According to the Ministry of Education website, the 'Regulations on the Management of Food Safety and Nutrition and Health in Schools' formulated by the Ministry of Education, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the National Health Commission were recently published and will take effect on April 1, 2019. The regulations clearly state that primary and secondary schools and kindergartens generally should not set up food business premises such as small shops and supermarkets on campus. If necessary, they must obtain permission according to law and avoid selling high-salt, high-sugar, and high-fat foods. In addition, the regulations specify that primary and secondary schools and kindergartens should establish a system for shared meals during centralized dining, where a school leader should dine with students at each meal, keep records of the shared meals, and promptly discover and solve problems during the meal process. Where conditions permit, schools and kindergartens should establish a parent dining system, improve the corresponding working mechanism, and promptly research and provide feedback on suggestions and opinions raised by parents regarding food safety and nutritional health. The regulations also state that school canteen staff should develop good personal hygiene habits, wash and disinfect hands before processing and handling food that is directly consumed, and wear clean work clothes and hats before entering their posts. Canteen staff are prohibited from smoking in the canteen. The regulations specify that primary and secondary school and kindergarten canteens must not produce or sell cold meat dishes, raw food, or decorated cakes, and must not process or prepare high-risk foods such as green beans, fresh daylily flowers, wild mushrooms, and sprouted potatoes. Provincial, autonomous region, and municipality food safety supervision departments may formulate a catalog of high-risk foods that are not allowed to be produced or sold in centralized dining in primary and secondary schools and kindergartens in their regions. How much impact will the implementation of the regulations have on manufacturers and distributors? Let's simply estimate the impact after the regulations are implemented. According to the 2018 national education statistics, there are a total of 518,900 schools of all types and levels nationwide, with 276 million students in various levels of education. Among them, there are 266,700 kindergartens with 46.5642 million children; 161,800 ordinary primary schools with 103.3925 million students; 52,000 junior high schools with 46.5259 million students; and 24,400 high school stage schools with 39.3124 million students. The regulations involve primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, meaning a total of 504,900 schools will say goodbye to small shops and supermarkets, and the opportunities for 237 million students to come into contact with food and beverages will be greatly reduced, with a sharp drop in traffic. This is a huge challenge for any manufacturer, especially those distributors who rely heavily on campus channels and will be forced to make changes. Campus channels are one of the distributors' reserved areas. Many distributors' profits come from special channels such as campuses, and these closed channels are more important to distributors than supermarkets and convenience stores. For distributors operating campus channels, this is undoubtedly a 'bad news.' Compared to the scarcity of snacks in the past, there are now many snack options in small shops, but many are still 'three-no' products (no production date, no quality certificate, no manufacturer). Most cannot be sold in other channels and can only be sold in special channels, relying on a relatively closed environment to increase product sales. Although this move is for the health of students, it also means that the number of on-campus outlets will sharply decrease, and the campus channels that food manufacturers have paid special attention to will face many changes. Campus channels have always been a 'battlefield' carefully cultivated by food manufacturers due to their advantages of high closure, high repurchase, and high concentration, and there are countless food and beverages developed for student groups. Distributors are increasingly unable to control terminals From the original full-area coverage to the current inability to control terminals within the region, distributors have found it difficult to retain customers. Distributors cannot make money, terminals cannot make money, and coupled with a series of problems such as credit sales and inventory pressure, the survival of distributors has become even more difficult. Now, with changes in campus channels, distributor channels are being completely subverted. Every channel, including supermarkets, circulation, and special channels, is facing unprecedented changes, and retaining channels is becoming increasingly difficult. Distributors are always being led by the nose by various channels and have lost their own direction. They have no initiative in front of supermarkets, no initiative in front of terminals, and always do what others say. They have lost their own style in terms of inventory pressure, promotions, tasks, profits, and management. What is the competitiveness of distributors? At present, most distributors themselves have no competitiveness. They can occupy channels only because of past operations, and they continue to give up their own profits and reluctantly sign various painful terms. Every time I go to a city, I communicate with the local leading distributors and ask why they can become so big locally. Four years ago, the answers were basically 'large team,' 'large warehouse area,' 'well-known products,' and 'many logistics vehicles.' They relied on 'scale' to support their market position and competitiveness, so we call leading distributors 'big merchants.' In the past, 'large scale' easily made us think that this distributor was rich and profitable, but today, when you see a large traditional enterprise, the boss will tell you that costs are getting higher and higher, profits are getting lower and lower, and even the risks are increasing with policy changes. Why is there such a contrast? The logic behind it is that the competitiveness of enterprises is changing with market changes. Just like Yang Guifei, in ancient times, appreciating her 'plumpness' was a beauty and a symbol of wealth. If you put her in today's context, she is a bit fat. The logic behind it is that the 'market of appreciation' has changed. Therefore, in the Internet era, distributors urgently need to find a new competitiveness. What is new competitiveness? It is not that you have many logistics vehicles, but whether you have logistics vehicles that can deliver faster; it is not that you have a large warehouse, but whether you have a warehouse that can turn over quickly; it is not that you have many people, but whether you have a team that works hard for the goal; it is not that you have many products, but whether you have the products customers need and can deliver them quickly. Behind these competitiveness factors, it is actually a competition of efficiency and cost, and a competition of wisdom. High efficiency and low cost will be the underlying competitiveness of distributors. Compiled and organized from the internet. -END-