On the evening of August 12, 2026, Zhao Zhiqiang, founder, chairman and CEO of Big Pizza, found himself trending on social media after a comment he made on Douyin: "A monk eating Big Pizza hasn't broken his vows, but looking at your photo, vows are definitely broken." The reply, accompanied by a hands-together emoji, was widely interpreted by netizens as a suggestive joke. Although Zhao explained to media the next day that "breaking vows" was intended to refer to the appeal of food photography rather than anything else, and stated the comment had been deleted, public outrage showed no signs of subsiding. This seemingly personal social media misstep has taken on far greater significance given Big Pizza's precarious corporate situation — just one month earlier, the company's Hong Kong IPO prospectus had lapsed automatically after failing to pass the hearing within six months. The ripple effects of a single comment expose the systemic risks accumulated by a budget dining brand operating under rapid expansion, heavy debt, and deep entanglement with its founder's personal image.

The double-edged sword of "persona as brand": from "the listening Lao Zhao" to "the controversial boss"

Zhao Zhiqiang's personal brand building was no accident. Since June 2023, he has systematically operated his personal Douyin account. As of August 2026, the account had published 4,127 short videos and amassed 272,000 followers. Content spans billiards sessions, playing with purple clay teapots, new product development, and store inspections, generating nearly 300 million organic views across the platform. He frequently responds to netizen comments in the persona of "customer service Xiao Zhao," and has even berated store hygiene issues in inspection videos — in November 2025, he discovered multiple stains on chairs, uncleaned renovation traces, and malfunctioning chocolate machines at his Rizhao Wanxianghui store in Shandong, bluntly asking: "Has anyone cleaned this store? Can't you see? Is this store equivalent to a scrap heap?" This "meticulous" persona earned him the nickname "the listener" among netizens, becoming a key traffic driver for Big Pizza. Zhao has a clear strategic vision for this approach. In an interview, he stated: "The more stores we open, the further we get from consumers. Building a personal IP is about maintaining direct communication with customers and gathering feedback in real time." He firmly believes that "the core secret to performance growth always lies with consumers." From a business logic perspective, this approach has indeed worked — brand performance grew nearly 60% year-on-year in 2025, with annual revenue approaching 2 billion yuan. However, the flip side of deeply binding personal IP to the brand is that every word from the founder directly transmits to brand reputation. The experience of Xibei Catering founder Jia Guolong serves as a cautionary tale: in September 2025, Jia's public dispute with Luo Yonghao over whether Xibei's dishes were all pre-prepared meals was widely viewed as a public relations disaster, directly causing a sharp decline in customer traffic. Jia ultimately announced in early 2026 that he would no longer build a personal IP. Zhao's current "vow-breaking" controversy mirrors the Xibei incident in nature — personal expression by a founder on social media rapidly escalating into a brand-level reputational crisis. Notably, this is not the first time Big Pizza has faced controversy over founder remarks. In January 2026, the company launched a promotional buffet offer of 49.99 yuan per person for sanitation workers (market price 79.99 yuan), sparking debate over whether sanitation workers earning two to three thousand yuan monthly would spend 50 yuan on pizza. Even earlier, in February 2025, after a food blogger criticized Big Pizza and was met with complaints, Zhao publicly apologized and implemented rectifications. Together, these incidents trace a clear pattern: when a founder's personal expression becomes the primary channel for brand communication, every public statement accumulates reputational capital for the brand — whether positive or negative. Zhao's handling of the current controversy has further amplified the risk. Facing netizen criticism, he first replied "Don't be so sensitive" and "It's not what you think," then when asked about deleting the comment, responded "Don't spread rumors, I didn't delete it." This contradictory approach, lacking a unified crisis communication strategy, allowed an incident that might have quickly subsided to keep escalating. Ultimately, Zhao chose to delete the comment and explain that his "intent was about the appeal of food photos," but the stance of "willing to delete but not apologize" further cemented negative perceptions in the court of public opinion. For a company racing toward the capital markets, reputational damage is hardly a trivial matter. At a critical juncture when the prospectus has lapsed and the company needs to rebuild its story for investors, any negative brand signal could undermine market confidence.

