Under the influence of sporadic outbreaks, the performance of the whole consumer goods sector is not good, but prefabricated dishes seem to be an exception.

First, on the day of April 20, eight stocks such as Bubugao, Sanquan food, Huifa food, Haixin food and Yike food rose. Bubu gaogeng has gained a daily limit in the eight trading days since April 11, with a cumulative increase of more than 81%. On April 21, Anji food was the first to seal 5 connecting plates in the plate

In the face of the prefabricated dish, the "popular fried chicken" has also attracted "onlookers" from condiment enterprises such as golden dragon fish, Haitian, Hengshun and Zhongjing, and many condiment enterprises have entered the Bureau. Although in terms of industry attributes, prefabricated dishes and condiments belong to two tracks, they are extremely close in terms of category correlation.

Therefore, can condiment enterprises run smoothly when they enter the prefabricated vegetable track?

01

Condiments "stare" at prefabricated dishes

Since the outbreak, prefabricated vegetables have also stood on an unprecedented "tuyere".

According to the data of China food chain association, during the peak season of 2020, the sales of over 90% of food and beverage chain enterprises and the inventory of finished products will be suspended, which will ease the pressure brought by the Spring Festival.

In 2021, the sales volume of prefabricated vegetables increased by 16 times compared with that in 2020. Since the Spring Festival, the turnover of semi-finished vegetables with small packaging for 1-2 people increased by 3.5 times year-on-year. The local Chinese new year has boosted the sales of prefabricated vegetables. According to the data from the Ministry of Commerce, since the launch of the 2021 Online New Year's festival, the sales of rice products have increased by 96% year-on-year, of which semi-finished products have increased by more than 380%.

This excellent situation has also attracted many condiment enterprises to "smell the wind".

Golden Dragon Fish

On February 21, golden dragon fish released its financial report data, and its revenue exceeded the 200 billion mark for the first time. Recently, golden dragon fish officially began to expand the current hot prefabricated food track, and said that at present, golden dragon fish has 69 production bases in China, and plans to build Fengchu central kitchen Park in Hangzhou, Chongqing, Langfang, Xi'an and other places. Among them, Hangzhou Fengchu is in the stage of trial production. It is expected to launch the first batch of products in the second quarter of 2022. Fengchu central kitchen products will cover student meals, nutritious meals, bentos, prefabricated dishes, sauce Clean vegetables, flour products, etc.

Haitian flavor industry

On March 25, Haitian flavor industry held a 2021 annual performance conference. When investors asked, "does the company consider entering the market and expanding the company's product line in terms of prefabricated dishes?" Zhang Xin, Secretary of the board of directors of Haitian flavor industry, replied clearly: "this field has a high correlation with condiments, and the company is also actively investigating."

Hengshun vinegar industry

On April 6, Jiangsu Hengshun Vinegar Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hengshun vinegar industry") said on the interactive platform that with the development of "lazy house economy", prefabricated dishes have begun to rise. The company has actively developed and distributed the product series to provide consumers with more convenient and healthier products.

Zhongjing food

Zhu Xincheng, general manager of Zhongjing food, revealed in an interview with Dahe newspaper caicubic a few days ago: "At present, Zhongjing food's Prefabricated vegetable products rely on the local high-quality mushroom resources in Xixia County, Henan Province, and mainly focus on 'mushroom + family banquet dishes'. That is to say, among the eight dishes and two soups currently tested by Zhongjing food, each dish has more or less the component of mushroom or dried mushroom. At present, these products have been tried, but each dish needs to be refined and improved. I believe that with the completion of our freezing workshop, Zhongjing food's pre-processing capacity will be improved You can meet consumers when you make vegetables. "

Chuanwazi

On March 18, chuanwazi food revealed from the media that based on its development advantages in the field of composite seasoning, it will actively explore the track of prefabricated vegetables, and has developed a series of characteristic products such as small crisp meat, boiled chicken soup, boiled fish fillet, maoxuewang and steamed meat.

