A Chinese barbecue restaurant that Koreans are chasing for food may be going on the market

According to industrial and commercial information, the business entity of the well-known direct-operated barbecue chain brand “Long Ago Mutton Skewers” recently completed the industrial and commercial change. The company name was officially changed from “Beijing Long Ago Catering Management Co., Ltd.” to “Beijing Long Ago Catering Management Group Co., Ltd.”, and the enterprise type was simultaneously changed from “Limited Liability Company” to “Incorporated Company”.

Joint-stock reform is a basic step for enterprises to connect with the capital market. According to the relevant regulations of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, whether a domestic enterprise chooses to issue and list its shares for the first time domestically or overseas, the issuing entity must be a “joint-stock company”. Therefore, this industrial and commercial change is regarded by the industry as a formal signal to start the listing journey “a long time ago”.

In parallel with the name and type changes, the company’s core management also completed a round of adjustments. According to industrial and commercial information, Zhang Shuai resigned as financial director and was replaced by Gong Zhiqiang; Du Peng resigned as supervisor, Zhao Liguo and Zhang Peng were added as supervisors, and Zhao Lei became chairman of the supervisory board. After the adjustment, according to industrial and commercial information, the company’s board of directors will consist of five people. Founder Song Ji will serve as chairman. Song Qing, co-founder Wang Liang, and two external investors, Zhang Peiyuan, founder of Black Ant Capital, and Yu Yanxin, executive director of Jueli Fund, will serve as directors.

From the perspective of ownership structure, Song Ji controls a total of approximately 36.3% of the voting rights through direct shareholdings and indirect shareholdings in affiliated companies; at the same time, as the executive partner of the company’s employee shareholding platform Beijing Long ago Management Consulting Center (Limited Partnership), he controls another 27.4094% of the voting rights, and controls a total of approximately 63.7% of the voting rights. Juejie Fund holds a total of 19.39% of the shares and Black Ant Capital holds a total of 9.02% of the shares. The two are important external institutional shareholders.

From roadside stall to “Haidilao in the barbecue world”

“A Long Time Ago” was founded in 2008. The founder, Song Ji, is from Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia. In his early years, he worked in a resort and part-time as a DJ. By chance, he saw an automatic skewer machine in a small skewer shop in Inner Mongolia and decided to incorporate it into his business plan. In the same year, he opened his first store in Shunyi, Beijing. The original name was “Just a skewer shop a long time ago”.

Song Ji brought the atmosphere he felt at the nightclub into the barbecue restaurant. At that time, most barbecue restaurants were still roadside stalls or small stores with noisy environments and heavy oil smoke. However, “A Long Time Ago” adopted a smokeless barbecue model and integrated the lights, music and immersive atmosphere of the bar, turning barbecue into a trendy night-time social experience.

This differentiated positioning allows the brand to quickly open up the market. According to Zhaimen data, as of September 11, “Long Time Ago” has approximately 148 operating stores across the country, covering 17 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Zhengzhou, with per capita consumption of approximately 88 yuan. Among them, Shanghai and Beijing have the largest number of stores, with 52 and 41 stores respectively. After China launched a trial visa-free policy for South Korea in November 2024, Korean young people started to “fly to Shanghai after get off work on weekends”. “Long Ago” quickly became a must-visit place for Korean tourists in Shanghai, and a large number of Korean travel bloggers included it in their vlog itineraries.

According to public information, as of 2016, the annual turnover has reached 400 million yuan a long time ago. In terms of expansion model, from 2008 to 2012, the franchise model was adopted for rapid expansion a long time ago, but the management was too loose, which once caused the brand to encounter a crisis. After that, the company spent another four years trying the joint venture model, and finally Song Ji decided to return to full direct operation.

In terms of service, “Long Time Ago” is known for its ultimate experience and is called “Haidilao in the barbecue industry” by many consumers. The store provides detailed services such as cooling patches and deodorizing sprays. The ordering applet also has a virtual gift tipping function. Customers can give virtual gifts such as “yachts” to the waiters. While this mechanism improves service enthusiasm, it has also triggered market discussions about raising consumer costs in disguised form.

Capital has already entered the game

“A Long Time Ago” completed its Series A financing as early as 2017, with an investment of tens of millions of yuan from the fund. In June 2020, Black Ant Capital made an exclusive Series B investment of nearly 100 million yuan in “A Long Time Ago”. From then on to 2024, the company successively completed B+ rounds and multiple rounds of equity financing, laying down ammunition for subsequent large-scale expansion and capital operations.

According to the “Barbecue Industry Development Report 2026” released by the Red Food Industry Research Institute (released in April 2026), it is clear that the national barbecue market will reach 268 billion yuan in 2025, becoming the second largest catering track after hot pot in the catering track, but the chain rate is much lower than that of hot pot. In this track, “Long Time Ago” is in the first echelon of directly-operated barbecue brands, but the size of 148 stores is still nearly ten times the gap compared to Haidilao’s 1,389 stores.

The fully direct operation model means heavier asset pressure and slower expansion pace. Narrow-door dining data shows that the net growth of “Long Ago” stores in the past year was about 20.