■Liao Muxing/Picture
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Shop openings are slowing down, store closings are accelerating
In this cold winter, hot pot is not the only player in the catering industry who is having a hard time. After the half-year results of Haidilao and Xiabuxiabu were revealed to have fallen into losses, many Internet celebrity hotpots have also closed their stores to survive. According to data from the red restaurant website , "Xianhezhuang Braised Hot Pot" now has only half of its peak stores; Huo Fengxiang has only opened more than 20 new stores this year, less than a fraction of last year; "Daidai Lane Hot Pot", which once had a record of 3,000 tables per day, currently has less than 30 operating stores. Other hot pot brands have also slowed down their expansion. For example, Tan Yaxue Lao Hot Pot only opened more than 50 new stores from January to October this year. Compared with the previous two years, the number of newly opened stores has shrunk significantly... The person in charge of
Red Meal Network said that after the baptism of the epidemic, consumer demand has returned to rigid needs and rationality, and hot pot brands have gradually returned to truly creating value for customers (allowing customers to have a good meal comfortably) and returning to the business approach that follows the essence of catering.
■New Express Reporter Fang Yi
Current situation
It’s not easy even under the epidemic
Haidilao lost 267 million yuan in the first half of the year
Let’s first look at the semi-annual report results of the two hot pot giants. This is also an important reason for the industry’s recent attention to the development of hot pot. The 2022 interim financial report of Haidilao International Holdings Co., Ltd. (06862.HK) (hereinafter referred to as "Haidilao") shows that in the first half of 2022, Haidilao's total operating income was 16.764 billion yuan. Operating income in the same period last year was 20.094 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 16.6% this year, mainly affected by the new coronavirus epidemic; net loss was 267 million yuan, and net profit in the same period in 2021 was 96.5 million yuan.
Regarding Haidilao's performance in the first half of 2022, Haidilao CEO Yang Lijuan said that in the first half of 2022, the company's operations were severely challenged by the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic. However, relying on the common belief that "hands change destiny", the company has achieved outstanding results in many aspects such as personnel epidemic prevention and safety, business innovation and refined management, which has significantly improved many of the company's operating data, and the emotional connection between the brand and consumers continues to strengthen. Shen Meng, chief strategist of
Guangke Consulting, pointed out that although Haidilao's performance in the first half of the year seems to be a loss, the trend has reversed. The "Woodpecker Plan" started last year has gradually shown the effect of rectification, and profits after deductions have also been corrected. The epidemic situation and market environment in the first half of the year had a serious impact on the catering industry, and Haidilao can be said to have responded early, taking measures including shrinking stores with poor profits and launching takeout businesses to actively adapt to the new situation and new demands. Judging from the performance trends in the first two quarters, Haidilao has already shown the potential to rebound.
In 2021, 260 Haidilao stores will be permanently closed under the "Woodpecker Plan", and 32 restaurants will be temporarily closed for renovation. As of the first half of 2022, Haidilao has opened 18 new restaurants and closed 26 restaurants due to the "Woodpecker Project". As of June 30, 2022, Haidilao has a total of 1,435 stores worldwide. As of June 30, 2021, the number of Haidilao stores was 1,597. From July 2021 to June 2022, 129 new stores were opened and 291 stores were closed, a net decrease of 162 stores.
On the other side, the performance of Xiabu Xiabu, the “number one hot pot stock”, is also not ideal. Let’s look at revenue first. In the first half of the year, Xiabu Group’s revenue was 2.156 billion yuan, and fell 29.2% compared to in the same period last year. Among them, Xiabuxiabu restaurant revenue dropped significantly by 43.1% from 1.867 billion yuan in the same period last year to 1.050 billion yuan this year. This revenue level was not even as high as the 1.121 billion yuan in the same period in 2015. The revenue of Duodu Restaurant dropped 9.1% to 1.024 billion yuan from 1.126 billion yuan in the same period last year.
Some analysts pointed out that the sharp decline in Xiabu Group’s revenue this year is closely related to its vigorous efforts to close stores to survive. Data shows that Xiabu Group closed a total of 37 Xiabu Xiabu restaurants in the first half of this year. If the more than 200 Xiabu Group stores closed in the second half of 2021 are added, the Xiabu Group will close nearly 240 stores in one year. The reduction of stores directly affects Xiabuxiabu's overall revenue and has a serious drag on its performance.
Tianyancha data shows that there are 420,000 "hot pot" related companies in my country, and more than 60% of them were established in the past five years. So far in 2022, more than 33,000 newly registered companies have been registered.
According to a research report by Guotai Junan , the hot pot market has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 9.5% in the past five years, and the total revenue of the hot pot market will reach 850.1 billion yuan in 2025. According to a survey by
, hot pot restaurants are having a hard time this year. Many hot pot brands have taken shrinking measures. On the one hand, they have accelerated the closure of unprofitable stores, and on the other hand, they have slowed down the opening of new stores.
