Snail powder enterprises are not in a hurry to bring in capital.

　　Because a local food, so as to remember a city, this is the charm of Liuzhou snail powder.

　　It was originally a street food enjoyed exclusively by Liuzhou citizens, but it became "accidentally" popular. Its products are exported to more than 20 countries and regions overseas and become one of the most popular local snacks.

　　In 2020, Liuzhou snail powder exceeded the "double ten billion" goal of the local government. On July 28, 2021, the local government issued a document and put forward a new plan: by 2025, strive to realize the sales revenue of the whole industrial chain of advantageous and characteristic rice noodles in Guangxi to exceed 100 billion yuan.

　　Liuzhou snail powder is well-known as "smelly" at home and abroad, and the sales data are rising. However, on the capital side, compared with the popularity of rice noodles, noodles or fast food products, snail powder is very "unpopular". So far, no independent snail powder enterprise has obtained financing.

　　How is this magical local snack "out of the circle" and why it is not favored by the capital market?

　　Self transmission gene

　　Behind every local snack, there is a unique food origin story, and Liuzhou snail powder is no exception. Snail powder originated in the 1970s and 1980s. There are three theories about its birth.

　　First, it is said that in Jiefang South Road, there is a grocery store that also sells dry cutting powder. In the morning, the clerk often took a handful of dry cut powder and cooked it at the snail stall next door. Later, someone bought green vegetables. Wang Ji, who sells snails, thought the powder tasted very good, so she sold snails powder.

　　The second story takes place in Gubu Street vegetable market, the largest distribution center of raw snail wholesale in Liuzhou city. After the audience of the nearby workers' cinema left, they liked to stroll in the Gubu street night market. Liuzhou people have always been fond of eating snails and rice noodles. Some night market bosses operate boiled snails and rice noodles at the same time. Diners like to add snail soup with a lot of oil and water to rice noodles, thus forming the prototype of snails powder.

　　The last theory is related to several outsiders. They came to Liuzhou and arrived at a rice noodle stall that was about to close. Because there was no bone soup, there was only one pot of boiled snail soup left. The stall owner boiled rice noodles in snail soup, with side dishes such as green vegetables and peanuts. Several customers shouted delicious after eating. Later, the stall owner gradually improved its ingredients and production, and made snail powder.

　　Legends are different, but behind each is a strong "snail complex" and "rice flour complex". It also has the local characteristics of Liuzhou, which is rich in snails and people like "wordy powder".

　　The popularity of Liuzhou snail powder is inseparable from the documentary China on the tip of the tongue. The short 10 second shot in the program takes Liuzhou characteristic sour bamboo shoots as the main line. After the production of sour bamboo shoots, as the most important auxiliary material, it is added to Liuzhou local snack - snail powder. Seeing the audience here, they can't wait to experience how delicious snail powder is.

　　China on the tip of the tongue the local snacks popular are not only Liuzhou snail powder, but also Qishan saozi noodles in Shaanxi, Zhusheng noodles in Guangdong, Nuodeng ham in Yunnan, etc.

　　In China, where the food culture is extensive and profound, many rice noodles are as well-known as snail noodles. In addition to snail flour, there are Guilin rice flour and Nanning old friend flour in Guangxi; Nanchang mixed rice noodles in Jiangxi, cross bridge rice noodles in Yunnan, Changsha rice noodles and Changde rice noodles in Hunan, mutton rice noodles in Guizhou and Mianyang rice noodles in Sichuan also have different tastes.

　　However, among them, snail powder is the most "out of the circle", and there are many retail brands, which are sold to the north and south of the river. There are not only local traditional brands such as haohuan snail, hee snail club and snail overlord, but also new players such as Li Ziqi, three squirrels, KFC and Sinopec.

　　The reason behind it can be summed up in two words - gene, product gene and city gene.

