The 22 liquor listed companies earned 85.2 billion yuan in the first half of the year, Mao Wu contributed more than half, and the industry is now intensive personnel adjustment
Source of this article: Times Finance Author: Wang Yan
With drunkard wine (000779. SH) disclosed in its 2023 half-year report that the report cards of 22 liquor stocks in the first half of the year have been released.
Financial report data shows that in the first half of this year, the total revenue of 22 liquor listed companies was 217.649 billion yuan, and the total net profit was 85.238 billion yuan, of which 16 achieved double growth in revenue and net profit.
Image source: Tuworm Creative
On the other hand, industry differentiation continues to intensify. Among them, Kweichow Moutai (600519. SH) Hengqiang, whose revenue is approaching 70 billion yuan, has maintained a growth of more than 20%; Shanxi Fenjiu (600809. SH), Luzhou Laojiao (000568. SZ), Furui Gongjiu (000596. SZ) also grew by more than 20% when achieving revenue of more than 10 billion; Shuijingfang(600779. SH), Niulanshan's parent company Shunxin Agriculture (000860. SZ), alcoholic liquor and other liquor companies that have maintained a rapid growth rate have stalled, and both revenue and net profit have declined.
The performance of listed wine companies in the first half of the year. Times Finance Collation
Although the overall performance of liquor listed companies has increased significantly, it is not reflected in the capital market. The A-share liquor sector declined after reaching a stage high at the beginning of this year. Wind shows that as of the close of trading on September 1, the liquor index (884705. WI) is down about 3% year-to-date.
Moutai sat firmly in the "first brother", and the revenue of the three companies declined
In the first half of this year, Kweichow Moutai firmly held the position of "first brother" of liquor stocks. Financial report data shows that during the reporting period, the company achieved revenue of 69.576 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.76%; The net profit was 35.980 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.76%.
Baijiu "Lao 2" Wuliangye (000858. SZ) reached a record high in revenue and net profit in the first half of this year, achieving revenue of about 45.506 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.39%; The net profit attributable to the parent was about 17.037 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.83%.
Overall, in the first half of this year, the status of Kweichow Moutai and Wuliangye is still difficult to shake, the total revenue and net profit of the two brands reached 115.082 billion yuan and 53.017 billion yuan respectively, accounting for 52.88% and 62.20% of the total revenue and total net profit of the 22 liquor listed companies, respectively, and the industry concentration is getting higher and higher.
Cai Xuefei, a liquor analyst, told Times Finance that in the first half of this year, most liquor companies maintained positive growth in revenue scale and profits, excluding the reasons for low annual revenue and profit base, and the market rebound this year has also promoted the performance growth of famous wine companies.
Compared with the rapid progress of the head wine companies, the situation of the second- and third-tier wine companies can be described as "a few joys and several sorrows".
According to financial report data, in the first half of this year, only three companies experienced a decline in revenue, namely Shunxin Agriculture, Shuijingfang and Drunkard Wine. In terms of net profit, Shuijingfang, Drunkard Wine, Old Bai Dry Wine (600559. SH), Tianyoude Wine (002646. SZ) for negative growth, Shunxin Agriculture and Golden Seed Wine (600199. S4) Sustained losses.
For the reasons for the decline in performance, Shuijingfang pointed out in the 2023 half-year report that due to the pressure of the macroeconomic environment and the impact of the downward consumption trend, the liquor industry is facing greater challenges, from the channel side, the market inventory is high, the sales are slow, the circulation side and the supply side have different degrees of "involution" situation, the liquor industry has entered the era of stock competition from the era of incremental development; From the perspective of the industry as a whole, after years of rapid development in the liquor industry, the contradictions and problems accumulated by industrial development are also further emerging. In general, the liquor industry and market have entered a new round of adjustment period, and the future is expected to show a trend of slow growth and rational growth; In addition, while the liquor industry is concentrated on advantageous brands, it is also concentrating on famous and excellent production areas.
Some strong second- and third-tier wine companies are also continuing to race. Shanxi Fenjiu, Gujing Gongjiu, Jinshi Yuan (603369. SH) performed better in the first half of 2023. Among them, Shanxi Fenjiu ranked fourth among liquor listed companies with a revenue of 19.011 billion yuan; Gujing Gongjiu's revenue exceeded 10 billion to 11.310 billion yuan; and the growth rate of revenue and net profit of Jinshi Yuan approached 30%.
From the perspective of revenue data, there is a fault between 20 billion yuan and 40 billion yuan, 6 billion yuan to 10 billion yuan, and 3 billion yuan to 6 billion yuan, and the advantages of the head wine companies continue to expand.
Inventory is high, sales are slow, and wine companies are throwing money at marketing
Cai Xuefei believes that in the first half of this year, the accounts receivable and contract liabilities of most liquor listed companies performed well, which shows that the market has certain growth expectations for the future, and also truly reflects that the head brands still have good rigid demand in the business, banquet and gift markets in the differentiated environment. However, from the perspective of the overall industry, the problems of high inventory, slow sales and chaotic prices still exist, and the industry is still in a deep adjustment cycle.
As of the first half of 2023, the accounts payable of enterprises such as Shanxi Fenjiu, Jinhui Liquor and Yan Co., Ltd. have increased to varying degrees compared with the end of 2022, and the accounts payable of Kweichow Moutai decreased by 574 million yuan compared with the end of last year.
