Every transformation comes at a cost, especially for large corporations.
JIUMAOJIU Group, which once relied heavily on its signature sauerkraut fish dish, is now pushing itself to transform. On the evening of March 27, JIUMAOJIU Group, the parent company of TAI ER Sauerkraut Fish, released its 2025 performance report. The financial report shows that the group achieved revenue of 5.233 billion yuan, a decrease of 13.8% year-on-year. The profit attributable to equity shareholders was 58.199 million yuan, an increase of 4.29% compared to the previous year.
In terms of store numbers, 189 stores were closed in 2025, while 26 new restaurants were opened. The total number of stores decreased from 807 in 2024 to 644. The financial report explained that store closures were due to the termination of lease agreements upon expiry and the underperformance of some restaurants.
The number of stores for the core brand, TAI ER, also decreased from 634 in 2024 to 499. Another JIUMAOJIU brand, Song Hotpot, saw its store count drop from 80 to 62. The table turnover rate also declined across brands: TAI ER's rate fell from 2.5 to 2.2, Song Hotpot's from 2.0 to 1.6, and the JIUMAOJIU brand's from 1.7 to 1.4. Due to store adjustments and a decline in same-store sales, TAI ER's revenue decreased by 15.7% to 3.720 billion yuan over the past year.
These challenges are unavoidable growing pains during a period of adjustment.
Over the past year, JIUMAOJIU's major brands have been advancing the iterative upgrade of their store models. The core focus has been on implementing a "fresh and live" concept while refining product strength and improving store operational quality.
Taking TAI ER as an example: some restaurants first added the words "Fresh and Live" to their signage, becoming "TAI ER Fresh Sauerkraut Fish." Subsequently, some restaurants directly changed their main sign to "New TAI ER · Fresh Ingredient Sichuan Cuisine," no longer highlighting sauerkraut fish—the single major product TAI ER originally built its reputation on.
An employee at a Beijing store mentioned that over the past year, the "fresh stores" have introduced many new dishes. The fish used in the sauerkraut fish has been changed from perch to snakehead fish, and prices have been lowered accordingly. Fresh snakehead fish is delivered to stores each morning and is slaughtered and marinated according to the meal period. Beyond fish, live shrimp, fresh chicken, and fresh beef have been added, all delivered daily. The store's current focus is on quality, freshness, and preparation on-site.
In 2010, JIUMAOJIU capitalized on the shopping mall boom by opening restaurants in malls, successfully moving up a level. In 2015, accurately gauging young people's tastes and just before sauerkraut fish became hugely popular, it launched TAI ER using a contrarian marketing strategy. TAI ER later became the main driver of the group's growth.
The year 2025 was marked by the餐饮 industry distancing itself from pre-made dishes. Although TAI ER has consistently denied using pre-made dishes, related skepticism has persisted. Consequently, amid slowing performance growth and the叠加 trust crisis surrounding pre-made dishes, JIUMAOJIU has accelerated its transformation. Over the past year, it has adjusted and renovated 243 stores to the "fresh and live" model. Six of these were directly transformed, no longer focusing primarily on sauerkraut fish but instead changing their product structure and menu to primarily sell Sichuan cuisine.
Guan Yihong, founder of JIUMAOJIU Group, often says in internal meetings: "We must keep up with the changes of the times and be a company of the era." However, any change comes at a cost, and this is especially true for large enterprises.
Which TAI ER stores are prioritized for renovation over closure? Where are the costs concentrated when renovating a store? Regarding these questions, attempts to contact JIUMAOJIU Group for comment had not received a response by the time of publication.
Removing the Sauerkraut Fish Label TAI ER Sauerkraut Fish has been questioned about being a pre-made dish, which is closely related to its extreme standardization and simplified processes.
Initially, to achieve standardization, TAI ER made a series of "subtractions" in its production process. In terms of ingredients, Guan Yihong formed a dedicated R&D team that compared various types of fish, ultimately selecting perch as the primary ingredient. The preparation process was simplified to just a few steps: slicing the fish, adding sauerkraut, simmering, pouring in the pre-prepared broth, and drizzling with hot oil before serving. From ordering to serving, the process could take as little as five minutes.
This nearly "chef-free" standardized approach allowed TAI ER to expand rapidly in a short period. Stores once sold only sauerkraut fish, offering no other dishes, thereby creating a strong association in consumers' minds between TAI ER and sauerkraut fish.
To appeal to young consumers, TAI ER adopted a décor style featuring white walls with comic-style murals. It also introduced unconventional marketing slogans such as "No service for groups larger than four, no table sharing, no extra seats, no takeaway," and "The sauerkraut is better than the fish." TAI ER quickly became a网红 restaurant with long queues. It wasn't until 2020 that some Sichuan dishes were gradually added as tactical supplements, but sauerkraut fish remained the star attraction.
Significant change began in 2025. Under the "5.0 Fresh Model," TAI ER first changed its signage, with some stores adding "Fresh and Live" to become "TAI ER Fresh Sauerkraut Fish," aligning with the broader industry trend of distancing from pre-made dishes that year.
To further dispel pre-made dish controversies, TAI ER introduced a transparent menu at the end of last year, disclosing the degree of ingredient pre-processing: a green Category A label indicates ingredients processed fresh on-site using entirely fresh ingredients; an orange-red Category D label indicates that some ingredients were pre-cooked before arriving at the store and are finished cooked on-site.
Even before this major overhaul, as early as 2021, JIUMAOJIU had tested the waters with Sichuan cuisine by opening a new store called "TAI ER Prelude." This new restaurant, with a much higher average spend per customer than TAI ER Sauerkraut Fish, was originally intended to cater to larger groups and high-end business dining scenarios. It also fit the strategy at the time of exploring new growth avenues under JIUMAOJIU's multi-brand strategy. However, "TAI ER Prelude" has yet to achieve large-scale expansion.
