Original Huang Jing Consumer Reports September 8, 2025
■Press: Advertise new products, just wanting young people to drink more.
The in-depth adjustment of the liquor industry is still continuing. As of the evening of August 29, all the "report cards" of listed liquor companies in the first half of 2025 were released. According to the semi-annual report data, only 6 of the 20 major listed liquor companies maintained year-on-year revenue growth. In fact, with the transformation of consumption structure and changes in liquor consumption scenarios, liquor companies have faced pressure on performance growth in 2024. Against the backdrop of generally unsatisfactory performance, wine companies have begun to accelerate the launch of new products this year, from light bottle wine to low-alcohol wine, trying to attract young consumer groups with more palatable products and bring new growth to long-term development. After all, the liquor tycoons listened to the advice. Will young people pay for it?
01.
Wine companies gather to seek new changes
In the past eight months, liquor companies have been promoting new products, with bare bottles of liquor, low-alcohol liquor and cross-border beer making are the three most popular keywords. According to incomplete statistics from the "Consumer Report" reporter, since this year, leading wine companies have released more than 40 new products, with nearly half of them being launched by light bottles, low-alcohol and beer across the border. Among them, light bottle wine accounts for one-quarter, and low-alcohol wines that have been intensively launched recently account for one-tenth.
In the past, a bottle of hundreds or thousands of yuan was the general impression of the "unattainable" white wine. However, at a time when the overall consumption concept is becoming more rational, the public light bottle wine of about 100 yuan is becoming more and more popular among consumers, and has become a category that wine companies are rushing to plan. Nowadays, the light bottle wine track is crowded with top players. At the Chengdu Sugar and Wine Fair in March this year, Luzhou Laojiao’s light bottle wine Luzhou Laojiao Erqu (2025 edition), Yanghe’s high-line light bottle wine, and Gujing Gongjiu’s Gujing Gongjiu’s eighth generation, Gujing Gongjiu and Laoci Gongjiu all made their debuts. On August 20, Maotai Group Health Wine Sales Co., Ltd. issued a investment announcement for "Taiyuan Light Bottle Wine". This is the first light bottle wine product of the Moutai series, which means that Moutai Group has officially entered the light bottle wine track.
Old porcelain tribute bottle wine launched by Gujing Gongjiu Source: Gujing Gongjiu official WeChat service account
In addition to the price threshold, high alcohol content is another reason why young people are discouraged from liquor. Therefore, liquor began to shift to low levels. In June this year, Wuliangye executives publicly stated that they will launch products such as 29-degree Wuliangye that fit the taste and aesthetics of young people in the second half of the year. Subsequently, wine companies have successively sent out signals of launching low-alcohol liquor. On June 25, Jiugui Liquor revealed at the 2024 Annual General Meeting that in terms of low-degree products, Jiugui Liquor has made preparations such as 33 degrees, 28 degrees, 21 degrees, and 18 degrees. Immediately afterwards, Luzhou Laojiao also revealed at the 2024 shareholders' meeting that it has successfully developed 28 Degree Guojiao 1573 and will be put on the market in a timely manner. At the same time, 16 Degree and 6 Degree Guojiao 1573 are under test. Recently, a number of new low-alcohol liquor products launched by wine companies such as Gujing Gongjiu, Wuliangye and Shede Liquor have been launched one after another.
Wuliangye invites singer G.E.M. to endorse his low-level new product. Source: Wuliangye official Weibo
Not just playing new tricks on liquor, some liquor companies also cross-border beer. In early August, Xianlin Ecological Wine Industry, a subsidiary of Wuliangye, launched a new craft beer brand "Hot Wheels", officially entering the mid-to-high-end craft beer market. Zhenjiu Li Du also launched the "Bull News" craft beer on August 8, with an alcohol content of 5.9%vol and a retail price of 88 yuan per bottle.
02.
Liquor companies' performance growth is under pressure
Liquor companies are crazy about their products, and behind them are deep performance anxiety. According to the 2025 semi-annual report of listed liquor companies, among the 20 listed liquor companies, only six of them, including Kweichow Moutai, Wuliangye, Shanxi Fenjiu, Gujing Gongjiu, Laobaigan Liquor, and Jinhui Liquor, maintained positive year-on-year revenue growth, but the growth rate was only in single digits. Other wine companies have encountered obvious performance turning from rising to falling. For example, Jinshiyuan, whose revenue increased by 22.35% in the first half of 2024, fell by 4.84% year-on-year in the first half of this year. It also had a year-on-year growth of 9.17% in the first quarter of this year, but fell 29.69% year-on-year in the second quarter.
Wine shelves display in an offline supermarket in Guangzhou Source: Photo by reporter of "Consumer Report"
"It should be said that the semi-annual report of the first half of this year truly reflects the difficult difficulties of the Chinese wine industry under the superimposed industry cycle of social consumption." Liquor analyst Cai Xuefei told the "Consumer Report" reporter, "The liquor industry as a whole shows the characteristics of both volume and price decline and continuous differentiation. The overall pressure trend is obvious. The industry is still facing deep adjustments. Among them, problems such as serious inversion and excessive inventory are still prominent. Most companies face multiple pressures such as prices and channels." When analyzing the reasons for the decline in performance, most of them are attributed to changes in the industry environment and the reduction of consumption scenarios. Rushuijingfang said in its performance forecast that in the first half of 2025, the liquor industry as a whole was still in a stage of in-depth adjustment. The overall consumption performance during the Spring Festival was lower than expected, resulting in higher than expected channel inventory levels, which in turn had some impact on shipments in the following months of the Spring Festival.