For example, Chongqing Hotpot Senior Brother Zhou received 100 million yuan in Series A financing from Black Ant Capital in August last year. Last year, he entered first-tier cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen with high profile, and has dominated Dianping's hot list for a long time. However, after entering 2022, only one new store was added in Shanghai in January, and no new stores have been opened so far. There are currently more than 20 stores.
In addition, the once highly sought-after celebrity hotpot is also showing signs of sluggish development. For example, Xianhezhuang Braised Hotpot's stores are only half of their peak value; after celebrity Zheng Kai withdrew from Huofengxiang's shareholders, Huofengxiang's development also slowed down a lot. And since this year, almost no celebrities have entered the hot pot again.
is not only that. Prior to this, Qixintian and Laowang, which had submitted prospectuses one after another, and prospectus for listing in Hong Kong, had made no new progress.
visited
In the past, people often queued up for meals.
Nowadays, it is rare to see an attendance rate of 80%.
What is the future of hot pot?
In the eyes of the industry, hot pot has a high degree of standardization, is highly replicable, and has a simple processing process. With the support of de-cooking, low supply chain difficulty, a wide audience, and strong addiction, hot pot has become the first catering industry to solve the standardization pain points of the catering industry, and has become an undoubted good business.
reporters have recently visited the commercial district near their residence for several days in a row. Just next to the Tianhe large community Junjing Garden , there are more than 20 hot pot restaurants of different brands. The largest number is Chaoshan beef hot pot, followed by Sichuan and Chongqing hot pot. There are also hot pot categories such as pork belly chicken and coconut chicken that have been deeply involved in the segmented fields for more than ten years. The competition is very fierce.
reporters observed many times during lunch and dinner. Although the weather is cold, which is a good season for eating hot pot, almost no restaurant has an occupancy rate of 80%. The owner of a certain beef hot pot restaurant told reporters that before the epidemic, the restaurant had to queue for more than 30 minutes for dinner. Now it is rarely full. In addition, there have been more and more beef hot pot restaurants in the past few years. Without chain scale and strong supply chain, it will be difficult to survive, let alone profit.
Way out
Wang Xinxin, who runs Sichuan-style hot pot with his friends, believes that -
"The final competition will come back to ingredients and taste."
Hot pot has always been the most popular category of Chinese food, especially among young consumers, based on its fresh and diverse ingredients and strong social attributes. According to the "China Catering Development Report 2022", the hot pot market continued to grow from 2016 to 2019, but declined due to the epidemic in 2020. The size of my country's hot pot market decreased to 526.8 billion yuan in 2020, and rebounded to 563 billion yuan in 2021.
Zhu Danpeng, a researcher in the Chinese food industry, believes that as the new generation consumes bonus , China's hot pot industry will continue to be crowded in the future, and the entire track will definitely become more and more crowded. "But the hot pot industry will iterate faster and faster. At the same time, from the perspective of the epidemic, the hot pot industry is also a key area for control, so it will still be affected to a certain extent. At the same time, the requirements for cross-border marketing are also higher."
With the rise of the new generation, young consumer groups have higher requirements for the creativity and characteristics of hot pot, which has given rise to a large number of Internet celebrity hot pots. In addition to Haidilao, Sichuan-style hot pot brands such as Banu, Nan Hot Pot , Xiaolongkan, Dalongyi and other Sichuan and Chongqing hot pot brands have suddenly emerged. Cantonese hot pot, seafood hot pot, coconut chicken hot pot, shrimp hot pot , etc. have gradually become the favorites of consumers.
“The threshold for hot pot is relatively low. Service is only one of the factors that attract consumers. The final competition will come back to ingredients and taste."Wang Xinxin runs a Sichuan-style hot pot restaurant with his friends. In his opinion, service, creativity, and scene are just a plus point for catering. They cannot give consumers a continuous sense of freshness, but a good taste can have a high return rate.
红The person in charge of the restaurant network also believes that due to the large market size and the number of gold diggers, the hot pot industry has always been relatively fierce. However, after the baptism of the epidemic, consumer demand has returned to rigid needs and rationality, and hot pot brands have gradually returned to truly creating value for customers (allowing customers to do so). Eat a good meal comfortably) and return to the business approach that follows the essence of catering. A survey data from
also supports Wang Xinxin’s point of view. The data shows that Sichuan and Chongqing hot pot is the most popular hot pot category among consumers (58.7%), and Mao tripe (54.9%) and shrimp slipper (52.2%) are the most popular hot pot items among consumers. When consumers choose a hot pot restaurant, their primary concerns are taste (74.7%) and hygiene (65.3%).
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