Super Hi International Holding Ltd. ($9658)

Good evening. Thank you for attending today's Super Hi International 2025 Q4 and Full Year Earnings Conference that the company leaders are present to the conference are Ms. Yang Lijuan Executive Director and CEO; and Ms. Qu Cong, CFO and the Secretary of the Board. The content of today's meeting may contain forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the company's statements on its strategies and business plans as well as the outlook for its performance. The content released by this conference at the earnings conference as well as the comments and responses to your questions only represent the views of the management as of today. Please refer to the latest safe harbor statement in earnings press release, which applies to all the companies. The meeting is conducted in Chinese with an external institution providing simultaneous [indiscernible] translation. In case of any discrepancies in the Chinese content at shall prevent. The meeting presentation materials have been uploaded to the company's Investor Relations page for your reference. Now we remind Ms. Yang Lijuan, Executive Director and CEO of Super Hi International to review the company's performance in fourth quarter 2025.

Thank you. Host. Dear investors and analysts, good evening. I am Yang Lijuan, Executive Director and CEO of Super Hi International. I'm here to brief you on the company's performance in the fourth quarter and the full year of 2025. In 2025, under the strategy of focusing on both employees and customers, the company took the initiative to offer [indiscernible] benefits to these core groups. We have a sustained growth in revenue and customer traffic with the quality of growth improving in the fourth quarter of 2025, that the company's overall operation continued the recovery trend of the first 3 quarters of the customer traffic of Hidilao restaurant reached 8.31 million persons times in this quarter, driving the overall average table turnover rate of a highly restaurant per day, an increase of 0.1x per day year-on-year. At the same time, the company's delivery business and other businesses continue to contribute to revenue in this quarter. Company's total revenue reached the U.S. dollar 230 million, an increase of 10.2% compared with USD 208.8 million in the same period last year. Year-end month increase of about 7.5% from the third quarter, indicating that our investment in optimizing product cost performance ratio and reaching consumption scenarios and improving service experience that have gradually been recognized by customers. So looking back to the full year of 2025, for Haidilao restaurants operated by the company received a total of $32 million. The overall average table turnover rate of the restaurants reached 3.9 tonnes per day, and the same-store average table turnover rate reached 4 tons per day both an increase of 0.01 per day compared with the same period last year. Total revenue in 2020 was USD 841 million, an increase of 8% year-on-year. Now I shared with you in a were continued efforts in business improvement that should adhere to offering benefits to customers and employees and consolidated the foundation of store management in 2025 on the basis of focusing on both employees and the customers -- we further clarified and implemented the proactive strategy of offering benefits to customers and employees the year. In terms of the employee development, we have continuously optimized from multiple dimensions, such as salary and welfare, daily care and training and development, enhancing the sense of belonging of the diversified team. Up to now, we have about 90 reserve backbones and nearly half of whom are foreign keep stop laying a talented foundation for diversifying management. In the frontline management, on the basis of a formulating core redline principles, we have turned the focus of work to frontline stores in the regional divisions, allowing them to focus more on the market customers and employees themselves. This transformation has released very obviously, frontline vitality in the second half of the year in many excellent service cases and the management practices have been spontaneously created by regional in stores. At the same time, we also encourage management, the team in various regions to conduct cross-departmental and across the city. Store inspections that conducts a comparison learning and reflection in on-site work in conjunction with the dual store management and multi-store management policies, we extend excellent management capabilities to more stores and to further expand the talent training atto second to create a unique high and continue to invest in customer experience this year in our work of focusing on customers that we have formulated the differentiated service plans for different scenarios such as the first base parent-child activities, the diners and late-night snacks and implemented the scenario-based services in holdings such as editions peripheral products and decorations with a more substantial investment. In terms of our products, we have continued to promote localized new product launches in various countries with a total of more than 1,000 optimized new launches throughout the year. Dawe focused on the implementation of a fresh cut through the scenario. -- fresh-cut meat is quite genome for overseas consumers have some sense equipped with the declaration of open pitch and fresh cut to work shopper, which can bring a better consumption upgrade experience presented Ratotal of 57 SKUs over fresh-cut beef in the pork series covering 13 countries. As of December 31, the average effect rate of the fresh-cut meat series products that in overseas, the countries have reached 2.21%. This year, we have continued to innovate in the takeout scenario launching faster food categories such as despite the good cost price snacks and us and noodles. At the same time, we launched and promoted on multiple platforms and expanded delivery coverage at the annual takeout revenue increased 