Catalyzed by factors such as lazy economy and fast-paced life, the scale of the Chinese fast food market continues to grow. The market ushered in more opportunities, and related companies have also made efforts in product research and development, channel construction, etc., and began to seek capitalization.
A few days ago, the old lady who has always been interested in IPO has a new move. On February 23, the old lady's uncle announced that he signed a listing counseling agreement with CITIC ** on the Beijing Stock Exchange on February 6, and has submitted counseling filing materials. On February 26, the Zhejiang Securities Regulatory Bureau accepted the counseling filing application submitted by the old lady, and the company officially entered the counseling stage.
The old lady never hid his determination for the IPO. However, the capital market has always been strict, especially in the catering industry, which has been facing challenges such as high operating costs, difficult expansion, and easy aging of brands. In this case, can the determined old lady give full play to his own advantages and stand out?
In the large and scattered catering market, how does the old lady find growth?
According to the prospectus, from 2019 to the first half of 2023, the revenue of the old lady's uncle will be 122.2 billion yuan, 120.7 billion yuan, 152.5 billion yuan, 142.4 billion and 80 billion yuan.
On the whole, although affected by various factors, the revenue of the old lady has fluctuated, but it also shows a growth trend, especially in the first half of last year, the revenue increased by 27 year-on-year46% to 800 million yuan, and the net profit also reached 4503660,000 yuan, a year-on-year increase of nearly 62 times, and such achievements are inseparable from the development trend of the domestic catering industry.
According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, due to the accelerated recovery of offline consumption, in the first half of 2023, the national catering revenue will be 2,432.9 billion yuan, an increase of 214%。This growth trend is also expected to continue, according to the institution**, the scale of China's catering industry in 2025 or will exceed 6 trillion yuan.
However, although the industry has created a broad space for the development of enterprises, the problem of low concentration and fierce market competition in the catering industry is still significant. It is understood that the total turnover of the 100 leading enterprises in the forefront of various formats in the catering industry accounts for less than 5% of the total industry.
In addition, behind the fragmentation of the catering industry, related enterprises are generally faced with the practical problems of high rent, high labor costs, high raw material purchase costs, and low profits. According to the "2022 Annual Report on China's Catering Industry" released by the China Hotel Association, the three items of raw materials, rent and labor costs of a catering company have accounted for more than 70%, and the whole industry has entered the era of "low gross profit".
In this context, if enterprises want to achieve rapid development, they obviously need to be supported by an efficient operating model. The development of the old lady's uncle is inseparable from the operation and operation of its "** kitchen + prefabricated dishes".
It is reported that the operation process of the kitchen is generally to make and process the raw materials into semi-finished products or finished products according to the menu, and then distribute them to various chain stores for secondary processing or combination and then sell to customers.
On the one hand, this model can reduce the procurement and transportation costs of catering stores from the source through bulk procurement and integrated distribution; On the other hand, in cooking, it reduces the dependence of traditional catering on chef experience and technology, which can greatly reduce labor costs and achieve large-scale replication while ensuring the quality of meals.
As far as the old lady is concerned, the company has emphasized large-scale and replicable genes since its inception, and currently has 2 first-class kitchen factories in Huzhou, with an annual capacity utilization rate of about 90%. Due to the emphasis on the standardized control of the meal process, from the cost side, the expenditure control of the old lady's uncle is also relatively stable. According to the prospectus, in the first half of 2021-2023, the operating costs of the old lady's uncle will be 127.5 billion yuan, 121 billion and 64.8 billion yuan, gross profit margin respectively. 02% and 1894%。
However, it is worth mentioning that in the catering industry, the operation model of "* kitchen + prefabricated dishes" is not uncommon, and it is reported that more than 80% of large-scale catering enterprises have built or are building ** kitchens. In addition, Tianyancha data shows that as of now, there are 6 enterprises related to prefabricated dishesmore than 40,000; Among them, from January to December 2023, more than 5,000 newly registered related enterprises were registered, a year-on-year increase of 1529%。
Under the competition, the scale of the old lady's uncle actually needs to be improved. In terms of the number of stores, the prospectus shows that as of the end of the first half of 2023, Lao Niang Uncle has a total of 402 stores, while the number of rural base and Lao Xiang chicken stores that are also interested in IPO has exceeded 1,000.
