In recent years, prefabricated dishes are very popular in China, because it provides convenience for consumers and saves costs for businesses that use prefabricated dishes. With the popularity of pre-cooked dishes, the industry has developed four factions: professional faction, catering faction, retail faction and comprehensive faction. Among them, professional faction is an industry veteran, while other factions are new players. In the future, new players are expected to seize the market by virtue of their original advantages.

at the same time, from the perspective of industry form, To C is relatively mainstream because of its scattered orders, diversified demands and no representative enterprises at present.

1. Classification of pre-cooked dishes

Pre-cooked dishes refer to finished or semi-finished products made of agriculture, livestock, poultry and aquatic products as raw materials, supplemented with various auxiliary materials, and pre-processed (such as cutting, stirring, pickling, rolling, shaping and seasoning). According to the degree of processing, it can be divided into ready-to-eat food, instant cooked food, instant hot food and ready-to-eat food. The specific situation is as follows:

In recent years, prefabricated dishes have experienced rapid growth due to their convenience. Take Weizhixiang, a major enterprise in the prefabricated vegetable industry, as an example. The main business income of its main company mainly comes from the sales of meat and poultry and aquatic semi-finished vegetables, accounting for more than 97% of the income. Among them, the sales revenue of meat and poultry semi-finished dishes accounted for the largest proportion. From 2118 to 2121, the business income of Weizhixiang increased from 459.752 million yuan to 614.6912 million yuan, an increase of about 33.7%. It can be seen that the demand for prepared dishes increased year by year from 2118 to 2121.

2. Pre-cooked dishes save costs for businesses

While providing convenience for consumers, pre-cooked dishes can also save costs for businesses. Take a fast food sold in 21 yuan as an example. In addition to the cost of packaging materials and various expenses of the platform, the merchants who use prefabricated dishes will have higher food costs, but the higher food costs have been offset by labor costs, housing rental costs and energy miscellaneous fees.

generally speaking, the cost of using prefabricated dishes is lower than that of purchasing ingredients directly for fast food in 21 yuan, and the cost of merchants using prefabricated dishes is lower.

3. Major players in the pre-cooked dish industry

With the increasing popularity of pre-cooked dishes, many capitals smell business opportunities. At present, China's pre-cooked dishes are mainly divided into four major players, namely, professional, catering, retail and comprehensive. Among them, the representative enterprises of the professional school are Suzhou Haodelai, etc. These players specialize in prefabricated dishes with rich product categories and are the main force in the current prefabricated dish industry; The other three types of players have just entered the game, but in the future, they can also gain a certain market in the field of pre-cooked dishes according to their original advantages. For example, fresh box horse can rely on its strong supply chain advantages, and Haidilao can rely on its own advantages in quick-frozen food according to its well-known degree in the catering industry.

4. ToB form is the current mainstream

From the perspective of industry form, according to the survey, the ratio of To B and To C in China's pre-cooked vegetable enterprises is 8: 2, mainly because compared with to to B, to C market faces more diversified user needs and more dispersed locations, and the single order amount is small, the purchase frequency is high, the profit model is significantly different from to B, and there are diversified demands for all aspects of product production.

—— The above data refer to Forecast and Analysis Report on Production and Marketing Demand and Investment of Frozen Food Industry in China by Prospective Industry Research Institute.