Hai Di Lao changed his coach after more than two years.
On the evening of June 21, Hai Di Lao International Holdings Limited (Hai Di Lao, 6862. HK) announced that Yang Lijuan had resigned as the company's executive director and CEO, and Gou Yiqun had been appointed as the company's executive director and CEO. The above executive changes will take effect from July 1, 2024.
On the evening of the 21st, Hai Di Lao's overseas business company, Tehai International Holdings Limited (Tehai International, 9658.HK; HDL), announced that Yang Lijuan has been appointed as the executive director and CEO of the company, mainly responsible for coordinating the management and strategic development of Tehai International. The appointment will take effect from July 1, 2024.
As of the close on June 21, Hai Di Lao closed at HKD 15.1 per share, down 1.69%; Tehai International Port's stock closed at HKD 12 per share, down 2.76%.
The new CEO was previously responsible for investment business, and the former CEO will fight against overseas "tough guys" again
According to the reporter from Pengpai News, Yang Lijuan and Gou Yiqun joined Haidilao in 1995 and 1999 respectively, both of whom were the first generation managers of Haidilao. Before Yang Lijuan took office, Zhang Yong, the current chairman of Hai Di Lao, served as the CEO of Hai Di Lao from January 17, 2018 to March 1, 2022.
According to the announcement, Gou Yiqun is 51 years old and has been a key member of Haidilao since January 2000, with over 24 years of industry and management experience. During her tenure at Hai Di Lao, Gou Yiqun held multiple positions including Chief Financial Officer, Information Technology Manager, and Supply Chain and Procurement Management Manager. Before being appointed as the CEO of Haidilao, Gou Yiqun was the Deputy General Manager and responsible for investment business.
In addition, Gou Yiqun served as the Chairman of Shuhai (Beijing) Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shuhai") from July 2011 to December 2018, and from February 2023 onwards; I served as a non-executive director of Yihai International Holdings Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Yihai International", 1579. HK) from October 2013 to March 2018, as its chairman from March 2016 to November 2017, and as a member of its compensation committee from March 2016 to March 2018. I also served as the chairman of its audit committee from July 2016 to November 2017.
"Like Yang Lijuan, Gou Yiqun has also witnessed the development of our group and has a profound understanding of our strategic direction, business environment, management philosophy, and core values. He has rich experience in strategic decision-making, enterprise management, supply chain supervision, and cooperative development, making him an ideal candidate to lead our group in transformation," Haidilao stated in the announcement.
Yang Lijuan, who has been serving as the CEO of Hai Di Lao for over two years, will shoulder the heavy responsibility of Hai Di Lao's overseas expansion.
According to a reporter from Pengpai News, Yang Lijuan joined Haidilao in 1995 and has served as a waiter. She has served as a team leader, store manager, community manager, and regional manager before and after. From January 2018 to August 2021, Yang Lijuan served as the Chief Operating Officer of Haidilao, mainly responsible for supervising its operations. From August 24, 2021 to February 28, 2022, he served as the Executive Director and Deputy CEO of Hai Di Lao. On March 1, 2022, Yang Lijuan was officially appointed as the CEO of Haidilao.
"During her tenure as Executive Director and CEO, Ms. Yang demonstrated excellent leadership and decision-making ability. In the face of the challenges posed by the COVID-19, Ms. Yang led the Group to achieve and exceed expectations and successfully complete the 'Woodpecker' and 'Hard Bone' plans in a timely manner. Under her guidance, the Group implemented systematic management, process based operation and digital assessment guidelines and responded to market changes in an orderly and flexible manner. The healthy development and sustainable growth of the Group today are largely attributed to Ms. Yang's leadership, whose leadership has won all-round recognition and praise from the whole company, from the board of directors to employees and shareholders." Haidilao said in the announcement.
The Woodpecker Plan is a shutdown plan implemented by Hai Di Lao at the end of 2021. According to industry insiders, Yang Lijuan, as the leader of the Woodpecker Plan, has always played an important role in operations and management. She came from a waitress background and has been working at Haidilao for over 27 years. She is a key figure for Haidilao to expand out of Sichuan and expand into the national market, as well as the person in charge of implementing the "linking interests and locking management" system at Haidilao.
During Yang Lijuan's tenure as CEO, he led Hai Di Lao to overcome the epidemic cycle, turning losses into profits in 2022, and achieving a net profit of 4.495 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of approximately 174.6%. The revenue was 41.453 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.6%.
