People dine at Haidila Hot Pot Restaurant inside a shopping mall complex in Beijing on March 13, 2025. One of China’s largest restaurant chains has promised to refund thousands of customers after a video of a patron urinating into a boiling pot went viral, sparking a public outcry. The video, filmed last month, shows a young man urinating into a vat of boiling soup while standing at a table in Shanghai’s Haibinao restaurant. (Photo credit: JADE GAO/AFP) (Photo credit: JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images)
Jade Gao | AFP | Getty Images
Chinese hot pot chain stock price Haidilao International Shares rose 7% in Hong Kong on Wednesday after the company’s first-half results showed delivery revenue more than doubled.
According to results released on Tuesday, Haidilao’s sales for the six months to June rose 7.9% year-on-year to 22.34 billion yuan ($3.32 billion), while core operating profit, a non-IFRS measure, rose 4.4% to 2.51 billion yuan.
The home delivery business is Haidilao’s fastest growing business segment, with sales increasing by 121.2% to RMB 2.05 billion, mainly due to the rapid growth of the single-serve fast food business and the expansion of the delivery network through more local locations.
Revenue from Haibara brand restaurants, which accounted for 79.9% of group sales, decreased by 4% to RMB 17.84 billion, mainly due to a decrease in the number of self-operated restaurants.
As of the end of June, Haidilao operated 1,389 restaurants under its core hot pot brand and 183 restaurants under 21 other catering brands.
What is the driving force behind Haidilao’s growth?
Revenue from other restaurant businesses increased by 113.1% to 1.27 billion yuan, which Haidilao attributed to the development of a catering brand based on the “Pomegranate Plan” to explore new catering formats, and contributions from meal scenarios such as camping hotpot and late night hotpot.
The company said that the street food hotpot and sushi format has developed a relatively mature single-restaurant model and has entered the “large-scale replication” stage, with plans to gradually expand the scale from the second half of this year, and will become an important source of revenue growth for other restaurant businesses in 2027.
Citi said in a post-earnings note that Haidilao’s first-half operating profit (excluding other income) increased 13% year-on-year and beat expectations by 6%.
The bank also pointed out that Haidian’o’s underwater food stall hotpot and sushi format will begin scaling up in the second half of 2026, while Haidling’o brand store openings are expected to accelerate in 2027, and sales growth is likely to accelerate next year. The bank maintained its buy rating.
