Nine major events in the food industry in 2023 Prefabricated dishes were written into the No. 1 docu

2023 has entered the countdown, and at the end of each year, I always feel that "time flies" is not an adjective. What are the scientific and technological innovations in the food and beverage industry this year?What high-quality innovative companies and innovative people have emerged?How is the food and beverage industry doing in terms of investment and financing?What are the trends behind this?At the end of the year, FBIF launched the 2023 Annual Inventory Series, which will systematically sort out and answer these questions. Today we launched the first part of the series - Nine Events in the Food Industry in 2023.

On February 13, the Communist Party of China issued the "Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the Key Work of Rural Revitalization in 2023", *The first document wrote prefabricated dishes into it for the first time, and clearly proposed to improve the standardization and normalization level of clean vegetables, kitchens and other industries, and cultivate and develop the prefabricated food industry. Specifically, the document mainly gives guidance for the development of the prefabricated food industry from four aspects and clarifies the future development direction. 1) In terms of the construction of production bases, we will continue to support the creation of strong agricultural industrial towns, modern agricultural industrial parks, and advantageous and characteristic industrial clusters. We will further promote the construction of demonstration zones for agricultural modernization. 2) In terms of first-class chain support, in-depth implementation of "digital business to rejuvenate agriculture" and "Internet +" agricultural products out of the village into the city. 3) In terms of e-commerce channel support, encourage the development of e-commerce direct procurement of agricultural products, customized production and other models, and build a live broadcast e-commerce base for agricultural and sideline products. 4) In terms of industry standards, improve the level of standardization and standardization of clean vegetables, first-class kitchens and other industries. In the past two years, a number of encouraging policies and regulatory policies have been introduced to promote the industry to enter a period of rapid expansion of benign development. For example, in October 2022, the General Office of the People's Government of Henan Province issued the Action Plan for Accelerating the Development of the Prefabricated Vegetable Industry in Henan Province (2022-2025). In January 2023, five departments, including the Sichuan Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the Provincial Market Supervision Bureau, jointly issued the "Several Measures to Support the High-quality Development of the Prefabricated Vegetable Industry". In February 2023, the market supervision bureaus of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces and one city jointly researched and formulated the "Guidelines for the Review of Prefabricated Vegetable Production Licenses in the Yangtze River Delta". With favorable policies, the scale of the prefabricated food industry has grown rapidly, superimposed on the B-end to reduce costs and increase efficiency, the increase in demand for convenient C-end catering, the gradual improvement of cold chain infrastructure, and the further layout of participating players. According to the "2022 China Prefabricated Food Industry Development Report", the scale of China's prefabricated food market has reached 419.6 billion yuan in 2022 and is expected to exceed 830 billion yuan in 2025. The prefabricated food industry is heading towards a trillion market size.

McDonald's China Regenerative Agriculture Program***McDonald's official website On March 24, McDonald's China and nine major merchants - Tyson, Cargill, Sunner, Simplau, McCann, Lanwei, Bimborough, McCormick and Golden Fresh Foods announced the launch of the "McDonald's China Regenerative Agriculture Program". According to McDonald's China, the "McDonald's China Regenerative Agriculture Program" focuses on the five major areas of nature, soil, water, livestock and farmers, realizes the systematic, large-scale promotion and implementation of regenerative agriculture concepts and practices, and contributes to the protection and restoration of the agricultural ecological environmentAt the same time, we will support the response to global climate change through regenerative agriculture practices, promote the realization of McDonald's global 2050 carbon neutrality goal, and help accelerate the development of green and low-carbon agriculture. [1] The plan will take four major actions in the first phase from 2023 to 2028: promoting and popularizing the concept of McDonald's regenerative agriculture in China, promoting the upgrading and pilot of McDonald's regenerative agriculture in China, promoting the continuous implementation of McDonald's regenerative agriculture in line with China's agricultural reality, and establishing a collaborative ecosystem of McDonald's regenerative agriculture in China. In addition to meeting the basic needs of consumers, enterprises are responding to the concept of sustainable development at the level of social value, and initiatives such as declaring and promoting organic raw materials, environmental friendliness, and rural revitalization are gaining more and more recognition. According to PwC's 2022 Global Consumer Insights Survey, consumers are beginning to value consumption that is "better for the environment and society as a whole". According to the "2022 China Sustainable Consumption Report" jointly released by SynTao and Jiemian News, more than 60% of consumers have clearly perceived the impact of climate change on their lives, and nearly ninety percent of the respondents believe that "low carbon" is closely related to everyone. According to the 2022 Survey Report on Citizens' Ecological and Environmental Behavior released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, more than 60% of respondents are able to buy green products regularly. More and more data are confirming that green, low-carbon, and zero-carbon performance have begun to become new decision-making factors in consumption in addition to quality, function, and quality.

