is written in front: The Chinese New Year atmosphere is becoming more and more intense, and the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is getting closer and closer. When encountering ice and snow during the Spring Festival, the details on the streets of Beijing are full of the New Year atmosphere and ice and snow. The commercial layout changes quietly, and consumption must be closely related to it.
New Year’s Eve dinner is one of the most important businesses in the year for catering companies. After an investigation, a Beijing Business Daily reporter found that plans and forms have become the main features of this year’s New Year’s Eve dinner market. Among them, pre-made dishes became the highlight of this year’s New Year’s Eve dinner market. From the original crises such as centralized cancellation of New Year’s Eve dinner, backlog of ingredients, and tension in cash flow, to the fact that there are plans and more flexible preparations, behind this is that catering companies are constantly exploring new business models and business opportunities. However, behind this innovation is actually very challenging for restaurant companies.
delivery service has become standard
catering companies are becoming more and more flexible in "preparing for" the New Year's Eve dinner. A Beijing Business Daily reporter found that compared with last year, catering companies not only had dine-in reservations in the release of New Year’s Eve dinner related booking content, but also simultaneously released related content such as "New Year’s Eve dinner delivered to home" and "pre-made dishes" and other related content, making various forms of plans and preparations in advance.
Beijing Business Daily reporter learned that most catering companies have received booking information for dine-in New Year’s Eve dinners, and some consumers are on the wait-and-see attitude, and some consumers have also cancelled their New Year’s Eve dinners due to the epidemic.
In addition to dine-in, New Year’s Eve dinner delivery service has gradually become the standard New Year’s Eve dinner service for catering companies today. Beijing Business Daily reporters noticed that many restaurants have launched self-pickup or home delivery services to meet consumers' delivery or non-dianteed meal needs. For example, Meizhou Dongpo will make dishes such as Dongpo Zhangzi , Maoxuewang , sauerkraut fish into reunion New Year dishes. Consumers can choose to pick up the food in the store or place an order to run errands to pick up the food, and bring the dishes back to their own dining table. Jingweizhai Beijing Peony Roasted Duck has also launched a New Year’s Eve dinner package to support consumers to pick it up.
And behind this, catering companies have also done their homework in advance. In order to ensure consumers' home dining needs, more than 400 stations in Haidilao delivery are guaranteed for supply during the Spring Festival, covering more than 170 cities across the country. A relevant person in charge of Wangshunge also mentioned that Wangshunge will match the menu in advance based on the dishes ordered by consumers with very high order rates in the past year, while also ensuring nutrition and cost-effectiveness. Prepare ingredients and pre-process them, and continue to improve the speed of meal delivery while ensuring the quality of the product. From the supply side, Meicai continues to launch the "Spring Festival, Meicai will not close" activity in nearly 100 cities across the country, and merchants can place orders normally. Nearly 10,000 employees in Meicai are on duty, including national warehousing and distribution, and 6,000 vehicles are guaranteed to be delivered normally.
Pre-made dishes have become the "new favorite"
Since the impact of the epidemic, the word "pre-made dishes" has been increasing, and more and more catering companies and retail companies have joined the ranks of pre-made vegetables. In this year's New Year's Eve dinner market, the role of pre-made dishes has become more and more abundant. Many catering companies such as Dadong, Quanjude , Taier, Wangshunge, Xibei , Beijing Huatian , etc. have also begun to increase their efforts in pre-made vegetable business and launch pre-made vegetable products. In addition, pre-made dishes gift boxes such as Taotaoju , Chef Zhong, Xibei, etc. are all launched in major supermarkets or online malls. In terms of types, today's pre-made dishes are more diverse and have more free selection.
Relevant person in charge of Wangshunge said that consumers' preference for pre-made dishes is constantly increasing. For example, the total amount of pre-made dishes in the Wangshunge New Year's Eve category sold reached more than 8 million yuan last year, and has exceeded 10 million yuan this year.
From the perspective of free combination, the free combination of pre-made dishes is getting higher and higher, and it has become one of the development trends of pre-made dishes. A Beijing Business Daily reporter saw on the Hema App that Hema has launched 4 different New Year’s Eve dinner packages in Beijing this year, with prices ranging from 238 to 3888 yuan. At the same time, the New Year menu items such as squirrel fish , braised pork , Buddha Jumping the Wall , and garlic chicken can also be purchased separately.
Hema's relevant person in charge said that according to the New Year's Vegetable Market Survey conducted by Hema, 25% of the respondents believe that pre-made New Year's dishes "lack of local characteristics and localization of the taste of the dishes". Therefore, Hema has launched 18 different "eight bowls" sets in 18 regions across the country this year. In addition, 51% of the respondents believe that the free combination of pre-made annual dishes on the market is not high, which has become one of the main reasons that restrict many consumers from choosing pre-made annual dishes. To this end, Hema launched a single-order New Year dish this year, including pot such as Buddha Jumping the Wall, Floral Chicken, Family Photos, as well as braised pork, squirrel fish and other hard dishes that consume time and energy. Wen Zhihong, partner and leader of chain operations of
, Hejun Consulting , pointed out that many catering companies have accumulated some experience last year, so this year they are more orderly in the layout of the New Year's vegetable market. In addition, the trend of retailization of catering in recent years has become increasingly obvious. The rise of pre-made dishes and other products. Coupled with the catalysis of the epidemic, many catering companies that had not been prepared in advance last year have made preparations in advance, which has further promoted the development of retailization of catering.
tests many
It is not difficult to see from the preparations of catering companies in the New Year’s Eve dinner business that companies are becoming more and more flexible in channels, products and forms, gradually filling the gaps in the previous business. However, the adjustment of the New Year’s Eve dinner business will be a great challenge to the company’s procurement and production capacity. How to improve its adaptability and develop the newly explored forms and business points into long-term business is the next direction. Li Bing, senior vice president of Meicai, said that from the supply side perspective, catering companies have plans and preparations for their raw material needs and store business conditions this year, which is more mature than last year. At the same time, restaurants have higher requirements for the stability and richness of supply. This has also taken corresponding measures to ensure demand while ensuring supply while ensuring supply.
brand marketing expert Li Xingmin believes that the impact of the epidemic on dine-in and the rapid development of takeaway have enabled catering stores to provide more dining options, such as pre-made dishes, which is also due to the development trend of the industry. Pre-made dishes are the dual result of dish standardization and improvement of supply chain capabilities. It solves the core demands of takeaway catering stores through rapid delivery. However, convenience will not empower too many catering brands, and the quality and reputation of catering brands themselves are the key to their development.
It is not difficult to see from the current layout of catering companies for the New Year’s Eve dinner that catering companies are walking on multiple legs. Wen Zhihong said that catering companies walk on multiple legs roughly into two main directions. On the one hand, many catering companies are developing vertically. Taking pre-made dishes as an example, pre-made dishes are the result of product standardization and industrialization. Therefore, the essence of laying out pre-made dishes products is to develop catering enterprises towards industrialization. On the other hand, many catering companies are also developing towards multi-brand, that is, horizontal development. Walking on multiple legs in catering companies can reduce the risk of single business development to a certain extent. However, whether catering companies develop horizontally or vertically, they will bring certain challenges to their resources and capabilities. If the company has a great lack of resources and capabilities, walking on multiple legs will bring more risks.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Guo Binlu Zhang Tianyuan
# The third Spring Festival under the epidemic#
