Text | Food Team (ID: food-gnosis)
In another 15 days, Ding Xiongjun will be the head of Moutai Group on the second anniversary.
Since the issuance of an appointment notice from the Guizhou Provincial People's Government on August 30, 2021, he has spent the most precious 730 days of his career in Moutai, two years, not long, not short. For a 49-year-old young cadre at the level of the main department, his goals are more than that, and he obviously has a more ambitious pursuit.
As the youngest leader in the history of Moutai, Ding Xiongjun came to Moutai with a task in the posture of a "reform general". Looking back at the scene when he took office two years ago, controlling Moutai's crazy price increase is undoubtedly Ding Xiongjun's core task.
However, according to professional research focusing on food and wine, we found that in the past two years, under the leadership of Ding Xiongjun, the trend of Moutai prices rising every holiday has indeed been controlled to a certain extent, and this core task Ding Xiongjun has done a really good job. This is because Ding Xiongjun has set off a wave of reform to treat the symptoms and the root cause from the aspects of direct sales channels, product structure, and promotion of series wines.
All achievements of anyone, any reform, have been achieved by overcoming one challenge after another, and at the same time, new achievements will be accompanied by more new challenges. It is estimated that two weeks later, there will be many people in the media who sing praises to Ding Xiongjun, based on this, this issue will objectively and rationally interpret Ding Xiongjun's achievements and "passes" in the past two years.
Three major achievements
According to professional research focusing on food and wine, in the past two years, Ding Xiongjun has been very hard-working, and the intensity of work is also very large, and this kind of leading cadres of enterprises who have made achievements and are willing to do things have made the originally old Moutai look new through drastic reforms.
According to the professional research of Shiwu, Ding Xiongjun has mainly achieved three major achievements in the past two years: 1. High and stable growth in performance; 2. Channel structure adjustment; 3. Rejuvenation.
Next, let's talk about Ding Xiongjun's achievements in these three aspects one by one.
Although Ding Xiongjun is a department-level cadre, as the helm of the enterprise, there are many assessment indicators. But among the many assessment indicators, performance is undoubtedly the core of the core. Ding Xiongjun also knows the importance of core indicators, and all his "pluses" are based on ensuring steady growth in performance.
1, to the series of wine to grow
In terms of performance, according to the careful statistics of food insight, we read the performance report of Ding Xiongjun since he became the chairman of Moutai Group on August 30, 2021, and we found that in the past two years, Moutai's performance has grown steadily, if you take into account the economic downward factors under the influence of the epidemic, Moutai has sent a signal to the outside world through the performance of "contrarian" growth in the past two years: despite the phased difficulties in the economic environment, consumers' love for Moutai and consumer demand for Moutai are still there, and the demand is relatively strong.
Let's take a look at the Moutai performance trend table produced by Food Insights Statistics:
According to the performance trend of Ding Xiongjun since taking the helm of Moutai, in the above 8 time periods, Moutai's revenue growth rate has shown a steady and accelerating trend, even if it increases by a few percentage points, which is by no means easy for an industry giant with a revenue of more than 100 billion yuan.
In-depth study of Ding Xiong's many measures to ensure the growth of military insurance revenue, it can be found that while controlling the price of the star product Moutai Feitian, he has vigorously expanded the growth space of Moutai 1935 and other series of wines through product structure adjustment.
According to the financial report, in 2022, the revenue of Moutai series wine will be 15.939 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.55%, and the growth rate has exceeded that of the core single Moutai wine.
It is worth noting that the Moutai series of wines continued to grow rapidly this year. According to the half-year report just released in early August, in the first half of this year, the revenue of Moutai series wine was 10.074 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32.59%.
The target of Moutai sauce series wine this year is 20 billion yuan, and the first half of the year has achieved "half the time and half the task", highlighting the development resilience of Moutai series wine.
2. Ask the direct sales channel for price control
Compared with the previous chairmen of Moutai, Ding Xiongjun's first task in parachuting into Moutai is to "control prices".
