Quanjude's Zhou Yanlong: Old brands will inevitably face the choice of breaking or establishing themselves

What development shortcomings exist behind the choices of breaking and establishing for time-honored brands?

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 and Hongcan Network, kicked off at the Hangzhou International Conference and Exhibition Center. During the “2026 China Catering Industry Conference,” Zhou Yanlong, president of the Beijing Culinary Association and secretary of the party committee & director & general manager of Quanjude Group, stated that for a century-old brand like Quanjude, facing new consumption forms means that time-honored brands will definitely face choices of breaking and establishing.

Zhou Yanlong believes that time-honored brands often build their tracks based on traditional business concepts and inertia, but this also locks the brand’s development. “This track cannot be entered by others, so whether you run fast or slow, you will always be the champion. But this is meaningless for the healthy and sustainable development of the time-honored brand. After breaking this traditional track, we find that we have many shortcomings.”

△Zhou Yanlong, president of the Beijing Culinary Association and secretary of the party committee & director & general manager of Quanjude Group

In the past few years, Quanjude has also made some breakthroughs and attempts.

Firstly, there has been a change in the main customer base of the stores. Zhou Yanlong stated that the rapid development of the industry over the past decade has given Quanjude a “tourism-style store” label. In 2016, Quanjude had a store in Beijing that generated a single-day revenue of 2.6 million.

However, this has also caused the company to overlook a question: Who is Quanjude’s main customer base? To adapt to the needs of different customer groups, Quanjude has renovated many stores and redesigned themes. For example, the second and third floors of the Quanjude Wangfujing store are designed in collaboration with the Palace Museum culture, while the fourth and fifth floors are themed restaurants called Jingmeng Wangfu·Four Seasons Fireworks; Quanjude has also created a 160-square-meter immersive interactive restaurant — the Pin·Taste Light and Shadow Theme Restaurant; and established a dining and food experience store along the Central Axis in Qianmen Street, offering afternoon tea, cultural and creative gifts, etc., to cater to the needs of tourists visiting Beijing.

According to Zhou Yanlong, in 2026, Quanjude welcomed the best single-day sales performance during New Year’s Day and Spring Festival in eight years.

In the future, Quanjude Group will continue to promote the dual-driven development model of “catering + food,” aiming to be a youthful, digital, and vibrant time-honored brand.

Author: Hongcan Editorial Department