Hey Tea, valued at 16 billion, founder Nie Yunchen worth 4 billion; Haidilao, with a market value of 100 billion, founder Zhang Yong became the richest man in Singapore; Xibei, the industry leader, founder Jia Guolong often pays tens of millions of dividends.

Food is the most important thing for the people, and the catering industry has always been recognized as an absolute rigid demand industry.

Many entrepreneurs are eager to try these stories and are excited, looking forward to becoming the next wealth-making legend.

However, "Some people turn off Zhang to return to their hometown, and some people open a new restaurant" is the true state of the dining scene. Especially in the last year, the catering industry shuffled and changed faster. What I saw was countless entrepreneurs who went bankrupt and debts, and everything went to zero.

ONE

Catering is already a high-entry industry

In 2020, China’s catering revenue was 3952.7 billion yuan, which was 16.6% lower than the 4672.1 billion catering revenue in 2019.

It seems that catering revenue has declined due to the impact of the epidemic. What is interesting is that the number of newly registered catering companies reached 1,654,101 last year, a year-on-year increase of 24.74%, and the number of newly registered catering companies was higher than in any year of the previous decade.

Last year, 132,000 restaurants were cancelled or cancelled, which was a 67.94% drop from the 414,000 cancellation sales in the same period of the previous year. The number of deaths was significantly lower than that of the “sunny” 2019. (Data source: Enterprise Check Public Data)

On the other hand, capital began to hunt down the catering industry. According to incomplete statistics, there will be a total of 115 investment and financing in the catering industry in 2020. The financing types involve catering, supply chain, tea and catering services and other subdivisions. The financing rounds range from strategic investment to D round, and the financing amount is as much as More than tens of millions of dollars.

However, the real opportunity for the catering industry to become rich lies in the capital market. In the first year of last year, Jiu Mao Jiu was listed. According to relevant data, listed catering companies had the highest increase and decrease, reaching 148.4%.

Immediately after Tongqinglou, Babi Mantou and Yiming Food were listed on the A-share market, a number of catering companies submitted prospectuses last year, preparing to enter the capital market. On New Year's Eve this year, Nayuki's tea formally submitted an application for listing, sprinting into the "first share of new-style tea drinks."

Let’s take a look. Jiumaojiu was listed on the Hong Kong stock market in January 2020, and the founder Guan Yihong and more than 60 entrepreneurial shareholders immediately saw their wealth skyrocket.

Based on the market value of HK$47.018 billion on April 2, Guan Yihong, who holds 44.42% of the shares, is worth as much as HK$20.8 billion, and he has also created 10 billionaires and 50 multimillionaires.

Prior to this, Guan Yihong graduated from Tianjin Textile Institute of Technology University (now known as Tianjin University of Technology) in 1990; opened his first noodle restaurant in Haikou City, Hainan Province in 1995, and founded Jiu Mao Jiu in the same year; in 2020, the Hong Kong stock market was listed. Stepped into the queue of hundreds of billionaires and achieved a class transition.

In addition, there are many examples. Yang Lijuan, Haidilao’s first waitress, followed Zhang Yong to start a business for 25 years. After Haidilao went public in 2018, her worth reached 4 billion, surpassing Gree Chairman Dong Mingzhu...

The listing of catering brands has become the ladder for ordinary people to leapfrog and realize the legend of the road to wealth. I believe there will be more examples of this in the future. This also seems to indicate that the era of wealth creation in the catering industry is slowly beginning.

However, the reckless era of the catering industry is over. Beginning in 2013, mass catering consumption has risen, countless gold prospectors have poured into this track, and industry competition has begun to intensify. This is an inevitable trend after the rapid development of catering. This is manifested in: First of all, the profit rate of enterprises is gradually decreasing.

More than a decade ago, the overall catering industry was relatively traditional. At that time, catering companies had at least a 50% profit margin. Today, the average profit margin of catering companies is 10%, and there are still 15%-20% after compliance. Profit margins are already among the best in the industry.

The net profit of a giant like Haidilao is around 15%, and we know that the net profit of many well-known companies on the market is around 10%, or even around 5%. Of course, there are also some small catering companies that do not have perfect regulations, and their performance can reach 20% or even higher, but when they are fully compliant, they will be relatively reduced by about 10%.

Secondly, excellent catering companies have begun to experience the situation of same-store revenue increase but no profit increase and lower turnover rate. In fact, when a company develops to a certain stage, it will encounter the situation of "increasing revenue but not profit" or "decreasing rate of turnover" in the same store, which is the performance of the company entering the mature stage.

The entry barrier for catering is getting higher and higher, and catering people have to understand products, brand, strategy, supply chain, and have financial and marketing skills. In the past, most people did not look down on the traditional industry of catering, because most of the traditional catering people were technically born, just in time for a good catering era. From being a chef to opening a shop alone, one shop opened well and slowly expanded to form a chain. Indeed made money. But when crossovers, high-tech talents and young entrepreneurs join in, it can completely reverse the bottom-level gameplay of catering.

