On November 22, at the Beiguo store of Shijiazhuang Beiguo Supermarket, residents were picking out barreled instant noodles at high-end prices. Hebei Daily reporter Zhao Zezhong photographed
In an instant noodle production enterprise, employees are inspecting the steamed noodles in the workshop. Hebei Daily reporter Du Baihua photographed
On November 11, in the Impression Hall of Immai Lang in Longyao County, Xingtai City, the staff demonstrated the difference between non-fried instant noodles and fried instant noodles. Hebei Daily reporter Zhao Zezhong photographed
□ Hebei Daily reporter Zhao Zezhong
■ Reading tips
Instant noodles are popular fast-moving foods for consumers.
In the past two years, with the high price of instant noodles of 10 yuan and 20 yuan entering people's vision, especially in this year's "Double 11", the sales of high-end instant noodles have increased significantly, making the industry call out - the high-end trend of instant noodles has become a new trend.
Traditional brands Master Kong, Unity and Jinmalang actively seek incremental markets and promote new products. The new forces ramen and jinmiantang are also fueling this trend with their unique positioning and gameplay.
Hebei is a major province for the production of instant noodles, and the new trend of the industry not only makes consumers, but also makes manufacturers and dealers feel different changes.
Sales of "not cheap" instant noodles have soared
On November 11, according to Tmall's official data, ramen said that the first hour of sales exceeded 10 million yuan, an increase of 200% over the "double 11" in 2019, and the first hour of the convenience fast food category TOP1.
Ramen said that the noodle brand in the ramen segment has sprung up, and then hitched a ride on the express train of e-commerce with goods, and its sales in the first half of 2020 have skyrocketed.
Emerging brands have sprung up, and on the high-end and ultra-high-end fast food track, the old instant noodle companies are not willing to show weakness, and the price is not low.
Open the official flagship store of Tmall, Master Kong's high-end product Express Noodle Restaurant, 4 boxes of fragrant and large beef instant noodles reached 62.9 yuan; the unified Tang Da Ren upgraded version of "Ji Wei Guan", 6 cups of full box price of 59.9 yuan; Jin Mian Tang's 2 boxes of Sichuan beef knife cut noodles priced at 50.8 yuan. The price of fresh noodles newly listed this year is also around 15 yuan.
These new varieties of instant noodles sell well online.
Zhu Danpeng, a food analyst who has tracked and studied the instant noodle market for many years, said that high-end instant noodle sales are still mainly based on the Internet, schools, Internet cafes and other channels. More to cater to the new generation of consumers, the group's shopping thinking is biased towards convenience and nutrition, and the shopping method is biased towards scenario-based.
The rise of the Internet celebrity economy and internet live e-commerce has provided new opportunities for instant noodles to win young people. In June this year, Master Kong sent the new Suda Noodle Restaurant self-heating noodles to Weiya's live broadcast room, and won the result of selling 70,000 bowls in 5 minutes.
Online sales of mid-to-high-end instant noodles are in full swing, and the offline market is also steadily improving.
On November 16, in the White store of Shijiazhuang Beiguo Supermarket, many residents selected products on the shelves of instant noodles. Unlike in the past, imported instant noodles and high-priced instant noodles account for a quarter of the shelves of instant noodles.
Coincidentally, in the Shijiazhuang Yonghui Supermarket Minxin Square store, on the 8-meter-long shelf of instant noodles, imported instant noodles and high-priced bagged noodles and barreled noodles can account for about half of the position.
"Out of the front one, sim ramen, turkey noodles, these imported instant noodles are especially popular with young people." The temporary promoter at the supermarket said, "On average, every half a day is a shipment, and five consecutive packages of sim ramen noodles have the highest sales." A customer told me that this price is the same as the selling price of a local supermarket in South Korea. ”
Located in the Northland Supermarket in the Northland Mall, the sales of mid-to-high-end instant noodles are more obvious.
