The well-known Chinese internet celebrity Li Liangliang’s “Li Liangliang Chongqing Noodles” recently closed its doors. Currently, all three stores have been shut down on January 5th, with losses exceeding 3 million RMB.
According to the news from China’s Red Restaurant Network on January 10th, the famous Chongqing model Li Liangliang announced in a video on January 6th that her founded “Li Liangliang Chongqing Noodles” has officially closed. At present, all three stores are closed, with losses exceeding 3 million RMB.
In the video, Li Liangliang explained the reasons for the closure of the stores: first, she is not good at managing restaurants, coupled with the fact that her work as a model and live-streaming e-commerce host has taken up most of her time in recent years, resulting in her rarely being on the front line of the stores. The decision to close the offline stores is seen as a timely loss prevention measure, while online sales channels continue to operate as usual.
Li Liangliang is a well-known model in Chongqing with over 10 million fans across the internet. In 2022, “Li Liangliang Chongqing Noodles” officially opened in Chongqing, with the first store located in the Chongqing Financial Center. Over the following two years, two more stores were opened in Chongqing under the same brand.
“Li Liangliang Chongqing Noodles” specializes in Chongqing-style noodle dishes, with an average consumption of around 15 RMB per person. The signature Chongqing noodles are priced between 18 to 28 RMB.
In addition to offline stores, in 2023, “Li Liangliang Chongqing Noodles” also ventured into online retail. The brand’s official Douyin storefront currently features 4 products for sale, including 2 retail packs of braised beef noodles and 2 kinds of sausages.
At the opening of the first store, Li Liangliang personally made noodles for customers, attracting many online influencers and fans to visit and check-in at the restaurant during its early days, leading to a surge in popularity. However, as time passed, over the past two years, the business of “Li Liangliang Chongqing Noodles” gradually declined.
Red Restaurant Network believes that the excessive investment in stores, improper cost control, and a reliance on the founder’s popularity while neglecting the essence of restaurant management are important factors contributing to the closure of Li Liangliang’s Chongqing Noodles.
Li Liangliang previously revealed that the total renovation cost for the three stores amounted to over 2 million RMB, with an additional 200,000 to 300,000 RMB spent on the opening events. All three stores were located in commercial areas with relatively large spaces, resulting in expensive rental costs. In terms of labor costs, the first store alone had over 20 employees.
In comparison to other noodle shops in Chongqing, their store sizes are around 60 square meters, reducing store space to alleviate rental costs. Additionally, noodle shops usually have simpler kitchen operations, with most stores keeping their staff numbers under 10.
Red Restaurant Network believes that relying too much on the founder’s popularity and neglecting the fundamentals of restaurant management led to an initial influx of consumers but failed to achieve repeat business through product quality, service, and operational efficiency. Coupled with improper cost controls, in the fiercely competitive Chongqing noodle market, the closure of “Li Liangliang Chongqing Noodles” became inevitable.
It’s not only “Li Liangliang Chongqing Noodles” that has closed its doors; a batch of once popular celebrity restaurants have also shut down in recent years.
In August 2024, the hotpot brand “Huofengxiang Fresh Hotpot,” in which the star Zheng Kai once held shares, announced the closure of its first store in Beijing. At its peak, “Huofengxiang” claimed to have over 200 stores nationwide through its official WeChat account, but according to Big Data from Red Restaurants, the number of stores across the country has now fallen to less than 50.
In July 2024, “Xie Xie Cha,” a popular bubble tea brand invested by well-known host and producer Ma Dong, was reported to have completely closed down. Public reviews indicate that all offline stores of “Xie Xie Cha” nationwide are now in a state of “closed for business.”
In December 2023, Hong Kong star Ng Chi Hung closed all five of his restaurants in mainland China, with losses totaling millions. In 2023, the restaurant chain “Xianhe Zhuang,” founded by Chen He, successively withdrew from multiple cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu, and so on.
In response to these closures, Red Restaurant Network analysis suggests that the restaurant industry is not something that can be rushed into. Many internet celebrities and stars jump into the restaurant business relying on their fame to attract customers, focusing mainly on the ambiance, marketing, and promotion. The stars themselves often have limited involvement in the actual operations, with some outsourced management companies neglecting market understanding and failing to adjust to changes and challenges in a timely manner. Seasoned industry professionals suggest that if a restaurant brand fails to manage store models, product structures, and operations effectively, the more grandiose the opening marketing becomes, the faster it may lead to closure.