Moreover, in the Internet age, through the support of digital technology to solve the problems of financial opacity, non-standard management, and difficulty in standardization...the problems that have plagued catering for a long time have attracted the attention of capital. Through last year’s epidemic, we have seen that catering is indeed difficult to do, and it is very fragile in the face of the crisis, which has caused the industry to divide. Some companies are evolving against the trend, making decisive adjustments, and their business level recovers quickly, and there is even a significant increase; some companies are frightened by difficulties and helpless; some companies make random moves to accelerate their collapse. The epidemic has become a watershed, allowing everyone to see that the catering industry is a situation where the catering industry is a "strong strong always strong", raising the barriers to entry for the catering track, and redefining the profession of "catering boss", because this era does not only look at technology. Pay more attention to the knowledge, background and resources behind, and there will be fewer and fewer opportunities for small entrepreneurs in the future.

TWO

Gods from all walks of life come to test the waters: cross-border, high-tech talents

In the past, the catering industry was a time when the masters were beaten to death by punches, and heroes were born in troubled times. When everyone saw that the catering industry is an "oil field", they felt that the threshold for catering is not high. Therefore, it attracts stars, technology industry, and Internet industry all kinds of gods to challenge. Many popular catering people are either 895 or 211. Volume began to enter the catering industry, slowly changing the original pattern of the industry.

01. The influx of high-tech talents

In the past, most of the catering bosses were technically born, or catering brand operators came out to create brands, and they thought that they had money to make catering every day, and they just knew how to work hard. But this time is different. Many talents with better academic qualifications and quality have begun to flood into the catering industry. They have crossed over from various fields, and their backgrounds and resumes are quite perfect.

Some are college students from well-known universities in the 1990s, and some are new catering newcomers from ATM (Ali, Tencent, Meituan), Huawei and other companies. In addition, in the past 30 years, excellent catering companies such as McDonald's, KFC, and Starbucks have cultivated a large number of professional managers. Both professional ability and strategic vision are much better than traditional catering entrepreneurs.

For example, Chen Ning, the founder of Le Caesar, a student of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, studied computer science. He once worked for Guoren Telecom in charge of overseas markets and served as the general manager of Shenzhen New Baifu Catering Management Co., Ltd.

Le Caesar came out to start a business in 2009. Because of his knowledge background in computer science, he has sensitive data analysis capabilities. When starting a catering business, he also paid special attention to the catering data system; and the experience of the catering management company made him always pay attention to the products, services, and processes. Control and know how to build user minds.

Not only that, Le Caesar's team lineup is mostly high-tech talents from companies such as Huawei and ZTE, which brings a new entrepreneurial perspective to the company.

Chi Huantao of Yunweiguan, graduated from China University of Political Science and Law, once served as an executive of Skyworth, followed by the start-up team 3 people from the IT industry.

Song Qi, who met Xiao Mian, graduated from South China University of Technology and worked at McDonald's in Hong Kong and Parkson Catering Group in Guangzhou. He exploded in the circle at the beginning of the brand establishment. Recently, he has completed a new round of financing of tens of millions of yuan.

With the help of college background and resource experience, these founders can gain the attention of investors and capital from the concept in the brand start-up period. With the help of money and resources, the brand develops more smoothly.

In many traditional catering companies, the boss is technically born, the background and resources are not good enough, and the brand model and digitalization are not perfect, making it difficult for brands to access high-quality capital, and thus missed opportunities for rapid development.

02. Capital changes the bottom-level gameplay of catering

In the past, catering companies relied on opening a store to make a profit and then opening new stores to form a chain brand again and again. This process was relatively slow, and crowdfunding was popular for a period of time, and then capital was integrated with the catering industry to completely change the bottom-level gameplay of catering. .

In the past, big capitals often did not take a cumbersome business like catering. They believed that the size of the company was small and there were not many large-scale companies. If they could not go public, there would be no way to realize value. But after Haidilao’s market value reached 100 billion yuan, catering has gradually been recognized by capital.

Most of the catering brands mentioned above have been favored by capital. With the help of capital, they continue to lay out the barriers of the brand in the industry.

But these cross-border catering people, what does capital favor them?

First of all, consider the background of catering entrepreneurs, especially the period of start-up brands. Because for early-stage companies, there is not much to evaluate, and everything depends on the leader to lead the entrepreneurial team to create it.

Then investors will pay attention to the educational background and resource experience of entrepreneurs, because in the eyes of investors, excellent and potential entrepreneurs should have many qualities, such as vision, knowledge, industry experience, learning ability, execution ability, etc. Wait.

So, instead of saying that investors trust the company, they trust the helm of the company more.

