China News Service, June 28, according to the "European Times" report, on June 23, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced further unblocking measures, social distance reduced from two meters to one meter, restaurants, bars and barbershops and other places It can be reopened on July 4. The Chinese restaurant industry that has been "frozen" for a long time has experienced many "unbearable weights" in the past three months. It has closed its doors and shops, suffered discrimination, and struggled to survive... The indomitable Chinese in the UK have worked hard with strong will and flexible management methods. Overcome difficulties, get ready in a dilemma and find a place to live.
Restaurant turned into a material warehouse, Chinatown Chamber of Commerce generously helped fight the epidemic
"Home·Shanghai", located in Chinatown, has been transformed from a restaurant into a base for material storage during the epidemic since March. Deng Zhuting, chairman of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce in London (hereinafter referred to as the "Chinatown Chamber of Commerce"), is also the owner of this store. In order to facilitate the access and distribution of anti-epidemic materials, the restaurant is actively used as a storage warehouse for anti-epidemic materials.
The Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, as a "vocalist" for safeguarding the rights and interests of overseas Chinese, has always insisted on silently guarding British and Chinese people and businesses. Under the epidemic, it has also contributed to the mainstream British society. In the extreme lack of protective materials in the British medical community, Deng Zhuting led the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, jointly with the Zhejiang Association of the United Kingdom, the European Liaison Office of the Overseas Advisory Committee of the New Territories Township Council, and the All-British Chinese Federation of Chinese Societies to jointly launch the "Caring NHS" activity. Unite the British overseas Chinese groups, communicate with China and the UK, and donate 30,000 sets of medical surgical protective clothing and more than 4 million masks in batches in the name of the British Chinese Society. A number of hospitals and medical institutions in the British National Health Service (NHS), the City of Westminster, London Transport and Police have received a love and support from the Chinese.
Deng Zhuting said that in this epidemic, as part of British society, we also hope to dedicate our strength to help control the epidemic. Representatives of donor organizations such as the NHS of the United Kingdom and Transport for London expressed their sincere thanks to him and the British Chinese community at the donation ceremony.
Not only that, but cases of discrimination against Chinese caused by the epidemic frequently occurred, worrying about the lives and personal safety of British Chinese and Chinese businessmen. Deng Zhuting also actively communicated with the London police to maintain close contact. "When the epidemic is worst, we have to meet with the police almost every week," he said. The Chinatown Chamber of Commerce not only reflected the collected cases and situations to the police, but also the BBC and the Financial Times. ”And other mainstream media voices, let the British society more widely understand the unfair treatment suffered by the Chinese, fight for the rights and interests of overseas Chinese, and maintain the safety of the Chinese.
As the pillar of the Chinatown industry in London, the catering industry was inevitably impacted during the epidemic. The Chinatown Chamber of Commerce maintained a high degree of sensitivity and vigilance at the beginning, not only distributing posters to maintain hygiene and cleanliness, but also distributed it later. Masks and other epidemic prevention materials.
Speaking of the "rejuvenation" of Chinatown in the post-epidemic era, Deng Zhuting expressed the hope that when he resumes business, he can do more activities to let everyone know that Chinatown is safe and can come again. The Chinatown Chamber of Commerce will also distribute masks to those in need in Chinatown, hoping to return to the prosperous state as soon as possible.
A spokesperson for Shaftesbury PLC, Chinatown’s largest real estate owner, also revealed that during the outbreak, it has been interacting with customers through social media and other platforms, and is planning relevant activities for Chinatown’s reopening, including the establishment of disinfection sites to ensure tourists’ peace of mind.
Revenues fall precipitously and then open again
Boss Lin runs a Chinese restaurant in Sheffield that “endlessly flows”. During the epidemic, although the restaurant relied on the platform to maintain the delivery service, the closure of the physical store caused some business losses. Boss Lin said that although Chinese students’ orders were stable due to isolation at home, dinning was shut down. The biggest blow to restaurants was the decline in overall turnover, followed by the fact that trained employees could not get to work, and now they can only save capital. But in order to give back to the students and overcome the difficulties, the restaurant will also engage in some small activities, such as giving a mask after a certain amount is paid, and doing their own meager efforts.
