HAIDILAO (06862) has demonstrated resilience and steady progress amidst challenges, supported by a solid core business, a clear technology-driven strategy, exploration of external growth opportunities, a focus on high-quality internal operations, and the diversified brand strategy of its "Pomegranate Plan." The company released its 2025 financial results on March 24, showing stable growth with revenue reaching RMB 43.225 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.1%. The diversified growth strategy yielded significant results, with takeaway business revenue surging 111.9% to RMB 2.658 billion. The accelerated advancement of the "Pomegranate Plan" drove strong performance from multiple brands, with revenue from other restaurant operations soaring 214.6% to RMB 1.521 billion.
By the end of 2025, HAIDILAO operated a total of 1,383 restaurants, comprising 1,304 self-operated outlets and 79 franchised locations. Beyond its core brand, the company managed 20 additional dining brands, a net increase of 9 brands compared to 2024, operating 207 restaurants under these brands—a growth of 1.8 times. Profitability remained relatively stable, with core operating profit and net profit attributable to shareholders reaching RMB 5.103 billion and RMB 4.05 billion, respectively, representing profit margins of 11.81% and 9.37%. The company declared a final dividend of HKD 0.384 per share, bringing the full-year dividend to HKD 0.722 per share, representing a dividend yield of 5.08%. As of December 2025, HAIDILAO held bank balances and cash totaling RMB 6.602 billion.
In a year of industry adjustment, HAIDILAO prioritized high-quality development. It focused on strengthening its core business by adhering to its "customer-first and employee-first" philosophy and enhancing single-store operational quality through online and offline channels. Simultaneously, it built a diversified growth matrix by accelerating the development of new scenarios, models, and capabilities to explore multiple growth avenues. The core HAIDILAO restaurant brand remained the primary revenue driver, contributing 86.9% of total revenue in 2025. While revenue was affected by store optimization efforts, average single-store revenue remained largely stable. Takeaway services, other restaurant operations, and franchising delivered impressive performances, with revenue growth rates of 111.9%, 214.6%, and 15.2 times, respectively. Their contributions to total revenue increased to 6.1%, 3.5%, and 0.6%, highlighting the success of the company's diversification strategy.
Specifically, the average customer spending per person at self-operated HAIDILAO restaurants in 2025 was RMB 97.7, slightly higher than the previous year, primarily driven by increased spending in first-tier cities, while spending in second-tier and lower-tier cities remained largely unchanged. Influenced by broader industry conditions, the overall table turnover rate was 3.9 times per day. Same-store revenue remained essentially stable despite the impact of store optimization. Regarding the three key growth drivers, the net addition of 66 franchised stores significantly boosted franchising revenue. HAIDILAO enhanced its takeaway service capacity by expanding categories, locations, service hours, and channels, establishing over 1,200 takeaway service points nationwide to create a dual-drive model combining dine-in and delivery services, leading to explosive growth in takeaway revenue. The "Pomegranate Plan" bore fruit, with HAIDILAO successfully operating 20 sub-brands by the end of 2025, covering segments such as seafood eateries, sushi, Western-style light meals, mini hot pot, and Chinese fast food, demonstrating parallel progress across multiple brands.
To solidify its core business and create new growth points, HAIDILAO focused on three key initiatives: First, creating a "Different HAIDILAO" through product innovation and scenario design to unlock consumer potential. Second, accelerating brand incubation under the "Pomegranate Plan," which has progressed from internal incubation to market expansion. Third, embracing AI trends by advancing digitalization and mid-platform capability construction to enhance single-store operational efficiency and user experience.
HAIDILAO fully implemented its "Different HAIDILAO" strategy, exploring innovative demand experiences and product offerings centered on "user needs." It continuously optimized its diversified store matrix and scenario designs, achieving a deep transition from standardized operations to differentiated competition through precise "one-store-one-strategy" management models. Tailoring its approach to different commercial districts and customer segments, the company successfully developed various store models, including fresh-cut ingredient stores, late-night eateries, family-friendly stores, and pet-friendly locations, effectively catering to diverse customer needs. By the end of 2025, HAIDILAO had completed themed renovations for over 200 specialty stores, with scenario-based stores focusing on families, pets, and communities being systematically rolled out. These innovative experiences enhanced brand penetration and customer loyalty in existing markets.
In terms of product innovation, HAIDILAO built a competitive moat through a dual-driven product launch mechanism combining national and regional offerings. In 2025, the company vigorously developed its "Fresh-Cut" series for meat dishes, introducing categories such as fresh-cut seafood, beef, chicken, and pork. Additionally, it maintained a seasonal update mechanism to improve the localization adaptability of regional products. By the end of 2025, the number of regional specialty products exceeded 100, covering all categories from soup bases and dishes to condiments and desserts, precisely meeting the diverse preferences of consumers across different regions.
