Any change comes at a cost, and this is especially true for large companies.

By | “China Entrepreneurs” reporter Li Xin

Edited by | Mina

Photo source | Visual China

Once the company that took over the market with “a one-dish accomplishment of Sichuan-style sour cabbage fish,” Jiumaojiu is now forcing itself to transform.

On the evening of March 27, Jiumaojiu’s parent company, Jiumaojiu Group, released its 2025 performance report. The financial statements show that the group achieved revenue of RMB 5.233 billion, a year-over-year decline of 13.8%; profit attributable to equity shareholders was RMB 58.199 million, up 4.29% year over year.

In terms of the number of stores, in 2025 the company closed 189 stores (including 9 franchised/cooperative-model restaurants), opened 26 new restaurants, and the total number of stores fell from 807 in 2024 to 644. The financial report explains that the reason for store closures was the termination after the lease agreement period expired, as well as the fact that some restaurants did not meet expectations.

The number of stores of its main brand, Tàiyī, also decreased from 634 in 2024 to 499. Another brand under Jiumaojiu, “Song Hot Pot,” fell from 80 stores to 62; the seat turnover rate also dropped in parallel—Tàiyī’s turnover rate fell from 2.5 to 2.2, Song Hot Pot from 2.0 to 1.6, and Jiumaojiu from 1.7 to 1.4. Due to store adjustments and the decline in sales from stores that remained open, Tàiyī’s revenue in the past year also decreased 15.7% to RMB 3.720 billion.

These are all the pains that come with a period of adjustment that you can’t avoid.

In the past year, Jiumaojiu’s major brands under the company have been pushing iterative upgrades to their store models. The core has been to implement the “fresh and lively” concept while refining product strength and improving store operations quality.

Taking Tàiyī as an example: first, some restaurants added the two characters “fresh and lively” to the storefront, turning it into “Tàiyī Fresh & Lively Sour Cabbage Fish.” Then, some restaurants directly changed their signboards to “New Tàiyī · Fresh Ingredients Sichuan Cuisine,” no longer emphasizing sour cabbage fish—this was the big single product that Tàiyī once relied on to make its name.

Employees at a Beijing store told “China Entrepreneurs” that in the past year, “fresh and lively stores” added a lot of new dishes, and the sour cabbage fish also switched from perch to black fish, with prices dropping somewhat along with it. Every morning, black fish is delivered to the store in a unified way, then slaughtered, marinated, and cured according to different meal time slots. Aside from the fish, fresh live shrimp, fresh chicken, and fresh beef were also added—everything is delivered as that-day stock. “The store is all about grabbing quality now: you need it to be fresh and lively, and you need it to be made on the spot.”

In 2010, Jiumaojiu caught the dividend from shopping malls, opening restaurants inside malls and climbing to the next level. In 2015, it also correctly gauged young people’s tastes and, before sour cabbage fish took off, rolled out a set of “opposite” marketing approaches, eventually launching Tàiyī, which became the group’s main growth engine.

2025 is a year in foodservice marked by the split between traditional dining and prepared (pre-made) dishes. Although Tàiyī has consistently denied using prepared dishes, related questions have never stopped. As performance growth slowed and, on top of that, the trust crisis around prepared dishes intensified, Jiumaojiu also accelerated its transformation—over the past year it改造 (refitted) 243 “fresh and lively” model stores, and 6 of them directly transformed: they no longer primarily push sour cabbage fish, but instead shift their product structure and menus to sell Sichuan cuisine as the main offering.

Jiumaojiu Group’s founder, Guan Yihong, often says one line in internal meetings: “To keep up with changes in the times and build a company for the times.” But no change comes without a cost, and it is especially true for big companies.

Which Tàiyī stores will be prioritized for refitting instead of being closed? Where does the cost of refitting one store concentrate? Around these questions, “China Entrepreneurs” contacted Jiumaojiu Group, but as of the time of publication, it had not yet received a response.

Tear Off the Sour Cabbage Fish Label

Tàiyī Sour Cabbage Fish has been questioned as being made with prepared dishes, and the extreme standards it set and the simplified process have something to do with that.