Against the backdrop of the trend of Chinese cuisine going global, Yang Lijuan has been appointed as the CEO of Tehai International, once again competing in the tough overseas market. In its appointment announcement, Tehai International stated that Yang Lijuan had led the overseas expansion of the Haidilao brand, successfully expanding in Singapore and the United States in 2012 and 2013, laying the foundation for the group's current operations in the international market.
On May 17th of this year, HDL American Depositary Co., Ltd. officially went public on the NASDAQ global market. This dual listing in the United States is less than a year and a half since HDL International landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The capital market has also shown confidence in the overseas market of Chinese hotpot, with the first day of listing in the United States, the international market of Tehai surged by 48% at the beginning.
According to previous financial reports, since opening its first store in Singapore in 2012, Tehai International has expanded to 119 self operated stores in 13 countries across four continents as of the first quarter of this year. The board believes that the international market for Chinese hot pot will continue to grow significantly.
It is worth noting that the search for a dual major listing position in New York and Hong Kong coincides with Tehai International's turnaround. After four years of losses, it turned losses into profits last year. Specifically, Tehai International Group's revenue last year was 686 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 23%; The net profit was 25 million US dollars, compared to -0.41 billion US dollars in the same period of 2022, achieving a turnaround from losses to profits; The operating profit margin at the restaurant level was 9.0%, a year-on-year increase of 4.9 percentage points.
Behind Hai Di Lao's Change of Hands: Opening up Diversified Business Models, Promoting Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Digitalization
The change of leadership will promote the diversified development of Hai Di Lao, and future entrepreneurship, innovation, and digital development may become the focus.
"As our company enters the next stage of development, the group will promote entrepreneurship, innovation, and digital development while finely managing fundamental business. Gou Yiqun is one of the earliest employees of the group, and will lead the implementation of these measures with stability and sustainable growth as the core." Haidilao stated in the announcement.
The announcement also pointed out that under the leadership of Gou Yiqun, Haidilao has established two core committees: the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Committee and the Digital Operations Committee. Among them, the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Committee aims to develop new innovation models and incentive mechanisms, guide the future development of Hai Di Lao towards multiple levels and categories, lay the foundation for diversified business models, and promote innovation work at all levels of the group.
Previously, Hai Di Lao had made some progress in innovation and entrepreneurship, and the continuous promotion of new categories and formats has become a long-term plan. According to the previous financial report, last year Haidilao established an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office at the headquarters level to adjust the strategic planning of its entrepreneurial brand. In addition to Haidilao Restaurant, the group also owns brands such as "Xiaohi Hot Pot", "Miao Senior Brother Fragrant Pot", "Five Grains and Three Meals", "Yanqing Roast Meat Shop", "Hanshe", etc., achieving various business formats such as hot pot, fast food, grilled meat, and Chinese formal meals. In addition, Hai Di Lao has also launched new business formats such as outdoor display, camping hot pot, bubble house, campus hot pot, and enterprise hot pot.
At the annual shareholders' meeting held in early June, Zhang Yong, Chairman of Haidilao, introduced that the company has made many new business models and brand attempts internally, with weak supervision of innovation to ensure that everyone's innovation has the opportunity to be implemented. "In the future, Haidilao will consider the development of more categories and levels, and we also hope that Haidilao's store managers can become managers of multi managed stores. In the future, a store manager will manage multiple different types of stores, such as barbecue restaurants, noodle shops, or other business models, for resource sharing."
However, from an industry perspective, the creation of new brands usually does not see significant changes in a short period of time, and whether innovation can be done well will also become the responsibility of the new CEO.
The management previously stated at the shareholder meeting that although the current volume of each brand is still relatively small, the trend is positive. For example, Xiaohi Hot Pot and Miao Senior Brother Fragrant Pot all have small-scale expansion plans. "In the future, exploring diversified business strategies will be one of the long-term key tasks, and we will strategically seek to acquire high-quality resources to further enrich the group's catering business form and customer base."
In terms of digital development, Haidilao stated in the announcement that the Digital Operations Committee will use digital technologies such as artificial intelligence to improve management efficiency and provide support for operational models such as multi managed and dual managed store management systems. The integration of advanced technology is crucial for improving operational efficiency and future multi store interconnection and collaborative management.
At present, with the gradual normalization of Haidilao's opening and closing of stores, and even if franchisees are opened, the future proportion will not be very high, it seems that expanding the number of stores alone is no longer Haidilao's goal. Industry insiders in the catering industry told Pengpai News that as the number of business models at Hai Di Lao increases, it will become increasingly common for a store manager to manage multiple stores, and even multiple business models. Digitization will become another important topic for Hai Di Lao in the future.