Trillions of blue oceans of pre-made dishes set sail at home
In recent years, driven by home consumption, the pre-prepared vegetable industry has expanded rapidly, ushering in the industry's trend, and many upstream companies such as agriculture, animal husbandry, food, and downstream companies such as catering and retail have also entered the market.
Behind this is the driving force for the standardization of catering chains and the large-scale takeaway, which also superimposes the catalysis of home consumption demand after the emergence of the new crown epidemic in 2020.
According to Meal Collection and iiMedia Research, the scale of pre-made dishes in 2021 is only 317.3 billion yuan, while the scale of catering will exceed 4 trillion yuan, which means that pre-made dishes are only for the needs of the B-side catering industry, and there is huge room for growth.
Moreover, the current prefabricated vegetable industry is also highly fragmented. Most of the leading enterprises have a volume of around 1 billion yuan, and there are still a large number of foundries with a scale of less than 100 million yuan. This also causes problems such as large differences in product quality and poor taste.
In the eyes of many people in the industry, "the prefabricated vegetable industry is still in a stage of vigorous development and huge opportunities."
"The fresh vegetables I hoarded are rotten, but the pre-made vegetables can't be grabbed"
On April 25, when he learned that he might be quarantined at home, Xiaolu in Dongcheng District checked the refrigerator for the first time, and the meat, eggs and milk were readily available. I feel a lot more at ease.” For some people who are already skilled in cooking, living at home allows them more time to feel the fireworks in the kitchen, while for some kitchen novice, if they don’t want to eat noodles, eggs or white porridge every day Pickles, pre-made dishes easily jump to the front of the options.
On May 12, on the 17th day of living at home, Da Qiao uploaded a photo of his fingers wrapped around a Band-Aid and sent it to a group of friends, with the text "I cut my hand early in the morning".
Da Qiao is a typical kitchen novice and a loyal fan of pre-made dishes.
"In fact, I used to reject pre-made dishes. I was worried about its shelf life and the ingredients were not fresh. This time at home, I have been hoarding vegetables, so I tried pre-made dishes by the way, and then fell into it." Da Qiao said: "This dish is really good, the ingredients are very good, the ingredient list is very clean, and it will bring a pot. A pork belly chicken is 68 yuan, it will be hot in a few minutes, and I can eat it for a day with some vegetables."
In Da Qiao's opinion, pre-cooked dishes are not only convenient and fast, but also allow Xiaobai in the kitchen to easily make a decent meal, which is very fulfilling.
A Ke, who lives in Chaoyang District, came into contact with pre-made dishes because of her mother. "My family has been stocking pre-made dishes for a long time, and there are a lot of frozen layers, mainly Meicai buckwheat and Kung Pao chicken." According to her, a delicious dish It takes half an hour to an hour for the pork belly to be steamed in a pot. This is not even counting the time to buy vegetables, wash vegetables and cut side dishes, but pre-made vegetables only need to be heated for 5 minutes, and they are delicious. Freed from the kitchen."
Xiao Yuer, who is also a member of Chaoyang masses, is the mother of a two-year-old boy. The first time she tried pre-made dishes was the New Year's Eve dinner for the Year of the Tiger. Not bad." Xiaoyuer told the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter: "I take my baby alone, and I don't have time to cook some dishes with a long cooking process, so pre-made dishes solve this problem. But I still hope to recover sooner. Dine in, so you can go out to eat, more convenient!”
"The demand for pre-made dishes is hot on the sales side, and now there is a shortage of supply on the production side."
Liu Xiaohui, the person in charge of the daily excellent fresh prefabricated dishes, told the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter.
How strong is consumer demand for prepared dishes?
Just look at the sales.
The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter found that during the May Day period, the sales of pre-made vegetables on platforms such as Daily Youxian, Hema, and Jingdong Supermarket increased by between 100% and 500% year-on-year.
