On February 27th, the Shenzhen station of the "China Catering City Tour" jointly sponsored by Red Meal Network and CCTV Catering Channel, and co-organized by Red Meal Growth Club and Juhui Catering was successfully held!
As one of the blockbuster sections of the "China Catering City Tour" Shenzhen Station, on February 27, the theme salon of Shenzhen Station adopted the form of open interactive Q&A, inviting more than 30 celebrities such as association leaders, industry experts, founders of head catering brands and founders of leading enterprises in the chain to discuss around the table, focusing on the three major topics of "practical experience sharing of chain catering enterprises", "how to achieve efficiency breakthrough of catering enterprises" and "new wave of catering development, how to play a good product 'characteristic card'", and decode the "new engine" of chain restaurant enterprises to increase efficiency”。
The core of the chain is replication, and the core of replication must be standardization
Reducing costs and increasing efficiency is very important for chain restaurants, and the guests present expressed their views on how catering companies can better achieve efficiency breakthroughs.
The core of the chain is replication, and the core of replication must be standardizationFang Zengman, the founder of Sanjin soup dumplings, emphasized the importance of standardization to improve the efficiency of brands.
He said that according to the manual production method, it used to take 200 people to produce 800,000 siu mai per day, and the labor cost was at least more than 20 million, but now only 23 people are needed with the help of mechanical automation equipment, which greatly saves labor costs and improves efficiency. In addition, Sanjin soup dumplings have also reached cooperation with universities to develop raw embryos to replace the store resteaming mode of traditional dumpling shops, which not only ensures the taste of steamed buns but also improves human efficiency, and the stores that originally needed three to operate can be reduced to two people.
Deng Qing, the founder of Claypot Zheng, believes that the main competitors of the claypot rice category are still local time-honored brands, small chains and mom-and-pop shops, and the highly standardized ** chain allows Claypot to achieve a certain advantage in the internal competition of the track. "Slow dining efficiency is the pain point of claypot rice, and for claypot rice, product standardization does not need to rely on chef experience, Xiaobai can get started, reducing labor costs, an 80 square meter store, only 3 people in the kitchen, a day can achieve a turnover of 2-30,000 yuan. ”
Large-scale centralized procurement is also an effective means to reduce costs.
Lin Jinmu, founder of Ninth Flavor Old Shanghai Wonton, said, "We have opened our own ** chain to provide products for other well-known catering companies such as Wuwei noodles, and reduce costs through large-scale centralized procurement." Last year, although the turnover of the ninth flavor opened the ** chain centralized procurement increased by only 30%, the overall profit increased by 80%, which shows that large-scale centralized procurement has played a very big role in improving profits. ”
Fang Zengman further said that for example, the bulk procurement of meat is very important, and it is easier to reach cooperation with the leading suppliers of meat products by means of centralized procurement, so as to obtain first-hand industry information and help brands predict industry trends.
In addition, it is important to optimize the efficiency of the cooking process. Wang Bin, co-founder of Juhui Restaurant, took Hunan cuisine as an example and said that one of the important reasons why Hunan cuisine is so popular in the market is that the cooking efficiency is particularly high, and the main cooking methods involved in Hunan cuisine are only stir-frying, which is not as complex as Sichuan cuisine, and some stores can also use automatic stir-fry machines. At the same time, the high efficiency of Hunan cuisine seasoning and the relative simplicity of ingredients make it easier to standardize the cooking of Hunan cuisine.
Liu Yongqing, founder of Huasi Brand Consulting, believes that catering enterprises need to pay attention to two paths to reduce costs and increase efficiency: on the one hand, reduce the internal transaction costs of enterprises, such as improving the internal organization and communication ability of enterprises, building corporate culture, and cultivating the innovation of enterprises; On the other hand, it is necessary to reduce the transaction cost outside the enterprise, that is, to continuously improve the brand power, which includes specific indicators such as product innovation, technological innovation, market innovation and organizational innovation.
There is no eternal explosive product, and catering people should pay attention to the sustainability of the brand
In the future, the competition of the brand is to differentiate itself from others, so that the brand can survive. Lin Jinmu said that specifically, Ninth Flavor mainly focuses on creating differentiation in terms of products, thus forming brand barriers. For example, we have strengthened research and development in technology to solve the pain point that the takeaway of wonton products is easy to become "lumpy"; The product structure is also changing, and this year's Ninth Flavor digs deep into Shanghai's special snacks and introduces them to stores in Shenzhen and South China, which can also play a role in differentiated competition.