With the gradual unblocking of Britain, boss Lin shared his next plan: plan to gradually open up dine-in, but also have to consider how to ensure social distance. Fortunately, the store is large. The first floor was able to accommodate 60 people. Now it is planned to reduce the number of people by half and open the second floor at the same time. The layout of the restaurant will be adjusted, for example, the second floor will be changed into a deck mode, and the seats will be divided into small boxes with curtains to provide consumers with better privacy and security. The second is to do deep disinfection, "we will ensure that the table and floor are disinfected multiple times a day, and provide disposable tableware. The restaurant is mainly cooking and hot pot, we are also considering how to adjust the dishes to respond to the divided meal system," Lin The boss says. Although the cost will increase accordingly, boss Lin said that in order to ensure the safety of diners and let everyone eat with confidence, these are very necessary.
Another old Sichuan restaurant in Sheffield, "Man Ting Hong", was also hit by the epidemic. Kelbin, the manager, said that after the closure of the city, sales fell by 60%, the store was closed, and food could only be sold through takeout. "I can clearly feel the decrease in the number of orders, the unemployment rate of overseas Chinese and British people living in the local area is very high, and the consumption capacity has been significantly reduced. We still keep the store closed, but as Chinese students continue to return home one after another , Still has a certain impact on the source of customers." He said. Kelbin also mentioned that when specific policies are introduced, the restaurant may also meet the social distance by appropriately changing the pattern and restricting the flow of people to ensure the safety of customers' meals.
According to the resumption of the British government, Haidilao, a multinational chain catering company, decided to resume dine-in on July 4th, and to conduct nucleic acid testing on employees before reopening. All employees in British stores are required to wear masks and have a minimum dining arrangement 1 meter social distance, a dining information registration form is added at the door. In addition, Haidilao also made sufficient preparations to measure the body temperature of employees before going to work, sterilize the dining area and other seating areas every day, make sure that the dining table and sofa are eliminated once, fully ventilate and set up special diversion measures.
It is understood that after the restoration of Haidilao's food, hot pot delivery, long-distance group purchases, and serving food will also continue, and on the basis of the original, the delivery service will be extended to the coverage of the ring highway around Greater London. Considering the dining needs of business people, Haidilao will also launch business ready-to-eat packages to meet the needs of different groups of people through a variety of flavors.
Transferred to survive and fresh food distribution
"Michelin" opened its first store on the back street of the British Museum in June 2018. It is based on Changsha rice noodles. Rice noodles are the main food in Hunan. Many snacks are also made of rice. Therefore, the name "Miqilin" was born, meaning "all rice products come together".
Xiong Peng, one of the business partners of "Miqilin" told reporters that on the eve of the opening, "Miqilin" participated in the Chinese Food Festival held under the tower bridge that year, selling rice noodles and some snacks. At that time, it was the second best result of merchant sales, which is exactly the same, which made Xiong Peng full of confidence. Soon after the food festival, the first store was officially opened.
In August 2019, the second store of "Miqilin" officially opened in Chinatown. The advantage of this restaurant lies in its good location and large space. In addition to snacks and rice noodles, it also serves other Hunan dishes. It has been upgraded from a rice noodle shop to a Hunan-style snack. From August last year to February of this year, the business has been steadily growing, and slowly "growth" in Chinatown, where there is no Hunan cuisine, and promote Hunan cuisine.
When the business grew steadily, the outbreak of new pneumonia broke out and the British closed the city at the end of March. At that time, the first store of "Miqilin" started to take out only. At the same time, it also cooperated with the Hunan Township Association as a support point to provide anti-epidemic materials such as masks and protective medicines to the Chinese in Britain. Compatriots.
This continued until mid-April. Xiong Peng said that while providing anti-epidemic materials for their compatriots, they found that it was difficult to go out and purchase because of the closure of the city, and it was also difficult to grab the delivery time for online shopping, resulting in some people lacking basic lives such as fresh vegetables and dried fruits. substance. In this case, the fresh delivery business of "Miqilin" came into being, and the second store in Chinatown became a temporary sorting center.
In order to enable the fresh food delivery business to become a household name quickly and start as soon as possible, "we chose to use WeChat applet, which can be spread in WeChat and can quickly expand the influence in the group", Xiong Peng explained, "Miqilin" established the WeChat applet platform in just a few days. On April 26, the platform was officially launched. In just one week, the number of online registrations on this platform has reached 1500, and the order volume has increased accordingly, with more than ten orders per day.
