What are the prefabricated food brands at home and abroad?

Prefabricated vegetable industry What are the domestic and foreign prefabricated vegetable brands

Original Sichuan Cuisine Editor Sichuan Cooking Magazine November 10, 2022 20:34 Sichuan

Sysco, United States

Sysco is the largest prepared food business in United States, founded by John F. · Baugh was founded in 1969 after acquiring eight small food distributors through its owning Zero Foods. The following year, Sysco was successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

As of 2021, Sysco's market share in the United States catering supply market has reached 16%, and its marketing and logistics network has spread to 90 countries around the world, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, and Sweden, providing pre-made food delivery services for B-end customers such as restaurants, hospitals, and schools, with more than 625,000 customers. Sysco sells and distributes products such as fresh and frozen meat, seafood, poultry, vegetables, fruits, vegetables, vegetables, and utensils, processing equipment, etc.

Let's take a look at Sysco's financial performance in the past three years. In 2019, the revenue was $60.114 billion and the profit was $1.674 billion; In 2020, the company's revenue declined, falling to US$52.893 billion, and net profit decreased to US$215 million, while revenue in 2021 declined slightly compared with the previous year, achieving sales revenue of US$51.298 billion, but profits increased significantly, with net profit of US$524 million, a year-on-year increase of 143.28%. In 2021, Sysco's revenue of $51.298 billion compared to Tyson and Conaguera's $43 billion and $11 billion, nearly $8.3 billion and $40.3 billion, respectively.

Favorable background. As we mentioned in our previous article, United States pre-made dishes sprouted in the 20s and 50s of the last century, and then to the 70s happened to be the rapid development period of pre-made dishes in United States. Sysco was founded in 1969 at the right time. From the fact that it acquired 8 small food distributors at the beginning of its birth, it can be seen that it was prepared and successfully listed within a year of its establishment.

Sysco had a clear positioning before its birth, that is, to focus on B-end customers, to provide integrated food sales and distribution services for restaurants, medical institutions, educational institutions, governments, tourism facilities and retailers, etc., and to become the most valuable and trustworthy business partner for customers. Solving the problem of brand positioning also solves the problem of origin, and clarifies the direction for future rapid expansion.

Multi-brand matrix

In the process of serving customers, many customers do not understand the relationship between corporate strategy and brand strategy, so they cannot achieve multi-brand strategy at the same time. Sysco can be said to be a company that understands strategy very well, and achieves a win-win situation of multi-brand strategy through the designation of corporate strategy and brand strategy. Sysco has a very wide product line, currently shipping up to 400,000+ SKUs, covering meat, frozen food, canned food, frozen fruits and vegetables, seafood, dairy products and other categories. Sysco is the company's brand, and it has four major brands, namely: SUPREME, represented by purple, focusing on elite products, with more high-end quality, packaging and formula; IMPERIAL is represented by the color blue, which means delicious and extraordinary, and is usually the ace product launched by the company after careful production; CLASSIC is represented by red, covering staple foods, fresh and frozen foods, finished dishes, etc., focusing on Chase products; RELIANCE is represented by green and mainly provides affordable and competitively priced quality products. There are 16 sub-brands under the four major brands, which are divided and managed according to categories, such as Arrezzio, which focuses on Italy-style staple food products (such as Italy pasta); JadeMountain focuses on Asian-inspired foods such as frozen spring rolls, xiao long bao, dumplings, etc.

Without a multi-brand matrix strategy, it is not only difficult to manage internally, but also difficult to effectively develop and manage customers externally. It can be said that Sysco's successful brand strategy is an indispensable part of becoming the largest prefabricated food enterprise in the United States and even in the world, which is worthy of reference and learning from our domestic enterprises, and I will write an article on this topic in the future.

M&A strategy

Sysco first adopts horizontal regional mergers and acquisitions, and then extends the vertical industrial chain to achieve endogenous expansion to enrich channel exports. Therefore, Sysco has entered new markets through rhythmic acquisitions and mergers and acquisitions, broadened its product range, and reduced costs and improved profitability through channel integration and standardized management, so as to achieve scale and gradually surpass its competitors. Let's take a look at some of Sysco's most representative M&A events. In its first year of listing, Sysco acquired Arrow Food Distributor, a baby food and juice company; In 1976, in order to increase the range of agricultural products, Mid-Central Fish and Frozen Foods Inc., which specializes in daily necessities such as frozen meat, poultry, seafood, fruits and vegetables, was acquired. By 1981, after several acquisitions, Sysco had become the largest food supplier in the United States and established Compton Foods, Syco, in Kansas City. After the company was founded, Sysco embarked on a larger merger and acquisition path. In 1984, PYA Monarch acquired three companies to expand the frozen goods distribution business. In 1988, it acquired CFS Continental, then the third-largest food distributor in the United States, for $750 million. According to the data, by the end of the 80s of the last century, Sysco had completed a total of 43 acquisitions, basically realizing the nationwide layout, with sales of 6.85 billion US dollars, accounting for 8% of the market share.

