CBN Friday Special丨Chinese catering industry struggles and strives to get back on its feet

S: Hi everyone. Welcome to CBN Friday Special. I’m Stephanie LI.

J: And I’m Jenny. 

S: Hey Jenny, summer is here. It's the best time in the year to grab a beer at night and sit outside with a platter of crayfish.

J: Yeah. For many in China, crayfish is a delicacy during the summer time, but the COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai this spring affected the crayfish supply chain again. And not only had crayfish farmers struggled, but restaurants are also making efforts to recover.

S: It's been more than two years since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization. There’re 874 local COVID-19 infections reported in the Chinese mainland on Thursday across 12 provinces and regions. Every time a city goes through a COVID flare-up, the catering industry is among the hardest hit. 

J: You’re absolutely right. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics on June 15, the catering revenue from January to May this year was 1627.4 billion yuan, showing a decrease of 8.5 percent. The number of that in May was 301.2 billion yuan with a decrease of 21.1 percent. 

S: China's catering industry has had to adapt to the pandemic, and it's also been making efforts to get on track. I don’t if you’ve noticed,  Jenny, but some high-end food that you could only eat in restaurants has become available on takeaway service platforms lately.

J: Yes, and that’s because many fine-dining restaurants are struggling to stay afloat amid the pandemic. For starters, the rents, especially for those located in high-end places, are not a small expenditure. And not to mention the COVID restrictions, decline  in in-house dining, rising costs in wages......all these are exerting pressures on restaurants. What the epidemic brings to the industry is not a development problem, but a survival problem.

S: With the current epidemic control and prevention measures in place, dine-in services are only allowed in low-risk areas in the country. Switching to online delivery food services is one of the go-to solutions, together with community marketing strategies, such as online group purchases or wholesale, especially for high-end restaurants. For the commuters who don't have time to cook, ordering take-outs is a safer option than in-house dining. 

J: I agree. Restaurant have kept innovating in the past two years. They create new dishes to attract younger customers and try new marketing strategies. Popular diners these days, they all have their social media accounts, such as on Xiaohongshu, Douyin and Weibo, and it may make a great difference by posting appealing pictures of their dishes on social media.

S: But the catering industry isn’t in this all alone. Restaurant owners, retailers and other businesses susceptible to COVID-19 have been offered lower rents and platform commissions, as well as stronger financing support. In a move to further ease the strain on businesses, the country's State Council decided in May to expand tax refunds and reductions to 2.64 trillion yuan this year.

A series of relief measures have been launched both by the central government and local authorities to help the catering industry cope with the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years. They give subsidies, increase tax refunds and reductions, exemption of some expenses, and stabilise the logistics chains to help alleviate their difficulties.

J: Right. For example, last month, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the other 11 departments jointly issued a notice to promote the recovery and development of the catering industry. The notice was themed with measures including encouraging relevant subsidy measures, social insurance to help enterprises rescue, expanding enterprise financing channels, and enhancing the financing guarantee and credit enhancement function. 

Also, banks are urged to give financing and credit support for catering SMEs, encouraging qualified catering enterprises to issue corporate bonds, and broadening the diversified financing channels of catering enterprises. 

The local government in Central China’s Wuhan city has also encouraged and supported local diners in doing live-streaming e-commerce to sell products directly to customers. 

S: Meanwhile, China has introduced a raft of policies to entice consumers to open up their wallets and help businesses survive and thrive. As the latest example of Chinese cities' efforts to boost spending after a ferocious wave of COVID flare-up, Beijing on Monday started a large-scale promotional campaign by issuing about 100 million yuan ($14.83 million) worth of dining consumption coupons to local customers. According to media report, more than 70,000 catering businesses participated in the campaign, including fast food outlets, hotpot restaurants, bakeries, beverage vendors and other shops. Many popular online food delivery platforms like Meituan and ele.me participated in the event too. 

J: What’s more, ele.me’s 1-minute free order surprise campaign has taken Chinese netizens by storm. According to the data earlier this month, the activity has made more than 956,000 orders from 300,000 businesses. In Beijing, the platform launched a promotional campaign from mid- to late July to give a maximum of 100,000 free take-out orders to Beijing customers.

S: Such stimulus measures played an important role in pushing China's consumption to rise in June after a deep drop in the previous month, experts said, although they called for more measures, such as precise COVID-19 prevention, to stimulate a faster rebound in catering business. 

