After running the business for many years, Wang started thinking of introducing a professional and young management team to regulate and expand the group.

Kang Jie, the current chief executive officer, was the suitable person Wang discovered who could lead the core management.

Before joining the group in 2010, Kang worked at Bear Stearns & Co Inc, a global investment bank and securities trading and brokerage firm until its sale to JPMorgan Chase in 2008.

Two years after being put in charge of the restaurant and being equipped with a team of professionals, Kang's task is to speed up the expansion of Xiao Nan Guo as a chain restaurant with a standardized operational system.

In 2011, 22 new restaurants were opened, 13 more than the number of the company's newly launched restaurants in 2010. "We are ready to standardize the quality of food by having six central kitchens and five central warehouses all over the country to ensure consistent quality and efficiency," said Kang.

The cuisine company is adopting multi-brand strategy. Apart from Xiao Nan Guo restaurants, the group also serves business and high-end clientele under the brand Maison De L'Hui, offering Cantonese and Shanghainese cuisines, and the Dining Room, which serves Shanghainese cuisine in a stylish casual setting aimed at attracting white-collar workers.

Kang added that Xiao Nan Guo wants to attract more private rather than business diners in the near future, and the other two outlets will attract 50 percent of the group's customers.

Xu Juanjuan, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities, said that despite the downturn in China's dining industry, hit by rising costs and slowing economic growth, the market for mid- and high-end dining is still huge.