Haidilao closed 311 stores due to misjudgment of the situation

Haidilao closed 311 stores due to misjudgment of the situation. As the leader of the catering industry in China and a well-known national brand, Haidilao gave people the impression that there was always a long queue at the door, but now it was forced to close, with 311 stores closed due to misjudgment of the situation and 311 stores closed due to misjudgment of the situation. 1

on October 5th, Haidilao announced that the group had decided to gradually close about 311 Haidilao stores with relatively low passenger flow and unsatisfactory business performance before February 31th, 2121 (some of them will be temporarily closed and reopened at an opportunity, with the longest closing period not exceeding two years). Yang Lijuan, executive director and deputy CEO of Haidilao, said that the closure of 311 stores this time was a misjudgment of the recovery speed after the epidemic. Based on the operating conditions of these stores and their own problems, the company made a decision to shut them down.

According to reports, the epidemic situation stabilized in March 2121, and Haidilao recovered quickly when it reopened in April and May. In addition, shops were easy to find and there were many preferential conditions (rent, etc.) at that time, the company thought it might be an opportunity and wanted to seize this opportunity. I didn't expect the epidemic to be repeated and last for so long.

At present, the competition in hot pot rivers and lakes is becoming more and more fierce, consumers' tastes are changeable, and the epidemic situation is repeatedly superimposed with the rising prices of raw materials, which makes the catering industry even more difficult, and the spring of the industry is far away. Affected by the misjudgment of the epidemic, Haidilao's share price has been falling all the way, and it has even shown an accelerated decline in the near future. Up to now, Haidilao's share price has fallen by 75% during the year, and its market value has evaporated by HK$ 351 billion. Haidilao closed 311 stores due to misjudgment of the situation. 2

In China, Internet giants especially like to invest in industries with trillions of markets, such as artificial intelligence, autonomous driving and community group buying.

then the question is, the catering industry is also a trillion-dollar market, but the internet giants are not interested. Moreover, it is difficult for the catering industry to have large listed companies, except Haidilao.

Although catering meets the requirement of high frequency, it is difficult to standardize it. Even if the product is standardized, it is difficult to standardize your service and sanitary conditions, and there will always be scandals because of something.

Haidilao was once known as the ceiling of China's catering and an enterprise that everyone admired. Its unexpected services make people amazed, even if the price is a little more expensive than that of its peers, people can accept it, and there are often long queues at the door of the store.

Similarly, the capital market was once extremely optimistic about Haidilao, with the highest market value of HK$ 468 billion. In less than 9 months, Haidilao fell by more than 75%, and its market value evaporated by more than HK$ 351 billion. By the close of October 5, the market value of Haidilao was still HK$ 114.9 billion. Zhang Yong, the founder, also lost the honor of being the richest man in Singapore because of the continuous decline in share price.

Why did Haidilao close the store?

The epidemic has passed and everything is on the right track. Why did Haidilao suddenly close its store? And there are 311 stores in one breath. Even if a Haidilao has only 11 employees and 311 stores have 3,111 employees, where should they go?

In response to these questions, Haidilao gave the answers in the announcement issued on October 5th.

Haidilao said that the company will close about 311 stores with unsatisfactory performance before February 31, 2121 this year. In addition, the Group will suspend the opening of new stores if the average turnover rate is less than 4 times per day.

It should be noted, however, that there will be no layoffs when the store closes, and all employees and leaders will be placed in other stores.

netizens still agree with the practice of not laying off employees in Haidilao, saying that this is the responsibility of large enterprises.

Haidilao summarized four reasons for closing the store:

First, some stores were wrongly located;

second, the organizational structure change consumes a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources;

thirdly, there is a lack of enough excellent store managers;

fourth, over-confidence in KPI and insufficient corporate culture construction.

The above four reasons are not only the problems existing in Haidilao, but also the problems existing in many catering enterprises, which seems to be a little unsolved in the Chinese food industry. This is also the reason why many catering enterprises cannot go public.

what should we do? Haidilao also gave the answer, that is, the implementation of the "Woodpecker Plan", which is in the charge of Ms. Yang Lijuan, the company's deputy CEO. Focus on stores with poor performance, and close the door. Restore the regional management system and strengthen the construction of corporate culture. Suspension of enterprise expansion, focusing on the average turnover rate data of Haidilao.

