Current situation and characteristics

1. The development of Chinese fast food has transformed from perceptual understanding to rational accumulation stage.

2. The social and industry status of fast food has been established and its role has become more prominent.

3. The scale of industries and enterprises continues to expand, and the quality and level of development are significantly improved.

4. Western-style fast food chain enterprises are expanding rapidly, and the trend of integrating Chinese and Western food is increasing.

5. The fast food industry continues to explore and innovate, and the development space continues to expand.

6. The alliance between related industries is deeper and industrial connections are gradually formed.

Second status

The development of the fast food industry is determined by social progress and economic development. It is an urgent need to improve people’s living standards and lifestyles, and is an important step for people to adapt to social and economic construction. , the pace of work and life is accelerating, and family services and unit logistics services are inevitable products of socialization.

Three functions

1. The fast food industry is an important industry for the living environment and investment environment;

2. It is a new factor in the development of the national economy and the catering industry. The growth point;

3. It is the breakthrough and pioneer for traditional catering to move towards modern catering;

4. It is an important part of people's leisure consumption, tourism consumption, shopping consumption and other consumption. ;

5. It is an important channel for the country to expand domestic demand, absorb social employment and expand re-employment;

6. It is a new force for China to develop an export-oriented economy and connect with the international catering market.

As the saying goes, food is the most important thing for people. Nowadays, a large part of the "sky" of my country's catering industry has been occupied by all kinds of foreign fast food, and it is still spreading rapidly. However, the development of foreign fast food in its home country is far less than its performance in our country, and the prospects are even bleak. To this end, relevant foreign research institutions have conducted in-depth research to find solutions and make suggestions. So, does their research have any reference value to our country? How should my country's catering industry choose its own development path?

With this question in mind, researchers from Digital 100 Market Consulting Co., Ltd. combined the company's rich experience in the fast-moving consumer goods industry over the years to compare the results of "The Fast Food War" written by McKinsey consultants on the U.S. fast food industry. "The article has the following thoughts on my country's catering industry:

1. The catering industry in my country and the United States outlined by numbers

McKinsey consultants' opinions on the status of the catering industry in the United States In the article "Fast Food War", there is a set of figures that are worthy of attention:

400 billion US dollars - the total turnover of the US restaurant market

60 - fast food chains and full services The proportion of restaurant sales in the catering industry

2 - It is estimated that the annual growth rate of the U.S. catering industry’s revenue from now to 2010 is the upper limit

In comparison, what is our country? What about this situation?

From the information collected at hand, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2004, my country's catering industry achieved a turnover of 748.6 billion yuan, an increase of 21.6% over the previous year, and a net increase of 133 billion yuan; According to preliminary estimates, there are more than 1 million fast food chain operation outlets nationwide, with an annual turnover of up to 150 billion yuan, which will account for about 22% and 20% of the catering industry respectively. The scale of the fast food industry continues to expand [[i]] .

Although there are various differences in statistical methods and the definition of certain concepts (such as fast food restaurants, etc.) so that the above two sets of data are not strictly comparable, we can still see from them Here are some clues:

First of all, from the perspective of the annual turnover of the catering industry, the gap between the US$400 billion in the United States and the RMB 748.6 billion in my country is already more than 4 times. Then consider the population of the United States. (as of July 1, 2004, it was 294 million [[ii]]) and China’s population (January 6, 2005 was China’s population of 1.3 billion [[iii]]). It is not difficult to see that my country’s Per capita catering industry consumption is almost only 1/20 of that in the United States. Even taking into account factors such as the economic development stages of the two countries and the differences in people's purchasing power, my country's catering industry market size still has a lot of room for expansion;

Secondly, the fast food turnover in the United States accounts for more than half of the catering industry my country's fast food industry accounts for only about 20% of the entire catering industry from the number of outlets to turnover. Perhaps our country's definition of fast food is relatively narrow compared to the United States, but it cannot be denied that fast food plays an important role among us Chinese today. It is indeed impossible for the proportion of catering consumption to compete with other catering consumption patterns;

