Convenient and personalized self-heating small hot pots are favored by consumers, and supermarkets put relevant products in a prominent position for customers to choose. Photo by Liu Qiongping, a reporter from Changsha Evening News

Boosted by consumption upgrades and lazy economy, self-heating convenience foods are rapidly emerging and are sought after by capital

Financing every Wednesday, self-heating hot pot is hot

　　Changsha Evening News reporter Liu Qiongping

　　You don’t have to call friends to make friends, so you don’t have to wait in line for hotpot restaurants. With just a glass of water, you can eat steaming hot pots with rich ingredients at home in a few minutes. You don’t even need to wash the bowls. The birth of hot pot is really good news for foodies.

　　This year's epidemic has hit the dine-in business in the catering industry, but for the convenient fast-food industry represented by self-heating small hot pot, it has ushered in the spring of "epidemic". Not only is the sales blowout, but large-scale financing is also intensively landed . In mid-May, net red self-heating hot pot brand "Mo Xiaoxian", "self-healing pot" and "food people" completed financing at the same time, and self-heating food ushered in a highlight moment. However, in the opinion of the industry, the self-heating hot pot market, which is sought after by capital, coexists with opportunities and needs to improve the industry standards to regulate.

In the spring outside the "epidemic", the sales of self-heating hot pots were blown out

　　From "instant noodles with ham sausage" to self-heating small hot pot, snail rice noodles, self-heating rice, etc., in recent years, convenient fast food has been upgraded rapidly, and new products are emerging, especially self-heating small hot pots with rich ingredients and fresh cooking. Sought after.

　　"I have purchased and tried several brands of self-heating small hot pot products. The rich ingredients and balanced nutrition are the main reasons for me to choose it." 90s Li Le is a senior enthusiast of self-heating small hot pot. She told reporters that since Hot small hot pot does not need fire, electricity and simple and fast operation. It is very friendly to single people and office workers who have no time to cook and have a fast pace of life.

　　The reporter visited several large shopping malls and supermarkets and found that the self-heating small hot pot and instant noodles were placed together, occupying the C position of the supermarket's convenient food shelves. Advertisements such as "no power, no fire, a cup of cold water to eat hot pot" marked on the outer packaging of the self-heating small hot pot are very conspicuous, and the brand involves more than ten kinds. Due to the different types of vegetables and the combination of meat and vegetables, the price of the self-heating hot pot is between 9.9 yuan and 33.8 yuan. The upper layer of the inner box puts the bottom materials and ingredients, and the lower layer puts the heating bag.

　　Since the hot pot appeared in 2015, it quickly became popular in 2017. With the popularity and popularity of self-heating small hot pots, more and more companies have joined them. Today, this subdivision track has more than 300 self-heating hot pot brands. The reporter combed the information and found that there are three types of typical self-heating hot pot brands: one is the traditional hot pot giants, such as Haidilao, Xiaolongkan, Chongqing Dezhuang, etc., relying on the original brand to launch self-heating hot pot products to expand new Consumer scenes; one is a casual snack manufacturer enterprise, relying on the production line to expand the horizontal category, such as good shop, herbal flavor, three squirrels, etc.; and the other is self-heating food such as Mo Xiaoxian and Zihai pot An emerging brand that started.

　　It is worth mentioning that in 2020, the epidemic accelerated the development of the self-heating hot pot market. The data shows that between January 20 and February 2, self-heating instant food ranked second among the best-selling products. Among them, the order volume of "zihai pot" has increased by more than 200%, which is 10 times that of previous years; the sales volume of "Mo Xiaoxian" has increased by nearly 400% year-on-year, and the sales volume is expected to reach 800 million yuan in 2020; Shipment volume increased by 30% year-on-year, and the turnover in March increased to 90 million yuan. Under the explosion of sales, offline supermarkets and convenience stores are in short supply, and online channels such as Taobao and JD.com are also out of stock.

　　According to the Qingshan Capital Research Report, instant fast food is already a 250 billion yuan market. From 2015 to 2018, the market size of self-heating hot pot increased from 230 million yuan to 4.49 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 550.7%.

In response, many types of capitals have intervened in a short time

　　In view of the future huge market of self-heating hot pots and the staged dividends brought by the epidemic, capital has also caught on.

　　On May 17, the self-heating hot pot brand "Mo Xiaoxian" announced that it has recently completed tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing, with Jinding Capital exclusively investing and Qingtong Capital serving as the sole financial advisor. Tianyancha information shows that this round of financing will be mainly used for offline channel expansion, optimization of the entire industry chain, brand building, etc., in order to gain more market share and build a new generation of self-heating hot pot brand.

　　However, there is not only one self-heating hot pot brand that is highly sought after by capital. On May 11, "Zihaiguo" completed over RMB 100 million of Series B financing exclusively invested by Jingwei China; on May 9, "Zheren" completed a series of tens of millions of RMB A financing, invested by Zhonghui Capital, Qingling Capital serves as the exclusive financial advisor, mainly used for brand building, talent introduction and channel expansion.

　　"Mo Xiaoxian", "Zihaiguo" and "Cannibal" were established in 2017. They entered the self-heating hot pot market successively in 2018. They quickly became popular with e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD. Data shows that "Mo Xiaoxian" has entered Wal-Mart, RT-Mart, Carrefour, Hema and other supermarkets and convenience stores offline. At present, it covers 100,000+ terminal channels and 300+ offline dealers. As of the end of 2019, Haidilao There are 2,000 distributors of hot pots nationwide, covering more than 300,000 terminal outlets.

　　Similarly, the giant's performance in the self-heating food market is very impressive. Taking Haidilao as an example, the financial report shows that Haidilao's self-heating products were listed in mid-2017. In 2018, self-heating food series revenue was 449 million yuan, and sales increased by 631.2% year-on-year; in 2019, Haidilao's affiliated listed company Yihai International The self-heating hot pot revenue has exceeded 1 billion yuan.

To prevent risks, the industry calls for raising the threshold and setting industry standards

　　Since the hot pot became popular, the discussion around its safety has not been cut off. The reporter learned that the heating principle of the self-heating hot pot is to use the material in the heating bag to contact the water to release heat. The food in the upper food ingredients pot absorbs heat and the temperature rises. There is a certain risk in this kind of operation. If the heating package is damaged, high-temperature liquid may be ejected. Once the vent hole is blocked, it may even cause an explosion. In addition, in order to reduce costs, some manufacturers arbitrarily use low-cost heating agents with unstable reaction processes, which further aggravates potential safety hazards.

　　Earlier, Chengdu, Shanghai and other places have experienced explosions caused by improper operation in the process of consumers eating self-heated food, and injuries to their bodies. In addition, the heating pack is damaged and mixed with food ingredients, and consumers often burn their mouths after accidental consumption.

　　Self-heating food lacks a unified safety standard, which is a major shortcoming in the development of the industry. On March 15 this year, China Quality Mileage Promotion Association released the "self-heating instant food standards" group standard, but has not yet formed a unified and standardized industry safety standard. Some companies are not enthusiastic about fulfilling the standards, especially some "small workshop" products have greater hidden dangers.

　　"Self-heating hot pot has achieved rapid development under the impetus of the epidemic. This is a staged dividend." Industry experts pointed out that in the future, with the gradual deepening of the house economy and lazy economy, self-heating hot pot has a certain market, but in Before the introduction of the national standard, the market scale and growth rate will be controlled within a certain range. It is necessary to formulate a self-heating hot pot specification and unified standards as soon as possible to allow the standard short board to grow first before we can usher in a broader market.