Barbi Food Founder Liu Huiping: The most painful breakthrough in the past two years was in fresh food.

Ask AI · How does the fresh food strategy balance cost and quality improvement?

On March 24, the 2026 China Catering Industry Festival and the 35th HCC Global Catering Industry Expo, co-hosted by the World Federation of Chinese Catering Industry and Hongcan.com, kicked off at the Hangzhou International Expo Center. At the “2026 China Catering Industry Conference,” Liu Huiping, founder of Babi Foods, shared his views on whether catering brands should choose “fast” or “slow” during their development, based on the development of Babi Foods.

Liu Huiping, founder of Babi Foods, admitted that the changes in Babi Foods over the past two years have both proactive and passive elements. One reality is that the single-store profit in the catering industry has decreased by about 30% compared to before, and companies must reform.

Babi Foods has developed to over 6,000 stores. In Liu Huiping’s view, the most fundamental aspect of catering is to have delicious and fresh products. To this end, in 2024, Babi Foods proposed the “Fresh and Delicious” strategy to enhance product quality. Liu Huiping stated that the “most painful” breakthrough for Babi Foods in the past two years has been in producing fresh meat products. Traditional baozi chain brands often use frozen meat, which is relatively low-cost and easy to transport.

Currently, consumers are increasingly favoring fresh and made-to-order products. To improve product quality and meet consumer demands, Babi Foods has also begun using fresh meat for products like baozi, with the price of fresh meat being about 1 yuan more per kilogram than before. According to Babi Foods’ purchasing volume, this move has resulted in a profit loss of several million yuan for the company over a year.

In addition to product reform, Babi Foods is also refining its new store model. The original main product of Babi Foods’ stores was baozi, with 70% of revenue coming from breakfast hours, while the new model stores have expanded to include a range of products like soup dumplings, mixed noodles, and pan-fried dumplings, operating throughout the day. The store area has also expanded; previously, stores were mostly 20 square meters, now extended to 40-50 square meters.

According to Liu Huiping, the results of Babi Foods’ reform have been quite good. After adjusting to the new model, some stores have doubled their sales, with some well-performing stores even seeing their performance triple or quadruple.

Author: Hongcan Editorial Team