Zhongxin Finance, March 27 (Zuo Yukun) "As soon as the hot pot is fired, happiness belongs to me." Speaking of everyone getting together to have a lively meal, hot pot full of real fireworks is a popular option.
There are many people who love hot pot; but there are more hot pot restaurants worried about business.
Haidilao's first loss in listing: revenue increased by 40% and still lost nearly 4.2 billion
On the evening of the 23rd, Haidilao handed over its 2021 report card: revenue of 41.11 billion yuan, an increase of 43.7% over 2020; loss of 4.16 billion yuan, which is lower than the highest estimated loss in the previous profit warning announcement issued by Haidilao The upper limit of 4.5 billion yuan.
Haidilao's rapid expansion strategy over the past two years has planted the seeds of losses.
Its 2021 store closure plans to dispose of long-term assets for one-off losses, impairment losses, and the management's prudent approach to accrued impairment losses of more than 3.65 billion yuan.
As of the end of 2021, 260 Haidilao restaurants have permanently closed under its "Woodpecker Plan", and 32 restaurants are temporarily closed for rest.
Excluding almost 90% of the losses caused by closing the store, Zhou Zhaocheng, executive director and chief strategy officer of Haidilao, mentioned both internal and external reasons to Zhongxin Finance for the operational difficulties in 2021.
"The external reasons are the repeated impact of the epidemic on consumers' consumption habits and motivation, as well as operating cost pressures such as rising raw materials. There are also some problems in internal operation management, such as the lack of maturity in some business districts and the insufficient number of excellent store managers. The rapid expansion of stores has led to customer diversion, etc."
Xiabuxiabu's first loss in ten years: opening a store while closing a store
It is also rooted in Hong Kong stocks, and it is also a hot pot star stock. Xiabuxiabu is also suffering from the same "suffering".
On March 11, Xiabuxiabu issued a profit warning for 2021: In 2021, the group expects revenue of 6.15 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 13%; but the net loss is about 275 million yuan to 295 million yuan.
Compared with the net profit of about 11.49 million yuan in 2020, it turned from profit to loss.
In 1998, Xiabuxiabu, labelled "Taiwan Hotpot", entered the blank market of "one person, one pot", soothing the lonely stomachs and souls of many young people who "eat for one person".
The loss of net profit this time is also the first time Xiabuxiabu has suffered in ten years.
Coincidentally, the main reason for Xiabuxiabu's loss last year was the large-scale closure of stores and the decline in restaurant operating performance.
In August 2021, "Xiabuxiabu decided to close 200 stores" appeared on the hot search.
At that time, He Guangqi, the founder of Xiabuxiabu, said that some stores had serious location errors, which led to losses, so they decided to close 200 loss-making stores.
But this did not extinguish the fire of Xiabuxiabu's attack.
The front foot just closed more than 200, and the back foot announced in the profit warning: in 2022, the new store location will adopt a more cautious attitude, and continue to open about 156 stores.
The so-called "prudent attitude" corresponds to Xiabuxiabu's expansion strategy process of "expanding from the east to the south".
At present, most of Xiabuxiabu stores are concentrated in the northern region. In its 2020 annual report, it stated that it will focus on developing the East China and South China markets in the next three years.
Lao Wang’s second submission: I want to say that listing is not easy
Different from Sichuan-style hotpot with spicy red soup, Laowang, a Cantonese-style hotpot brand that mainly promotes pepper, pork belly, chicken and white soup, takes the road of health preservation of "soaked wolfberry in hot pot soup".
Cantonese-style hotpot is also known as "beating the side stove", which means eating while rinsing around a small charcoal-fired stove.
Its signature feature is to serve a bowl of hot soup from the pot before meals to form an appetizer, forming a differentiation.
This second-largest hotpot subdivision track after Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot is about to give birth to the "first share of Cantonese-style hotpot".
On March 14, Laowang submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
But this is actually Laowang's "second submission": because its prospectus submitted in September last year has not been updated for 6 months, its listing application on March 1 this year was invalid.
But more than ten days later, Laowang submitted an application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange again to "activate" it again.
The reason for this strange attitude may also be seen in Laowang’s recently updated prospectus: in 2021, Laowang’s annual revenue will be 1.3 billion yuan, but its profit will drop from 66.04 million yuan in 2020 to 13.13 million yuan .
Although there are two seniors in Hong Kong stock market who are in the forefront of store expansion, for Laowang, who currently has only 150 stores in total, expansion seems to be a must-have move.
According to the prospectus of Laowang, it plans to open 44, 60 and 80 restaurants in 2022, 2023 and 2024 respectively, which means that the number of its stores will more than double in the next three years.
However, "the rapid and continuous expansion plan may lead to increased risks and uncertainties." Lao Wang also admitted frankly in the business risk.
Is hot pot still a good business?
It seems that the top hot pot brands are not having an easy time.
But in fact, the development of more than 400,000 hot pot and related enterprises in China is just like the boiling in the pot, and the ups and downs are naturally common.
Nowadays, the hot pot category has entered a period of weakness. In addition to being closely related to the blind expansion of many companies, it is also difficult to withstand the impact of the epidemic.
Under the epidemic, the living habit of reducing gatherings has made "gathering together and eating a pot" a choice that needs to be considered.
As a result, fast-food snack brands that are holding low and playing low have shown stronger profitability.
For example, Yang Guofu Mala Tang, which is ready to go public, will make a net profit of 202 million yuan in the first three quarters of 2021 by relying on more than 5,000 franchised small stores; the two brands under the Village Group have more than 1,000 stores combined, and the net profit in the first three quarters of 2021 will be 162 million yuan.
However, the market size of 100 billion yuan is still a strong support for the hot pot market.
In the early years, when Chinese food companies entered the capital market, the hotpot that was easier to standardize and replicated was the one who carried the flag.
From Little Sheep, which went public in Hong Kong in the early years, to Xiabuxiabu and Haidilao, which created a market value of 10 billion yuan, and Laowang and Qitianxin, who are eager to hit the "fourth stock", and Banu who have won financing at the level of 100 million yuan. , Brother Zhou, Sister Pei, there is still no shortage of capital in the hot pot market.
"Hotpot companies still need to focus on services, scenes, ingredients, and the creation of large items, and gain the traffic of young consumers through cross-border marketing." Zhu Danpeng, a researcher in the food industry, predicts that Haidilao, Xiabu Top hotpot brands such as Xiabu may still lose money in 2022, but the overall loss should gradually narrow.
Zhou Zhaocheng said that once the epidemic eases, the overall economic development and new consumer demand will vigorously promote the recovery and upgrade of consumption in the catering industry.
"Although there are still uncertainties, we still have very high expectations and confidence in the recovery and revenue growth of the catering industry this year."
Are you still willing to walk into a hot pot restaurant and have a joy of "when soup, meat and meat meet, you will win but there are countless people in the world"?
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