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recently, the 2024 beijing catering brand conference with the theme of "openness, integration, renewal" was held in beijing. the conference brought together relevant personnel from government departments, representatives of leading catering companies, industry experts and skill masters, and the industry elites conducted in-depth exchanges on topics such as "strengthening brand influence, activating the consumer market, and deepening the inheritance of food culture".

the chain, diversification and internationalization of the catering industry are accelerating

at the meeting, the "2024 beijing catering industry observation report" was officially released. the catering industry has entered a new stage of development. in 2024, beijing's catering industry has particularly ushered in a new era of accelerated iteration. since the beginning of this year, "opening and closing stores" has become a hot topic in the industry. the report shows that the number of registered domestic catering companies in the first half of 2024 reached 1.3166 million, of which 4,842 were registered in beijing in the first half of the year. although there has been a correction, the average daily number of newly opened stores remains at an active level of 26.5. in addition, multiple sets of data reflect the current situation of accelerated iteration and intensified competition in the catering industry.

from the perspective of regional distribution, as of august, chaoyang district, changping district and yanqing district led the city in the number of existing catering enterprises, while chaoyang district, changping district and fengtai district performed outstandingly in the number of new registrations, demonstrating the different vitality of the regional markets.

intensified competition in the catering market has led to an accelerated reshuffle of the industry. old brands have joined the price war, but are generally facing the dilemma of revenue growth and profit increase not keeping pace. the report shows that in the first half of this year, the national catering industry revenue was 2624.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.9%; the catering revenue of units above the designated size was 719.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.6%.

focusing on the beijing market, the report pointed out that snacks and fast food continue to be popular due to their convenience and economy, especially the preference of young consumers for beverages, hot pot and other categories has increased significantly. the standardized operation and efficient meal delivery model of these categories not only simplify the management process, but also directly lower the industry threshold. therefore, in terms of per capita consumption of beijing catering stores, stores with per capita consumption of 21 to 30 yuan are the most concentrated, followed by stores with per capita consumption of 31 to 40 yuan, reflecting consumers' ultimate pursuit of cost-effectiveness. the field of "snacks and drinks" continues to be favored by capital, and investors pay more attention to the long-term value and development potential of enterprises.

in terms of brand competition landscape, luckin coffee, starbucks, kfc, juewei duck neck, and mcdonald's ranked at the top in terms of the number of stores. among them, luckin coffee has topped the list of beijing's catering brand stores for two consecutive years, highlighting its strong competitiveness and brand influence in the market.

affected by multiple factors such as economic development, accelerated pace of life and changes in consumption concepts, the demand in the catering market is undergoing profound changes. consumers pursue the ultimate cost-effectiveness, and companies need to accurately position themselves and seek the best balance between price and quality. at the same time, accelerating overseas expansion and opening up franchises have become important strategies for companies to expand the market and reshape the growth curve, but this is accompanied by a series of challenges. the importance of brand building has become increasingly prominent, and enhancing influence has become the key through differentiated layout, scene innovation and sub-brand launch.

the report shows that leading catering companies and emerging dark horse brands are opening up to franchise. for example, haidilao, which has insisted on direct operation for 30 years, announced the introduction of a franchise model. peijie chongqing hotpot, which has repeatedly emphasized direct operation, is fully open to franchise. jiu mao jiu, le caesar, hefu lamian and other brands have also gradually opened up to franchise and cooperation at different times.

the internationalization journey of chinese food brands is also worth paying attention to. not only do hot pot, tea and coffee continue to be the main force in going overseas, such as hot pot brands such as haidilao and xiaolongkan are actively expanding their stores overseas, and tea and coffee brands such as heytea and mixue ice city are accelerating their overseas expansion process; formal dining brands such as hunan cuisine and zhejiang cuisine are also setting sail for overseas expansion, such as nong geng ji opening a store in singapore, xin rong ji going overseas, and waipojia officially announcing the opening of its first store in manhattan, new york, usa. chinese food brands are not only deeply cultivating the southeast asian market, but also extending their tentacles to europe, the united states, japan and other places. despite the challenges of cultural differences, differences in laws and regulations, and complex supply chain management, the pace of globalization of chinese food remains firm.

in addition, in order to meet the needs of different consumer groups or expand new business areas, some "old hands" in the catering industry have begun to accelerate the launch of sub-brands this year, including xin rong ji, haidilao, shanghai auntie, etc. their product categories now include tea, fried chicken, barbecue, hot pot, full meals, etc., and consumption scenarios cover from high-end business banquets to daily gatherings and dining.

discussing the development of the catering industry

since the beginning of this year, the national catering industry has shown an unprecedented strong recovery trend, demonstrating the industry's vigorous vitality and deep resilience. however, this is accompanied by a rapid increase in consumers' demand for catering quality and personalized experience, which has put forward higher requirements for the comprehensive competitiveness of catering companies. in this context, how to innovate development models, promote the emergence of new services and new formats, and then stimulate new consumption has become a topic that the entire industry urgently needs to solve. how can companies continue to innovate and break down competitive barriers?

fang aiqing, former vice minister of the ministry of commerce, said in his keynote speech "accelerating industrial innovation and upgrading, promoting high-quality development of the catering industry" that the current degree of organization of domestic catering needs to be improved, and a considerable number of market players are in an unstable state of being scattered, small, and weak. among them, there are few that truly implement chain operations and central kitchen unified processing and distribution, the supply chain is imperfect, and the cost is relatively high. at the same time, the level of modernization, quality, and cultural services of catering need to be improved.

