Scan the QR code in the image to register “ Does capital only love 'eating noodles' but not 'slurping rice noodles'? ” Among local specialty snacks, the rice noodle industry has reached a scale of 100 billion yuan, yet there are few scaled leading brands. The consumer market for rice noodles is mainly in the south, determined by the geographical condition that the south is rich in rice. The rice noodle industry is huge and fragmented; even rice noodles from the same place can be divided into hundreds of types based on differences in raw materials and production processes, the so-called "one county, one flavor." In Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangxi, and other places, there are many unknown brands. Entrepreneurs who open rice noodle shops outside the province often have the idea of recreating the taste of their hometown. Authentic ingredients from other places are naturally scarce, and replicability is the biggest hurdle, so some modification is inevitable. As long as it tastes good, the shop can always attract customers, whether it's a small eatery on the street or a store in a shopping mall. Setting aside regional restrictions and dietary habit differences, when you accidentally taste a delicacy and your taste buds are conquered, you immediately become a repeat customer. Luosifen is the most representative category among them, thriving in both dining and retail models. A large track corresponds to more opportunities, and some brands born in sub-sectors have already gained capital support. For example, Baman Rice Noodles, which recently announced the completion of Series B+ and Series C financing, brings authentic Hunan Changde rice noodles to the north. Also, Yangji Shanye, a new brand that completed Pre-A round financing last year, turned Nanchang rice noodles into convenience food and became popular on e-commerce channels. However, overall, investment in the rice noodle track is far less attractive than the current bowl of noodles. Wuye Bian Noodles, Hefu Noodles, Yujian Xiaomian, and Lanzhou Beef Noodles are all standing at the financing forefront. Rice noodle shops with low chain rates are clearly not as large as catering giants. The largest chain rice noodle brand currently, Wumingyuan, has fewer than 4,000 stores. Being delicious is certainly a necessary condition, but to achieve scale and branding, most players are still exploring. Deliciousness and standardization as prerequisites It is probably impossible to count how many types of rice noodles exist nationwide. Each province, divided by region, can find dozens or even hundreds of different flavors of rice noodles. Among them, Luosifen is a super internet celebrity in the rice noodle world and has successfully broken out of the circle. Luosifen has frequently appeared on hot searches since last year, using the natural advertising billboard of online topics to attract countless young people who love heavy flavors. Luosifen is characterized by sour, spicy, fresh, refreshing, and hot; its soul lies in the snail soup, while the stinky smell comes from pickled bamboo shoots. The odor produced by fermentation and acidification is unacceptable to many. It is precisely the unique and addictive taste—smelling stinky but tasting "really delicious"—that captures a large number of young people. Snack fast food is the most widely distributed category, with rich flavors, high cost performance, and easy processing. Rice noodles with these advantages can also greatly shorten serving time. Take making a bowl of Luosifen as an example: it requires preparing a broth with snails, pork bones, and more than 20 spices in advance, and soaking the dried rice noodles in cold water beforehand. When a customer orders, the appropriate amount of rice noodles is blanched in boiling water, then pickled bamboo shoots, wood ear mushrooms, peanuts, pickled long beans, and fried bean curd are added, and a spoonful of snail soup is ladled over. The serving time is only a few minutes. There are more than 18,000 Luosifen physical stores of all sizes nationwide. How much money can selling rice noodles make? A catering insider told 36Kr-Future Consumption that selling a bowl of Luosifen locally costs about 9 yuan, with a gross margin of about 50-60%. When opened elsewhere, especially in first-tier cities, the price basically starts at 14 yuan. With side dishes and drinks, the average customer spend can be raised to over 30 yuan, but rent is the heaviest cost. Let's talk about standardization. People love KFC or McDonald's not only because the fried food on the menu is more tempting, but because no matter where you go, the taste of the food is the same. To ensure consistent and stable output of dishes and maintain taste consistency, the dishes must be standardized to the extreme. From ingredient procurement to all raw material cutting and preparation, as well as cooking methods, corresponding standards are followed. For stores, supplying semi-finished products and seasonings through backend factories or central kitchens ensures quality stability and safety. Some operators outside the region, in order to ensure absolute authenticity, still prefer to order from the place of origin and train skills locally. This approach is feasible but costly; appropriate modification is the best solution. Packaged Luosifen has also undergone an upgrade. Compared to offline dining, the larger market space for Luosifen actually lies in e-commerce. Relevant data shows that last year, sales revenue of Liuzhou packaged Luosifen reached 10.994 billion yuan. There are more than 20,000 online stores, even more developed than offline dining. How to make packaged Luosifen as delicious as freshly cooked in-store food still lies in standardization. First, instant products can be divided into brewing type and boiling type. Although brewing type is more convenient, the taste is poorer, losing the original chewiness of rice noodles. Therefore, the packaged Luosifen on the market is mainly boiling type. The rice noodle industry chain includes upstream suppliers