The former "hot pot first stock" continues to struggle with losses. According to its performance announcement, Xiabuxiabu Group (referred to as the Group) achieved total revenue of 3.789 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year decrease of 20.3%, essentially falling back to 2017 levels and dropping nearly 40% from its peak period. After deducting non-recurring items, the net loss attributable to owners of the parent was 361 million yuan, narrowing slightly by 12.6% compared to 2024. This marks the sixth consecutive year of losses since 2020, with cumulative losses reaching a total of 2.048 billion yuan.
Based on data from the second half of the year, the Group's revenue from July to December was approximately 1.847 billion yuan, decreasing by 4.9% month-on-month and 21.5% year-on-year. The net loss attributable to owners of the parent, after excluding non-recurring items, was about 277 million yuan, which is 3.30 times the net loss from the first half of the year. In the same period of 2024, the net loss was 107 million yuan. Both key indicators hit their lowest points in nearly eight years.
Despite the reduction in losses, the lack of revenue growth led to a tepid response from the capital market. Following the release of the annual report, Xiabuxiabu Group's stock price remained in "penny stock" territory, briefly falling to 0.41 HKD per share, with an average daily turnover rate as low as 0.09%. As of the latest closing price, the company's market capitalization stood at 445 million HKD, a fraction of its peak value in 2021.
The Group's efforts to stem losses have primarily relied on withdrawing from cities and closing stores. During the reporting period, the company closed 109 underperforming or persistently loss-making restaurants, including 56 Xiabuxiabu outlets and 53 Coucou outlets. Compared to 2024, the two brands saw net reductions of 2 and 50 stores, respectively. According to industry statistics, the number of operating stores for Xiabuxiabu and Coucou in provinces like Hubei, Shaanxi, and Gansu has dwindled to single digits, with cities like Qingdao and Huizhou seeing a complete withdrawal.
As of December 31, 2025, the total number of Xiabuxiabu restaurants was 758, a 28.6% contraction from its peak in 2020, with approximately 65.4% of operating stores concentrated in its North China stronghold. The total number of Coucou restaurants was 147, plummeting 42.8% in just three years, with nearly half located in the higher-consumption Yangtze River Delta region. Compared to its aggressive expansion in 2020, the company has net reduced nearly 300 restaurants, with total store scale shrinking by about a quarter.
The ongoing store closures have had a noticeable positive impact on the Group's financials. On one hand, asset impairment losses from loss-making stores narrowed significantly. In 2025, total asset impairment losses were approximately 108 million yuan, a sharp 58.8% decrease from 2024. Specifically, impairment losses on property, plant, and equipment fell 62.2% year-on-year, while impairment losses on right-of-use assets decreased by 11.0%. There was a reversal of 4.077 million yuan in rental deposit impairments, compared to a recognized loss of 29.975 million yuan in 2024.
On the other hand, store operating cost pressures eased as the network contracted. During the reporting period, the cost of raw materials and consumables used decreased by 20.7% year-on-year, with its proportion of total revenue dipping slightly from 35.2% to 35.0%. The number of employees plummeted by 25.4% compared to 2024, with over 85% of the net reduction of 5,723 staff being restaurant employees. Corresponding employee costs fell 18.2% year-on-year, but their share of total revenue increased from 33.9% to 34.8%.
However, the operational performance of the two main brands, Xiabuxiabu and Coucou, has not fundamentally improved. According to the annual report, Xiabuxiabu resorted to price cuts again in 2025, reducing the average customer spending per head from 54.8 yuan to 51.8 yuan, which is 1.8 yuan lower than the 2018 figure. From 2023 to 2025, Xiabuxiabu's average spending per head declined for three consecutive years, with a cumulative drop of about 19.4%, erasing nearly half of the gains made between 2014 and 2022. These price cuts somewhat alleviated concerns over Xiabuxiabu's table turnover rate. During the reporting period, its average daily table turnover rate recovered from 2.5 to 2.8 times, the best level since 2019, but still far below the stable rates of over 3.5 times per day seen at competitors like Haidilao and Banu Hot Pot.
In 2025, Xiabuxiabu's net revenue was approximately 2.139 billion yuan, down 12.2% year-on-year, setting a new low in nearly 12 years. Across city tiers, same-store sales growth was negative in first-tier, second-tier, and third-tier-and-below cities, declining by 9.9%, 8.3%, and 11.6% year-on-year, respectively. Estimating based on net revenue by city tier and the number of stores at period-end, Xiabuxiabu's average monthly revenue per store was about 235,100 yuan, a net decrease of 32,000 yuan compared to 2024. Particularly in third-tier-and-below cities, average monthly revenue per store plummeted 33.8% year-on-year, falling below 200,000 yuan.
Coucou, in contrast, pursued a different strategy. In 2025, it increased its average spending per head against the trend, from 123.5 yuan to 148.8 yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 20.5%, just slightly below the peak of 150.9 yuan in 2022. However, consumers evidently did not respond favorably. During the reporting period, Coucou's table turnover rate fell sharply, from 1.6 times per day to 1.4 times per day, a significant drop from the 2.5 times per day rate when it was first launched in 2020-2021. Notably, in second-tier cities, a mere 2% increase in average spending per head was accompanied by a drop in the average table turnover rate from 1.4 to 1.3 times per day.