fang aiqing believes that in the future, the catering industry will show five major consumption trends around the three aspects of health, pleasure and efficiency: healthy catering consumption, cultural catering consumption, integrated catering consumption, digital catering consumption and green catering consumption. as artificial intelligence reshapes various industries, catering companies should also seize the opportunities of digital development, accelerate the pace of innovation, improve scale efficiency, improve the quality of the whole process, and optimize resource allocation. "for example, in terms of improving scale efficiency, with the development of artificial intelligence, smart restaurants, smart kitchens, smart processing, and smart push will gradually appear, which can not only improve the organization and modernization level of the catering industry, but also reduce costs and improve efficiency."

zhou yanlong, general manager of quanjude group, shared the inheritance and innovation experience of quanjude with the theme of "innovation to activate time-honored brands". zhou yanlong believes that as a 160-year-old time-honored brand, innovation is a new topic that must be tried and a new test that cannot be avoided. for time-honored brands, innovation is not subversion, but more about integrated development. it is to face up to one's own problems, find the right innovation points, combine market demand, rise to the challenge and start again.

how to innovate? zhou yanlong believes that it can be viewed from three dimensions: people, goods, and venues. in terms of people, everyone at quanjude is practicing innovation. "as the general manager and head, i lead the star chef team and the roast duck craft inheritance team to promote the company and endorse the products. now we have 4 to 5 days a week where the chef team broadcasts live on platforms such as douyin."

"in terms of goods, quanjude's products have been undergoing mandatory iteration and innovation since 2020. so far, the number of dishes innovated in quanjude's directly-operated stores in beijing has accounted for 26% of the total, and sales account for 1/5 of dine-in sales. sales have increased by 16% from 2020, and increased by 5% year-on-year in the first half of this year." zhou yanlong said.

at the scene, zhou yanlong shared that after quanjude cooperated with the palace museum on the second floor of wangfujing to launch the "palace happy dragon and phoenix" project, this year it launched the "jingmeng wangfu" project on the fourth floor. the most recommended is the recently launched fangshan tea house, which restores the tea and snacks of fangshan 99 years ago. in the more than 20 days after the launch of the project, the sales of tea and snacks of fangshan tea house exceeded the sales of fangshan restaurant's meals on half of the days.

zhou yanlong believes that in order to break through the sales channels of time-honored brands, they must embrace digitalization. to this end, his online flagship store, xiaohongshu arbitration, and douyin customized live streaming sales continue to break records.

in addition, yang xiulong, chairman of beijing banquet, focused on "chinese service and catering brand building" and discussed the core value of high-quality service in brand building. du bosi, professor of the school of folk literature of beijing normal university, discussed the strategies and paths for beijing's food brands to go global from an international perspective.

the conference also set up a special round-table dialogue session with the core topic of "diverse paths to stimulate the potential of catering consumption", inviting leaders of beijing's popular business districts to participate in the dialogue and discuss in depth how to stimulate the potential of catering consumption through diversified means.

building an international food capital

in order to push the cooperation between beijing and various provinces and cities to a new level, assist in the construction of an international consumption center city, and continuously meet the people's increasingly diversified catering consumption needs, at this conference, the beijing municipal bureau of commerce and the beijing offices of seven provinces and regions, including hebei, liaoning, heilongjiang, anhui, hainan, yunnan, and xinjiang, jointly signed the "cooperation agreement on building an international food capital". they will give full play to the advantages of the beijing office as a bridge and link, open up the catering industry chain inside and outside beijing, complement each other's advantages, attract catering brands from all over the country to develop in beijing, better meet the quality, characteristic, diversified and convenient catering consumption needs of citizens and tourists, accelerate the high-quality transformation and upgrading of beijing's catering industry, and contribute to beijing's construction of an international food capital.

in february this year, the beijing municipal bureau of commerce, together with eight departments, issued the "action plan to promote the high-quality development of beijing's catering industry and accelerate the construction of an international food capital", proposing to "give full play to the role of the beijing office to drive more local restaurants to settle in beijing."

at present, the beijing municipal bureau of commerce has cooperated with the beijing offices of various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities to promote more than 10 local delicacies, including guangxi cuisine, shandong wine, guizhou cuisine, and yunnan cuisine; jointly released a number of food maps of restaurants recommended by the beijing offices to strengthen the promotion of beijing's special catering; and linked 27 beijing offices and 47 beijing liaison offices to organize the "2024 taste of beijing food festival", which attracted nearly 60,000 consumers and sales of more than 3 million yuan in 4 days. the effect of promoting the development of the catering industry through the beijing offices continues to play a role, and the diversification and richness of beijing's catering market continues to improve. consumers can eat all the national delicacies without leaving beijing. in the future, the two sides will work closely together to continuously introduce more high-quality catering brands and special ingredients to further enrich beijing's catering ecology.

in order to fully showcase the industry's style, this conference focused on promoting nearly 100 catering brands and outstanding talent cases, including the 2024 beijing top ten catering brands, beijing catering brand vitality star, beijing catering digital innovation star, beijing catering social responsibility star, beijing catering food popularity star, and 2024 beijing catering craftsmen. in addition, the conference also announced the 2024 beijing catering enterprises (groups) top 50 and the top 100 catering stores top 100.

among them, quanjude, beijing banquet, beijing huatian, dadong, hamarhan, hu da, meizhou dongpo, four seasons minfu, wangshun pavilion, and yangfang shabu-shabu were listed as the "top ten beijing catering brands in 2024", and cuihualou, bianyifang, donglaishun, huajia yiyuan, laomenkuang baodu shabu-shabu, nanlaishun, xibei, yaer li ji, yulin roast duck, and ziguangyuan were awarded the "beijing catering brand vitality star in 2024".

■ our reporter liu xuying