July 2nd, Beijing -- Best Food in China, (www.bestfoodinchina.net ), the first English-medium website in China dedicated to local cuisine and restaurant reviews, held the first “F&B Culture and Private Equity Summit†in partnership with EzCapital (www.ezcap.cn ) in Beijing on July 2nd. Over 300 guests including veteran diplomats, investors, restaurant owners and media attended the Summit.
The Summit was held as the world economy suffers from last year's crisis. Despite these current economic woes, the F&B industry in China has witnessed consecutive 2-digit growth over the past 20 years, said Mr. Bian Jiang, the Deputy Secretary of China Cuisine Association. In 2008, the gross revenue of F&B reached an incredible 1.5 trillion RMB.
Despite the economic slowdown, Chinese consumers are still very active in dining out over the past 12 months. Private equity and venture capital investors realize that the F&B industry, followed by TMT (tele-com, media and technology) and the Internet, will be a new hot area through which the Chinese copies of McDonalds and KFCs could be discovered.
“In my 50-year diplomatic career, I have been to many countries. The way that people demonstrate their hospitality, no matter whether he‘s the prime minister or an average person, is by treating guests with the best food. Food is truly the ambassador across diversified cultures. †said Mr. Li Daoyu, Secretary General of China Public Relations Association. Li was formerly China‘s ambassador to the United States and Representative to the United Nations.
“In the past 50 years, Chinese kung fu has been the window that the Western world learned about China,†said Simon Pan, the founder of Best Food in China, “ we believe in the next 50 years, Chinese food would be the new ´cultural identity card‘ that can help the world understand more profoundly about Chinese culture.â€
Pan founded Best Food in China in 2007, aiming to promote food culture across diversified nationalities. With contributions from its high-caliber team of critics from 13 countries, Best Food in China has reviewed over 1000 premium restaurants in China. Now Best Food in China has connected to over seven city channels in China, including Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Tianjin.
“We will definitely look into F&B cases worth investingâ€, says Jingsheng Huang, Managing Partner of Bain Capital LLC. In the past few years, private equity investors pounded huge investment in Chinese restaurants. According to Ezcap (www.ezcap.cn ), the largest investment middleman service platform in China, a few typical investment cases in China recently include Starbucks‘ acquisition of Mei Da Coffee Co. at 150 million US Dollars; Actis‘ funding to Xia Pu Xia Pu, a local hot pot chain, at 50 million US Dollars; Sequoria‘s funding to countryside cooking at 20 million US Dollars.
For more information about the Summit, please visit the official site on the Summit: http://www.ezcap.cn/food2009/index.html
For more information about Best Food in China, please visit: www.bestfoodinchina.net