On Wednesday, Super Hi International (NASDAQ:HDL) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below.
This transcript is brought to you by Benzinga APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ for a consultation.
View the webcast at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/owz49p9j/
Summary
Super Hi International reported a 14.2% year-over-year increase in total revenue for Q1 2026, reaching $226 million, with Haidilao restaurant operations contributing 90.4% of the revenue.
The company saw a significant improvement in profitability, with operating profit increasing by 17.7% year-over-year to $13.993 million and operating margin rising to 6.2%.
Strategic initiatives included strengthening employee and customer focus, menu innovation, and expanding the Red Pomegranate project with multiple new brands and stores.
The company’s operational highlights included a net increase of four restaurants year-over-year, with a focus on flexibility in operations and store manager discretion to enhance customer satisfaction.
Management emphasized a long-term strategy prioritizing customer experience and employee engagement, and noted that despite external challenges, the company’s market resilience and adaptability are expected to drive future growth.
Full Transcript
Sa (Operator)
Hello respected investors and analysts, thank you for joining today’s Super Hi earnings call. Participating in Today’s meeting are Mr. Li Yu, Executive Director and CEO, and Ms. Chu Zong, Financial Controller and Board Secretary. Today’s meeting may contain forward looking statements including but not limited to, the Company’s statements on strategies and business plans as well as outlook on performance. The content public published by the Company during the earnings presentation as well as comments in response to all your questions represent only management views as of today. Please refer to the latest Safe harbor statement in the earnings press release which applies to the conference call. The meeting is conducted in Chinese with simultaneous English interpretation provided by external agency. In case of any discrepancies, the Chinese version shall prevail. The presentation materials have been uploaded to the Company’s investor relations page for your review. Hello investors and analysts, I’m Li Yu, Executive Director and CEO of Superhigh International. Welcome to Superhigh International Q1 2026 earnings call and I’m going to be talking to you about. On behalf of the Company, I thank you for your interest and support. It is my honor to share with you the Super Hi international operating performance for this quarter. In the first quarter of 2026, the company’s operations maintained a positive improvement trend with all core operating metrics achieving Simultaneous as of 31st 2026, the company operated a total 127 Haidilao restaurants in Overseas Market. Added one new store in Southeast Asia during the period recorded a net increase of four stores compared to the same period last year. At the same time, the operating quality of the existing store is continuously being strengthened. In the first quarter, Haidilao restaurant revenue was 204 million, an increase of 8.4% year over year. Same store sales increased by 4% year over year. Total custom traffic exceeded 8.1 million visits and the overall table turnover rate was 4 turns per day, an increase of 0.1 turn per day compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, the delivery business, the Red Pomegranate project and other businesses continue to contribute to incremental growth with a combined year over year increase of 130.9%. The multiple initiatives drove the company’s total revenue to 226 million a year over year, increase of 14.2%. On this basis, thanks to increase the customer traffic and refined operations, we have seen a significant release of operating leverage. In the first quarter, the company’s operating profit reached 13.993 million a year over year, increase of 17.7%. The operating profit margin rose from 4.1% last year to 6.2%, representing a substantial improvement in profitability. In terms of specific business initiatives, we continue to focus on strengthening the three fundamentals focus on employees, focus on customers and focus products during the daily store visits. We realized that past reliance on standards had to some extent limited the warmth of service provided by frontline employees. Therefore, the quarter we continuously emphasized flexible operations, helping employees understand the logic behind services actions by strengthening post event reviews and store manager mentoring and granting them more on site discretion while maintaining high standard operations. We provide more personalized and flexible service, thereby continuous improving customer satisfaction at individual stores. We’re gradually seeing that these actions focused on enhancing employee awareness and capabilities are translating into better customer experiences. In terms of the product and menu innovation this quarter, headquarters focused on scenario segmentation, differentiation and product empowerment, providing targeted support to various regional markets globally. First, we deeply explored dining scenarios. We offered various kids meal sets for families with young children for late night hours. We focused on launching spicy braised dishes paired with refreshing drinks to precisely drive the consumption during that period. Second, following the summer season, we collaboratively launched a combination product such as vegetable and mushroom platter and beef and lamb combo in multiple regions. For core categories, we focused on upgrading the beef series offering premium Australian Wagyu and freshly cut beef to meet the quality experience needs of different customer segments. Looking at the the results, the menu innovation in the first quarter were more customer centric and each market produced excellent localized products. This not only effectively drove a single store sale, but also validated the effectiveness of our strategy of localized products selection and refining manual planning in terms of the business expansion, we added one new restaurant in Southeast Asia during this period. Since last year, the company has imposed stricter requirements on new store location, accuracy, profit expectation and execution quality. Currently, our pipeline of reserved stores remains in the double digits and the overall expansion pace going forward will continue to adhere to the principle of balancing stability and quality. Regarding the Red Pomegranate project, we are actively building a multiple brand matrix, continuously incubating prototype stores and second brand projects in different countries. To date we have operated a total of 10 brands with a total of 18 stores including formats such as Canadian Malatang, Indonesian Halal, Japanese Isa Kawa, Korean Schools and Spark Cora bbq. This quarter, other business revenues achieved a strong growth of 166.7%, marking substantial growth in the diversifying of our revenue structure and expanding our customer base. Looking ahead, the company remains committed to its long term development goal of becoming a leading global integrated catering group, continuously improving in Five areas, customer experience, restaurants, network operational and enhancement, new businesses and headquarter capabilities. That concludes my introduction of the business situation. Next, Let me invite Mr. Chu Zong to present the financials. Thank you, President Li Yu. Next, I will report on the financial situation. In the first quarter of 2026, the company achieved a total revenue of 226 million, an increase of 14.2% year over year. Haidilao Restaurant operating revenue accounted for 90.4% of total revenue, reaching 204 million. This an increase of 8.4% year over year. This was mainly attributable to first, the continued improvement in operating performance of existing Haidilaoo stores, with increases in both table turnover rate and customer traffic. Second, a net increase of four stores in the company’s restaurant network compared to the same period last year, with adjustment in the store network layout contributing incremental revenue delivery businesses revenue accounted for 3.2% of total revenue, reaching 7.3 million this quarter and increase of 82.5% year over year. Primarily because we continue to optimize delivery products and services based on market demand and strengthened cooperation and joint marketing with local delivery platforms. Other businesses revenue accounted for 6.4% of total revenue, reaching 14.4 million this quarter, an increase of 166.7% year over year. The revenue growth came primarily from the sales of food products and seasoning under the Haidian brand and from the company’s own central kitchen, as well as from the active development of some new brand restaurant business under the Red Pomegranate project. In other business this quarter, external sales from the central kitchen contributed significantly. We have commercially converted some of the central kitchen’s excess capacity for external use. Although the growth margin of this type of B end supply chain business is lower than that of the C end restaurant business and there is also order volatility, it dilutes our supply chain fixed cost. Of course, from the perspective of our core model, the Haidilao restaurant main business remains our most core business. Next, regarding cost and expenses benefiting from the company’s proactive investment in employee management and customer experiences throughout 2025, the operating leverage brought by revenue growth in this quarter has led to …
This post was originally published here
