Once upon a time, Juewei Food Co.,Ltd. held the top position in China's braised food industry with its flagship product "Juewei Duck Neck," earning the title of "Duck Neck King" among consumers. However, in recent years, the company has not only experienced continuous performance decline and large-scale store closures, but has also been heavily penalized by regulatory authorities for financial fraud, with its stock being subject to special treatment and becoming "ST Juewei." This series of events has not only plunged the braised food giant into crisis, but also reflects the reality of the entire braised food industry transitioning from rapid growth to a sluggish adjustment period.
**Five Years of Fraud Finally Exposed**
On the evening of September 19, Juewei Food Co.,Ltd. announced that due to suspected information disclosure violations, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) decided to investigate the company on June 7 of the previous year. On September 19 this year, the company received an "Administrative Penalty Pre-notification Letter" issued by the Hunan Bureau of the CSRC.
The notification letter revealed that from 2017 to 2021, Juewei Food Co.,Ltd. failed to recognize franchise store renovation business income, resulting in underreported operating revenue in annual reports. The underreported amounts accounted for 5.48%, 3.79%, 2.20%, 2.39%, and 1.64% of the publicly disclosed operating revenue for the respective years. The company's annual reports from 2017 to 2021 failed to truthfully disclose operating revenue.
The Hunan Bureau of the CSRC determined that Juewei Food Co.,Ltd.'s actions allegedly violated relevant legal provisions including the Securities Law. Consequently, the bureau decided to order corrections, issue warnings, and impose a fine of 4 million yuan on Juewei Food Co.,Ltd.; issue warnings and impose a fine of 2 million yuan on then-Chairman and General Manager Dai Wenjun; issue warnings and impose a fine of 1.5 million yuan on then-Chief Financial Officer Peng Caigang; and issue warnings and impose a fine of 1 million yuan on then-Board Secretary Peng Gangyi. The total penalty amounted to 8.5 million yuan.
According to the investigation, Dai Wenjun was aware of the company's actual management of franchise store renovation business but failed to standardize its management, did not incorporate it into the listed company's operation and accounting system, and signed the annual reports from 2017 to 2021, making him directly responsible as a supervisor. Peng Caigang arranged for finance department employees to lend personal bank accounts and failed to standardize the accounting of franchise store renovation business, while Peng Gangyi failed to standardize the company's information disclosure practices. Both were penalized as other directly responsible personnel.
On the same day, Juewei Food Co.,Ltd. announced that the company's stock would be subject to other risk warnings, with trading suspended all day on September 22 and resuming on September 23 with the abbreviated name changed to "ST Juewei" and daily price fluctuation limits reduced to 5%. The ST system is a special treatment for stock trading of listed companies with abnormal financial or other conditions by exchanges, aimed at alerting investors to market risks.
According to industry sources, some listed company financial personnel suggested that Juewei Food Co.,Ltd. might have underreported revenue to reduce tax burden or attempted to conceal the truth about slowing growth in franchise business. Underreporting revenue artificially suppresses profits, leading to stock price undervaluation, potentially causing investors to sell stocks at low prices due to incorrect information or miss quality investment opportunities.
**Significant Performance Decline and Store Closure Wave**
As financial fraud was exposed, Juewei Food Co.,Ltd.'s operational fundamentals had already deteriorated significantly from previous years. Public information shows that Juewei Food Co.,Ltd. was established in 2005 with headquarters in Changsha, Hunan. It is a company primarily engaged in the production and sales of leisure braised food products and the operation and management of franchise chain systems. Among its products, braised duck neck is the main offering, earning the company the external title of "Duck Neck King."
On March 17, 2017, Juewei Food Co.,Ltd. was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. After listing, the company once expanded aggressively with continuously rising revenue and net profits. However, the good times didn't last long. Starting in 2024, Juewei Food Co.,Ltd.'s performance contracted, experiencing its first double decline in revenue and net profit since listing.
Data shows that in 2024, Juewei Food Co.,Ltd. achieved revenue of 6.257 billion yuan, a decrease of 1.004 billion yuan from 2023, representing a 13.84% year-over-year decline; net profit attributable to shareholders was 227 million yuan, down 34.04% year-over-year. In the first half of this year, Juewei Food Co.,Ltd. achieved revenue of 2.82 billion yuan, down 15.57% year-over-year; net profit was 175 million yuan, down 40.71% year-over-year. The performance decline trend has not improved and the decline rate has further expanded.
