Recently, Kweichow Moutai, the leading liquor company, has continued to rise, driving the sentiment of the liquor sector to pick up, which has been the leading liquor industry (000995. SZ) and other stocks have created an opportunity. In the past five trading days, Huangtai Liquor rose 30.54%.
Although the stock price performance is strong, the performance of Huangtai Liquor in recent years has been sluggish, and even repeatedly jumps between "wearing a hat" and "taking off a hat". In the first half of this year, Huangtai Liquor achieved a net loss of about 3.9727 million yuan, turning from profit to loss, becoming one of the few loss-making enterprises among liquor companies.
Under the pressure of performance, Huangtai Liquor originally wanted to create a new profit growth point by developing the soy sauce wine market, but the relevant investment plan was "stopped" a week after the official announcement. Where will the company's future growth drivers come from?
The performance fluctuated, and in the first half of this year, it turned from profit to loss
Recently, the liquor sector has rebounded continuously, and Huangtai Liquor has risen 30.54% in the past five trading days. Since the beginning of August, Huangtai Liquor has accumulated 4 daily limits, and the short-term trend is relatively strong.
However, Lanfu Financial Network found that the profitability of Huangtai Liquor in recent years has been extremely unstable. From 2021 to 2023, the net profit attributable to the parent company of Huangtai Liquor will be -13.5548 million yuan, 7.3561 million yuan, and -15.0094 million yuan respectively.
In the first half of 2024, Huangtai Liquor achieved revenue of 65.5 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12.07%; The net loss attributable to the parent was 3.9727 million yuan, a year-on-year change from profit to loss, and the net loss attributable to the parent after deducting non-profit was 4.842 million yuan, compared with a profit of 2.9539 million yuan in the same period last year.
In terms of quarters, the situation of Huangtai Liquor in the second quarter of this year was even worse. The operating income in the current quarter was 29.1504 million yuan, down 18.66% year-on-year and 19.8% month-on-month; The net loss attributable to the parent company was 4.8434 million yuan, down 941.12% year-on-year and 656.27% month-on-month. It can be seen that Huangtai Liquor not only failed to reverse the loss situation in the second quarter, but showed a further deterioration trend.
Regarding the decline in performance, Huangtai Liquor said that it was mainly due to the intensification of competition in the industry due to changes in the market environment, as well as the company's moderate increase in marketing efforts, resulting in an increase in sales expenses and management expenses.
According to the company's disclosure, Huangtai Liquor's sales expenses in the first half of this year increased by 29.8% year-on-year to 18.9605 million yuan, of which business promotion expenses increased by 63.76% year-on-year, and marketing promotion expenses increased by 163.70% year-on-year. However, these measures have not been effective in improving the company's performance, but have only exacerbated the company's financial pressure. Due to the decline in revenue, the net cash flow generated by the operating activities of Huangtai Liquor in the first half of the year was -7.4839 million yuan, and the cash flow also continued to deteriorate.
Compared with other liquor companies, Huangtai Liquor has obviously "fallen behind" and has become one of the few semi-annual loss-making enterprises in the liquor industry.
The development of the high-end market has been blocked, and the national layout has shrunk
In terms of products, in the first half of 2024, Huangtai Liquor's grain and liquor products achieved revenue of 63.0347 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 11.37%. It should be noted that the revenue of grain and liquor products of Huangtai Liquor Industry accounts for 96.24%, and if the business declines, it will inevitably have a great adverse impact on the company's overall performance.
In the liquor industry, Huangtai Liquor is facing huge competitive pressure from first-tier brands such as Moutai and Wuliangye. These brands have a clear advantage in terms of market share, brand influence, consumer loyalty, etc. Nowadays, when the layout of the famous liquor is sinking into the market, Huangtai Liquor is gradually "falling behind" in the competition with other brands because it does not have enough product power and brand power, and the gap with the first-line brands is getting wider and wider.
Although Huangtai Liquor has a rich product line, their respective scales are not strong. In the first half of this year, the low-end, low-end, high-end, and high-end products of Huangtai Liquor achieved revenue of 14.4077 million yuan, 24.515 million yuan, 13.8197 million yuan, and 11.9238 million yuan respectively. Among them, the revenue of low-end and high-end decreased by 32.40% and 10.16% respectively.
