Haidilao, facing a decline in table turnover rate, is starting to set the stage for its "side businesses."

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Against the backdrop of intense competition in the food and beverage market, even industry leader Haidilao is undergoing a deep structural adjustment.

On March 24, Haidilao released its full-year 2025 financial report: annual revenue reached 43.225 billion yuan, maintaining a steady growth of 1.1%.

However, the main brand is facing an increasingly tough battle in the stock market.

In 2025, despite the total number of stores increasing slightly by 15 to 1,383, the "system sales" of Haidilao restaurants declined by 3.7% against the trend.

During the period, the table turnover rate of Haidilao's self-operated restaurants fell from 4.1 times/day in the previous year to 3.9 times/day, per capita spending increased slightly by 0.2 yuan to 97.7 yuan, and same-store sales dropped by 6.7%, indicating that single-store efficiency is still under pressure.

To stabilize customer flow and enhance competitiveness, Haidilao continues to advance its "Different Haidilao" strategy, enhancing attractiveness through differentiated stores and innovative scenarios.

The company has built various models around different consumer needs, such as fresh-cut stores, late-night stores, family-friendly stores, and pet-friendly stores. As of the end of 2025, more than 200 specialty theme store transformations have been completed, with fresh-cut and late-night stores already deployed in key cities.

However, with single-store performance under pressure and increased investment in store renovations, profitability has entered a stage of decline. In 2025, Haidilao's core operating profit was 5.403 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13.3%.

The growth of diversified businesses has compensated for the decline in main brand revenue.

Among them, the delivery business achieved annual revenue of 2.658 billion yuan, up 111.9% year-on-year; franchise system expansion accelerated, with the number of stores rising from 13 to 79, of which 45 were transferred from self-operated to franchise.

While seeking stability for its main brand, Haidilao's diversification strategy is entering a "fission" phase.

As of the end of 2025, Haidilao's 20 sub-brands operated a total of 207 restaurants, an increase of more than 60% compared to mid-year. Thanks to economies of scale, revenue from other restaurants surged 214.6% year-on-year to 1.521 billion yuan.

Behind this round of expansion is the further systematization of the company's incubation mechanism.

In 2025, the Group officially launched the "Pomegranate Plan" in the market after internal trials, forming two parallel expansion models: "Chef" and "People's Restaurant." The former focuses on employee entrepreneurship to stimulate innovation and vitality within the organization; the latter is uniformly planned and driven by headquarters to cover multiple categories and price ranges as a strategic task.

It is worth noting that Haidilao, in this annual report, downplayed the description of specific sub-brands, instead devoting considerable attention to the construction of a "Smart Catering Ecosystem Middle Platform."

This middle platform is positioned as the strategic command and technological empowerment center of the group, aiming to digitally model Haidilao's over 30 years of operational experience, service standards, and product logic.

The strengthening of the middle platform model essentially signals that Haidilao is transitioning from a simple restaurant chain to a catering platform company. Through the intelligent middle platform's automated scheduling, intelligent ordering, and end-to-end supply chain support, new brands can share the group's core resources, greatly lowering barriers for expansion across different tracks.

This strategic direction was already foreshadowed in the personnel changes at the beginning of the year.

At that time, the announcement stated that after Gou Yiqun resigned as CEO, he would still be responsible for coordinating "the planning for intelligent and automated management processes" and leading the "operational model upgrade and intelligent middle platform construction."

With the former CEO personally leading the middle platform department, it is evident how important this sector is in Haidilao's future blueprint.

The effectiveness of its diversification strategy will be the core indicator of whether this catering giant can maintain long-term growth in the future.

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