Banu accelerates expansion: The year-end goal of 44 stores is pressing, with nearly half of the final month's target remaining.

The pressures faced by the catering industry have not slowed down Banū’s pace of expansion. In the first three quarters of 2025, Banū achieved revenues of approximately 2.08 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.5%, a significant rebound compared to the 9% growth in 2024. Store expansion is the primary driver of growth. As of December 7th, Banū had 162 directly operated stores, a net increase of 18 since the beginning of the year. Against the backdrop of a tightening consumer environment, the opening of new stores has not noticeably diluted the performance of existing stores. This year, Banū has gradually extended business hours in qualified shopping malls, increasing the proportion of 24-hour locations. In the first three quarters, same-store turnover rate rose from 3.1 in the same period last year to 3.5, driving same-store sales up by 4.3%. However, the trend of declining average customer spending continues, falling from 150 yuan in 2023 and 142 yuan in 2024 to 138 yuan in the first three quarters of this year. As the only top five hotpot chain to supply all its stores directly from a central kitchen, Banū leverages its “supply chain first” advantage to more effectively expand into lower-tier regions and in-depth layouts, rather than simply increasing store density in a single city. Currently, Banū has three or more stores in only ten provincial capital cities, indicating significant room for penetration in lower-tier markets. Of the 18 new stores added this year, 14 are in second-tier cities. For Banū, which focuses on quality hotpot, the lower labor and rental costs in lower-tier cities offer better profit potential. In the first three quarters, stores in second-tier and below cities contributed over 80% of income, with a profit margin of 25.2%, higher than the 21.3% of stores in first-tier cities. Banū plans to open a total of 44 new stores by the end of 2025. This means nearly 20 new stores must open within the last month, close to half of the annual expansion goal. As for the reasons behind concentrating new store openings in the fourth quarter, Banū explained that it largely reflects the standardized preparation cycle needed for site selection, lease negotiations, renovations, license processing, and staff recruiting and training. This arrangement also helps capture the seasonal peak in hotpot consumption and clusters of national public holidays to increase turnover rate and customer traffic. Banū noted that if the opening plan is not completed on schedule, the company’s ability to seize market opportunities may be limited, possibly requiring accelerated expansion in subsequent years. To ensure profitability and network stability, Banū has established a regular performance evaluation mechanism, focusing not only on turnover rates and average customer spend, but also labor cost ratios. Banū has previously optimized labor costs by employing part-time and outsourced staff. In 2024, Banū added 131 regular employees, while the number of part-time employees surged by 1,553, a year-on-year increase of about 1.4 times. In August of this year, the securities regulatory commission issued an inquiry regarding Banū’s payment of social insurance and housing provident funds for non-full-time staff, as well as the legality and compliance of labor practices. As of September 30th, Banū still had about 500,000 yuan in unpaid social insurance and provident funds. In its prospectus, Banū responded that it has actively adopted multiple internal measures to improve compliance levels for social insurance and housing provident funds. These include formulating and fully implementing internal policies and procedures for managing social insurance and housing provident funds; strengthening the integrity and transparency of compensation management policies; regularly organizing relevant training and internal communications to enhance employee awareness. Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market involves risk; investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account the specific investment objectives, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article suit their particular circumstances. Any investment made based on this article is at their own risk.