Pepsi Diet Coke *** Xiaohongshu On July 14, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization's Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives released an assessment report on the health effects of the non-sugar sweetener aspartame. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), citing "limited evidence" for carcinogenicity in humans, classifies aspartame as possibly carcinogenic to humans, and the Joint Expert Committee reiterates its allowable daily intake of 40mg kg body weight. Since the news broke in June that the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) would declare aspartame as a carcinogen, the International Sweetener Association publicly responded that the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is not a food safety agency before the report was released, and accused its review of aspartame as unscientific and "largely based on widely questioned research." The International Beverage Association then said that aspartame was no more harmful than aloe vera and hundreds of other substances, all of which were classified as "limited" and "incomplete" according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. On the evening of July 14, the National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment and the National Cancer Center conducted a safety assessment based on the latest assessment results and the consumption of Chinese residents, saying that aspartame can be used in accordance with China's current standards and specifications to ensure safety. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that has been controversial since the seventies of the last century. Although several studies have said that aspartame may cause mental retardation, endocrine disorders, and induce brain cancer, lymphoma, and leukemia, it is associated with an increased risk of cancer[2] But on the other hand, there are also more than 100 studies supporting its safety. [3] The idea that a daily intake of no more than 40 mg kg of body weight is safe, has been widely endorsed by regulators in countries, including the United States and Europe. [4] Since its discovery in 1965, aspartame has benefited from high sweetness and strong stability, and has accounted for 36With a 2% market share of synthetic sugar substitutes (according to Shangpu Consulting Group statistics), they are widely used in foods and drugs such as sugar-free drinks, ice cream, sauces, and cough syrup. At present, products that explicitly use aspartame include Coke Zero, Sugar-free Pepsi, Mengniu Flavored Yogurt, Wahaha, Lay's Big Wave, Xuanmai Sugar-free Chewing Gum, etc. [5] Before and after the report's release, most brands using aspartame remained silent. Genki Forest, known for its use of erythritol, responded that all of the brand's products do not contain aspartame. Nayuki's tea said that the company has announced the use of natural sugar substitute "monk fruit sugar" in all its products since November 2022 [6]. Convenience store brand Today directly announced that it will remove nine aspartame-containing products, including Coke Zero. The safety of aspartame has sparked a wide discussion at the societal level. Because aspartame is mostly added to common foods and with a wide range of channel networks, it has long penetrated into the terminal capillaries of the country, and the national coverage is very wide. The public's attitude towards aspartame is quite divided, including many supporters, and overall there is no large-scale ** panic. [7] However, according to the Win Now data, in the month of the incident, the sales data of Coke Zero in some regions fell to a certain extent. [8] Some research institutions believe that consumers and food and beverage manufacturers may turn to other sweeteners with less controversy or higher safety, and the rapid growth of the market demand for sugar-free beverages may accelerate the replacement of aspartame by categories such as sucralose, allulose, steviol glycosides, and erythritol. [9]