8.1% year-on-year, effectively reaching customer groups beyond the dine-in Meuse, in terms of space and service, we selected some pilot stores to carry out the transformation of nightclub scenarios, upgrading lighting soundbite and the interactive experience. The improvement of table turnover rate during late night is not ours in pilot stores is more obvious than not similar stores around. In addition, we have actively explored the innovative marketing models in many countries and driven a certain degree of took often popularity and customer traffic support of the through the dual track strategies of celebrity co-branding and IP authorization. In terms of cost performance ratio, we have authorized the teams in various countries to make a reasonable adjustment in pricing portion size and plating allowing customers to better fill the cost performance ratio. This is also 1 of the important reasons why our table turnover rate remained stable in the traditional off season in the first half of the year enhance the capability of the headquarters and promoted the upgrading of organizational efficiency and digitalization. We have made several important progress in the capacity building of the headquarter this year. In terms of supply chain, we have continuously increased the production capacity of our own central kitchens strengthened the hioraphical management and the bargaining power of global suppliers. The continuous efficiency improvement of the supply chain since this year has offset the gross profit pressure brought by the customer benefit strategy to a certain extent, proportion of the employee cost that has also gradually approached the level of the same period last year. In terms of digitalization and organizational efficiency we have actively explored the application of AI technology in management to improve the operational efficiency of the headquarters and stores. We have also further integrated the coordination mechanisms of products and marketing guided many optimization and the data evaluation informed in normalized product management cycle of new launch evaluation and iteration. Up to now, the scale of our overseas members has continued to expand and the application of digital tools in the members and scenarios reach has gradually deepened. As of the end of 2025 with the number of overseas and members of Haidilao exceeded 8 million. Fourth, the expansion of store network and the wood picker plant are promoted in parallel. In terms of expansion, we still adhere to the bottom of strategy where country managers are responsible for site selection and implementation. The headquarters to control the quality and pace. In 2025, we opened a total of 13 Haidilao stores throughout the year in 9 countries, including Malaysia, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, United States, Australia, Canada, UAE and the Philippines. In the meantime, we continue to optimize the store network layout in hand and make adjustments at the right time. In 2025, we closed a total of 9 stores in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan, some due to lease expiration others are due to active adjustments among the 33 locations that have completed the format transformation from Haidilao to the second brand and been incorporated into the pomegranate plan for unified operation. As of the end of 2025, we operated a total of 126 Haidilao stores overseas. In terms of store opening quality, the number of stores we have signed contracts for and should be opened it still remains in double digits with a steady overall expansion pace, we have not relaxed that -- the requirements of our profitability and implementation of a quality of new stores, 50 in terms of pomegranate plan, we have implemented at a steady pace of advancing gradually and verifying was a polishing the plan as we go along this year, we continue to incubate prototype stores in the second brand, projects in different countries around multiple catering trucks, such as the hotpot, [ bar-b-q, ] smart spicy costs and in terms of the implantation mechanism, we adhere to bottom up approach in the terms. The teams in various countries identify trust and promote the site selections and implantation based on the local market whilst the headquarters focuses on the construction of the middle office is such as product R&D, brand marketing, informization and business analysis forming front and back end the coordination. We can also show you some of the results this year. In terms of progress, we have some specific achievements that we report to you this year projects such as spa power barbecue and HiboMalatanian the Japanese Isador progressing as an the some of which have achieved a single store probability proving that our exploration of new formats overseas is feasible. In addition, 3 original Halal locations were transformed into second brand operations throughout 2025, and the Palmora plant has begun to link with the optimization of the existing store network rather than being an isolated new thing from the perspective of operating data, the revenue contribution of a related business has also continued to increase. Other business revenue increased by 61.4% year-on-year and the substance of contributions have begun to be seen in reaching the revenue structure and expanding the customer base. And next, we'll still adhere to a prudent pace of advancement to continue to polish the proven project buildup information, digitalization and the mid-of the support capabilities and on this basis, gradually improve. Application efficiencies and enrich the company's format layout and growth sources. Looking forward into the future, we take becoming a leading global comprehensive catering group as our long-term development goal and continue to improve in 5 aspects, the customer experience, the restart to network operational improvement in new business and headquarter capabilities. The above is my introduction to the business. development in situation. So now please welcome the Ms. Qu Cong to introduce the financial situation to you all.