"Because of the limited storage space in the refrigerator, I now have to grab pre-made dishes 2 to 3 times a week, and sometimes I can't grab it." Da Qiao told the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter: "A very embarrassing situation is that I also stock up. I got a lot of fresh vegetables, and they rotted because they couldn't eat them all..."
Giving pre-made dishes a chance at home, the sales in the first 4 months have exceeded the whole year of last year
From rejection to liking, there is only one home life between Da Qiao and pre-made dishes.
For merchants, in the process of staying at home, they have harvested thousands of new fans like Da Qiao.
Chia Tai Group's pre-made dishes project was launched in the second half of 2020. The C-side pre-made dishes are made by the dedicated independent brand "Zheng Da Chuyi". The products will be officially launched in January 2021 and will be available on JD.com, Tmall, CP Lotus, and Chia Tai You. Fresh and other channel platforms are available.
During this time, Bu Mengxuan, director of the pre-made dishes project of the E-commerce Department of CP Group China, was very busy because the entire department was preparing for June 18.
Bu Mengxuan said that pre-made dishes have exploded in the past two years, and the sales in the first four months of this year have exceeded that of the whole of last year. According to this popularity, it is expected that the sales will reach a new peak during the June 18 e-commerce promotion. " We started stocking up in April, and during this process, after a lot of goods arrived in the warehouse, they were quickly divided, and more orders were added."
Daily Youxian has started the pre-made vegetable business in 2019. Liu Xiaohui said bluntly that it is "great" for the changes in the industry in recent years.
She explained in detail: "The most obvious thing is that the attention has come up, and the entire industry is paying attention to this. Whether it is from the manufacturer, the source supply chain, or the consumer terminal, everyone continues to educate together, so consumers are not interested in this category. There will be more awareness.” Both Bu Mengxuan and Liu Xiaohui believe that the formation of a joint force from the production end to the consumption end is the main reason for the rapid development of the pre-made vegetable industry, and in this process, the epidemic also played a role. Very important catalytic role, "In recent years, the epidemic will have some impact on consumers' consumption habits and lifestyles."
Bu Mengxuan said that home consumption is an opportunity for pre-made dishes.
Home life has increased the frequency of people cooking at home, and the target group of pre-made dishes has a deeper understanding of their pain points, which shortens the education period of the market.
The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter observed that since 2020, the field of pre-made dishes has been favored by capital, many companies have obtained financing, and listed companies such as Arowana are also entering the market.
The research report of Guohai Securities in January 2021 shows that there are currently about 20,000 upstream pre-prepared vegetable companies with an average annual sales of about 15 million. That is to say, the current market stock of pre-prepared vegetables is about 300 billion yuan, accounting for food The overall proportion is less than 10%.
According to the annual compound growth rate of 20%, in the next 6-7 years, China's prefabricated vegetable market can grow into a trillion-yuan market.
According to a research report of Haitong Securities in September 2021, "We estimate that the market size of prefabricated vegetables will be 221.5 billion yuan in 2021, and it will reach 1.5 trillion yuan by 2030. The compound annual growth rate is 18.8%.”
When the market is getting hotter and new and old players are entering the game, some contestants have always maintained restraint and calm.
"Pre-made dishes will grow to a certain extent in the future, but it is also necessary to see the characteristics of Chinese people's consumption, and they will still pursue freshness and deliciousness. In the future, more pre-made dishes may be released more in the catering channel, helping chain catering companies to reduce their subsequent consumption. However, in personal consumption scenarios, if conditions permit, I believe that everyone is still willing to choose a consumption method with a better comprehensive experience. After all, pre-made dishes are just a consumption scenario that is more convenient and may sacrifice a certain taste and atmosphere. "New Hope said.
(At the request of the interviewee, Da Qiao, Xiao Yuer, Ake and Xiaolu are all pseudonyms in the text)
Written in this edition / Yan Xia, Shell Finance reporter of the Beijing News