(Yicai) Aug. 26 -- Shares of Haidilao International Holding fell after the Chinese hot pot chain reported a decline in earnings in the first half of the year, despite its delivery business growing at a fast pace.

Haidilao [HKG: 6862] was trading down 2.2 percent at HKD14.56 (USD1.86) as of 2 p.m. in Hong Kong today, after earlier plunging as much as 6.5 percent.

Net profit shrank 14 percent to CNY1.8 billion (USD245.3 million) in the six months ended June 30 from a year earlier, mainly due to a decrease in the table turnover rate and initial adjustments to innovative models in terms of products and scenarios, the Jianyang-based firm announced yesterday.

Revenue fell 3.7 percent to CNY20.7 billion (USD2.9 billion) in the period, as revenue from Haidilao restaurant operations, which accounted for 90 percent of the total, fell 9 percent to CNY15.6 billion.

Meanwhile, revenue from the delivery business, which accounted for only 4.5 percent of the total revenue, surged 60 percent to CNY581.2 million (USD81.2 million).

As of June 30, Haidilao had 1,363 restaurants, including 1,299 self-operated ones in the Chinese mainland and 23 self-operated ones in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. The remaining 41 were franchised restaurants.

The daily table turnover rate of Haidilao’s self-operated restaurants was 3.8 times per day in the first half, compared with 4.2 times per day a year earlier, mainly due to the impact of intensified competition in the catering market and evolving customer consumption needs.

Haidilao will continue to enhance its dining experience, diversify its business strategy, integrate the use of new technologies to adjust its organizational structure, explore franchise business models, and pursue high-quality asset acquisitions to further diversify its catering business patterns and customer base, the company noted.

Editor: Futura Costaglione