of ingredients, soup base, seasonings, and pre-packaging, connected through intermediate production and processing to numerous downstream catering enterprises. The industrial chain advantages formed in Liuzhou have promoted the large-scale cultivation, processing, and processing of snails, bamboo shoots, and beans. In addition, Liuzhou formulated local standards in 2016, and manufacturers producing Luosifen with an industrialized concept can be said to be blooming everywhere. So we see that Luosifen, which has achieved standardized production, has more advantages in pre-packaging and high flavor restoration than other rice noodles, and has less resistance to external promotion. Highly e-commerce-oriented Luosifen has given birth to many leading brands, such as Li Ziqi Luosifen with monthly sales exceeding 600,000 on Taobao, as well as Hao Huan Luo and Luo Ba Wang, with monthly orders easily reaching hundreds of thousands. Seizing the opportunity of catering retailization Online shopping for finely packaged hometown food is the result of the retailization of local specialty snacks. From the development and production of packaged Luosifen, it can be seen that not all products can perfectly match the retail model, depending on the supply chain cost. For mature catering brands, launching retail products is a natural step. For example, Haidilao has launched seasonings and self-heating hot pot to the market, while Xibei and Meizhou Dongpo sell specialty ingredients. The impact of the epidemic last year also greatly promoted catering retailization. Especially the demand for convenience foods such as pre-made dishes, instant noodles, and self-heating hot pot began to surge. Importantly, under this wave of new consumption, many new brands were born. The rice noodle category has too many branches, coupled with few chain stores and low brand awareness. In Jiangxi Province, one of the largest rice noodle production areas in the country, there are more than 30 types of rice noodles, including Nanchang mixed noodles, Jingdezhen cold noodles, and Yingtan beef noodles. Citing official figures, Jiangxi has nearly 30,000 rice noodle catering stores, still facing the dilemma of branding. Few people have productized Jiangxi rice noodles and highly restored local flavors. The instant food brand Yangji Shanye told 36Kr-Future Consumption that the biggest problem to solve in the early stage of entrepreneurship was the supply chain. Especially without experience to draw on, finding suitable suppliers is very difficult. It even requires starting from the underlying technology and participating in the debugging and operation of all equipment. The food industry is a mature industry, and for brands lacking early production experience, it is a good choice. Unlike the supply logic of Luosifen, each product component of Yangji Shanye corresponds to a different supplier, and finally integrates into a complete product. Among them, the dried rice noodles use Jiangxi specialty products, made from local indica rice, with a chewy texture. Seasonings and side dishes are purchased nationwide, balancing quality and cost. The advantage of turning a bowl of rice noodles into convenient instant food is breaking regional restrictions and letting more people understand local food culture. The core competitiveness of Yangji Shanye also includes the design capability of product solutions, allowing consumers to feel the product value visually and generate a willingness to try. A signature mixed noodle priced at about 7 yuan contributes more than 70% of sales. This high-cost-performance explosive single-product strategy helps strengthen consumer awareness while reducing decision costs. The early plan was relatively comprehensive, and the restored flavors were more diverse. Yangji Shanye has almost tried all kinds of instant rice noodles on the market, including original soup and brewing types. In terms of iteration cycle, a brand-new product takes 2 to 3 months to develop. If only optimizing flavors, it can be completed in one to two months. Currently, the overall SKU count is 12. The local area lacks scaled brands, and mature instant food products are relatively scarce. So Yangji Shanye seized this opportunity, aiming to realize products that others cannot do or have not tried. Starting from e-commerce, you can quickly get consumer feedback and opinions and achieve rapid growth. Last year, Yangji Shanye sold more than 10 million boxes of rice noodles, with GMV exceeding 70 million yuan, ranking first in the Taobao sub-category. Live streaming e-commerce is another powerful tool for brand breakout. Since the second half of 2019, Yangji Shanye has cooperated with some mid-to-tail streamers, achieving good sales results, and then gradually found top KOLs like Li Jiaqi to bring goods. Many brands, like Yangji Shanye, have completed growth from 0 to 1 on e-commerce channels. However, being rooted in online channels, besides the trouble of increasingly expensive traffic, also means encountering more competitors. In offline business districts, you can meet no more than 20 competitors within the range. But online, competitors or potential targets are not at the same level at all. Yangji Shanye chooses to focus more on new product development rather than short-term sales growth. In addition to classic flavors, Yangji Shanye has also launched Xiamen Shacha noodles, aiming not to be limited to Jiangxi rice noodles, thereby exercising product development capabilities and exploring new markets. Nowadays, there are quite a lot of local rice noodles made into convenient instant food, such as Yunnan Crossing-the-Bridge rice noodles, Hunan Changde rice noodles, Chongqing hot and sour noodles, and Guilin rice noodles. Catering brands focusing on sub-sectors, such as Baman Rice Noodles, launched convenience foods as early as 2015. The retailization trend is not only for a bowl of rice noodles but also a new requirement for the catering industry to compete for retail scenarios. Source: Future Consumption APP (ID: lslb168) -END-