"With its product characteristics and word of mouth, Tangda people's instant noodles have gradually grown in sales and gained a firm foothold in the market." Bai Zhengguang, head of the business section of the Beiguo store of Beiguo Supermarket, said, "The purchase demand of customers has changed to instant noodle products with better taste, fresher soup and stronger noodles. ”
The product is different from the past
At noon on November 22, at the Beiguo store of Shijiazhuang Beiguo Supermarket, Ms. Wang, a citizen, was comparing and selecting a bucket of beef noodles and a bucket of Tangda Ren bone broth noodles.
"I've bought both noodles, and the tastes are really different. You see the packaging is also different. Ms. Wang pointed to the bottom of the bowl and said, "The Manhan Dinner Noodle Bucket, which costs 18.9 yuan a barrel, has a better texture and looks like it is made of plastic, and this one of Tang Daren can be directly seen to be a paper bucket." ”
Listening to Ms. Wang's words, the reporter made a detailed comparison in front of the shelf.
A common barrel of unified sauerkraut beef noodles costs 4 yuan, while a barrel of unified champions knife noodles sells for 11.9 yuan. The same is instant noodles, why is the pricing gap so large?
From the perspective of packaging, high-end categories of instant noodles have spent a lot of effort on the packaging process. Take a certain type of instant noodles with a unit price of 30 yuan a barrel. Its outer packaging is a liftable lid bowl design, saying goodbye to the era of puncturing the lid with a fork. Increase the exhaust hole on the lid, adjust the internal and external negative pressure to avoid difficulties in uncovering the lid.
From the perspective of the net content of the product, it is more reflected in the difference in the amount of seasoning packets. For example, the net content of the braised beef noodles in the private room of The Sunda Noodle Restaurant is 231g, while the net content of the mushroom stewed chicken noodles is 101g, the difference in the weight of the noodles between the two is less than 15g, and the difference between the seasoning package is more than 100g.
Supermarket shelves are limited, the reporter opened the Tmall flagship store and compared most of the instant noodles that are only sold online.
The reporter found that in the choice of materials for dough cakes and seasoning packages, there is also a big gap between high-end noodles and ordinary noodles.
As said, ramen noodles are semi-dried fresh noodles with a short shelf life of 60 days, using European high-gluten wheat. Most of the ordinary noodles use wheat flour as the main ingredient; at the same time, the seasoning of high-end noodles is also richer than that of ordinary noodles, and the ingredients of the cooking bag include pork bone broth, beef and other ingredients.
In addition, the high-end noodles and ordinary noodles are also significantly different in technical processes, and the barrel noodles above 5 yuan are marked with "non-fried". Taking Imamalang as an example, the 7 yuan / barrel of old Fanjia braised beef noodles uses the non-fried steamed noodle technology, and the noodle cakes are not the same as ordinary instant noodles. The braised beef noodles of 3.5-4 yuan / barrel are fried instant noodles; the jinmalang knife-cut lasagna series priced at more than 5 yuan are all non-fried instant noodles.
In addition, some pasta ingredients are packed with up to 5 kinds or more. For example, the ingredients of ramen are seaweed, wood ear shreds, bamboo shoots, white sesame seeds and other ingredients in separate packages, and there are 7 kinds of seasonings for a noodle.
The above differences are compared by the reporter through the product introduction on the instant noodle box, which is also a difference that consumers can easily observe.
Industry insiders told reporters that from the perspective of instant noodles in the past market, the price of barreled instant noodles is higher than the price of bagged instant noodles, and the reason is that the barrel. It is understood that the cost of this paper barrel is very high, because it must be able to withstand hot water of more than 100 degrees, not only overmolding, but also need special materials and related technologies to support.
At the same time, unlike the instant noodles of 2 to 4 yuan a pack, the instant noodles of 10 yuan and 20 yuan are also stronger in the authenticity of the calling material. "What you see in packaging is what you get", the shelf life is only 60 days, and it feels more nutritious and fresher.
