There are many brands, all-inclusive, and eclectic... If you ask about the food and beverage consumption experience in Beijing, the "international consumption center city", many people will have such comments.
When it comes to well-known catering brands rooted in Beijing, Hu Da, Beijing Huatian, and Meizhou Dongpo are all among them.
Over the years, what has not changed is the insistence of these merchants on the quality of food, but what has changed is from the first access to the Internet, to refined management, to pioneering and innovating their own digital upgrade path.
These changes also allow citizens to enjoy more convenience, and they can taste "the food in memory" and "the good taste passed down by word of mouth" without going out.
The story of Beijing's brand catering deepening model innovation and raising the banner of digitalization is not only a microcosm of Beijing's catering businesses seeking change and breakthroughs, but also a vivid portrayal of the high-quality development of the catering industry.
First contact with the Internet: Catering is not only a dine-in business
The outside is the quaint Beijing charm, and the inside is the fiery red fireworks.
The door is a lively queuing scene, and the house is a gathering place for relatives and friends.
For Hu Da Restaurant, located on Guijie, a landmark food street in Beijing, this lively scene has been going on for more than 20 years.
Hu Da Restaurant's catering business started from a small shop with 64 square meters and only seven tables.
Ten years ago, Hu Da Restaurant opened its second and third branches on this street, and it has gradually become people's "first choice for supper".
Ten years later, Hu Da has five branches on Guijie Street and opened two takeaway stalls.
According to Zhang Shengtao, the head of the operation of Hu Da Restaurant, "We are the first restaurant in the country to carry out 'Southern Shrimp Transport to the North'. Some consumers take an hour or two by car to try 'Ma Xiaoer'. The area of the branches is all 1,000 square meters. Above, during the peak tourist season, the turnover rate of each table can reach 7 rounds/day.”
After having a mature dine-in business model, at the beginning of 2020, Hu Da saw that catering is not only a dine-in business, but the business thinking must be changed significantly to accelerate the digitalization process of the brand.
"We held a communication meeting internally, and felt that we needed to quickly launch takeaways under the premise of epidemic prevention and safety. First, it can make up for rigid costs such as rent and manpower, and second, we can expand the service scope of the store through digital operation, so that Hu Xiaoping can make up for it. The aroma of lobster spreads throughout Beijing through takeout."
Photo: Takeaway dishes from Hu Da Restaurant, Photographer: Chen Feng
Compared with Hu Da, Liuquanju, a 455-year-old "China Time-honored Brand" under Beijing Huatian, has been in contact with online operations earlier.
In 2016, Liuquanju, which had been separated for more than ten years due to the construction of the surrounding subway, reopened.
At the beginning of the opening, trembling old people, leaning on crutches and dragging their families with their mouths, lined up to come to Liuquanju, just to taste a time-honored home-cooked dish and find a familiar taste.
The return of a time-honored brand will not only bring back old friends, but also attract more young new friends.
"We observed that online consumption is a big trend, and we launched a takeaway service in 2018," said Sun Zhongshan, manager of Liuquanju Restaurant.
Hu Da and Liu Quanju unanimously chose to switch the takeaway development track. In addition to responding to environmental changes, more importantly, they saw opportunities in new consumption scenarios.
However, like all transformations, "deep access to the Internet", and then breakthrough innovation, is not achieved overnight.
"Second Entrepreneurship": The former king of Guijie has done a good job in digital and refined operations
Hu Da Restaurant, which has the all-powerful capital in Guijie and started its business “on the Internet” for the first time, at first only regarded takeout as a transitional move in a special period-the menu “was moved to the Internet as it is”, just waiting for the order to come to the door.
"Copying dine-in dishes not only puts a lot of production pressure on the kitchen, but also does not conform to the consumption habits of online users, and the sales of some dishes are not as good as expected. The most worrying thing is that in the store, we have waiters, Shrimp peelers, etc. provide all-round services, and can also receive timely feedback and suggestions. However, customers cannot see or touch through the mobile phone screen. How to serve them well is really like crossing the river by feeling the stones. Second business."
Under the suggestion of Meituan's take-out business manager, Hu Da Restaurant developed and launched dishes and set menus that are more suitable for take-out. "Crayfish can be sold on a per-order basis, which is in line with the mentality of online early adopters. Demand; updated the design of the takeaway box more than 10 times to achieve the best thermal insulation effect." Zhang Shengtao of Hu Da Restaurant introduced.
Recently, in response to the burgeoning "camping fever", Hu Da also launched a "camping takeaway package" and went further out of Guijie.
Change is happening quietly.
The successful "online transformation" of Hu Da Restaurant has attracted the following of surrounding businesses.
"We are very concerned about the dynamics of Huda Restaurant, studying how they do online decoration, event planning, etc. After all, Huda is a banner of Guijie." Boss Yu, who is "the pig's hand" in the Guijie business district, introduced.
