Snack food is a category of fast-moving consumer goods, and it is the food that people eat when they are free and resting. Snack food in a broad sense mainly includes leisure stewed products, candies and preserves, bread, cakes and pastries, puffed food, roasted seeds and nuts and biscuits. In recent years, with the continuous improvement of the income level of Chinese residents, the expenditure on leisure and entertainment has gradually increased, and the leisure food industry in my country has also developed rapidly. According to data, the retail market size of my country's snack food industry has increased from 401.4 billion yuan in 2010 to 735.5 billion yuan in 2015, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.9%. In 2016, the scale of the leisure food retail market was about 822.4 billion yuan, and by 2020 the scale is expected to reach 1,298.4 billion yuan, and the compound annual growth rate from 2016 to 2020 is expected to reach 12.1%. my country's snack food industry will show a long-term steady growth trend.

In terms of categories, candy and candied fruit products account for the largest proportion, currently accounting for about one-third of the entire snack food retail market, and puffed food ranks second. Recreational stewed products started late, although the scale is small, but it has developed rapidly in recent years, with a compound growth rate of 17.6% from 2010 to 2015, and there is still a lot of room for development in the future.

With the improvement of the consumption level of Chinese residents and the younger consumer group, the leisure food in my country is gradually upgraded to be healthy and high-end. In terms of retail price, the retail price of leisure food in my country has been rising year by year in recent years, and it has exceeded 44 yuan/kg at present. The compound annual growth rate from 2011 to 2016 reached 3.88%. Compared with the retail unit price of leisure food in some developed countries, the price in our country is still at a relatively low level. In the future, with the continuation of consumption upgrading and the improvement of people's consumption level, the retail price of snack food will continue to rise, and the profitability of snack food companies will further increase.

1. Look at the industry: the taste of products is affected by popular dishes, and the market structure tends to be scattered

At present, the development of the whole snack food is in an unbalanced trend: the category of biscuits is declining, the category of puffed food is refurbished, the scale of baking is expanding, the innovation of Korean, Japanese and European bread cakes is rapid, all kinds of nut products are emerging, and imported snack foods have also entered the market. The stage of rapid development... To sum up, today's snack food industry has the following characteristics.

Casual snack stores are developing rapidly, and channels are changing towards individualization

In the past few years, leisure snack stores have developed rapidly, not only innovating channels, but also greatly promoting the development of snack food industries in various places. The snack products in the snack store are relatively rich. Not only is the unit price high, but the conversion rate of potential customers is also high. The daily turnover of casual snack stores with an area of about 100-200 square meters is between 10,000-20,000, or even more than 20,000.

The taste of Chinese and Western dishes affects the categories and tastes of leisure snacks

Today’s snack food companies are good at finding consumers’ taste bud trends from the popular flavors of restaurants, so as to launch new products with unique tastes, such as the fresh matcha flavor of Hao Li You Pai, Lay’s Xiangzhi Mo and Xiang Vegetable Moment, Shanghaojia Kung Pao Chicken Potato Chips and various Variety of brands of ketchup, french fries with sweet chili sauce and more. In recent years, the taste of potato chips transformed from dishes has enriched Lay's product line; product innovation has also brought 8% of PepsiCo's net income in the past three years, and achieved rapid performance improvement.

The urban baking industry is becoming more and more developed, stimulating consumer demand for purchases

Bakery, which is popular all over the world, is deeply influenced by Taiwan's baking industry and has developed rapidly in the past two years.

Cross-border e-commerce and e-commerce platforms are booming, and imported food will usher in a period of rapid development. According to the forecast of the American Food Industry Association, by 2018, China will become the world's largest consumer of imported food, and the market size of imported food in mainland China will reach 480 billion yuan.

The imported food industry is in an accelerated start-up stage. Imported e-commerce can be divided into several categories: ① platforms represented by Tmall and Taobao; ② vertical platforms represented by JD.com, Yihaodian, and SF Express; , NetEase Kaola, Overseas Purchasing Agency, ④ independent vertical website.

The level of industrialization and scale has been continuously improved

Let's analyze these two modes: External M&A mode: For example, after Mondelez (Kraft) acquired Danone and Nabisco, it has 6 large biscuit production bases in mainland China. Internal expansion model: For example, PepsiCo's food business in China has grown to 6 food production plants (distributed in Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, Wuhan, etc.) and 7 sustainable demonstration farms, of which the Wuhan plant increased its capital by 50 million last year US dollar, double the production capacity, the performance can be seen as mediocre.