At the beginning, to standardize, Tàiyī carried out a series of “subtractions” in its production process. On the ingredient side, Guan Yihong assembled a dedicated R&D team, compared different kinds of fish, and ultimately chose perch as the ingredient. And cooking the fish requires only a few simple steps—slice the fish, add sour cabbage, stew/braise, pour in the pre-cooked soup base, and drizzle hot oil—after which the dish is served. From ordering to serving, the fastest time is only 5 minutes.

This almost “removes the chef” standardized genetic code enabled Tàiyī to expand rapidly in a short period of time, and for a time its stores only sold sour cabbage fish and not other dishes—thereby creating a strong associative recognition between Tàiyī and sour cabbage fish.

To cater to younger consumer groups, at the time Tàiyī chose a white wall and comic mural style for its interior design, and also added a set of fairly “rebellious” marketing slogans, such as “No reservations for parties of more than 4, no seat-sharing, no extra seats, no delivery,” and “Sour cabbage is better than fish.” Tàiyī also became a widely publicized celebrity restaurant with long lines of customers until 2020, when it began gradually adding some Sichuan cuisine categories as a tactical supplement—yet sour cabbage fish remained the star.

The real change started in 2025. Under the “5.0 fresh & lively model,” Tàiyī first changed its signage: some stores added the words “fresh & lively,” turning it into “Tàiyī Fresh & Lively Sour Cabbage Fish,” keeping pace with the major group in the foodservice industry that, in 2025, draws a clear boundary with prepared dishes.

To further defuse controversy around prepared dishes, at the end of last year Tàiyī launched a transparent menu, disclosing the degree of food ingredient pre-processing: the A-category green label indicates that the store processes and makes it fresh on site, with all ingredients using fresh produce; the D-category orange-red label indicates that some raw materials have already been pre-cooked before being delivered to the store, and the store cooks and prepares the final dishes on site.

In fact, before this large-scale overhaul, back in 2021, Jiumaojiu had already opened a new store called “Tàiyī Prequel” to trial Sichuan cuisine. This new store’s per-capita spending was far higher than that of Tàiyī Sour Cabbage Fish. The original intention was to make up for dining scenarios involving multiple people and higher-end business meals. It also fit the company’s strategy of multi-brand trials at that time—exploring from multiple angles to find new growth. However, even now “Tàiyī Prequel” still hasn’t been able to realize large-scale store openings.

It wasn’t until the end of 2025 that Tàiyī officially wrote “Sichuan Cuisine Restaurant” onto its storefront signage. Sour cabbage fish is still there, but it is no longer the only main character.

Tàiyī wants to remove that single label of sour cabbage fish.

The reason is not hard to understand. On the one hand, sour cabbage fish as a single category no longer has the high-growth momentum it once had. According to data from Narrow Door Restaurant Eye, over the past three years, regardless of brand or store count, the total number of sour cabbage fish in the category has been shrinking. Besides Tàiyī, several Beijing “Yu Zhi Hu” hotpot restaurants also chose to add the words “Chuan & Yu Stir-Fries” to their signage, no longer focusing solely on sour cabbage fish.

Meanwhile, the broader Sichuan cuisine competition track in which Tàiyī Sour Cabbage Fish sits looks to have more potential. Data from Hongcan Web shows that as of the end of July 2025, the number of Sichuan cuisine restaurants nationwide reached 151,000 stores, accounting for 11.4% of all Chinese dining restaurants nationwide, and it remained at the top among all cuisine categories. Moreover, Sichuan cuisine relies on the “breath” and “sizzle” of cooking in a pot—this precisely hits consumers’ current pain points regarding prepared dishes. So Tàiyī has no reason not to try tearing off the label.

But change is not so easy. After adding more product categories, daily fresh supply increases costs, posing higher challenges to the supply chain. In addition, refitting Tàiyī stores also takes time and capital costs. After introducing more dishes, the old playbook of standardized, extremely simple operations can’t be used anymore. And to let nearly 500 Tàiyī stores once again achieve standardized taste, it will undoubtedly shift from “removing the chefs” to “adding chefs,” so there will also be cost pressure in areas such as chef training and staffing.

