Is this a signal of further globalization? HAIDILAO CEO Zhang Li Juan shifts focus to Special Sea International

On June 21, Haidilao (6862.HK) announced that Yang Lijuan resigned as the company's executive director and CEO, and was succeeded by Gou Yiqun, with the appointment taking effect from July 1, 2024.

On the same day, TeHai International (9658.HK) announced that Yang Lijuan has been appointed as the company's executive director and CEO, responsible for overseeing the management and strategic development of TeHai International, with the appointment also effective from July 1, 2024.

TeHai International is the company operating Haidilao's overseas restaurants, with Daniel Zhang as the controlling shareholder.

In March 2022, Yang Lijuan took over as the CEO of Haidilao, succeeding founder Daniel Zhang.

Starting from a grassroots level as a service staff, Yang Lijuan played a key role in Haidilao's expansion from Sichuan to the national market, earning the title of "the most outstanding service staff".

At that time, Haidilao was struggling to open stores against the trend during the pandemic, suffering a huge loss of 585 million yuan in 2021. Under Yang Lijuan's leadership, Haidilao launched the "Woodpecker Plan" and closed inefficient stores.

Subsequently, in 2022, Haidilao turned losses into profits, achieving a net profit of 4.495 billion yuan in 2023, marking its best profit performance in history.

When asked by TradeWind01 about the personnel changes involving Yang Lijuan at Haidilao, the other party confirmed that it can be seen as Yang Lijuan being entrusted with the task of exploring the international market.

TeHai International stated that Yang Lijuan had led the overseas expansion of the Haidilao brand, successfully establishing a presence in Singapore and the United States in 2012 and 2013 respectively, laying the foundation for the group's current operations in the international market.

In May of this year, TeHai International officially landed on the NASDAQ for a dual listing.

Apart from fundraising, this move is also seen as enhancing TeHai International's corporate image and strengthening the influence of the Haidilao brand in overseas markets.

In the first quarter of this year, TeHai International achieved revenue of 186 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 16.6%; however, due to the depreciation of the US dollar, it incurred a net loss of 0.04 billion US dollars, turning from profit to loss. As of the end of the first quarter, TeHai International had a total of 119 restaurants overseas, with 4 new stores opened in the quarter.

The new leader of Haidilao, Gou Yiqun, is also an "old hand" at Haidilao, with rich experience in supply chain management.

Since January 2000, Gou Yiqun has held various positions at Haidilao, including head of supply chain and procurement management, head of information technology, and CFO.

Before being promoted to CEO, Gou Yiqun was the deputy general manager of Haidilao and was responsible for investment business.

Since February 2023, Gou Yiqun has also served as the chairman of Shuhai (Beijing) Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Shuhai Supply Chain"), and was also the chairman of Yihai International (1579.HK) from 2016 to 2017.

Shuhai Supply Chain and Yihai International are both enterprises controlled by Daniel Zhang, engaged in hotpot base materials and food processing businesses respectively.

In March of this year, Haidilao accelerated its expansion and officially opened up franchising, but as of now, the first franchised store has yet to be seen How to leverage the existing supply chain of HAIDILAO to empower potential franchise stores in the sinking market is the top priority facing the new leader.

At the HAIDILAO shareholders' meeting at the end of June, the management team stated that they would not vigorously expand franchising at this stage. The overall pace will be more cautious, using a hosting model to ensure the quantity of services and products. The current focus is on running the franchise model smoothly, empowering the expansion of multiple brand matrices in the later stage