In 6 years, there have been 4 "coaches".
This is too frequent for any company, not to mention, this company is still Moutai.
On the evening of April 29, Kweichow Moutai announced:
According to the relevant documents of the Guizhou Provincial People's Government, Zhang Deqin was recommended as a director and chairman of Kweichow Moutai Co., Ltd., and it was recommended that Ding Xiongjun no longer serve as the chairman and director of the company, and be transferred to the director of the Guizhou Provincial Administration for Market Regulation (Guizhou Provincial Intellectual Property Office).
For this change of Moutai commander, a limerick poem appeared on the Internet:
Ice cream Riga Mao, which was lively at the time, is now closed
Most of them give away to relatives and friends for nothing, pressuring wine merchants to force sales
Sauce-flavored coffee used to be eye-catching, but it began to be popular and now deserted
At first, the performance was good to try the new, and after drinking, I didn't care much
Xunfeng games are simple and ugly, and the hard concave is called the metaverse
There have been thousands of complaints, and the only thing I love is wine scalpers
said that it was a game of chess for the group, but it was actually a pole inserted to the end
The development of rare three or five wines, the market price has been low
……
Suddenly, I heard that I was transferred out yesterday, and the company was overjoyed
Moutai is no longer chaotic, and the return of Deqin is too powerful
……
Judging from the information, this limerick poem is suspected to have been written by Moutai insiders.
Although the authenticity needs to be tested, it can largely reflect the dissatisfaction within Moutai.
In August 2021, Ding Xiongjun, who was born with a doctorate, took command of Moutai, how did he do in the past few years?
As we can see from the financial report:
In 2021, Kweichow Moutai's operating income was 106.19 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 52.46 billion yuan.
In 2023, Kweichow Moutai's operating income will increase to 147.694 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies will reach 74.734 billion yuan.
In terms of performance, Moutai is not declining, but rising.
And it is a kind of rise in the economic context of the big price reduction of consumer goods.
So, what did Ding Xiongjun bring to Moutai?
Wu Xiangjun summed it up in nine words:
1. Direct sales
2. Rejuvenation
3. Transparency
During his tenure at the helm of Moutai, Ding Xiongjun vigorously expanded the direct sales channels of Moutai.
The most famous is that in March 2022, Moutai launched the "i Moutai" APP, and many consumers can buy Moutai directly through the original price of the APP, and there are many activities.
According to the group survey of the "i Moutai" APP, the users of "i Moutai" are active between the ages of 25 and 50.
Many young people, either to "make a small profit", or to buy wine to send leaders and friends, registered the "i Moutai" APP.
Later, in order to let these young people feel the wine culture of Moutai, "i Moutai" also launched a built-in "Xunfeng" farming game.
Judging from the data, after the launch of "i Moutai", Kweichow Moutai's direct sales channel revenue increased from 24.029 billion yuan in 2021 to 67.233 billion yuan in 2023.
In 2023, "i Moutai" will achieve sales revenue of 22.374 billion yuan, accounting for more than 30% of direct sales revenue.
In addition, Ding Xiongjun also made an exception for Moutai to co-branded with coffee and chocolate, which made Moutai appear on the hot search several times and became a talking point among young people.
The spread of Moutai's internationalization is also on the way.
From the perspective of the spread of corporate culture, this is already a kind of "out of the circle", and it also enhances the influence of the brand and the profitability of the enterprise.
But why did it receive the limerick "Sauce coffee" was once eye-catching, and it began to be popular and now deserted...... Xunfeng games are silly and ugly, and the hard concave is called the metaverse" so ironic?
The reason is that while Ding Xiongjun expands the influence of the enterprise, it also frustrates the interests of insiders and many dealers.
The marketing channels of traditional liquor are mainly distributors.
The reason why Yuan Renguo, the former chairman of Moutai, is "loved" by some subordinates is, to a large extent, in his hands, dealers and insiders can "make money".
During the period when Yuan Renguo managed Moutai, an important means was to unite a large number of distributors to secretly suppress the goods of liquor, increase prices by reducing supply, and increase the space for speculation.
It is precisely based on this that Moutai has "storage value".