In addition, the “2025 Sichuan Cuisine Development Data Report” shows that from January 2024 to September 2025, the heat level of Sichuan cuisine transactions has slowed down. Dine-in, delivery, and average order value have all shown downward trends. This also means that this major Sichuan cuisine track is under pressure as well.

And for a period of more than 10 years of rapid growth, the single big product sour cabbage fish has been tightly bound to Tàiyī, forming strong recognition. Today, reversing consumer recognition is not something that can be done overnight. This battle to tear off labels and transform requires both time and money.

Spend 300 Million to Acquire Localization Overseas

While expanding product categories for the core brand, in the face of the reality of “internal competition” being severe in China’s foodservice market and price wars being brutal, Jiumaojiu has continued to bet on overseas markets.

On December 29, 2025, Jiumaojiu announced that it plans to invest a total of USD 43 million (about RMB 303 million) to increase its stake in the North American self-serve hot pot brand Big Way Hot Pot (Chinese name “Big Taste Hot Pot”). Its shareholding ratio will rise from 10% to 49%. In return, it will obtain 10.8% voting rights.

Earlier, in 2021—when the acquisition actions happened even sooner—Jiumaojiu had already started going overseas. Tàiyī opened stores successively in countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, the United States, Thailand, Indonesia, and New Zealand, and its main target customers were also local Chinese communities.

But for Chinese food going overseas into North America, there are common difficulties that have long been faced, including taste adaptation, differences in consumption habits, and brand recognition. In its announcement, Jiumaojiu also admitted that successfully breaking into local non-Chinese customer segments has a high barrier.

Previously, Jiumaojiu also responded to the media that whether other hot pot brands such as Song Hot Pot and Shan Wai Mian would go overseas would continue to be reassessed based on factors including local consumers’ acceptance of Chinese hot pot, supply chain feasibility, and the management radius of the team. This cautious stance also makes it clear that the difficulty of having its own brands go overseas and enter mainstream markets is indeed not small. This may also be one reason why Jiumaojiu chose to acquire a new brand for its North America layout, rather than letting its own hot pot brands directly try.

And Big Way is precisely the path Jiumaojiu found for a “trial of localization.”

Public information shows that Big Way Hot Pot is a North American chain brand of spicy hotpot rice/noodles (malatang)-style cuisine. The dining method is similar to the self-serve malatang in China: first get a pot, then choose ingredients and soup bases based on your preferences, and finally weigh and pay. As of the time the announcement was published, the brand had opened a total of 21 restaurants in the Vancouver area, Toronto, and California in the United States, with per-capita spending between USD 20 and USD 30.

In its announcement, Jiumaojiu also stated that as a mature local brand in North America, Big Way has deep understanding of local consumer preferences, product structure, and the store model, and has established a clear brand positioning and a stable customer base in the North American market.

Therefore, acquiring Big Way is Jiumaojiu’s way of addressing the structural limitations of Tàiyī in North America, where its customer base is mainly Chinese. In the future, Tàiyī may also use Big Way’s localization experience to realize deeply localized operations in the North American market.

However, according to the announcement, the parties have agreed to sign the final agreement and complete the transaction by March 31, 2026; if they fail to reach it by the deadline, either party has the right to terminate in writing. This also means that Jiumaojiu’s strategy to gradually enter the local market through acquisitions still has uncertainty. And Tàiyī, whose main product is sour cabbage fish, differs significantly from Big Way in terms of consumption scenarios and operating model. How the two can truly achieve synergy still needs to be verified over time.

From cutting off subsidiary brands with insufficient profitability, to opening up franchise rights for two brands—Tàiyī and Shan Wai Mian; to shrinking low-quality stores and upgrading the Tàiyī store model through refits; to introducing the “fresh & lively” model; to serving deeper-level mass markets overseas through investments—these past two years, in an environment where competition in the foodservice market has intensified, Jiumaojiu has never just rested. It has kept trying and transforming, yet it has never been able to form an eye-catching performance scorecard on paper.

Right now, refits are accelerating. For Jiumaojiu, 2026 is undoubtedly a key year. Whether this step of transformation will work may become clear this year.

Reference:

“Song Hot Pot going overseas needs to be reassessed! Jiumaojiu plans to invest 300 million to acquire Big Taste Hot Pot and expand into North America,” Southern Metropolis Daily