百勝在華業務面臨挑戰 China spending: less pizza in our time

Consumerism in China is healthy. Chinese consumers’ tastes are becoming healthier too — and more Chinese. Foreign consumer brands are declining in popularity.

中國的消費主義相當健康。中國消費者的品味也正在變得日益健康——而且日益中國化。外國消費者品牌的受歡迎程度正在下滑。

Few know this better than Yum Brands, a former fast-food favourite whose fried chicken and pizzas once lorded it over noodles and dumplings. Last week, private equity groups were in talks to buy one-fifth of its China unit, due to be spun off this year. The price, reportedly, implies a valuation of $10bn for Yum’s China unit. That is less than a third of the whole company’s market capitalisation, even though China contributes 40 per cent of total profit. This imbalance may be warranted: Yum’s China business is struggling. Growth has become dependent upon new stores, rather than higher productivity at each store.

幾乎沒人比百勝餐飲集團(Yum Brands)更明白這一點。它曾是最受歡迎的快餐企業，旗下的炸雞和披薩曾稱霸於麪條和餃子之上。上週，私人股本集團在討論收購百勝今年將要剝離的在華業務的五分之一股份。據報道，收購價碼意味着對百勝在華業務估值100億美元，不到整個公司市值的三分之一，即便中國市場對總利潤的貢獻達到40%。這種失衡或許是有原因的：百勝的在華業務正陷入掙扎。增長開始依賴於開設新店，而不是現有餐廳的生產率提高。

Results from a 2015 survey by McKinsey show that consumption of fizzy drinks and western fast food has fallen a fifth since 2012. The move is mirrored in other industries. In 2015, half of those surveyed aimed to buy the most expensive product they could afford in apparel and consumer electronics, a marked uptick from 2012. While premium foreign brands may smack their lips at this news, the trend is not unequivocally good for them. For the same price and quality, an increasing number of Chinese prefer to buy domestic rather than overseas goods.

麥肯錫(McKinsey) 2015年的一項調查結果顯示，自2012年以來，汽水和西式快餐的消費量下降了五分之一。這種趨勢也反映在其他行業。2015年，受訪者中有一半的人計劃購買自己買得起的最昂貴的服裝和消費電子產品，較2012年顯著提升。儘管外國高端品牌聽到這條消息可能垂涎，但是這種趨勢並非絕對有利於他們。對於相同價格和品質的商品，越來越多的中國人傾向於購買本土（而非海外）產品。

Luxury brands are responding by shrinking store space in China. Burberry reduced its Chinese store count by 10 last year and plans further sales space cuts this year. This may have unanticipated benefits. Scarcity in China enhances cachet. And increased enthusiasm for overseas travel means that sales often just move to tourist destinations.

奢侈品牌正通過在中國縮減店鋪空間來回應這一現實。去年，博柏利(Burberry)關閉了10家中國門店，並計劃在今年進一步削減銷售空間。這或許帶來了意外好處。在中國的稀缺加強了高端的形象。同時，中國人對海外旅遊日益高漲的熱情意味着，銷量往往只是轉移到了旅遊目的地。

Yum Brands will not be so lucky. Those Chinese turning their noses up at Yum’s ubiquitous fare back home are not likely to gobble more of it as they travel the world.

百勝餐飲不會那麼幸運。那些對百勝在國內無處不在的餐廳不屑一顧的中國消費者，在環遊世界時也不太可能對這些食物大快朵頤。