Market transition from centralized to decentralized

In a relatively segmented market, the performance of domestic brands is remarkable, and second- and third-tier brands have the ability to use innovation and have the conditions and foundation to break through and rise. The strategic positioning of an enterprise is very important. Doing a good job in market segmentation is tantamount to finding a way to innovate in the fierce market competition environment. The segmented market cake can gradually grow bigger, and form its own unique advantages, increasing the barriers for competitors to enter.

2. Look at channels: a fragmented consumer market is gradually forming

In recent years, not only have consumers' shopping concepts become more and more personalized, but channels have also changed. Today's channels are piecemeal, from one to many, forming a fragmented consumer market. We can see the changes in today's channels through some familiar brands. For example, the modern channel of Dove chocolate only accounts for 60%, the modern channel of Master Kong only accounts for 14%, and the proportion of Want Want is less than 11%.

3. Look at consumption: Meal replacement and leisure are the two major directions, and the availability of raw materials determines the depth

With the trend of consumer upgrades and channel personalization, the upgrade and update of casual snacks is unprecedentedly active, and the scale of the entire industry has increased dramatically. It is reported that the daily average number of transactions for online leisure snacks has exceeded 2 million, and it is still growing rapidly. The driving force for its growth mainly comes from three types of consumer groups: high-income groups, young people, and mobile e-commerce consumers. The consumption of these groups mainly reflects the following characteristics:

Product functions determine the two major directions of future development

Meal replacement function direction: The concept of baked food meal replacement with rice and noodles as the main raw materials is gradually being explored. Many baked products are made into breakfast substitutes, and can also be eaten during coffee breaks between meetings and when traveling.

Pure snack direction: The concept of snacks produced from potatoes, seafood and some unconventional raw materials will be strengthened, such as French fries, cookies, coated biscuits, chocolate wafers, potato chips, etc.

Product packaging and taste are the first choice of most consumers

Constantly pursuing the added value of products on the basis of taste has become an inevitable choice for enterprises to pursue differentiated products.

Household consumption and tourism consumption have become the main consumption directions

In family consumption, the mainstream consumer group has changed, the target of consumption has gradually developed from children to more groups, the market has been further subdivided, and consumption motivation has also changed. Meal replacement and leisure consumption have become the normal state of snack consumption among white-collar workers .

Tourism consumption is passive consumption. Traditional snack food and imported food have won the favor of tourism consumers because of their uniqueness in geography, craftsmanship and taste.

Consumption is greatly affected by the development of catering culture

First, it is influenced by Western-style catering culture: "European-style buns" and "European-style cakes" are classic cases of industrializing fresh pastries. In addition, a large part of the taste changes of snack foods are influenced by Western-style catering, such as chocolate flavor, tiramisu Soy flavor, blueberry flavor, cheese flavor, etc. are widely used in subdivided industries such as biscuits, cakes, bread, puffed, and snacks.

Influenced by Western-style catering culture (such as tasting afternoon tea, meeting coffee breaks, birthday parties, etc.), the launch of new Western-style bakery products will be easily recognized by the market, saving the process of market cultivation, such as horn croissants, macarons Wait.

The second is influenced by traditional catering culture: In addition to the design and production of original potato chips, Haojia has also extended products with 12 different flavors, such as onion, braised beef, curry beef, mutton and mustard. In addition, Glico has launched pork bone spicy pancakes, Master Kong's black pepper steak flavor crisps, black rice steamed cakes, Jinhua shortcakes, etc., all of which are deeply influenced by traditional culture.

4. Look at the competition: multi-brand strategy and regional production layout are the mainstream

Under today's competitive situation, many snack food companies have begun to strengthen their own strengths, seeking the most suitable strategy and layout with differentiated advantages.

"Multi-brand strategy" is the business expansion strategy of mainstream enterprises

First-line enterprises such as Kraft, Dali, Orion, and Want Want all adopt this strategy model.

Mainstream companies are stuck with each other in sub-sectors

Many companies have begun to strive for the most favorable position in subdivided categories.

Regionalized production layout has gradually become the mainstream

Many first-tier enterprises have focused on the regional market and carried out a gradual market layout.

It is reported that the overall leisure food market is expanding at a compound annual growth rate of more than 16.70%. The annual output value has reached 905.018 billion yuan (2014), and it is expected to reach 1992.528 billion yuan in 2019. In today's market environment, consumer demand is diversified and personalized, and the prospects for leisure snacks will become clearer.