Capital doesn't like "grazing", and light food is not fragrant?

The “sweet pastry” in the eyes of capital, light food, is now in an awkward position: no new financing has entered the track, and a large number of brand players have closed their stores at a loss. In the future, can the so-called 100 billion market be leveraged?

This article was originally published by Red Meal (ID: hongcan18), author: Liu Jia.

In 2021, when the capital was "madly invested" in the catering industry, coffee, pasta, baking, tea and other circuits were favored, but the former capital "sweet and pastry"-light food, performed poorly.

According to red meal network (ID: hongcan18), in 2021, capital has flooded into the catering track. As of August, the number of investment and financing in the catering industry is as high as 86, including coffee, pasta, baking, tea Waiting for a batch of brands in the track to be invested, the light food track was not cared about, and no brand financing took place.

Why doesn't light food taste fragrant?

01 From hot to deserted, light food was abandoned by capital?

The concept of "light food" is actually an exotic product. It first emerged in foreign coffee shops. It usually refers to small meals with coffee, such as salads, sandwiches and other foods that can be eaten and have small portions.

Around 2014, with the rise of the fitness industry and the improvement of consumers' healthy eating concepts, the concept of light food was introduced into the country, and the embryonic form of the domestic light food market began to take shape.

△Image source: Photograph.com

At that time,The concept of "light food" is still vague, and the Chinese people have not developed the habit of eating raw and cold food. The rise of brands such as Sweetheart Rock Salad, Rice Salad, Lecherous Salad, and Dakaisha completed the initial market education. The salad in the light meal occupied the minds of consumers and quickly rolled out offline stores.

Then, capital quickly took aim at this piece of fat. According to incomplete statistics, from 2015 to 2018, at least 1 billion capital poured into the light food market, and a large number of light food brands were favored by capital.

Among them, Sweetheart Rock Salad, the originator of the light food Internet celebrity, received 4 rounds of financing of nearly 100 million yuan; Miyousala received 6 million financing; Lascivious Salad completed 22 million A+ and 10 million B rounds of financing; Gaga Xianyu received 4 rounds of financing; 180 million yuan in A round of financing; Dakaisha obtained Pre-A round of financing; Shalv Light Food received 30 million yuan in financing...

△Image source: Dakaisha official Weibo

With the entry of capital, the domestic light food market is also showing a positive situation. According to data from Meituan Dianping, the number of young food consumer orders in 2018 increased by 75% year-on-year, and the number of light food stores has also grown rapidly from more than 600 at the end of 2017 to more than 3,500 at present.

However, the good times are not long. The financing of light food brands is mostly fixed in 2017-2018. In the following two years, venture capital institutions have been on the sidelines or even cooling off the light food salad market. The food industry has hardly heard any investment and financing news, and has entered a long period of silence.

Until 2020, the whole light food circuit finally has a little spark again. Light food retail brands such as Shark Fit, Fit8, Super Zero and Wang Baobao have repeatedly received financing. However, offline catering channels are still deserted, and only the chain brand Chao Neng Lu Clan, which focuses on functional commercial fitness meals, has reported a financing news.

△Source: Red Meal Photo

By 2021, the catering industry has ushered in a rare wave of financing, including baking, coffee, tea and other brands in the track All received financing, but there is no brand in the food category.

How did the former "sweet and pastry" fall into an embarrassing situation where no one cares? Perhaps we can get a glimpse of the tortuous development of the catering and light food market in recent years.

02 Current situation of the light food market: The profit model is generally immature, it is easy to open a store and it is difficult to keep the store

In recent years, the current situation of the light food market is not optimistic. The main players on the track generally have a difficult time. Many brand stores have shrunk, their revenue has fallen, and even closed their stores.

received 100,000 angel round financing in March 2016. The last update of its official account was in May of this year. The order page also showed 404 not found.

received 30 million yuan in financing in the first year of its establishment, and the number of stores nationwide once exceeded 50 in Dakaisha. In recent years, it has also withdrawn one by one. Meituan shows that most of the stores in Dakaisha are currently in a "suspended business" state.

△ Image source: Meituan APP

was established in 2014, and initially claimed to be " in the salad world, and Starbucks is the only rice restaurant in the country. 5, the official Weibo update also stays in September 2018.

's "high-end vegetarian salad", the big vegetable unbounded, also fell into the embarrassment of closing stores last year. News of the closing of stores in Shanghai and Hangzhou has been heard one after another.

veteran chain player stores have shrunk or even retired, and a group of rising "net celebrity" light food restaurants are also struggling to survive.

For the urban market of Changsha alone, since the beginning of this year, many popular "net celebrity" light food restaurants have closed or reduced the number of stores.