　　Liuzhou entrepreneur Wu fan told yiou equalocean that at the beginning of production, snail powder uses dry rice flour, which is easier to industrialize than other wet rice flour. This is a prerequisite for snail powder to be sold in all directions.

　　Luo Anfeng, founder of hee Lo club and chairman of Guangxi hugui Food Group Co., Ltd., constantly stressed to yiou equalocean that "products have roots". Liuzhou is a very inclusive city. There are a large number of people migrating from Hunan, Guizhou and Guangdong. The taste of snail powder products integrates the flavor characteristics of these places. In addition to "smell", it also includes fresh, fragrant, sour, spicy and cool.

　　Snail powder soup is famous for its freshness, and it is also a habit in Guangdong to cook soup; The sour and spicy flavor is the favorite of Guizhou people. A variety of sour soups, such as fish in sour soup, noodles in sour soup, fat cattle in sour soup, pig feet in sour soup and ducks in sour soup, constitute the characteristics of Guizhou cuisine; Snail powder also has the spicy characteristics of Hunan. Its soul auxiliary material is sour bamboo shoots. The odor principle is similar to that of Changsha stinky tofu, which belongs to natural fermentation.

　　These characteristics also make the snail powder more flavor. Yao Bingyang, general manager of snail overlord, believes that this is just in line with the development trend of public taste. Because heavy taste is a very common phenomenon in China, people are used to hot pot, spicy hot and other food with heavy taste, and have a high acceptance of the taste of snail powder.

　　The product gene provides the basis for the promotion of Liuzhou snail powder, and Liuzhou, a city with its own industrial gene, promoted the industrialized and standardized production of snail powder and gave birth to the prepackaged snail powder industry.

　　Liuzhou has a hundred years of industrial history. It is the largest industrial city in Guangxi. It takes automobile, machinery and steel as the leading industries, and the total industrial output value accounts for a quarter of the whole autonomous region. Well known industrial enterprises Liugang, Liugong, Wuling, GM, zinc products, Dongfeng, ovim machinery, well-known brands golden throat Houbao, LMZ, etc. are all located in Liuzhou.

　　Liuzhou people are also good at producing and developing products with industrial thinking. Luo Anfeng introduced that there are eight small bags in Liuzhou snail powder, which classifies various ingredients, that is, industrial methods are used to lock the local flavor characteristics, so that consumers thousands of miles away can eat a bowl of authentic and delicious snail powder.

　　Liuzhou government has always stressed the need to develop the snail powder industry with industrialized thinking. Since the birth of the first prepackaging enterprise in 2014, snail powder has gradually developed from street snacks to large-scale industrialized food.

　　"Taste snail fragrance all over the world and read Liuzhou City". Liuzhou, a unique city, gave birth to the net red gourmet snail powder.

　　External environment helps "break the circle"

　　If gene is the internal condition for the export of Liuzhou snail powder in all directions, the support of Liuzhou local government and the rise of the Internet are the important external conditions for the snail powder to "break the circle".

　　The industrial structure of Liuzhou, an old industrial city, is too single, so the local government has a strong will to make snail powder into a Liuzhou business card and let snail powder drive the development of the whole city. To this end, the local government even established a special snail powder working group to promote the brand, standardization, scale and industrialization of Liuzhou snail powder.

　　As early as the beginning of the development of prepackaged snail powder industry, the municipal government and the Municipal Supervision Bureau have formulated corresponding standards and schemes, such as local food safety standard Liuzhou snail powder, detailed rules for the examination of Liuzhou snail powder production license, implementation scheme for promoting the development of Liuzhou snail powder industry, etc.

　　According to incomplete statistics, from 2016 to 2021, Liuzhou issued 16 policies related to supporting and encouraging snail powder industry, including supporting land purchase, building factories, introducing logistics express, optimizing supporting facilities of e-commerce industry, etc.