A Shenzhen-based culinary association also had some suggestions for easing the burden on the catering industry, such as lower interest rates for restaurants, and for online food delivery platforms such as Meituan and ele.me to significantly reduce or even waive their commissions. From March, Meituan halved commissions fees for its small-and medium-sized restaurants. 

J: Well, the future of catering restaurants is still in the swing. The short-term impact of the epidemic has also accelerated the reform and transformation of the entire catering industry under the circumstances of normalised prevention and control of the epidemic. Catering enterprises should redesign their products and services to adjust to the changes in consumption scenarios, and carry out digital transformation to better survive the epidemic. 

S: And the new trend to tap into the pre-cooked meals market provides another way-out. Qudian, a Chinese online consumer-oriented credit provider, is banking on the fast-growing ready-to-cook meals segment by supporting 100,000 users to open brick-and-mortar stores selling semi-cooked dishes over the next three years. 

Luo Min, founder and CEO of Qudian, said the company has established 15 plants engaged in the production and processing of precooked food in 15 cities. The company plans to have 10,000 stores in total this year and 50,000 stores by 2023. 

Apart from setting up offline stores, Qudian will expand its footprint in the e-commerce segment by selling semi-cooked food via livestreaming on Douyin and WeChat mini programs, Luo added. 

Luo sold approximately 9.56 million dishes during a 19-hour livestreaming event via Douyin on Sunday, with a peak of concurrent viewers reaching 95.87 million, and attracted 3.97 million new followers for Luo's Douyin account. 

J: According to the latest financial results, total revenue of Qudian reached 201.8 million yuan ($29.9 million) in the first quarter, down 60.9 percent year-on-year compared with the same period last year. The company is shifting its focus from the online lending business to the flourishing premade cuisine segment. 

Market consultancy iiMedia Research said China's premade cuisine saw sales of 345.9 billion yuan last year. The figure is projected to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 20 percent to 516.5 billion yuan by 2023. 

Data from catering industry research institute NCBD showed that in 2020, China’s catering industry shrunk 15.4 percent, while the  industry of precooked dishes expanded 19.4 percent, and the sales volume is expected to exceed 830 billion yuan in 2025. 

S: There is a well-know old Chinese saying that “Food is the first necessity of the people.” For individual costumers, it really means a lot to be able to sit in restaurants and take a familiar or fresh bite, for morning tea, birthday celebration and family reunions. But when the pandemic hit again, which it almost certainly will, the culinary business will have to face the survival challenge all over again, and chance favours only the prepared mind. 

That’s all for today. See you next week.

疫情之下，餐饮业离复苏到底还有多远？

自今年3月以来，由于疫情反复，多地茶饮店、咖啡店、酒吧，被迫按下暂停键。国家统计局6月15日数据显示，今年1～5月餐饮收入16274亿元，下降8.5%，其中5月餐饮收入3012亿元，下降21.1%。堂食停摆或限流、人流下降、成本上涨，房租和人力等固定成本的居高不下，以及现金流压力陡增，是众多餐饮从业者面前最现实的问题。

对于餐饮行业，疫情带来的并不是发展问题，而是生存问题。

但“危机之后便是转机”，这一背景之下，许多餐饮人也清醒地认识到，与其坐以待毙空焦虑，不如尽可能的找寻解救之法。用“使出浑身解数”来形容当下的餐饮业，再合适不过。

对于不能堂食的地区，转战线上是大部分餐饮门店的选择之一。这种方式成本要相对更低，还能基于平台设定相应的活动，例如月卡、降价、产品组合搭配等，以性价比来引流。即便疫情之后，也能弥补线下销售的单一，提升抗风险能力。

对于封控地区，团购是消费者们主要的消费渠道。许多品牌开始探索社区团购的方式来实现自救，构建自己的社区团购群，积极发布团购海报，开始售卖便于运输的相关产品。

同时，许多餐饮品牌都开始运营小红书、抖音、微博等线上社交账号。通过这些平台，能更好地传播品牌，也能为后期线下开业做准备。

对于高端餐饮业，不能堂食对于高端餐饮的氛围、服务等日常体验有严重影响。多家高端餐厅也“落入凡尘”，开始提供外送以及团购服务。在米其林指南的外卖清单中，上海全城47家米其林星级餐厅有20家推出了疫情外卖套餐。

