Little Sheep Group, the newly listed mainland hot pot restaurant chain famed for Mongolian-style mutton dishes, said that to prosper it must compete with itself to improve profitability and cuisine.
President Lu Wenbing said the nine-year-old chain aimed to almost double its table turnover rate and increase the average ticket price to 80 yuan (HK$90.70) from 50 yuan over the next three years.
'We don't have any particular rival. We are competing with ourselves and need to beat local hot pot restaurants to win over customers in every area,' Mr Lu said.
To increase table efficiency, the company will launch a more limited lunch menu of set combo meals. It will also provide more local ingredients depending on region and extend opening hours to midnight at some restaurants.
'We were inspired by Hong Kong's experience - customers lined up to get into our restaurant after we started to provide dim sum at lunch time,' Mr Lu said.
To minimise the seasonal effect, the restaurant is developing a special hot pot for summer that will make customers feel cool despite eating hot food.
'The second quarter is traditionally a low season, but we want to make it trendy for people to have hot pot in summer,' he said. 'Running restaurants is simple.' No matter how good your restaurant's decoration is, Mr Lu said, if your food is not good, you are in trouble.