Click to read the original article for details Upstream supply chain companies and leading catering enterprises are actively experimenting with this. Can this business model succeed? 01 Selling dishes like beverages Recently, the leading food company Shuanghui made a new move: testing pre-made dish vending machines. It is reported that Shuanghui launched its microwave-ready series "Bobo Bag Series" as the first product, piloting in schools, hospitals, scenic areas, high-speed rail stations, and other locations, sparking discussions among industry insiders. Our editor also noticed that next to beverage vending machines in residential communities, there are now "pre-made dish self-service cabinets." Braised pork, Kung Pao chicken, instant noodles, rice balls, and more are available... These include both "hard dishes" that require simple cooking and ready-to-eat bento boxes, with a variety that even exceeds convenience store refrigerated cabinets. Simply scan the code to pay and select the product, and you can take it home to prepare a big meal. Pre-made dish self-service cabinet After researching, we found that besides Shuanghui, many other major brands are also testing vending machines. For example, Delisi is developing meat-based pre-made dishes; and quick-frozen food companies such as Leyaoju, Guangzhou Restaurant, Fudibao, and Laike Foods have also joined in. The vending formats for pre-made dishes are similar, but product selection and location choices vary significantly. From the perspective of entrant identity, suppliers with raw material advantages tend to prefer cooked pre-made dishes. For instance, Delisi chose dishes like shredded pork with garlic sauce and Kung Pao chicken, aligning with its existing upstream meat industry chain to ensure high fidelity after freezing. Food processing companies, on the other hand, prefer using vending machines to expand channels and reach the front line. For example, Leyaoju is trying to sell rice balls and rice burgers through vending machines, while leading catering brands like Guangzhou Restaurant leverage their brand strength and product advantages to test the waters with signature products. From a geographical perspective, most merchants are piloting pre-made dish vending machines in first-tier cities. Pre-made dishes were born to adapt to fast-paced lifestyles. This model of buy-and-go, heat-and-eat fits the needs of young consumers, providing fertile ground for the development of pre-made dish vending machines. From a scenario perspective, cooked products are mostly placed in communities, while microwave products focus on office buildings, schools, hospitals, and high-speed rail stations. In community settings, people pay more attention to taste and wok hei (the breath of the wok), and tasting events attract many residents. In high-speed rail stations and similar locations, there is high foot traffic and no fixed dining place, so the focus is on cost-effectiveness and convenience. 02 What is the logic behind pre-made dish vending machines? What is the "purpose" behind major brands testing vending machines? 1. Using retail models to open new sales channels. Simply put, vending machines are "using the way beverages are sold to do catering," a form of retailization. They do not take up space, require no labor, and offer flexible location choices—these are obvious advantages. It is for this reason that various fields are exploring this sales channel, such as the already-existing hangover medicine vending machines, fresh coffee vending machines, and fruit juice vending machines. Pre-made dishes inherently have retail attributes, which "coincidentally" align with the characteristics of vending machines. Left: self-service juice machine; Right: self-service coffee machine 2. Going to "places closer to consumers." Although pre-made dishes seem to be booming, the market is still in the development stage. In fact, it was not until this year's Spring Festival that pre-made dishes truly reached C-end consumers on a large scale. Since there are multiple definitions and classifications for pre-made dishes, and there is currently no universally applicable or recognized standard regulating the market, pre-made dish products are diverse, and the market is generally in a free development stage. In this context, whoever can "get closer to customers" and "get on customers' dining tables earlier" has a better chance of "standing out." 3. Supply chain companies leveraging their advantages to reach consumers. Upstream supply chains already have advantages in production capacity and food safety, with high levels of industrialization, digitalization, and operational management efficiency. In their view, the catering industry still has significant profit margins and is a "fertile land." These small giants of the food industry have long been eager to seize the high added value at the front end, and the retail boom has shown them opportunities, prompting them to "go downstream" and disrupt inefficient stores with a dimensionality reduction attack. This is common