Recently, Hema led the establishment of a pre-made dish ecological alliance, and its CEO Hou Yi revealed that in October this year, it will open a Hema Fresh store with a brand-new category structure centered on pre-made dishes, covering about 5,000 square meters. Notably, C-end pre-made dish projects such as Shejian Yingxiong and Qudian have failed. So, can pre-made dishes work for the C-end? How much imagination space do offline pre-made dish stores have?
Hema to Open 5,000-Square-Meter Pre-Made Dish Store **If successful, it will increase the proportion of pre-made dishes in stores nationwide The hot trend of pre-made dishes continues to attract new and old players to increase investment. According to public reports, since entering the semi-finished dish field in 2017, Alibaba's brand Hema has continued to make efforts in the pre-made dish field and deepen its presence. In April this year, Hema adjusted its procurement department, adding its own brand, pre-made dishes, and large import departments as first-level departments; in May this year, Hema's Shanghai central kitchen was officially put into operation; on May 9, Hema launched a pre-made dish ecological alliance in Shanghai. This alliance will integrate the entire chain of "production, learning, research, and sales" for pre-made dishes, promoting the healthy and rapid development of the industry. It also revealed that in October this year, it will open a Hema Fresh store with a brand-new category structure centered on pre-made dishes, covering about 5,000 square meters. In addition, Hou Yi also said, if this store succeeds, next year the proportion of pre-made dishes in Hema's stores nationwide will further increase, making it Hema's largest category. △Image source: Internet "The development of pre-made dishes is irreversible and will quickly become an important category in fresh food shopping," Hema CEO Hou Yi also said that day, "We believe that in the future, pre-made dishes will become the main category in the fresh food industry, replacing primary agricultural products such as green vegetables, radishes, chicken, duck, fish, and meat. Only by making pre-made dishes bigger and stronger will the product structure of supermarkets undergo revolutionary changes, allowing people to eat better and more conveniently." Chen Huifang, general manager of Hema's pre-made dish department, also told the media that Hema currently has hundreds of Hema bases, more than 300 fresh food supply chains, and has self-built central kitchens in Chengdu, Wuhan, and Shanghai. In April this year, she also stated at the 2023 China Chain Catering Summit that it is expected that Hema's pre-made dish sales will exceed 5 billion yuan this year.
Shejian Yingxiong Closes Stores, Qudian Franchise Fails Can a few dozen square meter small store selling pre-made dishes work? When mentioning pre-made dish stores, Shejian Yingxiong cannot be ignored. In January 2022, it announced its entry into the pre-made dish field, opening its first Shejian Yingxiong store of about 50 square meters. Shejian Yingxiong's promotional offensive was very high-profile, not only signing celebrity Liu Yiwei, placing a large number of advertisements on social media and office building elevators, but also vigorously attracting new customers through methods such as "App new users get 50% off first order, enjoy 200 yuan new user coupon" and "inviting friends via mini-program can get 10 yuan reward," which was lively for a time. When "Shejian Yingxiong" was hot in the media, the offline scene showed a stark contrast. On August 10, 2022, Shejian Yingxiong's first Beijing store closed. It is reported that the store had just opened in January 2022. Unexpectedly, in just 7 months, Shejian Yingxiong's first Beijing store came to a close. Around August 2022, 8 "Shejian Yingxiong" stores in Zhengzhou closed almost simultaneously. In addition, stores in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and other places ceased operations... Shejian Yingxiong, which had attracted much attention due to a single financing round of 1.6 billion yuan, was exposed to a wave of store closures. According to the Shejian Yingxiong mini-program, stores in almost all cities, including Guangzhou, Tianjin, Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Qingdao, and Guiyang, have closed and are not operating normally. In addition to Shejian Yingxiong, Qudian's pre-made dish project, which burned 150 million yuan last year and caused a stir, also failed midway, with its official account having stopped updating for months. In addition to the "lively" Shejian Yingxiong and Qudian, it is also worth mentioning Weizhixiang, the "first pre-made dish stock" that has opened pre-made dish stores. According to its latest financial report, while opening a large number of stores, Weizhixiang also closed a considerable number of franchise stores. Last year, it added 559 franchise stores but also closed 183 stores. It is reported that Weizhixiang generally opens stores in farmers' markets, with an area of about 10-15 square meters. △Image source: Weizhixiang At the same time, Weizhixiang's average revenue per store has also been declining year by year. According to media reports, in 2022, Weizhixiang's revenue from franchise channels was about 426 million yuan, with an average revenue per store of about 251,100 yuan; from 2018 to 2021, the average revenue per franchise store was 341,000 yuan, 324,300 yuan, 286,500 yuan, and 262,900 yuan respectively. From past data, Weizhixiang's store opening business seems unsatisfactory. However, according to the "Weizhixiang Semi-Finished Dishes" official account on May 16, Weizhixiang added 35 new stores in the first half of May. How the store opening business will fare this year remains to be seen.
Can C-End Pre-Made Dish Stores Really Work? Research shows that in 2022, China's pre-made dish market size exceeded 400 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.3%. This market is not only large but also fast-growing, and its broad prospects have become a consensus in the industry. However, another industry consensus is that the overall sales of pre-made dishes are roughly "80-20" split between B-end and C-end, meaning 80% of sales are in the B-end, and only 20% are in the C-end. So, can opening pre-made dish stores for the C-end really work? At the end of last year, Zhenwei Xiaomeiyuan also set a strategic goal of "opening 10,000 pre-made dish stores in communities." Pu Wenming, founder of Zhenwei Xiaomeiyuan, publicly stated that pre-made dishes naturally have the feasibility of opening a chain of 10,000 stores. An industry insider said that compared with traditional fresh products, pre-made dishes with higher average transaction values have gross margins 10%-20% higher. In the long run, C-end pre-made dishes still have great potential. △Image source: Internet However, many industry insiders predict that after the pandemic subsides, people will return to shopping malls and street restaurants, and the C-end pre-made dish market will inevitably face diversion and slowing growth. At the same time, with the increasing number of entrants, competition in the C-end pre-made dish market will become more intense. In addition to Hema mentioned above, Zhenwei Xiaomeiyuan, Weizhixiang, JD.com, Dingdong Maicai, as well as major catering companies and emerging pre-made dish brands, have joined the battle. Therefore, from existing market cases, it is not easy to do a good job in offline pre-made dish stores for the C-end. Although Hema has many advantages, it also faces considerable challenges. Chen Huifang also said that in the pre-made dish field, Hema focuses on user penetration and repurchase. Penetration looks at whether customers accept and recognize it, while repurchase is the core representative of product strength. "When more and more users repurchase and promote, our GMV, sales, and scale will grow larger and larger. This is a cyclical process." Source: CNR, China Times, Hongcan Industry Research Institute, etc.