A popular noodle shop chain, famous for its spicy Sichuan flavors, aims to file for IPO to fund its expansion across China and overseas markets. This will also make it the first Chinese-style noodle shops to be publicly listed.
Guangzhou Xiao Noodles Catering Management Co. Ltd (Xiao Noodles), saw its revenue doubled with a CAGR of 66% from Rmb 418 million (US$58 million) in 2022 to Rmb 1.15 billion (US$159.7 million) in 2024.
The company bases its brand name on the Chongqing dish popularly known as ‘xiao mian’, or little noodles. The dining chain ranked as China’s biggest operator of Sichuan-Chongqing noodle restaurants by sales value last year and placed 4th in the general category of noodle shops, according to data from Frost & Sullivan.
The company also claimed the top spot for offline sales of Chongqing noodles, noodles with peas and meat sauce and hot and sour sweet potato noodles for 3 consecutive years from 2022, according to the research report.
Xiao Noodles has successfully built its presence in busy locations like airports, railway stations, residential areas, shopping malls, college campuses and offices to cater to a wide range of consumers.
By April 2025, the chain owns 374 restaurants across 22 mostly first-tier cities on mainland China and 6 stores in Hong Kong. Roughly 80% of the stores are company-owned whereas 20% are franchised stores.
Despite the positive overall growth, China’s economy remains uncertain and Xiao Noodles also saw declining profit per store in recent years. It also has to contend with rising competition from peers such as Hefu Noodles and Wuyebanmian amongst others. As a result, it has decided to focus on expanding into the lower-tier cities and overseas markets such as Singapore, as well as scaling up its franchise network.