For regional wine companies, if they want to make a breakthrough in performance, they must promote the nationalization of products. In 2023, the number of distributors of Huangtai Liquor in the rest of Gansu Province and other provinces will increase by 50.78%, but the company's operating income outside the province that year will be 22.4846 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 25.82%.
In the first half of 2024, the number of distributors outside the province of Huangtai Liquor will decrease to 115, and its revenue will decrease by 44.86% year-on-year to 4.8121 million yuan. From the above data, it is not difficult to see that Huangtai Liquor has encountered obstacles in developing the high-end market, and the national layout has not improved.
"A-share immortal birds" are dying
The bleakness of Huangtai Liquor Industry today is in stark contrast to its former glory.
According to public information, Huangtai Liquor was founded in 1985 and the company is located in Wuwei City, Gansu Province. Wuwei, Gansu Province, known as Liangzhou in ancient times, is located at the eastern end of the Hexi Corridor, which has been the key point of communication between the Central Plains and the Western Regions since ancient times, and is also an important node of the Silk Road. In the local area, "Liangzhou Huangtai Liquor" was once famous.
In 1984, Huangtai Wine Industry and Kweichow Moutai jointly won the second Panama International Gold Award. Since then, it has won the reputation of "Moutai in the south and Huangtai in the north".
In August 2000, Huangtai Liquor was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, becoming the first listed company in Gansu. After the listing, the revenue and net profit of Huangtai Liquor continued to decline, and due to continuous losses, Huangtai Liquor was first treated by *ST in 2004. Since then, Huangtai Liquor has changed hands many times, during which it has frequently experienced wearing hats and taking off hats.
By 2021, it will be affected by factors such as the epidemic and rising market development costs. Huangtai Liquor's revenue is less than 100 million yuan, and the non-net loss exceeds 10 million yuan, and the company received a delisting risk warning in April 2022. Surprisingly, the performance of Huangtai Liquor will pick up in 2022, and it will successfully "take off the hat" for the fifth time in 2023. After more than 20 years of changes, Huangtai Liquor has undergone 5 changes of control and is nicknamed "A-share immortal bird".
New investment plans were quickly halted, where did the growth drivers come from?
The competition in the main business has intensified, and the overall operation of Huangtai Liquor has finally tried to make changes.
Under the pressure of performance, Huangtai Liquor originally wanted to create a new profit growth point for the company through the layout of the soy sauce wine market, but the investment plan was "stopped" by the company a week after the official announcement.
The sauce flavor type is a major flavor type in the mainland liquor market. Relevant data show that the current sales proportion of domestic sauce-flavored liquor has increased from 10% to about 30%.
In the past few years, Moutai has set off a soy sauce wine boom in China. Driven by it, wine companies including Huangtai Liquor and other liquor companies have also begun to move the mind of "sauce fragrance".
In July this year, Huangtai Liquor announced that it planned to jointly invest in the establishment of "Guizhou Huangtai" in Moutai Town with Wuwu Liquor to enter the field of sauce-flavored liquor. The company intends to create a new profit growth point, and at the same time promote the company's layout in the market outside the province.
But just a week later, Huangtai Liquor voluntarily halted the investment plan. The company explained that there are still matters that need to be clarified in this foreign investment project, and based on the principle of prudence, after full communication and friendly negotiation with the counterparty, the company decided to terminate the foreign investment.
For a listed company, foreign investment does need to be rigorous and prudent, but it was quickly stopped just a week after the official announcement, which somewhat seems to be a bit "child's play" in the company's investment decision-making. Many investors have even questioned where the company's growth momentum will come from.
According to industry analysts, Huangtai Liquor has already missed the golden period of enterprise development, and can only be in a state of difficult survival at present, and its sustainable development in the future is facing severe challenges. The industry lamented the rise and fall of Huangtai Liquor, believing that it did not focus on the brewing industry itself, but pursued the interests of the capital market excessively, which made it difficult to realize the original dream.