Xinyaxuan

Although on the publicly displayed information platform, xinyaxuan did not explicitly release news and declared to enter the field of prefabricated dishes, the product center of the enterprise's official website has already quietly launched the category of "prefabricated dishes series".

According to incomplete statistics of seasoner, there were 23 investment and financing events in the prefabricated vegetable industry in 2021, with a financing amount of more than 5 billion yuan. On April 27, 2021, weizhixiang landed in the capital market and was the first semi-finished vegetable listed company in a shares. Prefabricated vegetable start-up enterprises such as Zhenwei xiaomeiyuan, wangjiadu food, three meals with materials and fun lion have also obtained financing one after another. Fresh giants such as daily excellent fresh food, dingdong buy vegetables, HEMA and meituan have led the prefabricated vegetable track one after another. Jia Guolong, the chairman of Xibei, a catering background, announced that he plans to invest 2 billion yuan in prefabricated vegetables. Lu Zhengyao, the founder of Ruixing coffee, also tried to enter the catering industry again through the "tongue tip workshop". According to the data of tianyancha app: in 2020, the new registration volume of prefabricated vegetable enterprises reached the highest in 10 years, with 13300 in the whole year. In 2021, the total number of prefabricated vegetable enterprises in the industry was 89700.

In addition, in the field of condiments only, many enterprises are eager to try in the field of prefabricated dishes, and relevant products may appear in your vision soon.

02

Condiment enterprises in the prefabricated vegetable track

What are the advantages and disadvantages?

"If a worker wants to do well, he must sharpen his tools first." Condiment enterprises should first see their own advantages and disadvantages before entering the field of prefabricated vegetables.

According to the broad understanding, due to the different degree of processing and distribution, prefabricated dishes can be divided into instant food, instant cooked food, instant hot food and instant food. According to the understanding of the general public, it can be generally summarized as "ingredients + seasoning bag = dishes".

Obviously, the advantage of condiment enterprises lies in seasoning bags, not ingredients.

For this reason, some people in the industry told seasoner: "I understand that part of the prefabricated dishes are semi-finished products, vegetables, meat and other ingredients + seasoning bags. Condiment enterprises can make a seasoning bag at most, which can't be counted? So we understand that it should be different. Condiment enterprises enter the prefabricated dishes, which is to cater to and support the development of prefabricated dishes and make composite seasoning bags at most."

Indeed, prefabricated dishes and condiments, especially basic condiments, have different requirements for ingredients, form, taste type and other dimensions between different dishes. Both consumption scenarios and channels vary. Just like Chinese compound condiments, although they all belong to one category, there is no single segment that performs better than pickled cabbage and fish seasoning.

In other words, prefabricated dishes are not a field to win with large single products, which is what condiment enterprises are not good at. As we all know, at present, most of the mainstream condiments in China are good at large single products, such as Haitian straw mushroom soy sauce, Qianhe 180 day 0 add soy sauce, Laoganma's Douchi sauce, Zhongjing's mushroom sauce, Fuling mustard 180g lower food... In the face of consumers' demand for shredded prefabricated dishes, it has a high test for the flexibility of enterprises at the product level.

Moreover, from the perspective of supply chain, the circulation demand of condiment enterprises for prefabricated vegetables may not be able to meet. For example, for some prefabricated dishes, the whole process cold chain is required, and most domestic condiments do not have this gene.

Although from the perspective of consumption channels, whether prefabricated dishes are to B or to C, condiment enterprises have certain advantages, whether this advantage can be applied to the field of prefabricated dishes remains to be tested.

For example, the catering or group meal market represented by end B provides great development potential for prefabricated dishes under the background of accelerating the chain process, but we should also see that these catering enterprises will build their own central kitchen if they have the ability, and those with slightly poor ability will choose standardized customization. Catering users with weak ability either pursue the limit of cost control, or the volume is not enough to support the enterprise to provide special services, That is to say, the input-output ratio may not meet the enterprise's expectations.