Finally, the predicted growth rate of the catering industry in the United States below 2 is similar to the actual growth rate of my country's catering industry last year of 21.6 The ratio is a ten-fold difference, but judging from the absolute amount of fast food turnover growth, the US$240 billion fast food industry market has grown by 2, which will increase revenue by US$4.8 billion (approximately 39 billion yuan); my country's 1500 The fast food market with a revenue of RMB 20 billion only increased by RMB 30 billion despite a 20% growth. A simple calculation shows that even if the two countries keep the current growth rates of 2 and 20 respectively, it will take at least 15 to 16 years for my country's fast food industry market size to be comparable to that of the United States. But theoretically speaking, when my country's fast food industry develops to a certain level, it is not easy to maintain a growth rate of 20%. Therefore, if my country's fast food market wants to catch up with the United States in terms of scale expansion in a short period of time, it must win a leap-forward development.

In short, based on the above three aspects of figures, we can roughly outline a picture: my country's catering industry's per capita consumption level is significantly different from that of the United States. The catering market is far from being developed and still has great potential. ; The proportion of fast food in my country's catering industry is significantly lower than that of the United States; my country's fast food industry is in a stage of rapid growth, while the growth of the U.S. fast food industry is relatively slow and even not optimistic enough.

Researchers at Number 100 believe that from this rough sketch, we can basically draw the conclusion that the development of the U.S. fast food industry has been relatively mature, so the market has been fully expanded, large in scale, and relatively stable. Stable, but the growth rate is slowing down; my country's fast food industry started late and is still in the growth stage, so the market expansion is insufficient, the market potential is large, and it is developing rapidly. In other words, my country's fast food industry is currently at a completely different stage of development compared with the United States. The gap between the two is very large, and it can even be said that it is difficult to compare.

2. Can stones from other mountains be used to conquer jade?

Since the Chinese and American catering industry, or to a smaller extent - the gap between the development stages of the Chinese and American fast food industry is so large, So is there anything we can learn from Americans’ research on their fast food market? Because to a certain extent, when entities at different stages of development face the same market signal, it is like the situation when two people at different distances from the road traffic lights face the same traffic light signal. They will make decisions too early or too late. Reactions are inappropriate. The article "Fast Food War" written by McKinsey Consultants is a set of traffic lights for the American fast food industry. So can these lights also guide my country's fast food industry?

Let’s first take a look at what direction this set of indicators indicates.

The article "Fast Food War" mainly has the following conclusions:

1. From now to 2010, the U.S. catering industry will develop slowly, and the annual growth rate of revenue is expected to be less than 2;

2. Fresh food and convenient and fast dining are the latest customer demands, which both increase the cost of the fast food industry and conflict with each other;

3. Half of the growth of the catering industry is achieved in the fast food industry Realization, and will mainly focus on "quick meals" - that is, the mid-level catering service field;

4. The proportion of outside meals for dinner will be greater than the sum of the proportions of outside meals for breakfast and lunch, and the consumption at dinner The amount is also much higher than the consumption of dining at other times. Catering industry operators should focus on dinner;

5. On the basis of ensuring fresh food, rich varieties and fast service, it must be achieved Only large-scale operations can achieve profits. Different types of fast food companies have different advantages and disadvantages in achieving this goal and need to adopt different methods.

The content of point 1 has been mentioned before, which is different from the situation in our country; point 2 can be said to reflect some common objective situations, which is also the case in our country; regarding points 3 and 4 Conclusion There is no corresponding data in my country yet. The large-scale operation mentioned in point 5 is based on the previous conclusion and mainly targets the fast food industry. Therefore, contents 3, 4, and 5 must be considered comprehensively, and the concept of "fast food" must also be considered. Make some analysis. Although the article "Fast Food War" does not give a clear definition, judging from its classification and writing of fast food companies, its definition of fast food seems to be relatively broad, that is, catering that provides fast dining services. Therefore, it can divide fast food companies into five categories: quick-service restaurants, full-service restaurants, supermarkets, fast food restaurants, and convenience stores. The classification standards seem to focus more on the classification of dining locations, with the classification of service models mixed in. This understanding is obviously not consistent with our usual concept of fast food. For example, if full-service restaurants are also included in fast food, most of our restaurants should be considered fast food companies. So how do people in my country's catering industry understand fast food? The article "Establishing the Concept of Modern Fast Food and Developing Modern Fast Food in China" [[iv]] believes that fast food is "food or meals that can be eaten conveniently and quickly"; "Fast food has three meanings: a. It is a convenient and fast food; b. It has the characteristics of fast food and fast food". Characteristics of dining; c. A business model that can adapt to the large-scale development of catering"; "There are many types of fast food, mainly including: traditional fast food, transitional fast food, and modern fast food." Moreover, the article also believes that modern fast food has many modern scientific requirements. The Chinese fast food currently on the market can only be called traditional fast food or transitional fast food. They do not have the characteristics of modern fast food, including "foreign fast food", which is also only called "foreign fast food". It can be regarded as a small fast food in the tributary of modern fast food. What will be vigorously developed in the future is modern fast food, and modern fast food will be divided into two types: location-based and mobile. Obviously there is a difference between the two definitions.

