Author: Jie Shuyi

　　On September 24, a reporter from China Business News learned from Xiabu Group (00520.HK) that the first store in China of the brand new roasted meat brand "Lianzhuo" has settled in Shanghai ASE Center.

The first batch of more than 20 stores will be located in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and the number of stores will exceed 100 in the next three years.

　　Xiabu Group previously focused on the hot pot brand.

The group founded the single-person hotpot brand "Xiabuxiabu" in 1998, and launched a relatively high-end hotpot brand "Cuocu" in 2016. This time, the group has entered the barbecue track again.

　　Regarding the intention of entering the barbecue track, He Guangqi, founder and chairman of Xiabu Group, said, "Hotpot and barbecue are the two largest segments of my country's catering market, and there is no leading brand or enterprise on the barbecue track, so this time the group To make the barbecue extremely differentiated.”

　　In the context of the repeated epidemics, Xiabu Group has also carried out such a large-scale expansion strategy. He Guangqi's view is: "The epidemic will eventually pass, and the consumer demand of more than one billion people will definitely develop vigorously. In addition," The development speed of 'Making Burn' will be 20%-30% faster than that of 'Minato', because it is backed by the group's existing supply chain, talents and other resources, and the advantage of 'Making Burn' is much greater than the previous two brands."

　　However, He Guangqi also pointed out that the expansion of stores in special periods needs to be more cautious in some aspects. For example, the group plans to introduce a software system for smart location selection of stores to manage the rent-to-sale ratio of stores through digital means.

At present, the company plans to control the rental cost of Xiabuxiabu stores to less than 10% of the turnover, and make up less than 8%, while the rent of the first batch of "burning" stores is expected to be controlled below 15%, which is a higher proportion. The reason is that the location selection is more strict than the first two brands. For example, it must be on the first floor, there is an outside area, and it is in a business area where young people gather. Market Validation.

　　With the debut of the brand "While Burning", Xiabu Group's multi-brand and multi-format expansion strategy has been further implemented.

It is reported that "While Burning" plans to open at least 20 stores next year (2023), and the first batch of stores will be located in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Starting from 2024, "While Burning" is expected to expand at least at the rate of adding "30+" stores every year, focusing on core cities such as Hangzhou, Chongqing, and Tianjin, and plans to break through 100 stores in the next three years.

With the debut of the new brand "Making Time", Xiabu Group has completed the layout of the mass, mid-to-high-end, and high-end catering consumption track through the three major brands of "Xiabuxiabu", "Combu" and "Making Time". .

　　It is worth mentioning that the differentiation of "While Burning" lies in the diversified new "catering +" model of "roasted meat + wine and tea + joy". Promote the "joy" element.

In addition to arranging the store in a fashionable style such as izakaya and nightclubs, "Bai Shou" will also launch a large number of interactive games, hourly promotions, sports events broadcast, limited-time offers and other activities on the spot. Customers can also have fun activities with the waiters on the spot.

　　However, consumers with different needs have different feelings about the interaction of live games.

The 25-year-old white-collar Xiao Wang thinks: "If I choose to eat barbecue on weekends to relax, I should just want to chat with my good friends quietly and have a good meal, and I may choose a restaurant that does not contain interactive games."

　　And Xiao Lu, a 19-year-old college student, told reporters: "I am willing to try a barbecue restaurant with interactive games, because I feel that I can eat and play happily like a nightclub, killing two birds with one stone."

　　According to the introduction of Xiabu Group, the target consumers of "burning while burning" are mainly young people in the Z era, with the post-90s, post-95s and post-00s as the main consumer groups.

According to the consumption habits of such groups, the business hours are also different, from 11:00 noon to 2:00 late at night, to meet the various dining scenes and time needs of urban office workers and young people, create business meals, birthday celebration dinners, late nights Scenes such as places to relax after overtime, dinner parties and dinners.

　　The latest "2022 China Chain Catering Industry Report" released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association shows that in 2021, the scale of my country's catering market will reach 4.7 trillion yuan, the output value of hot pot will be about 950 billion yuan, and the output value of barbecue will be 270 billion yuan. The food category that people choose the most when they have dinner together.

According to the company's data, the total number of barbecue-related enterprises in my country is 852,000, and there are 493,000 existing ones.

Judging from the annual distribution of the number of registrations, the number of registrations of barbecue-related enterprises in the past ten years has shown an increasing trend year by year, but there is a lack of top giant enterprises.

As of September 19, 2022, 94% of barbecue-related enterprises with a registered capital of less than 1 million in my country accounted for 94%, there was only one enterprise with a registered capital of 10 million to more than 50 million, and zero enterprises with a registered capital of more than 50 million.

　　In 2022, the life of various catering companies will not be easy.

On August 29, Xiabu Group released its performance report for the first half of 2022.

The current revenue was 2.156 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 29.2%; the net loss increased from 46.9 million yuan in the first half of 2021 to 278.2 million yuan in the same period of 2022, and the loss increased by 459.95% year-on-year.

　　However, in an interview on September 24, He Guangqi revealed that the Minato brand suffered a slight loss in the first half of the year, and it was able to achieve profitability throughout the year.

"Xiabuxiabu" also had losses in the first half of the year, but these losses were fully recovered from July to September.