Throughout the closure of the city, "Miqilin" insisted on fresh food delivery, and constantly improved the platform, enriched functions and marketing system. Now there are more and more products on the platform, and there are a variety of activities, such as lottery draws, scratch cards, bonus packages, etc., which allow more people to have certain discounts before participating in shopping on the platform. With the further improvement of the epidemic situation, the British government is preparing to fully unblock it on July 4. Xiong Peng said that "Miqilin" will adjust accordingly with the policy. The Chinatown store will resume dine-in in real time. To ensure that the fresh food delivery business continues to operate, the sorting center will be moved to the northwest of London.
It's better to close the shop than to renovate
The 9th-year-old London Chinese restaurant "Huang Ting" also stopped suddenly in March. Kevin, the person in charge of Huangting, admitted that the turnover in the New Year this year reached a record high. After the outbreak, it basically fell off a cliff. After the first week of the Spring Festival, it lost nearly 2/3, only a fraction of the original turnover.
Kevin said that during that time, people were panicking, and employers, employees, and customers were all worried about their own safety. So he decided to go out of business and decided to close the shop at the end of March, making seafood and frozen products and other ingredients in the store into a love bag, contacting Chinese companies to give free of charge to many Chinese who could not buy food because of the "buying wave".
During the closure, Kevin also chose to renovate the store, hoping to give a new look after reopening. Despite being closed for many months, Kevin said that he would not consider price increases after reopening. At the same time, he said that he is still very optimistic about the British catering market. The dark period will always pass quickly. During this period, the "blood exchange" also helped the catering industry absorb new blood and integrate new teams. He said that in the new situation, we must follow the trend and look forward to adding new bases and new fortresses to the internationalization of Chinese food and the overseas stories of Chinese food.
Mr. Chen, the owner of a rice noodle shop called Chew Fun who runs near Liverpool Street, said that the takeout was found in less than a week and the orders were far less than previously expected, and the recent income could hardly support daily expenses. Pumping into success and high taxes, almost every bowl of rice noodles sold is at a loss.
"The delivery range of the delivery platform is limited, and our core guests are almost students and white-collar workers in the surroundings. Now there is no office building, the school is empty, and the students in the surrounding dormitories are also on holiday. So we are almost within the delivery range There aren’t many customers. Most white-collar old office customers live outside the food delivery range, so the next step may be to consider self-employed drivers to deliver food."
Mr. Chen said frankly that even after the ban on food on July 4, he still worried about the health and safety of himself and his employees. Moreover, the flow of people around is still very small. Only when the surrounding office buildings are resumed and students resume classes, can the hotel quickly recover its vitality. At present, the work steps in the store are more complicated. All employees must sterilize continuously before entering the door and during the work process. The supplier must also carefully spray the disinfectant on the packaging of all the goods. Wear thick masks throughout the work period, the weather is hot, even if the kitchen is well ventilated, it is still very hard.
Mr. Chen said without worries, I wonder if this year's autumn and winter season will break out of the second wave of outbreaks, resulting in more serious and long-term losses, and may even affect the "life and death" of the store.
Takeaway difficult online platform more flowering
It is undeniable that take-out has indeed become a recipe for maintaining operations and smoothing the stomachs of the four Chinese villages during the epidemic. But merchants who choose to take out food also face the dilemma of making ends meet. Jinli, which has been the most popular Chinese restaurant for Chinese students for many years, has 4 branches in the UK: an old store and a flagship store in London Chinatown, and the other two are located near Birmingham Chinatown and Heathrow Airport. Since the beginning of the closure of the UK, three other stores except the flagship store have been turned online, Martin told reporters that insisting on business has only two purposes-"not let employees have no food" and "let Chinese students eat Chinese food and have home a feeling of".
It's not easy to insist on takeout. At the hottest time, you want to book a table in Jinli one day in advance, and even a week in advance on weekends. But since the dim sum closed, "the flagship store has to lose £5,000 a month," Martin said. During the closure of the city, only 30% of employees in Jinli went to work normally. Under the shift system, in order to ensure safety as much as possible, the employees of Jinli Dadian must "work hard and live in the store first" within a few days of work. Not only are employees hard, but restaurant owners also bear the rising costs in all aspects.