High-leverage sprint and IPO setback: Big Pizza's three financial barriers

If the founder's remark controversy is the symptom, then Big Pizza's deep financial difficulties are the root cause. On January 16, 2026, Big Catering International Holdings Co., Ltd. formally submitted its listing application to the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. At that time, the prospectus presented a story of rapid growth: revenue for 2023 and 2024 was 943 million yuan and 1.147 billion yuan respectively; in the first three quarters of 2025, revenue surged to 1.389 billion yuan, already exceeding the full-year 2024 figure, representing a 66.7% year-on-year increase. Store count expanded from 210 at the end of 2023 to 387 by January 2026. Zhao has set an ambitious target of surpassing 1,000 stores by 2028. However, behind the rapid growth lie alarming financial figures. As of September 30, 2025, Big Pizza had total assets of 901 million yuan and total liabilities of 838 million yuan, resulting in a debt-to-asset ratio of 93.02%. In 2024, this ratio reached 98%, and in 2023 it stood at a precarious 107.4% — at one point rendering the company technically insolvent. This leverage level far exceeds the approximately 60% typical of leading catering companies like Haidilao and breaks through the 70% warning line for bank financing. More concerning is the liability structure. The company's expansion relies primarily on supply chain payment terms and leasing leverage: trade payables surged 143% within 21 months, while lease liabilities exceeded 380 million yuan. With cash flow of merely 95.36 million yuan, the funding gap is enormous when facing expansion plans to add 610 to 790 new stores over three years. Meanwhile, profitability has not improved in tandem — from 2023 through the first three quarters of 2025, net profit attributable to shareholders was 47.518 million yuan, 41.737 million yuan, and 51.651 million yuan respectively, with net profit margin declining from 5.0% to 3.7%. The pattern of rising revenue without corresponding profit growth is unmistakable. Under this high-leverage, low-margin financial structure, the IPO for Big Pizza is not merely a bonus — it is an urgent lifeline. Yet on July 16, 2026, the prospectus lapsed after six months without passing the hearing. The reasons are multifaceted: regulators required clarification on whether major shareholders had completed foreign exchange registration under Article 37, whether the pricing and tax treatment of round-trip acquisitions were compliant, and disclosure of litigation that could materially impact finances and operations. But the deeper reason lies in the capital markets' reassessment of the "scale as a passport" logic — between June and July 2026, prospectuses for multiple restaurant chains including Lao Xiang Ji, Ba Nuo International, Yuan Ji Yun Jiao, and Big Pizza collectively lapsed, signaling that Hong Kong's restaurant IPO market is moving away from the era of trading scale for valuation. Other hidden risks at Big Pizza are equally concerning. On food safety, in August 2024, the company's Dongcheng District store in Beijing was ordered to rectify and received a warning for food safety issues; multiple foreign object complaints have appeared on the Heimao Complaint platform, with consumers in Harbin and Jinan reporting gastroenteritis symptoms after dining. On average ticket price, although Big Pizza claims to be "budget-friendly," according to Zhaimen Canyan data, its average ticket is approximately 67 yuan, while Zunbao Pizza, a local leader primarily in southern markets, has an average ticket of only about 31 yuan. Regional distribution is also highly imbalanced — 342 stores are heavily concentrated in northern China, particularly Beijing, Hebei, and Shandong, while more than ten southern regions including Sichuan-Chongqing, Yunnan-Guizhou, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong each have fewer than 10 stores. In July 2026, shortly after the IPO failure, Zhao registered a new entity, Big International Catering (Beijing) Co., Ltd., with registered capital of only 100,000 yuan. This move has been interpreted by the market as a signal of attempted structural restructuring following the IPO setback. Viewed against this financial backdrop, the founder's remark controversy transcends being a mere public relations event. A company with a debt-to-asset ratio exceeding 93%, a stalled IPO, and declining net profit margins most urgently needs to project stability and reliability to capital markets and consumers. Yet the founder's comment "looking at your photo, vows are definitely broken" and his subsequent handling of the fallout convey precisely the opposite message — management's risk awareness, crisis response capability, and reverence for the brand are all being reassessed by the market. Big Pizza's story is far from over. In an exclusive interview in early 2026, Zhao boldly declared: "This year's growth rate exceeds any previous year. This growth is no accident — it is the mutual fulfillment of era dividends and long-term accumulation." Whether era dividends still exist and whether long-term accumulation can withstand short-term storms are questions the market is now testing one by one. For this 24-year-old local pizza brand, the reputational reversal from "the listening Lao Zhao" to "the controversial boss" may be merely a stumble in a long race; but the triple pressures of high debt, low profit, and stalled IPO are the true obstacles that must be overcome.