From more than 20 to more than 5,000 - why Hunan cuisine became popular on the beach

On October 31st, at the scene of the "East China Classic Hunan Cuisine Exhibition", the public was watching a variety of exquisite Hunan dishes. On the same day, the 16th China Hunan Cuisine Food and Culture Festival continued in Shanghai, and the Hunan Cuisine Industry Development Summit Forum, the Award Ceremony and Tasting Dinner, and the Classic Hunan Cuisine Exhibition and Evaluation in East China continued to be popular.

Photo by Fu Cong, all-media reporter of Hunan Daily

Hunan Daily all-media reporter Peng Kexin and Zhang Dehui will be quiet

The fiery Hunan cuisine is conquering the sweet-loving Shanghainese.

In recent years, the Hunan cuisine brand has taken root in Shanghai and has developed and grown. From more than 20 stores in 2006, it has grown rapidly to more than 5,000 now, which is gratifying.

Why can Shanghai Hunan vegetables bloom everywhere?

On October 30th, the 16th China Hunan Cuisine Food and Culture Festival kicked off in Shanghai. From this activity, we may know a little bit.

You don't have to hand out flyers

The new Hunan cuisine store customers come naturally

"Mom, I want to eat stinky tofu." Li Wangyi, an 11-year-old Shanghai child, tugged at his mother's sleeve.

As one of the main activities of the 16th China Hunan Cuisine Culture Festival, the "Hunan Cuisine Master Into Shanghai" Food Carnival is very lively, not only with authentic Xiang flavors such as chopped pepper fish heads and small stir-fried yellow beef, but also Hunan snacks such as stinky tofu, sugar dumplings, sugar oil and rice dumplings, and even Xiang tea and Hunan cuisine condiments, attracting many Shanghai citizens and tourists.

Mr. Zhou, a Shanghai resident, is a regular customer of Hunan cuisine restaurants. As long as there are new Hunan restaurants in the surrounding area, he must call friends to taste something fresh. "It is not wrong for friends to choose Hunan cuisine for dinner." You see, I just went to the new store in Wangxiangyuan two days ago. He pulled out his phone and flipped through the pictures.

Speaking of Hunan cuisine, Mr. Zhou is like a number of family treasures: "Needless to say, my favorite is the authentic Hunan chicken feet, and the taste of chicken is also good." ”

Capturing the stomach of Shanghai consumers, Hunan cuisine restaurants are opening more and more in Shanghai.

In the 6 years since entering Shanghai, Jian Kitchen has opened 13 directly operated stores in Shanghai.

"When I first came to Shanghai in 2015 to open my first store, Shanghai customers basically only knew a chopped pepper fish head, not only to hand out leaflets, but also to explain to customers what representative dishes were in Hunan." Yang Hong, founder of Jane Kitchen, recalled.

But now it's completely different. "Leaflets don't have to be sent, there are many customers who like Hunan cuisine, and when they see the new store, they naturally come." The Shanghai market gives Yang Hong a lot of confidence, "It is expected that we can achieve 30 stores in Shanghai next year." ”

The main is authentic Hunan flavor

Most of the ingredients are "Hunan direct supply"

Why is Hunan cuisine so attractive?

Hunan cuisine Taidou Wang Moquan made an answer with the "three tastes" of aftertaste, transparent taste and taste. "These 'three tastes' add up to make the taste of Hunan cuisine blend into one, and the taste is just right, and everyone likes it."

Firmly believing that the original Hunan cuisine can open up the market, many Hunan cuisine shops in Shanghai focus on "authentic" and "authentic" Hunan cuisine.

Walking into Wangxiang Garden, there are all kinds of ingredients shipped from all over Hunan. The first thing that catches your eye are two large jars of chopped peppers and sauced peppers from Changde, which are indispensable ingredients for making chopped pepper fish heads. Two kinds of chili peppers are served with bighead carp from Qiandao Lake, which is mellow and delicious, and is the signature dish of the store.

The basket also contains screw peppers from Liuyang, green pumpkins from Ningxiang, bacon from Anhua, black pork from Shaoyang, and sausages from Xiangxi.

Chen Yao, supply chain director of Wangxiangyuan, said that 80% of the ingredients in the store are shipped from Hunan. "We found that customers in Shanghai wanted to eat authentic, energetic Hunan cuisine, and this authentic Hunan native cuisine fully met their needs."

It turns out that the strategy of taking authentic Hunan cuisine has succeeded.

