The industry's first mid-year report was released, and Shuijingfang increased revenue but not profit [In the first half of the year, the company's inventory increased compared with the same period last year]

　　The first interim report of the liquor industry in 2022 will be released on July 27, but this interim report is unfavorable.

According to the semi-annual report released by Shuijingfang, the company achieved operating income of 2.074 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 12.89%; but the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 370 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2%.

This means that Shuijingfang, a well-known national brand, has experienced the embarrassment of revenue growth but profit decline.

Industry insiders pointed out that, in fact, this also reflects that the domestic liquor market is becoming increasingly differentiated and the strong are getting stronger.

Except for a few major brands, the days of many other liquors are not so easy.

　　Profitability is far inferior to Maotai Wuliangye

　　According to the semi-annual report disclosed by Shuijingfang, in the first half of the year, the company's high-end wine and mid-range wine achieved operating income of 1.984 billion yuan and 61.1698 million yuan respectively, an increase of 11.41% and 13.94% year-on-year respectively.

High-end wine is still the main driving force supporting the growth of Shuijingfang's revenue, which shows that among many domestic liquor companies, Shuijingfang is still a big brand, but its profitability is obviously far less than that of Maotai and Wuliangye.

　　In particular, it is worth mentioning that in the first half of the year, the social inventory of Shuijingfang increased compared with the same period last year.

In this regard, some analysts believe that the epidemic has repeatedly impacted the liquor consumption scene. In addition to a few leading liquor brands with collectible attributes, more liquors that mainly rely on catering consumption scenes are generally under pressure.

"Now the mid-to-high-end liquors Moutai, Wuliangye, Yanghe, and Luzhou Laojiao have formed the leading camp. In the future, the market pattern of mid-to-high-end liquor will be solidified, and the cost of catching up with latecomers will be huge. It can be said that Shuijingfang has missed out on becoming the leading liquor camp. Time opportunity." Xiao Zhuqing, an analyst in the wine industry, said in an interview with this reporter.

　　Over 60% of the equity of Shuijingfang controlled by foreign capital

　　The performance of Shuijingfang has attracted the attention of the industry, not only because it is the first semi-annual report of the liquor industry, but also because of the uniqueness of Shuijingfang in the liquor industry - a rare Chinese liquor brand controlled by foreign investors.

As early as 2011, the actual controller of Shuijingfang was changed to Diageo, a foreign-funded enterprise.

Diageo is the world's largest alcohol group, bringing together a series of top alcoholic beverages such as spirits, wine and beer. Famous brands include the world's first Scotch whisky Johnnie Walker (Johnnie Walker), the world's first vodka Smirnoff (Smirnoff). Minor), the world's No. 1 dark beer Guinness (Guinness), the world's No. 1 liqueur Baileys (Baileys), etc. are all under the Diageo banner.

　　By 2013, Diageo indirectly held 100% of the shares of Sichuan Chengdu Shuijingfang Group Co., Ltd., the largest shareholder of Shuijingfang, which means that Shuijingfang, which has a history of 600 years, has been controlled by foreign investors as early as 2013.

　　A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily saw from Shuijingfang's 2022 semi-annual report that the company's largest shareholder is Sichuan Chengdu Shuijingfang Group Co., Ltd., with a shareholding ratio of 39.72%; the second largest shareholder is GRAND METROPOLITAN INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS LIMITED, with a shareholding ratio of 23.44%. .

Since the actual controllers of the first and second largest shareholders are both Diageo, it means that the latter has controlled 63.16% of the equity of Shuijingfang.

　　There are obvious differences between foreign investment management and domestic

　　Oriental liquor and Western liquor belong to two consumer goods with different market characteristics. Therefore, foreign ownership of Shuijingfang has always been controversial.

In recent years, Shuijingfang has continued to experience sharp declines in profits and even losses, adding to the doubts of foreign holdings about the "unacceptable" of China's liquor industry.

　　In this regard, Xiao Zhuqing believes that foreign capital is very much pursuing standardization and budgeting in terms of operation and management, and pursues institutionalized management and process-based operation.

However, the competition in China's wine industry is fierce, and it needs to respond quickly and pursue measures according to local conditions, people's conditions, and times.

Moreover, the relationship between manufacturers in the wine industry attaches great importance to "giving each other face", which is obviously different from the foreign management style of standardized and process-based budget management. This may indeed have an impact on some of Shuijingfang's strategic response.

　　In fact, many foreign wine giants have already intentionally set foot in the Chinese liquor industry, but so far there is no successful case.

As early as 2007, Hennessy teamed up with another winemaker in Sichuan, Jiannanchun, to set up a joint venture to create ultra-high-end Wenjun wine, but at present it has not met market expectations.

This also shows that it is already very difficult or even unrealistic to build or upgrade an ultra-high-end liquor brand in the Chinese market.

　　Judging from the performance of the five listed liquor companies that have disclosed the semi-annual report forecast, Maotai's net profit growth has become the biggest bright spot, and at the same time, there are also liquor companies that expect a loss in net profit in the first half of the year or a sharp year-on-year decline.

This means that the performance differentiation of the liquor industry is becoming more and more obvious.

"With the sinking of major national first-line brand channels, and the provincial leading enterprises relying on the support of local governments to stick to the local base market, these will lead to even more fierce and even vicious competition in the liquor market in the future." Xiao Zhuqing predicted.

　　Text/Coordinator Zhang Qin, reporter of this newspaper/Chi Haibo