In a recent announcement, China’s leading hotpot company, Haidilao, disclosed its financial report for the first half of 2025, showing a decline in both revenue and net profit compared to the same period last year. This marks the first dual decline in performance for the company since 2022. At the same time, the entire Chinese hotpot market is showing signs of cooling off, with many well-known brands facing a wave of store closures.
Haidilao’s financial report for the first half of 2025 revealed a revenue of 20.703 billion yuan, a 3.66% decrease compared to the previous year, with a net profit attributable to shareholders of 1.759 billion yuan, down by 13.72%.
The report cited intensified market competition, changes in consumer demand, and the initial impact of product and operational adjustments as the main reasons for the decline in performance.
One of the key indicators of interest in the financial report is the table turnover rate, which measures the efficiency of seat utilization and business prosperity in the restaurant industry by tracking how often a table is reused to serve new customers within a specific period.
In the first half of this year, Haidilao’s overall table turnover rate decreased to 3.8 times per day, lower than the 4.2 times per day during the same period last year. The total number of customers also dropped from over 200 million to 190 million. Despite a slight increase in average spending per customer to 97.9 yuan, the core business revenue of restaurant operations decreased by 9% year-on-year, accounting for 89.8% of the total revenue, down from 95%.
Facing operational pressures, Haidilao is undergoing a series of adjustments. The company continues to implement the “Woodpecker Project,” closing 33 underperforming or low-growth potential restaurants, while simultaneously opening 25 self-operated restaurants and 3 franchised restaurants to optimize its store network.
In contrast to the challenges in the dine-in business, Haidilao’s delivery business has shown strong performance. However, the revenue from the delivery business and other new brands still accounts for less than 8% of the total revenue, insufficient to offset the decline in the core hotpot business revenue.
Beyond the decline in revenue, rising costs have further squeezed profit margins. In the first half of the year, the proportion of raw materials and consumables costs to revenue increased to 39.8%, labor costs rose to 33.8%, and expenses such as rent also increased concurrently.
Meanwhile, a delivery dispute incident in Inner Mongolia quickly escalated on social media platforms, negatively impacting the brand image of Haidilao. The company has stated that an investigation into the matter has been initiated.
The decline in performance by Haidilao is not an isolated case but rather a microcosm of the broader challenges facing the hotpot industry in China.
Another hotpot giant, Qunarqunar, has forecasted a decrease of 18.9% in revenue for the first half of the year, with an expected net loss ranging between 80 million to 100 million yuan. This marks the company’s fourth consecutive year of losses.
To cope with the challenges, Qunarqunar has significantly reduced its store scale, closing 219 restaurants in 2024.
Additionally, several well-known hotpot brands have been caught in a wave of store closures. The popular internet-famous brand Zhu Guangyu Hotpot, once known as the “Chongqing Hotpot Queue King,” recently suspended operations in all its stores in Changsha. The former hotpot giant “Nan Hotpot” has closed over 200 stores in the past year, “Xiao Fei Yang” has undergone massive store reductions, and the Hong Kong-style hotpot brand “Yi Ge Macao Dou Luo” now has only one remaining store.