VietNamNet Bridge – The market has cooled after a long hot development period.
The owners of rotary hotpot shops now have to get by on vouchers, while trying
to sell their lines.
Trying every possible way to exist
Most of the rotary hotpot shops have scaled down their business, offered price
reductions and sold vouchers on groupon websites such as muachung, nhommua,
hotdeal or cungmua.
BKK, Cooki-Cooki, Genki and Muru prove to be the rotary hotpot brands which have
most appeared on the deals of the websites. Especially, a hotpot chain may sell
vouchers on different websites at the same time. In general, the chains launch a
new voucher sale once every several months to attract more customers.
With the discount campaigns, rotary hotpots have become more attractive in
prices. In general, a serving is now priced at VND150,000 instead of VND200,000,
an “acceptable” price level for many people.
Le Hang, an office worker from a media firm, said though she does not like
rotary hotpot like she did some years ago, she would still go to the shops as
the price is really “reasonable.”
Hang’s thoughts have been shared by many customers, especially office workers. A
shop has reportedly sold 3,000 vouchers on only one groupon website, a dream for
any food restaurant.
Not only attracting customers with vouchers, hotpot shops also offer price
discounts on the spot. Kichi-Kichi brand rarely appears on groupon websites, but
it still has been well known for impressive price discount campaigns.
Though the official quoted prices remain relatively high at VND185,000 per
serving, not including the 10 percent VAT, customers of Kitchi-Kitchi in HCM
City now have to pay VND145,000 per serving only under a promotion program
applying to the customers who come there from Monday to Friday.
As such, the price levels offered by Kitchi-Kitchi are no less attractive than
that by other supply chains. Especially, customers can enjoy the price discounts
right at the shops, while no need to buy vouchers.
F1 chain, after shutting down two shops and closing the website, has also
reduced the sale prices to attract more customers.
Hotpot lines put on sale
While some hotpot chains still can live well by slashing the sale prices or
selling vouchers, other owners have decided to “give up the games,” trying to
bargain away the hotpot lines. Some investors offer to sell their whole food
shops, while others only want to sell hotpot lines.
On vatgia website, a person named Loc has posted an ad piece: “I am seeking the
buyer for my rotary hotpot line. The product is nearly brand new, an import
one.”
On muare, a new member promised to sell its hotpot line at the “most reasonable
price.” The seller wrote that it is an Asimex’s line, which has been put into
operation for four months, nearly brand new, can serve 90 seats.
The common reason behind the decisions to sell hotpot lines is that the business
cannot bring big profits as the investors initially expected.
However, it’s very difficult to look for the buyers at this moment, when people
all prove to be very cautious when making investment decisions. Huong, who post
an ad on selling her hotpot line nine months, still cannot sell the line.
VTC