Yuan Renguo drank, and his subordinates followed him to eat meat, from executives to employees, all of whom could profit from the huge price difference between Moutai's ex-factory price and the market price, and the per capita salary of 300,000+ in Moutai Distillery was also real.
So at that time, Yuan Renguo was once regarded as a hero by the people in the factory.
Behind his back, someone even gave him a 5-kilogram gold tripod, which was written: Wine Crown Qianrenguo.
However, everyone knows the later story, and Yuan Renguo became a "sinner of history".
The next few Moutai chairmen were directly sent by the above to parachute in.
The first airborne soldier in 2018 is Li Baofang, after he succeeded Yuan Renguo, his biggest achievement was to carry out internal anti-corruption operations, clean up a large number of illegal Moutai dealers, and many executives also went to prison.
After that, Li Baofang carried out drastic reforms to Moutai, the biggest feature of which was to increase direct sales channels and flatten the market.
Under his iron-fisted reform, Moutai's direct sales channels began to exert force.
But this also touched the interests of some "old Moutai people", and after only working for more than a year, Li Baofang stepped down.
Later, Gao Weidong, who replaced him, engaged in "rule by inaction", and more than a year later, he was sentenced to life for accepting bribes of hundreds of millions of yuan.
So later there was the chairman of the board of directors - Ding Xiongjun.
Ding Xiongjun's reform idea basically continued Li Baofang's practice, further expanded the channels of direct sales, and raised the ex-factory price.
Many people wonder, isn't raising prices a bad thing?
In fact, Ding Xiongjun raised the ex-factory price, not the terminal price.
The most hurtful move is the interests of dealers and "old Moutai people".
The terminal price is still 1499, but the price they take is no longer 999, but 1169, so that they make 200 less per bottle.
In addition, Ding Xiongjun also expanded the production of Moutai, making it easier for ordinary people to buy affordable Moutai.
Based on this, the space for market speculation has further shrunk, and Moutai's single product profit margin is also declining.
If you are a dealer and an "old Moutai person", will you hate it?
Cutting off people's financial routes, such as killing their parents, Ding Xiongjun's series of reforms to Moutai greatly touched the interests of the "old scholars".
This also set off the internal "reverse Ding" movement, Moutai's limerick poem, Ding Xiongjun said so unbearable, it is likely to be from the "old scholars" handwriting.
And from the perspective of the overall environment, it is also unfavorable to Ding Xiongjun.
At present, the market circulation price of Moutai (bulk) has fallen from more than 3,000 per bottle to about 2,500.
At the same time, the stock price has also fallen from a high of 2,601 yuan in 2021 to 1,700 yuan now.
Although this is largely due to the downturn in the consumption environment and the "deep adjustment period" of the liquor industry, in terms of numbers, it seems that Ding Xiongjun has brought Moutai "worthless".
Moreover, Ding Xiongjun's diversification strategy has indeed affected Moutai's "noble" attributes.
It is reported that Zhang Deqin, who is currently replacing Ding Xiongjun, is an old Moutai.
After graduating in July 1995, he worked in Moutai's liquor workshop, and in 2010, he became the assistant general manager of Moutai Group, and later became the head of Guizhou Xijiu Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd.
In the first quarter of 2024, the proportion of revenue from Kweichow Moutai's direct sales channel began to decrease, from nearly 50% to 42.33%.
Xiao Zhuqing, an independent commentator on China's wine industry, once said:
The sales performance of Kweichow Moutai's direct sales system has accounted for nearly 50%, and further increasing the proportion of direct sales performance may cause Kweichow Moutai's traditional channel partners to resist passively slacking off or change their doors with high-net-worth private domain traffic resources, which will affect the foundation of Moutai's channels.
It can be seen that one of the changes in Moutai now is the hope to return to the former "dealer era".
Faced with the conflict of interests between the "new class" and the "old scholars", how will Zhang Deqin choose?
Is it balance, or is it a regression, or is it more radical?
Since ancient times, reform has not been an easy task.
He needs to break the old interest mechanism and need great courage from reformers.
The reform of Moutai is a window and an answer to the future of Chinese liquor.