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Competing to create a full-time operation model, catering brands open a "new battlefield".
A few days ago, the China Cuisine Association released the performance index of China's catering industry in August. Overall, the performance index of the catering industry in August was 46.98, down 7.7 month-on-month, and the current situation index was 47.70, down 2.44 month-on-month.
Under the influence of a series of factors, such as rising operating costs, intensified homogeneous competition, weak consumer demand, and increased uncertainty in development expectations, the catering industry is generally under pressure due to the increase in revenue but not profits.
In the face of pressure, a number of catering stores are expanding their consumption scenarios through full-time operation. However, will full-time operation be the best solution to alleviate the operating pressure of the current catering industry?
01.
Luckin "gently" entered the afternoon tea
Starbucks also joined, and a batch of tea and coffee began to "boil for a long time"
Recently, Luckin Coffee launched a new second light milk tea product "Light Oolong", and continued the price strategy of 9.9 yuan.
Rewind the clock to 1 month ago. Since August 5th, Luckin launched a new product "Light Jasmine · Light Milk Tea", Luckin has made frequent market moves in the "afternoon tea", officially announcing Liu Yifei as the global brand spokesperson of Luckin Coffee and the chief recommendation officer of tea, and also launched the "Morning Coffee Afternoon Tea - Send You 100 Million Cups of 9.9 Yuan Afternoon Tea" activity.
△ Image source: Photo by Red Meal Network
"Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea", consumers can get a 9.9 yuan afternoon tea coupon if they purchase any cup of drink through the official designated order channel of Luckin. Compared with the price of tea drinks on the market with similar ingredients, it is generally about 20 yuan.
Under a series of operations, Luckin's first light milk tea product "Light Jasmine" sold more than 44 million cups in the first month, bringing a lot of shock to the industry.
Judging from the sales data, Luckin has obviously tasted the sweetness from the "afternoon tea".
Many people in the industry believe that Luckin's new products and preferential increases all explain that it is steadily moving towards its goal of setting "morning coffee and afternoon tea", and hopes to open up the consumption mode of the whole time and all scenes through "afternoon tea". In particular, the new product of the second light milk tea product "Light Oolong" has affirmed the ideas of many people in the industry.
In fact, in recent years, Luckin is not the only tea and coffee brand that has become obsessed with full-time operation.
On September 10, following Luckin, Starbucks China also officially launched three new products in the "Tea Blossoms" series, including two tea coffees and one light milk tea. In addition, there is also a Dahongpao Sydney Milk Tea that was launched on September 13. Morning coffee, afternoon tea and evening wine, Starbucks is also eyeing the business of "afternoon tea".
In addition, since the beginning of this year, there have been more and more new tea shops in the industry that are open 24 hours a day. A batch of tea and coffee brands rolled up and began to roll towards "boiling time".
In May this year, some Wuhan netizens posted that the opening time of some Mixue Bingcheng stores was advanced to 8 o'clock in the morning. "Before going to work, I have a cup of honey snow with hot dry noodles, and I am happy to start the day of moving bricks." According to incomplete statistics from the Red Meal Network, as of now, tea brands such as Hey Tea, Bawang Tea, Gu Ming, Tea Baidao, Mixue Bingcheng, and Shanghai Auntie are trying to open 24 hours a day, especially in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities that also have a strong living atmosphere.
While extending the business hours, a number of new tea drinks have begun to explore the catering complex business space integrating "coffee + tea", "tea + wine" and "tea coffee + meal".
△ Image source: Day and Night Poetry Wine and Tea official Xiaohongshu account
For example, in May this year, the first batch of 5 stores of the sub-brand "Day and Night Poetry Wine and Tea · Art and Culture Bistro" of Chayan Yuese were officially opened. The brand advocates day tea and night wine, taking a full-time mode, most stores are open from 10:00 to 24:00, and the latest can be open until 1 am, and plans to open 30 stores in Changsha in 2024.
Another example is Blue Bottle Coffee, when it opened its second store in Chinese mainland in Shanghai, the meal design considered the "full-time" model. In addition to coffee, we also sell light meals, cocktails, and other products. In addition to coffee, Manner Coffee also serves a full range of meals, including freshly baked bread for breakfast, light meals for lunch, and afternoon tea.
