The three years of Haidilao have not been easy.。

The side effects of blind expansion were obvious, and then CEO Zhang Yong admitted to misjudging the situation.

If you want to break down the industries most affected by the epidemic, the offline restaurant industry is sure to be in the top 10 on the list。According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2022, the country's food and beverage revenue was 4394.1 billion yuan, down 6.3%; catering revenue per unit above the limit was RMB1,065 billion, down 5% YoY..9%。The overall industry is already sluggish, not to mention the Haidilao this main restaurant hot pot restaurant brand, affected by the epidemic only more。

Such a dilemma, from its share price can also be seen in general, the company since the Hong Kong stock IPO, the share price has been all the way up to 85.HK $78, and the current share price is three quarters lower than it has been.。

And the cause of this situation, in addition to the epidemic disturbance, can not be ignored, there are former CEO Zhang Yong's "error of judgment."。

In 1994, Haidilao made its fortune in Jianyang, Sichuan. At that time, although it was only a small hot pot restaurant in Sichuan's "hot pot restaurant," it was famous for its service.。Nevertheless, in the first decade of its existence, Haidilao opened only eight chain stores.。

Since then, due to the needs of the chain's development, Haidilao has entered a phase of rapid expansion and was successfully listed in Hong Kong in 2018.。Seemingly tasting the sweetness of the rapid expansion of scale, Haidilao's opening speed simply can't stop, with a total of 832 new stores opened in 2019 and 2020 alone, pushing the total number of stores to 1,298。Even for a restaurant leader, the number of stores and the speed of opening stores are definitely not low。

The time came in June 2020, just when it was widely believed that the impact of the epidemic, Haidilao will delay its opening speed, the then CEO Zhang Yong but surprisingly decided to continue to expand the size of the store, and optimistic that the epidemic will end in September of that year.。As of June 2021, Haidilao had 1,597 stores, a net increase of 662 from the end of June 2020, with an average daily growth of 1.81。

The consequence of blind expansion is that the addition of new stores not only does not bring profits to the company in terms of economies of scale, but also brings problems such as higher costs, lower turnover rates, and increased operational pressure.。Data show that in the first half of 2021, undersea fishing staff costs increased by 75% year-on-year.8%, property rental growth of 125.2%, the company's capital and debt ratio is as high as 75.4%。At the same time, average daily same-store sales in first-tier cities also declined, from 8 in the first half of 2020..170,000 down to 7 in the first half of 2021.90,000 yuan。

Faced with an increasingly bad situation, Zhang Yong also gradually realized his mistake, at the June 2021 shareholders' meeting, Zhang Yong frankly misjudged the situation, saying that he was overconfident at the time。

 

"China's Greatest Workers" Yang Lijuan Succeeds Yang Yong "Woodpecker Plan" Shocks Online

Understanding mistakes is not the key, the key is how to solve the problem。

On November 5, 2021, Haidilao announced that it would gradually shut down about 300 stores that did not meet expectations by December 31, 2021, and revealed its "woodpecker plan"。The plan proposes four measures: first, continue to pay attention to stores with poor operating performance, including overseas stores, and take corresponding improvement measures;。

Yang Lijuan, then the company's executive director and deputy CEO, said woodpeckers are good at finding pests under the skin of trees and finding their targets in a tough way。She said she hopes to use the woodpecker's spirit to find and improve the deep problems in her own management。

In March 2022, Haidilao announced that Zhang Yong, 52, was no longer CEO of the company and was succeeded by Yang Lijuan, 43.。At this point, by the waiter step by step to start the "China's strongest hit workers" Yang Lijuan finally upper, Haidilao ushered in a new head。

And the "female head" in charge of the first year of Haidilao, what kind of "report card" can be handed over, the market is naturally very much looking forward to。

After the March 30 session, Haidilao released its 2022 results announcement。Financial data show that last year, the bottom fishing to achieve operating income 347.4.1 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), down 15.5%; net profit 13.700 million yuan, a successful year-on-year turnaround。

In terms of revenue, in the past year, Haidilao recorded 289.4.3 billion yuan of operating income, down 22.9%, 93% of total revenue.3%。In this regard, Haidilao explained that due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, some restaurants closed or suspended dining services and reduced traffic, and the implementation of the "woodpecker" program also led to a year-on-year decrease in the number of restaurants between January and August 2022.。

In terms of costs, as the number of restaurants shrinks, Haidilao's employee costs have also fallen significantly year-on-year 26.6% to 102.4 billion yuan, accounting for 35% of revenue from the same period last year..7% down to 33%。At the same time, the rent and related expenses of submarine fishing will also increase from 2% in 2021..9.7 billion yuan decreased by 7.5% to 2.7.4 billion yuan, accounting for 0% of revenue.9%; hydropower expenditure decreased by 24% YoY.4% to 10.4.8 billion yuan, accounting for 3% of revenue.4%。Over the past year, submarine fishing has accrued 33.Depreciation and amortization of $2.1 billion, a decrease of 18.9%。

In terms of operating data, in 2022, the overall turnover rate of Haidilao restaurants in Greater China was 3.0 times / day, unchanged from 2021; same-store turnover rate of 3.1 time / day, down from 3 in the same period last year..4 times / day。In addition, during the reporting period, the per capita consumption of Haidilao restaurants increased from 102 in 2021..3 yuan increased to 104 year on year.9 yuan。