Juewei Food Co.,Ltd.'s main revenue source is braised food sales. In the first half of this year, the company's braised food sales revenue was 2.34 billion yuan, accounting for more than 80% of total revenue during the same period. Additionally, as of the end of June 2025, Juewei Food Co.,Ltd.'s contract liabilities were 143 million yuan, down 11% year-over-year, which also increases the possibility of continued decline in the company's future operating revenue.
Concurrent with the performance decline is the sharp decrease in Juewei Food Co.,Ltd.'s store count. By the end of 2019, excluding Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and overseas markets, Juewei Food Co.,Ltd. had over 10,000 stores, reaching 10,954. By the end of 2022, the store count reached 15,076, a net increase of 37.63% over three years. By the end of 2023, the company had 15,950 stores, a year-over-year increase of 5.8%.
However, 2024 marked the beginning of a store closure wave. Data shows that by the end of June 2024, Juewei Food Co.,Ltd. had 14,969 stores, with nearly 1,000 stores closed in half a year. Although the 2024 annual report and 2025 interim report did not disclose specific store numbers or store increase/decrease information, data from Zhaimeng shows that as of now, Juewei Duck Neck has 10,725 stores. Juewei Food Co.,Ltd.'s store closure wave continues.
From aggressive expansion to store closure waves, Juewei Food Co.,Ltd.'s "roller coaster" development trajectory is not only a consequence of its own strategic mistakes, but also an epitome of the braised food industry's transition from wild growth to rational adjustment.
**Braised Food Market Glory Fading**
In recent years, the braised food industry experienced a golden period of rapid growth. The "Big Three" represented by Juewei, Zhou Hei Ya, and Huang Shang Huang quickly expanded through franchise models, once dominating the market. However, as the market gradually saturated, competition intensified, and consumer demands changed, the growth myth of the braised food industry is crumbling.
According to data from Red Catering Industry Research Institute, the braised food category market size reached 157.3 billion yuan in 2024, but with a year-over-year growth rate of only 3.7%. The market size is expected to increase slightly by 3.0% to 162 billion yuan in 2025, showing significantly weakened growth momentum.
Specifically, in the first half of this year, Huang Shang Huang achieved operating revenue of approximately 984 million yuan, down 7.19% year-over-year. As of the end of December 2024, Huang Shang Huang's meat processing industry had 3,660 specialty stores, which decreased to 2,898 by the end of June this year.
Zhou Hei Ya also experienced revenue decline. In the first half of this year, Zhou Hei Ya's operating revenue was approximately 1.223 billion yuan, down 2.93% year-over-year. At the end of the first half of 2024, Zhou Hei Ya had a total of 3,456 stores, which decreased to 2,864 by the end of the first half of 2025, a net reduction of 592 stores in one year, representing an overall decline of 17.13%.
Intensified market competition is the primary challenge facing the braised food industry. Besides the three traditional giants Juewei, Zhou Hei Ya, and Huang Shang Huang, emerging brands such as Wang Xiao Lu and Ma Zhao Zhao have rapidly risen with differentiated positioning and innovative products, continuously capturing market share through social media marketing and online channel expansion. These new forces have not only impacted the position of traditional giants but also intensified industry competition.
Meanwhile, changing consumer demands have raised higher requirements for braised food companies. With the spread of healthy eating concepts, consumers are increasingly focused on food quality, health, and safety. However, traditional braised food brands like Juewei Food Co.,Ltd. still mainly offer products with strong flavors, high salt, and high oil content, making it difficult to meet some consumers' demands for healthy snacks. Additionally, frequent food safety incidents, such as fake health certificates at Juewei stores, have further exacerbated consumer trust crises in braised food brands.
Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng pointed out that overall, from a category competition perspective, braised food prices are generally high with insufficient cost-effectiveness.
With various factors overlapping, the redemption path for "ST Juewei" is exceptionally difficult. After the end of the extensive growth era, companies urgently need to shift from scale expansion to quality improvement, seeking new breakthrough strategies.
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