Nai Xue's Tea*** Nai Xue's Tea Official Website On July 20, Nai Xue's tea officially launched the "Partner Plan", and said that it would enter a new stage of two-wheel drive through the plan, and accelerate market expansion and brand coverage with the model of "direct sales + franchise". According to public information, after Nai Xue's tea was opened to join, it still adhered to the big store strategy, and had relatively high capital requirements for franchisees, clearly proposing that the investment amount of a single store to join was about 1 million yuan, the capital verification threshold for partners was 1.5 million yuan, and the regional cooperation was 4.5 million yuan and above. In contrast, the investment amount of Heytea single store is less than 800,000 yuan. Most of the investment amounts in a single store of other tea brands are between 350,000 yuan and 500,000 yuan, such as Lele Tea is 400,000 yuan and 500,000 yuan,[10] Mixue Bingcheng is 380,000 yuan, and Chabaidao is about 350,000 yuan. [11] Naixue's tea opening and franchise marks that among the top 20 new tea beverage brands in China (using narrow-door dining data, sorted by the number of stores), there is no brand that adopts the pure direct sales model. As early as 2021, Nai Xue's tea made it clear that it would not carry out franchise business, "The Group does not currently have any plans to open Nai Xue's tea and tea shops, and we expect that in the foreseeable future, all Nai Xue's tea and tea shops will maintain their self-operated model." As for the reason for insisting on the self-operated model, Peng Xin, the founder of Naixue's tea, once said that it was to stabilize quality control. [12] In fact, since the opening of Heytea, which is also taking the high-end route, in November last year, the question of "when Nai Xue's tea will be opened to join" has become the focus of market attention. During the same period, Nai Xue's tea has loosened its attitude towards "carrying out franchise business". Peng Xin said in his speech, "It is very good to join, and for us (Nai Xue's tea), direct sales should also be done well." "Franchise and direct marketing are not an either/or relationship. "Now Nai Xue's tea is successfully open to joining, but in the case of the saturation of the first and second tier markets and the gradual lack of excellent points, Nai Xue's tea has only 425 more stores this year than last year, and currently operates a total of 1,493 stores. At present, compared with Nai Xue's tea, the number of Heytea stores is obviously more, more than 3,400. Traditional franchise brands have already established the advantage of scale, and as of November 2023, the number of Mixue Bingcheng stores has exceeded 320,000, becoming the fifth largest fast-food restaurant chain in the world;There are more than 9,000 Gu Ming storesThe number of Shanghai Auntie, Shuyi Burning Fairy Grass, and Tea Baidao stores all exceeded 8,000, and they all sprinted to 10,000 stores.

On July 31, a "moving mountain" billboard advertising low prices appeared in Hema offline stores. Because most of the Hema Yishan price products have a high degree of similarity with Sam's star products, and ** is lower, "Yishan" is ridiculed as the "mountain" of "Sam". Subsequently, Sam made a ** downward adjustment on the corresponding product. The two sides began to enter the tug-of-war of "you come and go", in which durian mille-feuille, which has undergone multiple rounds of price reductions, has become a key indicator for netizens to judge which of the two sides is "lower".

