THE CATERING INDUSTRY According to a report released by
According to Data from Tianyan, there are more
Evergrande Research Institute, the restaurant
than 10 million catering enterprises in China, of
retail industry may lose 500 billion yuan in the
which 95% are individual businesses. In the
seven days of the Spring Festival. Because
nearly 430,000 non-individual catering
the Spring Festival is the most frequent time
enterprises, 80 listed companies. Most of these
for parties, in order to avoid infection, people
are limited liability companies, and sole
choose not to go out to dinner. As a result,
proprietorships account for about 20%. Among
the number of people going to restaurants
them, about half of the catering enterprises
for dinner has been greatly reduced, and
were established in 1 to 5 years, and these
many people have canceled their New Year's
enterprises were relatively affected. The most
Eve dinner reservations.
direct impact on the catering industry is the stock of chilled foods in warehouses, including
Many catering companies, including Haidilao,
milk, fruits and vegetables. Most of these
Jiumaojiu and Xibei Oat Noodle Village, have
products have a short shelf life and are likely to
suspended operations in their stores
have deteriorated during the period of
nationwide. The decision also hit the shares
suspension.
of restaurant companies in Hong Kong. Haidilao shares had a volatile opening after
Of course, the market is not all bad news.
the holiday, with 99 cents down since late
Affected by this incident, many real estate
January, a trend that continued after the
companies have reduced the rent of their malls,
holiday. For the catering industry, 30% to 50%
involving more than 5 billion yuan. In fact, this is
of the cost of the enterprise is labor and rent.
to alleviate the difficulties faced by the catering
Of course, these two are also hard
industry during the Spring Festival. Many
investments, and most enterprises are facing
developers of commercial shopping centers have
financial pressure from these two aspects.
launched rental reduction programs to face the situation of the catering industry together with merchants.
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"How much impact will the epidemic have on the catering industry in 2020?" Sohu, 7 Feb. 2020, www.sohu.com/a/376239672_575682. Accessed 31 Oct.2021.
