History
In March 1994, a then unknown restauranteur Zhang Yong opened the first Haidilao hot pot restaurant along with three other founders with 8,000 Yuan in Jianyang, Sichuan Province.[11] Haidilao grew competitively with an emphasis on customer service.[11] After five years, Haidilao started to expand beyond Sichuan to other provinces like Xi'an, Shanxi province, and other parts of the world.[11]
In 2018, Haidilao Hot Pot served more than 160 million customers, with an average daily table turnover rate (i.e. the number of parties hosted per table per day) of 5.0. Haidilao Hot Pot has more than 36 million VIP members and 60,000+ staffs.[12]
In 2019, Haidilao opened the first robot-aided hotpot restaurant in Beijing.[13]
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Haidilao closed all stores in mainland China on January 26, 2020, to decrease the spread of the virus. As a result, Haidilao recorded significant losses.[14] A similar hotpot chain restaurant called Xiabu Xiabu also closed around 20% of its total stores as a response to the decreased consumer demand during COVID. On March 12, 2020, with cases decreasing in China, Haidilao began reopening stores.[14]
However, even after reopening, business was slow.[15] Haidilao also faced backlash for increasing prices to offset pandemic losses,[16] and the number of people restaurants could serve was limited by government pandemic restrictions.[15]
In 2021, as part of an expansion plan, Haidilao opened 421 new restaurants, but it also closed 276 in an effort to improve the operations and profitability of existing stores.[15][4]
In 2022, in the wake of China's zero-COVID policy, Haidilao's shares fell more than 60%. Haidilao is focusing on expanding its international presence, spinning off its overseas unit, Super Hi International.[4]