除此之外，餐厅经营者们还在员工培训、消费者会员体系搭建、常态化服务与菜品提升等更深入的企业管理领域，对公司经营进行了优化和升级，以等待行业生机。

除了企业“自救”，政府也围绕减租降税等方面出台相关政策，帮助很多餐饮业纾难解困。

4月以来，多地相继出台了发放消费券、允许外摆、减租等政策，提振消费信心，推动行业复苏。

上个月，多部门印发通知，促进餐饮业恢复发展。主要包括鼓励相关补贴措施、社会保险助企纾困、拓宽企业融资渠道等。各地也在因地制宜，为餐饮业从业者量身定做帮扶措施。

同时，7月1日起，不仅小、微型餐饮企业，大中型餐饮企业也可以享受留抵退税了。据北京市东城区测算，全区预计将有47家大中型餐饮企业符合退税条件，预计可退税款超过2亿元。

金融扶持层面，目前，国家在金融层面也已经为餐饮业开了“绿灯”，包括为中小微餐饮企业提供融资增信支持，鼓励合格的餐饮企业发行公司信用债券，拓宽餐饮企业的多元化融资渠道等多种金融手段。

促消费方面，据统计，目前全国范围内28个省市、170多个地方累计发放了价值190多亿元的消费券。其中，针对餐饮业，7月18日起，北京面向全市消费者发放1亿元“重逢美好”餐饮消费券，覆盖正餐、快餐、火锅、烘焙、茶饮等各类餐饮场景的超7万家商户，这样真金白银的“政策红包”在各大平台一发即空。

不仅如此，外卖平台也在为“拯救餐饮业”而发力。美团外卖3月份实行了佣金减半、1元封顶的优惠。饿了么在3月2日也宣布对近期被列为疫情中高风险区的所有商家减免佣金。

为了鼓励消费，饿了么还于6月21日推出“免单1分钟”活动。据饿了么7月初公布的数据，首期“免单1分钟”活动已为95.6万余笔订单免单，相关订单涉及超30万家商家。

除此以外，不少企业也纷纷抓住了预制菜行业的“万亿风口”。

7月17日，罗敏在其抖音直播间“趣店罗老板”进行了长达15个小时的直播，该场直播共计场观人次9587万，累计销售额超过2.5亿元，抖音账号“趣店罗老板”单日累计涨粉达397万人。

7月18日，趣店集团旗下“趣店预制菜”品牌战略发布会上，趣店集团创始人、CEO罗敏宣布趣店目前已全面转入预制菜项目，下半年将启动10万家线下开店计划。2022年初，趣店集团先后在厦门、武汉、深圳等十五个城市建立了十五家预制菜生产加工工厂。“一天的产能可以做到200万份菜，未来计划建立30多个大仓。

而看中这一风口的也并非罗敏一人，申万宏源研报数据显示，目前国内共有6.81万家预制菜企业，仅2020年至2021年就新注册成立1.7万家。资本也闻风而动，2020-2021年，共发生23起与预制菜相关的投融资事件，珍味小梅园等预制菜新品牌乘势而起。

据NCBD数据显示，2015年-2020年，我国预制菜销售额从650.3亿元增至2527亿元，年均复合增长率达31%，为餐饮行业整体增速的6.2倍。2020年在疫情影响下，餐饮行业增速为-15.4%，而预制菜行业仍保持19.4%的增速，预计2025年销售额将超过8300亿元。

疫情的短期冲击，也加快了整个餐饮业的变革和转型。特别是在当前餐饮疫情常态化防控的形势下，餐饮企业必须要去主动积极地自救。这个过程中餐饮企业要去根据需求和消费场景的转变，重新设计自己的产品跟服务，重新进行数字化、标准化转型，真正在逆风中企稳。

Executive Editor: Sonia YU

Editor: LI Yanxia

Host: Stephanie LI

Writer: Stephanie LI, JIA Yuxiao, ZENG Libin

Sound Editor: ZENG Libin

Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni

Produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News.

Presented by SFC

编委:  于晓娜

策划、编辑：李艳霞 

播音：李莹亮

撰稿：李莹亮、曾丽镔、贾雨逍

音频制作：曾丽镔

设计：郑文静、廖苑妮

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