Regarding customer reach, HAIDILAO achieved breakthroughs in cross-border IP collaborations, partnering with anime, online games, and celebrities to enhance fan-oriented marketing. It also established the "HAIDILAO Xiaolaolao" IP account across multiple platforms and utilized youth-oriented communication channels like short videos and animations, successfully expanding its brand image, connecting with new scenarios, and accumulating new customer assets. By proactively creating demand and product supply, and reaching users through multiple channels, HAIDILAO built a "Different HAIDILAO," stimulating new consumption concepts and demands. This differentiation enhanced single-store performance, stabilized the core business, and set an example for the industry, demonstrating that proactive adaptation leads to success during adjustment cycles.
The "Pomegranate Plan" yielded significant results, transitioning from internal incubation to market expansion. Launched in August 2024 to incubate new ventures, the plan had, by the end of that year, fostered 11 dining brands and 74 restaurants through internal entrepreneurship. In 2025, HAIDILAO accelerated multi-brand expansion, increasing the portfolio to 20 brands covering segments like seafood eateries, sushi, Western-style light meals, mini hot pot, and Chinese fast food, totaling 207 restaurants. The plan entered a harvest phase in 2025, driving a more than twofold increase in revenue from other restaurant brands to RMB 1.521 billion, marking its official transition into a new stage of "multi-brand parallel" group operations.
According to the financial report, HAIDILAO refined the "Pomegranate Plan" framework, establishing dual incubation systems: the "Chef Master" system, focusing on employee entrepreneurship, and the "People's Restaurant" system, involving headquarters-led project planning and promotion. Throughout the year, the company continued to expand into various sub-segments, such as large-format hot pot and the "Ruji Sushi" brand. Ruji Sushi, for instance, emphasizes "fresh-cut, immediate cooking, and on-the-spot frying," targeting consumption scenarios like light socializing, solo dining, and small gatherings. Third-party platform data indicates that Ruji Sushi currently ranks first in popularity for Japanese cuisine in Hangzhou. These dual incubation mechanisms are gradually forming new revenue streams and growth curves, with positive effects already reflected in phased profit performance from scale growth.
Furthermore, the takeaway business has become a crucial pillar of HAIDILAO's revenue growth. The company is actively exploring ways to extend the successful takeaway model of its main brand to support other brands under the "Pomegranate Plan," fully implementing the dual-drive "dine-in + delivery" structure to foster high-quality development across its multi-brand portfolio.
To support its multi-brand, multi-segment expansion strategy, HAIDILAO established a coordinated "front, middle, and back office" system in 2025 and created a shared "Catering Ecosystem Intelligent Mid-Platform," cementing a technology-driven expansion direction. This technological drive is manifested in three areas: standardization of experience with AI empowerment, a full-chain enablement system, and management model transformation. Technology is integral to HAIDILAO's high-quality development, whether in creating the "Different HAIDILAO" for its core business or executing the multi-brand "Pomegranate Plan." The company has defined AI's role in empowering different business stages: in production, AI algorithms facilitate automated staff scheduling, intelligent inventory ordering, and precise stock management, reducing operational complexity; in user experience, AI-powered booking services remember preferences for personalized service, and AI dish tagging enables smart recommendations; internally, an AI Q&A system provides employees with data query support, improving efficiency.
HAIDILAO has received positive outlooks from several investment banks. Jefferies, for example, published a report stating that under the "Pomegranate Plan," the seafood hot pot brand aims to expand to 500 stores within three years, and the sushi brand targets 100 stores within two years. The report noted that management will focus on improving the main brand's operations in 2026 through differentiated themed stores and product innovation, while multi-brand expansion and strong takeaway growth will continue to drive group development.
Notably, HAIDILAO maintains a commitment to annual dividend distributions, sharing development outcomes with shareholders. According to the financial report, cash dividends for 2023-2025 amounted to HKD 4.862 billion, HKD 4.462 billion, and HKD 3.91 billion, respectively, totaling HKD 13.234 billion. Based on the current market capitalization, the three-year dividend yield reaches 17.1%.
In summary, HAIDILAO's focus on high-quality development in 2025 resulted in resilient growth driven by diversification. With standout performance in its takeaway business, and driven by the "Different HAIDILAO" initiative, the "Pomegranate Plan," and its digital intelligent mid-platform, the company has stabilized its core business while accelerating its multi-brand strategy, leading to the initial formation of multiple growth curves.
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