Decreased table turnover rate, Zhou Zhaocheng reflects that "management did not do well," Haidilao will continue to bet on multiple brands

Ask AI · How will Zhang Yong’s return to the front line at Haidilao affect the multi-brand strategic layout?

Source: Times Finance | Author: Li Xinting

With the takeout wars and the rise of value-for-money consumption, as consumers’ expectations for dining-related spending become more conservative, China’s catering industry is facing a drastic reshuffle.

Hotpot giant Haidilao has not been able to escape this either. In 2025, Haidilao Group’s revenue continued to grow, reaching 43.225 billion yuan, but core operating profit fell 13.3% year-on-year, and net profit fell 14.0% year-on-year.

Under performance pressure, founder Zhang Yong has returned to the front line. On January 13 of this year, Gou Yiqun stepped down as Haidilao’s Executive Director and CEO, and Zhang Yong—Chairman of the Board and Executive Director—was appointed as CEO.

Meanwhile, Haidilao completed another round of executive director appointments, with four young management members joining the board. The outside world expects that under the new governance structure, Haidilao will be able to get past its short-term pains.

In the long run, when addressing issues such as cost controls and fierce market competition, Haidilao needs to ensure stable and orderly operations, achieve stronger profitability, and continue communicating with younger consumers.

Decline in table turnover rate and the Red Pomegranate Plan

“Employees and management are of course very happy about his return, and also have even more hopes and encouragement,” Zhou Zhaocheng, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and Executive Director of Haidilao, told Times Finance.

“The return of ‘Big Brother’ has, to a certain extent, boosted morale throughout Haidilao. The transmission efficiency of corporate decisions and the ability to execute are expected to improve further. This also means that Haidilao Group will be able to make targeted adjustments to the currently pressured performance with faster actions.

“‘A decline in table turnover rate,’ or ‘a downturn in customer traffic’—that result is definitely because our management hasn’t done well. I think we need to reflect. Although we have made a lot of efforts, such as adjusting the store model product supply and business structure, I still think it’s not enough.” Regarding issues such as a decline in table turnover rate, Zhou Zhaocheng said frankly in the interview.

Financial reports show that in 2025, the overall table turnover rate of Haidilao Group’s self-operated Haidilao restaurants was 3.9 times per day, a slight decline from 4.1 times per day in 2024.

“Some sub-brands’ businesses are still in the investment and ramp-up stages and haven’t reached a phase that can deliver very strong profitability yet, and that will also affect operating conditions,” Zhou Zhaocheng said regarding new brands and new businesses, adding that more time is needed to validate them.

To incubate more new catering brands, in 2024, Haidilao Group officially launched the Red Pomegranate Plan internally. Subsequently, sub-brands including the fried chicken brand “Xiao Hi Ai Zha,” the skewer brand “Flame Officer,” the spicy hot pot brand “Miao Shixiong,” and the small hotpot brand “Xiao Hi” were rolled out one after another. In 2025, Haidilao Group accelerated its multi-brand expansion, launching the baking brand “Shi㧚 Jua,” the sushi brand “Ru Xi,” and Haidilao Big-Pai Dang hotpot, as well as the pancake brand “Jianbing Bus,” among others.

Haidilao’s sushi project

As an important strategic initiative to find a second growth curve beyond the hotpot core business, by the end of 2025, the Red Pomegranate Plan had incubated 20 catering sub-brands and a total of 207 restaurants, covering sub-segments such as seafood big-pai-dang stalls, sushi, Western light meals, small hotpots, and Chinese fast food.

Zhou Zhaocheng told Times Finance that the Red Pomegranate Plan’s category layout follows three major standards: market demand and development potential, business model and growth space, and how well it matches the company’s own capabilities. “The new formats we are laying out—whether it’s big-pai-dang stalls or sushi—are not categories that appeared out of thin air in the market. Whether a sub-brand is retained afterward is also based on our judgment of the brand’s market response and its profitability.

But for now, the contribution of these new formats is limited. The financial report shows that in 2025, other restaurant operating revenue of Haidilao Group reached 1.521 billion yuan, up 214.6% year-on-year, but it accounts for only 3.5% of total revenue.

Zhang Yong returns to the front line, and Haidilao continues to bet on a multi-brand strategy

While accelerating the rollout of sub-brands into the market, in 2025 Haidilao Group also further adjusted the Red Pomegranate Plan into a dual-incubation mechanism of “Head Chefs” and “People’s Restaurants.”

Among them, “Head Chefs” is a bottom-up internal employee entrepreneurship system. It mainly encourages excellent store managers and regional managers with management experience to start businesses. These entrepreneurial projects mainly focus on regional distinctive catering formats. “People’s Restaurants,” on the other hand, is led from the top down by the group. By relying on the group’s resource integration, supply chain, and digital capabilities, it creates catering formats with extreme value-for-money.

Overall, extreme value-for-money is the main direction for the future development of Haidilao’s sub-brands.

At present, the seafood big-pai-dang stall and the sushi brand “Ru Xi” are representative value-for-money brands within the Haidilao system. In the seafood big-pai-dang stall project, products are divided into four price tiers, priced by the plate, and focus on high-end beef fresh-cut slices and high-end seafood cooked to order. For the sushi products in “Ru Xi” stores, the single-piece selling prices are concentrated in the 9.9 yuan and 15 yuan price ranges.

At present, the per-capita spending at the seafood big-pai-dang stall project is about 120 yuan, while the per-capita spending at the “Ru Xi” project is about 86 yuan, forming a complementary price matrix with Haidilao’s core brand, which has per-capita spending of 97.7 yuan.

Haidilao seafood big-pai-dang stall

According to Haidilao Group, currently the seafood big-pai-dang stall has 8 stores already open, and it continues to expand those outlets. The first store in Nanning opened in February this year, and its overall table turnover rate remains above 6 times per day. The Guangzhou store that opened in December 2025 maintains an overall table turnover rate above 5.5 times per day. Based on the group’s internal forecasts, the seafood big-pai-dang stall has the potential to reach the goal of 500 stores within the next three years.

As for the sushi brand “Ru Xi,” which opened in July 2025, its overall table turnover rate is currently maintained at above 6 times per day. Haidilao Group expects that the sushi brand has the potential to open 100 stores in the next two years.

Although a series of format innovations have put short-term pressure on performance, Haidilao Group is firmly committed to the multi-brand strategy.

“Consumers’ tastes and consumption habits have already changed a great deal. There was an old saying in the catering industry: ‘One trick is enough to eat everything,’ but now that you’re building a chain brand, there is no such possibility. A chain brand not only has to have something that’s truly outstanding every time, it also has to stay fresh all the time—only then will it have a chance to survive and be accepted by consumers,” Zhou Zhaocheng said.

And with founder Zhang Yong returning to the front line, it will become an important driving force for the Red Pomegranate Plan.

According to Zhou Zhaocheng, after Zhang Yong returns, he will mainly focus on three areas: ensuring stable and orderly operations of the hotpot core business, accelerating the construction of the intelligent middle platform, and continuously promoting the Red Pomegranate Plan.

Zhou Zhaocheng revealed that the group hopes to use the Red Pomegranate Plan to find new directions for business development, which will be a process that runs through the next 5 to 10 years—requiring long-term investment and continuous iteration and replacement of projects. “The current 20 sub-brands are definitely not the endpoint, and there will be new projects coming out one after another in the future.”