in the industry. For example, Sanquan Foods' layout of "Sanquan Fresh Food" and Synear's layout of "Love Cooking" are typical cases of supply chain companies going downstream into catering. Synear's "Love Cooking," positioned as a "family convenience three-meal supermarket" 4. Catering enterprises exploring "unmanned" efficient profit models. Currently, the catering industry faces multiple challenges, not only fighting a guerrilla war with the pandemic but also being constrained by the cost pressures of "three highs and one low" (high rent, high labor, high raw material costs, and low profit margins). Exploring efficient profit models has become a reality that every enterprise must face. Many catering companies are investing in "unmanned and intelligent" exploration, with Country Garden investing heavily in smart restaurants and leading brands like Haidilao actively entering the field. Vending machines are just a microcosm and branch of this intelligence trend. 03 Vending machines have had "predecessors" but with poor results In fact, this "good business" has long been noticed by others. In 2015, Sanquan launched the unmanned retail machine "Sanquan Fresh Food FUNBOX," targeting the white-collar lunch market, positioning itself as a fresh food vending machine in office buildings. It is reported that it had over 1,000 sales points in Beijing and Shanghai, with 150,000 app downloads, and major companies like Baidu, iQiyi, and 58.com were using FUNBOX. Sanquan Fresh Food FUNBOX However, at that time, the food delivery market was booming, and the taste and consumption experience of these pre-made boxed meals were greatly compromised. Once the novelty period of FUNBOX passed, serious drawbacks emerged: sales of 30-50 portions per day could not support FUNBOX's "APP + vending machine + central kitchen" model. Within a year, FUNBOX ended with a loss of 21.8177 million yuan. Some attributed the problem to main meals. After all, white-collar workers have higher quality requirements for main meals. Soon, others targeted the "breakfast track." In 2017, Ma Jixiang, former general manager of the e-commerce division of Yurun Group, developed a "breakfast self-service terminal" product, with hot chain transportation throughout, placing 220 breakfast portions per machine, piloting in subway stations and office buildings. Positioned as "delicious, convenient, fashionable, and affordable," it seemed to fit the rigid demand of the breakfast market. The product design was also very "cool": using a "capsule" form for packaging. The capsule meal box consists of two parts: one for beverages (soy milk, coffee, etc.) and the other for staple foods (baozi, pancakes, etc.), priced at 10-20 yuan. That year, the team planned to deploy 500 machines, "expecting to recover investment costs in 4-4.5 months," and publicly sought financing. However, breakfast self-service vending also seemed to fail to gain market favor. Now, after searching around, our editor found no related "follow-up," indicating that market feedback was not ideal. 04 Is the vending machine a "good destination"? Besides Shuanghui and Delisi testing vending machine sales, recently, Nayuki also used "automatic milk tea machines" to make drinks. In some Shenzhen stores, machines replace manual ingredient addition, completing a cup of tea in less than 10 seconds, increasing production capacity by about 40%. It is reported that not only are new machines being researched, but the goal is to achieve machine intelligence. Both brands and tea equipment manufacturers are focusing on exploration. So, are vending machines a "good destination" for catering? One view is that this can succeed, especially with "pre-made dishes" as the entry point. Because pre-made dishes already have attributes close to retail. Whether customers buy online (e-commerce platforms), in stores (Tongue Hero), or from vending machines, the essence of the product is the same, and there is no significant quality difference due to different platforms. From this perspective, if it is pre-made dishes (or fast food), especially fast food where consumers do not have high quality expectations, it is a direction worth trying. Another view is that if it is fresh food, it is not easy. Because customer expectations and needs differ. "When I go to Mr. Rice, I go for its freshly stir-fried dishes," said one interviewee. From this point, Western fast food is more suitable for the "self-service vending" format than Chinese fast food. Poll from the WeChat public account "Frozen Food" shows that most people are taking a wait-and-see attitude In addition, the consumer base for pre-made dishes is dispersed, and the customer base that vending machines can cover is very limited. Although costs have been greatly reduced compared to opening large stores, this pain point cannot be fundamentally solved. Regardless, leading brands actively testing is a progress from an industry perspective. As for the results and whether a dark horse will emerge, time will tell. Source: Restaurant Boss Insider (ID: cylbnc) -END-