02.
full-time operation,
The catering industry relies on "staying up time" to produce performance?
"The full-time operation model has been known in the catering industry since ancient times, but I didn't expect this wind to blow not only to the Chinese food track, but also to the tea and coffee track." Fan Ning, co-founder and vice president of Red Meal.com, said that in the past, brands like Yonghe Dawang and Nancheng Xiang, which mainly operated breakfast, extended their business hours to 14 hours early in order to maximize their operating efficiency.
Relevant information shows that Yonghe Dawang, who started with breakfast, has been actively expanding the scene in recent years, and has added multiple products such as rice bowls and noodles to the menu.
In the past August, Yonghe Dawang also launched two fresh beef pots, and its "soybean milk series" is also changing in the direction of all-weather drinks. In an interview with the media, the relevant person in charge also said that compared with coffee and milk tea, soy milk has a higher nutritional content, and as long as the taste is more coordinated, soy milk can be used as a drink that can be drunk and wanted to drink at any time of the day.
As early as 2015, Nancheng Xiang determined the "full-time business strategy", covering a total of five periods of "breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper", and the store was open for more than 16 hours. During the period, we supply complex products such as fritters, soy milk, rice, and chaos. Last year, Nancheng Xiang also launched a small hot pot package to further expand its business categories.
Explore the full-time operation, as well as Yuan Ji Yun dumplings. It is understood that since March this year, Yuan Ji Yun Dumplings has been operating full-time through the stores of the "Dumplings and Wine" format, in addition to providing dumpling wonton products, but also providing oden, fried food, cocktails, etc.
△ Image source: Yuan Ji Yun dumplings
In addition, there is Lao Xiang Chicken, which has started to operate full-time since 2021, divided into brunch, afternoon tea, dinner and bar, breaking through the public's inherent impression of fast food.
Why are F&B brands hooked on full-time operations?
At the beginning of July, Wang Guoyu, the boss of Nancheng Xiang, publicly complained, saying that this year's performance has declined, profits have declined, and the peak season is not prosperous, reminding catering colleagues that the winter is difficult and they must find a way to survive. The same is true for several other representative fast foods, with serious declines in performance and profits.
In the final analysis, since the beginning of this year, the catering industry has generally faced difficulties such as increasing revenue but not increasing profits, and performance under pressure. Running a full-time operation is essentially increasing revenue and diluting costs by extending business hours.
Especially in recent years, the catering market has generally faced the pain points of "three highs and one low".
The typical model of the catering industry is "on-site production + on-site consumption", and the entire process from production to consumption is completed in the store. As a result, the prime business hours of the main meal are mostly concentrated in noon and evening, with the former being 3 hours and the latter being 4 hours; The new tea and coffee shops are from morning to afternoon and afternoon to evening, respectively, and the rest of the time is free time.
Fan Ning said: "Under the premise of fixed rent, if each time period is fully utilized, the rent of the store will also be diluted to the greatest extent."
In addition to improving the efficiency of the ping area, more catering brands hope to enrich the brand format and meet the more diversified needs of users through full-time operation.
△ Image source: Picture Worm Creative
Taking Luckin as an example, the scenario positioning of "morning coffee and afternoon tea" is proposed, which not only emphasizes its main business "coffee", maintains the original customer group, but also meets their needs for afternoon tea during non-coffee hours, and also allows consumers to deepen brand awareness through the creation of scenes at different times. What's more, tea can also bring new users to Luckin and feed back to its main coffee business.
Yang Fei, co-founder and chief growth officer of Luckin Coffee, also said: "Luckin is very "reliable" to make afternoon tea, which can enrich the beverage menu during the non-peak coffee period (afternoon to evening) and give consumers more choices.
However, the advantages of full-time operation are obvious, but there are also some pain points that cannot be ignored.
In the short term, extending business hours can have a certain effect. However, if you want to maintain it in the long run, you need to calculate how to make revenue outperform labor and operation costs. After all, full-time operation is a consideration of the all-round comprehensive strength of the brand from various aspects such as products, customer groups, scenes, and labor.
Fan Ning believes that not all catering brands are suitable for full-time operation, but they still need to weigh the pros and cons to make a good choice according to their own business structure, location, operating costs, production capacity and reception capacity.
Author: Mai Yongyi, Red Meal Network; Editor: Li Tang