At the extraordinary shareholders' meeting held by Moutai in September 2021, Ding Xiongjun bluntly said: "From the perspective of the market, Moutai wine is a commodity after all, the price formation follows the market law, affected by multiple factors such as supply and demand, it is unscientific to depart from the law of value itself, Moutai will follow the market law, echo market signals, and reflect reasonable value." ”
After Ding Xiongjun took office on August 30, 2021, he faced the test of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day "double festival" of that year, and through a number of measures such as temporarily increasing the market launch of Moutai wine and canceling the unpacking order, according to the data of "Mao Fan Society", on December 13, 2021, the prices of 21-year Feitian original box, 21-year Feitian bulk bottle, 20-year Feitian original box and 20-year Feitian bulk bottle fell by 150 yuan, 30 yuan, 100 yuan and 20 yuan respectively.
Although the above measures have controlled the "inflated" price of Moutai to a certain extent, it is still difficult for consumers to buy Moutai wine that fits the guidance price. Considering that most of the profits of Moutai were swallowed up by distributor agent channels, Ding Xiongjun began to push direct sales channels, aiming to fundamentally control the price discourse.
On March 31, 2022, the iMoutai APP started trial operation, and it was officially launched on May 19, and a 100ml/bottle of 53 degrees Feitian Moutai was put on the shelves. Thanks to the strong brand appeal, as of the first half of 2023, the cumulative registered users of i Moutai have exceeded 42 million.
According to the data of the 2023 half-year report, in the first half of this year, Moutai's direct sales revenue was 31.419 billion yuan, accounting for 45% of the half-year revenue. It is worth noting that "i Moutai" is becoming a bright spot in the growth of Kweichow Moutai's direct sales performance, and the "i Moutai" digital marketing platform achieved a tax-free income of 9.339 billion yuan in the first half of the year.
Moutai also pointed out in the semi-annual report that "i Moutai" has become a model and main position of Moutai's digital marketing.
The reason for the direct sales channel is very simple, through the middleman who earns the difference, not only can you gain channel control, but also win the future pricing power, and more broadly, let more consumers buy Moutai wine close to the guide price, so as to reduce the consumer complaints that Moutai wine must rise every festival.
3. Cross-border reach of young consumers.
The common problem faced by all liquor companies, including Moutai, is that most of the people who drink baijiu are middle-aged and elderly people, and how to let the young new generation of consumers contact baijiu is related to the future of the liquor industry.
In response to this industry problem, Ding Xiongjun took the lead and made a decisive move.
In response to the trend of increasing "aging" of liquor, Ding Xiongjun started from the two levels of marketing model innovation and product innovation, and was as close to young consumers as possible.
On May 29, 2022, Moutai and Mengniu launched Moutai ice cream, and has developed 6 products so far. The price is around 60 yuan / cup. At the Moutai Ice Cream anniversary celebration held on May 29, 2023, Ding Xiongjun revealed that in the past year, Moutai Ice Cream opened 34 flagship stores in 31 inland provinces, autonomous regions and cities across the country, and opened 22 experience stores in Chongqing, Yan'an, Fuzhou and other regions. Up to now, the cumulative sales of Moutai ice cream have reached nearly 10 million cups.
On July 29, 2023, Moutai and Zhongjie 1946, a high-end brand under Zhongjie Group, jointly launched 5 new Moutai ice cream products "Small Branch", priced at 29 yuan per unit, which were listed for the first time in a combination of online and offline.
Ding Xiongjun, chairman of Kweichow Moutai, said that as a strategic product of Moutai close to young people, Moutai ice cream keeps up with the pace of the times and constantly promotes product innovation. The five "small branch" new products launched in conjunction with Middle Street 1946 highlight the rich taste of the new products with "new" technology, "new" packaging, and "new" taste "three new", and also further enrich the Moutai ice cream product belt and broaden the price band.
At the same time, Moutai ice cream further shaped the image, increased publicity, combined with the cultural characteristics of Moutai, successfully shaped the cute and moving "Mao Xiaoling" exclusive IP image, and Moutai "Xiaomao" and "Xiaoxun" and other IPs grew together and made progress together, and obtained about 4.2 billion exposures overall, greatly enhancing brand awareness and product recognition.
With the help of a series of new products including Moutai ice cream, Xunfeng APP, Moutai cultural creativity, etc., Moutai has also completed its own brand image upgrade, realizing the transformation of Moutai's brand image in the minds of the new generation of consumers, and a young, fashionable and interesting Moutai has begun to be recognized by young people.
