Zhu Cui Food Co., Ltd. General Manager Zhang Cheng: To integrate snack and fast food categories, we must first address four "no increases"

Ask AI · How Zhang Cheng’s “No Increase” principle helps snacks and fast food cut costs and improve efficiency?

On March 24, the 2026 China Catering Industry Festival and the 35th HCC Global Catering Industry Expo, jointly hosted by the World Chinese Cuisine Federation and Hongcan.com, kicked off at the Hangzhou Convention and Exhibition Center. At the “2026 China Snacks and Fast Food Development Forum,” Zhang Cheng, general manager of Shicui Food Co., Ltd., shared his thoughts on category integration.

△ Zhang Cheng, general manager of Shicui Food Co., Ltd.

On category integration, Zhang Cheng said that taking a “two-extremes” approach is wrong. For example, in the past, Beijing Jin Qian Pao high-end buffet restaurants had a very high average ticket price and offered everything—aiming for a broad category merger—but ultimately failed. In contrast, the “McKen model”—McDonald’s and KFC’s product lines are divided into rotating menus and fixed menus—completes category integration in between. It doesn’t pursue extreme integration, nor does it cling to a single product; instead, it merges and develops efficiently.

Zhang Cheng also shared the core logic of the Shicui team for category integration: what to increase and what not to increase. He clearly laid out four principles of “No Increase”: not adding store area, not adding staff, not adding equipment, and not adding costs. Zhang Cheng noted, “For all terminal stores to integrate categories, they must first solve the ‘No Increase’ problem, and then solve the ‘Increase’ problem. On that basis, we can further consider how categories should be brought in, how personnel should be arranged, and how the stores should be operated.”

Author: Hongcan Editorial Department