Breaking down Haidilao's latest financial report: profits have decreased, but confidence is stronger than ever

Ask AI · How does One Store One Strategy help Haidilao achieve diversified growth?

Author: Zhou Bansian

Source: New Retail (ID: ixinlingshou)

Cover image source: Xiaohongshu @Angela

Haidilao just released its 2025 performance report. At first glance, a net profit of 4 billion yuan sounds impressive, but a closer look reveals a secret behind the “active investment” strategy! Profit has decreased by 14% year-over-year, and the table turnover rate has dropped to 3.9 times per day, yet the stock price has still risen over 5%.

Do you understand this move? Takeout sales doubled to 2.658 billion yuan, subsidiary brands raked in 1.5 billion yuan, and Zhang Yong personally launched the “One Store One Strategy”… The traditional hotpot king is quietly transforming into a restaurant empire.

Profit has fallen, but confidence is stronger than ever. Let’s analyze how Haidilao’s “long-termism” strategy is playing out!

1. Takeout and Diversified Business as New Growth Engines

On March 24, Haidilao released its annual performance report for the year ending December 31, 2025. Once this report came out, we need to analyze it carefully. Although some core data fluctuated under the overall pressure on the restaurant industry, its strategic transformation of “maintaining core business + focusing on breakthroughs” is becoming clearer.

1. Overall revenue of 43.225 billion yuan, actively “investing” for long-term growth

Looking at the big picture, the report shows Haidilao’s total revenue in 2025 was 43.225 billion yuan, a slight increase of 1.1% compared to last year. However, net profit after costs was 4.042 billion yuan, down 14% year-over-year; of which, the profit attributable to the company’s owners was 4.05 billion yuan, also down 14%.

The profit decline is clearly explained in the financial report: on one hand, table turnover rate decreased; on the other, the company increased investment in product and scene innovations. In simple terms, Zhang Yong is leading everyone in a “proactive strategic choice”—earning less in the short term to deepen the long-term moat.

2. Table turnover rate of 3.9 times/day, store network “has both expansion and contraction”

Looking at specific customer flow data, in 2025, Haidilao’s overall table turnover rate dropped to 3.9 times per day, compared to 4.1 times last year, a significant decrease; total customer visits reached 383.9 million.

As of the end of the year, there were 1,383 restaurants worldwide. Of these, 1,304 were self-operated (79 new openings this year, but 85 closures or relocations), and 79 were franchise stores (21 new openings, with 45 self-operated stores converted to franchise).

Same-store sales for 1,135 stores decreased from 35.269 billion yuan to 32.895 billion yuan, and the average table turnover rate fell from 4.1 to 3.9.

Image source: Xiaohongshu @XiaXiaCaoKeAi

3. Takeout and diversified businesses surge, “Red Pomegranate Plan” bears fruit

Despite pressure on core operations, the side businesses are booming. In 2025, takeout revenue reached about 2.658 billion yuan, a 111.9% increase YoY! This is mainly due to expanding categories, stores, time slots, and channels, with over 1,200 takeout outlets nationwide.

Additionally, “Other Dining” restaurant revenue also grew impressively to about 1.521 billion yuan, up 214.6% YoY.

By the end of the year, besides Haidilao’s main business, the company held 207 other restaurant outlets covering 20 sub-sectors like seafood stalls, sushi, small hotpots, and Chinese fast food. Behind this is the success of the “Red Pomegranate Plan” and new scene explorations like camping hotpot and corporate hotpot.

4. Focus on sinking markets, “restructuring” stores for特色

From store distribution, third-tier and below cities are now the main force.

By year-end, self-operated restaurants in third-tier and below cities numbered 571, accounting for 43.8%, generating revenue of 15.581 billion yuan, 41.6% of total. The table turnover rate remains steady at 3.9 times/day across first, second, and third-tier cities, with Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan leading at 4.3 times/day.

5. Stock price soars, generous dividends show confidence

After the financial report, the capital market responded strongly. As of March 24 close, Haidilao’s stock price was HKD 15.99 (about RMB 14.1) per share, up 5.41% in a day, with a total increase of 12.21% this year.

The most surprising is the dividend payout. The company announced a total annual dividend of over 3.6 billion yuan, including interim and proposed final dividends. This “big dividend” directly reflects management’s confidence in future cash flow.

2. What changes has Haidilao made for its side businesses?

Looking at the overall financial performance, we can summarize it as “short-term pressure, long-term layout.” The profit performance and table turnover rate have indeed declined—net profit down 14%, and turnover rate to 3.9 times/day. But if you analyze the financial report, you’ll see this is a result of long-term strategic adjustments.

The report shows that the company is actively changing and restructuring. Its costs and revenues are evolving:

On the revenue side, takeout and other dining revenues are increasing their share, shifting from existing to new growth points; on the cost side, raw material costs are rising, while labor costs are decreasing. This indicates that funds are being allocated more efficiently.

What specific changes and adjustments did Haidilao make in 2025? Breaking it down, the report reveals that its operational strategy, business structure, organizational setup, and personnel arrangements are all paving the way for multiple brands and formats.