Another Sichuan restaurant, Emei Yipai, which has been in business for many years, has also put a lot of effort into takeout. Yoki, the manager of the "Emei Yipai" told reporters that November 15 this year is just the 10th anniversary of its opening, both a milestone for the 10th anniversary and an important node that has stood the test. Although "Emei Yipai" only started takeout operation on June 9, and the current orders only reached one-third of the past, but through the promotion of sales through multiple platforms such as hotel pages, takeaway programs, WeChat applets and WeChat groups, plus Increase the distribution of fresh and semi-finished products, and now the delivery business is also quite promising.
Xiong Peng also mentioned that "Miqilin" now combines fresh food delivery with some food delivery in Chinatown for unified delivery. In this regard, they launched the "Miqilin" joint order-food court, which combines all restaurants around Chinatown and unified order delivery on the fresh food delivery platform. Such a new cooperation provides the customer group with the opportunity to enjoy a meal in Chinatown.
Talking about the reopening of dine-in after the epidemic, Yoki said that although the turnover has only increased slightly, it may be because there are not many people who know it at first, and I believe that it will be better for more and more people to know in the future. Martin said, "I am still very confident in Jinli. Although the flagship store may not be opened again in July, if the students can come back in October and the epidemic gradually slows down, then we can expect to return to normal next year."
However, Xiong Peng also conducted a rational analysis of the status quo. His expectations about Chinatown in the short term after it was unsealed are not very optimistic. Even if the British government allows dine-in, there will not be many people who come to Chinatown to eat, so even after the business resumes It is not necessarily a good business, you can only "go step by step".
Milk tea shops turn "crisis" into "opportunity" and force " post-epidemic era "
From the beginning of the epidemic to the present, Sherry, the head of T4, a UK-based milk tea shop, said that as the largest retail catering industry, the epidemic had a huge impact on it, mainly including: on-site passenger flow cleared, sales fell sharply, and on-site health and safety management pressure Increased pressure on employees to go to work, reduced cash flow and increased operating pressure.
After the epidemic spread to the United Kingdom, before the closure of the city, as a franchise management company, T4 first formulated the hygienic operation manual of the outbreak store, and required all franchise stores to implement and provide daily records. In the early days of the closure of the city, the management company team collected all government support policies for the franchise store and assisted in the application. At the same time, monthly management fees for franchised stores are exempted. Help franchised stores communicate with landlords about plans such as rent-free periods, and landlord negotiations for all stores are transferred to the management company for processing. For franchise stores that have not yet signed a rent contract, the legal contract process is temporarily terminated and prices and other conditions are negotiated again.
T4's footprints are spread across multiple cities in the UK. Sherry said that all stores in the early stage of the epidemic were in a vacuum in April. After the opening of takeaways in May, the revenue of stores in different locations varied greatly. Sherry admits that at the beginning, "it can be said that the performance is bleak, not enough to change the original turnover", but after all, milk tea is "just needed", plus the original customer base is large and diverse, some stores can be profitable, but some are still In a state of loss. There are many factors, such as the characteristics of the city where the store is located, the size of the city, the main customer base, the number of local takeaway riders, and even the stability of the takeaway platform system, which may affect the business of each store.
To ensure revenue, T4 changed its original single delivery platform strategy. During the epidemic period, the management company negotiated with a number of takeaway platforms to maintain a low proportion of withdrawals, while removing the condition of exclusive platforms to give franchisees a little more choice.
From June 15th, British stores opened one by one. In order to better adapt to the gradually unblocked British market, T4 as a whole mainly focused on adjusting store hygienic requirements and passenger flow management, and the specific measures were implemented in accordance with the government specification manual. In order to reduce the queue time for some stores, a mobile ordering system was also developed.
In the post-epidemic era, "dangerous" and "opportunities" coexist. Sherry said that from the brand's commercial point of view, although the epidemic has an impact on the expansion plan, it is relatively limited, and it is basically in accordance with the plan. The continued opening of the new T4 store has brought new power to the brand and the entire catering industry, and has injected hope into the restart of the catering industry after the epidemic. To her surprise, due to the fact that the sales performance of certain stores rose during the epidemic, it gave new franchisees great confidence, and the demand for brand franchise after the resumption of work ushered in a wave of rise. (Chen Siruitian Hao Xuezi Li Yuexin)