Thank you. Ms. Lijuan and the next, I will report to you on the financials of the company. Our total revenue for the full year 2025 was USD 84.8 million, an increase of 8% compared with the same period last year. Operating revenue of high-data restaurants was USD 790 million, accounting for about 94% of the company's total revenue, an increase of 5.7% compared with last year, taking our revenue USD 9 million, increase of $68.1 year-on-year. Other business revenue was USD 31.8 million, increase of 61.4% year-on-year mainly due to the continued the revenue contribution from restaurants incubated under the pomograsenative plan and the continuous penetration of peripheral products such as hot pot competency among local consumers and in retail channels. Full year table turnover rate of higher restaurant was 3.9 tonnes per day and the same-store turnover rate was [indiscernible] tons per day, both an increase of 0.1x compared with 2 and achieving steady improvement in operating quantities against the background of a continuous expansion of the store network -- from the perspective of the annual rhythm, the year-on-year revenue growth rate of each quarter was 5.4, 8.5% to 7.8% and 10.2%, respectively, with the growth momentum and strengthening quarter-by-quarter and reaching the annual highs in the fourth quarter, reflecting that we continue investment in optimizing product cost performance ratio reaching consumption scenarios and improving service experience. In terms of the raw material costs accounted for 33% revenue increase of 0.5% over last year due to our active optimization responded dish quality and increase in the proportion of fresh products, which brought certain fluctuations in raw material cost in the short term, employee costs accounted for 33.9%, an increase of 0.6 percentage over last year line but we systematically reached the salary and welfare for the frontline employees and increased the investment in employees at daily care. Rental accounted for 2.9% of revenue increase of 0.3 percentage points compared with the same period last year. Quarter and electricity expenses of 3.4% for revenue, a decrease of 0.2 percentage compared with last year. Depreciation and amortization accounted for 9.8% of the revenue decrease of 0.6 percentage points compared with last year. Above changes are mainly due to dilution of a promotion proportion of relevant expenses by the increase in revenue, other operation-related accounted for 11.3% of revenue increase of 1.4 percentage points over last year, mainly due to the increase in our outsourcing services piece for restaurants as well as the company's increased investments in continuous promotion of the [ Pomegranate ] plan and the brand building regional expansion. In 2025, our full year operating profit was USD 37.4 million, operating profit margin, a 0.4% decrease compared with 2024 from perspective of quarterly trends against the background we actively increased the investment in the first half of the year. Operating profit margin had a low of 1.9% in the second quarter recovered significantly from the third quarter and rebounded to 5.7% in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, with a clear recovery trend in the second half of this year. This resulted in line with our forecast at the beginning of the year, and this has laid a solid foundation for the company's long-term healthy development under the comprehensive influence of above factors after tax net profit to 2025 was USD 36.3 million in any substantial increases compared with 2024, significant improvement in net profit and is mainly due to the favorable impact of 2025, the global exchange trend on the company's multicurrency asset and liabilities. So now looking at Q4, achieved a total revenue of USD 230 million, an increase of 10.2% compared to the same period last year, month-on-month to 7.5% from third quarter, mainly due to expansion of the store network compared with last year, continuous improvement of table turnover rate the peak season, in fact, driving double growth of customer traffic and average customer spending among the operating revenue of a Haidilao restaurant with USD 211.9 million accounting for 92.1% of company's total revenue increase of 6% compared with the same period last year. Takeout revenue was 2.8 million substantial increase of 94.3% compared with the same period last year continued high-speed growth and other business revenue was USD 11.3 million mainly an