Beijing-based Chinese fast food brand Yonny serving suan cai yu, or boiled fish with pickled cabbage and chili, is going popularity in overseas markets.

The table turnover rate of its outlet in Dallas, the United States, reached 9.3 times on the second day of its opening, demonstrating its popularity in the North American market.

Currently, Yonny operates over 2,700 outlets worldwide, covering more than 360 cities in China and overseas markets including the US, Canada, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. By April, Yonny owned 56 outlets overseas, among which 39 are in Southeast Asia.

The company has been named among the "Top 100 catering enterprises in China" and "Top 100 fast food restaurants in China" for many years, and was recognized as "The most number of suan cai yu outlets worldwide in 2022" and "The most number of rice-based fast food outlets in China in 2025" by market consultancy Frost & Sullivan.

Wei Tongrong, founder and chairman of Yonny, said the company started its globalization journey in 2022 when it launched outlets in New York and completed its first round of trial operations overseas. Between 2023 and 2024, it entered other markets including Malaysia, further accumulating experience in overseas operations and localization.

In 2025, the company started scale expansion in Malaysia, realizing two rounds of "opening six outlets at the same time". Within only 10 months, it ranked top in terms of number of Chinese-style rice-based fast food chain stores in Malaysia. Its operation in Thailand is also remarkable, she said.

"We are deeply engaged in the high-quality track of suan cai yu. At present, there is no competitive product of the same category overseas, and we can precisely avoid competition. Meanwhile, we have created a dual operation mode combining suan cai yu and mini hotpot, using suan cai yu to expand traffic and mini hotpot to serve the scenario of gathering for parties and non-meal time consumption. In this way, the outlets' area-efficiency and profit margin are raised.

"We always stick to offering consumers a real dining experience at the price of fast food. In addition, we provide complete supply chain, digitalization and operational management standards to address the industry pain points of difficulty in standardizing and replicating Chinese cuisine, ensuring stable and scalable development of our stores," Wei said.

For fast food chain stores going global, supply chains are critical. Li Feng, vice-president of XH Supply Chain, one of Yonny's major supply chain providers, said: "Thanks to the improvement of domestic production capacity and food safety control system, many Chinese food products have surpassed international standards in pesticide residues, additives and other standards, laying a solid industrial foundation for going global."

"On the premise of maintaining the diversity of Chinese cuisine flavors, complex cooking techniques have been transformed into standardized production processes through research and innovation, solving the problem of traditional reliance on chefs' personal skills that are difficult to replicate. In addition, artificial intelligence is used to optimize delivery routes and predict inventory, achieving end-to-end management," he said.

Lin Xianping, associate professor at Hangzhou City University, said:"Chinese fast food, represented by Yonny, is accelerating its layout in the global market. With differentiated tracks and localized operations, Yonny has successfully established itself in the overseas fast food markets, providing a mature model for domestic fast food brands to go global."

zhengyiran@chinadaily.com.cn