The new entrants to the snack track are gaining momentum

In the past two years, the leisure food track has attracted competition from all parties, and the market pattern has been constantly changing
.
In addition to leading enterprises in the industry such as Chacha Food, Three Squirrels, Good Shop, and Yanjin Shop, there is also an influx of new brands
in the snack collection store model such as Snack Very Busy, Snack Magic, Snack Youming, and Snack Girl.
While the market scale is expanding, the leisure snack track has ushered in a new round of reshuffle
.
According to the "2022 China Leisure Snack Industry Research Report", in the past seven years, the compound growth rate of the domestic leisure snack market has maintained an annual growth rate of more than 11%, and the market size is expected to exceed 1.
5 trillion yuan
this year.
What is the current market development of the snack food industry, and where will it go in the future?

The consumer market bottomed out and rebounded

Relevant data show that the market size of China's leisure food industry will be about 1.
2 trillion yuan
in 2021.
The leisure food industry presents the characteristics of "large industry + small company", even if it is the three squirrels of the head enterprise, its market share is only 4.
4%, which shows that the entire industry still has more room for
development.

As the national life becomes more and more abundant, people's demand for snacks continues to escalate, in addition to buying, they also hope to buy well, buy with confidence, buy conveniently, and buy happily
.
The advent of the new consumption era has transformed leisure snacks from extensive management to supplement consumers' dietary needs in the early stage to all-round needs
for material consumption and spiritual pleasure.

Whether it is an e-commerce platform, or an offline format such as supermarkets and convenience stores, the overall number of leisure food products and the proportion of revenue are not high
.
Industry insiders said that for production enterprises, the development prospects of the leisure snack market are considerable, and the overall concentration is low, so there are more opportunities and challenges
.
On the one hand, snack foods are easy to standardize
.
On the other hand, snack foods are non-perishable and have a long shelf life, and there is basically no natural loss of
the product.
Based on the above two product characteristics, the leisure food supply chain system can rely on the existing mature logistics, with high
cost and efficiency.

At present, leisure snack brands are sold in the form of small packages of products by breaking them into pieces, making the unit price per customer higher and the overall gross profit relatively considerable, which can be seen
from the business situation of listed leisure food companies.
Relevant data shows that in 2021, the gross profit margin of Laiyifen will reach 43.
54%, the gross profit margin of Good Shop will reach 26.
77%, and the gross profit margin of Three Squirrels will also reach 29.
4%.

According to the sales data of comprehensive e-commerce platforms, the leisure snack industry will bottom out and rebound in 2022 as the consumer market picks up, and consumers' demand for the types and quality of leisure snacks is also increasing, and the leisure snack industry has shown an upward development trend
.

Emerging snack brands are growing rapidly

Recently, the development momentum of emerging snack brands has continued to improve, and they have been
favored by capital for financing.

Xue Ji Fried Goods, a chain brand in the nut fried goods industry, announced the completion of a series A financing of 600 million yuan, and has become a "new Internet celebrity"
in the snack field.
According to data from Cailian News Agency Venture Capital, since 2021, there have been a total of 26 snack-related financing events in the primary market, of which 4 have a single investment amount of more than 100 million yuan, and Xue Ji Fried Goods is also the brand
with the largest investment amount in recent years.

Emerging snack brands are ambitious and expanding
rapidly.
According to Xue Ji's speculation plan, the number of stores across the country will expand to more than
1,000 in 2022.
Up to now, the number of Xue Ji Fried Goods stores in the country has reached 700.

Different from the packaging form of the old Internet celebrity brands such as Qiaqia and Three Squirrels, the new Internet celebrity brand highlights the fresh stir-fry and bulk sales
of products.
For example, Xue Ji fried goods to play the concept of conscientious fried goods, and Qiwang peanuts, who started in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, emphasized slow stir-frying in a small pot and happy peanuts to put up national fried goods in the store
.
More importantly, they all adopt the self-production model, rather than OEM manufacturing
.
In many stores of these brands, you can see machines
for on-site processing and stir-frying.
Ensuring food safety and freshness from the source caters to the needs of a new generation of consumers who pay attention to food quality, but such a production process must also determine the price
.

Another brand favored by capital, Panda Momo, chose to start
with creative fresh snacks.
At present, more than 80 stores
have been signed in Hunan, Hubei and other regions.
Less than a year after its establishment, Panda Momo mainly promotes homemade yogurt snack cups and handmade freshly mixed spicy strips, as well as cashews, macadamia nuts and other nut categories
.

Looking at the entire casual snack track, snack collection stores have also attracted much attention
from capital.
Snack Magic has obtained nearly 10 million yuan in angel round financing; Snacks are busy obtaining 240 million yuan A round of financing; snacks Youming has obtained four rounds of financing
.
Snacks are very busy, and it is expected that it can reach about 6 billion yuan in store retail sales in 2022, doubling the year-on-year growth
.

The common characteristics of the above-mentioned emerging snack brands that have received financing are low prices, mass retailers, and retail
.