In terms of store data, the company opened 24 new restaurants in 2022, reopened 48 restaurants and closed 50 restaurants at the same time.。By the end of last year, there were 1349 Haidilao restaurants in mainland China, 22 in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and more than 2.7.6 billion people, with more than 1 registered member at the same time..1.6 billion people。Haidilao said that in the second half of 2022, the company launched a "hard bone program" to reopen some restaurants that had been closed in the past.。

It is worth noting that Haidilao's takeaway business doubled year-on-year last year, from 6 in 2021..300 million yuan, up 103.3% to 12.800 million yuan。In this regard, Haidilao pointed out that the number of cities and stores covered by the takeaway business increased, coupled with the expansion of online sales channels, driving a significant increase in takeaway orders.。In addition, Haidilao is advancing the expansion of delivery points。Starting from April 2022, the number of Haidilao delivery outlets will be expanded to 1,400, covering more than 300 cities across the country, achieving full coverage of first-tier to fourth-tier cities.。

Haidilao said, different from the previous voluntary model of stores, now Haidilao's takeaway business in each store has a fixed person to manage, with a unified digital operation to analyze the background data, including the deployment of orders, analysis of user re-purchase, from the supply chain to develop new takeaway and Haidilao products different from the restaurant, greatly improving the efficiency of delivery.。In terms of sales channels, Haidilao in the United States, hungry, but also the layout of the tremolo, Alipay, WeChat small programs and other platforms.。In December last year, Haidilao became the first place in the local life of the tremolo platform takeout.。

In the financial report, Haidilao once again reflected on the unreasonable expansion of the company in the previous period, and said that under the friendly guidance of the policy side, offline consumption scenarios such as catering and dining are recovering in an orderly manner, and store passenger flow continues to pick up.。In this regard, the company will continue to maintain a prudent store opening strategy, choose the best to open new stores, and continue to implement the "woodpecker" program.。

Yang Lijuan said that in 2023, the company will continue to improve the Haidilao dining experience, including continuous refinement of service levels, improve product innovation capabilities, enhance restaurant operations, and provide customers with more value-added and community operations services.。At the same time, the company will continue to invest in innovation and new technologies to enhance the consumer experience and promote the company's high-quality development.。

The road ahead is long to break the impression of "shrinking service" or the first step.

As we all know, what makes Haidilao famous, in addition to its home, meticulous and considerate service, are the "little eggs" hidden in the corners of the restaurant.。For example, as long as the customer mentions different keywords, the waiters of Haidilao will give different "hidden benefits," which may be a variety of snacks, but also a variety of small gifts.。This kind of little ingenuity after dining not only increases the interest of customers to enjoy the service in the store, but also effectively enhances the exposure of Haidilao and consolidates its high-end service of "industry people."。

However, this "high-end people set up," is likely to be in the sea fishing recent "stingy," slowly collapsed.。

On March 14, Haidilao boarded a hot search because some consumers were asked not to order only four clear water pots during a meal, but to order a pot bottom.。In addition, the bring-your-own-ingredients service launched by Haidilao since 2017 was also banned some time ago.。

Even the previously well-received Haidilao birthday celebration service has been criticized recently。Some netizens said that before going to Haidilao for his birthday, there would be staff who would take the initiative to sing and give away toys as birthday gifts.。Now I come to Haidilao for my birthday, which is totally different from my expectation, and the service attitude is not good, and no one gives small gifts, so I give a few packs of rice crust, which is completely lower than expected.。

In this regard, Haidilao said that if the order is successful, the store will receive the message, normal words will sing, if you need a gift can be noted。However, such an answer obviously can not make consumers satisfied, the so-called expectations, the greater the disappointment, is this truth。

It never rains but it pours, and even the food hygiene problem, which is known as the "red line" of the catering industry, almost stepped on the mine.。Recently, some consumers have issued a document saying that when they went to Xiamen to eat at a Haidilao, the waiter knocked over the fish fillet and washed it directly on the table again, Haidilao after verification monitoring call back to explain, but did not give compensation。The person in charge of the Haidilao store said that the fillet ingredients did not fall to the ground, but the box fell to the ground.。The waiter cleaned the packing box with water stains and has been downgraded.。

All kinds of negative events have been superimposed, and the brand perception of Haidilao has been affected.。

How to restore consumers' impression of the "shrinking service" of Haidilao and maintain its business for many years is probably the most important issue to consider at present.。

Moreover, if the policy and fundamentals continue to improve, superimposed on the fruitful "woodpecker plan," the bottom of the sea may be able to make a beautiful turnaround this year, not to mention according to the current data, at least the fundamentals of the problem can be slightly put down.。

On March 15, the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that from January to February, retail sales of consumer goods totaled 770.67 billion yuan, up 3.5%, reversing a three-month downward trend since October 2022 and continuing to recover from a higher base over the same period last year。Among them, the national food and beverage revenue increased by 9.2% for the full year 2022, down 6.3%, food and beverage consumption has rebounded sharply。

In addition, at the Boao Forum for Asia held from March 28 to 31, KPMG China Vice Chairman and South China Chief Partner Huang Wenkai also said in an interview that consumption is expected to accelerate in 2023 as China's epidemic prevention and control is fully liberalized.。In particular, catering, retail, tourism and other contact and experience services will take the lead in recovery.。

If policy is the wind, performance is the water, feng shui are picking up, 2023 a good hand depends on how the sea fishing.。

As of today's Hong Kong stock close, Haidilao edged up 0.71%, reported 21.25