In the past 400 years, the time-honored Liuquanju has experienced countless discerning diners, and it has also polished its golden signboard time and time again.
But this time, their entrepreneurship is a field that has never been tried before, and they are also accepting new challenges.
Liuquanju's products and tastes are undoubtedly the favorites of the older generation, but for Generation Z, who receives information from the online world every day, the popularity may not be as good as a newly opened Internet celebrity restaurant.
How to shorten the distance with young people and let young people press the "order" button is a new compulsory course for time-honored brands.
For online consumer groups, Liu Quanju has made a series of business transformations: creating online flagship products, the monthly sales of small original bean paste packs are as high as over 1,000, and they have also successfully driven the sales of other meals; Seasons, festivals and other changes adjust the new takeaway dishes; renovate the online store, and move the visual elements of the offline time-honored brand to the online, so that young people can feel the unique cultural atmosphere of the time-honored brand even when they open the app.
Model innovation: catering veterans lead the catering dual home
According to the latest data from the China Cuisine Association, more than 70% of the catering industry is currently online takeout.
Through digital transformation, Chinese catering companies have successfully opened a new era of dual home delivery and dine-in.
Refinement management can help merchants increase sales, but in the development trend of dual home, it is more critical to make model innovations to obtain longer vitality according to the brand's own advantages and characteristics.
In recent years, Beijing merchants represented by branded restaurants have begun to explore development strategies that are equally important as takeout and dine-in with practical actions.
In 2020, Meizhou Dongpo, a "time-honored Sichuan cuisine brand" in Beijing, was hit by the epidemic and suffered heavy losses.
The answer given by Wang Gang, founder of Meizhou Dongpo, is "No matter how difficult it is, we will never wait to die." Poe is the first in the industry to implement the double store manager system, with a number of full-time takeaway store managers responsible for the online operation and management of the store.
In Dongpo, Meizhou, the takeaway manager needs to fully participate in everything from the selection of ingredients to the design of new dishes, to how to improve the efficiency of meal delivery, how to improve the restoration of dishes during transportation, and user research, etc. Operational responsibility is no less than that of a dine-in restaurant manager.
Photo: Meituan takeaway riders pick up meals from the Meizhou Dongpo store, Photo: Chen Feng
Li Xiaobin, the takeaway manager of Meizhou Dongpo (Lianri Store), said, "We need to master computer operation, data analysis, event planning and other skills, and the most important thing is to have an online business mindset. Of course, the takeaway manager is not alone. , We have a complete takeaway operation team including order takers, packers, customer service, etc. There are many free takeaway operation courses on Meituan Takeaway, and the company will also organize us to learn.”
Change continues.
In 2022, Hu Da also made a major adjustment since its establishment - "going out" of Guijie and opening a takeaway stall.
In June of this year, Hu Da Restaurant opened its first take-out stall in Shuangjing, which does not provide dine-in, but only provides take-out services.
In October, Huda's second takeaway stall opened in Wudaokou.
In this mode, the dishes are uniformly distributed by the main store, and the stalls are responsible for the heating and sub-packaging of the standardized processes, and the operation efficiency can be further improved.
In the past ten years, Beijing catering businesses who have taken the digital express train have felt the great opportunities brought by digitalization.
The scale of take-out in some stores of Huda Restaurant has surpassed that of dine-in; Liu Quanju’s online channel sales account for more than 30% of the total store sales; Meizhou Dongpo has accumulated strong online growth through innovative attempts such as “double store managers”. boosting force.
Behind the growth in order volume, catering merchants innovated online thinking, actively embraced digitalization, and continued to upgrade and transform traditional business methods, achieving simultaneous high-quality online and offline development.
Looking back at Beijing's catering industry for ten years, what has not changed is the pursuit of the ultimate taste and service quality by catering companies, but what has changed is the management thinking and the new development model that adapts to new and multiple consumption scenarios.
In recent years, in order to promote the digital transformation and upgrading of the city's catering industry, the Beijing Municipal Department of Commerce has introduced or promoted a number of actions to facilitate the digitalization of the catering industry. Consumer coupons drive service consumption and comprehensively ensure the high-quality development of the catering industry.
On this basis, many Beijing brand catering merchants have seized the opportunity to manage the offline dine-in "headquarters", and at the same time, they have also done online "branch stores" through model innovation, and become "excellent students" in catering digitalization. .
According to the "2021 China Chain Catering Industry Report", more than 68% of the leading catering companies have fully realized the importance of digital transformation. Catering companies adapt to the development of the times and take the initiative to transform and upgrade. The concrete manifestation of active access to the Internet and model innovation has also brought a steady stream of impetus to the development of China's catering industry.