Are braised snacks losing their appeal? Leading卤味休闲食品 enterprise ZHOU HEI YA has released its first-half results, showing revenue and sales volume growth, yet a dip in gross margin and a pullback in net profit attributable to shareholders—growth in revenue without a matching rise in profit. Some consumers argue that duck-based snacks are a discretionary treat at best, high in salt and heavy on seasoning, and hardly healthy. “A casual purchase easily runs you a hundred bucks,” they say, making it unaffordable. One calculation puts a jin (500g) of Zhou Hei Ya duck neck at roughly 57.5 yuan—enough to buy a jin of fresh domestic beef and a jin of pork spare ribs. “Might as well cook at home.”
Against an industry backdrop of intensifying competition in a stagnant market, pressure is also shifting onto employees. Several Zhou Hei Ya staffers have alleged that near-expiry products at stores are hard to return, leaving workers to foot the bill themselves. Meanwhile, food safety complaints persist, with consumers reporting foreign objects like duck feathers and wire in products. A customer service representative explained to the reporter that “hair stubs grow directly into the meat and cannot be fully removed.”
Who is abandoning Zhou Hei Ya? “I haven’t bought Zhou Hei Ya in a year. For me, duck snacks are optional—overpriced, salty, and not exactly healthy. Many around me have cut back too, as health awareness rises and acceptance of such braised goods falls,” said a long-time customer. She believes the brand’s decline is unsurprising: as a non-essential snack, duck goods face two obvious hurdles—price and health. “An occasional treat is fine, but I wouldn’t recommend frequent consumption.”
Other consumers directly blame pricing for the sales slump. “A small pick-me-up for drinks easily costs eighty to a hundred yuan.” On delivery platforms, Zhou Hei Ya’s fresh-lock braised duck neck is discounted to 34.5 yuan per box (300g), about 57.5 yuan per jin. Meanwhile, on a fresh-food e-commerce platform, 500g of chilled pork spare ribs costs 18.62 yuan, and 500g of domestic fresh beef goes for 39.9 yuan. That means the price of one jin of Zhou Hei Ya duck neck could nearly cover both a jin of spare ribs and a jin of fresh beef. On the same platform, a 900g pack of branded raw duck neck sells for 31.9 yuan—under 20 yuan per jin. Data shows that in 2023, a 300g box of Zhou Hei Ya duck neck retailed at 42 yuan (about 70 yuan per jin). Despite a price cut of over 10 yuan, nearly 60 yuan per jin still draws complaints about being too expensive.
Zhou Hei Ya’s first-half 2026 interim results show clear gains in revenue and sales volume, but a lower gross margin, higher selling expenses, and a year-on-year drop in net profit—a textbook case of rising revenue without rising profit. For the six months ending June 30, 2026, revenue reached 1.461 billion yuan, up 19.5% from 1.223 billion yuan in the same period of 2025. Gross profit stood at 800 million yuan, with a gross margin of 54.7%, down 3.9 percentage points from 58.6% a year earlier. Total sales volume across all channels hit 19,450 tonnes in the first half, a sharp 35.2% year-on-year jump, yet volume growth significantly outpaced revenue growth.
In the interim report, Zhou Hei Ya cited rising raw material cost pressures as one factor behind the gross margin decline. Channel business grew 80.4% overall in the first half, with offline channels surging 207.2% and online channels up 37.4%. Selling and distribution expenses climbed 24.9% to 589 million yuan, driven by channel expansion, promotion, and logistics fulfillment costs, further squeezing profit margins.
The dual rise in revenue and volume alongside falling profit reflects, to some extent, the broader stagnant and hyper-competitive braised food market. Industry commentator Zhang Shule noted that chains like Zhou Hei Ya face heavy costs from cold-chain logistics for cooked products. “Raw materials aren’t expensive, and store footprints are small, requiring limited staff, but cooked goods demand high-standard cold-chain transport, and that’s a major cost burden.”
That pressure is trickling down to staff. Multiple Zhou Hei Ya employees from Hubei, Jiangxi, and Jiangsu have posted on social media that near-expiry products that don’t sell are hard to return, leaving workers to pay out of pocket. One store clerk said, “Discounted near-expiry items are sold to customers with promises of returns if they expire, but returns are rare—basically only 2 to 3 boxes a month allowed. Return more and you get called out. Usually, we just buy them ourselves because the store manager doesn’t allow excessive returns, and the quota also covers damaged or leaking items.” Employees in other regions echoed this, saying “returns are limited, basically not allowed,” and “expired stock that doesn’t sell is paid for by whichever staff member is on shift, or shared among colleagues with good rapport.”
“If you can’t trust Zhou Hei Ya, then there’s nothing safe to eat.” One employee boasted in a video, “Zhou Hei Ya is the ceiling of braised food, the Hermès of the segment.” He claimed the company sources premium raw materials nationwide at higher costs, uses spray sterilization in workshops, and operates with pharmaceutical-grade equipment where hands never touch the product, all under full cold-chain. Yet multiple consumers have reported finding duck feathers, chicken feathers, and even wire in products: “Found wire in duck tongues,” “a feather over ten centimeters long was packed for me,” “expensive and small portions, and on top of that a feather,” “A big chicken feather stuck right on the chicken wing tip! Not plucked and stuck on—it was never removed, firmly lodged in the pore!!! I snapped a photo and then ran to the bathroom to throw up!!!”
Zhou Hei Ya’s customer service responses have only fueled dissatisfaction. One consumer shared a screenshot where a service rep explained: “Our de-feathering process is mostly machine plus manual handling, with no chemicals. There may be occasional oversights.” The proposed solution was a refund for that box of wings, advising against consumption. Another consumer said the rep dismissed it as “normal.” “If it’s skin-on with tiny short hairs, that’s acceptable, but this is a full feather—too extreme,” the consumer fumed. One who found a feather demanded, “This big feather went straight into the braising pot without removal. Is that hygienic??? Safe???”
The reporter, posing as a consumer, asked Zhou Hei Ya’s customer service about the issue. The rep said it depends on whether it’s a loose floating feather or a hair stub embedded in the meat. “A floating feather is a patch separate from the meat, while a hair stub grows directly into the flesh and cannot be completely removed.” The rep said refunds could be arranged for such cases after providing photos and purchase receipts, but compensation was not possible since hair stubs are unavoidable. When asked about standards for the length and quantity of hair stubs, the rep admitted, “I’m not really clear on that.”
Analysts note that China’s leisure braised food market has entered a phase of stagnant competition. Snack retail channels are diverting foot traffic from traditional stores, while downstream consumption recovery is tepid and consumers are increasingly price-sensitive. The industry is resorting to promotions and volume expansion to hold ground, often trading price for volume. Additionally, duck by-products and other key raw materials face cyclical cost swings tied to farming cycles, persistently disrupting cost structures for braised food firms.
Zhang Shule observed that complaints about braised products are hardly rare, with issues around near-expiry stock, quality, and subjective differences in look and taste all fueling controversy over such strongly flavored foods. Braised snack brands also face a formidable competitor: street stalls. “Chains win on consistent quality, full product lines, and stricter food safety control, but street vendors are highly competitive on both flavor and price.” He argued that listed braised food companies must keep innovating and launching new products. “If it’s purely a price war, chain stores can never beat street stalls. The only path is to keep raising the bar on technology, product quality, and food safety—and once safety assurances falter, competing against the flavor appeal of street food gets even tougher.”