On November 17, the National Food Industry Standardization Technical Committee issued a draft of industry standards for "Instant Food Seasoned Noodle Products". It clearly lists seven technical requirements such as raw material requirements, sensory requirements, and physical and chemical indicators.
Industry insiders said that in the unprecedentedly competitive instant noodle market, more and more high-end products must not only meet industry standards, but also innovate in products. This requires investment from research and development to marketing.
Market demand brings about industry changes
On November 11, in the Impression Hall of Immai lang in Longyao County, Xingtai City, the docent demonstrated the difference between non-fried instant noodles and fried instant noodles for reporters on the spot - the same amount of room temperature drinking water is soaked at the same time, and non-fried instant noodles will sink to the bottom.
Between fried and non-fried, consumers prefer to choose non-fried instant noodles. Even at high prices, healthy eating is becoming the first choice.
"Visible real materials" have become a new demand for consumers, and companies are adapting to this trend. They launched 10 yuan, 20 yuan of high-end instant noodles, high-priced instant noodles, is to meet the trend of consumption upgrade business choices.
Once upon a time, when consumers saw tempting patterns such as "shiitake mushroom stewed chicken" and "braised beef" on the outer packaging of instant noodles, they could not help but mutter: these patterns are "for reference only".
Nowadays, the addition of original and authentic materials has made some convenience foods "worthy of the name".
Experts said that the emergence of high-end instant noodles in the market shows that convenience foods pay more attention to real materials, authentic flavors, and multi-scene applications. In particular, some middle- and high-income people have lost demand for "civilian-priced" instant noodles, and put forward new demands for instant noodles for health and safety, nutrition and deliciousness, and return to kitchen flavor, and instant noodles have shown a trend of "formal meals".
This demand has prompted instant noodle companies to use freeze-drying technology to enrich ingredients and flavors with meatballs, shrimp, etc. Recently, Chef Kong's Suda Noodle House Beef Noodles and "Adopt a Cow" Milk launched a joint gift box. The gift box contains two boxes of beef noodles plus two bottles of milk and four small gifts, which have attracted the interest of many consumers.
The instant noodle industry is accelerating towards the "delicious, nutritious and healthy" positioning of meals. In this process, many convenience food companies have chosen the path of differentiation and innovation.
Master Kong has successively launched "Express Suda Noodle Restaurant", "Suda Boiled Noodles" and "Suda Self-heating Noodles", etc., and the sales of high-priced bag noodles in the first half of this year increased by 47.8% year-on-year; unified instant noodles were made of broth to create healthy and fresh prismatic noodles, and the revenue of "Tangda Ren" products increased by 29.7% year-on-year in the first half of the year; "steamed" non-fried instant noodles of Jinmalang, as well as white elephants "Force Fresh Noodles" and "Wine Fragrant Noodles" using aviation-grade food technology FD lock fresh technology, competed for the market.
In addition, the emergence of the takeaway industry once caused a decline in sales in the convenience food market, which also prompted the instant noodle industry to innovate products and seize the market.
The data shows that driven by the outbreak of innovative products, the industrial production factory price index of the national convenience food industry in the first five months of 2020 exceeded 103 on average, an increase of more than 3% year-on-year. Among them, the operating income of large and medium-sized convenience food enterprises reached 113.81 billion yuan, an increase of 6% year-on-year; the total profit reached 7.86 billion yuan, an increase of 17.3% year-on-year.
"Hebei Food Manufacturing Industry Operation Trend in the First Three Quarters of 2020" shows that the process technology of the convenience food industry such as rice, noodle products and instant noodles in Hebei has continued to innovate, and high-quality products such as a new generation of steamed instant noodles, miscellaneous grains and fruits and vegetables have increased, driving a significant increase in value. Since the beginning of this year, the growth rate of major benefit indicators has led the food manufacturing industry. In the first three quarters, the convenience food manufacturing industry in our province achieved operating income of 16.877 billion yuan and total profit of 2.323 billion yuan, an increase of 16.52% and 128.5% respectively year-on-year. The total operating income and total profits of the two enterprises, Jinmalang and Gaobeidian Baixiang Food Co., Ltd., accounted for 93.06% and 96.69% of the instant noodle manufacturing industry in our province, respectively.
