HAIDILAO, with declining turnover rates, begins to build a stage for its "side businesses"

Amidst the white-hot competition in the catering market, even industry benchmark HAIDILAO is undergoing profound structural adjustments.

On March 24, HAIDILAO released its full-year 2025 financial report: The full year achieved revenue of 43.225 billion yuan, maintaining a stable growth of 1.1%.

However, the main brand's struggle in the existing market is becoming increasingly arduous.

In 2025, although the total number of stores increased slightly by 15 to 1,383, the "system sales" of HAIDILAO restaurants fell by 3.7% against the trend.

During the period, the turnover rate of HAIDILAO's self-operated restaurants declined from 4.1 times/day in the previous year to 3.9 times/day, with per capita consumption increasing slightly by 0.2 yuan to 97.7 yuan. Same-store sales decreased by 6.7%, indicating continued pressure on single-store efficiency.

To stabilize customer flow and enhance competitiveness, HAIDILAO continues to promote the "Different HAIDILAO" strategy, improving attractiveness through store differentiation and scenario innovation.

The company has created multiple models around different consumption needs, such as fresh-cut stores, late-night snack stores, family-friendly stores, and pet-friendly stores. By the end of 2025, over 200 characteristic themed stores had been renovated, with fresh-cut stores and late-night snack stores already established in key cities.

However, with single-store performance under pressure and increased investment in store renovation, profitability has seen a phased decline. In 2025, HAIDILAO's core operating profit was 5.403 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13.3%.

The growth of diversified businesses has compensated for the decline in revenue from the main brand.

Among them, the takeout business achieved revenue of 2.658 billion yuan for the full year, a year-on-year increase of 111.9%; the expansion of the franchise system accelerated, with the number of stores increasing from 13 in the previous year to 79, of which 45 were converted from self-operated to franchised.

While the main brand seeks stability, HAIDILAO's diversification strategy is entering a period of "fission."

As of the end of 2025, HAIDILAO's 20 sub-brands operated a total of 207 restaurants, an increase of over 60% from the middle of the year. Driven by economies of scale, revenue from other restaurants surged by 214.6% year-on-year to 1.521 billion yuan.

Behind this round of expansion lies the further systematization of the company's incubation mechanism.

In 2025, the group officially launched the "Red Pomegranate Plan" from its internal trial phase to the market, forming two parallel expansion models: "Chef" and "Public Restaurant." The former focuses on employee entrepreneurship, stimulating innovation and vitality within the organization. The latter is planned and promoted by the headquarters, undertaking the strategic task of covering multiple categories and price ranges.

Notably, HAIDILAO downplayed descriptions of specific sub-brands in this annual report, dedicating a significant portion to elaborating on the construction of its "Intelligent Middle Platform for the Catering Ecosystem."

This middle platform is positioned as the group's strategic command and technological empowerment hub, aiming to digitally model HAIDILAO's operational experience, service standards, and product logic accumulated over more than thirty years.

The strengthening of the middle platform model essentially signifies HAIDILAO's transformation from a pure catering chain company to a platform-based catering company. Through the automatic scheduling, intelligent ordering, and full-chain supply chain support provided by the intelligent middle platform, new brands can share the group's core resources, greatly lowering the threshold for cross-sector expansion.

This strategic direction was foreshadowed in the personnel changes at the beginning of the year.

At that time, the announcement showed that after resigning as CEO, Gou Yiqun was still responsible for coordinating and promoting "intelligent and automated planning of management processes" and leading "operational model upgrades and intelligent middle platform construction."

Having the former CEO personally lead the middle platform department is enough to show the significance of this sector in HAIDILAO's future blueprint.

The effectiveness of its diversification strategy will become the core indicator for observing whether this catering giant can maintain long-term growth in the future.