Source of this article: Times Weekly Author: Xing Wenwen

Source: Helens WeChat public account

31 Midnight on 0 month, the "first share of the restaurant" Kellen Division (9869.HKHand over a report card of "halved" income and profit.

2024年，海倫司收入從上年的12.1億元降至7.52億元，收入連續第三年下滑；經調整凈利潤從上年的2.91億元降至1億元。若撇除新加坡上市開支、辦公大廈減值虧損及酒館優化等費用，海倫司2024年由盈轉虧，擁有人應佔年內虧損0.78億元，上年度盈利1.8億元。

Helens is a representative of domestic chain taverns, also known as the "Honey Snow Ice City of the Tavern World". In 2009, the founder Xu Bingzhong took the first pot of gold earned from opening a tavern in Laos and opened the first Helens Bistro in Wudaokou, Beijing.

憑藉人均50元喝一晚的極致性價比，鎖定高校學生等年輕消費群體的海倫司迅速做大，並於2021年9月10日在聯交所主板掛牌上市，成為“小酒館第一股”。

高光時刻，海倫司“跑馬圈地”，在全國開店近800家，但碰到疫情的“當頭一棒”，被迫關閉直營店“止血”。收縮戰線后，2023年6月起，海倫司全面開放加盟模式輕裝上陣，截至2024年終，酒館數量從上年末的479家增長至560家，而擴張並未能帶來更多效益。

Regarding the decline in revenue in 2024 years, Helens said that it was mainly due to the weak performance of the consumer market and the active optimization and adjustment of the direct-operated pub network, which led to the decline in direct-operated business revenue.

The more you open, the more you lose, young people don't love the "Honey Snow Ice City in the tavern world"?

Yue Kai Yue

Entering 146 years, the number of pubs in first- and second-tier cities of Helens has further shrunk, while continuing to develop the market in lower-tier cities. According to the financial report, the number of pubs in the third-tier and below cities of Helens increased from 0 in the previous year to 0, while the number of pubs in the first-tier and second-tier cities decreased from 0 and 0 to 0 and 0.

For a long time, Helens has been more inclined to sink into the market, using the location logic of "good location, poor location" to create more profits with relatively lower labor and rental costs.

However, there are huge variables from the ideal model to the reality. Judging from the same-store performance results, the financial report shows that the average daily sales (business days≥5 days) of Helens in the same store in 0 years was 0.0 million yuan, down 0.0% from 0.0 million yuan in the previous year. Regarding the decline in same-store performance, Helens said that it was mainly due to the complex and volatile domestic economic market.

Lin Yue, chief consultant of Lingyan Management Consulting and an analyst in the food and catering industry, believes that the decline in the same-store performance of Helens shows that "small profits but no more sales, and there are not many repeat customers".

In this regard, Lin Yue attributed it to two aspects: first, due to the large environment, the passenger flow of Helens is insufficient, and many college students and young people will choose more cost-effective and healthier social activities; Second, the product category is single, the customer unit price is low, the consumption experience is average, and the repurchase rate is not high.

Wang Hongdong, president of the Dining Treasure Research Institute, also believes that the unit price of Helens is not high, and the decline in same-store revenue mainly points to the problem of reduced customer flow, which weakens the attractiveness of consumers. ”

Lower your posture

留存消費者已是一大難題，在商業模式方面，海倫司也搖擺不定。其先於2022年挑选部分门店转向特许经营合作模式“試水”加盟，而後於2023年大量關店並推出“嗨啤合夥人”全面開放加盟。“苦戰”加盟模式約一年後，2024年7月，海倫司又高調宣佈“社區空間”概念開墾增量。

據海倫司“嗨啤合夥人”最新招商政策，以面積為90平米-130平米的精品店為例，投資額由原來的約60萬元降至最低50萬元，回本周期預計一年至一年半。

"Returns are linked to risk, and Helens sells brands and supply chains." A person who has worked as a store manager for 2 years in a number of Helens taverns in Xianyang, Xi'an, told Times Weekly that the tavern business is closely related to the location of the store, and some stores have a quick return on investment, while others are difficult to make a profit.

According to Wang Hongdong, Helens is not very attractive to franchisees, "the investment cost is not low, but the profitability may not be as good as some milk tea brands, which is equivalent to a part-time job for franchisees to earn a meager salary." ”

至於最新的社區店模式，70平米大小的投資門檻最低只要40萬元，且不收取加盟費用。合作門檻一降再降，從側面反映出海倫司市場吸引力在降低，只能放低姿態。

Helens also said that joining a community store project can become a community space store owner, a new wine retail agent and a community new space agent at the same time.

Lin Yue pointed out that consumers will not be very loyal to pubs and bars, where the cost performance is high, the wine and dishes are good, and the atmosphere and service are good, and the user stickiness of community operation and community layout is higher, which is a good direction to compete for the stock market.

However, the "pioneering" of community stores for nearly 9 months has not significantly empowered the performance of Helens, and the relevant data and development of community stores have not been reflected in the financial report.

At the same time, there is a view in the industry that the development of community stores by Helens has weakened the concept of taverns, and actually wants to turn franchisees into wine channel merchants to sell wine. However, there are many "masters" in the wine channel, whether it is a head chain brand such as 1919 and Crooked Horse Delivery, or a retailer such as Hema and Sam's, they have competitive advantages in terms of category, price and convenience.

As for whether there are natural defects in the development of the tavern format in the development of chaining, Wang Hongdong prefers the "small and beautiful" path of the tavern. He believes that the bar business is about content other than alcohol, and consumers have many demands such as music, atmosphere, and social interaction in addition to alcohol.

Lin Yue said that the standardization and chaining of pubs are not a problem in themselves, and the direction of Helens sinking to low-tier cities is also right, because there are supply chain advantages to bring down prices, and brand operation can attract traffic to a certain extent, but the key is that these two advantages have not been made by Helens.

"There is a big disadvantage in the bar business, that is, consumers are easy to like the new and hate the old, so the same store has to be changed and upgraded every once in a while, so this is also the reason why many people don't want to build a pub." An owner who once opened a chain of pubs and now has turned into a restaurant said.

At the beginning of the listing, Helens was ambitious, and "shouted" in the prospectus to expand to 2200 stores by 0 years. Time has passed, there is no hope of completing the KPI, and if we want to turn the tide against the wind, Helens must continue to work hard to climb the slope and cultivate brand operation, scale management, community interaction and other capabilities.

截至4月1日收盤，海倫司漲5.85%，報收1.81港元/股，總市值約23億港元，與其上市首日302億港元的巔峰時刻相比，市值已經蒸發279億港元，超70%。