In the past two years, there have been many topics of consumption upgrades, and many brands have targeted the personalized niche market
.
However, in the view of emerging snack brands, the vast sinking market is the mainstream of consumption upgrading under policy support, and this part of the population accounts for about 70%-80% of the consumer population, which is huge and has potential
.
Snacks are very busy sinking channels to counties and towns to meet the consumer demand
of the sinking market.
Yi Lijun, manager of its public relations department, said that there is no "weak brand" in product brands, but for some categories, the brand awareness of consumers is slightly lower, for example, lotus root slices and quail eggs do not have so-called well-known brands
.
Snacks are very busy and pay more attention to the degree and scale of production specifications of cooperative factories, and some brand factories are "the same factory and the same source" as high-end big-name snacks, but the price is more affordable
.
Snack makers are also calling for new channel touchpoints
.
When the growth of the online market slows down, marketing and channel expenses increase sharply, manufacturers return from online to offline to find breakthroughs, and in addition to the tired hypermarkets, new offline channels are being tapped
.

Although the momentum of emerging snack brands is strong, it is not easy
to run in the casual snack track.
Industry insiders said that "there is a category, no brand" is a long-standing problem
in the industry.
If you don't want to repeat the mistakes of old brands, emerging snack brands still need to work on many aspects
.

Industry competition enters the second half

At present, the competition in the casual snack industry has also entered the second half
.
According to the "2022 China Leisure Snack Industry Research Report", in the past seven years, the compound growth rate of the domestic leisure snack market has maintained an annual growth rate of more than 11%, and the market size is expected to exceed 1.
5 trillion yuan
this year.

For the snack industry, the support point of any brand is product quality
.
The entry threshold of the leisure food industry is low, there are many players, and the homogenization of products is very serious
.
Just like the melon seeds of Qiaqia Food and the daily nuts of three squirrels, now Xue Ji's fried milk dates, want to run out among many brands, creating explosive products is the most important
.
Among them, creating high-end is the direction of
the brand's joint efforts.
In August this year, Paraherb launched a new series of nuts of "True Flavor Zhenguo" to enter the high-end market; Qiaqia Food launched the high-end melon seed products of "Kwai Zhen"; Good Shop launched the fitness snack "Good Flying"
.

In search of new growth curves, some brands are also extending their reach to more segmented markets
.
Three Squirrels launched four sub-brands
: Hi Little Sparrow, Iron Rooster, Fawn Blue Blue, and Raising a Furry Child.

In terms of channels, whether relying on the three squirrels online or relying on the offline Laiyi, their performance is showing the industry the importance of
omni-channel sales.
Industry insiders said that only by opening up the omni-channel sales model can brands be more flexible to resist risks, and emerging snack brands may move faster
.
For example, Xue Ji sells products through e-commerce platforms to achieve a combination of online and offline, while snacks are busy and adopts the franchise model to expand stores
.
From the perspective of FMCG channel development, from street shops, grocery stores, large supermarkets, to convenience stores and other formats, channels are becoming more and more differentiated, accompanied by the differentiation of categories
.
Leisure food has become a trillion-level market, coupled with the transformation of snacks to meals, the market has labeled it as the "fourth meal", and more differentiated channels have emerged, which is in line with the logic
of business development.

Yi Lijun believes that snack chains are a "triathlon" comprehensive competition project, not only must have team ability, financial strength, but also product selection ability, investment promotion ability, operation ability, distribution ability, internal control ability, service ability, brand ability, the integration of various capabilities is very
difficult.

Wang Chongyang, an expert in the field of retail and new consumption, said that the model can be copied, depending on how fast the company can go, but if it can occupy the head of the consumer's mind under the value of capital, this is also the
barrier.

Yu Jian, general manager of Kantar Worldpanel Greater China, said that the emergence of cost-effective brands is actually the most intuitive blow to pseudo-high-end brands or some high-end brands
.
The epidemic has catalyzed consumer divides, and the ultra-high-end market has not been greatly affected, and some mid-to-high-end brands will be squeezed
.
Especially in the snack field, consumer loyalty is not so high, if high-end brands can not form brand segmentation, or the brand does not have enough ability to form differentiation, will make some consumers turn to more cost-effective snack brands
.

But the pursuit of cost performance does not mean that consumers give up the pursuit
of quality.
Consumption rationality is not only reflected in the price, consumers' simple expectations for snacks are still to buy more delicious products
at a more reasonable price.
Wang Chongyang pointed out that food quality is the basic skill
for food enterprises.
In addition, if you debut as a snack franchise, consumers will have higher requirements
for the variety of products and the speed of innovation.

Under the surface of products and models, Wang Chongyang believes that the more critical thing is that the channel is changing, and the development of the channel is always around the change
of "more, faster, better, and provincial".

Yu Jian said that the competition of any business model is, in the final analysis, a competition in efficiency, and how to let it complete the transformation of consumer transactions with greater efficiency within a certain category is the most core issue
.
Through efficient supply chain operation and management system optimization, as much as possible to save costs, and then through cost-effective pricing, slowly out of the circle, from the regional market to the country
.

Although the leisure snack market size exceeds one trillion yuan, due to the large number of sub-categories, each sub-segment has the opportunity to run out of "unicorns" and even listed companies
.
At present, the casual snack market is still full of uncertainty, and how brands can follow the trend to capture consumers is still a mandatory course
that needs continuous research.

(Zhu Meiqiao comprehensive arrangement)

China Food News (October 25, 2022, Edition 07).

(Editor: Zhu Meiqiao)