Golden autumn brings the fragrance of ripening rice. In the core production area of Wuchang rice in Heilongjiang, a stretch of paddy fields dedicated exclusively to Tai Er has begun its harvest, with the new crop of Daohuaxiang No. 2 rice 鈥?grown only once a year 鈥?gradually being brought into storage. As Jiumaojiu (JIUMAOJIU) marks its 31st anniversary on October 25, a look back at its development path shows that "authentic freshness" has become a key value proposition for the group 鈥?pushing quality standards from the restaurant kitchen back to the fields.
As a deepened upgrade of the group's freshness strategy, the "authentic freshness" proposition seeks to break out of the efficiency-competition trap and elevate the focus to the dimension of quality: returning to the ingredients themselves, and complementing the all-round renewal of menu, environment and service at its new-model stores, in order to break new ground for high-quality development in the restaurant industry. Moving from "fresh" toward "ultimate freshness," the emphasis is on quality.
In recent years, competition in the restaurant industry has mainly revolved around efficiency, increasingly misaligned with consumers' demands for fresh, natural and healthy food. This has given rise to vicious price wars, homogeneous rivalry, and controversy over pre-made dishes, all of which have constrained the industry's healthy development. Finding a new competitive fulcrum beyond efficiency has become a shared challenge for the industry. Since 2025, Jiumaojiu has taken the lead in launching its "freshness strategy" and, in response to regulatory direction, innovatively introduced transparent menus; its new-model stores such as New Tai Er 路 Fresh-Ingredient Sichuan Cuisine and Jiumaojiu Shanxi Restaurant have directly answered this market expectation with freshly cooked dishes prepared in open kitchens.
The introduction of "ultimate freshness" pushes this logic one step further. According to the group, "fresh" answers whether an ingredient is fresh, while "ultimate freshness" asks whether a fresh ingredient is of sufficiently good quality. The same fish, the same bowl of rice, must not only arrive fresh, but also stand up in terms of variety, origin and cultivation standards. The threshold for standard-setting thus moves upstream to the fields and production workshops, and the group's cooperation model with suppliers changes accordingly 鈥?from a traditional buy-and-supply relationship to deep collaboration in jointly defining "what counts as a good ingredient."
Early positioning and sustained investment: the "ultimate freshness supply system" takes shape
Zhao Yuanyuan, vice president of Jiumaojiu, explained that the group focuses on core ingredients such as fish, pickled cabbage, chili and rice, and on the basis of jointly building quality standards, works with suppliers at the source through joint operations, contracted exclusive bases and dedicated supply lines, forming long-term win-win partnerships that ensure stable supply and fresh quality. In 2020, the group invested in building the Tai Er Smart Fishery Industrial Park in Heyuan; for pickled cabbage, it built production lines with co-developed technical standards to secure Tai Er-exclusive "intangible cultural heritage pickled cabbage." After years of deep cultivation, the "ultimate freshness supply system" has taken initial shape, exchanging upfront standards and investment for certainty in product strength, and indirectly achieving the interim goals of "managing the fish ourselves, pickling the cabbage ourselves, growing the rice ourselves, and cultivating the chili ourselves."
Take the Wuchang paddy fields that have just begun harvesting. As an early chain restaurant brand to use Wuchang rice, Tai Er did not stop at purchasing by standard, but instead worked with suppliers to build standards into the planting and production process. Starting from seed selection, both sides chose the japonica variety "Daohuaxiang No. 2," known for its eating quality, and carved out a dedicated paddy field in the core Wuchang rice production area, insisting on one season per year and irrigation with natural water. Thereafter, both sides established norms item by item for harvesting, processing, storage and transportation to safeguard rice quality. Today, the rice produced in these fields is supplied directly to Tai Er, and other brands under the group such as Jiumaojiu have also begun using Wuchang rice.
In Yuanping, Shanxi 鈥?a region with a deep tradition of chili breeding 鈥?Jiumaojiu has adopted a guarantee model of "minimum purchase price and order backstop" to support key employees returning home to start businesses, with those employees building and managing exclusive chili planting bases. Since 2025, this base has closely followed Tai Er's raw material needs, cultivating dedicated chili varieties in a targeted way, opening up a direct supply chain from field to table, achieving shared prosperity through coordinated planting and industrial linkage, and empowering rural revitalization with a distinctive industry.
Sticking with "ultimate freshness" to make quality a new competitive fulcrum
"We are committed to creating a wonderful hour for customers through good food. And good ingredients are the biggest prerequisite for that wonderful hour, as well as the group's confidence in long-termism," Zhao Yuanyuan said. The group uses the "ultimate freshness supply system" to lead the continuous deepening of its freshness strategy, and this supply system has also become the core engine for the new-model upgrades of brands such as Tai Er and Jiumaojiu.
Taking Tai Er as an example, last year the brand launched a fresh new model, completed a new positioning as "fresh-ingredient Sichuan cuisine," and innovatively introduced a transparent menu, becoming the first brand in the full-service dining segment to publicly disclose ingredient categories across its entire menu. Every "Class A fresh" item publicly marked on the menu stems from the commitment and certainty of the "ultimate freshness supply system."
In the first half of 2026, Jiumaojiu's net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 75.8 million, up 24.9% year on year; Tai Er's same-store sales in mainland China rose 11.8% year on year, recording double-digit growth for two consecutive quarters; and the turnover rate at new-model Jiumaojiu Shanxi Restaurant stores reached 4.5 times, higher than the same period under the old model. In the third quarter, Tai Er maintained its positive momentum, with average daily same-store sales in mainland China up 10.4% year on year, and the year-on-year growth rate expanding month by month from July; during the National Day holiday, Tai Er's overall turnover rate in mainland China exceeded 5 times, with average daily same-store sales up 17.8% year on year.
As new rice enters the granary, the aroma of rice gradually rises. In the future, the group will continue to improve its ultimate freshness supply system, using this path of deep cultivation at the source to explore more possibilities for the restaurant industry to break out of efficiency competition and achieve high-quality development.
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