Baijiu, which originated in the Tang Dynasty and has a history of thousands of years, is internationally recognized as the originator of the world's distilled liquor, and is known as the world's six major distilled spirits along with whiskey, vodka, brandy, tequila and gin.
According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, since 2016, liquor production has begun to decline year after year, from 13.58 million kiloliters at its peak to 7.156 million kiloliters in 2021, a drop of 47.3%, almost waist-cutting. However, judging from the annual reports released by high-end liquor listed companies, production capacity has not declined, but has achieved double-digit rapid growth. That is to say, although the overall decline in liquor consumption, the high-end market is still fiercely competitive, and it can even be said to be an "extremely scarce resource".
Moutai and Wuliangye are undoubtedly representatives of the high-end liquor market in the mainland. According to the data, in 2021, Moutai and Wuliangye achieved output of 84,700 tons and 188,700 tons respectively, an increase of 12.72% and 18.82% year-on-year, which is basically enough to represent the current trend of the domestic high-end liquor market. The rapid growth of the two major liquor giants not only promotes the development of the enterprise itself, but also drives the overall development of the entire industrial chain. Wu Xiangdong's Huazhi Liquor Store is undoubtedly the biggest beneficiary.
In 1997, Wu Xiangdong's brother-in-law, Fu Jun, who was then the head of Xinhualian, took Wu Xiangdong with him to enter the liquor industry. At that time, Fu Jun saw the business opportunities hidden in the commercial agency model of nike and other foreign-funded enterprises, so he found the relevant person in charge of Wuliangye, hoping to win the agency right of Wuliangye.
However, at that time, Xinhualian did not meet the expectations of Wuliangye, and only gave the authorization of the famous King of Xiachuan. Even so, Fu Jun was not discouraged, and in just 2 years, he led The King of Sichuan Liquor to become the first brand of liquor in Hunan at that time. After proving its strength, Wuliangye and Fu Jun re-signed a cooperation project to jointly launch the Golden Liufu brand.
In 1998, Golden Liu fu was officially listed. With the slogan of "Chinese's Blessing Wine" and spending 116 million yuan to advertise on CCTV, it quickly became a well-known liquor brand. Since then, Jin Liufu has also created a precedent for sports marketing in the domestic liquor market, signed a cooperation with the national football team, invited the then coach Milu as an image spokesperson, and sponsored a number of events. In 2007, Fu Jun officially handed over Xinhualian's liquor business to Wu Xiangdong to manage.
In fact, as early as 2005, Wu Xiangdong founded Huazhi Liquor With a good cooperation foundation with Wuliangye, becoming a first-class distributor of Wuliangye. After taking over the liquor business of Xinhualian, Wu Xiangdong continued to cultivate the liquor market, continuously consolidated and strengthened the cooperation with Wuliangye, and opened the reputation of Huazhi Liquor through a large number of marketing means.
In 2009, Huazhi Liquor Co., Ltd. successfully obtained the agency right of Moutai. In the period after the flood of fake liquor, Huazhi Liquor Insisted on Strict Control of Every Link, Ensuring that Each Bottle of Wine Sold was Genuine, Using Quality as an Endorsement to Solve the Counterfeiting Problem of the High-end Liquor Market, and Also Allowing Wine Lovers Across the Country to Remember the Name of Huazhi Liquor Store.
In 2019, relying on the rapid growth of Moutai and Wuliangye, Huazhi Liquor also landed on the capital market as desired, becoming the "first liquor circulation stock" in the A-share market. In October of the same year, Wu Xiangdong became the richest man in the liquor industry in the Hurun Hundred Rich List with a value of 16.5 billion. Not long ago, Huazhi Liquor Released its 2021 Annual Report, with annual revenue of 7.460 billion yuan, an increase of 50.97% year-on-year; Achieved a net profit attributable to the shareholders of the listed company of 676 million yuan, an increase of 81.03% year-on-year, and continued to maintain rapid development.
In an interview with reporters, Wu Xiangdong directly said that with the upgrading of consumption and changes in consumer demand, the influence of Huazhi Liquor in the industry has been continuously enlarged, and brand manufacturers have paid more and more attention to cooperation with high-end channel providers such as Huazhi. However, Huazhi has its own quality insistence on developing new products, and it should be said that manufacturers are choosing Huazhi, and Huazhi is also choosing products.