Jia Guolong bets on "Tianbian Clay Pot Braised Noodles": the sixth store is about to open, with an average spending of about 30 to 50 yuan per person.

Ask AI · Why did Jia Guolong bet on a new brand, Tianbian Clay Pot Braised Noodles, when Xi Bei was losing money?

Since opening its first store in Beijing’s 798 Art Zone in February this year, Xi Bei founder Jia Guolong’s new brand, “Tianbian Clay Pot Braised Noodles,” has quickly expanded to places such as Hohhot and Shanghai. According to Dianping, the brand’s sixth store nationwide (Hangzhou Huanglong Vanke Store) will open on April 10.

“It’s expected to open on April 10, but it really depends on the situation.” On April 7, a staff member at the Tianbian Clay Pot Braised Noodles Hangzhou Huanglong Vanke Store told Jiemian News: “The price range for clay pot braised noodles is from a little over thirty yuan to the fifties.”

The Tianbian Clay Pot Braised Noodles Shanghai Nanxiang Intime City Store told Jiemian News that the store’s average spend per person is around 50 yuan.

At the beginning of this year, Tianbian Clay Pot Braised Noodles opened its first store in the Beijing 798 Park. According to a report by the Economic Daily News, on March 19, Jia Guolong said that Xi Bei needed to close some stores. He hoped a new brand could take over some of the stores and employees. “Xi Bei still has to be kept. In the future, we will close some, (switch to the new brand) some, and keep some of the core stores.”

Jia Guolong has made it clear that he will not give up the Xi Bei brand. He will still retain core stores for continuous operations, and in the future, some Xi Bei stores that are closed may be converted into “Tianbian Clay Pot Braised Noodles” through an upgrade and renovation approach. In Jia Guolong’s plan, “Tianbian Clay Pot Braised Noodles” is not simply a sub-brand of Xi Bei, but a completely independent brand.

On the product strategy front, the new brand focuses on clay pot braised noodles featuring specialties from Jia Guolong’s hometown, the Bayannur area (Bayannur City) in Inner Mongolia, including core items such as spare rib and yardlong bean clay pot braised noodles and lamb with spicy pepper (la pi zi) clay pot braised noodles. More importantly, the stores adopt an all-open-kitchen design, emphasizing “order on the spot, make on the spot, knead the noodles on the spot, and braise the noodles on the spot.”

Public information shows that on the day the “Tianbian Clay Pot Braised Noodles” store in Shanghai opened, Jia Guolong also showed up at the store to communicate with consumers.

Behind the rollout of this new brand lies the severe operating predicament facing Xi Bei Catering. In September 2025, Luo Yonghao publicly complained about Xi Bei, saying it was “almost all pre-made dishes but overpriced,” triggering a crisis of brand trust. Although Jia Guolong later publicly apologized and promised to rectify issues, Xi Bei’s customer traffic and revenue still saw a precipitous decline.

Data shows that between September 2025 and March 2026, Xi Bei’s total losses exceeded RMB 600 million. Faced with its operational difficulties, Jia Guolong announced a tough decision at the beginning of this year: closing about 102 stores nationwide, accounting for 30% of the total number of stores, affecting around 4,000 employees.

On March 6, according to media reports, before the Spring Festival, Jia Guolong stepped down as CEO of Xi Bei’s main brand, and the former CEO, Dong Junyi, returned to the position.

Recently, Xi Bei welcomed a wealthy investor with a net worth of 9.5 billion yuan to take a stake. Inner Mongolia Xi Bei Catering Group Co., Ltd. underwent工商变更; Lin Lairong was added as a shareholder, and its registered capital increased from about RMB 102 million to RMB 104 million. Lin Lairong, as a natural person, subscribed for a contribution of 224.76M元 on February 14 and obtained more than 2.16% of the shares in Xi Bei Catering Group; his first shareholding date was March 10.

Lin Lairong founded Inner Mongolia Zhongxing Group in 1995, and he is also the actual controller of Dazhong Mining. In 2025, with wealth of 9.5 billion yuan, he topped the Hurun Global Rich List. Born in Inner Mongolia, Lin Lairong is also from the same hometown as Jia Guolong.

Previously, Xi Bei Catering Group had already introduced external financing. On January 20, Xi Bei Catering Group Co., Ltd. added entities such as Taizhou Xinrongtai Investment Co., Ltd., Hohhot Collective Co-creation Enterprise Management Center (Limited Partnership), Hangzhou Zhouxuan Equity Investment Management Partnership Enterprise (Limited Partnership), and others as shareholders. Its registered capital increased from about RMB 2.25M to about RMB 102 million, an increase of roughly 13%.

Taizhou Xinrongtai Investment Co., Ltd. is an investment fund under Taizhou Cai Xinrongji. The legal representative of the company, Zhang Yong, holds 100% of the shares, and he is also the founder of Xinrongji. The Hangzhou Zhouxuan equity investment fund is a fund invested by Hu Xiaoming, the former president of Ant Group.