"First" is also the goal of Dai, the founder of Chenxi stew. It's just that the track he chose has become a takeaway market in the Red Sea.
Blue Ocean Opportunity in Takeaway Field
Chenxi stew is not a traditional catering brand. It has no restaurant and is served by the central kitchen. It only does online take-away business.
At present, the competition in the field of take-away is in full swing. According to the data of Trustdata, a big data monitoring platform of mobile Internet, the market turnover of China's take-away industry reached 603.5 billion yuan in 20 19, up by 3 1% year-on-year. Moreover, the proportion of the transaction volume of the take-away industry in the national catering revenue has increased year by year. By the end of 20 19, the market penetration rate of take-away industry in China reached 13%, which was 2.2 percentage points higher than that at the end of 20 18.
Dai does not deny the fierce competition faced by this industry, but he points out that the position of "the first brand of takeaway" is still vacant. "Western food can think of KFC, Shanghai can think of Xiaonanguo, and Nanjing can think of food stalls. If you just talk about takeaway, can you think of a takeaway brand? " In Dai's view, no catering enterprise in China can become a national brand.
These are the opportunities of dawn, and the goal of dawn stew is to build "the first take-away brand in China".
First, Dai summed up three "degrees": dining speed, dining temperature and the beauty of food packaging design. In fact, these three "degrees" all point to the biggest headache for Chinese food practitioners: standardization. As we all know, Chinese food is the most difficult category to standardize. However, in Dai's view, standardization is not a problem if the most difficult part is laid well from the beginning. The "foundation" in Dai's eyes is to attach importance to the construction of background and supply chain.
Different from the previous practice of catering enterprises, Chenxi stew will make great efforts in the background process and supply chain construction. In 20 18, Chenxi stews invested 654.38+300 million to build a digital intelligent production workshop. According to reports, the soup produced by this factory involves 14 processes, all of which are completed by automated machines, with an annual output value of more than 20,000 tons. Dai said that under normal circumstances, a factory of this size needs more than 200 employees, while relying on the current automation machines, the factory only needs 60 people.
In fact, for Chenxi stew, the most difficult thing is not the input of machines, but the integration of various automated processes. It is difficult to standardize Chinese food, and it is even more difficult to cook soup. For example, the integration of cooking, adding water, raw material ratio, nutrition collocation and other processes is even more complicated. Dai Chenyi pointed out that relying on R&D equipment and supply chain system, Chenxi stew can be served quickly, ensuring speed and temperature, and at the same time, efforts are made in product design, and the container is exquisite and beautiful.
To some extent, standardization determines the birth of leading enterprises. The in-depth report of China Merchants Securities' catering industry pointed out that the domestic catering market is scattered and the industry concentration is low. The data shows that the total business volume of the top 100 restaurants in 20 19 only accounted for 7% of the industry. In terms of breakdown, the concentration of western-style fast food and freshly ground coffee industries is relatively high, reaching 53.3% and 74.9% respectively. Industries with a high degree of standardization are more concentrated and it is easier to produce leading enterprises.
This is similar to Dai's view. He further pointed out that enterprises that take the lead in nationalization or even internationalization must be catering enterprises with high degree of automation and standardization.
Takeaway doesn't mean unhealthy.
Affected by the epidemic this year, catering enterprises have shown different development characteristics: take-away and meal preparation have become hot spots. From the news in the first half of the year, five-star hotels opened takeaways, and the popularity of self-heating hot pots can be seen. And the catering demand of consumers has also shown new changes. Dai saw three key words: pay more attention to safety, health preservation and sense of ceremony.
The change of market demand puts forward new requirements for catering enterprises. In fact, many catering enterprises have begun to take root in the take-away market, and the take-away market in China will become a Red Sea market. In the past, take-away food left an "unhealthy" impression on consumers, and the data can also explain some problems.
Dai said that a few years ago, the unit price of take-away customers was around 10- 15 yuan, but even now, the average unit price of 35 yuan -40 yuan displayed by the data is not true, because the statistical caliber of the platform is the price before the full reduction and the use of red envelopes.
From a more detailed point of view, 35 yuan's customer unit price is not the real per capita take-away consumption level. According to the big data analysis of Chenxi stew itself, Dai found that each order of 100 yuan actually corresponds to about 2.5 diners, that is, the per capita consumption is around 40 yuan. According to the statistics of the platform, the unit price of 35-40 yuan customers is 2.5 person-times, and the per capita take-out cost should actually be 14 yuan-16 yuan.
Low prices are bound to be accompanied by a decline in quality. In fact, both Japanese and American take-away food prices are higher than in-store food, while China is the opposite. A large part of the reason here lies in the subsidy of the platform, which gives customers the illusion that take-out should be cheaper than internal meals. In Dai's view, the take-out with high unit price is the way to break the ice for China take-out.
This conclusion still comes from a new product-Xiaojin Bowl, which was introduced by Chenxi stew during the epidemic. During the epidemic in March, prefabricated dishes and fast-food dishes became popular. Combined with its own supply chain, the company produced the Xiaojin Bowl series of Chenxi instant dishes in less than a week, including Buddha jumping wall, abalone, fish glue, flower glue and other categories, and achieved a sales performance of 6,543,800,000 in six hours. From March, 2065438 to March, 2008, the first take-out shop opened in Shanghai. Up to now, there are more than 500 stores in China. The daily average order volume of Chenxi stew shop is 103, and the customer unit price is 105 yuan. According to the data of Ai Media, the average unit price of 20 18 take-out is around 40 yuan.
On the other hand, Xiaojin Bowl convenience dishes let Chenxi see the blue ocean market of "eating at home". In fact, Chenxi's standardized products can include three scenes of "eating": at home, in the store and take-away. No matter what kind of scene, you can eat more quality things at a more reasonable price, which also echoes Dai's understanding of "dining ceremony". On the other hand, Chenxi stew also tries to convey a new concept of life in this way-takeaway is unhealthy.
Not only that, in addition to facing the C-end, Chenxi is also carrying out standardized operation on the B-end based on its own technology. It is reported that the products on the dining table of the catering brand Xiaonanguo are provided by Chenxi. In addition, in September this year, Phoenix's e-commerce brand "Royal Shangpin" launched a series of self-heating rice products, which is also a cooperation with Chenxi stew.
Dai said that at present, among the total food consumption in China, prepared food accounts for 10%, while in Japan it is as high as 60%. Because the demand for high-quality food at home can be well met, the 2C business of prepared dishes will gradually grow. However, the pre-cooked food 2C business has very high requirements for catering enterprises, mainly in the requirements of R&D and supply chain system, which has also contributed to the cooperation between Chenxi and related catering brands to some extent.
Dai compared take-out to the "air force", that is, although the supply chain in the early stage of take-out requires large-scale investment, it will be easier to replicate when it seizes new markets and expands the layout of stores. The relevant research report of China Merchants Securities pointed out that the catering pattern is scattered, and the degree of track standard subdivision determines the concentration. With the improvement of the chain rate of supply-side restaurants and the optimization of operating efficiency and scale, the industry is expected to produce large-scale catering enterprises.
At present, Barbie food has landed in the capital market, Wufangzhai, which is famous for Zongzi, is also sprinting for IPO, and the battle between standardization and chain of Chinese food is also intensifying.