Fu Huaping is a well-known "food postman" in the Xiang vegetable circle on Shanghai Beach. Now, he operates a supply chain enterprise "Shanyi", which transports products produced by Hunan enterprises such as Peng Jifang, Cong Kitchen, Xiangru and Tantanxiang to more than 300 Hunan cuisine stores in Shanghai.

"We can deliver Hunan chopped peppers, bacon, fresh seasonal vegetables, etc., and we have to deliver about 30 tons of products to Shanghai every 3 days." Fu Huaping said that in the past, Hunan vegetable shops were "locally sourced materials", and now most of them choose "Hunan direct supply", and the annual sales of enterprises have increased from 30 million yuan to hundreds of millions of yuan now.

Hunan cuisine runs across Shanghai, and the supply of Hunan cuisine ingredients, as an important part of the industry, has also been derived into a big business.

20 years ago, Tang Xinping came to Shanghai from Hunan and founded Shanghai Xiangchuan Food Co., Ltd. At first, the company's scale was small, and the products were sold one by one, one by one, and now it has developed into a car and a car, a cabinet and a cabinet, and the sales scale and influence are not the same. "Last year, our company's annual sales exceeded 200 million yuan, and the product sales channels spanned catering, circulation and wholesale, e-commerce, export, etc., radiating the entire East China region."

Now, 25 wholesale markets in Shanghai, thousands of merchants, are cooperating with Shanghai Xiangchuan Food Co., Ltd., through them, Xiangpin into more Shanghai restaurants. Tang Xinping introduced that the company has also settled in Tmall, Taobao, Pinduoduo and other e-commerce platforms, built a matrix of more than 20 stores, and the annual sales of e-commerce exceeded 40 million yuan.

"Xiang" floats the world

Let Hunan cuisine become the cuisine of the earth

"'Xiang' floats in the world, making Hunan cuisine an earth dish." This is the goal of Chen Yuyin, president of the Shanghai Hunan Cuisine Association.

In her view, Hunan cuisine should be popular in Shanghai, and go to the whole country and the world, branding is the first issue to think about.

After spending nearly a year doing market research, brand planning, and digging up products and culture in Xiangxiang, in July 2015, Xiangji opened in Shanghai.

Walking into the Xiangji store of Shanghai Zhongsheng Mall, an uphill walkway separates the noise of the mall, and when you go inside, the moss courtyard wall separates rows of courtyard-style dining seats, and the old vine trees are wrapped around the eaves of the railing, as if you have arrived at the Xiangxi village.

Ouyang Junping, the founder of Xiangji, introduced that the theme of this restaurant is called "Xiangxi Courtyard", which creates a scene of Xiangxi Farmhouse. There are also themes such as dream Xiangxi and Dongting fisherman, which present different Huxiang cultural themes in the form of scenes, and consumers can quickly enter the experience situation of Hunan cuisine and Huxiang culture.

"The 'tour' of Xiangji is our brand gene, touring All over Hunan to find ingredients, folk craftsmen and crafts, make authentic Hunan cuisine, and carry forward Huxiang culture." Ouyang Junping said that The Xiangji is currently the largest number of chain stores in the Shanghai Xiang menu brand, which previously had 16 stores in Shanghai and will exceed 20 this year.

Chen Yuyin believes that in addition to branding, it is also necessary to promote the development of the supply chain, help the Huxiang category grow through industrial upgrading, and promote the emergence of Xiang products. Xiangchuan Company will operate in the supply chain mode, centralized distribution, centralized service, and create a supply chain of Hunan cuisine ingredients, which have played a positive role in promoting Xiangpin out of Xiang.

From sporadic to the trend of fire.

Hunan cuisine has been coming to Shanghai for many years, and has developed from local characteristics to a conventional product with its own flow; Shanghai Xiangpin has grown from scratch, from small to large, and now it has also won a prosperous look.

According to the "2020 China Catering Brand Power White Paper", Hunan cuisine has become the most eye-catching restaurant category in 2020 and has the strongest expansion ability.

"Expand the influence of Hunan cuisine, expand the team of Hunan cuisine, and display the image of Hunan enterprises." Huang Zanjia, secretary of the party group and director of the provincial government office in Shanghai, said that the Shanghai office will be a good "mother", and at the same time, through the port of Shanghai Hunan vegetable enterprises, more commercial cooperation models will be derived to help Hunan high-quality agricultural and sideline products go out of Hunan, into Shanghai, and go international.