Prepared meals, frozen bakery and Chinese traditional food and snacks, are receiving mounting interest from manufacturers, as revealed by the just-ended Hotelex, one of the major events in China's food and beverages industry.
So hot is the prepared meals industry that one startup by the name of Pearl and Plum Garden (珍珠小梅园) smoothly raised three rounds of funding from Chinese investors within half a year last year, when its sales shot ten-folds, and expects to exceed RMB 100 mn in sales in this year, said Pu Wenming, Founder and CEO of the company, in a conference in Hotelex, which took place in Shanghai during 29 March-1 April. The company did not participate in Hotelex and only the founder appeared in the show to participate the conference.
Manufacturers of whole meals (with rice included), or mere dishes, or just compound sauces to creat charm and marvel on ordinary vegetables and meat appeared in the show, with one evidently having engaged celebrities in their advertisements, a rare act of marketing in the prepared meals industry.
The booming of prepared meals hinges on the fact that many consumers demand convenience and quality in their meals, and thus appear "lazy" as not to take out time to prepare food for themselves. The Covid-19 further nudged an average consumer toward ordering and stocking various kinds of frozen meals and compound sauces.
Mr Wu's Foods (伍氏食品) from Fujian Province in East China had been making and selling vending machines for meals, but the machines business has not fared off smoothly as expected, and has turned its attention to focus entirely on making prepared meals, mostly frozen, positioning itself as a "central kitchen" of the horeca industry.
During the exhibition, Mr Wu's Foods demonstrated and promoted a wide range of savoury stuffings to be used in buns, to form hamburgers or sandwiches, suggesting an initial attempt to adapt western baked goods to the Chinese market and consumers' taste. Frozen pizzas look to be obviously the most popular Western foods in China, as the author noted quite a few new manufacturers launching frozen pizzas or introducing upgrated flavours and styles.
According to Shanghai-based boutique food-industry research firm, TopGuide Avisory, frozen pizza is widely accepted in China, along with bread, frozen cakes and frozen egg tarts in China. Frozen cakes are also receiving heightened interest from manufacturers, which are targeting the product as for the afternoon tea breaks in offices. All these products, like prepared meals, provide convenience to consumers.
It is not surprising that quite some snack goods manufacturers have in recent few years added on baked goods into their product portfolios. Take Yanker (盐津铺子) for example. Yanker added on bread, cakes and baked potato chips etc in 2017. By 2020 baked goods brought in RMB 681 mn in sales, accounting for 35% of the company's overall sales. The company's overall sales grew to nearly RMB 2 bn (USD 310 mn) in 2020 from RMB 683 (USD 105.1) mnm in 2016. Without launching baked goods, it is safe to assume the company is still struggling toward RMB 1 bn (USD 150 mn) in annual sales.
Now it is evident that many traditional baked goods such as pancakes (烧饼) and pastries incorporating durian (榴莲酥) and historically renowned snack food such as Wuhan Hot Dry Noodles (武汉热干面) are being adopted by industrial manufacturers, rather than artisans or workshop style manufacturers.
Not necessarily being baked goods, Chinese wheat flour based buns, dumplings and the like are also within the new product plan of some large manufacturers. Guangzhou Aokun, by a poster it stuck on the walls of its booth, says it will soon produce fried dough sticks (油条), Baozi (包子), steamed buns (馒头), etc. , all frozen.
Meanwhile, beverages are also undergoing spirited innovation and attracting more participants. Some traditional tea manufacturers and teahouse chains have put on show and encouraged consumers to taste their newly formulated beverages in small plastic cups, which are tea mixed with flowers, fruits, milk or cheese.