had the capital to start creating so-called high-end ice cream, trying to further amplify the profits from this small ice cream.
Text | Wang Zhongyun
Summer is hot, and it’s the season of eating ice cream again. But in recent years, many friends have discovered that after eating ice cream, not only does it taste cold, but the price is also getting increasingly outrageous.
This summer, someone even invented a new word on the Internet for this purpose - "ice cream assassin". Many netizens exclaimed after reading it, "This is too real, just like me."
In the past, a summer without eating ice cream was incomplete; now, a summer without being hurt by an "ice cream assassin" is also incomplete. complete.
Who is the "Ice Cream Assassin"?
The first thing to explain is that "ice cream assassin" does not refer to a single person, it refers to a type of ice cream. These ice creams are unremarkable in appearance, lying quietly in the convenience store freezer in midsummer, and then secretly amaze everyone when innocent humans check out.
You can also understand it as a phenomenon: ice cream is becoming more and more diverse and more and more expensive.
For example, this ice cream that looks square is actually priced at 160 yuan...
A few days ago, an Internet celebrity cried bitterly while holding the same ice cream, which was unforgettable. At that time, she said that she just bought a new flavor of ice cream and planned to share it with her boyfriend. However, because the price was too expensive, she was so shocked that her hands shook and she shed tears.
The next day, "Woman spent 160 yuan to buy ice cream, broke down and cried when she got home" was on the hot search list. If there is anything that is not sad, it may be that it has gained a wave of popularity because of this incident.
Although this form of crying and crying may seem a bit exaggerated to many people, some "ice cream assassins" have really hurt the hearts of many people. If you don’t believe it, take a look at these sky-high price ice creams:
Picture source: Netizen “Fire Dance God of the Wind”
After the “Ice Cream Assassin”, there are also the “Ice Cream Man” and “Ice Cream Bodhisattva”.
The former refers to bloggers who post videos and posts on the Internet to educate netizens on how to distinguish between high-priced ice cream and cheap ice cream, or some jokers who turn into convenience store clerks.
As for Ice Cream Bodhisattva, it is the antonym of Ice Cream Assassin. For example, some ice creams that look like internet celebrities only sell for two yuan.
Finally, here is a valuable piece of life advice: Don’t grab ice cream you’ve never seen before!
Why is ice cream becoming more and more expensive?
Enough of the "ice cream assassin" jokes, let's seriously discuss: Why is ice cream becoming more and more expensive, so that "ice cream assassins" appear?
Some people will say that it is nothing more than good raw materials, expensive air technology, and high logistics costs. For example, the Italian Statistics Institute stated that due to the impact of the international environment, the price of sugar has increased by 6%, the price of milk has increased by 7%, and the price of eggs has increased by 9%. In the past two years, Korean ice cream brands have also repeatedly raised prices. Ice cream prices in the United States have also shown an upward trend in the past decade.
In addition to the increase in raw material prices, the transportation cost of ice cream also accounts for a relatively high proportion. Zhong Xuegao previously revealed that the ice cream cold chain cost accounted for 46%, much higher than the industry average of 32%. In addition, compared with ordinary logistics, the cost of cold chain transportation is 40% to 60% higher. These costs will eventually be allocated to terminal retail, and price increases are naturally inevitable.
But if you think about it, these reasons apply to other areas of the food industry as well. So we can’t ignore one point: the profits of ice cream are really high.
Industry insiders said that ice cream was once a market monopolized by "giants", with Mengniu , Yili , Nestlé , and Luxue leading the market share.
The "China Ice Cream/Ice Cream Industry Trend Report" released by the Green Agriculture and Food Nutrition Professional Committee of the China Green Food Association in conjunction with multiple organizations shows that in 2021, the Chinese ice cream market will still be dominated by traditional giants such as Yili, Heluxue, and Mengniu. , market shares are 19%, 15%, and 9% respectively.