Besides the circulation market, although condiment enterprises take traditional channels such as Ka and farmers' trade as the main sales channels, Ka is suitable for the circulation of prefabricated vegetables. Moreover, in such a large Ka store, the frequency and probability of consumers choosing prefabricated vegetables are not very high, while more traditional channels such as traditional farmers' trade are obviously not suitable for prefabricated vegetables.

From the consumer side, in addition to the b-end users, the main consumer groups of prefabricated dishes are still concentrated in the first and second tier cities, mainly the elite people with fast-paced life, but these people are also "the most difficult to serve". It is still too early for enterprises to meet their expectations for prefabricated dishes. At present, the mainstream condiment brands have already had a profound brand awareness in the hearts of consumers. For example, when it comes to Haitian, they think of soy sauce and soybean sauce, and when it comes to Fuling pickled mustard... Suddenly one day, there is a Haitian prefabricated dish. How likely is it that consumers can accept it from the cognitive level? Even if it is operated by independent brands, it is necessary to compete with traditional prefabricated vegetable brands, which is bound to further increase the difficulty.

Although, according to statista data, China's per capita consumption of prefabricated vegetables increased from 5.4kg in 2013 to 8.9kg in 2021, showing an overall upward trend, there is still a large gap in more mature markets, and there is still a large room for growth in the scale of China's Prefabricated vegetable industry. However, according to the satisfaction survey of 13069 reports on the consumption experience of prefabricated vegetables by Jiangsu Consumer Protection Commission, the satisfaction is only 34.36%.

It can be seen that even if the prefabricated dishes stand on the "tuyere", there is still a long way to go from the real market dividend.

03

Brand strategy drives development

Enterprises need to grasp four elements

Is there a chance for condiment enterprises to enter prefabricated dishes? The answer is yes.

According to the report on the development of China's Prefabricated vegetable industry from 2021 to 2022, the scale of China's Prefabricated vegetable market will exceed 300 billion yuan in 2021. It is estimated that by 2025, it will exceed 830 billion yuan. China's Prefabricated vegetable industry is expected to become the next trillion catering market in the next three to five years. In addition, referring to Japan, which has a higher penetration rate, the penetration rate of prefabricated vegetables in the local area has been close to 60%. Among them, the market share of Top1 daily cooling company is as high as 20% - 24%. The penetration rate of domestic prefabricated dishes is only 10% ~ 15%, and has not yet formed a dominant market pattern, with significant development potential in the future.

From the perspective of industry dynamics, on April 16, the first national public welfare self-discipline organization of prefabricated vegetable industry - China prefabricated vegetable industry alliance was officially established, which further promoted the field of prefabricated vegetables from behind the scenes to in front of the stage.

How can condiment enterprises seize the new outlet of prefabricated dishes?

① Enterprise positioning should be clear.

Enterprises should establish a clear positioning of prefabricated vegetable products, such as what kind of cuisine does the enterprise's Prefabricated vegetable products belong to? How to develop? Do you want to be a big single product or a series of combined products? If you want to make a product matrix, how to expand it? What are the characteristics different from other competitive products? Is the product pricing high-grade or medium and low-grade? What is the position in the market? What is the status in the hearts of users?

Only enterprises with clear goals and clear positioning can seize the minds of users through continuous market education and become a representative brand in the golden track of prefabricated dishes. In this regard, as far as the condiment enterprises entering prefabricated vegetables are concerned, they are mostly on a whim and rarely take the initiative to seek change in industrial transformation. Adjunct professor of Zhongnan University of economics and law Financial commentator Tan Haojun more clearly pointed out: "for enterprises, the success of prefabricated dishes depends on the influence of brands and products, or is driven by a large amount of capital. The number of capital is not suitable for Hengshun vinegar industry, it can only rely on the brand effect. There will be some hope to expand and strengthen the main business, form a huge influence, market reputation and brand awareness, and then layout prefabricated dishes."

② Brand culture should have temperature.