The myth of Haidilao has been shattered

Many years ago, Haidilao took Haidilao to the altar with a book "Haidilao You Can't Learn".

From then on, people will pay more attention to Haidilao. As long as there is any unexpected service in Haidilao, it will be recorded by netizens with a lens.

For example, some time ago, employees of Haidilao actually helped their children with their homework in the restaurant. I'm afraid this kind of service is what parents want. After all, tutoring homework is a big problem. What's even more outrageous is that the restaurant waiter came to coach, which was really surprising, so he went to a hot search.

However, please don't go overboard. The core competitiveness of a hot pot restaurant must be the food itself. If the food is not delicious and the service is good, I'm afraid it won't help.

Unfortunately, Haidilao didn't give people too many surprises in the taste of the food itself. Many netizens said that it was no different from other hot pot restaurants, and the taste could only be said to be quite satisfactory.

For many consumers who are worried about society, they don't want to be over-served. They prefer to eat better food than their peers, that's all.

That's the difficulty of hotpot restaurant. It's really hard to differentiate the products. After all, they are all raw products. What really differentiates them is the snacks, desserts and seasonings in the restaurant.

Some consumers who are familiar with Haidilao said that the types of seasonings in Haidilao are not as rich as before, and many free ingredients have been cancelled.

There is really not much room for Haidilao to play. Unfortunately, Haidilao is not aware of this problem.

In addition, when there are few shops in Haidilao, people can show their taste and personality by eating Haidilao. However, when Haidilao was everywhere, Haidilao had become an ordinary restaurant, and the previous advantages were gone. What is even more cruel is that there will also be a competitive relationship between shops in Haidilao, which will lead to a continuous decline in the turnover rate.

It is understood that the average turnover rate in Haidilao in 2119 was 4.8 times/day, and in 2121, the impact of epidemic situation dropped to 3.5 times/day, and in 2121, the turnover rate dropped to 3 times/day.

Haidilao without turnover rate is like a fish without air, and it only has a dead end.

In the catering industry in China, don't be superstitious about myths. Any brand will encounter bottlenecks. How to break through is an eternal topic! Haidilao closes 311 stores due to misjudgment of the situation. At 8: 11 p.m. on October 5th, Haidilao issued the latest announcement that it will gradually close about 311 stores before February 31th, 2121, because the passenger flow of these stores is low and the business performance has not reached the expected target. In addition, the announcement also said that Haidilao will also shrink the group expansion plan in due course.

As the leader of the catering industry in China and a well-known national brand, Haidilao gives people the impression that there will always be a long queue at the door, but now it has been forced to close down, and there are 311 stores at a time. What kind of signal does this reveal?

In fact, not only Haidilao, but also many catering enterprises are opening the "closed door" mode.

As early as 2121, due to the epidemic, countless stores closed down one after another, ranging from dozens to more than a hundred restaurants such as Jiumaojiu, Xu Liushan and Diaoye Beef brisket. However, this wave of closing did not stop with the control of the epidemic in 2121. Yoshinoya announced that it would close 151 stores before February this year, and that it would close 211 stores as early as September. Now Haidilao has announced the closure of 311 stores, and the closing tide is getting worse.

according to the report on the development of chain catering industry in China in 2121, the total number of catering stores in China has dropped from 9.15 million to 7.6 million, with a decrease of more than 1.45 million, which is close to 21%. Thus, the catering industry market is still in a downturn.

There are 311 closed stores in Haidilao. The market downturn is only one aspect. More importantly, it reveals the most important information. The market of China catering industry has changed, and the era of Haidilao's dominance is fading away. As the catering industry enters a new stage of high-level competition, the myth of Haidilao begins to fade.

For a long time in the past, the service awareness of the catering industry was generally not strong. Haidilao took the lead in providing quality services, not only providing all kinds of free drinks, fruits and snacks, but also providing unexpected services such as hand sanitizer and toilet paper. No matter in the eyes of peers or customers, Haidilao is a unique new species and has won a huge market reputation. Haidilao is not only a brand name, but also a synonym for service.