One of the important means for brands to achieve differentiation is to create explosive products.
Ouyang Hailin, a master of Hunan cuisine, took Hunan cuisine as an example and analyzed how to create explosive dishes. First of all, it is necessary to adapt to the taste of mass consumers and boldly integrate, for example, today's chopped pepper fish head adopts new seasonings and new cooking concepts, and integrates Yunnan's wild pepper, pickled pepper, etc., which is more in line with new consumption choices; The second is to continue to explore local specialties, ingredients and taste innovation, such as many Hunan restaurants have developed Yongzhou Dong'an chicken and blood duck, in addition to Xiangtan's fat beef is also a good dish, worthy of further excavation.
Song Ge, the founder of Songge Braised Prawns, believes that there is no permanent hit, and the most important thing is to continue to do a good brand. "I understand that the explosive products are of good quality, good taste, high appearance, and interesting, and now I have to add a cost-effective, simply put, delicious, good-looking, fun and not expensive. We used to launch such new products every winter, but after pushing too much, we found that as soon as the freshness of consumers passed, the sales of new products went down. ”
I hope to pass on the braised prawns in Songko oil to my next generation, so that they can work hard for it. Brother Song said that after stepping on the crayfish outlet, the brand was able to grow, and now after three years of tempering by the epidemic, he will further consider the long-term development of the brand. Only by consistently doing the right thing will the brand become stronger and stronger. For example, it has been nine years since the establishment of the Songge brand, and the store insists on making live shrimp all year round, insisting that each shrimp is brushed by hand, and the cumulative wages paid to the shrimp brushing and shrimp cutting workers are more than 30 million yuan. In order to strengthen the brand, Songge Braised Prawns has given up joining in recent years, and will adhere to direct sales in the future (there are still some franchised stores), the purpose is to put the ultimate product and customer experience in place.
At the same time, Brother Song also mentioned that in recent years, the B-end ** chain has begun to develop, and in 2023, the prefabricated oil stewed crayfish will enter the national Walmart sales, and this year it will enter more supermarket channels one after another, and it will also be open to the catering industry in the process. "And we are still very focused on B-end prefabricated shrimp, and we only insist on making one product, which is braised crayfish. ”
Lai Dongsheng, the founder of Youshifang, shared the human efficiency of his store, he said that Youshifang focuses on steamed seafood, with 10 people in the kitchen, and the monthly revenue of a store can reach 2.5 million, which is equivalent to 250,000-300,000 yuan per person per month, which is about twice as efficient as the kitchen of the average Chinese restaurant of 600-800 yuan per capita, and about three or four times higher than the kitchen efficiency of the general traditional Chinese restaurant. For example, a store in Jinshazhou, Guangzhou, has been open for 6-7 years, with a monthly revenue of about 1.5 million, 10 people in the back kitchen, a store area of 60 square meters, and an annual profit of about 200-3 million.
Chen Hanzong, the founder of Oyster Nine, has been researching "oysters" for more than 20 years, and he believes that caterers need to customize products according to their own development needs, and constantly explore the possibilities of products based on their love of food. "In the process of researching oysters, I have developed several dishes, studied the pairing of oyster products, and in addition to dishes, I have also developed related products such as oyster sausages, which is a process of continuous focus and deepening. ”
Hu Yongxiang, chairman of Zhaotian Catering, pointed out that the cost of traffic is becoming more and more expensive, and when catering brands want to create differentiation, they should return from paying attention to online traffic to paying attention to offline effects. He found that the long queues of stores in Beijing, Shanghai and other places have three commonalities: super quality, super service, and super clean. "Based on such common characteristics, we have come up with some new ideas to create differentiated stores, such as not selling pre-made dishes, broadcasting the use of ingredients live, and if customers have objections to the quality, we will give free orders on the spot. ”
Yang Fuqiang, founder of the Old Bowl Club, pointed out that it is very difficult for catering companies to win by a single store, and they must rely on scale to win. Catering brands should focus on the track they are good at, focus on polishing the basic affairs within the brand, and finally be able to roll and accumulate to form a moat of the brand.
Change in the face of adversity
Chain restaurants pay more attention to quality on the basis of efficiency
The guests also had in-depth exchanges on the development of the brand in the past few years and their respective business experiences.
