Playing the role of supply chain founder Wang Hao: Having a factory doesn't mean you have a supply chain; a supply chain is a way of thinking.

Ask AI · What efficiency gains come from the front-end/back-end separation strategy developed as a guest production?

On March 25, the 2026 China Catering Industry Forum and the 35th HCC Global Catering Industry Expo, co-hosted by the World Chinese Restaurant Industry Union and Hongcan.com, were held at the Hangzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center. Among them, at the “2026 China Food Ingredients Development Forum,” Wang Hao, founder of Guest Production and founder of the Guest Production supply chain, shared his views around the theme of “Sustainable Supply Chains: The Foundation for Sound Development of Catering Enterprises.”

△ Wang Hao, founder of Guest Production and founder of the Guest Production supply chain

Wang Hao believes that the key words of a sustainable supply chain for catering are “optimization,” meaning continuously optimizing the supply chain. From a single store to tens of thousands of stores, the business needs supply chain thinking.

A supply chain doesn’t mean that everything must be made by yourself; it means having that kind of reasoning logic—continuously optimizing through long-termism—and finding the advantages of each product.

Taking Guest Production as an example, he revealed that the share of seasonal dishes in the brand’s stores is around 20%. The development process of Guest Production is: first front-end stores, then the back-end supply chain.

In the first stage, front-end stores nurture factories. Guest Production was established in 2015. By 2017, they found that supply couldn’t keep up, so they began planning the supply chain. Subsequently, they established two factories in Changsha, both covering an area of several thousand square meters.

As things stand now, it’s the factories pushing the front-end stores to race forward quickly. Currently, 93% of Guest Production’s supply chain services serve other enterprises, and only 7% serve Guest Production.

Wang Hao said that Guest Production’s next three-year plan is still to make the supply chain more complete, so that the speed and efficiency on the front end can reach the highest level.

Regarding how to handle the relationship between the front end and the back end, Wang Hao believes these are two independent entities, and each side must stick to its own position. “For example, if the supply chain delivers five jin of chili to a store and one batch is bad, the store will return it—absolutely no tolerance. Only then can the supply chain grind out quality, dimensions, service, and systems, and better serve others.”

Based on this philosophy, in 2020 Guest Production separated the front end and the back end. The factories only produce one core product: beef. In recent years, the business of fresh beef skewers has developed particularly fast, and from slaughtering to processing will be controlled within 5 hours.

“Not everything has to be processed by ourselves. Our core is controlling the link from slaughtering to processing,” Wang Hao emphasized.