It wasn't until the end of 2025 that TAI ER officially added "Sichuan Restaurant" to its signage. Sauerkraut fish is still available but is no longer the sole protagonist.
TAI ER wants to remove the single label of sauerkraut fish.
The reasons are understandable. On one hand, sauerkraut fish as a single category no longer enjoys the high growth momentum of the past. Data from Narrow Door Meal Eye shows that in the past three years, both the number of brands and the total number of stores in the sauerkraut fish segment have been contracting. Besides TAI ER, several Yu Shihu locations in Beijing have also chosen to add "Sichuan & Chongqing Stir-fry" to their signs, moving away from a sole focus on sauerkraut fish.
The broader Sichuan cuisine category, in which TAI ER Sauerkraut Fish operates, appears to have more potential. Data from Hongcan Network shows that as of the end of July 2025, the number of Sichuan cuisine restaurants nationwide reached 151,000, accounting for 11.4% of all Chinese full-service restaurants, firmly ranking first among all cuisine types. Furthermore, Sichuan cuisine relies on the "wok hei" or breath of the wok, which directly addresses current consumer concerns about pre-made dishes. Therefore, TAI ER has good reason to try shedding its old label.
But change is not easy. Adding more categories leads to increased costs due to daily fresh deliveries, posing higher challenges for the supply chain. Additionally, renovating TAI ER stores requires time and financial investment. Introducing more dishes means the old standardized, ultra-simple operational model is no longer applicable. Re-standardizing the taste across nearly 500 TAI ER stores will inevitably shift from being "chef-free" to requiring "more chefs," thus introducing cost pressures related to chef training and staffing.
Furthermore, the "2025 Sichuan Cuisine Development Data Report" indicates that from January 2024 to September 2025, the transaction heat for Sichuan cuisine showed a slowing trend, with declines in dine-in, takeaway, and average customer spending. This suggests that the broader Sichuan cuisine赛道 is also under pressure.
Moreover, after a decade of growth, the single product of sauerkraut fish has become firmly bound to TAI ER, creating a strong consumer认知. Changing this perception will not happen overnight. This battle to transform by shedding a label requires both time and money.
Spending 300 Million on "Localization" Overseas While its core brand expands its product categories, JIUMAOJIU is also continuing to bet on overseas markets, facing the reality of intense "involution" and fierce price wars in the domestic餐饮 market.
On December 29, 2025, JIUMAOJIU announced plans to invest a total of $43 million to increase its stake in the North American自助火锅 brand Big Way Hot Pot, raising its shareholding from 10% to 49%. This corresponds to obtaining 10.8% of the voting rights.
Prior to this acquisition, JIUMAOJIU began its overseas expansion in 2021. TAI ER successively opened stores in countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, the United States, Thailand, Indonesia, and New Zealand, primarily serving local Chinese communities.
However, Chinese cuisine expanding into North America长期 faces common challenges such as taste adaptation, differences in consumption habits, and brand recognition. JIUMAOJIU also acknowledged in its announcement that successfully penetrating the local non-Chinese customer base presents a high barrier.
Previously, JIUMAOJIU had responded to media inquiries stating that decisions regarding the overseas expansion of other hot pot brands like Song Hotpot and Shan Waimian would be based on continuous assessment of factors such as overseas consumers' acceptance of Chinese hot pot, supply chain feasibility, and team management scope. This cautious attitude also highlights the significant difficulty of entering mainstream markets with proprietary brands. This might be why JIUMAOJIU chose to acquire a new brand for its North American布局 rather than directly testing the waters with its own hot pot brands.
Big Way is precisely the path JIUMAOJIU found to "test the waters of localization."
Public information shows that Big Way Hot Pot is a North American连锁 mala tang brand. Its dining style is similar to self-select mala tang in China: customers take a pot, choose ingredients and soup base according to their preference, and pay by weight. As of the announcement date, the brand had opened a total of 21 restaurants in the Vancouver area and Toronto, Canada, and California, USA, with an average spend per person between $20 and $30.
JIUMAOJIU stated in its announcement that as a mature local brand in North America, Big Way has a deep understanding of local consumption preferences, product structure, and store models, and has established a clear brand positioning and a stable customer base in the North American market.
Therefore, the acquisition of Big Way serves both as a move by JIUMAOJIU to弥补 the structural limitation of TAI ER's primary reliance on Chinese customers in the North American market. In the future, TAI ER might also leverage Big Way's localization experience to achieve deeper localized operations in North America.
However, according to the announcement, the parties agreed to sign the final agreement and complete the transaction by March 31, 2026. If the deadline is not met, either party has the right to terminate the term sheet in writing. This means that the strategy of relying on acquisitions to gradually penetrate the local market still carries uncertainty. Furthermore, there are significant differences in consumer场景 and operational models between TAI ER, primarily focused on sauerkraut fish, and Big Way. How the two can achieve genuine synergy remains to be seen over time.
From divesting underperforming sub-brands, to opening加盟 rights for the TAI ER and Shan Waimian brands, to closing low-quality stores, renovating and upgrading the TAI ER store model, introducing the "fresh and live" model, and investing overseas to serve broader mass markets. Over the past two years, amid intensifying competition in the餐饮 market, JIUMAOJIU has never been idle. It has been constantly experimenting and transforming, but has yet to produce impressive results on paper.
Currently, the restructuring and renovations are accelerating. The year 2026 is undoubtedly a critical year for JIUMAOJIU. Whether this transformation move will prove effective may become clear within the year.
Comments