Image source @ Visual China
Wen | entertainment eyes
Recently, the well-known private equity big V shared a video on his personal social media, an internet celebrity blogger holding Moutai wine in a net red nightclub, and said that this is now a popular game in Shanghai nightclubs. Under the argument that "young people don't like to drink liquor", low-grade liquor has become the second hottest category of Tmall liquor in 2021 and is favored by young people.
Young people drinking Maotai in nightclubs indirectly proves that baijiu is replacing "SpadeS" as a new symbol of their status in a particular circle. And this phenomenon reflects behind it, with the change of the consumption concept of the Z era, the wine industry is ushering in new changes.
The data reveals another side of young people's drinking
From the overall point of view, the liquor industry will undoubtedly usher in rapid growth in 2021: according to the economic operation of the mainland light industry in 2021 released by the China Light Industry Federation, the profit growth rate of the liquor and beverage industry is more than 20%. Most of the domestic liquor industry output value including Yibin, Zunyi, Renhuai, Luzhou and other places has ushered in growth, but it is different specific to the subdivision of liquor tracks.
The first is that young people do have "liquor drinking disorders". According to relevant survey data, 21% of post-90s never drink alcohol, 64% of post-90s drink beer, and only 5% of post-90s drink liquor. The obstacles that cause young people not to drink liquor are: excessive alcohol content, high price of high-quality liquor, difficult to distinguish between authenticity and falsity, and wine table culture.
At the same time, according to the distribution of liquor interest users on the Douyin platform, consumers under the age of 30 are relatively low from the perspective of preference, liquor purchase penetration rate and proportion of the number of purchasers, but 30 years old has become a turning point in liquor consumption. With the post-90s entering the year of establishment, the entire group will also enter the most exuberant stage of liquor consumption power.
Compared with the "embarrassing" status of high-grade liquor in the young people, more and more young people are beginning to actively embrace low-grade liquor. In particular, brands with cider, pre-mixed wine, soda wine, and rice wine with alcohol levels between 0.5% and 12% are ushering in a concentrated outbreak.
The data shows that from 2017 to 2021, the overall scale of China's low-alcohol wine sales market will maintain a high-speed growth trend, and it is expected to exceed 500 billion yuan in 2022. At the same time, during the "Double 11" shopping festival in 2021, the number of low-tide drinkers on the Tmall platform increased by more than 50%, and the total turnover was close to liquor, becoming the second largest category of liquor.
At the same time, it is worth noting that the female group occupies a huge share of the low-alcohol sales market. According to the CBNData report, the elegant and fashionable elements created by low-alcohol products have led to a significantly higher growth rate in the number of female consumers than that of male consumers.
The third is the diversified development of the wine and beverage industry. The penetration of mainstream liquor and wine is gradually declining, while the penetration of beer, foreign wine and cider is increasing. According to different tastes, scenes, packaging and other elements, the wine industry began to show a state of blooming flowers, such as "Seventeen Light Years" to combine rice wine with flowers and fruits, and "Zhi drunk" to develop a combination of yogurt and fruit wine.
Finally, the high-end market for alcohol and drinks ushered in an outbreak. The "2020-2021 China Sauce Liquor Industry Development Report" shows that in the next decade, in the high-end and sub-high-end consumption of liquor, sauce liquor will occupy about 2/3 of the market share. The upgrading of liquor consumption superimposes the rise of rational consumption, and the middle and high-yield family groups will become the core group of high-end liquor consumption.
Capital ripens new wine brands
Capital is particularly sensitive to the changes in the domestic liquor market, from the perspective of investment and financing data, since 2019, the low-alcohol track has begun to take the fast track; since the middle of 2020, the intensive layout of the capital level has matured the low-alcohol industry; by 2021, the low-alcohol industry has ushered in a huge outbreak.
According to incomplete statistics, in the past 2021, nearly 40 new liquor companies have obtained capital financing, and the cumulative financing amount in the first half of the year alone has exceeded 3 billion yuan; at the same time, many well-known liquor and beer companies have also launched low-level tidal drinks to grab new categories.
