Innovation accelerates and capital never sleeps. In 2021, the food and beverage industry will become the top player in the new consumption field.
Text: Cathy Wang
Source: foodaily daily food (ID: foodaily)
In 2021, while enjoying the dividend of the times and getting the fastest development, new consumer brands also encountered unprecedented difficulties at the fastest speed. However, the temporary industry difficulties and challenges can not change the historical necessity of “new consumption being reshaped”.
Foodaily proposed that China will go through four commercial bonus periods: e-commerce bonus, social media flow bonus, supply chain bonus and category fission bonus. In the future, “category fission” will give birth to more and more new categories, and new species will gush in China.
Today, let’s review the “investment and financing event of food and beverage industry in 2021”. From the perspective of annual investment and financing, combined with the prediction of “2022 annual commercial hot spot of daily food”, let’s take a look at the annual development of the industry.
Click the picture to view the details of “2022 annual commercial hot spot of daily food”
In the investment and financing events in 2021, which categories of tracks are the most promising? What brands have emerged? Why can they attract capital? What potential categories deserve attention? What “category cracks” (proposed by foodaily) can new consumer brands cut in?
Inventory of investment and financing events in food and beverage industry in 2021
In 2021, the capital market of domestic food and beverage industry showed a strong growth trend. According to incomplete statistics, the number of investment and financing events in 2021 reached 384, more than three times that in 2020 (click to view the details of investment and financing inventory in 2020), becoming the hottest track in the consumer field.
By replying to “investment and financing” at the background of foodaily, you can obtain the full version of “inventory of investment and financing events in food and beverage industry in 2021”
From the distribution time period of investment and financing events, 76 investment and financing events occurred in the first quarter of 2021, which is more than 5 times higher than 14 in the first quarter of 2020, and the capital market released an obvious warming signal; Investment and financing events became more and more frequent in the second, third and fourth quarters, reaching about 100 per quarter, far exceeding the level of the same period in previous years.
From the round distribution, there are relatively many investment and financing events in Angel round and a round, accounting for 45.3% in total; The number of pre-A rounds, strategic financing and B rounds followed closely, while other rounds were relatively small. Yuanqi forest, Xi tea, Chen Xianggui, Zhang Lala, Mo Mo, Hutou Bureau and other representative brands in various fields have obtained overvalued values one after another.
In terms of category distribution, catering and catering +, beverages and functional foods are the top 3 popular tracks favored by capital (based on the number of financing events), followed by snacks, baking and dairy products. So what is the market size of these popular tracks? What is the changing trend of consumer groups and demand? What representative brands and emerging segments have emerged? Why can we attract capital to settle in one after another? Next, foodaily will take stock of the top 3 tracks favored by capital one by one.
Looking back at the past year,
Top 3 track favored by capital in 2021
Top1: Catering and catering+
In 2021, the financing of catering track is frequent and the market is hot. According to incomplete statistics, a total of 156 investment and financing events occurred in the catering field in 2021, covering sub categories such as noodles, marinated flavor, condiments and prefabricated dishes.
1) Powder attack, Chinese catering ushered in the second round of financing after the reform and opening up
In the Chinese diet gene, noodles can be eaten for three meals. With rich scenes and thrifty people, it is the first staple food choice of many consumers. In 2021, the category of powdered noodles broke out intensively and became the “sweet pastry” in the eyes of many investment institutions: Hefu Laomian, which is positioned as Chinese pasta, completed the e-round financing of RMB 800 million; Chen Xianggui and Zhang Lala, who mainly focus on Lanzhou ramen, obtained financing of more than 100 million yuan; Hunan beef and rice noodle brand Baman completed financing of more than 100 million yuan······
Flour is a category with a long life cycle in China, and its development process can almost be equated with the historical painting of the Chinese nation. But why has such a large and powerful category not been wildly distributed by capital until recently?
China’s flour market is divided into many categories, with significant regional characteristics. Consumers’ preferences are heavy and difficult to adjust. Both online retail and offline catering have been in the state of “category and no brand” for a long time.
With the Internet plus dining mode and the change of consumption concept of young people in Z generation, noodle will usher in new opportunities.
Brands such as Chen Xianggui, Zhang Lala and Ma Jiyong let Lanzhou Ramen enter the high-end commercial center. The store environment is bright, the tableware is clean, the steaming noodles are matched with Lanzhou snacks and mutton kebabs, and the smell of fireworks in the market establishes an emotional link with consumers; A large amount of beef, free noodles and other services have increased consumers’ satisfaction and happiness. No matter the consumption scene, consumption experience or business model, they all have an obvious label of consumption upgrading. Even if the customer unit price is three times higher than that of small shops on the street, many young consumers are still flocking to it.
In addition, in recent years, as some local delicacies have been discovered one after another, the situation of the development of flour products in a single region has been gradually broken. In addition to Lanzhou ramen, Hunan rice noodles, Cantonese rice noodles, Guizhou rice noodles and other sub categories have also been favored by capital. From noodles, small noodles to noodles, rice noodles and rice noodles, the interaction between capital and noodle brands is becoming closer and closer, and the pace of Chinese fast food attack is gradually accelerating.
2) New staple food culture: in addition to noodles, traditional fast food has been greatly upgraded, and rice / porridge has also brought new experience
Behind each staple food is the customs of a land and water, containing the warmth and fireworks of life, and carrying the evolution and inheritance of Chinese food culture. However, in the fast-paced life, for the workers of “996” and “007”, it sometimes becomes a luxury to sit down and eat a nutritious and healthy dinner; For foreigners who wander in other places, a delicious food representing the flavor of their hometown can release a touch of nostalgia in their hearts······
The acceleration of urbanization, the aging population, the miniaturization of families, the single economy and the entry of women into the workplace have brought new demands for family dining tables. New consumption scenes such as one person food, dormitory sharing, family dining, outdoor leisure and appetizing supper, as well as the development of cold chain logistics, vacuum & fresh-keeping technology and cooking technology, have jointly promoted the benign development of the traditional fast food industry.
As a representative brand of Internet convenient fast food, zihi pot won a round of C + + financing of more than 100 million yuan in 2021. On the one hand, focus on technological upgrading and industrial automation to improve product quality and output efficiency; On the other hand, pay attention to the innovation of product taste and cooking methods. Even without cooking tools, it can also provide consumers with a steaming dinner.
The light cooking rice brand “Fanhu” focuses on fast cooking pot rice, and completed three rounds of financing with an accumulated amount of more than 100 million yuan in 2021. Different from takeout and pure fast food scenes, Fanhu retains natural ingredients and raw materials. According to the simple operation mode, even cooking Xiaobai can be easily completed, realizing the standardized cooking of open fire, microwave oven, electric rice cooker, induction cooker and other different ways.
“Huang Xiaozhu” cut into the fast food market from the perspective of Chinese fresh porridge products and completed financing of tens of millions of yuan. Instead of adding preservatives in the past, Huang Xiaozhu chose the route of “fast food + non cold chain + short-term protection”, used the brand’s core technology to cook and sterilize the ingredients at high temperature and high pressure, and launched a variety of porridge products such as abalone seafood porridge, bird’s nest Tremella porridge, providing consumers with a more convenient and delicious solution.
Light cooking rice, instant porridge, instant hot-pot/" 22375 rel="nofollow" target="_self">hot pot and other self heating foods to speed up category coverage; The traditional noodle products are innovating, and Kwai, semi finished products, semi-finished products, hand pastry and other leaf categories are growing rapidly. The rise of standardized fast food with regional characteristics meets the yearning of migrant workers for home cuisine; The appearance of instant pizza, pasta and other convenient western foods has enhanced the ritual sense of dry rice.
Cooook light cooking, an exotic RTC brand, won two rounds of financing of tens of millions of yuan in 2021. Focusing on the kitchen scene of young families in high-speed cities, focusing on the pain points of poor cooking skills, tight time, single food category and other needs of young groups, “cooook light cooking” provides foreign cuisine RTC products represented by Japanese and Korean cuisine, Southeast Asian cuisine and South American cuisine. The products match the off-line restaurants in taste, but the price is about half of that of off-line restaurants, Bring consumers the ultimate consumer experience.
Photo source: light cooking
People’s definition of traditional fast food is no longer limited to satisfy the appetite. New consumer needs such as healthy and convenient, exquisite dry rice and emotional connection give birth to the return of convenient fast food to the core of market fireworks with temperature and emotion, and reinterpret the staple food culture spread in China for thousands of years.
3) Prefabricated dishes 2.0, incubating new family cooking habits
Foodaily believes that with the splendid staple food culture as the core, the game between efficiency and life promotes the evolution of Chinese food culture and new lifestyle. With the gradual rise of the staple food market of flour rice porridge, prefabricated dishes have also ushered in an upward period of development.
In April 2021, Wei Zhixiang, the “first stock of prefabricated vegetables”, landed in a shares, with a market value of 9.3 billion yuan; In September, Qianwei central kitchen, the “first stock in the quick-frozen supply chain”, was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, pulling seven daily limit boards within a week; In November, xianmeilai, an enterprise engaged in prefabricated aquatic products, also submitted a prospectus to seek to be listed on a shares… Although the domestic prefabricated food market has not started for a long time, the market growth space is remarkable.
In recent years, the domestic economic structure has been gradually optimized and the income level of residents has been improved, laying an economic foundation for the consumption of prefabricated vegetables. Simplifying cumbersome cooking steps and integrating quality, nutrition and taste, prefabricated dishes not only meet the strong demands of catering enterprises to reduce costs and improve efficiency under the background of catering industrialization, but also cater to the lifestyle of young consumers who have no time to cook under the fast-paced life.
New and cutting-edge prefabricated food brands such as Zhenwei xiaomeiyuan and laofangu pay attention to the richness of dishes and tastes, cover the well-known dishes of eight major domestic cuisines, and play the banner of “open bag and cook”; Among the traditional catering enterprises, Xibei launched the prefabricated food brand “Jia Guolong Kung Fu food” and invested one billion yuan to implement the super central kitchen project; Haidilao also launched a series of “dinner” products The brand of prefabricated dishes has concentrated efforts to break through the product form category of quick-frozen food in the past.
Photo source: Zhenwei Xiaomei Garden
Guohai Securities predicts that the stock of China’s current prefabricated vegetable market is about 300 billion yuan. If estimated according to the compound growth rate of 20% per year, China’s Prefabricated vegetable market can grow into a market of trillion yuan in the next 6-7 years. In the long run, the scale of China’s Prefabricated vegetable industry is expected to reach more than 3 trillion yuan.
In the secondary market at the beginning of 2022, the concept stocks of prefabricated vegetables of A-share staged a daily trading tide for three consecutive days. Several stocks, including Guolian aquatic products, Fucheng shares, delis and Haixin food, staged a continuous board market. With the renewal of food material standardization technology, capital investment in prefabricated vegetables and new retail system, and the iteration of consumer groups and demand, the prefabricated vegetable industry will accelerate its maturity. In the future, a simple cooking, smoky home-made meal will be everywhere.
In the process of intergenerational cultural alternation, beverage has been given a new development direction, and now it has become a social currency and character symbol. According to incomplete statistics, 128 investment and financing events occurred in the beverage market in 2021. The investment direction mainly focuses on the sub categories of alcoholic beverages, coffee, new tea drinks, plant protein drinks, etc.
1) Sub categories have emerged, and tea drinking patterns such as fruit tea and health tea have made gold
In recent years, the new tea drinks represented by Naixue’s tea and Xi tea have rapidly occupied the minds of consumers and become a new social artifact for young people with the rapid upgrading of raw material iteration, category integration, multi scene, digitization and so on.
With the influx of capital and the rapid expansion of brands, the speed of competition between the new tea track, horse race enclosure and the Red Sea is much faster than expected. Public data show that in the first half of 2021 alone, the number and amount of new tea financing events exceeded the annual level of 2020. After Naixue’s tea, the “first share of milk tea”, was listed on the market, other tea brands on the head and waist continued to spread the news of sprinting for the “second share of milk tea”.
Nevertheless, due to the low entry threshold, new tea fell into the inner volume of serious product homogenization. 80% of the 480000 milk tea shops do not make money. In order to compete for a certain market share, the subdivided categories have become a breakthrough for the development of tea brands. The gods of the subdivided categories such as lemon tea, chelizi tea, grain tea, medicine and food homologous health tea fight, and the card position competition of new tea players is fierce.
Among them, lemon tea relies on a wide range of consumer awareness, relatively mature industrial chain structure, centralized innovation and promotion of multiple chain brands, and the market heat remains high. Uncle Qiu, who started with “duck excrement fragrant lemon tea”, completed two rounds of financing of more than 100 million yuan; Changsha lemon tea brand, lemon season, won tens of millions of yuan in round a financing shortly after its establishment; Linlee, which focuses on “hand made lemon tea”, has completed financing of tens of millions of yuan, and the number of chain stores has exceeded 500 +.
Photo source: Uncle Qiu, Ningji, linlee
In addition, the new tea drink with regional seasonal fruits as raw materials has become a phenomenon product in 2021. Whether it is oil Citrus planted on a small scale in Chaoshan area or yellow peel mainly produced in Guangdong and Guangdong areas, tea brands break the inherent cognition of existing fruit tea, constantly refresh the taste of consumers all over the country with a small number of fresh fruits, and realize product differentiation and innovation.
2) Online and offline blending, coffee penetration, new game
Although coffee and wine are both addictive drinks, different from the emergence of new and cutting-edge brands of low alcohol in the wine market, the head effect of the coffee market is more obvious.
According to incomplete statistics, 26 investment and financing events occurred in the coffee market in 2021. Among the 16 coffee enterprises that have obtained financing, 7 have raised more than 100 million. They are m stand, manner, yutianchuan, seesaw, Nova coffee, three and a half tons and Shicui. Some popular brands have even completed two or three rounds of financing in the first half of 2021.
M stand, manner, seesaw and other brands pay more attention to the style of coffee drinking scene while paying attention to the quality of coffee. They are committed to creating a new social space different from the standardization and commercialization of traditional cafes. The field of offline cafes is deeply favored by capital; Yutianchuan, Sandun and a half, Shicui secre and yongpu are constantly making efforts in Brand Co branding, creative packaging and other ports, becoming the representative brands in the online coffee market.
However, online and offline are never absolute. As early as 2020, Shicui opened offline stores in Shenzhen and the first offline concept store “into the force” in Shanghai. Yongpu, yutianchuan and other brands also continued to expand the offline coffee market in the form of flash stores.
Source: Shi Cui, three and a half meals
At the same time, offline coffee brands have also begun to make efforts online. Online sales of Starbucks, manner, seesaw and other brands increased significantly. Among them, seesaw’s sales in the third quarter of last year increased by 1536% compared with the same period of the previous year.
Online coffee brands lay out offline stores, turn “virtual” into “real”, take the store as an offline contact, and display its brand concept, aesthetics and cultural values in a three-dimensional and intuitive way, so as to fully meet consumers’ offline scene experience and product purchase needs, deepen the link between consumers and brands, and realize the accessibility of brand omni-channel purchase, While reaching more target customer groups, enhance brand influence.
Opportunities and risks coexist. To enter the potential market, we should not only confront the giants of traditional coffee brands, but also face the hunting of cutting-edge chain coffee brands. We also need to think about how to turn the original online operation experience into advantages, improve stickiness, and make the offline operation mode more trivial. Many challenges will be faced by online brands, such as cost, team and materials.
Boutique coffee brands in the new first tier cities are gradually rising, and there are still huge blue ocean opportunities waiting to be tapped in the coffee market in the third and fourth tier cities. In the contending coffee market, online and offline businesses will be integrated more and more closely. On the coffee track with boiling capital, more players will enter the game in the future.
3) The tide of slight drunkenness surged, and low alcohol drinks continued to “top”
Spicy mouth, hangover, traditional table culture… Baijiu with these attributes is losing young consumers. More and more drinking demands are detonated in the new alcohol drinks represented by low alcohol drinks. According to incomplete statistics, low alcohol liquor accounts for nearly one-third of the annual investment and financing of alcoholic beverages. Missberry berry sweetheart obtained three rounds of financing with an accumulated amount of more than 100 million yuan, Bingqing completed nearly 100 million yuan of b-round financing, and obtained tens of millions of yuan in financing such as zouqingniang, Wat and sensation
In the low alcohol liquor track, there are not only well-known old investors such as Tiantu investment and Jingwei China, but also “old players” of traditional liquor industries such as Budweiser and Luzhou Laojiao, and beverage giants such as Coca Cola and nongnongshan spring have also launched their layout.
Budweiser InBev successively invested in two low alcohol liquor brands, Lanzhou and missberrt berry sweetheart, from October to December last year; Luzhou Laojiao established a fruit wine company and launched fruit wine brands such as Qingyu, Taohuazui and Shiguang; Coca Cola launched topak hard soda sparkling wine across the domestic market, and nonggu Shanquan launched tot rice wine sparkling drink······
Whether it is the “wild” investment of capital or the game between giants and cutting-edge brands, it is the change of consumer groups and demand in the wine market and the huge market potential brought by it.
Cbndata’s 2020 young people’s wine consumption report shows that generation Z young people, especially female consumers, are gradually becoming the main force of wine consumption in the wine market, and youth will be an important direction for the development of the wine market.
This generation of young people has their own ideas and personality. They do not care about the wine culture left by their predecessors, nor are they obsessed with the air quality of Baijiu and the sense of high quality of wine. The consumption of wine is liberated from the past scenes of parties, such as “not drunk, not returned” or “drunken”. What they pursue is the spiritual needs and quality of life they need. “Moderate drinking” and “slightly drunk health” have become small blessings and comforts in leisure time.
Tmall data show that during the double 11 in 2021, the number of low alcohol liquor buyers increased by more than 50%, and new customers contributed the first in liquor category. Low alcohol wine such as plum wine and fruit wine has led the industry growth significantly. The total turnover is close to Baijiu and has become the second category of liquor drinking. During the previous 618 period, the sales of low alcohol wine increased by more than 90%, fruit wine increased by more than 100%, plum wine increased by more than 200%, and rice wine and fruit beer increased by more than 300%.
Low alcohol liquor and alcoholic beverages have become one of the important windows for women to release their emotions. With the rise of “her power” and generation Z liquor consumption groups, low alcohol liquor with many sub categories, matching more scenes and emotions, and focusing on health and functionality is expected to continue to be popular with capital as the main battlefield of the liquor market.
No matter in any era, the word “health” is a fundamental need for the people, the family and the country. The new consumption wave is roaring with all kinds of cultural views, aesthetic views, life views and diet views. Health consumption has gradually expanded from the past “vulnerable groups” to popularization. All parties upstream and downstream of the industry are providing highly personalized and humanized solutions around diversified health needs.
In fact, the concept of “functional food” has not been unified. The functional food widely discussed in the industry refers to “food with specific nutritional and health care functions”, which not only includes food containing functional components under the general food category (such as functional snacks), but also covers health products in special food. According to incomplete statistics, there were 41 investment and financing events in the field of functional food in 2021, including Chinese tonic, Western health care, light food instead of food, food claimed by specific groups and specific functions, etc.
1) Guochao culture is booming, boosting the Chinese style to nourish and rejuvenate
When it comes to “tonic”, China’s 5000 year civilization has never lacked high-end ingredients such as bird’s nest, donkey hide gelatin, flower glue and ginseng. However, when it comes to how to select and eat, traditional Chinese tonic has been veiled with “metaphysics”.
As young people join the “health preservation army”, the traditional health preservation ingredients that used to be steamed, boiled, stewed and boiled do not match the consumer demand for fast-paced life, high efficiency and instant enjoyment; With the prevalence of Guochao culture, Chinese people begin to pay more attention to the concepts of traditional Chinese medicine food tonic and medicine and food homology.
The intermediary entry rate of traditional Chinese medicine in the diagnosis and treatment process of Xinguan exceeds 90%. Enterprises based on traditional Chinese medicine reduce the dimension and attack the food field with the advantages of research and supply chain. Emerging consumer brands also focus on this cake and use Internet thinking to empower the homologous culture of traditional medicine and food.
The fresh stewed bird’s nest brand Xiaoxian stew completed round C financing, the Chinese New nourishing brand official stack obtained over 100 million yuan of pre-B financing, and the instant flower gum brand Jizhan completed tens of millions of yuan of pre-A financing… The fresh stewed bird’s nest, instant flower gum, and drinks prepared with medicine and food homologous raw materials continue to break the traditional cognition of Chinese tonic and make the Guochao health care heat more instant Portable, life-oriented and convenient way to bring young consumers to their daily life.
In the window period of accelerated development of the great health industry covering the whole life cycle, with the help of modern science, Chinese tonic is constantly expanding new boundaries, setting off a new national trend of nutrition and opening the era of national tide of functional food.
2) Fine functional demands drive the advancement of Western health care
The tense pace of work and bad lifestyle make all kinds of health problems entangle young people who should have unlimited energy. “Staying up the latest night, applying the best eye cream and eating the most expensive health care products” has become the daily life of many young people.
When health care is no longer the patent of the elderly, brands and capital aim at the “new health care” market spawned by “punk health care”. Buff X and minayo, focusing on functional soft candy, successively completed tens of millions of RMB financing, and the probiotic diet brand “daily bacteria” for gastrointestinal health won tens of millions of pre-A round financing, and the DTC nutrition brand lemonbox completed tens of millions of dollars of a round financing······
图片来源：Buff X
According to the data of prospective industry research institute, if the product penetration rate of the United States, the world’s largest functional food market, exceeds 75%, China’s current functional food market penetration rate is only 10%, and there is still a lot of market development space.
With young people as the target consumer group and in view of the constantly refined consumer demand for whitening and beauty care, cosmetics and food homology, intestinal regulation and staying up late maintenance, various innovative functional foods are emerging: probiotics, collagen, grape seeds, hyaluronic acid, GABA and other components have become the main function, and the forms of soft candy, powder, tablets, jelly, drinks and other products are becoming more and more diverse, Leisure food is becoming more and more functional, and functional food also shows a leisure trend.
Source: minayo
In addition, on the national policy aspect, gel candy was first put into the health food record form, and the functional soft candy was put on the “blue hat” of health care products right and proper. As a new food raw material, hyaluronic acid has been officially approved to be added to ordinary food. The market chaos of false publicity in the functional food industry will be improved, and the healthy development of functional food under the stable industry order is expected to usher in a new round of consumption dividends.
3) Light food instead of food burst out, enabling a healthy lifestyle
As the saying goes, “control your mouth and open your legs”. Under the fast-paced life state, young people who want to “lie thin” pay more attention to “control your mouth”. The light food substitute products that provide necessary nutrition but cause poor calories to meet the main demands of weight loss, body shaping and fat reduction have become the first choice for many young consumers who want to “eat a good figure”.
As an “imported product”, light food substitute became popular in China around 2000. Herbalife, Thomson Beijian and other international brands have entered the Chinese market, and European and American salads have gradually appeared on the Chinese table. Although the public opinion of “substitute meal is a tuyere or IQ tax” has been in constant dispute all the year round, the trend of light food substitute meal has not stopped and continues to be concerned by capital.
Fit8 completed tens of millions of RMB a + round financing, shark fitt received 100 million RMB B round financing, mint Health received 100 million RMB D + round financing… A number of light food substitute brands are rising strongly.
Convenience, science, effectiveness and nutrition are the core advantages of light food substitute food. Compared with the traditional canned meal substitute powder, i.e. bottled meal substitute powder / meal substitute milkshake, small and portable energy bar, instant chicken breast, etc., with upgraded taste, rich scene experience and trendy and avant-garde packaging, it has torn a hole in the meal substitute track; According to individual needs, balanced nutrition ratio and control of calorie intake, subscription light food has become a new way of life in pursuit of health.
Shark fit aims at the lazy economy and healthy consumption, enters the market with low calorie ready to eat chicken breast, and extends healthy food to three scenes: Dinner substitute scene, catering scene and leisure snack scene through category expansion; Peppermint health focuses on the field of nutrition, endows more functionality in “eating”, and provides consumers with healthy lifestyle solutions through comprehensive and balanced nutrition management and heat control.
At present, various macro factors are emphasizing or promoting “national health” as the foundation of development, and people’s demand for diet has changed from “full” and “good” to “healthy”. At present, the food standards of the whole light food substitute industry have not formed a unified definition, and there is still a long way to go to realize standardization, specialization and branding in the future.
Looking forward to the future, what potential categories are there in the food and beverage industry that deserve attention?
Through inventory and analysis, we can see the endless food innovation power in the new food era, and also feel the vitality and new vitality brought by capital to the whole industry. Well, in addition to the above three popular tracks with relatively concentrated financing events in 2021, we pay attention to some new star tracks that are not as bright as other categories despite the small number of financing events.
Baking of new star track:
1) Under the tide of the country, the midpoint is revived
China has a long history of baking and dim sum making, and everyone has warm memories of dim sum. In the current baking market, “some people go to the examination room at night and some resign and return to their hometown”. At the time of frequent good news of new baking brands, some officials of old baking brands announced their “exit”.
Mo Mo dim sum Bureau, Hutou Bureau and other cutting-edge brands have also obtained financing of more than 100 million yuan. The war of new baking war has rapidly spread from Changsha to the whole country# Master Bao’s microblog topic with an estimated value of 10 billion # has rushed into hot search and triggered heated discussion. At the same time, Christine, the “first baking stock”, has suffered losses for 8 consecutive years; Shanghai cake chain brand yizhiduo closed more than 30 stores overnight; Donghai Tang, one of the largest chain baking brands in Guangzhou, fell into the crisis of closing its stores.
In recent years, with the rise of Chinese culture in the world, the national tide has a profound impact on the direction of the food and beverage industry. The cutting-edge baking brands represented by Mo Mo dim sum Bureau and Hutou Bureau · Standard Chartered cake integrate Chinese dim sum ingredients with Western baking methods, showing a strong trend of “making western at the midpoint”. Scene design, online and offline integration and other aspects have also made continuous breakthroughs and innovations, and won a place in the market competition.
Daoxiang village, Xianghe Bobo shop and other traditional time-honored brands have also added Guochao elements to product transformation to tap Chinese traditional culture in product development and marketing. It breaks consumers’ cognition of traditional Chinese dim sum taste and jumps out of the stereotype of Chinese cakes. To some extent, it also leads the Chinese young generation to carry forward food self-confidence and revive traditional culture.
Source: Momo dim sum Bureau, Hutou Bureau and Standard Chartered cake store
According to the estimation of 30000 capital, the potential market space of the retail end of China’s baking industry is about 470 billion. At present, the retail volume of China’s baking food is about 230 billion, and there is at least twice the market increment space. Taking advantage of the national tide, Chinese baking has become a microcosm of the rise of the national tide. On the contrary, brands caught in the store closure crisis will soon be abandoned by consumers and the market reshuffle may be inevitable if they can not have an insight into new consumer demand and introduce new ideas and playing methods.
2) Internet plus baking, accelerating penetration.
On the baking stage starring in the new Chinese baking, the two traditional cake brands panda Buqu and Happy Cake seem to be somewhat independent, but the successive financing news can’t make people ignore their momentum.
On December 20, Happy Cake disclosed to the public that it had completed the strategic financing of RMB 100 million. This financing is the fifth round of financing of happy cake. On September 24, the Internet baking brand panda did not go and completed the round B financing of RMB 100 million invested exclusively by xvc.
Unlike the mid point brands such as Momo dim sum Bureau and Hutou Bureau, which focus on the major business districts with Guochao products and stores, cake brands such as happy cake and panda don’t go cut into the baking market with online layout.
The traditional cake brand business model of “central factory + wholesale” and “chain store model” has solved the quality problem of product standardization, but it has great dependence on the relationship between distribution team and retail merchants, low flexibility, high operating cost and slow occupation of the market, so it is difficult to expand the influence of the brand. In contrast, Internet baking takes the mode of online order + factory warehousing and distribution to accelerate its growth.
In addition, Internet baking brands are good at entering the market with representative products of a single subdivided category, playing civic traffic and reconstructing the baking business with e-commerce thinking. Panda doesn’t take aim at not only the cake, but also the birthday scene to improve the consumption experience of the whole cake. The interactive performance, magic display, personalized surprise packaging and other services provided naturally have the attribute of “autobiography” to stimulate users to naturally complete civic exposure.
图片来源：熊猫不走
The baking market with diversified consumption scenes and high degree of retailing has great development potential, and the injection of capital will accelerate the development of the industry. In the future, baking brands should have an insight into the needs of young people, dig deep in production, service, marketing and other links, and form a brand unique business closed loop, which may be the key to the breakthrough of baking brands, and a number of top brands in the baking market may emerge.
1) Refined baby rearing needs, breeding a new blue ocean of snacks
The proportion of snack consumption in children’s consumption has always been very considerable. According to the 2020 blue book on healthy meals for children in China, 42.79% of parents believe that “children’s snacks are an extra meal demand besides three meals”. As the “fourth meal” in addition to the three meals, snacks can provide important energy and nutrient supplements and play an important role in children’s physical and mental growth. From “refusing children to eat snacks” to “choosing healthy snacks” has become the consensus of post-80s parents.
As a sub category generated by the intersection of mother and child and snack categories, the children’s snack market is becoming a new blue ocean with rapid growth. Duo Maomao, which provides nutritious, delicious and interesting snacks for children, has completed nearly 100 million yuan of a + round financing, and the fruit and vegetable day group, which focuses on fruits and vegetables to create children’s healthy snacks, has won tens of millions of yuan of angel round financing······
For a long time, there has been a conceptual and normative “fault” between infant food and adult food. The formal implementation of the general requirements for children’s snacks has made the definition of children’s snacks clearer and made clear provisions on nutrition, health and safety.
Traditional snacks are usually heavy oil and heavy salt, and flavors, flavors and other additives are added to taste. Children’s snacks need to take into account health and delicacy, consider how to “add” nutritional elements and “subtract” additives such as oil, salt and sugar in a scientific way with technical support.
Following the principle of “plus, minus and healthier”, duo Maomao creates a variety of snack products for children aged 3-12, which add beneficial elements for growth and abandon unfriendly ingredients. Eating snacks is one of the processes of changing snacks into supplementary nutrition, so as to reshape the zero food mentality on the user side; “Fruit and vegetable tiantuan” directly cuts the pain point of children’s fruit and vegetable intake, takes fruits and vegetables as the core ingredient of snacks, deeply cultivates the research and development of product taste texture, expands diversified product forms, and enriches children’s snack fruit and vegetable intake and consumption experience.
With the introduction of the three child policy and the refinement of the parenting concept of the new generation of parents, the size of the children’s snack market will be further expanded. According to the estimation of Huaying capital, the children’s snack market is expected to reach nearly 150 billion yuan in 2023, and the compound annual growth rate will remain at 13.7% in the next five years. Children’s snacks with more levels of functional needs, more role-based emotional needs and more dimensions of value experience needs have become the main driving point of the brand.
2) Impulse consumption emotion, catalytic leisure snack collection store
Snacks are not limited to tastes, ingredients and categories. Their essence is to occupy all the time, scenes and emotions of the mouth outside the three meals. According to Tianyan survey data, there are currently more than 163000 leisure and snack related enterprises in China, and the largest enterprise in China’s snack market accounts for only 2.3% of the market share of this track. Although e-commerce online traffic plays a vital role in the development of new consumer brands, offline channels with high repurchase rate and rapid attraction to consumers are still important.
In November last year, the snack chain brand “snack Youming” completed a round of financing of tens of millions of yuan, which is also the third round of financing of the brand in 2021; In May, Changsha’s new retail chain brand “snacks are busy” obtained round a financing of 240 million yuan; “Whiko enigmatic creature” and “snack girl” have also successively completed financing of tens of millions of yuan… The snack collection store of “1500 kinds of snacks for you to choose” has become one of the market hotspots for capital to settle in.
Source: snacks are busy
Compared with a wide variety of e-commerce platforms, the advantage of offline stores is to create the impulse of instant consumption through a wide range of consumption scenes made on shelves; Compared with the price close to the people and the location of convenient life service circle, it increases the popularity of stores; Centralized warehouse management system, logistics distribution supply chain integration, fine store management rules and regulations, etc. make the stores more standardized.
At present, the whole snack industry generally has the problem of homogenization of products, channels and promotion, and the fighting of offline channels is also fierce. The first snack brands that started from e-commerce also began to lay out offline one after another. Baicao flavor has covered 20 provinces in China; Three squirrels and liangpin shop have broken thousands of offline stores. For snack collection stores, there is still a long way to go if they want to achieve long-term sustainable development.
In recent years, with the change of generation Z’s consumption concept and the continuous cross-border integration of digitization into the vertical field, new consumer brands in the food and beverage industry take consumer demand as the operation guide, deeply understand and adapt to the demand changes brought by the change of consumer concept and emotion.
Under the new consumption wave, capital creates more business space for product and brand upgrading, and it is also the catalyst for the intensification of Matthew effect in the industry. Any brand or product has a life cycle. With the changing times, there will always be a group of younger people in the consumer market.
Only by always taking consumers as the center, deeply digging into the changes of new consumer groups and consumer needs, injecting fresh culture and spirit, making changes in operation, creating products that can empathize with consumers and continuously creating value for consumers, can we keep our foundation green and not be abandoned by the times.
reference material:
[1] The annual commercial hot spots of heavyweight daily food are released, and the opportunities for new species of the track in 2022 are here! Foodaily, January 14, 2022
[2] Bucking the trend, rising and breaking the situation: a major event in the food industry in 2021. Foodaily, January 16, 2022
[3] Capital “stir fry” prefabricated dishes. Financial world weekly, January 17, 2022
[4] How far can the happy “money” path of small cake go? Business data, December 26, 2021
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For the sixth consecutive year, foodaily released the annual business hot spot of the food industry – exploring the development law of categories from 200000 new products around the world, studying the changes of global consumption, studying the changes of new consumers and consumption demand in combination with the in-depth insight into the Chinese market, and exploring the new value brought by the two new consumption drivers of technological reconstruction and brand interest, Focus on the prospective discovery of category cracks / innovative products to assist new consumer entrants in anchoring market segments and category fission opportunities, and provide inspiration and decision-making reference for product innovation in the next year. (click the picture to view the detailed introduction)
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