The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2014–2018
Han Han's restaurant chain opened 60 stores in a year and lost over ¥100M
很高兴遇见你 sold on celebrity glamour: six stores on day one, 60+ within a year — then food complaints, closures and over ¥100M in losses.
很高兴遇见你 · 上海烨象餐饮管理有限公司 · 2016-08
What happened
很高兴遇见你 (Nice to Meet You), the restaurant brand of writer-director Han Han, opened six stores at once on 1 October 2014 through Shanghai Yexiang Catering Management, established that January. Expansion was explosive: more than 60 direct-run stores nationwide within a year.
Quality could not keep up. Diners complained the food was bad value and 'too hard to eat'; in August 2016 a customer reported finding a worm in noodles at the Ningbo store, which closed that month during its trial run. From late 2015 came mass closures, penalties for unlicensed operation, wage-arrears lawsuits and franchisee debt protests; many stores were handed over to franchisees as the chain retreated.
Investor Wang Wenchao said Han Han lost more than 100 million yuan — '100 million might even be an understatement' — much of it spent buying back investors' equity to protect the star's reputation; Wang personally lost 40–50 million. By October 2023 all 29 branches were deregistered, and searches on review platforms found no surviving stores in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Ningbo or Wuhan.
Why it happened
- Sold the name, not the food: celebrity check-in traffic was mistaken for real demand, and 60+ direct-run stores opened before menu, supply chain or training were ready.
- Expansion outran management: unlicensed-operation penalties, wage lawsuits and franchisee protests were the bill for scaling a model that hadn't worked once.
- The exit cost was equity buybacks: investors had to be bought out to protect the founder's name — the losses investors cite exceed 100 million yuan.
The lesson
Celebrity traffic is a launch, not a repeat purchase. The stores sold on Han Han's name; keeping them open had to be the food's job, and 60 stores in a year outran the kitchen.
Aftermath
As of October 2023 all 29 branches were deregistered, with only two associated companies still registered. The brand became the standard Chinese example of a celebrity restaurant that scaled faster than it could cook.
Sources
- 界面新闻 — 亏损上亿后，韩寒的餐饮店终于关了（2014-10-01 六店同开；高峰期全国60多家门店；宁波店2016年8月试营业期间关闭；大众点评多城市已查无此店；亏损主因是股权回购，累计亏损上亿元；投资人王文超个人损失近千万元；食品安全问题：顾客在酸辣粉中吃出虫子）
- 36氪 — 餐太难吃了，曾一年开出60家直营店，却以亏损上亿收尾（上海烨象餐饮管理有限公司2014年1月成立，10月1日六店同开；一年开出60多家直营店；韩寒亏损了1亿多，有的1亿还不止；投资人王文超个人损失四五千万；29家分支机构全部注销；核心问题：餐品差、扩张过快、把粉丝打卡流量误当市场需求）
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