In 1992, a quick-frozen tangyuan was born at Sanquan Company, marking the entry of quick-frozen food into the dining tables of thousands of households and swiftly sparking the birth and prosperity of an industry. With the continuous growth of China's urbanization rate, the quick-frozen food industry has experienced over two decades of golden development.

Thanks to China's distinctive regional culinary culture, the variety of frozen food is rich and diverse, including dumplings, sweet rice balls, fried dough sticks, noodles, buns, and fish balls, all of which continuously meet the needs of generations of housewives for easy cooking.

Statistical data reveals that since the 1990s, the annual output of frozen food has grown at a rate of 20% each year, emerging as a dazzling new star in the food industry's niche market.

However, due to the increasing ossification of enterprises in the quick-freezing industry, coupled with the popularity of healthy eating concepts, the entire industry has seen a decline in production capacity since 2014. Concurrently, with the demand for reducing labor costs, shrinking kitchen space, and lowering ingredient costs from chain restaurants and fashionable fast-foods, the frozen food industry has once again experienced growth, ushering in new opportunities for development.

From 2012 to 2017, China's catering revenue has gradually increased from 2.3283 trillion yuan to 3.9644 trillion yuan. If all goes as expected, the catering revenue in China will exceed 5 trillion yuan by 2020. This is not only a great opportunity for the catering industry but also a golden era for the frozen food sector.

Big Clients First: Meeting the Demand for Frozen Foods in Chain Restaurants

From a product perspective, frozen food is categorized into two types: 1) Frozen rice and noodle products, represented by brands like Sanquan Food and Sishen Food, mainly producing and selling dumplings, sweet rice balls, and pastries; 2) Frozen hot pot ingredients (frozen fish paste and frozen meat products), represented by brands like Anjing Food, Haibao, and Haixin Food, mainly producing fish balls, gong balls, crab sticks, and lion heads.

From the entire frozen food industry chain, the upstream includes the livestock, aquaculture, agriculture, slaughtering, and meat processing industries, with representative companies such as Shuanghui and Shannong; the midstream encompasses frozen fish paste, frozen meat products (collectively known as frozen hotpot ingredients), and frozen rice and noodle products, among others, with companies like Anyi Food and Sanquan Food; the downstream consists of supermarket channels, agency distributors, and various chain restaurants, as well as school canteens.

The market space for frozen food is inevitable, as we have a vast global consumer market. With the rapid development of the catering industry, standardized frozen and chilled products are the trend for the future development of the catering industry's supply chain. The core competitive advantage of the catering industry, especially for delivery brands, lies in building a standardized, branded, and traceable supply chain system.

But in the eyes of Zhuaiwan Thinking, having a large market space and being able to secure a place in the market as a frozen food company are two different matters. Where there is demand, there is competition, and it's fierce competition. How to stand out in the competition is the key focus for frozen food companies.

Without exaggeration, even the ingredient lists of small eateries now include "frozen goods" (a shorthand for quick-frozen food). This is even more true for the numerous hotpot restaurants, fast-food chains, spicy noodle shops, and corporate school canteens. Since it's about meeting the merchants' demand for ingredients, why not consider the matter from their perspective: What kind of "frozen goods" do they prefer?

1) Brand

Branded frozen goods, at least in merchants' perception, offer guaranteed quality. Even if they are a bit pricier, merchants tend to prefer purchasing branded frozen goods.

2) Cost-Effectiveness

Retailers first consider: Will the cost of this frozen food ingredient be too high? Can I sell it? How much can I earn from selling it?

3) Frozen Food (Finished/ Semi-Finished Products) Gaining Popularity Among Consumers

Is frozen (finished/semi-finished) food popular? Merchants don't decide that; consumers do. Merchants have only one very simple standard for good or bad: frozen goods that can be sold and make money are good.

To objectively and accurately analyze the needs of B-end customers, such as restaurant merchants, is crucial for better fulfilling these demands. For quick-frozen food companies, building their own brand not only conveys quality assurance but also maximizes brand premium. Enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, offering more cost-effective products, continuously developing consumer-favored items, establishing core competitiveness, and thereby capturing as much market share as possible.

