Xu Yuting/Text
As a seasonal food, Zongzi became one of the "protagonists" in the food market around the Dragon Boat Festival.
Not only the traditional candied jujube dumplings, eight-treasure dumplings, and pork dumplings are selling hot, but new flavor dumplings such as taro cheese and stinky tofu are also welcomed by some young consumers.In the zongzi market, some old-fashioned brands such as Wufangzhai and Zhiweiguan have also developed new flavors of zongzi while sticking to the traditional zongzi category.
On the one hand, various time-honored brands are secretly competing, on the other hand, the number of zongzi companies is also growing, and the competition track is getting more and more crowded.
Zongzi "rolled inside", self-heating rice dumplings came into being
Before the Dragon Boat Festival, time-honored brands such as Wufangzhai and Daoxiangcun launched Fuxiang Dragon Boat Festival, double-layer bamboo baskets, rice dumplings and other rice dumpling gift boxes; quick-frozen food brands Sanquan Foods and Missing Foods also launched golden silk candied jujube rice dumplings, Babao Dumplings, pork dumplings and other products.
In addition to sticking to the traditional zongzi category, some traditional time-honored brands are also developing new flavors of zongzi.Zhiweiguan launched spicy crayfish and bacon cheese dumplings; Wufangzhai launched spicy snail noodles and stinky tofu dumplings.
In addition to the new savory zongzi mentioned above, there are also various new sweet zongzi.In the "Grass Planting Post" on the online platform, not only glutinous rice dumplings filled with taro cheese and matcha cheese appeared, but also crystal dumplings with raw coconut latte flavor and hazelnut toffee flavor.In the face of these zongzi tastes, some netizens commented, "Those who like to eat zongzi and mashed taro are silent" and "Are zongzi so rolled up?"
In addition, the Weibo topic of "Salt Zongzi sales are 4 times that of sweet Zongzi" has also aroused heated discussions among netizens.The 2022 Dragon Boat Festival consumption trend data shows that from mid to late May, the sales of rice dumplings increased by more than 440% month-on-month.
For the novel zongzi flavor, a 23-year-old consumer expressed willingness to try it, saying: "It sounds delicious, especially the spicy crayfish flavor." Another 21-year-old consumer also expressed his interest inCaijing.com. Said that he is willing to try new flavors of zongzi in order to try new things.
And zongzi not only innovated in taste, but also appeared "self-heating zongzi" in form.Similar to the use of self-heating rice and self-heating hot pot, the self-heating bag generates heat after filling with water, and steams zongzi through water.
But the "self-heating" form of zongzi is not cheap.On an online shopping platform, Qianji self-heating dumplings are 58.9 yuan for 4 pieces, and the unit price is about 14.7 yuan per piece.The price of Ye Juxing self-heating dumplings is 30-40 yuan per box, and the unit price is about 15-20 yuan per piece.The unit price of a certain egg yolk meat dumpling from Wufangzhai is only about 7 yuan per piece, and a certain pork dumpling from Sanquan Foods is only about 4 yuan per piece.
In this regard, Zhu Danpeng, an analyst of China's food industry, told Caijing.com that the zongzi market is in full bloom this year, and the innovation, upgrading and iteration of zongzi are very fast.Self-heating rice dumplings match the core demands of the consumer side, so they have a good selling point.Although it is a new category, with the continuous deepening of the home culture and lazy culture, the sales of this type of self-heating products will usher in a new wave of growth.
Time-honored brands and new brands compete on the same stage, and the industry pattern is fragmented
In the Zongzi market, time-honored brands, quick-frozen food brands, and emerging brands compete on the same stage.
The research report of the China Research Institute pointed out that there are mainly three types of enterprises in the rice dumpling industry at present, one is the time-honored enterprises represented by Wufangzhai, Zhenzhenlaolao, etc. The third is an emerging brand represented by Xicha, Naixue's tea, and BESTORE.
Judging from online sales data, time-honored brands such as Wufangzhai and Zhenzhenlaolao are more popular.On an e-commerce platform, the monthly sales of the best-selling zongzi products in the Wufangzhai flagship store reached more than 400,000; The monthly sales of the best-selling zongzi products are more than 20,000.
Among them, the time-honored Wufangzhai was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange last year, hitting the “first stock of Zongzi”.However, from the data point of view, in recent years, the performance of Wufangzhai has still fluctuated and is accompanied by the risk of decline.In the first half of 2018-2021, Wufangzhai's revenue was 2.423 billion yuan, 2.507 billion yuan, 2.421 billion yuan and 2.136 billion yuan respectively.
After a slight increase of 3.47% year-on-year in 2019, the company's revenue fell by 3.44% year-on-year to 2.421 billion yuan in 2020.The net profit attributable to the parent also decreased by 12.9% year-on-year to 142 million yuan in 2020 after a year-on-year increase of 68.21% in 2019.
Image source: Screenshot of prospectus
Although the performance has fluctuated, the good thing is that the company's gross profit margin is relatively stable.From 2018 to the first half of 2021, its comprehensive gross profit margins were 45.24%, 45.43%, 44.57% and 46.2%, which remained around 45%.
There are also many small and medium-sized enterprises competing with industry giants such as Wufangzhai and Zhenzhenlaolao.According to the data of Tianyancha, there are more than 5,000 enterprises in my country whose name and business scope contain "zongzi", and the status of Zongzi-related enterprises is in business, existing, moving in, and moving out. Among them, more than 8 are self-employed industrial and commercial households, and 88% The registered capital of the relevant enterprises is less than 1 million.
Moreover, the number of zongzi enterprises is still growing steadily.According to Tianyancha data, more than 1,000 dumpling-related enterprises will be added in 2020.As of May 20, there have been more than 260 new zongzi-related enterprises in my country this year.
Zhu Danpeng believes that at present, Zongzi brands are divided into two camps, one is traditional brands, the other is Internet celebrity emerging brands, and non-food brands are joining the competition.On the whole, the consumption of zongzi will become normalized. Consumers will not only eat zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival, and the application scenarios of zongzi will be further expanded.
Epilogue
After the Dragon Boat Festival, consumers' enthusiasm for buying zongzi gradually receded, while the deduction of zongzi was increasing.In the Zhenzhenlao Lao online flagship store, a certain zongzi gift box is on a 8% discount; in the Zhiweiguan online flagship store, a certain fresh meat zongzi is also on a 8.8% discount.
As a traditional seasonal food, the sales of zongzi have obvious seasonality, but this does not prevent the continuous growth of the zongzi market.According to public data, in 2015, the size of my country's zongzi market was 4.916 billion yuan, and it will grow to 7.337 billion yuan in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 10.53%.It is estimated that by 2024, the market size of rice dumplings in my country will increase to 10.291 billion yuan, and the compound annual growth rate from 2020 to 2024 is expected to be 7%.
In the face of a continuously growing market size and a highly competitive market environment, it is more difficult for companies to stand out.
