Recently, the focus of the catering industry has once again focused on Xiabu Xiabu, a well-known domestic hot pot brand, which announced the official launch of a new menu, marking that the smoke of the price war has not only not weakened in the slightest, but has intensified. On the new menu, the price of single and double packages has been greatly reduced, with an average of only 58 yuan for a single meal and 130 yuan for a double meal, and the overall unit price is about 60 yuan, which has directly lowered the average package price by more than 10%.
"FMCG" learned that among them, the signature dish Ximeng Uzhumuqin lamb package dropped from the starting point of 72 yuan to 64 yuan, and the fat beef package also dropped from 64 yuan to 56 yuan, a significant decrease. Not only that, Xiabu Xiabu's non-set menu dishes have also experienced varying price reductions, fully responding to this price competition.
According to Xiabu Group's financial report, Xiabu Xiabu's customer unit price in 2023 will reach 62.2 yuan, an increase of more than 40% compared with the customer unit price of 44.4 yuan when it was first listed in 2014. In addition, according to the data, in 2023, the per capita consumption of customers of Coucou Restaurant, another hot pot brand of Xiabu Group, will be 142.3 yuan, and the unit price of the roast brand, which focuses on "roast meat + wine and tea + joy", will be as high as 250 yuan. Its net loss in 2023 will reach 199 million yuan, 293 million yuan in 2021, and 353 million yuan in 2022, and its cumulative loss in the past three years will exceed 800 million yuan.
In addition, in 2023, Xiabu Group will close 99 Xiabu Xiabu restaurants and 15 Coucou restaurants. Xiabu Group said in its financial report that most of the restaurants were closed at a loss, and most of them operated in areas that did not meet the "cost-effective" model promoted by Xiabu Xiabu, and that the model did not properly reflect the brand image.
According to the data, in the first quarter of 2024, many catering giants such as KFC and Pizza Hut have experienced a decline in customer unit value, of which KFC fell by 6% and Pizza Hut fell by 12%. Brands such as Taier Sauerkraut Fish, Sweet Pot, and Jiumaojiu were also not spared, with unit prices falling by 2.7% to 3.4% respectively. Haidilao will reduce the unit price to 99.1 yuan as early as 2023, which is lower than the 100 yuan mark.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that Xiabu Xiabu has lowered its price. As early as 2023, it has adjusted the unit price of customers from 67.9 yuan to 63.4 yuan in first-tier cities, and although its revenue increased by 25.3% to 4.7248 billion yuan that year, its net loss still reached 199.5 million yuan, although it has narrowed compared with before.
In the face of the current situation of the industry, Xiabu Xiabu admitted: "The catering industry is under great pressure from market competition. "In fact, the continuation of this price war is not accidental, behind the effect of cost control. Commercial real estate rents are under control, with first-floor rents for prime shopping malls in 21 major cities in China falling by 1.0 percentage points year-on-year in 2023, according to a Jones Lang LaSalle report. At the same time, major catering enterprises have effectively reduced labor costs by optimizing product processes and introducing intelligent equipment, such as the labor cost of Jiumaojiu has dropped to the lowest in the past ten years, and the proportion of raw material costs has also decreased.
In 2023, Haidilao's gross profit margin increased by 1 percentage point year-on-year to 59.1%, the proportion of employee compensation decreased by 1 percentage point to 31.5%, and the proportion of rent and depreciation and amortization fell by 4 percentage points to 8.0%.