In order to further strengthen its position as a leader in the industry, Sysco began to go global and began to realize global mergers and acquisitions. In 2002, it acquired SERCA Foodservices in Canada; In 2003, it acquired AsianFoods, the largest Asian food distributor in North America, specializing in Asian restaurants and ingredients; In 2004, it acquired an international food group company that provides distribution for fast food chains in Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and the Middle East; In 2009, it acquired PallasFoods, the largest food distributor in Ireland; In 2016, in order to quickly enter the European market, it acquired Brakes Group, a United Kingdom peer giant with more than 4,000 self-operated brands and more than 50,000 products, for $3.1 billion. So far, Sysco has basically completed its global strategic layout.

Self-built logistics system

In terms of logistics and distribution, Sysco adopts a self-built model, with 78% of its logistics distribution centers and 87% of logistics vehicles owned. As of June 2020, the company has a total of 14,000 transport vehicles, most of which are used to transport frozen or perishable food. Based on a strong self-built logistics system, Sysco can quickly and accurately deliver goods from tens of thousands of suppliers to customers on the one hand; On the other hand, it is a good way to reduce distribution costs. Although the self-built logistics system is an asset-heavy operation model, self-built logistics can ensure food safety and improve product quality. In addition, Sysco has built its own quality inspection team, which is responsible for quality control, and the monitoring process covers all aspects of food collection, storage, processing, transportation and other links to ensure food safety.

Today, Sysco has become the "aircraft carrier" of the prepared food industry, and it has only taken about 10 years for it to grow into the largest prepared food company in United States. At present, the objective environment of China's prefabricated food industry is very similar to it.

Japan's largest pre-made vegetable company: Kobe Bussan

Kobe Bussan is one of the largest prepared vegetable companies in Japan, established in November 1985 and mainly engaged in the production and manufacture of food ingredients as well as retail and wholesale as a "business supermarket". In 2020, despite the impact of the new crown epidemic, it still achieved sales revenue of 340.8 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 13.8%; Profit was 15 billion yen, up 24.8% year-on-year.

Kobe & Co. and Sysco are very different in terms of model, which is also a significant difference between Japanese and United States companies. United States companies seek to maximize sales, while Japanese companies focus on profit maximization. In 2020, Sysco's revenue was $52.893 billion and its net profit was $215 million, with a profit margin of only 0.406%, compared to Kobe & Co.'s profit margin of 4.401% for the year.

The core element of Kobe's production capacity with such a high profit margin is the integration of production and marketing.

Kobe Bussan not only owns 1,570 hectares of Hokkaido farms and 2,900 hectares of Egypt desert farms, but also breeds "Kibi Highland Chicken" and "Shenshu Highland Chicken" on poultry farms directly connected to the processing plant. Kobe & Co.'s strong control over raw materials not only enables it to provide consumers with sufficient, high-quality, and reassuring food, but also reduces the cost of raw material procurement from the source.

In terms of product processing, Kobe & Co.'s products are mostly low-temperature and frozen foods, which can help expand the scale of sales and avoid the loss of fresh goods. Kobe & Co., Ltd. has 23 food processing plants in Japan and offers more than 360 self-operated brands such as German sausages, frozen udon, salmon fillet, and water yokan. In addition, Kobe & Co., Ltd. has more than 350 partner factories around the world, and imports more than 1,400 kinds of products from more than 40 countries around the world, such as chicken thighs from Brazil, French fries from Belgium, and dried fruits under the concept of "global authenticity, direct import". With a wide variety of products, Kobe Bussan can fully meet the needs of consumers.

In terms of sales channels, Kobe & Co., Ltd. has franchised franchisees to open terminal sales outlets and collect royalties equivalent to 1% of the purchase amount. According to Kobe & Co.'s official website, since the company opened its first "business supermarket" in Miki City, Hyogo Prefecture in March 2000, the frequency of new stores has gradually increased at a rate of 30~40 per year. As of the end of October 2021, Kobe & Co.'s "business supermarkets" in Japan have grown to 922, and the company plans to expand the number of stores to 1,000 by 2025.

The Kobe Bussan business supermarket sells its own branded products produced at its own factory, reducing costs and achieving differentiated sales. In addition, through the way of franchise chain, while reducing the cost of developing the market, it also effectively realizes the continuous reduction of operating costs in the later stage.

