Reporter He Jun
On July 27, the 2021 Chain Catering Super Summit of "Decisive Victory in the Catering Melting Era" was held in Beijing. In the face of the new industry ecology, how can catering enterprises make correct development decisions? Participating investors and catering entrepreneurs focused on the characteristics of the "melting era" industry, and discussed the "relationship between capital and catering", "supply chain construction and management" and "digital and intelligent transformation practice".
The food and beverage investment boom has deviated from the traditional analytical framework
With the listing of Nai Xue's tea, Xi Tea, Papa Sugar, Wuye Mixed Noodles, Shanghai Auntie, etc. have successively reported financing news, and the catering track has heated up again. According to incomplete statistics, from January to July 2021, a total of 115 financings occurred in the catering industry, which is equivalent to the number of financings in 2020. As of June this year, four catering companies have submitted listing prospectuses, far more than in the same period of previous years.
Xia Hao, pwC's transaction strategy and operation partner, said that looking back at the development of catering enterprises in the capital market in recent years, catering enterprises that can successfully list have a "multi-brand strategy" and have more than 100 stores, so catering enterprises should get the attention of capital, pay attention to both multi-brand development and their own chain expansion capabilities.
For the current round of increasingly fierce capital tide of restaurant enterprises, Li Haipeng, founder of Panda Star Kitchen, pointed out that the intervention of capital has raised everyone's expectations for the development of the industry, "but economic development has a cycle, investment also has a cycle, and the phased investment boom is only a symptom." ”
Li Lei, managing director of CDH Capital, said that the current heat of the catering capital market deviates from the traditional value analysis and investment analysis framework and "can no longer be understood".
In the view of Shu Liheng, a partner of the roadside co-creation platform, doing a good job in catering requires long-term internal strength cultivation, and capital alone cannot change its essence.
CEO Tu Ding believes that since 2015, the logic of capital's investment in catering has not changed. At present, the catering investment boom is nearing the end, and restaurant companies must always make good plans for compliance if they want to gain the favor of capital.
Supply chains are far from mature
The social division of labor is generally regarded as one of the fundamental driving forces of economic development, and "professional people do professional things" is also a manifestation of economic and social maturity. But from this perspective, China's catering industry is far from mature.
CEO Tu Ding said that China's catering enterprises are facing a "scale curse", except for a few formats such as tea and coffee, China's chain catering enterprises will suddenly slow down after they grow to a certain scale, just like a "curse". The reason for this is the lack of a basic supply chain in China, which has led to opening a restaurant in China, like starting a business in a place without electricity, first having to build a power plant for yourself.
Chen Lin, president of supply chain in twenty-two cities, said that competition and scale force enterprises to improve the efficiency of supply chains, and he quoted Jack Welch as saying: "If you do not have a competitive advantage in supply chain operation, simply do not compete." ”
For catering enterprises, self-built supply chain factories and distribution systems, or relying on ecology, cooperating with third-party supply chain factories, who is the best driving force for enterprises? Yu Fenglong, deputy secretary-general of the Agricultural Products Supply Chain Branch of the China Federation of Things, said that the three-party supply chain system must be the direction of the future, "The supply chain is not your profession, nor my profession, but the profession of others." Our catering people's specialty is brand operation, which is to enhance customer experience and satisfaction when consuming. ”
Xiao Rong, chairman of Cha tai liang pin, said that cha tai had its own warehouse when the scale was very small, but it was very troublesome to expand to 50 stores and expand to 80 stores. "Later, after we established cooperation with the warehouse, there was almost no worries in this regard, and the food safety of The Tea Tai was greatly guaranteed."
Wang Kedao, chairman of Lebaoshi, introduced that the fried chicken burger track has a very mature supply chain system, and in the decades after KFC and McDonald's entered China, the improvement of the third-party supply chain system has greatly promoted the expansion of the category. "International top catering brands do not have their own supply chain factories, and there is no doubt that social division of labor and professional people do professional things."
Digital and intelligent transformation is not easy
Catalyzed by the epidemic, the catering industry has accelerated into the era of digital popularization and digital intelligence upgrading.
Zhao Zhiqiang, founder of Bigbig Pizza, said that digitalization and information construction are necessary capabilities to ensure the sustainable development of catering brands, and in the face of consumers in the era of digital intelligence, only by actively embracing digitalization can we be closer to consumers.
Liu Zheng, president of Tsinghua Park, said that the epidemic has opened the "community operation" of Tsinghua Park, and in the collective cold ice period of the catering industry, the net profit of Tsinghua Park in 2020 exceeded that of 2019, creating the second life curve of the enterprise.
Wang Xi, general manager of the Duole Day Digital Center, said that digitalization makes uncontrollable links controllable, but in the process of practicing digitalization, enterprises need to think clearly about their own business process links in order to achieve more with less.
Gong Yu, CMO of Jingrong University, said that at present, catering enterprises have realized the importance of digital transformation, but in the process of digital transformation, enterprises cannot ignore the importance of "people", and the combination of the two can play a greater role.
Shenyang, CTO of Throbbing Burning Immortal Grass, said that digitalization is part of the corporate strategy, and catering enterprises can practice digitalization "cannot go astray", "to be user-centric, data-driven, link the internal and external resources of enterprises, otherwise digital transformation is difficult to succeed." ”
(Edited by Cui Man)