Research on Operation Strategy of Catering Industry Under the COVID-19 Epidemic Taking Haidilao as an Example

COVID-19 is a great crisis for the catering industry. How to deal with and minimize its impact on their operations, various catering enterprises have adopted different strategies. As a leading enterprise in the industry, Haidilao has adopted a distinctive strategy of counter-trend expansion. Although it has achieved good results in the initial stage, with the economic recovery after the COVID-19 epidemic, the disadvantages of the policy have gradually emerged, which requires it to carry out macro-control on restaurant operations by changing strategic management methods. This paper first analyzes the effect of Haidilao's counter-trend expansion policy in terms of accounting performance and market performance. Then the SWOT analysis method is used to study and discuss the current development situation of Haidilao, and the specific content of the development strategy is put forward: first, Haidilao can appropriately give up the market with low economic benefits and maintain a certain level of cash flow. Second, Haidilao should speed up the development of takeout service and combine operation with informatization. Third, Haidilao should strengthen food safety management to fully meet the needs of customers. Fourth, Haidilao can appropriately add Chinese traditional cultural elements to the restaurant management to promote the development of brand characteristics. It is hoped that the business strategy obtained from the analysis of Haidilao in this paper can bring some reference value for catering enterprises in the post-epidemic era.