Sluggish demand for key scenarios such as banquets and business banquets has further affected the process of destocking and slowed down the pace of shipment recovery. Liquor companies have to face this dilemma and strive to seek new growth opportunities. Launching new products is one of the important strategies, which can be seen from the future business priorities revealed by some wine companies in their semi-annual reports. For example, in the semi-annual report work plan, Luzhou Laojiao mentioned the layout of light bottle wine and low-alcohol products: in the face of the current demand for low-alcohol, healthy, liqueurized, diversified and other products, accelerate the development and promotion of new beverage methods, and develop 28 Degree Guojiao 1573, and put it into the market in a timely manner.
In addition, in response to the trend of consumption differentiation, resources are tilted towards mid-to-high-end mass mainstream products, actively deploying the high-growth light bottle wine track, and intending to launch a new Luzhou Laojiao Erqu product to continue to consolidate its mass market positioning. Shuijingfang also mentioned the layout and promotion of low-alcohol wine: "Grasp the low-alcohol consumption trend of the liquor market, strengthen consumers' awareness of low-alcohol products in low-alcohol areas, and promote product innovation and explore some ultra-low-alcohol products."
03.
Does young people pay for the bill?
Which liquor, which has always featured high alcohol content, has suddenly dropped its ratings. What do young people think? Li Cheng (pseudonym), a boy born in the 2000s from Sichuan, recently tried low-alcohol liquor, thinking that the taste exceeded his expectations. "I thought it would be very light, but the result was fine." Influenced by friends, Li Cheng usually has the habit of drinking, and has some knowledge of whiskey, liquor, and vodka, but he is still not used to high-alcohol liquor. He often feels strong dizziness and gastrointestinal discomfort after drinking. Drinking will even affect his overall condition the next day. In Li Cheng's attitude towards drinking too much or too much is uncomfortable, "just pursue a little dizziness and happy atmosphere brought by alcohol." Therefore, for Li Cheng, the white wine after the decline is consistent with the slightly drunken drinking state he pursues.
Source: Tuchuang Creative
Zheng Yan (pseudonym), a post-95s born in Guangdong, grew up in Guangdong, the first impression of alcohol was from the Sichuan-Chongqing liquor in various dinners his father took him to, which laid the foundation for his preference for strong fragrance and sauce-flavored liquor. However, Zheng Yan drinks more foreign wines in private, mainly whiskey. Therefore, when buying wine in daily life, he prefers to buy small-capacity and high-density liquor, and pays more attention to foreign wine purchase budget. In Zheng Yan's view, the degree of white wine is generally higher than that of most foreign wines and is more likely to get drunk.
At the same time, he believes that the price of liquor is also higher than that of foreign liquor. "If you mix bartenders or drink yourself, you can buy a 700ml gin wine with a good reputation for about 100 yuan, and you can buy a good brandy for more than 300 yuan. But if you buy liquor, you may not be able to buy a very good sub-high-end liquor at this price."
In addition, the unique grain aroma of liquor determines that the space for mixing and drinking is limited. "Foreign wine is relatively better in taste and easier to mix with. The strong and soy sauce-flavored white wine I usually come into contact with will have a strong base flavor no matter what I spell it." Zheng Yan added. A while ago, Zheng Yan heard about the launch of low-alcohol liquor and expressed his interest in trying these new low-alcohol liquor products, but he may not necessarily buy them for a long time.
Despite the blessing of youthful marketing, it is not easy for liquor to "impress" every young person. Yang Lili (pseudonym) born in the 2005 also recently purchased a low-degree liquor endorsed by her idol out of support for her idol. However, she did not intend to taste it, but planned to collect it. "I don't drink alcohol, and my family only drinks high-level alcohol, so I can only store it." However, no matter what, the transformation of liquor companies has indeed attracted more attention from young people. As for whether young people can develop fixed consumption habits, it remains to be tested by time. For liquor companies themselves, the launch of various new products may be more about paying trial and error costs for long-term development. "Wine companies launching bottled wine, low-alcohol wine and even beer is an "emergency countermeasure" under the adjustment of the industry, rather than an advance layout for the next round of consumption cycle in advance."
Ouyang Qianli, a researcher in the wine industry and founder of Qianli Think Tank, analyzed to the reporter of Consumer Reports. "For mainstream wine companies, even in the medium and long term, bottled wine, low-alcohol wine and even beer will not become the main performance support. The current wine market has entered a 'inventory battle' or even a 'conquer of volume'. The possibility of new products seizing competitors is small, and the possibility of replacing their main products is high; in terms of performance, sales scale may increase, but profits may decline year-on-year. However, in the cruel competition in the red ocean, it is better to iterate yourself than iterate yourself." Perhaps, the distance between liquor and young consumers is still dependent on bridging the cultural gap. The drinking culture bound behind the liquor has always been a hurdle for young people to get in touch with liquor.
"White wine appears more often at banquets, and it is difficult to get rid of the 'formal' feeling on your body." Zheng Yan said. Ouyang Qianli pointed out: "What really impresses young consumer groups is not the reduction of liquor or changes in packaging, but the changes that liquor is willing to make for young people, making drinking liquor gradually trending and drinking liquor become the favorite of young people. In this way, various product innovations and scenario innovations will follow, and even be created by young people and enterprises."