increase of $109.3 million compared with same year last year. We can continue to see the success of pomegranate plan with further evidence in our fourth quarter of 2020 raw material cost of USD 76 million. The gross margin, 66.6%, a decrease about 1 percentage point compared with same period of last year, mainly due to the short-term cost increase brought by optimization of further materials employee cost was USD 74 million, accounting for 32.2% of revenue, basically same as same period last year, improvement compared with the third quarter mainly benefiting from the increase in revenue scale in fourth quarter rental expenses is USD 6 million, accounting for 2.8% of the revenue basically same as the same period of last year. Quarterly, electricity expenses at USD 7 million, accounting for 3.1% of revenue, a decrease of 0.3 percentage points compared with the same period last year. Depreciation and amortization was USD dollar 21.5 [ points ] accounting for 9.4% of the revenue, a decrease of about 0.9 percentage points compared with the same period last year. Total revenue and other operating expenses of USD 29 million, accounting for 11.7% of revenue increased about 1.1 percentage points and mainly due to the promotion of pomegranate plant, plant building and the store expansion. Q4 company's operating profit was CNY 12.98 million operating profit margin, 5.7%, decreased about 2.7 percentage points and basically, the same as third quarter, the decline in the profit margin is mainly due to active investment on the cost side, which is in line with our overall rhythm of continuously offering benefits to customers and the employees and net exchange losses in the fourth quarter was USD 3.8 million, mainly due to the revaluation impact of exchange rate fluctuation. Under this impact in Q4, our after-tax [ net ] profit was USD 4.47 million achieving profitability by end of 2020 on and our capital reserve is USD 270 million compared with USD 250 million at the end of 2024, mainly due to the net cash inflow generated from annual operating activities. In terms of performance of the restaurants in Q4, we have served a total of 8.31 million customers, an increase of 3.89% compared with the same period in 2024. Company's average table turnover rate was 4 tons per day, increase of 0.1x compared with the same period of last year. Our average customer spending was USD 25.4 increase of U.S. dollar at 0.4% compared with the same period last year, mainly because we continue to optimize the this structure and marketing measures to providing consumers with a more differentiated choices. Average daily revenue per restaurant was $18,800, slight increase from the same period last year. And we can see that if the Asia performance is the most outstanding. It has increased about 0.3 turns compared to the same period of last year, reaching 5.1 turns and hence this is mainly thanks to the operating efficiency in Japan and South Korean markets as well as the incremental contribution of the newly opened stores, the average customer spending remaining at USD 28. North America, roughly the same as last year at 4.1 turns per day. In terms of average daily revenue per restaurant is USD 24,100 in the same period, roughly the same as -- same period of last year, and the average customer spending in North American market was the USD 41.4. It rebounded from USD 41 in the same period increase of 2 highly on restaurants in North America in this quarter supported revenue growth. Other regions, the table turnover rate in the fourth quarter were 3.9% affected by ramping up period of newly opened restaurants during the same period. Average daily revenue per restaurant is a slight adjustment from USD 26,100 -- average customer spending Southeast Asia total of 5.3 million customers and in terms of average customer spending USD 19.3 slightly the same as last maintaining stable operation overall. In the fourth quarter, same period revenue was $195.4 million, an increase of 2.3% for the same-store growth, achieving positive growth for Southeast Asia, we can see 12.8% year-on-year growth and for other regions, they are at 1%, 0.2%, 0.5% year-on-year. North America, Southeast Asia and for regional same-store performance is pretty much consistent with the overall trend, and I'm not going to go into further details. So this concludes our presentation. We now go into the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Jong Yeong from Jashan Securities.