Only through the establishment and output of the enterprise's own brand culture and the continuous construction of user interaction experience, can we really establish an emotional connection with users and let each other feel the temperature of the brand. When condiment enterprises make prefabricated dishes, in terms of the output of brand culture, the most important thing is to find a way to get rid of the impression of industry tradition, enterprise boredom and lack of market action that have always been formed for b-end and C-end users. It seems that condiment enterprises often have an interaction with users only at the moment of cash and cash, payment and purchase, and other times are very quiet.

In this regard, a Chongqing condiment enterprise has its own tricks. For the b-end, they organize dealers to "meet friends in Mahjong" every week. Everyone sits together on Tuesday night to play cards, drink tea, make small bets, and deal with some business matters in a relaxed state of leisure and entertainment. For the C-end, they also began to put a large number of advertisements on the subway of Chengdu line 1, see the brand culture in subtle places, and win with no moves.

③ Market breakthrough needs systematic support.

Different from traditional condiments, only by changing the marketing channels dominated by b-end or C-end and realizing the simultaneous development of BC and double drive, can prefabricated dishes develop diversified marketing channels. At present, the demand for prefabricated dishes is not pure b-end or C-end, but also BC integration, and each has its own needs.

From the perspective of b-end, in order to achieve standards, stability and improve business efficiency, according to the data of China chain operation association, more than 60% of hotels are prefabricated dishes, 70% of restaurants holding wedding and birthday banquets are prefabricated dishes, the proportion of prefabricated dishes used by head chain catering enterprises is higher, and the proportion of prefabricated dishes used by enterprises such as Zhengongfu, Yoshinoya, Xibei and Xiaonanguo accounts for more than 80%. However, since the logic of using condiments at the b-end of catering is "extreme cost performance", it will also lead to the embarrassing situation that condiment catering customization enterprises who want to make efforts to prepare dishes through the b-end have to face the difficulty of taking into account "low cost, high efficiency and good experience". In addition, which restaurant chain is willing to publicize that "our delicious food is not the skill of a chef, but the awesome of a condiment"?

From the C-end, the data of the seventh national census shows that China's average household population in 2020 is 2.62, which has long fallen below the family of three. How do 90 million people living alone cook? It takes time, effort, money and materials. The comprehensive time cost and money cost are very high, which is also one of the reasons for the rise of takeout and prefabricated dishes. However, this does not mean that lazy people who pay attention to "love and food should not be betrayed" will accept prefabricated dishes of takeout quality. On a food platform, the prefabricated dish on the tip of the tongue and the prefabricated dish Gongbao chicken diced for 9.9 yuan are only sold for one order in half a year. When making prefabricated dishes, condiment enterprises should try their best to avoid bad Market Association for C-end users: that is, the "master prefabricated dishes" purchased by consumers are actually "frozen food mixes".

④ Marketing methods should be diversified.

In today's fragmented era, condiment enterprises can really seize the minds of emerging user groups and potential users only by getting rid of the traditional "channel is king" single marketing method and through online and offline joint interaction. It is difficult to accurately capture the personalized and diversified consumption needs of young people and achieve a win-win situation in marketing only through traditional media advertising such as TV, subway, highway billboard and subway station broadcasting, and marketing through the promotion of common products such as buying gifts, discounts and tasting, without paying attention to the emerging new media marketing such as live broadcast and short video.

04

Industrial supply chain determines success or failure

Two hard indicators are indispensable

The most important thing for making prefabricated dishes is a complete industrial supply chain. Supply chain is the key indicator of the success or failure of enterprises in making prefabricated vegetables. To judge whether an enterprise has a relatively complete industrial supply chain, the key depends on two indicators: one is technology and the other is channel.

① Supply chain technical indicators.

