A Mixue store. Vietnamese consumers could continue to spend in F&B with a tendency of choosing products with more reasonable prices.(Photo diendandoanhnghiep.vn) Recently, Mixue, a Chinese chain of fresh icecream and tea stores focusing on the low-end market andGeneration Z, announced it had reached 1,000 stores through franchising afternearly five years of operation in Vietnam – a scale that no F&B brand hadever reached.
Despite the global economic slowdown, top-of-mind F&B brandsexpanded their chains after the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of February, Highland Coffee had around 600 stores, an increaseof 63.5% compared to March 2021.
Trung Nguyen E-Coffee nearly doubled its stores from 308 inMarch 2021 to 620 in February 2023.
Phuc Long, after receiving the capital from Masan Group, expandedrapidly to more than 900 stores, including 132 flagship stores and more than770 kiosks at WinMart/WinMart , compared to just 80 stores in March 2021.
According to a report about the F&B market by iPOS.vn, theF&B market saw a considerable recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic to reacha revenue of 610 trillion VND in 2022, up 139%.
The market was forecast to expand at 18% this year and hit 1quadrillion VND in 2026.
The report also pointed out that there were about 338,600restaurants and coffee shops in Vietnam in 2022, up 39% over 2021.
The market this year would see harsh competition among majorchains for market shares while small ones became more cautious, iPOS.vn said.
The market was also seeing the expansions of new names such as PheLa, Katinat Saigon Kafe, and Cheese Coffee.
According to a report by Viet Dragon Securities Company (VDSC),the F&B industry will be more robust from the second half of this year.
VDSC also pointed out that Vietnamese consumers could continue tospend in F&B with a tendency to choose products with more reasonableprices.
The recovery of tourism would also aid the F&B industry, VDSCsaid.
Going digital
Digital transformation was an unavoidable trend for the F&Bindustry to create a competitive advantage, which was highlighted by theCOVID-19 pandemic.
iPOS’ survey found that 82.8% of F&B companies embarked ondigital transformation. However, most remained at using sales managementsoftware.
According to Do Huu Hung, CEO of ACCESSTRADE Vietnam, digitaltransformation created an opportunity for enterprises to look back on theirdevelopment, business models and orientations. Digital transformation wouldcreate changes for the F&B industry, he said./.
VNA