The Hema "Moving Mountain Price" network "Moving Mountain Price" incident was interpreted by a number of ** and industry insiders as the preparation made by Hema for the listing sprint - binding Sam, benchmarking Wal-Mart, and giving the capital market a reference target on the eve of listing. [13] In March this year, with Alibaba's "1+6+N" reform, Hema was classified as "N". Alibaba's board of directors also approved Hema to start the listing process and plans to complete the public offering plan in the next 6-12 months. However, in the past two years, Hema has been continuously downgraded in terms of valuation. According to the consumption of titanium citing southern *** news, at the beginning of 2022, Hema Xiansheng considered financing at a valuation of $10 billion, but since then, with the contraction of *** capital, it is rumored that the valuation of Hema has fallen to $6 billion by the beginning of this year. [14] In this context, Hema benchmarked Walmart with a market value of US$418.7 billion (using Walmart's market capitalization data as of July 31), and the overlap rate of bound users reached 43Sam, who is 1% and whose performance is growing against the trend, may be a crash course to increase valuation space. But with Alibaba's third-quarter earnings report on Nov. 16 that its IPO plan has been suspended, it makes no sense to raise valuations in the short term. In October 2023, Hema launched a major business adjustment after the "moving mountain price" incident, planning to convert all 350 Hema fresh offline stores into discount supermarkets on the eve of the Spring Festival in 2024The number of store SKUs will be reduced from the original 5,000 to more than 2,000, and the dynamic balance of 2,000-3,000 SKUs will be achieved through optimizationCommodities** will generally drop by 20%. In the new economic cycle and consumption environment, in the face of the rise of consumer sensitivity, low prices have become the core issue of many industries such as supermarkets and leisure food, and the discount format is a new area for major supermarket companies to compete in the layout. In order to ensure the "double-line price reduction" after the comprehensive discount, Hema even started a de-membership strategy. On December 13, the Freshippo manual customer service said that due to business adjustments, it does not support the opening or renewal of Hema X members. In response, Hema responded, "Let everyone buy more cost-effective goods without threshold, instead of needing a ticket." ”[15]

Sauce Latte *** Weibo @luckincoffee Luckin Coffee This year, a joint brand between Luckin and Moutai has made Sauce Latte a new coffee subcategory, and helped Luckin achieve nearly 10 "small goals" within 3 months. [16] On September 4, Luckin Coffee officially announced that it had reached a strategic cooperation with Kweichow Moutai, becoming the first Chinese chain restaurant brand to reach a strategic cooperation with Kweichow Moutai. According to Luckin's official data, on the day of its launch, the sales volume of sauce-flavored latte exceeded 5.42 million cups, and the sales exceeded 100 million yuan, setting a new single-day sales record for Luckin single products. This is undoubtedly an impressive collaboration. The category innovation of "coffee + wine", as well as the nationality and scarcity of Moutai and the influence of Luckin among young people, have allowed Sauce Latte to enter the social circle of young and middle-aged people at the same time. Through this wave of "national-level" joint branding, Luckin has achieved the sales conversion of the superposition of the influence of the two brands in the process of bringing together the target consumer groups of both sides and colliding with each other, and has achieved the purpose of increasing popularity and opening up the market for all ages. On social platforms, product-related topics such as Moutai Luckin Sauce Latte for young people, "Moutai content" and other product-related topics have aroused consumer onlookers and social discussions, and they have taken turns to dominate the hot search. Authoritative institutions such as the Market Supervision Bureau also participated in the topic, which prompted the beverage to be discussed more frequently and widely. According to the data of Zhiwei Shijian, the influence index of "Luckin and Moutai launched a joint product" is as high as 807. More than 99% of enterprise events. The explosion of sauce-flavored latte is in line with Luckin Coffee's consistent explosive product strategy: combining brand products in two different fields of coffee and wine, on the basis of bringing consumers a new taste experience, through the resonance of high-base stores and marketing operations, the new products and co-branded information on the marketing side can be effectively delivered to consumers on a large scale, attracting more consumers' attention and tasting, and becoming a hot topic on social networking, increasing the popularity of products again.

