Shortly after entering 2024, the snack industry has once again had a new story.
Na Shi learned from the three squirrelsAt present, the three squirrels have been stationed in the snack stores across the country, and this event marks an important breakthrough in the company's distribution business to supply third-party mass snack systems.
As we all know, as an emerging channel format, snack wholesalers have set off a revolution in the retail chain in the leisure snack industry, which has also had a certain impact on snack brands. Why did Three Squirrels choose to cooperate with a snack wholesale brand, and what are the considerations behind it?
The three squirrels settled in for snacks and were busy
A premeditated "cooperation"?
Judging from this cooperation, the four nuts that the three squirrels are very busy with snacks are macadamia nuts, pecans, pistachios, and almonds, which are the core nut categories of the three squirrels with their own production capacity and the advantage of large-scale centralized procurement of the first chain. At the same time, the three squirrels are currently busy in the snack stage, and the follow-up will gradually expand the supply category, and enter other snack stores, and may also develop channels for exclusive products.
This means that the three squirrels are in competition with Snack Busy as a retailer, and at the same time they will cooperate with Snack Busy as a manufacturer, which also makes the outside world speculate about the reason for the cooperation between the two. In the view of Nashi, it boils down to the common pursuit of the ultimate cost performance between the two.
In 2023,"Cost-effective" has increasingly become the key word of this generation of consumers。According to a survey in Euromonitor's 2023 Voice of the Consumer: Lifestyle Survey, 438% of respondents said they "like to look for bargains." But consumers don't simply prefer low prices, they expect better value for money. At the same time, Euromonitor believes thatThe trend of "cost-effective" is not a flash in the pan, but will continue in the long run.
As a leading brand in the snack food industry, Three Squirrels has quickly predicted industry opportunities in the demand in a forward-looking manner, and proposed a "high-end cost-effective" strategy at the end of 2022 to provide consumers with more high-quality and abundant snacks in all categories. It is worth mentioning that the improvement of the cost performance of the three squirrels products is not a single profit, but through the optimization of the whole chain to ensure product quality and realize the overflow of profits, and transfer this part of the profits to consumers, so as to achieve high quality and cost performance.
The product cost performance pursued by the three squirrels coincides with the snack wholesale brand. In the past few years, the snack wholesale industry has focused on the underlying consumer demand of "how fast and good to save", and has achieved rapid development with richer snack categories and more affordable products.
The cooperation between the two is also just as Zhang Liaoyuan, the founder of the three squirrels, said: ".The so-called competition in this world is not your life and death, but in the mutual competition and self-achievement, for example, nuts we have the most high-end cost performance, then you need me, I can cooperate with you. ”From this point of view, the entry of three squirrel products into snack stores is the embodiment of the "competition and cooperation view" expressed by Zhang Liaoyuan, and the final landing point is still the basic plate of "all categories + all channels" under the high-end cost-effective strategy of three squirrels, which is an important part of the development of three squirrels omni-channel.
So what do industry insiders think of this cooperation? Zhu Danpeng, an analyst of China's food industry, said: "Under the overall reform and innovation, the three squirrels have received development dividends under the "high-end cost-effective" strategy. At present, the three squirrels are walking on two legs, to b and to c, which has fundamentally changed its entire operation model and channel model, and will have a certain blessing on the overall revenue and profit in 2024. ”
Enter the snack mass sales track,
Why is it a natural result?
There is no doubt that the snack food industry is entering the era of cost performance. It is foreseeable that with the changes in consumers' consumption thinking and behavior, brands that take into account high cost performance and high quality-price ratio will be a very good choice for consumers.
So, when the strategic direction is determined, how should the three squirrels thoroughly implement the "high-end cost-effective" strategy?
In order to achieve this strategy, currently,The three squirrels work in three main areas: raw materials, processing and manufacturing, and from the factory to the consumer, gradually from the sales end to the manufacturing end and the planting end, connecting the primary, secondary and tertiary production, effectively promoting the quality and efficiency of the entire industrial chain.
For example, in 2023, the three squirrels will take the lead in driving the purchase of more than 7,700 tons of nut raw materials such as Yungui macadamia nuts, Northeast pine nuts, and Xinjiang walnuts, covering more than 30 economically underdeveloped counties and districts.