Ms. Yang and Ms. Cong, This is Jon Yichang from Johan Security. I have 2 questions. The first 1 is on store opening. May I please ask for the next 3 years and what your store opening plan and looking at the different regions, what the approximate quantity given that there are certain global political changes and will this affect your current store opening plans? My second question is on the brand equity? And what indicators do you use to judge the strength of your brand in terms of Hidilao branding in various countries? And what is the strength and for the countries that you're not doing so well? And how would you further your brand equity in those countries.

Thank you. Mr. Zhong. I will answer your first question in terms of store opening. For store opening, we continue to focus on bottom to up and we're not going to have a specific target. And in terms of our selection of the stores and in terms of the business district maturity preparation for the local team, those are more important. The present most of these plants, they will be opened up in 2026. In terms of regions, the East Asia is where we have the most confidence, we can see that single store model in Japan and South Korea have been very fine. We have also noticed that North America achieved a net increase in the -- and for Southeast Asia, we have a large base. Hence, the focus is on optimizing the existing stock and improving quality of single stores, Middle East, Europe, Australia, and we'll be following and watching the market closely. You also talked about the geopolitical frictions and the work going on at the moment. So for our Middle East deployment, of course, for the short term, that will come on a headwind. But in terms of do politics and our approach is one. So we will not be making unified decisions on contractions or acceleration, but it is really country managers to make their judgments core because they are the ones who know the best about the local situation. And again, it is still bottom to upper hand, so we will maintain very prudent. In terms of your second question, how do we evaluate our brand power, and I'll have Ms. Yang to answer this question.

So you can see that this would be reflected in our internal indicators, and we mainly look at the following areas, for instance, and number 1 is the quality of natural growth of the members, the customer registered. Voluntarily and repurchase without relying on promotions or discounts and setting growth of table turnover rate in peak season again, which reflects our customers' willingness to visit certainly continues to increase in the proportion of local customers. If the market mainly relies on the Chinese customers and then the brand barrier is fragile. Number 4 is the spread of word of mouth that we continue to follow the natural discussion volume and the emotional tendency in local social media in each market by market in the mature markets such as South Korea and Southeast Asia, the brand awareness is high and the local customer base is solid. Japan is growing rapidly with a remarkable progress in the past year. In addition, in some markets where we have entered a short-term -- short time and the brand awareness is still in the early stage, and Asian customers are still the main support, markets with a relatively weaker brand power, our strategy has several levels. So first, the localized the product and the services to make local consumers to feel that a Haidilao dishes are made for them. Secondly scenario-based marketing strategies such as co-branding and IP authorization have a higher leverage effect in the market with a weak brand awareness; and number three, be patient, we will not easily banter in market because of a poor short-term data, but we will carefully evaluate which stores need adjustments based on performance.

Thank you, Ms. Young, and thank you, Ms. Qu. Thank you for your question. So the next question comes from Jiwei Liu, CITIC Securities. Please go ahead.

Thank you. I have 2 questions for the management team. And the number 1 is with respect to the pomegranate plan. Johan mentioned this in detail. Could you please share with us about some of the single store models and the profit levels of the representative of brands in this area? And what are the subsequent development plan? And my second question is about 2026 to 2027. How do you look at this in terms of customer experience and the employee be benefits, how do you look at this? And how will this be reflected in operating indicators such as the expense ratio.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. wei for your question. The first question will ask Ms. Yang to answer your question.

