Looking back on the catering industry in 2021, some people cry and others laugh.
By the end of the year, the tide of closure of physical businesses continued, including shopping malls, hot pot shops, milk tea shops and offline clothing stores.
“Hot pot brother” Xiabu Xiabu closed 200 loss making stores, Haidilao closed more than 300 stores, chayan Yuese temporarily closed 70 or 80 stores in Changsha, etc. all over the country, closing and rest are staged every day.
On the other hand, according to the white paper on big data of Chinese catering in 2021, the total scale of Chinese catering stores reached a new high in 2021, breaking through 9.3 million, but the growth rate slowed down significantly, and the market was in the transition period from “increment” to “quality”.
Covid-19 epidemic led to a large-scale closure of Chinese catering stores in the first half of 2020, and then recovered rapidly in the second half of 2020. By the end of 2020, the scale of stores even exceeded that before the epidemic, which reflects the vigorous development vitality of China’s catering market. In 2021, the opening and closing rate of the catering industry is relatively balanced, and the opening rate is slightly higher than the closing rate. After the epidemic, the anti risk ability of Chinese catering enterprises has been significantly improved. The store retention rate in the last year exceeded 80%, which is significantly higher than that in previous years. The innovation of new catering modes such as tea and hot pot is also exploring the way.
On the transformation line, creating a new model seems to be a new path for catering evolution in 2021. After the outbreak intensifies and the reshuffle, where is the next stop of the catering industry?
difficulties of real business
the fall of wanghong restaurant to the altar has become one of the characteristics of the development of catering industry in 2021.
Wenheyou in Guangzhou and Shenzhen have gone from being close to each other to being left out in the cold. An internal operator of wenheyou, located in Taigu Huishang District, Guangzhou, admitted to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the performance is now almost half lower than that in the early days of opening.
Three months after opening the store, Shenzhen wenheyou also ushered in a sharp decline in passenger flow. However, in early September this year, the original signboard of Shenzhen wenheyou was removed and replaced by the new signboard “old street oyster market”. Part of the site layout has also been changed into an aquatic market. It is understood that “Laojie oyster market” is the first independent regional characteristic IP of “super wenheyou”. It is intended to dig deep into Shenzhen oyster culture. It is also the biggest change since wenheyou entered Shenzhen.
Haidilao, a hot pot chain giant, announced the closure of more than 300 stores in November. Recently, half of its fast food brands were also exposed to close down one after another.
Coincidentally, on November 10 this year, chayan Yuese announced the temporary closure of 70 or 80 stores in Changsha, which is the third centralized temporary closure of the brand in 2021. The first centralized closure this year is due to the local Chinese new year, and the centralized closure in July is due to the repeated epidemic.
In this regard, chayan Yuese frankly said that the previous intensive distribution has made dividends in the urban development of Changsha. Under the epidemic situation, it is natural to bear the results of the reduction of people flow.
“the recurrence of the epidemic has greatly reduced the offline passenger flow. In the case of sharp decline in turnover, the cost of opening a store remains high. It is not too much to say that it is in dire straits.” a medium-sized Hunan restaurant operator in Shipai, Guangzhou told the 21st Century Business Herald.
Since last year, the catering industry has experienced two turbulent years. First, the sharp decline in the number of hall food caused by the epidemic last year, and then this year, the price rise of upstream raw materials such as vegetables, pork and condiments. Even a large chain group such as Haidilao has begun to shrink its front, not to mention many small and medium-sized merchants. Any “wind and grass” may squeeze the already precarious profit space and cause great pressure on cash flow.
Specifically, catering operators with different business formats face different problems.
For the hall restaurant, the sharp decline of offline passenger flow is the most direct blow. There has always been a saying of “three high and one low” in the traditional catering industry: high rent, high labor cost, high food price and low profit margin. Rent, manpower and food materials basically account for 70-75% of the total cost. After deducting the tax burden, depreciation of fixed assets and other losses, the profit margin is usually only 5-10%.
For catering businesses, the greater pressure is that rent is a hard cost. They should pay rent normally whether they operate or not. Especially when encountering irresistible external factors, the financial pressure faced by businesses will increase sharply. For example, in the early stage of the epidemic, many businesses were forced to close down, but they had to continue to pay rent. In order to complete self-help, some catering associations took the lead in issuing proposals, hoping that landlords would reduce rent for catering enterprises.
where is the online red brand going?
In this wave of bankruptcy, many brands used to be the “king of traffic”, such as wanghong brand tea Yan Yuese. Since this year, chayan Yuese has closed the store three times. Recently, because the employees disclosed on microblog and little red book that they work 11 hours per capita, but the hourly salary is only 6-9 yuan, chayan Yuese has boarded the hot search again. There are endless discussions in the industry about “why can’t chayan Yuese leave Changsha”.
