Chinanews Client Beijing, August 3 (Reporter Zuo Yuqing) Recently, Haidilao released a performance forecast for the first half of the year. It is estimated that the operating income in the first half of the year will be 20 billion yuan, and the net profit will be about 80 million to 100 million yuan.

　　Although compared with last year's 9.8 billion yuan, Haidilao’s operating income increased by about 104% year-on-year, and it turned from loss to profit, but Haidilao admitted in the announcement that its performance did not meet the company’s management expectations.

　　Affected by this, on July 26, Haidilao’s share price plummeted at the opening and fell more than 20% during the session. Since then, its share price has fallen all the way. As of the close of August 2, Haidilao’s share price closed at 29.55 Hong Kong dollars.

Haidilao released its first half performance forecast on July 25.

The screenshot is from the website of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

　　As a giant in the hot pot industry, Haidilao is getting more and more difficult to do business?

Store expansion that increases revenue but not profit

　　In the announcement, Haidilao explained the reasons why its performance did not meet expectations: In addition to overseas stores being continuously affected by the epidemic, Haidilao opened more stores in the second half of 2020 and the first half of 2021, and related expenses increased; newly opened stores reached The time to break even for the first time and realize the return on cash investment is also longer than in previous periods.

　　Haidilao’s 2020 financial report shows that Haidilao’s store layout has further expanded. In 2020, 544 new stores will be opened. The total number of global stores has increased from 768 on December 31, 2019 to 1,298 on December 31, 2020. The total number of employees is More than 130,000 people.

Screenshot from Zhongxin Video.

　　While the global epidemic has generally affected the catering industry, although Haidilao’s counter-trend expansion has achieved revenue growth, its internal management and operational problems have also become more prominent in newly opened stores.

　　Zhang Yong, the founder of Haidilao, also admitted at the shareholder meeting that he had misjudged the trend.

"My judgment on the trend was wrong. In June last year, I made a further plan to expand the store, and now it is indeed blindly self-confident."

　　Zhang Xing, a researcher at China Research and Puhua, believes that Haidilao will open too many new stores in 2020, and the excessively rapid expansion speed will have a greater demand for managers. However, the new store manager’s insufficient management experience makes it difficult for the store to achieve profitability and the store’s service level. The decline in consumer experience has led to a lower than expected consumer experience.

　　"Rapid expansion is destined to be difficult to manage." Zhang Xing said.

Homogeneous dishes that are hard to get favored by customers

　　However, in addition to its own expansion, Haidilao is also facing doubts from consumers.

　　"What is your impression of Haidilao now?"

　　In June of this year, "Haidilao is not delicious" once rushed into the hot search topic on Weibo.

Many netizens said that today's Haidilao has "average taste" and "prices are getting more and more expensive."

Netizens commented on "Zhang Yong responded that Haidilao was not delicious".

Screenshot from Weibo.

　　In response, Zhang Yong, the founder of Haidilao, responded, “There is a difference between the catering industry and the rocket going to the sky. There is a standard for the rocket going to the sky, but there is no standard for catering. It’s just that some companies emphasize the promotion of taste, and we don’t take it seriously."

　　As one of the most popular hot pot brands, Haidilao once stood out among many competitors with its humanized service and became the leader in the hot pot industry.

　　"The service is still as good, but the hot pot is not as delicious as expected." Xiao Zhou, who had his birthday in Haidilao, told Chinanews.com a few days ago.

　　"Mao tripe, prawns, beef and mutton, these foods are no different from other hot pot restaurants." She said that although she has also seen some "net celebrity eating methods" on the Internet, such as "stuffed tofu" and "egg shrimp oil" "Gluten", but the actual operation is very troublesome. If it is not a finished dish, I don't want to make it myself.

　　Behind customers' complaints about the "same taste" is the embarrassment of the old dishes and the lack of strength of the new dishes in the supply chain.

　　"Several dishes that I once liked are all off the shelves. Some of the new products that have been launched either have not been in the store or are temporarily out of stock." A consumer told China News. It's still those things, it's a bit disappointing to order food," she said.

Screenshot from Zhongxin Video.

Why is the hot pot business more and more difficult to do?

　　Haidilao, whose stock price has fallen due to its performance, has no shortage of "difficult brothers."

　　On July 28, the chain hot pot group Xiabuxiabu held an extraordinary general meeting, and the unanimous resolution approved the proposal to remove Zhao Yi, the former chief executive officer and executive director of the group, as an executive director, and it will take effect immediately.

　　Behind this "gong change" is also the declining performance in the financial report: in 2020, Xiabuxiabu's revenue was 5.455 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 9.5%; adjusted net profit was 131 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 67.1%.

　　Zhang Xing believes that the characteristics of easy standardization of hot pot, high degree of freedom, and simple operation process make it suitable for the franchise chain model.

However, it is precisely because of the low barriers to entry and easy copying of hot pot, the customer's loyalty is not high.

It is not easy to keep customers.

　　"At present, the hot pot industry is becoming saturated. If we want to break through the bottleneck, we should also subdivide consumer groups, create a diversified product system suitable for consumers of different ages, regions and tastes, open up new consumption scenarios, and create a diversified brand. Change." Zhang Xing said. (Finish)