Jia Guolong, founder of the northwest Chinese restaurant chain Xibei, has signalled a shift from a high-profile online persona back to hands-on operations, saying he will “return to the front line” and stop cultivating a personal brand. The move follows his own public admission that his online videos projected a heavy-handed, paternalistic tone — colloquially described in Chinese as “dad energy” — which he believes undermined his credibility and alienated some viewers.
The retreat from personal branding comes as Xibei faces acute financial pressure. Jia disclosed an expected cumulative loss of more than RMB 600 million between September 2025 and March 2026, and the group plans to close 102 outlets — roughly 30% of its nationwide network — in the first quarter as part of a cost-cutting and restructuring push.
Alongside the operational retrenchment, the company has attracted fresh capital and new shareholders. Corporate filings show registered capital rising to about RMB 102 million, a roughly 13% increase, with several new investment entities joining the shareholder roster, including an agricultural-technology executive and investors tied to regional food businesses.
Jia framed his renewed role in pragmatic terms: he plans to focus on food sourcing, quality control and cost management, describing these tasks as the real work that creates good dishes and, by extension, customer loyalty. His language underscores a broader recalibration from personality-driven marketing toward product and supply-chain management.
The episode highlights two intersecting pressures on Chinese consumer-facing firms: the fragility of founder-led personal branding and the intense margin and traffic challenges facing mid-sized restaurant chains. In recent years many entrepreneurs have leaned on social-media visibility to sustain growth; but such exposure can cut both ways, amplifying missteps and prompting public backlash that worsens already difficult operating conditions.
For investors and competitors, Xibei’s predicament will be a litmus test. The capital injection and shareholder changes suggest outside parties believe the brand or its supply chains still hold value, yet the scale of the planned closures and the sizable short-term losses point to a difficult turnaround. Whether a renewed emphasis on procurement and kitchen standards will restore profitability and customer trust remains uncertain.
More broadly, Xibei’s story is symptomatic of consolidation in China’s restaurant sector, where rising rents, labour costs and shifting consumer patterns favour nimble chains and those with tight cost control or distinctive, resilient value propositions. Founder theatrics and influencer-style promotion can accelerate attention, but they are no substitute for the unit economics of menu design, sourcing and store operations.
For customers and observers, Jia’s renunciation of personal IP may offer a cautionary tale about the limits of charisma in brand building. For the company, it is a pivot toward fundamentals that will be judged by the speed and depth of its operational fixes and by whether new investors can provide more than temporary liquidity.