Coucou's net revenue in 2025 was approximately 1.328 billion yuan, down about 29.2% year-on-year, reverting to a scale similar to its 2019 revenue when it had only 102 stores. Its same-store sales also declined across the board, falling by 13.7%, 18.2%, and 28.9% in first-tier, second-tier, and third-tier-and-below cities, respectively, compared to 2024. Based on the number of stores at period-end, Coucou's average monthly revenue per store was about 752,700 yuan, a net decrease of over 40,000 yuan from 2024, and a sharp 29.9% drop compared to the heyday of 2020-2021 when it often exceeded one million yuan per store. As performance worsened, the brand's net loss hit a new high of 200 million yuan during the reporting period. This marks the fourth consecutive year of segment losses, with cumulative losses reaching approximately 456 million yuan.
The path to restoring self-sustaining profitability is long and arduous, and Xiabuxiabu Group's funding chain is under significant pressure. In 2025, net cash flow from operating activities was approximately 373 million yuan, nearly halving year-on-year, with a cumulative decrease of about 67.1% compared to 2023. By the end of the period, cash and cash equivalents on the books stood at just 249 million yuan, down 31.4% from 2024. During the reporting period, the company's short-term bank borrowings reached 426 million yuan, a net increase of nearly 50 million yuan from 2024. The Group's short-term debt gap has now climbed to 177 million yuan, increasing more than tenfold within a year.
According to the annual report, the ratio of the Group's bank and other borrowings to total equity reached a staggering 92.0% in 2025, a sharp increase of 47 percentage points year-on-year, compared to a mere 0.9% in 2020. This means that for every 1 yuan of shareholders' equity, 0.92 yuan now comes from bank and other borrowings, indicating critically high financial leverage risk. Any operational setback could trigger insolvency.
Despite this, Xiabuxiabu Group plans to continue with aggressive expansion. In 2026, the company aims to open no fewer than 100 new restaurants, located in high-traffic commercial settings such as large entertainment theme parks, airports, and transportation hubs, targeting a table turnover rate of over 3 times per day. Furthermore, new sub-brands are being incubated. The self-service hot pot brand "Xiabu Ranch" opened its first batch of stores in Shanghai, with the total number of restaurants now expanded to 10, offering an average spending per head as low as 29.82 yuan. The Western cuisine brand "Xiabu Steak" employs a "steak + buffet" model where customers ordering one steak get access to 158自助 side dishes, with per capita spending around 100 yuan.
Public reports indicate that on their opening day, two Xiabu Ranch restaurants in Shanghai achieved sales exceeding 80,000 yuan, with a peak table turnover rate of 6 times per day, maintaining over 4 times on weekends. Since the opening of the first Xiabu Steak restaurant, its single-month turnover surpassed 1.4 million yuan, with a weekend table turnover rate as high as 7 times. This fiery momentum is reminiscent of the Group's 2022 sub-brand "Chen Shao," whose first store achieved monthly revenue over 2.5 million yuan and a peak table turnover exceeding 6 rounds, yet it closed its last store within two years.
It is evident that the two new sub-brands are positioned at relatively affordable price points. However, competition in the mass-market餐饮 sector has intensified in recent years. Nielsen research data suggests that by 2026, the safe zone for average customer spending in China's餐饮 industry had shifted down from 120-180 yuan to 60-80 yuan, accompanied by higher standards for ingredient freshness and preparation transparency, leading to "value-for-money" consumption decisions. Xiabu Ranch faces competition not only from自助 hot pot chains like Weila, Qianwei Yiding, and Longge, with per-head spending between 20-60 yuan, but also from the increasingly price-competitive main Xiabuxiabu brand. Xiabu Steak must contend with established Western restaurant chains like Saizeriya, Steakhouse, and Houcaller in the hundred-yuan price range. With limited differentiation, whether these new brands can avoid the pattern of a strong start followed by decline depends on their individual store profitability models and cross-regional replication capabilities.
The Group's bold experimentation with new brands may be driven by its substantial membership base. As of December 31, 2025, the total number of registered members had accumulated to approximately 45 million. During the reporting period, nearly 3.46 million new members registered, the number of active purchasing members was nearly 5.6 million, the average annual purchase frequency per member exceeded 3.2 times, and the average spending per member was about 383 yuan. However, compared to the same metrics in 2024, the number of active purchasing members saw a net decrease of 1.6 million. While purchase frequency remained largely stable, average spending per member fell by 21.5%. In other words, the penetration rate of paying members declined from 17.1% to 12.4%, and member purchase frequency was barely maintained through "trading price for volume." Nearly 90% of the existing member base is inactive, with willingness to pay consistently declining. The extent to which the new brands can successfully leverage this base remains highly uncertain.
Comments