Therefore, the whole country has set off an upsurge of learning Haidilao, not only in the catering industry, but also in almost all service-related industries. Some people even specialize in the service of Haidilao, and published a monograph "Haidilao, You Can't Learn", which became the Bible of the catering industry and became popular all over the country for a while. It is no exaggeration to say that Haidilao has contributed to the overall improvement of service awareness in China catering industry.

However, with the service level of the catering industry getting higher and higher, the service advantage of Haidilao is becoming less and less obvious. In order to strengthen its service advantage, Haidilao has continuously increased its strength, even a little overexertion-so that after manicure and shoeshine, there are services such as shampoo. In short, all kinds of novel services can always be unexpected. However, as the saying goes, the service of Haidilao is no longer so pure in everyone's mind, while some services are considered too exaggerated. Among them, the 91-degree bow is considered too mechanical, and Haidilao is more like a stage for expressing services, which begins to make some guests feel disgusted.

compared with the constantly improving service, the product innovation of Haidilao is much slower. The so-called products are the ingredients, taste and weight of hot pot, which is the driving force for consumers to pay the bill. Haidilao not only has few measures to improve its products, but all kinds of negatives have been frequently exposed. First, in October this year, 211g of hairy belly was actually only 138g, and then it was discovered that tofu pudding was fined 21,111 yuan for being overdue, and so on.

On the contrary, many competitors in the market, after learning the service of Haidilao, have made great efforts in product strength. Among them, Banu beef omasum hotpot is in tit-for-tat with Haidilao, putting forward the slogan of "service is not excessive, everything is exquisite", paying attention to the introduction of high-quality ingredients and the research and development of taste, such as the introduction of New Zealand beef omasum and the introduction of "papain tenderizing" technology, which has become a new star in consumers' hearts.

No matter how many conceptual elements there are in these products of Banu, it can be seen that it holds high the banner of productism and insists on the excessive service of Haidilao. And productism is obviously the trend of the catering industry. Xicha, with a valuation of 61 billion yuan, can stand out, not by service, but by excellent product quality.

In fact, the deep message behind this is that not only hot pot, but also the catering industry in China has entered an era of high-quality development from the era of barbaric growth. Among them, capital is a boosting force that cannot be ignored. Following the listing of Haidilao and Jiumaojiu, Xibei and Laoxiang Chicken also actively embraced capital, and the news of listing came out frequently. This year, many brands such as Wuye Mianmian, Baman Rice Noodle, Meet Xiaomian, Kuafu Fried String, and Hefulao Noodles all received the minimum financing of 1 billion yuan. With the blessing of capital, new brands, new experiences and new models in the catering industry emerge one after another, many of which are ambitious and aim to catch up with Haidilao.

Looking at the current era, the catering industry is rapidly upgrading and many brands are making rapid progress, but the innovation and progress of Haidilao are somewhat weak. Haidilao is still that Haidilao, but the opponent is not that opponent! When competitors' products are shining, the banner of "service" in Haidilao is no longer so effective.

So, it's not that Haidilao is no longer excellent, but that colleagues have become better. Haidilao was unique in that year because the industry development level was relatively low and consumers had few brands to choose from. But now there is no shortage of excellent catering brands in the market, and consumers have more and more choices, so it is inevitable that the market share of Haidilao will be diverted.

On the one hand, the competition is becoming more and more fierce, and on the other hand, the environment is not good, so even Haidilao has to close down!

Of course, the closure of stores in Haidilao also reflects the management decision-making problem of Haidilao. Haidilao was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2118, and started to expand rapidly in 2119. When the epidemic came in early 2121, Haidilao saw that the store rent was low at this time, but misjudged the impact of the epidemic on the entire catering industry and continued to implement the rapid expansion plan.

In 2121, there will be 544 new stores in Haidilao, and 299 new stores will be added in the first half of 2121.

However, due to the explosion of new stores and the serious shortage of excellent managers, the management efficiency is low. At the same time, in the face of heavy market pressure, it tried to ease it by raising prices, but it was strongly opposed by consumers, which caused Haidilao's reputation to change from unanimous praise in the past to crazy spit: expensive price, small weight and poor taste.

As Haidilao said, at present, the bitter fruit can only be swallowed by himself, but at the same time, Haidilao should re-examine the present times and its own problems.