The epitome of China's prefabricated food enterprises

Domestic prefabricated food enterprises are mainly divided into two factions: the new forces are represented by Weizhixiang, Gaishi Food, and Qianwei Central Kitchen, while the old food companies such as Anjing Food, Guolian Aquatic Products, and New Hope are in the prefabricated food when the wind and grass are blowing, and they have entered this track strongly.

Weizhixiang, the first share of domestic prefabricated dishes. It was established in December 2008. On April 27, 2021, Weizhixiang was listed on the A-share market. From 2018 to 2020, Weizhixiang achieved operating income of 466 million yuan, 542 million yuan, and 622 million yuan respectively, and net profit of 71.1249 million yuan, 86.2433 million yuan, and 125 million yuan respectively. Among them, 70% of the revenue comes from meat and poultry products, followed by aquatic products, accounting for 26%. It has established a product system with the two major brands of "Weizhixiang" and "Yuyu" as the core. The products mainly include meat and poultry, aquatic products, soups, and snacks, covering more than 200 kinds of dishes with different tastes and specifications. The channel is divided into retail channel and wholesale channel, and its ratio is about 7:3. Retail is dominated by franchise stores, accounting for 52.06% of the main business revenue from 3.71% in 2016 and 52.06% in 2020, while the sales revenue of dealerships decreased from 72.49% in 2016 to 17.05% in 2020.

Gaishi Food, the first stock of prefabricated cold dishes. Gaishi Food was founded in 1994. In the first three quarters of 2021, the company's operating income was 230 million yuan, an increase of 50.24% year-on-year, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 28.84 million yuan, an increase of 61.6% year-on-year. Gaishi Food is mainly engaged in six product series: marine vegetable series, nutritious mushroom series, healthy vegetable series, sea treasure series, caviar series and Japanese ingredients, providing cold and hot ready-to-eat customized cold food processing for Chinese, Western and Japanese catering enterprises at home and abroad.

Qianwei Central Kitchen, the first stock of pastry pre-made dishes. Founded in 2012, Zhengzhou Qianwei Central Kitchen Food Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of quick-frozen noodles and rice products for catering enterprises, mainly providing customized and standardized quick-frozen noodles and rice products for catering enterprises (including hotels, group canteens, village kitchens, etc.). On September 6, 2021, Qianwei Central Kitchen landed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. In 2020, Qianwei Central Kitchen achieved revenue of 942 million yuan, and in the first half of 2021, its operating income reached 568 million yuan.

Qianwei Central Kitchen mainly focuses on B-end catering customers, in addition to distributors and store channels, has a high awareness of pastry prefabricated dishes, and many leading catering brands, such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Zhen Kung Fu, Yonghe Soybean Milk, Haidilao, Xiabu Xiabu, etc. are its important customers.

Anjing Food, a veteran enterprise, focuses on prefabricated dishes. Fujian Anjing Food Co., Ltd. was established in 2001, mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of quick-frozen hot pot ingredients (mainly quick-frozen surimi products and quick-frozen meat products), quick-frozen rice and flour products, quick-frozen dish products, etc. In February 2017, Yasui Foods was listed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. In 2020, Anjing Food's operating income was 6.965 billion yuan.

Anjing Food mainly focuses on two categories of products, hot pot products: stuffing, balls, slices, imitation crabs, fried, intestines, and pills; Dish products: fried products, soy products, egg dumplings, conditioning products. The sales model of Anjing Food includes distributors, supermarkets, special communications, and e-commerce, forming a marketing network that radiates across the country. At present, it has 1,033 first-class distributors, and its supermarket customers mainly include RT-Mart, Yonghui, Wal-Mart, Suguo and other chain hypermarkets, and has established cooperative relations with catering customers such as Xiabu Xiabu, Haidilao, Tongdelai, Yonghe Dawang, Yang Guofu Malatang, and snack food customers such as BESTORE, Ruisong Food, and Dongjiang Qingshui Food. At the same time, it is also actively engaged in online business.

Guolian Aquatic Products, with the help of aquatic product advantages to lay out prefabricated dishes. Founded in 2001, Guolian Aquatic Products is currently a large-scale aquatic food enterprise in China. In 2010, the company was listed on the Growth Enterprise Market of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. In 2020, the company's sales will be 4.5 billion yuan. In recent years, prefabricated vegetables have begun to occupy an important position in the income structure of Guolian aquatic products, and the revenue of prefabricated vegetables in 2020 was 730 million yuan, accounting for 16.2% of the annual revenue. Among them, the deep processing and prefabricated dishes mainly include boiled, wrapped, rice noodles, conditioning, hot pot barbecue and other series. Guolian's products are mainly direct sales, mainly focusing on B-end catering institutions, and B-end revenue accounts for more than 60%