　　Among them, the local standard of Liuzhou snail powder published by Liuzhou Municipal Government in 2016 has made detailed provisions on the product classification, technical requirements of raw and auxiliary materials, enterprise production and processing process requirements, inspection methods and packaging marks of snail powder. If the prepackaged snail powder produced by the enterprise does not meet the standard, it cannot take "Liuzhou snail powder" as the product name.

　　Therefore, in order to meet the standards, many foreign entrants, such as Li Ziqi, liangpin shop, three squirrels, baicaowei, KFC, etc., have chosen Liuzhou local OEM.

　　"KFC's supply chain, R & D and production are first-class. Why does it choose Liuzhou to produce?" in Luo Anfeng's view, the authentic Liuzhou snail powder must be inseparable from the origin, otherwise consumers will not be willing to pay. "There are also enterprises producing snail powder in Henan, Shandong and Guangdong. In fact, the output is not large, and the overall output will not exceed 20%."

　　According to Tianyan survey data, there are more than 20000 snail powder related enterprises in China whose names or business scope include "snail powder" and whose status is in business, surviving, moving in and moving out. In terms of regional distribution, Guangxi has the largest number of snail powder related enterprises, more than 5200; Guangdong ranks second with more than 5100 related enterprises, and there are more than 1000 related enterprises in Henan and Hunan respectively.

　　The government also attaches great importance to the trademark and property protection of "Liuzhou snail powder". On June 10, 2021, Liuzhou City, Guangxi held a press conference saying that the trademark "Liuzhou snail powder" has been protected in 18 countries and regions.

　　Liuzhou snail powder is only the tip of the iceberg of the whole snail powder industry cluster. It also includes the whole industrial chain of rice flour production, snail breeding, production and packaging of ingredients such as fermented bamboo shoots, logistics and transportation. The growers of relevant crops also benefited, creating more than 300000 jobs.

　　In addition to policy support, the topic of snail powder continued to ferment on the Internet. It spread sales channels through e-commerce platforms, which also enabled snail powder to catch the express train of the Internet.

　　"Snail powder caught up with the popularity of the Internet and had a rapid growth in 2015 and 2016," Luo Anfeng said. During the epidemic in 2020, the topic # why did snail powder not ship # even appeared on the microblog hot search, which attracted more than one million people's attention.

　　Wu fan revealed that in order to help local enterprises open sales channels, Liuzhou government vigorously supports snail powder live broadcasting. Most of the parks where his company is located have been transformed into snail powder live broadcasting bases.

　　Public data show that most consumers are used to buying snail powder online. In 2020, 51.5% of consumers purchased snail powder through online shopping malls and 22.03% purchased snail powder through live e-commerce.

　　Snail powder can spread its sales channels through the network. An important reason is that the improvement of production technology has extended the shelf life of snail powder. At first, the shelf life of snail powder was only 15 days, and now most of them are more than half a year. "If the shelf life is long and the loss rate is down, the price can be reduced," Wu fan explained.

　　Moreover, in recent years, people have become more and more dependent on takeout food. Prefabricated dishes are very popular among young people. Snail powder with the attribute of prefabricated dishes has taken advantage of a wave of east wind.

　　The favorable conditions of time, place and people have helped the development of prepackaged Liuzhou snail powder from an annual sales revenue of 500 million yuan in 2015 to 11 billion yuan in 2020, and the output value of raw material related industries has far exceeded 10 billion yuan, exceeding the "double 10 billion" goal put forward at the Liuzhou snail powder strategy press conference in March 2019, That is, the annual output value of prepackaged Liuzhou snail powder and auxiliary industries such as raw materials exceed 10 billion yuan.

　　In 2021, the local government also put forward higher requirements: by 2025, strive to realize the sales revenue of the whole industrial chain of advantageous characteristic rice noodles in Guangxi exceeding 100 billion yuan. Among them, the sales revenue of prepackaged characteristic rice flour exceeded 30 billion yuan, driving the sales revenue of supporting and derivative industries exceeded 30 billion yuan, and the sales revenue of physical stores exceeded 40 billion yuan.