In addition to the definition of fast food, as for the conclusions mentioned in points 3 and 4, due to the lack of actual statistical data, the author cannot comment here, but from a general feeling, assuming that the definition of fast food is According to our understanding (that is, excluding ordinary restaurants), the proportion of outside meals for dinner should not be higher than that for breakfast and lunch. As far as the proportion of eating out is concerned, the proportion of eating outside for breakfast should be the highest. Office workers and ordinary family members may choose to go out for breakfast; while lunch eating outside is mostly for office workers; then these office workers eat two meals a day. After "fast food", those who still choose fast food at night are probably helpless. Of course, this is not only due to traditional living habits, but also related to the current low level of fast food production in my country. However, if so-called "full-service restaurants" are also included in the category of fast food, then we look at the crowded restaurants at night and the long queues of private cars in front of the restaurants. Obviously, the fourth conclusion is undoubtedly applicable to our country. , but the corresponding suggestions no longer seem necessary. Our country’s catering industry has already gone all out for dinner.

In addition, the content that our country’s fast food industry should be concerned about is probably very different from that in the United States: in the article "Fast Food War", what is revealed after the smoke clears is that most of the companies in the United States are of different sizes and sizes. Similar fast food companies with different operating methods, at least the Chinese catering brands that have actually landed in the United States have not yet been heard of. Only a report in 2003 [[v]] mentioned that Donglaishun had registered a trademark in the United States and planned to franchise it. The franchise business has gone abroad; and in my country's fast food industry, the biggest competition occurs between "foreign fast food" and "Chinese fast food". As stated in the data quoted in the "China Fast Food Development Situation Analysis Report", "International fast food brand companies represented by KFC and McDonald's have expanded rapidly in my country, and their development speed has accelerated significantly. By the end of 2004, China's KFC reached 1,200 chain stores. There are more than 600 McDonald's stores, about 800 and 300 more than in 2000, respectively. The average annual opening of stores has reached 200 and 80. The annual business scale exceeds 11 billion yuan and 6 billion yuan respectively. The average annual turnover of a single store is 8 million yuan. As mentioned above, it has become a leading enterprise in China's fast food and catering industry, and its role and influence on the development of the industry continues to expand." It is also "expanding from China's first and second tier cities to third and fourth tier cities, and from eastern cities to western cities. ". Among the above data, KFC and McDonald's alone account for 17 billion yuan of the total 150 billion yuan fast food industry market. Others include pizza restaurants such as Pizza Hut and Big's, Japanese fast food restaurants such as Yoshinoya and Menaimen, and coffee shops such as Starbucks. Chain stores and a series of foreign fast food brands that occupy a large market share have not yet been counted, which shows the current weak situation of Chinese fast food. No wonder China Business News published an article in 2002 called "Western-style Fast Food Holds Back Chinese People" [[vi]] saying that "in the 15 years from 1987 to 2002, China's fast food industry has developed rapidly, and the market has formed. Traditional and modern, Chinese and Western, high-end and low-end fast food compete and coexist in the market structure. However, in terms of quantity and quality, the Chinese fast food market clearly lags behind the development of Western fast food. ”

Through the above. According to the analysis, the overall conclusion drawn by researchers from Digital 100 Company is that the fast food industry in my country and the United States are at different stages of development, have different understandings of fast food, have different catering consumption conditions, and have different main problems faced by the industry. Therefore, "The Battle of Fast Food" 》This set of traffic lights for the American fast food industry is at least an indication of the next intersection for our country's fast food industry (and may not even pass by). We can learn from the research ideas in it, but the specific program content It has little guiding significance for my country's fast food or catering industry. To find a way out for China's catering industry, we still need to start from China's current situation and conduct in-depth and detailed analysis and planning.