Three challenges
Ding Xiongjun's second anniversary as chairman of Moutai Group, his work achievements are worthy of recognition, his original "five-in-one marketing method" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, about the development positioning of Moutai's "beautiful era" and "beautiful life" is quite accurate, and all these unique working methodologies also make Ding Xiongjun's management philosophy and management style unique.
Whether it is Yangchun Baixue or Xialiba people, Ding Xiongjun can appreciate it elegantly and with ease.
However, based on professional research focusing on food and wine, we believe that while Ding Xiongjun has achieved extraordinary results in his two years at the helm of Moutai, he also faces three major challenges.
The first challenge comes from the game between distributors and manufacturers.
In the first half of this year, Moutai's direct sales revenue accounted for 45% of the half-year revenue, how much will the proportion of direct sales revenue increase in the future? It seems that only Ding Xiongjun knows in his heart.
According to the 2022 annual report, the revenue of Moutai wholesale agency channel was 74.394 billion yuan, down 9.31% year-on-year, and the gross profit margin decreased by 1.08 percentage points. By the end of 2022, the number of domestic dealers was 2,084, a decrease of 5 from the end of 2021.
The 2023 half-year report shows that according to sales channels, wholesale agency channels still contribute to Moutai's main revenue, but the gap between agency sales and direct sales continues to narrow. In the first half of the year, Moutai's revenue from wholesale agency channels was about 37.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 3%; During the same period, direct sales revenue was 31.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 50%; Among them, there were 2082 domestic dealers, an increase of 1 and a decrease of 3.
The trade-off is a development trend that all dealers are well aware of. While Moutai increases the direct sales channel, how to take care of the interests of traditional dealers is obviously a concern of all dealer partners.
Judging by the current situation, manufacturers are boiling frogs in warm water.
The second challenge comes from raising prices.
Since the last price increase in January 2018, the price of Moutai's main single item "500ml 53 degrees Feitian Moutai" has not changed: the factory price is 969 yuan, the official guidance price is 1499 yuan, and the market terminal price is hovering between 2700 yuan and 3100 yuan.
However, in the past two years, many high-end products, including Hengchang Roasting Fang and Tinghua Wine, have been born, which has led to increasing calls for Moutai price increases.
"Like investors, Moutai price increases are something that management pursues every day. But when and how to raise prices requires wisdom. At the 2022 shareholders' meeting, when asked by investors when to raise prices, Ding Xiongjun, chairman of Kweichow Moutai, responded.
In fact, Ding Xiongjun has said many times before that the price of Moutai wine is determined by the market and other factors, and Moutai will fully follow the market law and respond to market demand. "I, including our (Kweichow Moutai) management team, firmly believe in the power of the market."
In 2022, Moutai's revenue will be 124.1 billion yuan, net profit will be 62.72 billion yuan, dividends will be 259.11 yuan (including tax) in 10 pies, and the total cash distribution is expected to be 32.549 billion yuan. The proportion of cash distribution to net profit was 51.90%.
Although the dividend ratio is considerable, for Moutai's investors in the capital market, the more the merrier. Therefore, the core force that hopes that Moutai will raise prices comes from the capital market. If Ding Xiongjun does not raise prices, it will be difficult for investors' confidence in Moutai to improve.
Moutai's stock price trend in the past three years
As previously reported, Ding Xiongjun does not hold shares in Moutai, so from a personal point of view, he will not care about the rise and fall of stock prices, but from the level of corporate governance, Moutai is not only for upstream and downstream partners, for consumers, but also for capital market investors.
When investors invest in Moutai, what they value is investment income. When investors are not satisfied with Moutai's investment returns, they must hope that Moutai will continue to improve profitability.
However, as an industry leader and in the field of high-end consumption, Ding's price increase is not only a commercial consideration, Ding Xiongjun will need to consider a lot.
The third challenge comes from team motivation.
When a person does a good job, then other colleagues and other leadership groups can only be willing to be green leaves. After all, a team can only have one core.
The growth, excellence and strength of an enterprise requires a team to work together and twist up and down into a rope, so that it can continue to move forward and make great strides.
To tell the truth, on the second anniversary of Ding Xiongjun taking charge of Moutai, the outside world only knows who the chairman of Moutai Group is, who the general manager and deputy general manager of Moutai are, and only those who pay special attention to this line know.
Therefore, the challenge facing Ding Xiongjun is how to lead the team to achieve greater achievements and higher quality development, so that everyone in the team can realize the value of life.