Thank you, Mr. Wei. The pomegranate plan has achieved some specific results this year. Spark BBQ and the Canada high bobcat part and the Japanese Isaka are all progressing and supplanting and some of them have already achieved a single store profitability. This is a very important signal for us, proving that it is feasible to build a second brand overseas. For single store models, there are great diverse among different brands in the markets at moment, it's difficult to give a unified figure because we're now basically are literally crossing the river by touching the stores and it is not yet the time for large-scale replication and we consider there are mainly 3 factors, whether brand is a word promoting first whether a single store can make a profit without headquarter subsidies. Second, whether the model can be replicated and opened a second store in the same market as the betas the local team has the ability to operate independently. Only when all 3 conditions are met to what we consider accelerating the expansion. The other business revenues increased by 61.4% year-on-year in 2025, with the substantive contributions starting to emerge behind this growth in -- follow-up we will adhere to a prudent pace of first polish in the successful projects and build the middle platform to support capacity and gradually improve the replication efficiency. At this stage, we still focus on independent research and in incubation and selection, note acquisition plans at the moment.

Thank you, Ms. Yang. Thank you for your question. And let's wait for the next question.

I'll take your second question. 2025, this is a year of our active investment concentrated in the first half of the year, operating profit margin hit a bottom of 1.9% and in the second quarter, but rebounded to 5.9% and 5.7% in third and fourth quarter of the second half of the year, showing a clear recovery trend entering into 2026, our investment strategy has shifted from increasing to optimizing he established the employee benefits of standards and customer service quality will not be reduced, and we'll continue to pay attention to any unreasonable aspects in the pricing. However, the strategy running in period has passed the corporate correction has been briefly improved the investment direction will be more precise and the more attention will be paid to the input output ratio reflected in ratio, the ratio of the employee cost of revenues is expected to gradually send out with the revenue growth, the continuous efficiency improvement of supply chain will support the proportion of the raw materials at the fee of food delivery platforms will rise with the business growth. But the investment in brand building and the consulting will be more focused. Overall speaking, the ratio structure in 2024 will be optimized to a certain extent compared with the 2025, but we will not set a specific profit margin target and then reverse the juice business behavior will not to shrink we will not shrink investment in customers and employees for the sake of short-term good profit margins, but they will be more precise. Thank you.

Thank you, management team. And we now go into the next question is Mr. Li Shengwei from CICC.

Can I please ask about the raw material cost, and we can see that the price of beef in recent shop team recently, and there are external environmental disturbances and how do you look at the future gross profit margin trends? How would the company hedges the pressure of rising raw material costs like. Second question is about the different store level operating profit and margin across different regions, which regions may perform relatively poorly in 2026 further improvement measures that the management might take.

Thank you, Mr. Lai for your questions. So first question on raw material, this is our key focus 20 raw material accounted for 33.6% of our revenue for the whole year, an increase of 0.5 percentage compared with 2024, mainly due to the increase in food material costs driven by business expansion. For instance, we have introduced fresh fruit cutting. Our response measures are mainly in threefold: first centralized procurement and hierarchical supplier management to continue to strengthen the bargaining power with the global suppliers. And some of the scale effect has already been partially reflected in 2025, but secondly continuously to improve the production capacity of our central kitchens, reduce the dependence on external processing. Number three, menu structure optimization, we have established an evaluation system of click rate coverage-related gross profit margin and continuously iterate the items with no gross profit contribution to avoid inefficient us occupying procurement resources. Overall, we expect the ratio of raw materials to revenue will remain basically stable in 2026. Your second question, in terms of store level profit margin by region separately. We do not disclose those, but we can give you some directional judgments East Asia is a region with the healthiest single store model at present with a table turnover rate of 5.1x in Q4, average revenue of USD 2,800 per single store profit contribution at the restaurant level has improved significantly. North America remains above USD 24,000 with a high absolute value, but the rent and labor cost are corresponding be higher. Southeast Asia has a large base of stores with a great individual differences in some mature stores performed very well and a few individual stores are still in the adjustment stage. If we look at the future improvement potential, table turnover rate of some stores in Southeast Asia has not reached the expected level in 2026. So we'll focus on promoting the operational improvement of these stores, including deepening of product localization and operating of the services can arise. The newly opened stores in North America need time to ramp up the performance and we have expectations and patients for this improvement in direction over each region in 2026 is a clear and will not change our long-term judgment call on any of the regions due to short-term flucturation.

