Big Is Good? Brand Catering Running Into "Wandian Era"

After the tea brand Naixue's tea listing process is nearing, news came out on June 24 that the latest round of financing of Xicha is about to be concluded, and the valuation after this round of investment will reach 60 billion yuan.

This estimate adds another fire to the temperature in June, but tea is not the only one. According to Hubo search data, since June, some catering brands such as Wuye noodles, Hetian shuipu, dada sugar and Fanhu have obtained financing, ranging from 10 million yuan to 300 million yuan.

Catering industry has attracted unprecedented attention, and scale, standardization and branding have become the trend. "Big data 2021 of China's catering industry" released by meituan shows that the chain process of China's catering market is accelerating, and the catering chain rate has increased from 12.8% in 2018 to 15% in 2020.

From the distribution of different store sizes of chain brands, the proportion of catering chain stores with the scale of more than 10000 stores increased from 0.7% in 2018 to 1.4% in 2020, only doubling in three years. At present, brand catering is running into the "WanDian era".

"The expansion of the catering industry is advancing to the whole country, and its scale is further growing. Foreign fast food chain enterprises such as Burger King, yum! And golden arch gate are speeding up the layout of second and third tier cities. At the same time, traditional brands such as Laoxiang chicken and Ziyan food are paying more attention to the quality of core products and taking the road of differentiation." Han Ming, President of China Hotel Association, told the 21st century economic reporter that under the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, the recovery of the catering industry has accelerated. From January to May this year, the income of domestic catering industry reached 1778.9 billion yuan, an increase of 56.8%. The catering consumption has been steadily improved, and the trend of digitalization, greening, industrialization and retailing is obvious.

Urbanization accelerates the scale development of catering industry

On June 24, Wuye noodles, an innovative catering chain, announced that it had completed a round of financing of 300 million yuan, led by CDH VGC (CDH innovation and Growth Fund), and B capital co invested by Wang Cen, an investor in Angel round of Wuye noodles. This financing is undoubtedly the largest round a financing known to the catering chain industry, and the company was only established in May 2018.

In order to spread out the chain quickly, Wuye noodle shop development route is "self support + franchise" and mainly join in. Up to now, the number of stores of Wuye noodles has exceeded 700, and the number of stores is expected to exceed 1000 by the end of 2021.

Why is the number of outlets important for fast food chains? In the catering enterprises with 500-1000 chain stores, Haidilao and Xicha still adhere to the direct marketing mode. Representatives of Chinese fast food, such as rural chicken and rural chicken, have broken through 1000 Direct stores nationwide.

"If the catering industry wants to develop rapidly, it needs to adopt chain and franchise mode to promote large-scale development, which is interlinked all over the world. Other countries are relatively simple to subdivide categories, while China is relatively complex. With the development of China's catering industry, the supply chain, standardization, digitization and management of food materials have been relatively mature. " Wang Hai, vice president of Zhengxin group, told reporters of the 21st century economic report that as long as the track is wide enough and focused enough, catering enterprises can develop to a higher level.

In an interview with the 21st century economic report, an investor in the catering industry believes that the golden age of chain catering industry has been affected by many aspects. To a certain extent, the Internet platform has also played a positive role in boosting“ On the one hand, the application of SaaS system and the maturity of online operation system enable catering enterprises to improve the operation efficiency of stores and deepen the understanding of customers by means of digital management; On the other hand, the emergence of takeout platforms and the promotion and application of online platforms have helped catering enterprises broaden their business scope and competitive radius, and at the same time, they have accelerated the survival of the fittest in the industry and promoted the improvement of integration and chain connection rate. "

More importantly, the demographic dividend still exists. According to the seventh national census data released by the National Bureau of statistics, 63.89% of the population live in cities and towns, an increase of 0.62% in the past decade“ It is also clearly stated in the outline of the 14th five year plan that the urbanization rate of the permanent population should be increased to 65% by 2025. Higher urbanization rate means that the infrastructure of cities at all levels will be gradually improved, and industrial resources will continue to converge, which will accelerate the scale development of catering industry.

This point, the chairman of Laoxiang chicken catering group Shu Congxuan has deep feelings. He said that the rapid development of expressways, logistics distribution, digitization and informatization has provided convenience for the cross regional development of catering enterprises, which are also the basic guarantee for accelerating the scale-up of the industry“ The development of the Internet has also made management easier. In the past, it was relatively difficult to cross regional management. If the basic things are not well done, it is difficult to talk about the goal of WanDian. "

Challenge logistics supply chain

Ten thousand stores have become the target of players in the franchise mode. For example, in the first half of 2020, with the speed of nearly 20 new stores opened every day, the industrial chain integration will be completed in 2021, and the number of offline stores will exceed 10000.

Liu Tao, assistant director and researcher of the market economy Research Institute of the development research center of the State Council, believes that the growth of residents' demand for quality consumption, the release of consumption potential of "sinking market" in the rapid development of urbanization, as well as the acceleration of the digital transformation of the catering industry and the improvement of supply chain management ability have become the important basis for the improvement of catering chain.

However, from thousand stores to ten thousand stores is a challenge for any brand. Shu Congxuan admits that its layout in the flow of people, logistics and information will increase dramatically“ Enterprises should go back to the fundamental problems, select and do a good job of products. This is a very basic thing. At the same time, the whole management system should be well done. "

Clearly, keen capital and Internet platforms have already targeted this track. In the future, it is expected that there will still be a large space for light fast food chains with core products and raw materials to ensure the stability of food quality and provide the best cost-effective light fast food chain.

Wang Hai believes that the arrival of "WanDian era" has accelerated the digital transformation and upgrading of enterprises to a certain extent. According to Shu Congxuan, catering enterprises from 1 to 10 need to do their homework around products, standards and systems, find more mature professional managers, and do a good job in the systematic construction and management of business; To finish from 10 to 100, you need to look for the "second curve.".

Gao Ping, head of meituan catering training center, said that the arrival of the "WanDian" era is closely related to the growth and growth of the catering industry talent team. Despite the epidemic situation in 2020, the number of catering enterprises registered increased instead of falling, reaching 2.364 million. At the same time, the scale effect has gradually become prominent.

Therefore, it is expected that capital will gather in this area“ At present, both logistics, supply chain and information services are mature. A new entrepreneur can also find a very mature small mill to complete the processing, which was almost impossible to imagine 10 years ago. " The aforementioned investors in the catering industry lamented that VC's entry into this field is an opportunity to judge whether the industry is likely to produce a company with a market value of US $10 billion or even US $100 billion. However, it is still a labor-intensive industry, and companies of different sizes also have different management difficulties, which is still a great challenge.

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