The explosion of the entire network, the rise of convenient fast food is accidental or general?
This article is from “Huaying Capital”
In these days, the Chinese people who love to eat have divided into two lines: one is the road of the chef circle of the ingenious group, and the other is the convenient way of fast food for the “lazy but also the way” group.
Offline, instant noodles and frozen foods in supermarkets are often out of stock or even empty. Online, since February, the overall sales of instant food on Tmall has increased by nearly 700% year-on-year. The special scenarios under the epidemic have magnified demand and accelerated the rise of instant foods in the past two years.
As the investor of the top brands in the two categories of snail powder and self-heating hot pot, in this issue of Huaying, we want to talk about the ups and downs of the fast food industry, and let us count the highlights and investment of star categories Opportunity｡
01 The comeback of the 100 billion track
In the past, instant noodles were still the soul of a rental house, standard in an Internet cafe, and a must-have for a journey. We have all experienced the classic “braised beef noodle era”. Later, affected by healthy eating habits and takeaway, and in recent years, it has made a comeback. It has become more high-end, healthy and diversified, and the development process of the convenient fast-food industry can be described as ups and downs.
Development map of convenient food industry
In recent years, with the increasing trend of consumption upgrading, it is convenient for giants in the fast food industry to seize the opportunity, and the products launched are becoming more healthy, delicious and personalized. For example, Master Zero ’s zero-fat soup fan series and self-heating noodle restaurant series; unified Tangdaren series and self-heating life museum series｡
Meanwhile, a large number of online celebrity brands and emerging brands cater to the consumer needs and preferences of young groups, and help brands succeed through breakthroughs in marketing and product innovation. Such as the same star, film and television drama implantation, “half of the entertainment circle is eating” self-heavy pot; launched a joint name with the fire hidden ninja, focusing on the production of specific consumer groupsA stack of ramen.
In addition, traditional offline restaurants are also online, such as the self-heating hot pot introduced by Haidilao; the lazy instant hot pot introduced by Dezhuang. Convenient fast-food family generation after generation of products, has won the support of many consumers.
Marketing innovation and product innovation for convenient fast food
Since its development, the instant food family has grown stronger, including various instant noodles / rice, dumplings, rice dumplings, instant soup / congee, instant hot pot, seafood balls, noodles to be cooked, semi-finished dishes . Healthy fast food and Tiannan Haibei specialties come together. Hot dry noodles, snail powder, spicy hot pot, and other fast-food products with unique flavors and new flavors are emerging. The sales position has also expanded from traditional convenience stores to online channels including Taobao Jingdong Micro Store, and combined with emerging channels such as B2C fresh e-commerce, front warehouse, and supermarket home.
Proportion and growth trend of convenient fast food sub-category market in 2019
In 2018, the national convenience food manufacturing enterprises completed a total of 294.01 billion yuan in main business revenue, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%. In the past three years, the scale of online fast food consumption has continued to expand. The consumption scale of MAT2019’s instant fast food industry has increased by 106% compared to MAT2017.
According to public data, instant fast food is already a 250 billion-level market. The size of the consumer population and the frequency of consumption have both increased, and the scale of the instant food industry has continued to expand. Looking at the composition of the sales growth, in 2019, the number of fast-food purchasers on Taobao’s channel increased by 126% year-on-year, and the frequency of consumption increased by 6%.
Easy to dismantle the growth drivers of the fast food industry
02 Under the epidemic, the rise of “rookie”
During the epidemic, all the people in the family made instant and fast food more attention than ever. Master Kong instant noodles can be used in terminal stores for almost a second, and the rhythm of “noodles without landing” can be achieved during operation (that is, instant noodles arrive at the dealer’s warehouse, and are sold out by wholesalers and stores before they enter the warehouse); The online order volume of platforms such as Tmall and Tmall increased by 2 to 3 times; many snail powder brands were in short supply, and the pre-sale system was fully opened, and the delivery was even scheduled to May … quite a convenient instant food comeback , And then dominate the rivers and lakes.
During the Spring Festival and epidemic, the whole network of instant fast food is popular. Although the time is special, it is not accidental to return to the consumer’s view. We summarize the following boosting factors from the perspectives of crowd, scene, and marketing:
1. The crowd: the rise of the new generation has increased the demand and acceptance of new and exotic products. The post-80s office group and the younger generation of consumers represented by post-90s and 00s have become mainstream consumers. Their consumer demand is becoming more diversified and personalized, and they are willing to accept new things.
