"I have never taken you to see the white snow in the Changbai Mountains, and I have not taken you to feel the breeze blowing in the fields in October, but my dear, I can let you taste this kind of rice." He has been capricious in the past few years. The epidemic has made it difficult for people to travel across provinces. Tasting authentic and authentic ethnic cuisine has become an outlet for people to relieve their homesickness and let their spirits fly. Some ethnic catering has gradually spread across the country.
In this issue, we will follow Chenzhi Catering Big Data Research Center's latest release of the "2022 Chinese Ethnic Catering Big Data Analysis Report" (leave a comment to get the full report) , let's take a look at the latest data and development trends of ethnic catering.
1
National catering market scale
In March 2022, the epidemic broke out in Shanghai, and the catering industry fell into a cold winter again. According to National Bureau of Statistics , catering revenue from January to May 2022 was 1,627.4 billion yuan, a decrease of 8.4% compared to the end of 2021. It is expected that catering revenue in 2022 may fall below 4.5 trillion yuan. Due to the epidemic, many places have stopped dine-in dining, and the wave of store closures has spread to all tier cities. However, the decline in store size in lower-tier cities is significantly lower than that in first- and second-tier cities, showing more tenacious vitality. In the long run, the sinking market has a broader space to be developed and relatively good stability, and has become a new opportunity for the future development of the catering industry.
Data source: National Bureau of Statistics
As of Q1 2022, there are 175,000 ethnic specialty catering stores across the country, accounting for 2.2% of the overall catering scale. Ethnic specialty catering stores are mainly distributed in East China, North China and Northwest China; in terms of specific provinces, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Guangdong and Henan have the most stores.
Data source: Chenzhi Catering Database
Although the epidemic has also had a certain impact on ethnic catering, because its stores are mainly concentrated in fourth- and fifth-tier cities, ethnic catering has shown stronger anti-cyclical characteristics during the epidemic. ; It even penetrated slowly from west to east, showing growth against the trend in East China.
Note: The sinking market is third-tier and below cities
2
Advantages of the development of ethnic catering
In 2021, the profitability of China's top 50 ethnic catering companies performed well, with an average profit margin of 15.3%. is significantly better than the 6.3% profit of the top 100 restaurants in the country Rate.
Note: Calculated based on the effective data of 49 companies,
What are the advantages of ethnic catering and is it worthy of reference by the majority of catering colleagues?
. Single product and segmentation help ethnic catering to quickly gain popularity
A bowl of Lanzhou ramen has made halal restaurants bloom everywhere, and a dish of snail noodles brings people into Guangxi. There are many dishes with unique flavors in ethnic catering, which have the potential to become popular The potential of new products; if catering companies can create a hit product, it will also be possible to define or open up a new segmented track.
For example, Xinjiang catering is a major pillar of ethnic catering. Xinjiang’s superior geographical location and sufficient sunshine conditions have given birth to sweet fruits, mellow milk and bright red peppers, providing high-quality raw materials for catering.
Hua Xiaoxiao, a sub-brand founded by Siyouyoun, which is deeply involved in the rice noodle category, is focused on the segment of Xinjiang fried rice noodles . It has long recognized the important position of pepper in Xinjiang fried rice noodles. For this reason A complete supply system for Xinjiang peppers from planting, procurement to processing has been established, allowing consumers to never forget the taste.
. Cultural confidence promotes the rise of the new national trend and gives national catering a stronger appeal.
From Chenzhi’s insight into consumers, we found that the main consumer force in the catering market is tilting from the post-80s generation to the post-90s generation, and the consumption behavior of the post-90s & 95s generation is more individualized. culture, and their love for traditional culture makes them consciously choose Chinese brands when consuming.
Ethnic characteristic catering can introduce ethnic characteristic culture in brand promotion or facade decoration, so that diners can enjoy delicious food in an environment full of ethnic cultural charm and bring a better experience to consumers.
Miao cultural characteristics Yunnan ethnic cultural characteristics
. Multi-format, diversified brand development strategy
Among the top 50 ethnic catering companies in 2021, the most companies operate restaurants and restaurants, but restaurants and restaurants are highly dependent on dine-in. Considering the epidemic, This unstable factor makes it very risky to expand to other provinces or develop national chains. Many powerful ethnic catering companies are also trying to develop multiple formats and diversified brands.
Data source: China Cuisine Association
Like Ziguangyuan, a time-honored halal restaurant, it actively explored transformation in the face of the epidemic and opened 70 community stores within half a year. From the stall model, it slowly derived pure stall stores, stalls + noodle restaurants, There are five modes of stalls + fast food, stalls + breakfast + dinner, and e-commerce. The business hours of are from morning to midnight, conveying the brand concept of "people-friendly, convenient and benefiting the people".
3
Analysis of problems in ethnic catering
. Except for halal catering, the degree of chaining of other ethnic catering is generally low
Thanks to the nationwide popularity of Lanzhou Ramen stores, the degree of halal catering chain is very high; ethnic catering enterprises have obvious regional concentration Characteristics, for example, Xinjiang catering stores are mainly concentrated in Xinjiang and Henan, Mongolian catering stores are mainly concentrated in Inner Mongolia, Zhuang catering stores are mainly concentrated in Guangdong and Guangxi , Dai catering stores are mainly concentrated in Yunnan.
Among the top 50 ethnic catering companies in China in 2021, more than 70% of them have less than 50 outlets, and nearly half of them have 10 or less outlets. And more companies that are not on the list may still be operating quietly in the traditional mom-and-pop shop model.
Compared with rapid store expansion, ethnic catering companies pay more attention to the creation of high-quality brands. However, the current proportion of domestic chain stores with a scale of more than 10,000 stores has increased from 0.7% in 2018 to 3.7% in 2022Q1. my country's catering chainization has become an inevitable trend. With the increasingly frequent population movement, ethnic catering companies are also going nationwide. Welcome new opportunities.
Note: The chain standard is that the number of brand stores nationwide is >5, and there are at least 2 stores in a certain city. Because chains are judged based on store names, there are large category stores (such as Lanzhou Ramen, etc.) and other stores with the same name but not brands, so the chain rate may be higher than the actual level.
. It is difficult to create product differentiation
As ethnic catering companies gradually attach importance to brand building, ethnic catering is also developing in the direction of branding, chaining, and scale. The drive of capital has also accelerated the pace of brand store expansion nationwide. .
Take the Lanzhou Ramen circuit as an example. According to Chenzhi statistics, there are nearly 38,000 restaurants with the name "Lanzhou Ramen" nationwide. There are also many excellent brands of Lanzhou Ramen, such as Chen Xianggui, Ma Remember Yonghe Zhang Lala and other catering brands that have completed multiple rounds of financing.They were able to expand rapidly with the support of capital and rapidly expand the chain scale in a short period of time. However, the major items of the three companies are highly similar: Lanzhou beef noodles , grilled mutton skewers and milk and egg fermented glutinous rice . The prices and tastes are also the same. Very close.
Compared with rapid expansion, ethnic catering companies must first strengthen their product capabilities, pay attention to product research and development, put the deliciousness of their products first, and at the same time insist on in-depth exploration of standardization to prepare for the company's national expansion.
4
Conclusion
For ethnic catering, creating a hit is the first step, so that the dishes can be "seen" by consumers. And scale and brand development allow companies to go further. We look forward to seeing more delicacies like Lanzhou Ramen and Snail Rice Noodles in everyone’s recipes.