Xiao Zhuqing, a liquor marketing expert, believes that many liquor listed companies have their own performance assessment pressure, and can press goods to channels through their strong market dominance and brand position, which is also a very important reason for the growth of some liquor listed companies.
In the first half of 2023, the prices of many wine companies' products were inverted, and under this circumstance, "controlling inventory, promoting sales, and stabilizing prices" became the keywords in the operation process of wine companies.
Through the data of sales expenses, you can also see the efforts made by wine companies. According to the financial report, in the first half of 2023, the sales expenses of Kweichow Moutai were 1.786 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.52%, which explained that the main reason was the increase in advertising and market expansion expenses; Among them, Kweichow Moutai spent 1.576 billion yuan on advertising and market expansion.
Wuliangye's sales expenses in the first half of this year were about 4.320 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.55%. Specifically, Wuliangye's sales expenses include image promotion fees, promotion fees, warehousing and logistics costs, labor costs and other expenses, and in the first half of this year, its image promotion expenses, promotion fees, warehousing and logistics expenses all increased, of which image promotion expenses were 759 million yuan.
A number of wine companies have also revealed measures to stabilize product prices and destock in their semi-annual reports. Yanghe Co., Ltd. (002304. SZ) said that the company focuses on digital marketing, constantly optimizes and upgrades consumer digital strategy activities, guides consumers to repurchase, and promotes product opening and sales; Drunkard Wine revealed that consumer code scanning is an effective way to promote mobile sales, and has achieved good results, while the company is also actively adopting other ways to strengthen mobile sales and consumer cultivation; Shuijingfang pointed out that in the first quarter of 2023, due to the weaker than expected sales during the Spring Festival, the company's main task is to reduce social inventory and stabilize the value chain, so it decided to reduce shipments.
At present, with the arrival of the Mid-Autumn season, inventory levels in the industry are expected to decline. However, Xiao Zhuqing believes that the real test will appear in the second half of the year, if the fundamentals of sluggish consumption and insufficient social purchasing power in the second half of the year cannot be fundamentally improved, the real situation of some wine companies will be exposed. In his view, in order to pay rent, wages or loans, more dealers will sell at low prices to cash out, which is also the root cause of the price of liquor products.
The management was intensively adjusted, and the young Zhuang faction came to the front of the stage
In the first half of this year, a number of liquor listed companies also made intensive adjustments to their management.
On February 24, Zhu Zhenhao, then general manager of Shuijingfang, left his post, and Shuijingfang used Mark Anthony Edwards, a "foreign executive", to perform the duties of general manager on his behalf; On the same day, Yanghe Co., Ltd. issued an announcement that Liu Huashuang applied to resign as a director, a member of the strategy committee of the board of directors and an executive president of the listed company due to personal reasons; In the same month, Jia Guangming left as chairman of Golden Seed Wine.
On June 6, Shanxi Fenjiu announced that due to work adjustments, Yang Jianfeng applied to resign as a director and member of the audit committee of the company, and Chang Jianwei applied to resign as a director and a member of the strategy committee of the company; On the 16th, Wei Wei, vice president of Shede Liquor Industry, applied to resign as vice president of the company due to personal reasons, and will no longer hold any position in the company after his resignation; On the 30th, Gujing Gongjiu issued an announcement agreeing to elect Liang Jinhui as the chairman of the 11th board of directors of the company, in addition, the independent directors also agreed to the new general manager, secretary of the board of directors and other candidates.
On August 19, Kweichow Moutai said it had received a written resignation report submitted by Li Jingren, a director of the company, who applied to resign from the company's directorship and the corresponding positions of a special committee under the board of directors due to job adjustments. In addition, the board of directors of the company nominated Wang Li as a candidate for the fourth board of directors of the company, and Wang Li acted as the general manager of the company. At the same time, Gao Shan, who came from the Moutai sales system, also served as the deputy secretary of the party committee of Moutai Group, and Wang Xiaowei, deputy general manager of Moutai Co., Ltd. and chairman of Moutai Group Sales Company, also entered the sequence of party committee members of Moutai Group.
The reasons behind the personnel changes of baijiu listed companies are different, in addition to objective factors such as age, physical health, personal career planning, family, etc., there are also reasons such as corporate strategic adjustment and seeking change.
Take Golden Seed wine, for example. Jia Guangming has served as the party secretary and chairman of Anhui Golden Seed Group since October 2019, but in the following three years, under various factors, the performance of Golden Seed Wine continued to decline. After China Resources took over, Golden Seed Wine's strategy was adjusted, and under the new round of senior management changes, Jia Guangming left office.
Zhu Zhenhao, known as the "working emperor" in the industry because of his annual salary of more than 4 million yuan, has been at the helm of Shuijingfang for less than 2 years, and the company's performance has fluctuated, except for the growth rate of revenue and net profit exceeding 50% in 2021, and there will be a decline in 2022 and the first half of 2023. At that time, some analysts in the industry said that Zhu Zhenhao's departure was related to the decline in Shuijingfang's performance and the lack of high-end strategy.
In this round of personnel changes, the "young strong faction" began to come to the front of the stage. Taking Kweichow Moutai as an example, Wang Li, Tu Huabin and Wang Xiaowei are all post-70s from technical dispatches, and have many years of experience in enterprise management and project operation and production.
Xiao Zhuqing believes that the promotion of Wang Li and others will continue to ensure the stable production quality of Moutai, and will further promote the acceleration and efficiency of Kweichow Moutai in digital transformation and marketing system reform.