Affected by the epidemic, the catering industry has become one of the most affected industries in China. From the overall environment, this epidemic is not only a survival of the fittest for catering workers, but also a huge challenge to the survival of catering enterprises.

Recently, the high number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong in one day has prompted the HKSAR government to ban in-room food in restaurants throughout the territory. As one of the worst-hit areas in the industry, some 50,000 workers have lost their jobs.

The coVID-19 epidemic has not only hit domestic restaurants hard, but also has a "catastrophic" impact on the foreign restaurant industry. Many American restaurants and physical stores have been forced to close permanently. According to the National Restaurant Association of the US, the restaurant industry has been one of the hardest hit by the epidemic, and will lose 240 billion US dollars by the end of this year.

What are the concrete effects of the epidemic on the catering industry?

1. The breakdown of survival structure: due to the outbreak of the epidemic, in-hall food was directly stopped, and the income source of traditional catering was cut off, forcing catering workers to start to look for business models other than in-hall food.

2. The business structure has been changed: Based on the changes in the epidemic environment, the traditional business structure has begun to be changed. For example, some brands that did not do delivery or retail in the past are now starting to join the delivery platform to carry out online business.

3. Business model has been changed: The epidemic has prompted the catering brands in the whole industry to move towards online transparency. At the moment when traditional catering has been closed down and offline business has become impossible, brands have begun to change their business model and combine online and offline business, instead of just doing offline business before.

How does a meal company act to save oneself?

1. Develop online sales channels

Push take-away meals, free room service (entity stores when catering business, selling point meal system would be preferred in catering enterprises to break, and based on this, the micro ShangJun also for the meal, food is developed a low cost, multi-function, 0 mall template into the order of the public, in addition can also be a walrus MCN, tiktok food account must support level flow)

2. Proactively innovate business mode

The live-streaming of chefs turning into anchors has also become a major marketing channel for catering enterprises.

3. Increase the r&d of semi-finished products

Many stores have explored the "retail food and beverage" model. Catering enterprises process dishes into standardized commodities in the central kitchen and sell them to consumers through retail channels such as supermarkets and e-commerce platforms.

Although, many food enterprises try every means to develop new food mode, but after all can not be 100% return to the previous performance level, many insiders said, in order to restore the popularity to the previous level, at least half a year of transition.

In this long transition period, as a caterer, I can make full use of this rare time to straighten out the internal affairs and comfort my employees. Polish products, develop new products, interact with consumers, establish brand personification, and improve the brand image of the enterprise.