Xiang Huiqiang, co-founder of Kiln Chicken King, said that in the past few years, the brand has focused on supporting franchisees, and the headquarters has made profits to franchisees and provided subsidies or incentive funds, such as adding store opening incentives for stores in some regions, that is, giving 1-20,000 yuan in rewards while not charging franchise fees. For franchise stores that do well, they will also provide promotion subsidies on products, and for loss-making stores, they will provide a larger amount of subsidies.
This is to allow our franchisees to enter the market without too much pressure, and to maintain and have a certain profit after entering the market. It's all about better development. Xiang Huiqiang emphasized.
Xu Xiaoying, CEO of Hezong Culture Group, said bluntly that in the past few years, the expansion speed of Hutaoli has been too fast, which has led to the failure of the supporting system to keep up to a certain extent, such as the uneven ability of the best people in various places, and the performance standards of the store have not been perfectly replicated0 to 30。
In the past few years, Bashufeng has also experienced a shrinkage in store size, but I have taken an inspiration from the history of the UNIQLO brand in Japan, that is, in the future, the frequency of consumer consumption may decrease, but it does not mean that the quality of the team's consumption will decline. Zhu Xiaochun, the founder of Bashufeng Sichuan Cuisine, said that in the past 20 years, Bashufeng has insisted on looking for good ingredients from Chengdu, Sichuan, making and selling freshly every day, and paying great attention to the "pot gas" of food. In the future, Bashufeng will continue to adhere to this point and ensure a good customer experience, which is the lifeline of the enterprise.
The biggest achievement in recent years has been figuring out what we're going to do. Huang Xiaohua, the founder of Big Pigeon Rice, said that a few years ago he hoped to open 60-80 stores in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and now he believes that there is no need to open so many stores, and the number of stores is 20-30.
In Huang Xiaohua's view, the model of big pigeon rice is relatively heavy, and the speed of opening stores is too fast to conform to the laws of the market, so it is better to slow down and make the moat of the brand deeper. "In recent years, Da Pigeon Rice has adjusted the original takeaway business to quality takeaway, because we don't want to exchange low prices for traffic, but to return to quality and do a good job. Although the adjusted sales volume decreased, there was no significant impact on revenue, and the customer experience was better. It can be seen that after doing a good job in quality, the brand benefits obtained are higher. ”
Huang Xiaohua also mentioned that in recent years, the quality requirements of the big pigeon rice for the pigeons are also improving, and the French Mimas white pigeon is currently being introduced, and the self-built pigeon farm is about to be put into use, which will become the leading pigeon farm in the southern region of China in terms of standardization and scale.
Zhang Zhixiong, chairman of Shengji Catering Group, said that the current catering investment environment is very different from more than ten years ago, and now the catering business needs to be more cautious about investment, otherwise it may be difficult to return the money invested. At the same time, in the past 35 years, I have seen many ups and downs in the catering industry, and I need a good attitude to do catering, "how many stores to open and how beautiful the scenery is not the most important, the most important thing is to do business with peace of mind." ”
Xu Lu, the founder of Anhui Kitchen, also said that there are too many restaurants, some people open 1,000 stores a year for fast food, and some people do large-scale catering and open a store a year, but this store is very profitable every year, and it is also a business that runs well, "How to choose different types of catering development paths?" I think the most important thing is to go back to the original intention of the founder, find a suitable purpose in life, and finally find happiness in the career. ”
Shao Yueming, the founder of Xiangge Lila, said that 2023 is a year of painful learning, and there has been a change in thinking from paying more attention to "quantity" to paying more attention to "quality", and in 2024, the method of eliminating the last place may be adopted and some stores whose growth is not as expected may be closed. At the same time, more attention will be paid to the health of cash flow in 2024.
Conclusion
During the exchange, some guests mentioned that the most difficult stage has passed, and it is believed that the catering industry will get better and better in 2024. As Liu Yongzhong, president of the Shenzhen Cuisine Association, said, although the industry is currently fiercely competitive, and everyone complains that it is too "rolly", there are still a lot of opportunities for "gold rush" in cities like Shenzhen that are worth exploring for catering people.
With everyone's applause, the theme salon of "China Catering City Tour" Shenzhen Station came to a successful conclusion.
Next, the "China Catering City Tour" series of activities will continue to promote to build a resource sharing and mutual assistance exchange platform for the majority of catering people, help the industry recover, and achieve a win-win situation with catering people.
Reporter: He Peiling; Editor: Wang Xiuqing).