Next question. We have Ms. from for the securities. Thank you for this opportunity. I have 3 questions

Here to ask the management team. The first 1 is short term, we can see that right now, in Japan, Japanese relations are being affected. And so I don't know whether this would affect your table turnover rate performance. And second, about average customer spending -- we can see that in 2025, average commenting, trending downwards hands helped with the increase in the customer traffic in 2026, what about your pricing? Would you continue to reduce your price. In terms of the mid and long term, how do you balance this short-term profit concessions and as well as profit margin balance, how do you strike a balance between those 2. And my next question is on the stores because in 2025, that you have close to certain stores, underperforming stores. So right now, what is the proportion of the current store network that are still in lot will have a low operating profit margin. Going forward, how would the company evaluate those companies when you consider whether those should be close or -- what are the key indicators?

Thank you, Ms. Li for your questions. So your first question, the performance of the Japanese region in terms of what we can see right now, our operation has not been affected and our turnover -- table turnover rate is maintaining stable in terms of proportions of local customers that continue to rise the consumption scenarios are also relatively rich impact over short-term certain fluctuations on the overall operation is limited. This is the result of set localization operation and in-depth cultivation of local customers. We have not yet been impacted, but we will continue to follow up on the external environment closely. In terms of the adjustment or reduction in average customer spending in 2025. And this is not simply about a price reduction. This is about making customers feel better in terms of cost performance, such as pricing rationality, portion science, plating and the service experience. So some of those are our active adjustments in some of these are superimposed with the structural changes on the other hand, such as the number of stores in different countries, the increase in local customers, the changes in average number of people per table and so on. Our direction in 2026 will remain to ensure had position as the mid- to high-end restaurants was subordinating to the improvement of customer proceed value healthier and fresher -- this is a better new product, the launch experience and more dimensional consumption choices that in the mid- and long-term profit concession and profit margins are not an opposing relationships. The customer flow growth and the customer stickiness brought by profit concessions are the foundation for the long-term improvement of profit margin for every 0.1% increase in the turnover rating and the positive impact on the store level profit margin is quite considerable and the profit concessions and the profitability for a positive cycle with a time lag. In 2025, and we have closed down 9 shops and 3 of those have actually changed to a second brand. And for us, it's not giving up on those companies. And of these 126 companies that we are running overall speaking, and overall quality is improving. We're not really able to disclose to you about the specific number of the ones that are not doing so well, were underperforming stores, but I can give you some guidance and when we look at a store whether any adjustments need to be made, mainly 3 aspects. Number1 is to see the operating -- number 1 is to see whether there is any visible improvement in the pathways. Second, the trend of the table turnover rate and not only just at a single time point, but also in the past 6 to 12 months, rather for instance, a store with a continuously declining table turn rating and even if it's not in loss at the current stage, we will also intervene. And in terms of the ones that we're seeing a positive turnaround, and we'll encourage the local managers and the division head to further improve. But number three, we look at whether the problems are management related, which we will change and update the management. And if it is about the market related and then we'll review our overall market strategy and to make adjustments accordingly. That's my answer.

We also hope that the company can achieve better results in the future. Thank you for your answers. [Audio Gap]

My first question is about your strategy, focusing on both customers and the employees. And we can see that in Q4, the table turnover rate has improved. So if I look at this strategy itself, it in terms of the strategy itself and how will this drive the table turnover rate? And secondly, how do you look at the customer satisfaction? And because in 2026 in terms of this strategy, how would you continue on with the customer satisfaction strategy. And my next question is still asking about the Middle East impact on your business. For the Middle East, of course, that market will be affected and for European, how do you look at the European market expansion and deployment. Those are my 2 questions.