In terms of manufacturing and channels, the three squirrels have also undergone changes. According to public information, starting from April 2022, the three squirrels have independently built four core nut category demonstration factories for daily nuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, and pistachios, realizing the depth of the first chain from raw materials to production and delivery; In addition, in terms of raw material procurement, Three Squirrels also cooperates directly with world-renowned enterprises or farms in the industry to reduce costs through large-scale centralized procurement effects, and at the same time, comprehensively upgrade the logistics delivery model in combination with channel strategy adjustment to further reduce costs and increase efficiency.
For example, through the cost optimization of raw materials, manufacturing, and circulation, the macadamia nut products on the three squirrels in 2023 will be reduced by 30% compared with 2022, and the quail egg products will be optimized by 10% and 15%.
In order to achieve and let consumers perceive that "price reduction does not reduce quality", the three squirrels also take the principle of "two choices and three benchmarks" as the standard. That is, choose products with quality assurance and choose products with market share; **The benchmarking expert brand should be far lower, the benchmarking brand of the same industry should be significantly lower, and the benchmarking low-end brand should be close.
Under this standard, the three squirrels can even benchmark themselves with low-cost snack stores, and even cheaper than them when the quality is guaranteed.
For example, in the Three Squirrels store, nuts are sold for 19 per day8 yuan jin, lower than Zhao Yiming's snack shop 32 yuan jin (press 1.).6 yuan 25 grams of Ganyuan daily bean fruit accounting) **; Three squirrels exploded macadamia nuts 2639 yuan catty, which is also far lower than Zhao Yiming's snack shop 4538 yuan catty ** (according to Ganyuan mustard flavored macadamia nut 5.)9 yuan 65g** accounting) ......
From this point of view, under the drastic reform of the first chain and the ultimate cost performance of products, the entry of the three squirrels into the mass sales track is not only a natural result, but also the confidence that it is still "living well" in the leisure snack market.
View from three squirrels
"High-end cost performance" has become a new trend in the future
The snack food industry is entering a "new inflection point". According to iimedia research, the market size of China's snack food industry has continued to grow in the past decade, from 410 billion yuan to 1,165.4 billion yuan, and it is expected that the market size of China's snack food industry will reach 1,237.8 billion yuan in 2027.
With the slowdown in market growth, the growth dividend of brands is also disappearing, and they should look for new development momentum?
Michael Porter has proposed three general strategic models:Total cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy, concentration strategy. In the saturated snack market, total cost leadership is obviously the top priority at present, and it will be the most effective strategy for the industry in the future. From this point of view, the three squirrels put forward and practiced the "high-end cost-effective" strategy, which is undoubtedly forward-looking and leading in the industry, and as the first person to "eat crabs", the three squirrels also handed in a good answer.
During the 2024 Goods Festival, with the advantage of product cost performance, the sales time process of the New Year's Festival will reach two-thirds, and the omni-channel sales of the three squirrels have exceeded the total amount of the whole cycle of last year's New Year's Festival, and the omni-channel is showing a full flowering trendFrom the beginning of the New Year Festival to January 28, the Three Squirrels Integrated E-commerce New Year Festival continued the growth momentum in the third and fourth quarters of last year, of which the growth of the private domain hit a record high; On Douyin e-commerce, the Three Squirrels Douyin Super Brand Day event achieved a total payment of GMV3100 million, once again refreshing the industry record of food and beverage categories.
This result is also presented in the financial report of the three squirrels. The data shows thatIn the first three quarters of this year, the performance of the three squirrels increased by 81% year-on-year42% to 17 billion yuan. Especially in the third quarter, the company achieved a double increase in revenue and net profit attributable to the parent company, with a year-on-year increase of 3856% and 4086%, deducting non-net profit increased by 17539%。In the fourth quarter, in the context of the postponement of the New Year's Festival, it still achieved double growth.
Facts have proved that under the guidance of the "high-end cost-effective" strategy, Three Squirrels is releasing strong growth potential, and at the same time, it also points out a path for the snack food brand that is in the fog of development, thereby accelerating the transformation and upgrading of the snack food industry.
There is no successful enterprise, only the enterprise of the times.
From the current point of view, the leisure snack industry in 2024 is still facing great variables, and under the multi-dimensional changes in consumer preferences and channel changes, if leisure snack companies lack sensitivity to new changes, they will be quietly left far behind by the times.
Judging from the cooperation between the three squirrels and the snacks are very busy, the three squirrels are once again at the forefront of the industry, behind which is not only the deep insight of the three squirrels into consumer trends, but also the right"High-end cost performance".The implementation of the strategy has deduced a model for the transformation and upgrading of the industry. In the ever-changing leisure snack industry, such three squirrels are also more worth looking forward to.