The second is to choose a good category, which is what investors often say to choose a good track. You will find that investors are keen to invest in a top brand in a strong category, not only because of the high market share of the brand, but also the brand model has been verified, which is more conducive to the return of capital.

THREE

The catering industry is the most complex of all industries

Most people who read the story of Haidilao Zhang Yong think that catering is a track where ordinary people can achieve a legendary wealth. However, opening a store may seem simple, but being a business is difficult.

Starting a business to open a restaurant can provide food and clothing for a family, while being a business is to create a platform, and the pattern and thinking of the helm will determine the future development and scale of the business.

Le Caesar Chen Ning once said that the underlying password of the catering industry has changed: "A catering company is no longer just a gourmet company, but should be the sum of brand companies, technology companies, supply chain companies, and design companies."

And through the epidemic, we have seen that catering is indeed difficult to do, and it is very fragile in the face of the crisis. Coupled with changes in the underlying logic, catering has become a high-threshold industry, and it is also the most complex industry.

01. Catering is not only a retail industry, but also an industry and service industry

Now catering has developed into the most complex industry, covering the first, second and third industries.

First of all, catering has the nature of a chain, retail and industrial nature, and strong on-site production and on-site service. If it is a little bit larger, it will have to solve the central kitchen and supply chain issues, which will have multiple industrial properties such as factories, procurement, and logistics at the same time.

In other words, catering "upstream agriculture, midstream industry, downstream commerce". This spans agriculture and aquaculture, and also involves the production and manufacturing of central kitchens/factories, as well as the entire industry chain of store sales and services.

In the final analysis, a catering brand is not only a factory, but also a store, or a service center.

Second, the catering industry has been infiltrated by the Internet industry for many years and has achieved digital transformation, making the chain of the catering industry longer and longer and the division of labor more and more clear.

From brand building, marketing, management and operation, to product management and control, and supply chain building, catering companies have more subdivided departments, and each section also has many independent and professional companies.

For example, Haidilao, Zhang Yong opened not only a hot pot restaurant, but also a restaurant empire centered on Haidilao. He split the relevant operating parts of Haidilao's catering operations into different operating sections and independent companies.

There is Yihai International, which is responsible for the production of compound seasonings, with a market value of 100 billion in 2016; there is a Shuhai supply chain that provides food supply chain services for many catering companies and group meal brands; and Weihai Consulting, which is responsible for human resources, and store decoration Shu Yun Dongfang, game operation Haihai Technology, software management system is booming... its assets span catering, entertainment, education, consulting, and investment.

It can be seen that the catering industry covers many fields such as manufacturing, service industry, retail industry, etc., and the management complexity is relatively high, which requires extremely high management capabilities for the helm of the catering industry. At the same time, it is necessary to upgrade the brand based on the digitalization and technology of the Internet, so the helm must have a certain accumulation of knowledge and long-term strategic thinking.

02. Changes in the relationship between market supply and demand

China's catering industry is still in a state of "big water but not big fish", but this situation is undergoing rapid changes.

In the rapid development of the national economy, some catering people make money by seizing opportunities and luck.

Before 2010, the market size of my country's catering industry was growing very fast, but in 2010, due to the government's strict control of the consumption of the three publics, the growth rate of the catering industry dropped significantly in 2012 and 2013. After 2014, it has entered a transitional period, and popular catering consumption has become the mainstream.

According to the company's data, in 2010, there were only 66,186 registered catering-related industries in my country. By 2020, the annual registration of catering-related companies in my country will reach 1,654,101, an increase of more than 24 times. The market supply and demand relationship has changed significantly.

From the perspective of the industry structure, there are many participants in the catering market, and the industry is highly fragmented and highly competitive. Although the market size of the catering industry is still growing at a high speed, due to the highly fragmented industry, competition on the supply side has gradually entered the stage of stock development from incremental development.

In the past, the market was big and the competition was small, and everyone could make money. Now the market is big and the competition is big. Originally there were only enough food for five people, but ten people came to grab their jobs. Naturally, business was not easy to do, not to mention sharing with highly educated and cross-sector talents. Since the development of China's catering market, catering companies need support in various aspects such as Internet thinking, marketing, and supply chain, so they can no longer think about the development of enterprises with pure catering thinking.

03. The battlefield is becoming more and more suitable for the regular army

It is the small bosses and entrepreneurs of many catering brands that really find it more and more difficult to do catering. What the regular army brand entrepreneurs see is the unlimited business opportunities in the Chinese catering market. The four trillion big cake has not yet produced a giant like McDonald's and KFC, so the competition is just beginning.

With the acceleration of urbanization, the convenience of transportation brought by the improvement of high-speed rail infrastructure, and the rise of young consumers, the battlefield has changed from an original chaotic state to an open field, and the battlefield is becoming more and more suitable for the regular army to do large-scale development. In the past catering battlefield, the vast majority of catering bosses were skilled catering owners who depended on hard work and hard work to get rich, and none of them had received systematic catering studies.