Out of the quandary: Steady advances in the new era - China's chain restaurants: Road to capital series report 2023

August 2023

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China's catering industry revenue in 2022 was approximately RMB4.4 trillion, a year-on-year (YoY) decline of over 6% from 2021. In the face of short-term sluggishness of the offline catering market, companies are actively responding to the situation by adopting such methods as cross-category innovation and fusion, development of pre-prepared food product lines, development of the franchising market, and cooperation with online platforms to acquire new customers, to find new growth opportunities. As people's lives return to normal in 2023, the catering industry was the first consumer sector to show signs of recovery. After a two-month adjustment period at the beginning of the year, catering income has grown strongly from March onwards, and market confidence has been restored. Despite the uncertainties ahead, catering chains that have gone through years of trials and implemented strategic adjustments will be able to capitalise on market opportunities more quickly.

From 2022 to the first quarter of 2023, a total of 2 catering enterprises completed A-share listing, 2 enterprises listed on the HKEX, 1 enterprise listed on NASDAQ, and more than 10 catering enterprises submitted listing applications.

Investment and financing activities in the primary market tend to be more tempered but remain active.

Against this background, the China Chain Store & Franchise Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) jointly tracked and researched the road to capital of China's chain restaurant enterprises for the third consecutive year from the standpoint of the capital market, to analyse the development trend of primary and secondary capital markets of the catering industry and provide references for the vast number of participants in the industry.