Qifu HMO milk powder*** Xiaohongshu On October 7, the National Health Commission** announced that two HMO (active nutrient human milk oligosaccharides) raw materials were officially approved, which were 2'- Fucosyllactose and lactose-N-neotetraose, which can be added as food fortifiers in infant formula, follow-up and toddler formula, and infant formula for special medical purposes. This is also the first time that HMO has been approved in China. HMO is the third largest nutrient in breast milk after lactose and fat, which has many functions such as promoting the growth of probiotics, maintaining the balance of intestinal microecology, and regulating immunity. [18] With the news of HMO's approval, a number of dairy companies have launched milk powders with HMOs. Related products include "Zhenhu Platinum Extract" children's growth formula milk powder launched by Yili Gold Lingguan, Xiaoxiao Luban "Quanwei Love Future" milk powder launched by Junlebao, and "Xingfeifan Zhuorui 4 Stage" milk powder launched by Feihe. Since 2014, Glycom (an HMO manufacturer, now acquired by DSM) has submitted its first submission to the EU2'-Since the application of fucosyllactose as a new food additive, HMO has been approved or marketed in more than 100 countries and regions around the world. According to BlueWe**e Consulting, the global HMO market size was 1$9.9 billion, 2023-2029, is expected to grow at a price of 22With a strong CAGR of 9%, the HMO market size will reach 8$4.3 billion. Although China is relatively late in obtaining HMO approval, many domestic dairy companies have already started research and layout on HMOs before HMOs are officially approved. For example, as early as 2016, Mengniu cooperated with UC D**is in the United States, Peking University Medical Center, Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other scientific research institutions to conduct a relevant cohort study on the composition of HMO in breast milk in China. [17] Yili already had 11 HMO-related technology patents before the promulgation of the regulations. [17] Yeeper began to deploy domestic HMO raw materials three years ago. [18] This is also the reason why some domestic dairy companies were able to release relevant new products soon after HMO was approved in China. In the domestic market, formula upgrading has always been an important dimension for dairy companies to differentiate their products and compete in strength. With the approval of HMO, the leading dairy enterprises have benefited from the first-mover advantages in technology and products, superimposed on the advantages of brands, channels and funds to seize the market, and once again widen the gap with small and medium-sized enterprises, and the industry pattern may further concentrate on the leading enterprises.

Snacks are very busy***Xiaoxiang Morning News On November 10, the two leading brands in the domestic snack wholesale industry, "Snacks are busy" and "Zhao Yiming Snacks", officially announced a strategic merger. After the merger, the two companies will remain unchanged in terms of personnel structure and will retain their respective brands and businesses to operate independently. At the same time, the two sides will cooperate in product chain, brand building, and regional development coordination. In response to this strategic merger, Zhao Yiming Snacks said that the two sides will have better procurement advantages in the product chain, and the team will be able to focus more on product details in the future and bring consumers a better product consumption experienceIn terms of brand building, it will further strengthen the construction of consumer minds and user operationsIn terms of regional development coordination, the two sides will continue to deepen the layout in their respective advantageous areas and improve the efficiency of franchised storesIn terms of development planning, the requirements of future brands for store standards and operations, product quality, and consumer services will never be reduced. [19] This event may trigger a change in the industry landscape. According to the data on the company's official website, as of now, the number of stores nationwide has exceeded 4,000, and the number of stores nationwide by Zhao Yiming has exceeded 2,500. The two companies rank first and third in the industry in terms of the number of stores, respectively, and the number of stores owned by the merger far exceeds that of other snack wholesale brands. This is not the first time that brands in the snack wholesale industry have merged, especially since the pace of industry consolidation has accelerated significantly since August this year. For example, "Love Snacks" successively announced that it would hold the local chain snack brand "Dinosaur and Teddy" in Sichuan, wholly acquire "Hu Weihong Snacks" in Guizhou, and control "Snack Bubbles" in Shaanxi, and after the integration was completed, the number of Love Snacks stores nationwide reached more than 1,400. Wanchen Group announced that it would merge its retail brands of Laiyoupin, Haoxianglai, Nadi, and Lu Xiaotao into "Haoxianglai Brand Snacks", and acquired the Zhejiang snack wholesale brand "Wife". After the completion of the acquisition, Wanchen Group has more than 4,000 snack stores. The South China snack brand "Snack Cabin" has also successively integrated all the stores of the Guangdong snack brands "Snack Mome" and "Snack Q". As of December, the overall number of snack cabin stores exceeded 1,000. According to iiMedia Consulting data, the market size of snack wholesale will increase by 75% year-on-year in 20231%, maintaining a rapid growth rate. It is estimated that by 2025, the market size of snack stores will reach 123.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 112%。