These companies, which are famous for their milk, actually rely heavily on cold drinks to make profits. Taking Yili as an example, Yili's cold drink business revenue in 2021 was 7.161 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.28%; the gross profit margins of its cold drink business from 2019 to 2021 were 46.51%, 48.66%, and 40.27% respectively, exceeding liquid milk and milk powder. Other business. Seeing how profitable it was,
had the capital to start creating so-called high-end ice cream, trying to further amplify the profits from this small ice cream.
Data from the Forward-looking Industry Research Institute shows that from 2015 to 2021, the market size of the ice cream and ice cream industry increased from less than 90 billion yuan to 160 billion yuan, with a cumulative increase of more than 90% in six years.
In the past, when people talked about high-end ice cream, it was easy to think of old brands such as Haagen-Dazs . But in recent years, popular ice cream brands such as Zhong Xuegao, Baxi , and Zhongjie have gradually become “ice cream upstarts.” Not only are they new, they're also really not cheap.
Zhong Xuegao was founded in March 2018. It targeted the high-end ice cream market from the beginning. The six products it released early were all priced at more than 10 yuan. The Ecuador Pink Diamond ice cream launched in the same year was priced at 66 yuan and successfully became the "Hermès" in the ice cream industry. Because of its high price, it has been on the hot searches.
Relevant data shows that after Zhong Xuegao founded it, it only took 16 months to achieve revenue of 100 million yuan. In the 2020 "Double 11", it defeated Haagen-Dazs in one fell swoop and became the number one salesperson in Tmall's ice category at that time. Its latest battle report shows that three hours before the opening of 618 this year, its Tmall flagship store exceeded 10 million in sales, ranking first in the ice cream category.
In addition, the entry of some cross-border giants has further disturbed the ice cream market.
In May of this year, Moutai’s first ice cream shop officially opened in the lobby of Zunyi Moutai International Hotel. More than 1,000 ice cream parlors were sold on the first day of opening. On May 29, the new Moutai ice cream jointly produced by Moutai and Mengniu was officially launched. These Maotai ice creams are available in three flavors: green plum boiled wine, classic original flavor and vanilla. The prices per serving are 59, 66 and 66 yuan respectively.
According to Moutai official data, the Guiyang Moutai Ice Cream Flagship Store has been on sale for 7 hours, with sales exceeding 200,000 yuan, and the number of sales exceeding 900. A total of more than 5,000 Moutai ice creams have been sold, with an average reception of 2 people per minute, almost reaching full capacity. .
Recently, the "Vinegar King" Hengshun Vinegar Industry has also followed the trend and launched three cultural and creative ice creams with flavors of soy sauce cheese, balsamic vinegar and rice wine. The prices are not cheap, each priced at 18 yuan.
According to statistics from " Titanium Media ", in the past two years, only 13 mainstream ice cream brands have had at least 34 "cross-border" co-brandings. Among them, Haagen-Dazs, Guangming, and Deshi are the well-deserved "cross-border kings", with a total of at least 5 "cross-border" cooperations. Followed by Yili, Heluxue, Mengniu, Northeast Daban , three times each.
Affordable ice cream advocates were suffocated when they saw this, "Don't you think it's not good for you to sell liquor well? Do you think the ice cream is not 'rolly' enough?"
No matter whether people want to be more "rolly" or just have a blog A gimmick to better sell alcohol, but that’s how people get into it.
This reminds me that China Post and Beijing Tongrentang also started selling coffee two years ago. It seems that these days, if you don’t cross the border, you will be embarrassed to say that you have the potential to be a century-old store.
However, some latest signs indicate that the "Ice Cream Assassin" may soon disappear.Starting yesterday (July 1), the "Regulations on Clearly Marked Prices and Prohibition of Price Fraud" issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation came into effect. It stipulates: Operators shall clearly mark prices in a conspicuous manner and clearly indicate the goods or services corresponding to the prices.
No matter whether the "ice cream assassin" will disappear in the future, the days when little pudding and Wangwang crushed ice can satisfy people are gone. You are still missing the delicious and cheap little puddings of your childhood, but he has already sold Maotai ice cream for dozens of yuan each. Everyone has a bright future.
Information reference: Securities Times , 1 Century Economic Report , People's Daily
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