In terms of revenue, from 2019 to 2022, the village base (including Mr. Rice) achieved a total revenue of 325.7 billion yuan, 316.1 billion yuan, 461.8 billion and 470.6 billion yuan. From 2020 to the first half of 2023, the revenue of Laoxiang Chicken was 345.4 billion yuan, 439.3 billion yuan, 4.5 billion yuan, 2.6 billion yuan.
It can be seen that in the huge and scattered Chinese fast food market, some companies have taken the lead in brand awareness and store expansion.
The growth of regional catering brands is limited, and the old lady will go out of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai?
Under the competitive situation, in order to occupy the minds of consumers faster, the necessity of catering brands to start nationwide expansion and accelerate store expansion is becoming more and more obvious. As Qing Yong, the founder of Tomato Capital, said, "Chinese catering is still in the growth stage, and for Chinese fast food, in addition to first- and second-tier cities, there are also sinking markets and overseas markets with huge demand."
Therefore, the rural base in the same track as the old lady's uncle, while continuing to deepen the Sichuan and Chongqing market, gradually enter the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and other places, and Lao Xiang Chicken also plans to open 700 new direct stores in Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Wuhan, Hangzhou and other 10 key cities in the next 3 years. It can be said that from the region to the whole country, it is becoming the inevitable development trend of Chinese fast food chain brands.
Since its establishment, the old lady's uncle has focused on "Jiangnan characteristics", and the stores are mainly concentrated in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other places. According to the prospectus, as of mid-2023, Lao Niang's uncle has 379 directly operated stores and 23 franchised stores, which are concentrated in Zhejiang Province, Jiangsu Province, Shanghai City and Anhui Province. Among them, the revenue from Zhejiang accounted for the highest proportion, accounting for nearly half of the operating income of catering stores in each period.
The risk of too concentrated business area is obvious, so next, the old lady will take the Yangtze River Delta region as a foothold to develop terminal stores across the country. It is reported that in the next three years, the old lady plans to build about 300 directly-operated stores. However, when it comes to cutting into different eating habits, the challenge cannot be ignored.
On the one hand, as the number of stores continues to increase, the company's first-chain system will face a greater test. The report of the head leopard research institute pointed out that the backward level of the chain is one of the factors for the low degree of chaining of China's catering industry, specifically, the current catering industry as a whole has problems such as too scattered upstream, long chain, low penetration rate of cold chain logistics, etc., and facilities such as kitchens, cold chain transportation and food base need to be continuously upgraded.
Looking at the catering enterprises that have now achieved chaining, they can enter the whole country, and the best chain is indispensable. For example, according to the information on the official website, Yang Guofu has opened more than 7,000 global chain stores in 31 provincial-level administrative regions across the country and 10 overseas countries and regions.
It is reported that Yang Guofu not only builds his own factory and R&D base to ensure the quality and safety of product production, but also efficiently supports the collection, inspection, storage, ordering, distribution and sales of domestic and foreign franchised stores and retail business through the digital chain system.
Therefore, in order to provide basic support for subsequent expansion, in recent years, the old lady has also paid more attention to the construction of the first chain. It is understood that in the process of impacting the IPO, the old lady's uncle catering originally planned to raise 83.2 billion yuan, of which 4200 million yuan for chain store construction projects, 30.7 billion yuan for the construction project of the first chain comprehensive base. However, the construction of the first chain involves many links, large investment and long cycle, and the old lady undoubtedly needs to be determined enough if he wants to achieve ideal results.
On the other hand, due to geographical factors, the eating habits of different regions vary greatly, and in order to meet the needs of specific tastes, F&B brands need to be able to provide dishes with a variety of flavors. For example, when the country base opened the market through the dual brands of "country base" and "Mr. rice", "country base" focused on Sichuan dishes; "Mr. Rice" mainly provides localized dishes for consumers in Hunan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other regions, and has now covered Hunan cuisine, Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine, local cuisine, Cantonese cuisine and other cuisines.
At present, the old lady's dishes "Jiangsu and Zhejiang flavor" label is more prominent, in order to break the geographical limit, enterprises obviously need to increase the development of dishes according to the needs of consumers in different regions. In this regard, the old lady also mentioned that in order to meet the dining needs of customers in different regions and different periods, the meals will be upgraded from the two dimensions of "continuous introduction of new meals and continuous optimization of existing meals".
On the whole, the old lady's opening of the road to nationalization means that he will stand on a bigger stage. From a long-term perspective, this is in line with the sustainable development needs of enterprises, but at the same time, this stage is full of masters. In order to break out of the encirclement, the old lady still needs to work hard.
Author: Jiuru.
*: Songuo Finance.