SUPER HI INTERNATIONAL HOLDING LTD. Sponsored ADR ((HDL)) has held its Q4 earnings call. Read on for the main highlights of the call.
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SUPER HI International Holding Ltd.’s latest earnings call struck a cautiously optimistic tone as management balanced solid revenue growth with near-term margin pressure. Executives highlighted accelerating takeout momentum, rising customer traffic, and healthier second-half profitability, while acknowledging higher costs, FX volatility, and uneven store performance across newer markets.
Consistent Top-Line Growth in 2025
SUPER HI reported Q4 2025 revenue of USD 230.0 million, up 10.2% year on year and 7.5% quarter on quarter, underscoring resilient demand. Full-year revenue reached USD 840.8 million, an 8.0% increase, as the Haidilao restaurant business remained the growth anchor despite a challenging cost and macro backdrop.
Takeout and Other Businesses Gain Real Traction
The company’s takeout and peripheral businesses emerged as key growth engines, with full-year takeout revenue climbing 68.1% to USD 19.0 million and Q4 takeout nearly doubling at 94.3% growth to USD 6.8 million. Other business revenue, driven by the Pomegranate Plan and related products, surged 61.4% to USD 31.8 million, diversifying the overall revenue mix.
Customer Traffic and Table Turnover Improve
SUPER HI served 8.31 million diners in Q4, up 3.89% year on year, indicating improving traffic trends across its network. Average table turnover reached 3.9 turns per day for the full year and 4.0 in Q4, with same-store turnover at 4.0, showing modest but steady operational productivity gains.
Second-Half Operating Margin Recovery
Profitability strengthened in the second half as operating profit for 2025 reached USD 37.4 million, with margins rebounding from earlier lows. Quarterly operating margin improved from 1.9% in Q2 to 5.9% in Q3 and 5.7% in Q4, signaling that investments are starting to scale more efficiently even as cost pressure persists.
Membership Expansion and Growing Customer Base
The company emphasized the strategic value of its membership ecosystem, noting that overseas members exceeded 8.5 million by the end of 2025. This expanding member base supports higher local penetration in key markets and underpins repeat visits, cross-selling opportunities, and more efficient targeted marketing.
International Footprint and Prudent Store Expansion
SUPER HI continued to build its overseas presence, opening 13 Haidilao stores in 2025 across nine countries and ending the year with 126 overseas outlets. Management also advanced several second-brand pilots, while stressing that future expansion will be driven by bottom-up, market-specific decisions rather than aggressive headline store targets.
Early Proof Points for Second Brands
Several new concepts, including Sparkora BBQ, Canada Hi Bowl, and a Japanese Izakaya format, progressed through pilot stages and some have achieved single-store profitability. These results provide early validation that the Pomegranate Plan can seed new brands and formats overseas, potentially broadening growth beyond the core hotpot business.
Stronger Cash Position and Net Profit Uptick
The company’s capital reserve rose to USD 270 million from USD 250 million a year earlier, reflecting net cash inflows from operations and a solid liquidity cushion. Full-year after-tax net profit improved to USD 36.3 million, aided in part by favorable foreign exchange revaluation earlier in the year.
Regional Strength in East Asia and North America
East Asia remained a standout region, with Q4 table turnover reaching 5.1 turns per day, roughly 0.3 turns higher year on year, and an average customer spend of about USD 28. North America showed steady performance with average spending of USD 41.4 per customer and average daily restaurant revenue around USD 24,100, underscoring strong unit economics.
Margin Pressure from Cost and Investment Choices
Despite the revenue gains, full-year operating margin settled at a modest 4.4% as costs rose across the board. Raw material expenses increased to 33.6% of revenue and employee costs to 33.9%, reflecting management’s deliberate decision to invest in customer experience and staff benefits, in turn compressing short-term profitability.
Short-Term Gross Margin Impact from Upgrades
Gross margin in Q4 slipped to 66.6%, roughly one percentage point lower than a year earlier, largely due to product upgrades and menu changes. Initiatives such as shifting to more fresh-cut meat and enhancing offerings increased costs in the short run but are intended to support differentiated positioning and customer loyalty over time.
Higher Operating Expenses from Expansion and Marketing
Other operating expenses rose to 11.3% of revenue, about 1.4 percentage points higher year on year, reflecting heavier spending on outsourcing, Pomegranate Plan promotion, and broader brand-building activities. While these investments weighed on near-term earnings, management framed them as necessary to support expansion and enhance long-term unit returns.
Foreign Exchange Volatility Weighs on Earnings
The multinational footprint exposed SUPER HI to currency swings, with Q4 net exchange losses reaching USD 3.8 million after balance-sheet revaluation. As a result, Q4 after-tax net profit was a modest USD 4.47 million, highlighting that FX volatility remains a meaningful swing factor for reported earnings.
Store Closures and Ramp-Up Risks
The company closed nine stores in 2025 across Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan due to lease expirations and format adjustments, shedding underperforming sites. Several newly opened outlets are still in their ramp-up phase, contributing to uneven regional performance, and management did not quantify the proportion of loss-making units.
Geopolitical and Regional Execution Headwinds
Management flagged geopolitical tensions as a constraint on deploying capital in the Middle East and noted that Europe and other newer markets carry execution and timing risks. Country managers are expected to make prudent, bottom-up decisions, emphasizing disciplined market entry and exit rather than rapid geographic expansion.
Profitability Trade-Offs to Strengthen Customer Loyalty
Executives openly acknowledged that they accepted short-term profit concessions in 2025 to boost traffic and retention through richer customer and employee benefits. The strategy pressured margins in the near term but is expected to shift in 2026 toward more precise, efficiency-driven investment, avoiding blunt cost-cutting while still improving expense ratios.
Guidance: From Broad Investment to Precision Efficiency
Looking to 2026, SUPER HI plans to move from broad-based investment to targeted optimization while preserving its customer- and employee-centric policies and a prudent expansion stance. Management expects raw material ratios to remain broadly stable, employee costs to gradually benefit from operating leverage, and delivery-related expenses to scale more efficiently, focusing on improving cost structure relative to 2025 rather than chasing a specific margin target.
SUPER HI’s earnings call painted the picture of a company leaning into growth and brand building while slowly rebuilding margins. Investors will watch whether the shift to more precise cost management and disciplined expansion in 2026 can translate robust top-line momentum and promising new concepts into more durable profitability and reduced earnings volatility.