2. Scenarios: “lazy economy” and “one-person economy” have created more application scenarios for convenient fast food. From cooking to restaurants to ordering meals, from ordering takeaways to hoarding fast food, every consumer behavior is one step closer to being lazy. The fast-paced urban life has changed people’s living conditions, and groups of friends gather Often not the first choice for everyone to relax.
3. Products / channels: The trend of catering retailing has been strengthened, which not only solves the problem of offline store flooring efficiency, but also enriches fast foods and prolongs the life cycle of consumption. In recent years, self-sale related agricultural and sideline fast-food products have become more and more common in branded catering stores. Platform players such as Daily Fresh have also joined Xibei, Meizhou Dongpo, Xiaonanguo and other catering companies to launch “famous famous dishes”. The standardized signature dish products are vacuum-packed, urgentlyAfter quick freezing, it will be delivered to the home by the daily fresh front warehouse.
4. Marketing: Popular consumption habits are more and more inclined to browse and grow grass, pay attention to the tide attributes of consumer products, KOL / stars bring goods, etc. to facilitate fast food out of the circle. In addition to the co-branded models and film and television variety mentioned above, Gourmet IP is becoming more vital. In February of this year, Li Ziyu’s brand snail soup powder sold more than one million copies; bloggers like Lin Xinhuan and Hua Chenyu recommended self-heating hot pot, which made more and more consumers pay attention to new categories of fast food.
For overseas markets, convenient food brands also use a variety of methods to reach, including Li Ziyi’s style through IP influence, as well as terminal channel laying or cultivation of consumption habits along the line. For example, today Mai Lang spread Lao Fanjia noodles on the shelves of convenience stores in Japan and South Korea. Master Kong also opened Express Express noodles on the Swiss train.
The epidemic situation has further promoted the above trend, and it is convenient for the fast food track to welcome the growth of Xiaoyangchun. Among them, snail soup powder and self-heating hot pot have become typical hot categories that have recently emerged in convenient fast food. The former is a representative of the rise of local specialties, and the latter is a rookie in the innovative category. During the Spring Festival, it surpassed Cherries and quick-frozen dumplings, occupying two of Taobao’s hot-selling food categories. People who eat melons are pursuing “snail-flour powder freedom” and “self-heating hot pot freedom”.
Snail powder: 60 million people call for snail powder on WeiboDid you powder it today?
How hot is snail powder?
From February 5th to March 6th, according to the cloud and data, the topics related to “snail powder” have been searched on Weibo for ten times, and the total read volume of Weibo topics has exceeded 20 Billion.
Taobao announced that the online pre-sale period of snail powder is scheduled to be April, offline merchants have been snapped up early, and Li Zizhen ’s flagship store, snail powder, sold 1 million + in February. 60 million people are calling for snail powder free on Weibo, 3.2 million people search for snail powder, and snail powder take-out for office buildings has risen 58%.
Taobao launched “What are you eating at home?” The list shows that snail powder tops the double top with absolute strength.
The snail powder reduces the attempt threshold by spreading heat, and has strong taste memory and addiction. Its popularity is similar to that of hot bars. In 2018, there were more than 60,000 snail noodles online stores on major platforms. Guangxi snail noodles sold more than 28.4 million pieces last year, defeating long-established local snacks such as cold grilled noodles, hot dried noodles, and noodles. Popular cuisine. In the ten years from 2010 to 2019, related orders for snail flour have soared by more than 9,230 times, occupying the forefront of “new urban specialty products”.
In the TOP10 brand of snail powder sales, Li Ziyu, Hao Huanluo, Dahuaxiang, and Helixuo will occupy half of the market share of the snail powder industry. At present, the sales of each product range from 200,000 to 1 million +, most of them are out of stock, and the flagship store is expected to ship to early May. The sharp increase in sales places higher requirements on production capacity, and brands with long-term accumulation in the supply chain are more likely to win.
Self-heating hot pot: self-heating, self-heating at home
The self-heating hot pot, as the name implies, does not open the fire and does not use electricity, just add cold water to cook the hot pot. Searching for the keywords “self-heating hot pot” or “convenient hot pot” on Taobao will bring up nearly 5,000 products with prices ranging from 20 to 50 yuan.
As an innovative category, self-heating hot pot has been escalating in popularity in recent years. During the Double Eleven in 2019, Zihe Guo sold 5 million barrels through 165 hours of live streaming, occupying the top spot in the category. Since Hipot, Mo Xiaoxian and other emerging brands have performed well, Haidilao XiaolongWell-known hot pot chain brands such as bumpy Dalongyu have also laid out one after another.