　　Why is it cold in the capital market?

　　Snail powder has a high voice in the consumer market, but "no one cares" in the capital market.

　　In 2021, a number of rice flour and noodle related enterprises obtained financing. Tianyancha data show that since this year, there have been 12 investment and financing events of pasta such as noodles, small noodles and fishing noodles. In July alone, Hefu fished for noodles, met Xiaomian and Wuye mixed noodles disclosed financing. Hunan rice noodle brand Baman rice noodle and Guizhou rice noodle brand guifenghuang also announced financing one after another; In the investment list, well-known institutions such as Hillhouse venture capital, Sequoia Capital, Tencent investment and Longhu capital are listed.

　　The number of financing disclosed by snail powder related enterprises is zero. Although many large companies and well-known IP companies have entered the game, such as KFC, Zhou Heiya, three squirrels, Li Ziqi, etc., they all rely on their own brand influence and channel advantages for promotion. Some traditional Liuzhou snail powder enterprises, such as snail overlord, haohuan snail and hee snail club, rarely get the attention of investment and financing institutions.

　　Capital likes to eat noodles "wordy powder". Why is snail powder not fragrant?

　　When asked about the investment and financing of snail powder enterprises, Wu Fan said bluntly "talking about my sadness". He told yiou equalocean that Guangxi is a desert of investment and financing. There are more than 300 investment institutions, but most of them have no business; Investment institutions located in other places, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, are relatively few. Most of the contacts are stuck in the investment adjustment link, and regional problems increase the difficulty of financing.

　　Yang Ge believes that region is not a factor affecting financing, but that the track of snail powder is "too vertical". "It's not that snail powder is not delicious, nor that consumers don't like it, but it's impossible for everyone in China to eat it every day."

　　Yang Ge told yiou equalocean that when investors judge whether an enterprise is worth investing, the first is the ceiling of the industry track and the size of the whole flour bar Market; Secondly, look at the ceiling of the vertical industry and the market size of its similar brands; Let's look at the market share of enterprises.

　　For example, the national catering industry is a big track, with a market value of several trillion; The largest offline catering brand in the catering industry may be hundreds of billions, ordinary tens of billions; Flour brands in the catering industry may be only tens of billions or even less; To the specific snail powder brand, the valuation has to shrink downward.

　　When looking for projects, investment institutions usually pay more attention to the universality of the project, that is, whether they can carry out large-scale market promotion. When capital pays attention to the niche market, it is equivalent to a bet on whether the culture and preferences of a small group of people can become a mass track with a scale of 100 billion. But changing consumer behavior and educating the market is a very difficult thing.

　　Yang Ge said that snail powder belongs to the niche market, so don't expect too much capital to invest billions in snail powder. "Don't pay too much attention to the vertical track, there will be problems," he stressed.

　　"When snail powder is not popular, there is also capital to consider this track. But snail powder is a situation of ice and fire. I love what I like to eat, and I can't smell what I don't like to eat. There are some shortcomings," Zhu danpeng, a Chinese food industry analyst, told yiou equalocean.

　　In Luo Anfeng's view, the investment and financing of snail powder needs to be analyzed from two aspects: capital and enterprises.

　　Capital likes to find the track and the head after finding the track. Liuzhou snail powder has formed a number of famous brands, such as Xi snail club, snail overlord, haohuan snail, etc., but these head brands and the midstream players behind have not opened their positions. "No one in the top enterprises dare say that they are the first. In fact, the gap is not big."

　　Snail powder itself is not a scientific and technological product that capital likes. It is seriously homogenized and the moat is not high. Unlike Weilong spicy strip, it has some product ideas, not to mention some business model innovations like tea, Naixue tea and Yuanqi forest, so it can be favored by capital.

　　Most importantly, snail powder enterprises are not in a hurry to get capital in. "We dare not say that we are making a lot of money, but every enterprise