3. The brick that attracts jade

Faced with the "Fast Food War", which is a stone from another mountain, since it has given a conclusion that jade cannot be attacked, it seems necessary. Taking out a few of your own bricks and mortar to try it out (here we adopt the concept of fast food that is more recognized by Chinese people), which can also pave the way for real beauty to appear in the world:

1. Look at the domestic catering consumption market objectively and calmly

A question mark should be drawn as to whether the market size of the catering industry can continue to maintain a double-digit growth rate. A report shows that China's catering market achieved double-digit growth for 14 consecutive years in 2004.

The purchasing power and consumption patterns of Chinese people 14 years ago were indeed very different from what they are now. But today, 14 years later, the needs of Chinese people in terms of "eating" have been greatly satisfied, and the room for growth will not be what it was 14 years ago. So big, although there are reports that the catering industry predicts that the annual turnover will increase by 16% or 18% in 2005-2006 [[vii]]; on the other hand, my country's economic development is still at the level of developing countries, and the development of the fast food industry has been affected by Constraints on consumption level and consumption capacity, especially at present, with the adjustment of my country's economic structure, a large number of laid-off workers have appeared, which has caused greater obstacles in the further popularization of catering consumption; in addition, in recent years, the country has vigorously eliminated corruption and rectified Officials say that consumption of public funds, a major source of turnover in the catering industry, will gradually decline; in addition, the eating habits and dining out psychology developed by ordinary people over the years have resulted in the fact that except for a few occasions such as banquets, most people still cook at home. With the food situation, it is difficult to achieve in the short term if people want to move all meals outside the home;

2. The growth space of Chinese fast food lies in improving quality and reputation

In addition to the dining habits that Chinese people have developed over thousands of years, another reason why people are not keen on fast food is their distrust of fast food production, such as hygiene, nutrition, and the quality of food raw materials. At present, the domestic food industry frequently breaks out news that surprises and even angers consumers, making people generally have doubts about the food sold by merchants. According to "Hou Hei Xue", the scarce will benefit, that is: in a society that generally emphasizes credibility, evil people can benefit; but when the credibility of the entire society is relatively low, the loyal will become the last winner. So, using this as an inaccurate analogy to today’s catering industry, whoever can truly provide consumers with safe and hygienic fast food will win the largest consumer base.

3. China’s catering industry does not need to be bound by the concept of “foreign fast food”. It does not even need to distinguish between “fast food” and ordinary meals, and only emphasizes “catering that consumers need”

The negative effects of foreign fast food on health have attracted more and more attention in recent years. With the increasing health awareness of consumers and the increase in the number of people who advocate returning to basics, the concept of fast food is likely to be a passing thing. For example, there are now "Slow Food Groups" in Italy, there is talk about "enjoying the joy of eating" in the UK, and in the United States, which is the most enthusiastic about fast food, some fast food restaurants are also advocating "fast food and slow food" [[viii]]. Therefore, as a major catering country that has always had the tradition of "not eating too hastily", it may be easier to embark on the next wave of changes in the catering industry by carrying forward its own traditions.

4. my country’s catering industry must “retaliate in kind” and strive to go abroad and compete with the “hometown” of foreign fast food, and promote our food culture in the homeland of foreign fast food.

As one of the countless ordinary consumers in the catering industry, and as a market researcher with the unshirkable obligation, researchers from Digital 100 Company made the above thoughts on my country’s catering industry to express their understanding of the domestic catering industry. We are paying attention to the development of the industry, and we also hope that insightful people from all walks of life will actively provide suggestions for the growth of my country's catering industry, and usher in the bright prospects of my country's catering industry as soon as possible

The development of Chinese fast food is in a dilemma

LinkMall.Cn 2008-08-12 1 comment on Sohu.com

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Lianjie.com According to Sohu.com: KFC’s sister Chinese food brand “Dongfang Jibai” recently entered Guangdong for the first time. Its slogan of “KFC standard Chinese food” has aroused industry criticism as soon as it was released. The buzz about Chinese fast food. It is reported that "Dongfang Jibai" has a wide range of products, but it also claims that it will open stores according to KFC standards, with the goal of having the number of stores reach the scale of KFC in China.