On November 29, Yang Yinfen, chairman and general manager of BESTORE, issued an open letter to all employees, proposing that a new round of reform will be launched around the theme of "strengthening business innovation and comprehensively improving operational efficiency", returning to the image of BESTORE as a neighbor, and moving towards a route of good quality and people-friendly. [20] Subsequently, BESTORE announced that it would implement the largest price reduction in 17 years, with an average price reduction of 22% and a maximum reduction of 45% for more than 300 products on sale in stores. The price reduction products will mainly focus on snacks that can optimize the cost but do not affect the quality and high repurchase rate.

According to Yang Yinfen's statement in the open letter to all employees, the reason for the reform of BESTORE lies in the changes in the internal and external environment of the enterprise, which can be summarized into four aspects: 1) the transfer of online consumption traffic and the intensification of competition;2) Various offline snack modes and new species are staking to seize the leisure snack market3) Consumption returns to rationality, and consumers' sensitivity increases4) The organization is bloated, the organizational management efficiency is low, and the profitability of the enterprise is declining. BESTORE's operating pressure has been reflected in its performance. Since 2023, although BESTORE has maintained a profitable state, it has experienced varying degrees of decline in revenue and net profit. Yang Yinfen said: "At present, what is in front of us is not only the problem of living a difficult life, but the problem of whether we can live. BESTORE's price reduction strategy is regarded as a self-help action of "exchanging price for volume", but it remains to be seen whether the pricing method of products focusing on cost performance can significantly boost sales and increase performance. It is worth noting that the price reduction may affect the gross profit margin of the enterprise. However, BESTORE said that the price reduction space will come from measures such as improving the efficiency of the first chain, improving lean production, optimizing operating costs, and introducing a red line for gross profit. Focusing on the "cost-effective" strategy has become a key word for consumer brands. In addition to BESTORE, Three Squirrels also proposed and practiced the "high-end cost-effective" strategy as early as a year ago, and launched a more affordable snack community store. In response to BESTORE's large-scale price cut, Baicaowei said, "Approaching the year-end promotion and New Year's Festival, Baicaowei will vigorously benefit consumers." ”[21]

Looking back at the nine major events in the food industry in 2023, we found the objective trends and corporate growth momentum behind the **, fragmentation, emotions and controversies: First, the trend of food health. The occurrence of the three major events of "aspartame caught in a carcinogenic storm", "HMO was officially approved, and dairy companies gathered to launch new products", and "prefabricated dishes were written into the first document" and the social attention they received were all related to this trend. Second, enterprises have strengthened their investment on the marketing side, and the route of channel expansion and increment remains unchanged. In the midst of a rapidly changing environment with the reshuffle of traditional e-commerce and the rapid rise of new channels, it is still an important means for food brands to reach more consumers and convert traffic into sales. "Luckin co-branded Moutai released a sauce latte" and "Nai Xue's tea open franchise" are the presentation of this route. Third, in the context of the downward movement of the product belt, the advantages of the production end and the first chain of the enterprise are amplified. The traffic competition is becoming increasingly fierce, with the emergence of major platform festival promotions, live broadcast room discounts, snack mass stores and Hema discount stores and other channels that pursue the ultimate cost performance, the actual sales of brands are declining. In view of the continuous compression of gross profit margin, the brand that has the advantage of production and strong control of the first chain will have a certain buffer space, and solve the contradiction by launching channel exclusive installation, adjusting the layout focus of each channel category, reducing costs and increasing efficiency in multiple links, etc., to balance the gross profit margin level of the enterprise. "Snacks are very busy and Zhao Yiming snacks strategic merger", "BESTORE will implement the largest price reduction in 17 years, with a maximum reduction of 45%", and Sam's Hema ** War" The core of the three major events are related to this.