In April last year, Xiang Cup, Fu Bi Xing Liquor, WAT Pre-Mixed Wine and other enterprises have completed tens of millions of yuan financing; in May, MissBerry Berry Sweetheart obtained more than 100 million yuan of financing; in June, Goyou Qing Brew, Drunken Goose Lady, Blue Master and so on obtained tens of millions of yuan financing; in August, Bingqing, Lanzhou and other brands received tens of millions of yuan financing... Just four months of new drink financing events have already surpassed the full year of 2020.
As of November 15 last year, the number of financing of liquor brands Cloud liquor headlines were charted
Overall, as of November 15, 2021, a total of 22 low-alcohol-related brands have received financing, of which SixBerry Berry Sweetheart, WAT, Fu bi Xing Liquor, Sensehunt, Wild Color and Go Yo Qing Brew have received two financings during the year. In 2021, the number of low-alcohol-related brand financing reached 24, and the disclosed financing amount exceeded 500 million yuan. In the slightly crowded new wine and beverage track, institutions including Jingwei China, Hillhouse Capital, Source Code Capital, Tencent Capital, Meihua Venture Capital and other institutions have poured in to seize the target.
On the other hand, for large liquor companies with sufficient funds and various "gold owners" across industries, seeking high-quality assets for integration and restructuring has also become a key direction. For example, Gujing Gongjiu acquired Mingguang Liquor, Guotai Liquor acquired Maoyuan Liquor, Yuyuan Shares successively acquired Jinhui Liquor and Tuopai Shede, Dahao Technology, Zhongxing Mushroom Industry and other listed companies.
The "new social" behind young people's drinking
Behind the collective outbreak of new wine brands, the change in the consumption concept of young people is reflected. The fiery heat of low-grade wine essentially represents the transformation of young people from pleasing others to pleasing themselves. The transformation of high liquor to low liquor also reflects the resistance of young people to complex social and social interaction, and the social acceptance of small relationship circles.
At the same time, young people always have to face all kinds of pressures in society, in this case, low alcohol brings slight drunkenness without getting drunk, enough for young people to relieve their depression after work without affecting the daily work of the next day.
From this point of view, young people do not like to drink, but they cannot be like liquor at the expense of taste, nor can they be like beer at the expense of the body. Healthy drinking, moderate drinking brought by zero sugar low calorie gluten free low alcohol has naturally become a popular type of young people.
As an important part of the social approach, Wine still has an irreplaceable role, Bao Fan, chairman of China Renaissance Capital Group, once said: "As a social currency and personality symbol, in the process of intergenerational cultural alternation, a giant liquor company that can meet a variety of consumption scenarios and personalized consumption needs need to appear." "And when the main force of alcohol consumption comes to the Z generation crowd, the social scene brought by drinking will undoubtedly bring more expansion."
After a new drink
Similar to the laws of development of all industries, new drinks will also show a spiraling form of development. Capital's heavy position on new wine brands will trigger more and more brands to enter the track and form full competition. It is expected that in the near future, there will also be a large number of new wine brands facing death due to various problems, and with the continuous adjustment of the industry, new wine will truly usher in the high-quality and high-level development stage of the industry.
It is foreseeable that the competition in the low-alcohol market will intensify this year. Low-grade wine is in the stage of "category, no brand", and the serious homogenization will aggravate the reshuffle of the market. On this basis, low-grade wine brands with strong supply chains, brands and channels undoubtedly have more competitive advantages.
The second is that the health wine brand represented by fruit wine will continue to be popular with the market. Compared with liquor, cider has a low alcohol content, no strong sense of irritation to the human body and nerves, and is rich in nutrients such as sugar, esters, vitamins and essential amino acids. Healthy drinking preferences, represented by cider, will become the next choice for young people.
The third is the continuous expansion of diversification. The diversification here not only refers to the diversification of categories and tastes, but also represents a variety of consumption scenarios. For categories and tastes, although liquor is still the first category, rice wine, foreign wine, fruit wine, wine, craft wine and other categories are constantly "seizing" consumers' wine glasses. For the latter, wine companies urgently need to explore and shape their own consumption scenarios, from relatively emerging and niche subdivisions to a broad and high-frequency mass market.
Finally, the entire industry is evolving towards standardization. As the beer industry moves from a chaotic battle to further differentiation, the differentiation adjustment of the liquor industry is also coming to an end, and high-quality wine will continue to be the focus of capital and consumer competition.