It is understood that in the current South China market, it is difficult to find Chinese fast food that is both "standardized" and "diversified" as "Dongfang Jibai" calls it.

Fast food with strong standardization such as Real Kung Fu and Café de Coral were criticized for having “few varieties and single taste”, while fast food with rich categories such as Pastry King and Aji Qian showed the disadvantage of limited development in the local market.

The accelerated pace of modern life has given rise to fast food, and Chinese fast food is also favored by many office workers for its nutritious and rich taste. Like KFC, McDonald's and other Western fast food brands, more and more Chinese fast food brands with good environment and stable quality are emerging into people's sight. Among them, Zhen Kung Fu, which has opened 226 stores in South China, is the most successful. Zhen Kung Fu, which officially opened in 1994, developed a computer-programmable steam cabinet in 1997 to ensure the stability of fast food quality and taste, solving the problem of standardization of Chinese fast food for the first time.

However, it is not difficult for consumers to find that although the quality of Chinese fast food featuring steaming is relatively stable, it is obviously insufficient in taking advantage of the rich diversity of Chinese food. Zhen Kung Fu Company stated that it currently has a total of 44 types of single items. However, excluding "auxiliary" categories such as snacks and drinks, there are only more than ten types of real staple rice products. In addition, since the cooking method of Zhen Kung Fu is all represented by "steaming", the taste is on the lighter side.

Zhen Kung Fu said that such a product mix is ??related to the company’s goals and direction of national development. Zhen Kung Fu, which started in South China, has now extended its development tentacles to central and northern China. Large-scale cross-regional development has forced it to face problems such as difficulty in unifying raw materials and changing regional taste demands. Therefore, it must integrate the "broad and profound" Chinese cuisine The culture is condensed into more than ten types of steamed rice that are relatively simple.

In addition to Chinese fast food with obvious product features such as Zhen Kung Fu, there are also some Chinese fast food with rich products in the South China market. Among them, the menus of Noodle King and Ajisen each have more than 100 options. Representatives that started and developed locally in Guangzhou and Shenzhen include Capital Fast Food and Jiawang Fast Food. Although the store size and development scale of these two local fast food brands are far less than the real efforts in national development, their menu items are also rich in 80 to 100 kinds, and the taste of the products is not limited, including steamed, stir-fried, and fried. and other cooking methods are used.

However, these Chinese fast food products that have flourished in the local market are obviously weak in terms of growth rate and cross-regional development. These Chinese fast food products that highlight the characteristics of Chinese catering are diversified and are therefore very popular in the local fast food market. Among them, Ducheng and Jiawang currently have more than 40 and 68 branches in Guangzhou and Shenzhen respectively. But at the same time, their layout in other domestic regions and even peripheral markets is sporadic and scattered. Some of them have never even set foot in other regions outside Guangzhou, and their development speed has been obviously inhibited by this.

The person in charge of Capital Fast Food stated that Capital, the local Chinese fast food restaurant that has flourished all over Guangzhou, has maintained at more than 40 stores in Guangzhou from 2006 to 2008, and plans to open several more stores this year. And it has not yet touched other regional markets. Jiawang Fast Food, which has 68 stores in Shenzhen, has made zero breakthroughs in other regional markets except for opening a new branch in Guangzhou.

Some insiders have analyzed this. On the surface, the difficulty in developing diversified Chinese fast food across regions is due to the difficulty in unifying raw materials, but in essence it is a reflection of the insufficient implementation of fast food standardization. "This situation is obvious when Chinese fast food develops across regions, but in fact it also invisibly restricts the localization development of the brand." A spokesman for Mian Dian Wang said frankly, "It is still difficult for Chinese fast food to achieve both standardization and diversification. , Noodle King has a relatively rich product line and is relatively difficult to control in terms of standardization, so its current development is limited to Guangzhou and Shenzhen. ”