Diners take pictures of the steamed bun meal that President Xi Jinping ate and made famous at the Qingfeng restaurant in Beijing. (Photo : REUTERS)
Beijing’s Qingfeng steamed bun restaurant chain is set to go public after its business received a massive boost following a visit by President Xi Jinping to one of its outlets in 2013, the company told Shanghai’s China Business News on Sunday.
The chain, a subsidiary of state-run Huatian Foods and Drink Group, will first integrate its assets before developing a concrete listing plan, the company said.
Qingfeng runs 300 stores, with 262 located in Beijing and the rest scattered across the Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces of northeast China.
The company revealed plans to expand to 1,000 outlets in the next five years, of which 80 percent are to be franchises and set outside Beijing.
Business is booming at Qingfeng restaurant since President Xi unexpectedly dropped by for a bite at one of its Beijing branches in late 2013. Since then, the chain has seen a sharp rise in the number of customers ordering the same 21 yuan ($3.50) set meal ordered by Xi. Applications for new franchises have also gone up, according to the news site. The outlet Xi visited has also become a sightseeing spot on its own, visited by both local and foreign tourists alike.
The company previously stoked speculations that it was planning on listing in China's new third board, the country's leading over-the-counter (OTC) exchange.
As a sole proprietor company, Qingfeng would have needed up to three years to go public had it followed the standard procedure for incorporation and then listing, the Want China Times said in a report on Tuesday. In order to save time, the company will be integrating its assets and put them into a shell corporation held by its parent company, which is already incorporated.
If all goes smoothly, the plan is expected to be implemented in April next year, the report added.
As an old restaurant chain transformed into a popular brand after Xi's visit, if Qingfeng wants to further expand, it will need to solve its capital problem by going public, said Zhu Danpeng, a researcher at the China Food Business Research Center.
As part of its expansion plan, Qingfeng is also eyeing five logistics centers in Shenyang, Harbin, Xi'an, Zhengzhou and Shandong provinces; an operations center; a business management school; and a research center, the China Business News reported.
