher cost performance. Driven by rational consumption and fast-paced lifestyle, pork knuckle rice still has certain market prospects.
For chain brands, it is necessary to further promote standardized operations, and enhance brand competitiveness through a unified supply chain, strict hygiene standards and innovative dishes; Individual businesses, on the other hand, need to maintain their store operations through differentiated strategies and refined operations.