Although the industry's expectation of prefabricated dishes is a trillion level track, high return means strong competition. How high the admission threshold of prefabricated dishes is may not be a small step forward, which is a big step for the category, as envisaged by some condiment enterprises. After all, whether condiment enterprises meet the requirements of hard indicators such as product R & D technology, batch production technology, cold chain technology, low-temperature preservation technology and information logistics and distribution technology necessary for prefabricated dishes, even Hengshun vinegar industry, which is similar to "the first share of vinegar", may not be clear.

Not long ago, Hengshun vinegar industry just experienced the embarrassment of the failure of diversified investment in real estate, construction and installation in 2021. In particular, the net profits of Hengshun mall in 2020 and 2021 lost 1.15 million yuan and 14.15 million yuan respectively, plus the blood exchange of Hengshun senior management in 2021. Therefore, on April 6, when Hengshun revealed that it was going to make prefabricated dishes, although Hengshun's share price rose in response to the news, However, some insiders consulted by "seasoner" are not optimistic about Hengshun vinegar industry, which just got rid of real estate and quickly pasted prefabricated vegetables.

"In addition to vinegar, Hengshun has not established a complete industrial chain of condiments such as soy sauce and oyster sauce. Compared with Haitian flavor industry, which also wants to make prefabricated dishes, I think Hengshun has a low success rate in terms of brand effect, scale effect and industrial chain integrity. To put it bluntly, Hengshun either only sees the outlet of prefabricated dishes, does not see its own shortcomings, or its main business growth is weak and forced to transform. As for him It's a mystery how much money we can put into it. "

② Supply chain channel indicators.

At present, on the whole, most condiment enterprises making prefabricated dishes do not have the channel construction ability of national promotion, and have not established a brand reputation at the b-end, especially at the C-end.

The only corresponding Haitian flavor industry that seems to have the most potential is also a hindsight. Although the solid downstream channels and reputation are the strong advantages of Haitian prefabricated dishes, even the "Weimao" Haitian still has a huge weakness from the perspective of the supply chain channel indicators of the prefabricated dishes industry.

From the perspective of the supply of basic fresh raw materials in the upstream, Haitian has a very limited layout in fresh and agricultural and sideline crops. In this regard, the "Youmao" Golden Arowana, which has long been aiming at the condiment market and constantly taking offensive, has an obvious advantage in the production of prefabricated vegetables by virtue of its original b-end channel layout, raw material price control ability, cold chain logistics advantages and large-scale production capacity of national layout.

From the perspective of quick-frozen food enterprises in the midstream, there is a huge gap in operating capacity between condiment enterprises and enterprises or platforms such as weizhixiang, Tongjian workshop, meituan, etc., which were originally born in the emerging track. Even the catering customized condiment enterprises or dealers, which mainly focus on b-end catering customers, have only two ways to enter the field of prefabricated dishes, either as their own enterprises or as agent distribution. Neither way can be comparable to the competitors who can easily cross the border and have the ability of high-speed circulation.

You have to know that the shelf life of prefabricated vegetables is much shorter than that of condiments. For condiment enterprises or dealers who are not good at moving sales and use slow sales as FMCG, the long-term circulation of optical channel ports is enough to make the vegetables prefabricated by condiment enterprises turn into overnight rancid dishes in an instant, regardless of the huge investment in capital and resources.

From the downstream catering end and circulation end, the channel sales scene of condiment enterprises or dealers does not have the gene of prefabricated vegetable sales at all. The prefabricated dishes at the catering end are made by themselves. Who needs to collect them from the condiment enterprises? Circulation end users, who will buy prefabricated vegetables in the farmers' market? Who will buy prefabricated vegetables at convenience stores? Even if the KA sales scene of prefabricated dishes has existed for many years, it is also the responsibility of the store. Who will divide a special area to make prefabricated dishes for condiment enterprises or dealers?

To sum up, for the hot prefabricated dishes at present, "seasoner" believes that among condiment enterprises, Haitian, which still occupies a huge advantage, can see the aftereffect, and other enterprises may not be able to do as they want. As for whether the dealer will accept the prefabricated dishes, if there is still room for tickets in 2022, you can have a try.