With performance declining again and frequent management issues emerging, Haidilao has finally decided to undertake a major personnel overhaul.
On January 13th, founder Zhang Yong replaced Gou Yiqun as the company's CEO, marking his return to the front lines of daily operations nearly four years after stepping back from Haidilao's management. Joining him in their new roles are four young "female generals" who have risen through the ranks from Haidilao's grassroots level.
This significant personnel adjustment is driven by both the immediate need to address current operational pressures and the long-term strategy of honing and cultivating a new generation of management talent.
Zhang Yong is leading his "female corps" back to the helm. After being away from the front-line operations for nearly four years, Haidilao's founder, Zhang Yong, has chosen to return, personally taking up the reins of the company's management once more.
On January 13th, Haidilao announced that Executive Director and CEO Gou Yiqun had resigned from his positions; concurrently, two other Executive Directors, Song Qing and Gao Jie, also resigned.
These three departing directors will continue to hold important management functions within Haidilao. Specifically, Gou Yiqun will be responsible for coordinating the promotion of intelligent and automated management processes, driving operational model upgrades and intelligent mid-platform construction to enhance organizational efficiency and decision-making effectiveness. Song Qing will retain his role as Director of the Group's Product Committee.
Following Gou Yiqun's resignation, the vacant CEO position was assumed by the company's founder and Board Chairman, Zhang Yong. This marks his return to a leading operational role since he handed over the CEO responsibilities and stepped back from the front lines in March 2022.
Although the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's listing rules explicitly recommend a clear division between the roles of Board Chairman and CEO within listed companies, and that they should not be combined, Zhang Yong's current dual role as both Chairman and CEO clearly deviates from this guideline. However, in the view of Haidilao's board, sufficient internal checks and balances exist within the company, and Zhang Yong holding both key positions will not undermine the balance of power and authority between the board and management.
Joining Zhang Yong in their new appointments are four young "female generals": Li Nana (38), Zhu Yinhua (44), Jiao Defeng (39), and Zhu Xuanyi (35), all of whom have been appointed as Executive Directors of the company. Haidilao stated that the extensive refresh of the Board's Executive Directors is intended to support the company's continuous innovation and long-term development, actively cultivating and training a new generation of management team.
Reviewing their individual backgrounds, these four new Executive Directors lack flashy pedigrees; all are "capable leaders" who have grown from Haidilao's grassroots level, fully reflecting the company's philosophy on talent and personnel selection.
Li Nana joined Haidilao in 2005 before she was even 18 years old. Over more than 20 years, she has held positions such as store manager and coach in numerous stores and regions. She currently holds director and other positions in four subsidiaries of the group. Her academic credentials are not prominent; she only obtained a junior college diploma in Business Administration from Huazhong Agricultural University in June 2024 and received a completion certificate from Wuhan University's Advanced Business Administration Training Program in May of last year.
Zhu Yinhua also does not possess a high initial academic qualification, having completed an Advanced Study Program in Business Administration at Zhejiang University in 2017. After joining Haidilao in 2007, she started from the store level. Since September 2025, she has served as Acting Regional Manager for Haidilao's Hubei and Chongqing regions.
Jiao Defeng's highest education is a junior college diploma from Henan Vocational Technical College. She joined Haidilao in 2012 and previously served as manager of several Haidilao stores in Nanjing. Since April 2025, she has held the position of Head of the Second Product Management Department, responsible for product research and development and procurement.
The younger Zhu Xuanyi is a rare "high-achieving student" among this cohort of promoted "female generals." She obtained a Bachelor's degree in Accounting from Xi'an International Studies University in 2013. After joining Haidilao in 2018, Zhu Xuanyi advanced rapidly. She successively held positions including Assistant Store Manager and Store Manager, demonstrating strong capabilities in store management and crisis response during this period. Since July 2023, she has served as Secretary-General of the CEO's Secretariat, responsible for providing in-depth assistance to the CEO in company strategic planning, operational management decisions, and core business advancement.
Haidaolao's operations are once again under significant pressure. Prior to 2020, Haidilao's development was smooth sailing. With its极致 service, it led the upgrade of China's catering service industry, becoming a model that almost all service sectors sought to emulate.
Under Zhang Yong's leadership, this hot pot restaurant that started in Jianyang, Sichuan in 1994 expanded nationwide, growing into the world's largest Chinese restaurant chain.
In 2018, Haidilao successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and its founder and controlling shareholder, Zhang Yong, saw his fortune soar, catapulting him to become the "richest person in Singapore."
However, with the sudden onset of unfavorable external conditions, Haidilao finally encountered a major crisis in its development history.
In 2020, when the offline service industry, including catering, generally chose to contract and weather the winter, Zhang Yong, then CEO of Haidilao, displayed overconfidence, misjudged the trend, and accelerated store openings against the prevailing market conditions.
The accelerated expansion of the store network did not bring corresponding performance growth. By this point, a crisis was quietly descending, yet it failed to raise sufficient alarm within Haidilao.
In the first half of 2021, Haidilao continued its rapid store expansion, bringing the total number of stores close to 1,600. However, the external environment remained severe, and the company's overall operations deteriorated sharply.
At this critical juncture, Haidilao was forced to slam on the brakes, initiating the "Woodpecker Plan" to adjust the pace of expansion and close loss-making stores. Nevertheless, significant performance declines and substantial losses for both 2020 and 2021 became unavoidable.
In March 2022, Haidilao's senior management underwent a major reshuffle. Zhang Yong resigned as CEO and was succeeded by Yang Lijuan, then Deputy CEO and COO.
Yang Lijuan, known as the "Most Outstanding Waitress," had followed Zhang Yong in the early days of entrepreneurship and was a Haidilao executive who rose from being a waitress.
After assuming the CEO role, she demonstrated remarkable resolve, strictly implementing the "Woodpecker Plan" and decisively closing underperforming stores. When the operating environment showed slight improvement, she quietly launched the "Hard Bones Plan," involving simultaneous store openings and closures.
Yang Lijuan's tenure as CEO yielded impressive results. In 2022, the company returned to profitability, and the following year, its performance reached new heights.
After completing this phase-specific task, Haidilao underwent another personnel change. In July 2024, Gou Yiqun succeeded Yang Lijuan as CEO of Haidilao, while Yang joined Super Hi International as CEO to help Haidilao expand its territory in the international market.
The year 2025 proved tumultuous for Haidilao. Following the "Urination Incident" in February, which the company handled promptly, a major management loophole was starkly exposed. Before the repercussions of the "Urination Incident" had fully subsided, a "Diaper Incident" emerged at year-end, adding insult to injury.
The company's management issues were also clearly reflected in its financial statements.
In the first half of 2025, Haidilao opened 25 self-operated restaurants and 3加盟 restaurants, while simultaneously closing 33, resulting in negative net growth in its store count. During the period, the company achieved operating revenue of RMB 207.0 billion and a net profit of RMB 17.59 billion, representing year-on-year declines of 3.66% and 13.72%, respectively. Haidilao's proudest metric, the table turnover rate, dropped to 3.8 from 4.2 in the same period the previous year.
In its 2025 interim report, Haidilao attributed the overall decline in operational efficiency and performance to objective factors such as intensified competition in the catering market and changes in customer consumption demand, while also acknowledging shortcomings in the management team's capabilities.
This acknowledgment likely served as the most direct catalyst for Haidilao's decision to implement a major personnel adjustment at the very beginning of 2026.
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