At the beginning of the birth of self-heating food, it was used as a “hard core”: the earliest foreign countries began to use it as part of field rations, mostly serving the army. In the past few years, the development of self-heating food in China has completed the three stages of the emergence of category sprouts and the outbreak:
The rise of self-heating foods is largely due to the popularity of self-heating hot pots. The research report of Guangfa Securities pointed out that the market scale of the self-heating hot pot industry will reach 5-15 billion yuan in the next 5-7 years, achieving a compound annual growth rate of 40% -60% in the rapid development stage of the industry, and the potential is still being released.
Objectively speaking, the epidemic has promoted the transformation of self-heating foods from online celebrities to daily consumer products. In the early days, the self-heating hot pot brand adopted the entertainment star, movie and TV drama comprehensive implantation, and the recommendation of Xiaohongshu to catch consumers’ exploration of new and exotic products. Category awareness. And when consumption habits are further developed, after going through the inevitable path from niche to inclusive, next, brands will enter the competition of production technology, supply chain stability, online and offline channel capabilities, and SKU expansion capabilities.
03 The future of convenient fast food
Needless to say, the epidemic has stimulated consumer demand for essential consumer goods in the short term. Is it sustainable in the long run? Where did the breakout road for fast food go? What are the trends? What are the characteristics of a brand worth optimistic? Here are our thoughts from an investment perspective.
Q1: The epidemic is over. Can fast food continue to ignite?
“During the epidemic, everyone was forced to stay at home, prompting more and more people to choose convenient fast food online. The fast food growing on the Internet e-commerce platform especially ushered in a centralized outbreak.” Cai Hongliang, founder of Zihe PotIt is believed that the market consumption logic still exists in the long run. In 2018, China’s catering industry has entered the 4 trillion mark. Among them, the young “lazy house” is experiencing great consumption potential. Chinese consumers who have experienced “consumption upgrades” and education on imported food have become more mature. The expansion and upgrading trend of the instant food market in recent years does not regard the short-term impact of the epidemic as a shift.
At the same time, Jiang Zhifeng, senior investment director of Huaying Capital, also mentioned, “The substitution of packaged foods for meals under the epidemic has accelerated the trend of catering retail, and more and more people are pursuing to achieve the taste and Quality: packaged food with strong upgrade attributes. ” New categories are filling some gaps in the restaurant industry in the past and lowering the barriers to education for consumers. For example, as mentioned above, the epidemic has promoted the transformation of self-heating foods from online celebrities to daily consumer products.
Q2: At what stage has the current convenience and fast food industry gone? What will happen in the future?
The instant fast food industry has transitioned from an incremental phase to a value enhancement phase, which has become the industry’s general view. For example, the high-end transformation of instant noodles in the past two years has effectively promoted the growth of segmented circuits and facilitated the recovery of the fast food market.
In the future, the fast-food market will continue to grow, and there will be a polarization trend: the mass market continues to pursue cost-effectiveness, and the high-end market places higher requirements on taste and quality; The boutique path of “paying a premium for a good life”. In the end, going from niche to inclusive is still the only way for most consumer brands. We are more optimistic about the categories with high ceilings and the potential to become national food.
Q3: What are the capabilities of instant food brands? What kind of brands are worth optimistic?
Cao Xia, director of Huaying Capital, said, “Huaying has the following selection criteria when laying out self-heating and convenient fast-food tracks: the market segment is large enough, SKUs are malleable; product differentiation, and focus on users Demand and quality improvement; the ability of founders and teams in product and channel. “For the convenience fast food brand, it needs to remain open to the iteration of market and consumer demand, and embrace changes in online traffic organization methods; meanwhile accumulate Stability advantages in the supply chain, logistics, and production.
In the past 18 years, the fastest-growing fast-food track is the fastest growing unit price products, which means that everyone is willing to pay better prices for better products. In addition, consumers increasingly value healthy ingredients and processes, and convenient fast food without additives will be favored. The trend of fast-food dinners / healthy and catering retailing trends deserves special attention.
Convenient fast food is undergoing horizontal expansion and vertical iteration of the category. The epidemic will further promote the new generation of fast food products such as snail powder and self-heating hot pot into the public’s visionEven consumer brands that target segments and categories, must continue to seek large-scale growth. The way out of convenience foods during the epidemic period is of great significance for its future development. We are optimistic about the growth of convenient fast food circuits for a long time, and we also look forward to more new and updated sub-categories.
[Reference]
During the Spring Festival and epidemic, the whole network of instant fast food is popular. Although the time is special, it is not accidental to return to the consumer’s view. We summarize the following boosting factors from the perspectives of crowd, scene, and marketing: