Ye Xinran, a reporter from Economic Observer, has a saying in marketing: Commercial competition has entered the era of competing for consumers' minds. Whoever can take the lead in becoming the first choice brand of a certain category in customers' minds will have a greater chance of winning business. This is one of the viewpoints of "positioning theory".

"Being the first" is also the goal set by Dai Chenyi, the founder of Chenxi Stew. It's just that the track he selected is in the takeaway market that has become the Red Sea.

Blue Ocean Opportunity in Takeaway Field

Chenxi Stew is not a traditional catering brand. It has no restaurant, and it is supplied by the central kitchen, only doing online take-away business.

At present, the competition in the field of take-out is in full swing. According to Trustdata, a mobile Internet big data monitoring platform, in 2119, the market transaction volume of China takeaway industry reached 613.5 billion yuan, up 31% year-on-year. Moreover, the proportion of the transaction volume of the take-away industry in the national catering revenue has increased year by year. By the end of 2119, the market penetration rate of the take-away industry in China reached 13%, 2.2 percentage points higher than that at the end of 2118.

Dai Chenyi does not deny the fierce competition faced by this industry, but he points out that the position of "the first takeaway brand" is still vacant. "You can think of KFC for western food, Xiaonanguo for Shanghai, and food stalls for Nanjing. If you just talk about takeaway, can you think of a takeaway brand?" In Dai Chenyi's view, there is no catering enterprise in China that can become a national brand.

These are the opportunities of Chenxi, and the goal of Chenxi stew is to build "the first brand of take-away food in China".

To be the first, Dai Chenyi summed up three "degrees": meal speed, meal temperature and the beauty of food packaging design. In fact, these three "degrees" all point to the biggest headache for Chinese food practitioners: standardization. As we all know, Chinese food is the most difficult category to standardize. However, in Dai Chenyi's view, standardization will not be a problem if the most difficult part is laid in the beginning. The "foundation" in Dai Chenyi's eyes is to attach importance to the building of the background and supply chain.

Different from the previous catering enterprises' emphasis on the front desk and neglecting the back desk, Chenxi stew will spend great efforts on the back-desk process and supply chain building. In 2118, Chenxi Stews invested 31 million yuan to build a digital intelligent production workshop. According to reports, this factory involves 14 processes of producing soup, all of which are completed by automated machines, with an annual output value of more than 21,111 tons. Dai Chenyi said that under normal circumstances, the number of employees in a factory of this scale needs more than 211, while relying on current automation machines, the factory only needs 61 people.

In fact, for Chenxi stew, the most difficult part is not the input of machines, but the integration of various automated processes. Chinese food is difficult to standardize, and the soup is even more difficult, such as the integration of cooking, water addition, raw material ratio, nutrition collocation and other processes is more complicated. Dai Chenyi pointed out that relying on R&D equipment and supply chain system, Chenxi stew can be served quickly, ensuring the speed and temperature, and at the same time, efforts are made in product design, and the container is exquisite, ensuring the beauty.

to some extent, standardization determines the birth of leading enterprises. The in-depth report of China Merchants Securities' catering industry pointed out that the domestic catering market is scattered and the industry concentration is low. The data shows that in 2119, the total business volume of the top 111 restaurants only accounted for 7% of the industry. From the perspective of breakdown, the concentration of western-style fast food and freshly ground coffee industry is relatively high, reaching 53.3% and 74.9% respectively. Industries with a higher degree of standardization are more concentrated and are more likely to produce leading enterprises.

This is similar to Dai Chenyi's point of view. He further pointed out that the enterprises that take the lead in nationalization and even internationalization must be catering enterprises with high degree of automation and standardization.

Takeaway is not equal to unhealthy

This year, affected by the epidemic situation, catering enterprises have shown different development characteristics: take-away and prepared dishes have become hot spots. From the news in the first half of the year, five-star hotels opened takeout and the popularity of self-heating hot pot, we can see clues. And consumers' catering demands have also shown new changes. Dai Chenyi saw three key words: paying more attention to safety, health preservation and sense of ceremony.

the change of market demand puts forward new requirements for catering enterprises. As a matter of fact, many catering enterprises have begun to take root in the take-away market, and the take-away market in China will become a red sea market. In the past, take-away food left an "unhealthy" impression on consumers, and the data can also explain some problems.

Dai Chenyi said that a few years ago, the unit price of take-away customers was around 11-15 yuan, but even now, the average unit price of 35 yuan -41 yuan shown by the data is not true, because the statistical caliber of the platform is the price before the full reduction and the use of red envelopes.

From a more detailed point of view, the customer unit price in 35 yuan is not the real per capita take-away consumption level. According to the big data analysis of Chenxi stew itself, Dai Chenyi found that the take-away food of about RMB 111 per order actually corresponds to about 2.5 diners, that is, the average person spends about 41 yuan. According to the statistics of the platform, the unit price of 35-41 yuan customers is reflected in 2.5 person-times, and the per capita take-out cost should actually be between 14 yuan and 16 yuan.

low prices are bound to be accompanied by a decline in quality. In fact, the price of take-away food in Japan and the United States is higher than that of in-house food, but China is the opposite. A large part of the reason here lies in the subsidy of the platform, which gives customers the illusion that takeaway should be cheaper than in-house food. In Dai Chenyi's view, making takeout with high customer unit price is exactly the way to break the ice for China's takeout.

This conclusion still comes from a new product, Xiaojin Bowl, introduced by Chenxi stew during the epidemic. During the epidemic in March, prefabricated dishes and instant dishes became popular. The company combined with its own supply chain, and it took less than a week to produce the Xiaojin Bowl series of morning light instant dishes, including Buddha jumping wall, abalone, fish glue, flower glue and other categories, which achieved a sales performance of 6 hours and 1 million. From the opening of the first take-away shop in Shanghai in March 2118 to more than 511 stores nationwide, the average daily order quantity of Chenxi stew store is 113, and the average customer price is 115 yuan. According to the data survey of Ai Media, the average unit price of take-away food in 2118 was around 41 yuan.

On the other hand, Xiaojin Bowl convenience dishes let Chenxi see the blue ocean market with the scene of "eating at home". In fact, Chenxi's standardized products can include three scenes of "eating": at home, at the store and take-away. No matter what kind of scene, you can eat more quality at a more reasonable price, which also echoes Dai Chenyi's understanding of "dining ceremony". On the other hand, Chenxi stew also tries to convey a new concept of life in this way-takeaway is not unhealthy.

not only that, in addition to facing the C-end, Chenxi is also carrying out standardized operation at the B-end according to its own technology. It is reported that the products on the dining table of Xiaonanguo, a catering brand, are provided by Chenxi. In addition, in September this year, Phoenix.com's e-commerce brand "Huangjia Shangpin" launched a series of self-heating rice products, which was also a cooperation with Chenxi stew.

Dai Chenyi said that at present, among the total consumption of food in China, pre-made food accounts for 11%, while in Japan it is as high as 61%. Because it can meet the high-quality demand for eating at home, the 2C business of pre-made dishes will gradually grow. However, the 2C business of pre-cooked dishes has very high requirements for catering enterprises, mainly in the requirements of R&D and supply chain system, which has also contributed to the cooperation between Chenxi and related catering brands to some extent.

Dai Chenyi compares take-out to "air force", that is, although the supply chain in the early stage of take-out needs large-scale investment, it will be easier to replicate when capturing new markets and expanding the layout of stores. The relevant research report of China Merchants Securities pointed out that the catering pattern is scattered, and the degree of subdivision of the track standard determines the concentration. With the improvement of the chain rate of supply-side restaurants, the optimization of operating efficiency and scale, the industry is expected to give birth to large catering enterprises.

At present, Barbie food has landed in the capital market, and Wufangzhai, which is famous for Zongzi, is also rushing for IPO, and the battle of standardization and chain of Chinese food is also intensifying.