At present, Minato Hotpot has become the company's "second highest growth curve"

　　Text/Photo Yangcheng Evening News reporter Sun Qiman intern Yan Siyun

　　Xiabuxiabu, the “first hotpot chain”, announced its first annual loss since its listing.

Recently, Xiabuxiabu released a performance forecast saying that last year's revenue was 6.15 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 13%; it is expected to have a net loss of 275 million to 295 million yuan last year, and a net profit of 11.49 million yuan in 2020.

　　The report shows that the main reasons for the net loss include a one-time loss of long-term assets caused by the closure of about 230 restaurants throughout the year, as well as provision for impairment losses due to the decline in operating performance of some restaurants, totaling about 220 million yuan.

In addition, restaurants in some areas are still unable to fully operate due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic.

　　Why close the store and open the store at the same time?

　　In this notice, Xiabuxiabu said it closed about 230 stores last year.

But at the same time, the announcement also stated that in order to continue to enhance brand influence and reduce expense rates, in 2022, Xiabuxiabu will adopt a more prudent attitude in the location selection of new stores, and plans to continue to open 156 stores.

　　Why does Xiabuxiabu open while closing the store?

　　In August last year, Xiabuxiabu founder and chairman He Guangqi, who re-appointed as CEO, said that after a market visit, it was found that some Xiabuxiabu stores had serious site selection errors that led to losses, and decided to close 200 loss-making stores, including many across the country. Loss-making stores in a city.

　　Since its establishment, most of Xiabuxiabu stores have been concentrated in the northern region.

Compared with its main competitor, Haidilao, Xiabuxiabu's store distribution has a phenomenon of imbalance between the north and south markets.

　　Xiabuxiabu stated in its 2020 annual report that it will focus on developing the East China and South China markets in 2021, and that East China and South China will be the key expansion areas in the next three years.

　　He Guangqi said in an interview that Xiabu Group will launch the "East expansion and Southward expansion" expansion strategy in China, and plans to add 500 stores in the next three years, and the first-tier, new-tier and provincial capital cities will be the first main battlefield; high-end hot pot brands gather together Minato will also be deployed at a rate of 80 to 100 new companies every year.

　　However, 2021 has passed, and Xiabuxiabu's "southbound" process does not seem to have made much progress.

　　In August last year, the reporter found that there were 11 Xiabuxiabu restaurants in Guangdong, including 2 in Guangzhou, 7 in Shenzhen, 1 in Jiangmen, and 1 in Zhaoqing.

As of now, Xiabuxiabu has only 5 stores in Guangdong, including 2 in Guangzhou and 3 in Shenzhen. The stores in Jiangmen and Zhaoqing have all closed.

　　The reporter contacted Xiabuxiabu about the store adjustment and expansion plan in 2022, but the other party refused to respond.

　　The decline in word of mouth has caused a sharp drop in the turnover rate

　　At the beginning of its establishment, Xiabuxiabu quickly emerged after breaking into the blank market of "small hotpot", and it was listed in Hong Kong in 2014, becoming the "first hotpot chain".

However, since 2015, due to the intensified competition in the hot pot market, the low unit price of small hot pot customers but the high labor cost and high rent cost, the small hot pot model has encountered bottlenecks. By 2019, Xiabuxiabu's net profit margin has dropped from 10.80% to 4.80%. %.

　　Under the bottleneck, Xiabuxiabu began to seek brand transformation while expanding aggressively.

　　The popularity of the sub-brand "Minato Hotpot" gave Xiabuxiabu the confidence to switch to mid-to-high-end hotpot.

At the same time of rapid expansion, Xiabuxiabu adjusted the price of dishes, and the price per customer has risen from 46.80 yuan in 2015 to 62.30 yuan in 2020, but the turnover rate is getting lower and lower.

　　The price of Xiabuxiabu, which originally took the "people-friendly" route, is no longer "people-friendly". In the comment software, a large number of customers complained about its price increase.

　　The brand's reputation has declined, causing consumers to abandon Xiabuxiabu.

The reporter combed the financial report data of each year and found that from 2016 to 2020, the turnover rate of Xiabuxiabu restaurants was 3.4 times, 3.3 times, 2.8 times, 2.6 times, and 2.3 times, respectively.

At its peak, the turnover rate of some of its stores was as high as 7 times.

　　On November 30, 2021, He Guangqi revealed at a financial summit that Xiabuxiabu would "return to the mass consumption route".

In December of the same year, Xiabuxiabu officially announced that its nationwide stores had officially opened a new menu.

The new menu is based on set menus, supplemented by a la carte.

As far as the menus of the two stores in Guangzhou are concerned, the price of the recommended package is between 60 and 80 yuan, and the price of the same package in the AutoNavi store is 6-10 yuan higher than that of the Guangzhou Xinyicheng store.

It can be seen that although Xiabuxiabu has unified the new menu, the unit price of the menu still varies according to the store address.

　　After returning to the mass consumption route, the turnover rate of Xiabuxiabu in the first half of 2021 is still 2.3 times, which is the same as the data in 2020.

　　Is there any hope of joining together to turn the tide?

　　On the way to explore the transformation of high-end hot pot, although Xiabuxiabu Restaurant declared a failure, the overall revenue in 2020 fell by 25.9% year-on-year, but the revenue of "Chow Chu Hot Pot", which focused on the high-end route of "hot pot + tea" at the beginning of its establishment, has A year-on-year increase of 40.30%.

　　Combing through the financial reports in recent years, we can find that Minato Hotpot has occupied an important part of Xiabuxiabu's revenue in a short period of time.

In 2017, Minato Hotpot’s revenue only accounted for about 3.2% of Xiabuxiabu’s total revenue. After only two years of establishment, its revenue reached 556 million yuan, and in 2019 it reached 1.2 billion yuan.

　　In 2020, there are only 140 stores with Minato hotpot revenue of 1.687 billion yuan, contributing 31% of the total revenue; in the first half of last year, the Minato hotpot revenue reached 1.126 billion yuan, accounting for more than 36% of the total revenue.

He Guangqi once said that Minato Hotpot has become the "second highest growth curve" of Xiabu Group.

　　However, in April 2021, Zhang Zhenwei, the founder of Minato Hotpot, stepped down as CEO of Minato and independently founded the "Thank You Pot" brand to benchmark the high-end hotpot market with the model of "rinsing + roasting + drinking". Has 5 stores.

　　The new brand founded by the original CEO is just one of the many competitors of Minato and Xiabuxiabu in the current hot pot market.

According to the company's data, there were 50,600 newly registered enterprises in the first three quarters of 2020, a year-on-year increase of 4%. However, 99% of the registered capital of hotpot-related enterprises were concentrated within 1 million yuan, and the market concentration was low, and a large number of new enterprises were still influx.

At present, the hot pot market has become more and more intense. As an established enterprise, Xiabuxiabu urgently needs to find a long-term development route of its own.