Marketing to B-end and C-end customers is a conceptually different approach. B-end marketing typically involves mediums like food expos and trade shows, establishing distribution networks across various regions, and collaborating with renowned chain restaurants to gain entry onto their supply chain procurement lists.

The recently controversial "ready-to-cook meal kits" are actually a niche category within the frozen food market. To be honest, many fast-food restaurants are now using these meal kits to create set meals.

Ready-to-cook meals are essentially semi-finished dishes that utilize flash-freezing technology (compliant ready-to-cook meals do not contain any preservatives or additives), with well-known brands including Steamed and Stir-Fried, Wu's, Jiale, Xinmeixiang, Chuangshiji, and more. There's nothing wrong with using ready-to-cook meals; the key is to pair them reasonably and choose high-quality options. There is a certain misconception among consumers about "ready-to-cook meals," and it's a challenge for manufacturers to address and eliminate this misconception to overcome consumption barriers.

Change in perspective doesn't happen overnight, but some things are worth doing despite the difficulty. As ready-to-cook meals and frozen dumplings and mooncakes occupy a place in consumers' refrigerators alongside other frozen foods, it's predictable that frozen food companies specializing in ready-to-cook meals will see significant growth opportunities.

Fast-moving Consumer Goods: Do Not Underestimate the Demand for Frozen Food Among Individual Consumers

Meeting the needs of C-end consumers has been the industry goal for the frozen food sector for many years, accumulating considerable experience in brand positioning, promotion, marketing, and distribution channels. As food service enterprises are exploring and practicing "new retail," frozen food companies cannot discard this accumulated experience. The key lies in: how to create and ignite new consumer motivations and trends.

Several core tags revolve around fast-moving consumer goods: brand recognition, easy purchase, convenient portability, and easy consumption.

In fact, Nüiwán Sīwén's research finds that, in addition to traditional quick-frozen dumplings, sweet rice balls, and pastries, frozen food companies are venturing into the cross-border market for ambient temperature ready-to-eat snacks. On this basis, there's room for even more diverse commercial innovation to imagine.

Double Happiness has upgraded its sausages with the launch of a new brand, "Marco Polo," and plans to introduce ready-to-eat, non-refrigerated Chinese-style braised products.

Beifang Frozen Hotpot Ingredients Giant "Huifah" Launches New Snack Brand "Let's Play Together," Featuring Products Like Fish Tofu, Cumin Meat Root, and Deep-sea Fish Extremes, Primarily Targeting the One Yuan Section Sales.

Shandong Fanfu Food Co., Ltd. is one of the early players in the frozen food industry to introduce leisure fish tofu products. Under the "Fan Brother" leisure food brand, they continuously innovate with new items such as sweet and sour tofu, shrimp sticks, and fried fish. Haixin Food has launched the "Old撕Father" product series, featuring "Crab Bubble Sea Shrimp Stick," a ready-to-eat, hand-tear leisure food that allows customers to enjoy hotpot-style cuisine even without a hotpot.

Reviewing the products of these top brands,筷玩思维 finds several common traits: appealing aesthetics, eye-catching packaging, and fashionable and distinctive advertising copy.

For example, the "Play Together" brand by Hui Fa Stock Co., featuring personalized copy on product packaging such as "To those who make appointments right away, I can only say, not very professional, right? Want to meet?" and "For the next generation of our motherland, even if ugly, we must fall in love, loving our motherland with all our hearts."

"Fan Xiao Ge" slogan: "Follow Xiao Ge, and you'll have a feast every day." Haixin Food's "Old Shuai Fu" copy: "Almost broken inside without fish, OnlyYou!"

The copywriting for frozen food professionals is actually not inferior to the likes of "Jiang Xiaobai." The big shots are everywhere.

For fast-moving consumer goods, in addition to having good looks, delicious taste, and fashionable and individual advertising copy, addressing the "convenience of purchase" issue is crucial. Beyond traditional sales outlets like supermarkets, convenience stores, Internet cafes, cinemas, and more, the internet channel is indispensable.