"At present, the convenience food industry in our province is embarking on the road of healthy and sustainable development driven by technological progress to promote value." Li Zhiwei, president of the Hebei Light Industry Industry Association, said, "The industry should continue to accelerate the development and production of safe, nutritious and convenient foods, expand consumption scenarios, and continuously meet the needs of diversified, refined, and high-end consumption upgrades." ”
■ Reporter observation
Hebei convenience food industry
Promising
On November 18, Sichuan Baijia Food Industry Co., Ltd. announced that it has signed a contract with the domestic railway meal supplier "Food Land" to enter the high-speed rail catering market.
The convenience food industry has many entrants, and the competition for channels is becoming increasingly fierce. Many start-up brands are more focused on online channels, and competition is becoming increasingly fierce. At the same time, although the threshold of offline channels is higher, it is still a must for enterprises.
When visiting a number of supermarkets in the provincial capital, the reporter found that the shelves of ordinary instant noodles were decreasing, and the shelves of convenient self-heating food were increasing.
"Convenience foods and self-heating foods have become new Internet celebrities under the trend of live streaming with goods, and convenient fast food that was once affected by takeaway is picking up." Offline supermarkets are also providing shelves for these convenience foods, providing consumers with more choices. Bai Zhengguang, head of the business section of the Beiguo supermarket Beiguo store, said that due to the impact of the epidemic, the sales of convenience foods and self-heating foods have shown explosive growth.
"Affected by the epidemic, the consumption of convenience foods increased by 1.5 times in January-May 2020. The functions of convenience food emergency and disaster relief reserve materials are highlighted, and the vitality of the whole industry is revealed. Meng Suhe, chairman of the Chinese Society of Food Science and Technology, pointed out that the market has released huge demand for convenience foods, and the industry advantages of convenience foods have been rapidly transformed, forming a thick and thin emergency response capability and strong production capacity.
According to statistics, in the first half of this year, the national convenience food manufacturing enterprises above designated size completed operating income of 137.15 billion yuan, an increase of 4.7% year-on-year; the total profit was 8.75 billion yuan, an increase of 12.8% year-on-year.
The convenience food industry has transformed a large number of agricultural and sideline products, and has continuously met the needs of consumers' fast-paced life with its characteristics of simple consumption, easy to carry, and easy storage. Instant food manufacturing is the main category of food manufacturing, including rice noodle product manufacturing, quick-frozen food manufacturing, instant noodle manufacturing, and other convenience food manufacturing.
In 2019, the operating income and total profits of enterprises above designated size in the convenience food manufacturing industry in our province accounted for 21.59% and 23.37% of the food manufacturing industry in our province, respectively, of which the total operating income of rice, noodle products and instant noodle manufacturing industries accounted for more than 88% of the province's convenience food manufacturing industry. The output of instant noodles is 296,100 tons, ranking 6th in the country.
Li Zhiwei, president of the Hebei Light Industry Industry Association, said that our province is a large agricultural province, rich in wheat, corn and other processing resources, and widely distributed enterprises, mainly concentrated in Xingtai, Handan, Shijiazhuang and Baoding.
He believes that the convenience food industry is embarking on the road of healthy and sustainable development driven by technological progress to increase value, and the development and production of safe, nutritious and convenient foods such as miscellaneous grains and fruit and vegetable noodle products, semi-fresh noodles, quick-frozen prepared dishes, self-heating foods and healthy instant noodles in our province should be promising.
Text/Hebei Daily reporter Zhao Zezhong
Source: Hebei Daily