Image source: Xiaohongshu @KTX

First, let’s talk about the strategic shift from “uniformity” to “one store, one strategy.”

The so-called “one store, one face” meant that in pursuit of scale, traditional hotpot restaurants aimed for standardization—same environment, same taste—leading to homogeneity. I’ve always said this weakens service appeal. Haidilao realized this and started shifting from uniformity to personalized strategies.

This means tailoring each store based on its location, commercial district characteristics, customer profile, and property conditions, creating customized operational plans.

In simple terms, viewing each store as an independent combat unit, with headquarters providing unified control and safety, while regional managers are empowered with differentiated operational rights and decision-making authority. Essentially, testing new concepts in individual stores to verify the feasibility of regional ingredients and store models.

This approach has led to the emergence of特色 stores, different from traditional large outlets, such as sliced meat stores, night markets, family-friendly stores, and pet-friendly stores.

Among these, sliced meat stores focus on fresh sliced beef and seafood to meet consumers’ demand for freshness; night stores aim to open late with DJ atmospheres to attract young customers; family and pet stores target specific scenes—pet-friendly stores turn pets from being boarded to family members dining together; family stores upgrade to family playgrounds and social spaces to solve the pain point of dining with children.

As stores evolve, products are also changing.

There are two types: one is sliced products, which now include sliced seafood, chicken, etc., forming a sliced matrix; the other is regional特色 products, like cloud sauerkraut hotpot, Sichuan-style shrimp balls, dry hotpot series, and limited-edition products like old hen hotpot for Anhui market.

By the end of 2025, over 100特色 products have been developed across regions, including dishes, condiments, and desserts, forming a one-store-one-flavor layout.

Image source: Xiaohongshu @5D632297

Besides store innovations, under pressure from declining table turnover and slowing core growth, Haidilao is also seeking new growth curves—its answer is “dual-track” development of subsidiary brands and takeout.

To support multi-brand growth, the “Red Pomegranate Plan” was reshaped into a dual incubation system: “Master Chef” and “Common People’s Kitchen.”

The “Master Chef” system encourages employees to start their own ventures, stimulating internal entrepreneurship—experienced store managers and head chefs lead, with group resources supporting, sharing risks and profits. Essentially, empowering employees as small bosses.

The “Common People’s Kitchen” is led by headquarters, conducting market research, planning, and quickly replicating successful experiences across categories.

With this aggregation, Haidilao has entered a new stage of multi-brand parallel and group operation. By the end of 2025, the group operates 20 brands with 207 restaurants, and non-hotpot brands contributed 1.521 billion yuan, a 214.6% increase, becoming the second growth driver.

But besides subsidiary brands, Haidilao also bets on a scene—takeout.

It aims for comprehensive布局 of “product expansion, store expansion, time expansion, channel expansion” to drive dual growth of “dining in + delivery.”

These four expansions have already yielded results. Over 1,200 takeout outlets nationwide, with takeout revenue up 111.9% YoY, becoming a key growth factor.

Finally, to accelerate business expansion, Haidilao has made profound organizational and personnel reforms.

Image source: Xiaohongshu @Miaomiao

It first built a “front-middle-back” organizational system. Frontline staff are given greater decision-making autonomy, responsible for new brand pilots, new store formats, and regional market development; the middle platform focuses on IT, data analysis, and AI tools, acting as the engine and dispatcher for logistics, capital, and supply chain; the back office deepens core brand operations, ensuring service quality and cultural heritage.

More critically, personnel adjustments were made: founder Zhang Yong returned as CEO, personally leading the multi-brand, multi-format strategy; former CEO Gou Yiqun shifted focus to intelligent middle platform and efficiency improvements, letting professionals handle specialized tasks.

Meanwhile, the board was refreshed, with managers from frontline stores and regional operations joining core decision-making, further empowering regional and store-level decision-making—making “one store, one strategy” and “one store, one flavor” truly implementable.

Coupled with the “Master Chef” internal entrepreneurship system, store managers and head chefs’ enthusiasm and interests are linked to new brands, optimizing personnel structure, reducing employee costs, and improving organizational efficiency.

Through this series of measures, Haidilao is steadily transforming from a single hotpot brand into a vast restaurant ecosystem empire.

3. Final thoughts

Looking back at this financial report, Haidilao is playing a strategic card—profit down, table turnover rate down, but takeout surging 111.9%, other dining up 214.6%, with 207 subsidiary stores across 20 sub-sectors quietly expanding.

Zhang Yong’s return and personal leadership in “one store, one strategy” has turned the homogeneous hotpot chain into sliced meat stores, night markets, family stores, and pet-friendly venues… On the surface, it’s “defense,” but fundamentally, it’s “offense.”

Short-term earnings may dip, but long-term deepening of the moat is underway. While others focus on tiny fluctuations in table turnover, Haidilao has built a second growth curve with takeout and subsidiary brands. With 4 billion net profit as a foundation, 3.6 billion dividends as a guarantee, and the stock price speaking volumes, the capital market understands.

From hotpot king to restaurant empire, Haidilao’s transformation has just begun. What will 2026 bring? Stay tuned.