Capital falls in love with "Liu Chuan" roadside stalls become a blue ocean
Our reporter Yang Tianyue
Not long ago, the "net celebrity" chain fried skewers brand Kuafu fried skewers and Xijie fried skewers received large amounts of financing, capital has continued to enter the snack track, and another new market is emerging.
The down-to-earth snack category has emerged with a new attitude of standardized management, bringing people a new experience of improving food safety standards and upgrading consumption.
"Internet celebrities" fried skewers frequently received financing
In the south street of Dongzhimen, the small door face of a Kuafu fried skewers on the side of the road wafted with aromas, attracting passing citizens.
This store has just opened for more than a month and has already attracted many repeat customers who live nearby.
The big loin for 12 yuan, two strings of flesh and bones for 5 yuan, and the big flowering sausages for 3 yuan each are the signature specialty products in the store.
There is no dine-in place in the store. There are various kinds of ingredients in the neat glass counter. Compared with the kushikatsu stalls that used to push the tricycle on the street, it is much more "premium", and this kushikatsu brand has blossomed everywhere. .
According to Dianping, at present, Kuafu fried skewers has opened more than 30 stores in business districts and residential areas in Beijing, and nearly 10 stores are about to open; as of October, it has opened 1,800 franchise stores across the country. , And increase at a rate of 120 per month.
The "roadside stall" is made into a chain brand, and Kuafu fried string is favored by capital. Not long ago, it announced the completion of tens of millions of yuan in A2 round of financing, exclusively invested by Jinding Capital, and Weilan Capital as the exclusive financial adviser.
This is also the third round of financing completed continuously within six months, with a cumulative financing amount of over 150 million yuan.
It is reported that this round of financing will be used for full-link digital construction, supply chain upgrades, brand influence building and team expansion.
Another fried string chain brand Xijie fried string also received a single round of financing of 295 million yuan not long ago. The funds will be used for supply chain upgrades, team expansion and digital construction.
At present, Xijie fried skewers has signed a total of more than 1,400 stores across the country, and about 100 new stores are opened every month, covering Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces.
Full chain distribution copy operation
Before the appearance of Kuafu fried skewers and Xijie fried skewers, such traditional snacks had not appeared in national chain brands.
In 2019, aiming to upgrade the track of street food consumption, two fried skewers brands, Kuafu and Xijie, have appeared one after another, and they have quickly become popular due to chain and standardized operations.
According to different consumption scenarios, different types of stores such as self-selected stores, community-type stores, and walking food shops are opened in various scenes such as commercial districts and streets in first- to fifth-tier cities.
Shop decoration and packaging copywriting emphasized the “national trend”, which was welcomed by consumers, and it expanded against the trend when the catering industry was hit hard by the epidemic last year.
Xijie fried skewers realizes store replication management through the central kitchen and the entire industry chain distribution. It has more than 40 cooperative factories across the country, and the back-end supply chain can support at least 2,000 stores.
Founder Wang Kuankuan revealed that the current average monthly turnover of a single store is nearly 150,000 yuan. If the total number of stores is 1,400, the monthly turnover is 210 million yuan and the annual turnover exceeds 2.5 billion yuan.
Entrepreneurial brands have become popular, and the capital market has frequently thrown olive branches, making the fried skewers track quickly become popular.
Not long ago, the tea brand Michelle Ice City also opened its first experience store in Henan and started a cross-border fried skewers business.
According to data from Tianyan Check, the number of registered skewers enterprises in my country reached nearly 8,000 last year alone, an increase of 138.5% year-on-year.
Snack track competition overweight
It's not just fried skewers brands that have become popular. In recent years, emerging snack brands such as Zhengxin Chicken Chop, Juewei Duck Neck, Black Classic, and Liao Kee Bangbang Chicken have expanded rapidly, bringing street food into the vast consumer market.
The data of "China Catering Big Data 2021" released by Meituan shows that in the past five years, the total number of snack and fast food stores has been rising steadily, attracting entrepreneurs and capital frequently.
In terms of the number of stores, snacks and fast food stores accounted for 34% of all catering stores in 2016, and this proportion has reached 44.3% by 2020.
However, although the snack industry has the advantages of low entry barriers, small investment in a single store, easy replication and expansion, and rapid development, it also faces the pressure of rich categories and numerous competitors.
Standardized and standardized management and a sound and controllable quality system are the foundation for emerging snack brands to gain a firm foothold and achieve large-scale development, and differentiated management is the key to stand out on the track.
"As the industry develops to a certain extent, the needs of consumer groups will also undergo fission and segmentation. Emerging snack brands need to seek differentiated operations in the competition of product homogeneity, and it is in line with the general trend of consumers to pursue healthy diets." China Food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng said.