At present, the trillion group meal track is highly sought after by capital. Many chain enterprises have emerged in China, and even some food giant companies and Internet platforms have entered the market.
In the second half of the competition, the upgrading of consumer demands will continue to promote the transformation and digital upgrading of the group meal industry.
trillion market, big factories enter the market
According to the data of AI media consulting, the scale of China’s group meal market was 1.77 trillion yuan in 2021. China’s group meal has a stable customer base. In 2020, the number of students and urban employment totaled about 750 million. With the diversified development of group meals and the upgrading of industry services and technology, it is estimated to maintain a growth rate of 10% and reach 2.25 trillion yuan in 2023.
Huang Ping, vice president of digital group meal platform, said: “in the past 5-10 years, the growth rate of group meal is higher than that of the whole catering industry. This is also due to the rapid growth of Chinese enterprises, especially high-tech enterprises and private enterprises, so B2B group meal itself is in the period of demand growth.”
According to the 2021 report on China’s chain catering industry, at present, some leading enterprises in China’s group meal industry have begun to build chain brands. The main enterprises are Qianxihe, Xiyun, Meifen, Debao meal, jianliyuan, Wangjiahuan, xinyouhao, McKinley and so on. In recent years, capital has also begun to flow into the group meal market. At present, the investment and financing of the group meal industry is mainly concentrated in the early stages such as round a and strategic investment.
In July 2021, jianliyuan completed the first round of financing, with an amount of up to RMB billion. Guosheng capital and other capital under Shanghai Guosheng group participated in the investment. In August 2021, McKinley also announced that it had obtained a strategic investment of RMB 300 million from Everbright holding consumer fund. In December 2021, Meifen announced its strategic investment from Sodexo. After the completion of the transaction, the overall financing amount of the company’s round e exceeded 1 billion yuan.
Globally, Sodexo, Emma and compas are known as the three giants of global group meals. Sodexo and Emma have entered the Chinese market and have ranked among the top 10 Chinese group meals.
It is worth mentioning that China’s food giant companies and Internet platforms are also stepping into the field of group meals. At the beginning of 2021, New Hope Liuhe Co.Ltd(000876) established a group meal business team in line with the industry trend; In the first half of 2021, Yihai Kerry Arawana Holdings Co.Ltd(300999) selected sites all over the country to invest in the construction of central kitchen Park and carry out the investment in the upstream, middle and downstream business of central kitchen. The central kitchen is a very important part of the supply chain of group meal enterprises. More than half of China’s large group meal enterprise brands have their own central kitchen.
In September 2021, JD catering announced that it would provide one-stop catering supply chain solutions for Maxim China stores and provide comprehensive support in upstream supply, finance, logistics, systems and other aspects. As early as 2020, Jinan Zhonghui central kitchen Co., Ltd. signed a cooperation agreement with meituan. The two sides reached an agreement on the supply services provided by Zhonghui central kitchen to meituan, and became a long-term strategic partner.
how to transform in the second half
Nowadays, group meal customers pay more attention to the consumption experience. From basic hygiene and satiety to now, they have higher requirements for dining convenience, diversification of dishes and delicacy. The upgrading of consumer demands has promoted the transformation and digital upgrading of the group meal industry.
The integration of social catering and group meal is a transformation mode that traditional catering enterprises try more at present. That is to introduce some external social catering brands into group meal consumption occasions to supplement the traditional group meal.
Wang Junying, director of Sodexo China catering platform and transformation, told China Business Daily: “the integration of social catering and group meal provides convenience for consumers. For enterprise employees, they need to go out to eat some social brands every day. They need to go out and come back. There are not necessarily around, so we introduce it to the work site to provide dining convenience.”
In the process of exploring the diversity of group meals, Wang Junying felt that the group meal industry was marching from B2B to B2C.
“We need more scientific solutions for end consumers. Because most of our customers have jobs and they have great consumption needs, but time does not necessarily allow them to spend outside. If the site can provide various life needs, we need to make the B2C model possible.” He said.
In addition to the need to solve the problem of insufficient diversity of group meals, the group meal industry is also in the process of digital transformation. At present, online order system, virtual economy products and intelligent devices have been emerging.
The process of group meal digital transformation is not plain sailing. “Sodexo needs to keep up with the rapid development of digital technology in the Chinese market. It is impossible for us to keep pace with the development of digital technology in the Chinese market.”
According to Huang Ping, at present, the digitization rate of group meal is indeed lower than that of catering. With consumers’ increasing acceptance of digitization in takeout and other consumption scenes, employees also hope to have a more convenient digitization method in group meal scenes, which will also promote the upgrading of the whole industry.
