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Today, the news that #Michelin restaurant starts selling poor person’s meal kit# became a hot search on multiple platforms, attracting market attention.

High-end restaurants save themselves

According to media reports, recently, a news that L'Atelier 18, a high-end restaurant with an average per capita consumption of 1,580 yuan, has suspended business spread rapidly on the Internet.

Since the beginning of this year, the catering industry has been reshuffled at an accelerated pace, and many high-end restaurants in Shanghai have fallen into operational difficulties. KOR Shanghai on Nanjing West Road, Shanghai Yuzhilan on Julu Road, Osteria Oyster and Seafood Restaurant, and Mingluchuan, a Sichuan restaurant with a per capita price of 2,300 yuan, have announced their closures one after another.

Hongcan big data shows that in the past five years, restaurants in Shanghai with an average customer spending of more than 500 yuan per person accounted for 1.35% of the total number of restaurants, about 2,700. However, by July this year, this number had dropped by more than 1,400, and the number of restaurants had shrunk by more than half.

On the morning of August 19, a reporter from Securities Times e-company logged into the Meituan App and found that the high-end restaurant L'Atelier 18 was currently closed. The reporter called the restaurant several times, but no one answered.

A blogger on social media quoted restaurant staff as saying, "The restaurant owner closed the restaurant at short notice and has not yet paid severance pay, and there are also issues with unpaid wages and provident fund."

High-end restaurant brands are seeking ways to save themselves. Some Michelin restaurants have begun to reduce the price of set meals to attract consumers.

According to media statistics, for example, Xin Rong Ji launched a "poor man's set meal" of 398 yuan; Lamelouse's set meal was downgraded and gave away coffee and sparkling water worth nearly 200 yuan; and EHB, with an average price of 4,400 yuan, reduced the price of its classic set meal by nearly one-third, while the dishes are not much different.

It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of this year, Meituan released the "2024 Black Pearl Restaurant Guide" focusing on mid- to high-end catering. This is the seventh year of the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide. Among them, the emergence of more new restaurants with good quality-price ratio in first-tier cities has become a major trend. For example, one-third of the newly listed restaurants in Shanghai focus on quality-price ratio.

In June this year, the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide held its first "Tidal Food Market" in Shanghai. It is reported that half of the food at this exquisite food market, jointly brought by 15 Black Pearl Chinese restaurants and 6 Black Pearl Western restaurants, was priced below 50 yuan (including 50 yuan).

In fact, Black Pearl restaurants have also responded to market competition by offering group-buying packages. As of June, 66 Black Pearl restaurants in Shanghai have launched more than 200 group-buying packages on the Meituan platform, with the monthly average year-on-year growth of 3.7 times.

Fierce competition

"Under the current market environment, China's catering industry has undergone significant changes. Value for money has become the core pursuit of consumers, which has a great impact on high-end catering. Faced with this challenge, high-end catering has begun to change its business model and launched business packages, family gatherings, and group purchase packages for multiple people to cater to consumers' pursuit of value for money and seek new breakthroughs in the fierce market competition." Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng told Securities Times e-company reporter.

In fact, the reason behind the cold reception of high-end catering is that with more and more entrants into the industry since this year, competition in the catering market has become increasingly fierce.

On August 15, the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that in July 2024, the national catering revenue was 440.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.0%; the catering revenue of units above the designated size was 121.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.7%. From January to July 2024, the national catering revenue was 3064.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.1%; the catering revenue of units above the designated size was 841.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.6%.

Although the overall data is positive, the "China Catering Industry Performance Index Report in July" released by the China Cuisine Association shows that the catering industry faced challenges in sales and profits in July, while employment and customer flow were relatively optimistic. The industry is actively taking measures to cope with current changes and is positive about operations in the coming month.

Many restaurants closed

Judging from the situation in many first-tier cities, the pressure on the catering industry is gradually increasing.

On August 16, according to data released by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics, in July 2024, Beijing's catering industry achieved revenue of 10.71 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.2%. From January to July, Beijing's catering industry achieved revenue of 74.42 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.2%.

According to the Shanghai Statistics Bureau, from January to June, the retail sales of accommodation and catering industry in Shanghai reached 72.511 billion yuan, a decrease of 3.6%. According to the statistics of Shanghai Catering and Cooking Industry Association, 61 catering enterprises with about 1,000 catering stores had a total revenue of 1.496 billion yuan in July, a decrease of 9.8% over the same period last year, and the growth rate continued to decline by 2 percentage points from the previous month.

Tianyancha data shows that in the first half of this year, the number of newly registered domestic catering-related companies reached 1.347 million, while the number of cancellations and revocations reached 1.056 million.

In this regard, Kaiyuan Securities analysts believe that although the number of closed restaurants has increased significantly, the number of new restaurant companies is still greater than the number of cancellations and revocations, which means that market supply is still increasing. It is expected that under fierce competition, the catering price war will continue, and "active price cuts" have led most catering companies to enter a period of small profits.

Leading restaurant companies cut prices

Many leading restaurant companies have chosen to lower prices to cope with the fierce competition in the consumer market.

In mid-May this year, Xiabu Xiabu released a new menu showing that the prices of single and double set meals were reduced across the board, with the average price of a single meal at 58 yuan and the average price of a double meal at 130 yuan, with the average customer spending no more than 60 yuan. In addition to the set meals, other dishes also saw price cuts to varying degrees.

Previously, the average price of a single-person meal at Xiabu Xiabu was 65 yuan, and the average price of a double-person meal was 145 yuan, which means that the average price of Xiabu Xiabu's new menu meal has dropped by more than 10%.

Recently, Shuang Hotpot, owned by Jiu Mao Jiu, has also carried out a new round of adjustments to its dishes and prices. An announcement was posted outside a store saying: "Soup base starts at 8 yuan, meat dishes start at 9.9 yuan, vegetarian dishes start at 6.6 yuan, and all-you-can-eat stewed rice is 6 yuan." This is also seen as a major move by Shuang Hotpot to officially announce a price reduction.

In response, Jiu Mao Jiu said, "Shuang Hot Pot Factory is committed to continuously improving the dining experience of customers. To this end, we began optimizing and adjusting the tableware layout, menu packages and prices of stores across the country in May of this year. This is an important routine task in the brand development of Shuang Hot Pot Factory."

The China Cuisine Association also pointed out that in the first half of this year, competition in the catering category was fierce, the rate of store opening and closing was high, and industry operators faced increasing pressure. The catering industry has seen a phenomenon of revenue growth but no profit growth. Price wars, homogeneous competition and increasing cost pressure are the main factors causing the current phenomenon of "increasing revenue but not profits" in the catering industry.

Stopping price wars and turning to healthy competition, developing "digital + catering" to enhance value creation, strengthening talent training to improve the overall level of the catering industry, and increasing policy support to stimulate catering consumption potential are key factors in breaking the "increased revenue but not increased profits".

Editor: Chen Lixiang

Proofreading: Zhu Tianting