For example, customers can freely mix and match more than 500 kinds of salads according to their preferences. The number of stores that can be retrieved on public comment has been reduced from more than ten stores three years ago. To a family on on Yunan Street Sub-district;

Can't Eat Fat Salad, Helenana1987, Rabbit Salad, etc. Changsha local salad brands that once expressed plans to increase stores are now all closed...

△Picture source: photo.com

What is the difficulty of "grazing" business?

Red Food.com found that there is no mature and sustainable profit model, which is a common problem of these light food brands that have closed stores and is the biggest pain point in the current light food market.

“It’s easy to open a store and it’s hard to keep the store.” Light food stores seem to have low cost and high gross profit, but in fact, if the high operating costs are taken away, the profits made by the merchants are pitiful.

In response to this, Fan Bingling, the founder of Fitgreen, revealed a set of data in an interview with the media in 2019: In 2018,There are a total of 139 light food and salad takeaway stores in Changsha. As of January 15, 2019, 93 stores with monthly sales of less than 500 orders per store are at a loss, while 40 stores with less than 10 orders have all or Will be closed soon.

△ Image source: photo.com

Some people in the industry have calculated an account: the unit price of a salad shop is about 30 yuan, because the salad is subject to seasonal influence, summer The order volume is around 200 orders per day, while only 80 orders are at the peak in winter. The cost of ingredients for each salad occupies 10 to 15 yuan. Besides the packaging cost of about 2 yuan, 1/4 of the rent, monthly salary paid to employees and platform commissions, etc., this stall shop must achieve profitability. The cycle is at least two years.

And this profit cycle is not easy to survive. The threshold for light food is extremely low, and the homogenization of the category is serious. Stores often imitate and compete with each other, fight price wars, and depress the average price of the market, leading to further thinning of profits. With the increase in rent costs and labor costs, stores caught in price wars will not last for 2 years without platform subsidies and strong supply chain support.

In addition to low profits, supply chain construction, market awareness, and food safety are also problems that hinder the development of light food brands.

Take market cognition as an example. Survey data shows that among the light-food consumer groups, women aged 22-35 account for 70%. The seed customers are mainly fitness and weight loss people, and have certain spending power White-collar workers and business people.

△ Image source: Photograph.com

In addition, the Chinese diet emphasizes color, fragrance and flavor, and tends to process complex and seasoned dishes.The light salad comes from Western countries, the taste is relatively weak, the addiction itself is relatively weak, and the eating habits of the Chinese are far from each other.

Generally speaking, the current domestic audience of light food is still relatively narrow, and consumption habits have not really formed. There is still a long way to go before the Chinese people's stomachs are truly opened.

03 The track still has prospects, but the market still needs to continue to explore

The profit model still needs to be explored, and there are many problems in operation. Is it impossible to do light food at all?

First of all, from the perspective of consumer trends, the light food market is still promising.

data show that China's light salad market has reached 5.56 billion yuan in 2020, and is expected to exceed 9 billion yuan in 2021, reaching 9.23 billion yuan; the scale of light salad consumers is expected to increase from 11.8 million in 2020 The number of people will increase to 18.16 million in 2021.

With the upgrading of people's living standards and health awareness in the future, light meals featuring low-calorie and low-fat will inevitably occupy a place in catering consumption. According to Euromonitor International data, China's light meal replacement market will reach 120 billion yuan in 2022.

Secondly, from the perspective of brand development opportunities, the market is still in the exploratory stage, and the industry structure has not formed. Brands that successfully break through have great potential to become "first brands" and have the first-mover advantage before the arrival of category dividends.

△ Source: Photograph.com

According to Red Meal, currently, some light food brands are actively exploring market education, brand marketing, consumer experience, etc.:

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for example,In marketing education, in order to more clearly convey the health and nutrition information that consumers care about most, some light food brands have designed three kinds of take-out meal boxes, which represent different nutritional ingredients, and each box is marked with a detailed Nutritional information; some brands divide the menu into four major sections: carbon water, protein, fiber, and sauce, so that a standard meal consists of these four parts, and customers can choose their favorite meal in each section, and at the same time Calculate the total nutritional data of the meals you choose based on clear signs.

In order to strengthen consumers’ awareness of light food, some light food brands are trying to use social media for "science popularization". For example, Nuan Ning Light Food often pushes nutrition knowledge through the public account, and even uses short video platforms. Carry out live explanations and so on.

However, in general, the various attempts of light food brands are still in the exploratory stage. We can only wait and see whether there will be breakthroughs in the future.

Summary

As an industry insider said, light food is not a technology-intensive category of catering. What its development needs is to use scale to form a cluster effect to cultivate the masses’ light food demand and consumption habits, and more Long-term development can only be achieved when brands enter the market and expand.

Nowadays, the light food category is in a difficult stage of exploration and exploration. I hope that existing players can lead the category to break through.

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