Thank you, Hildy, for your question. The first 1 with respect to focusing on both customers and the employees, hence, giving profit concessions to customers and our employees, and we not only look at the numbers, but also customer behavior. Last year, our overseas members has exceeded $8.5 million with a continuous natural growth. The second overall overseas table turnover rate has been rising continuously, customers and willingness to visit actively is increasing. Whether it is repeat purchase or new customers that they're both increasing the #3 same-store sales of Roresa has maintained positive growth throughout the year. reaching 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Among them, the same-store growth in Eastern Asia was 12.8%, indicating that our stores have closer connections with the surrounding customers and our overall graph of the business district customer group is improving. In terms of the local customers, we have seen that there is an increase in the number and the proportion of the customers who place the orders in local languages. So for instance, in South Korean market, the proportion of the bill place in Korea exceeds 90%, which is the most direct signal of brand localization and the performance of a repurchase region varies across the regions, in the regions with a strong growth momentum for both customer acquisition and the repurchase of performance and are improving simultaneously in relatively mature regions. So the contribution of our regular customers is more prominent, and we have not disclosed the specific figures of the repeat purchase -- but the repeated behavior of members is a core indicator so our system continuously to track. For 2026 is that the customer base, the construction brought by profit concession strategy will continue to take effect. This -- we have believed that last year, this is a long-term investment and not simply a short-term move -- for your next question, Middle East and Europe, yes, indeed, the politics is indeed an unavoidable external variable for our overseas restaurant operations. We have a business and the deployment in Middle East and Europe, we have 2 stores in the Middle East at the moment for the short term in terms of some of the projects that we are working on. It has been affected negatively, but we also have authorized to the country manager. They are the ones who know the market very well and to ask them to determine the pace and the timing. In Europe, we also focus on different stores, and we are constantly visiting those stores, but whether we would design a contract or not, depending on the location such as customer footfalls and looking at the countries macroeconomy as well as the number of population, et cetera. So there are quite a lot that we need to consider. So it's all about the bottom to up and we are very prudent, but we're very, very positive as well for the market.

Thank you, Ms. Qu, for your answer.

Thank you, Mr. Qu. We also hope that next year, we'll see better results from your strategies.

Next question comes from Jun Zeng from Huatai Securities.

So how do you look at the customers' satisfaction and at the moment, do you think that the table turnover rate is already quite satisfied end can you please also share with us in terms of the same-store improvement for the future, how to consider the price dimension.

Thank you Mr. Zhong and stability of table turnover rate is a result of our continuous investment in the past 2 years. There are several directions. We can continue to tapped into the potential. Number 1 is optimization of a time period structure to present our potential for improving table turnover is mainly in off-peak hours, especially the late-night snack scenarios we have carried out a night cloud style Sin transformation in some pilot stores. And going forward, we'll be looking at some other different investment method and different types of sales to help us better promote the transformation. And the second is on the customer stickiness and, we already have done quite well, but we do believe that there is a lot of improvement. For instance, using digital tools to reactivated the members and to be able to reach them precisely. And so we will want to make the customers change from knowing high being used to come into a highly longhand, and number 3 is the enrichment of the scenarios not only is the birthday the parent child activities, the dinner, the late-line snacks and each have an independent customer group. This is the most direct way to improve the table turnover rate and based on different customers at different time periods in terms of the pricing, we are not going to actively raise the average customers nor are we going to offer disorderly profit concessions in pursuit of customer flow. And I think that the headquarters that does not have a 1 size fits all approaching and we'll continue to monitor the market and which is more sustainable than simply our price adjustment.

Thank you, Mr. Qu. That's all very clear, and I also wish the company a bright future going forward.

Thank you, analysts and investors online. We will see you next time that to conclude our conference result announcement today. And thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call. Thank you. Goodbye.