Helens trademark final invalidation & small bar industry inflection point

Have you been to Helen’s? Helens encountered a “loss of Chinese name” due to trademark issues, with three Chinese trademarks “Helens,” “Helens Small Bar,” and “Helens Big Food Stall” finally invalidated by court ruling.

According to reports, Helens’ trademark dispute mainly occurred between Chengdu Helen Binfen Hotel Co., Ltd. and Helens. The opponent had successfully registered two “Hailun” trademarks in 2016, belonging to Class 43 restaurant and bar services; in May 2023 and August 2024, they respectively filed invalidation requests with the National Intellectual Property Administration, claiming that the disputed trademarks were similar to the cited trademarks for similar services, likely to cause public confusion.

After a back-and-forth of three years, on the evening of June 25, Helens announced that its three Chinese trademarks were finally invalidated by court ruling. The announcement stated that based on current assessment, the dispute has no material impact on the group’s overall business, daily operations, or financial condition, and the group can continue using its undisputed trademarks in daily business.

Blue Whale News found that as of now, Helens’ offline stores and online communications are still using its Chinese name “Helens” and related expressions. The impact has not yet affected specific stores, but the capital market is more sensitive.

After the announcement, the stock price opened lower on June 26, falling over 6% intraday. By the close, Helens’ stock price fell to 1.58 Hong Kong dollars. Helens’ market value once reached 30 billion HKD at the time of listing, but now stands at only 2 billion HKD, a loss of over 90%.

“Youth’s first small bar” is no longer young: old advantages of low price and scale under pressure

Helens was founded in 2009, first opened in an obscure location in Wudaokou, Beijing, near Tsinghua and Peking University. Founder Xu Bingzhong initially focused on the foreigner market and started with English trademarks like “Helen’s.” The Chinese trademarks were gradually registered starting in 2018.

Helens once expanded through the model of “youth + value for money”: bottled beer prices are mostly under 10 yuan, cocktails slightly more expensive but still around 20-plus yuan. With replication capability, by the end of 2021, the number of stores reached 782, and it was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The prospectus disclosed that revenue from 2018 to 2020 was 115 million yuan, 565 million yuan, and 818 million yuan, respectively; net profit was 9.734 million yuan, 79.136 million yuan, and 70.072 million yuan. Although beverage prices are low, Helens was still able to achieve profitability through gross margin and scale effects.

The prospectus showed that its own liquor gross margin was over 70%, with own liquor contributing over 60% of Helens’ beverage revenue; while through factory direct purchasing and economies of scale, Helens obtained relatively favorable purchasing prices for third-party brand beverages.

However, under aggressive expansion, skyrocketing store opening costs combined with pandemic factors led to a net loss of 230 million yuan in 2021 for Helens; the net loss expanded to 1.601 billion yuan the following year. After cumulative losses of over 1.8 billion yuan, Helens began to close stores to save itself: by the end of 2023, the number of stores was 479, a reduction of 288 from a year earlier, and a decrease of over 40% from the peak of over 850 stores.

At the same time, Helens initiated a strategic transformation, shifting from fully direct-operated to opening franchising, i.e., the “Hey Beer Partner” plan. The minimum investment threshold for the plan was 600,000 yuan; by 2024, the investment threshold for new store types was reduced to about 400,000 yuan to address expansion and improve operating conditions.

Amid widespread bistros, small bars face same-store decline and single-store profit pressure

From the latest operating results, the transformation measures have brought improvements. The 2025 financial report shows that Helens’ full-year revenue was 540 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 28.3%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 33.954 million yuan, successfully turning a loss into profit. The revenue share and gross margin of its own beverages increased year-on-year, with store-level contribution gross margin rising to 73.77%, and overall operating conditions improving from the previous year.

However, single-store sales remain a real challenge. In 2025, the same-store daily average sales per store for Helens’ direct-operated and franchise stores was 8,500 yuan, a year-on-year decline of over 18%; the overall daily average sales per partner store was only 4,100 yuan. Daily average sales across all store types declined; in the catering sector where daily revenue per store often exceeds 10,000 yuan, Helens’ main franchise store type earns relatively less.

More notably, nearly 70% of Helens’ stores are located in third-tier and below cities, with profitability under pressure. In contrast, the options for young people to drink have significantly increased, and the appeal of low prices is waning.

According to Zhaomen Canyan, the number of newly opened bars in the past year reached 38,000. From home bars, craft beer bars, livehouse-style bars to various bistros, consumption scenarios are becoming increasingly differentiated and diverse.

Among them, bistros operating “food + drinks” have risen strongly in recent years. Huan’s is developing aggressively; its parent company, Jiwu Thinking, submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in January this year. Currently, Huan’s has over 100 stores in China, and the company’s revenue exceeded 1 billion yuan in 2024.

Compared to Helens, which opened the market with low prices and scale, Huan’s adopts a higher pricing strategy, emphasizing ambiance with a per capita consumption of over 100 yuan. On social platforms, netizens’ impression of Huan’s is “pretty food.” The prospectus disclosed that for the first nine months of 2025, its daily average sales per store were 29,880 yuan.

Huan’s extends operating hours to over 18 hours by offering brunch, afternoon tea, dinner, and evening drinks, thereby improving single-store utilization efficiency and operational benefits. Disclosed data shows that in the first nine months of 2025, beverages and alcohol contributed about 45% of operating revenue, of which 85% were alcoholic drinks; during the same period, Huan’s overall gross margin was stable at 68.7%, above the industry average.

However, Huan’s also faces store cost pressure, and consumer complaints about dish taste and quality may affect brand reputation. Zhu Danpeng, a food industry analyst, believes that like the coffee track, low-, mid-, and high-end brands each have their markets; the small bar format is in a period of rapid expansion, but overall concentration is not high. Perhaps after about 5 years, driven by capital and consumption dividends, leading brands and a clearer competitive landscape will emerge.

Zhu also pointed out that product pricing is not the only key factor affecting brand trends. The hardcore factors determining the future development of small bars mainly include brand effect, scale effect, fan effect, supply chain completeness, and single-store operation capability; meanwhile, differentiated strategies are needed for different store locations.

For Helens, how to operate each store well may be the biggest challenge.