Shengwei Lai

Shengwei Lai from CICC posed questions regarding the effectiveness of recent management system and incentive adjustments, the forward-looking projections for gross profit margin and staff expenses, and the investment budget and unit economic model for new ventures like barbecue restaurants.

Answer

CEO Lijuan Yang explained that management adjustments focusing on employee growth and autonomy have yielded encouraging results, improving customer service and loyalty. CFO Cong Qu stated there is room to improve the gross profit margin through menu and kitchen process optimization without sacrificing quality, and that staff cost optimization is not the top priority over service quality, though labor efficiency can improve. Regarding new brands, investment is a bottom-up approach reviewed by an innovation committee, with no mature unit economic model for barbecue yet as the first stores are still under renovation.

Shengwei Lai of CICC questioned the effectiveness of recent management system and incentive adjustments, sought projections for gross profit margin and staff expenses, and asked about the investment budget and unit economic model for new brands like barbecue.

Answer

CEO Lijuan Yang explained that management adjustments focusing on employee growth are showing encouraging results in service quality and customer loyalty. CFO Cong Qu noted there is room for gross profit margin improvement through menu and kitchen optimization, while staff cost optimization is not the top priority. For new brands, investment is a bottom-up approach with no mature unit economic model for barbecue yet, as the first stores are still in renovation.

Lai Shengwei from CICC questioned the effectiveness of recent management system and incentive adjustments, sought projections for gross profit margin and staff expenses, and asked about the investment budget and unit economic model for new brands like barbecue.

Answer

CEO Lijuan Yang explained that management adjustments focus on employee growth and have shown encouraging results in service quality and customer loyalty. CFO Cong Qu stated there is room to improve GP margin through menu and kitchen optimization without sacrificing quality. He noted staff cost optimization is not the top priority but efficiency can improve. For new brands, he described a bottom-up, project-level budgeting process and confirmed barbecue stores are too early-stage to share a mature economic model.