Shandong Fanfu has established a dedicated e-commerce team, while Haixin Foods has created Haixin Cloud Commerce. Crab Bubble Sea Crab Meat is a product developed by Haixin Foods for the micro-commerce channel. Not missing a beat online or offline, the aim is to address the issue of "convenience in purchasing."

Frozen food companies are eyeing the promising market of ambient ready-to-eat snacks, attracting numerous followers. With so many jumping on the bandwagon, the quality varies greatly, leading to issues.

Issues primarily revolve around inconsistent quality, fraudulent practices, and disorderly price competition. Claiming to be "fish tofu" but containing no fish paste, they exploit cost advantages to seize market share through price, which is a classic case of bad driving out good.

Consumers aren't that naive. If they find the taste unappealing after trying, they may lose the desire to purchase again. We can't expect consumers to have the ability to discern authenticity. When fake and low-quality food is widespread, a food category with great market potential might decline. This scenario isn't limited to frozen food venturing into the ready-to-eat snacks market.

Food is the essence of life; nothing is trivial when it comes to food. Making food fraudsters pay a heavy price is a form of protection for legitimate and compliant producers.

Is "Internet + Cross-border Instant Snack Food" the Iterative Development Trend of the Frozen Food Industry?

The quick-frozen food company is branching into the ready-to-eat snacks market, and the first question to consider is: How large is the market space for snacks? We use "the classification of snacks" to indirectly address this question. From the classification of snacks, there are currently mainly膨化食品(puffed snacks), dried (hard) nuts, roasted goods, baking, and so on.

Each niche category boasts substantial market potential, and the leisure fish paste sector remains untapped. The issue isn't whether there's a market demand for ready-to-eat leisure fish paste; the question is simply: Can we resolve the relevant technical and production process issues to produce nutritious, healthy, and delicious leisure fish paste? As long as it's nutritious, healthy, and tasty, there will be market demand. Humans have never said no to deliciousness.

The internet's role is to help products disseminate and spread, integrate online and offline channels, and expand the selling space and time for products.

According to the Sugar, Tobacco, and Spirits Weekly, "Play Together" has developed over 150 agents across the country in a short period since its launch, with a total of over 6,000 terminal points. It has established model markets in cities like Taiyuan and Harbin, with daily sales per location ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 yuan.

In fact, after thorough research,筷玩思维 has found that products like dried sweet rice balls, fish tofu, stone pot tofu, and beef ball with urine in the common temperature, ready-to-eat small packaging in the current food wholesale market are not very common. Does this mean a new battlefield?

The new battlefield is: the integration of the internet with quick-frozen food companies entering the non-refrigerated ready-to-eat snacks market. What are the trends in the quick-frozen food industry? The trends that bring more development opportunities and greater growth to enterprises. That's the big trend.

Conclusion

Is the frozen food industry committed to mass production of single products or adopting a variety of small quantities? Should it continue to provide standardized products for catering businesses, or cross-over to offer convenience foods that are ready-to-eat and non-perishable?

Different businesses at various stages of development should formulate development strategies and plans based on their actual conditions, being factual and pragmatic. Positive innovation under a reasonable planning route is the ultimate solution that truly touches the ground.

A notable shift in the frozen food industry in recent years is that innovation is no longer confined to major brands; many new products have emerged from second and third-tier brands and have spread to the big players. These brands are vibrant, actively exploring the market, and accumulating energy and influence bit by bit. For instance, products like hand-held pancakes, brown sugar pot pies, and yolk sand dumplings, which are now found in supermarket refrigerators, were initially promoted by small and medium-sized enterprises before being produced by larger companies.

There are at least eight listed companies in the frozen food industry on the A-share market, including Shanghai Meilin, Sanquan Food, Shuanghui Development, Shinong Development, Anjing Food, Guangzhou Caterer, Hainin Food, and HuiFa Stock. Major companies must also strengthen their innovative genes, such as Sanquan's steamed cakes and Qianwei Kitchen's tarts, which are the results of cross-industry reference from the baking industry by frozen food enterprises.

Unfrozen in Taste: Finding Creative Ways to Lead the Market and Meet Demands Will Be the Fundamental for the Industry's Continuous Growth and Popularity.