“The persistence and recurrence of the epidemic in China has had a great impact on the flow of people and cross city clock in tourism projects. The strategic mistake in the layout of the tea Yan Yue color market is the core cause of today’s dilemma. Its density of stores in Changsha is too high, one store in ten steps, and too little development in other provinces, which will naturally limit the expansion of consumption. Under the reality of repeated epidemic situations, The reduction of passenger flow will continue to intensify. Closing the store is a rational behavior and strategy for tea Yan Yuese. ” Zhu danpeng, an analyst of China’s food industry, told the 21st Century Business Herald.
“However, chayan Yuese brand still has its own core tone. Now the business of physical stores is not good. After making some adjustments, the brand still has a certain core competitiveness, such as its brand tone and brand flow. Under the current consumption background, the support of fans for the brand is also very important.” Zhu danpeng said frankly.
In recent years, the catering mode focusing on urban culture has also become a path to build online Red stores. On December 8, Wuhan liyoucheng, which advertised as “more than 10000 square meters of old Wuhan immersion catering”, was put into trial operation.
“In the past two years, we have purchased old sets from all over the country, and finally built a memory city with an area of 6000 square meters and a height of 30 meters.” Zhang Yawei, the director of liyoucheng, said that the reason for such an idea is that our group of native young Ya miss the old Wuhan in our memory too much. We want to restore and retain the local flavor of childhood alleys, streets, bungalows, bamboo beds and old Wuhan.
In Zhu danpeng’s view, the business model of Wuhan liyoucheng is similar to that of Changsha’s specialty “wenheyou”. They are all built towards the height of urban cultural business card, with the support of the government. In addition, with the rise of national tide culture, there is a large consumer market, which is a popular trend in the catering industry.
” however, the problem is that many stores are only a flash in the pan, so how to achieve long-term development on the basis of cultural dividends is the key, which involves whether the brand’s industrial chain is complete, whether the product quality can be guaranteed and whether the customer stickiness can be maintained. Only by working hard on these dimensions can they not be quickly abandoned by consumers. ” Zhu danpeng told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.
the next stop of the catering industry
There are also new forces in the catering industry in 2021.
Xiabu group incubates a catering brand with both milk tea and hot pot, which is fully called “gather together hot pot · tea rest”. In the past four or five years, kuoku has once become the fastest growing brand in the catering industry, opening a new store in an average of about 13 days. When the epidemic came, it grew against the trend, and the momentum was stronger. Public data showed that it had more than 140 stores all over the country. In 2020, it was rated as the fastest growing catering brand in the catering industry, with an average of one store opened every nine days.
similarly, capital has not given up the catering industry. The coffee industry broke out in an instant this year. In fact, more reason is the run-up of capital .
According to incomplete statistics, there were 16 financing events in the coffee field in 2021. For example, such as m stand, illy, manner, three and a half meals and so on, even Ruixing, who withdrew from the market after the exposure of financial fraud, has once again won the attention of capital.
Now, the “audience”, including investors, may want to see the horse race between brands. Who can be the top and who can successfully encircle Starbucks is the most important.
With the improvement of urban consumption level, coffee has also appeared increasingly homogeneous categories. In order to combat the “inner volume”, businesses choose misplaced competition. Some start to work hard in the third-party space, some choose to differentiate services, and some pay attention to the appearance of products.
Relying on the track burned by capital, it is not a big problem to support it for a few years, but after the false fire ebbs, whether these products can get a good outcome still needs to be paid attention to.
in addition, the competition for the online market has also become a key word for the catering industry in 2021.
The 2021 annual report on China’s catering industry jointly released by China Hotel Association and Xinhuanetco.Ltd(603888) shows that under the epidemic situation, some catering enterprises that did not do online sales have started takeout due to the stagnation or reduction of offline business; Some catering enterprises try to retail semi-finished products, finished products and ingredients; Some catering enterprises have opened online ordering and telephone reservation platforms, developed dishes suitable for Internet sales, and launched online reservation, online store collection, door-to-door delivery and other services.
Pure hall food or specialized takeout are a few in catering enterprises. More enterprises adopt the “double home” model. From the perspective of input-output ratio, this is the most pragmatic path for the catering industry to fight against uncertainty.
However, there are also new difficulties in the takeout business model. The most intuitive problem is how to set the takeout menu of the restaurant. When ordering takeout, there is a layer of mobile phone screen between the customer and the restaurant. Store pictures, meal description and SKU design are the key information to attract attention. Too few choices can not meet the customers, and too many choices can easily lead to “selection difficulty”.
Secondly, there is always a certain proportion of orders that may “overturn”. Unlike the customers who can immediately feed back and solve the problem when eating in the hall, how the takeout shop carries out after-sales and how to skillfully respond to the customers’ “bad comments” not only determines whether the customer will repurchase, but also affects the feelings of other customers when referring to the comments.
In addition, the ranking rules of takeout stores are affected by many factors such as distance and score. Just as clothing stores just entered the online store mode from physical stores 20 years ago, catering enterprises also need to spend time and energy to study and adapt to the interaction and service mode in the takeout period.
the catering industry with rapid business changes has never been short of newcomers. In the new ecology constructed under the epidemic situation, the coexistence of reshuffle and opportunity has also become a new test question that employers must face.
(21st Century Business Herald)
