Baijiu set off another "thick sauce dispute" Yibin vowed to recreate two or three "brands other than Wuliangye"

In recent years, the fever of sauce-flavored liquor has continued to burn, and various capitals have flocked to Renhuai City, Guizhou Province, setting off a frenzy of sauce and liquor capital. The once-dominant aromatic liquor market is being eaten away, and Yibin, the "wine capital of China", known for its strong fragrance, is feeling threatened.

How to reshape the advantages of strong aromatic liquor has become a problem that Yibin must face.

Soy sauce wine eats into the fragrant market

There are 12 types of Chinese liquor, of which strong aroma, sauce aroma, clear fragrance and rice aroma are the four basic aroma types, and other aroma types are derived from these four. These aromas also have regional characteristics, Sichuan liquor is mainly fragrant, Guizhou liquor is mainly sauce. Respectively, the leading enterprises represented by Yibin Wuliangye and Maotai in Renhuai have been formed.

Wang Dazhou, general manager of Yibin Liuzhixiang Liquor Company, told First Finance and Economics that the development of the liquor industry has shown a trend of changing from light taste to strong taste. Before liberation, it was mainly rice-flavored, and in the first few decades after liberation, it was mainly fragrant. Since the 1980s, The aroma has gradually dominated the world, occupying more than 80% of the liquor market, but in the past 10 years, the sauce liquor has developed rapidly.

According to data from Chuancai Securities, in 2020, the scale of the sauce and wine industry reached 155 billion yuan, with a 10-year compound annual growth rate of 15.95%, a production capacity of 600,000 kiloliters, and a sales profit of 63 billion yuan. After excluding Moutai, the revenue of the sauce and liquor industry in 2020 is about 60 billion yuan, and the compound annual growth rate from 2010 to 2020 is 9.76%, which is higher than that of the liquor industry.

Not only that, the profitability of the sauce wine industry is strong, in 2020, the output of sauce wine accounted for only 8.1% of the total output of liquor, the sales revenue accounted for 26.56% of the total sales revenue of the liquor industry, contributing 39.74% of the sales profit of the liquor industry, and the average price was 378,000 yuan / kiloliter, which was significantly higher than the average of the liquor industry.

From the perspective of production proportion, sauce liquor is still a niche liquor, but the proportion has increased significantly, from 0.4% in 2000 to about 8.1%, and more importantly, with such a small scale, it occupies nearly 40% of the overall profit of the liquor industry.

In fact, the dispute over thick sauce is clearly reflected in the development comparison between its head brand Wuliangye and Maotai. Since the 1980s, Wuliangye has rapidly emerged as the "King of Chinese Liquor", and the indicators of Wuliangye at that time were several times that of Moutai. However, in 2013, Moutai's revenue surpassed Wuliangye in an all-round way, and the status of the eldest and second boss was reversed, forming the current pattern.

This is also reflected in the data of the two cities, in 2020, Renhuai's Zunyi City accounted for 3.1% of the country's liquor production, creating 42% of the national liquor industry profits. Yibin liquor production accounts for 9% of the national liquor production, operating income accounts for about 25% of the country, profits account for about 20% of the country.

In 2020, the production of sauce liquor exceeded that of the fragrance type, becoming the second largest liquor flavor type, and the market share of the strong liquor has been declining in the past decade. Driven by the frenzy of capital, the battle for the thick sauce market will be more intense. The change in market share has stimulated the public opinion war and regional competition that have been hidden. "Fragrant wine can't be more unsonal." Liu Dongshu, deputy general manager of Yibin Nanxi Jinliang Brewing Company, said.

For a long time, there has been a theory that "sauce wine is healthier", and some sauce wine companies have intentionally or unintentionally guided and amplified this argument, and even informally spread the view that sauce wine has a variety of health care functions, and stigmatized the blending process of strong wine. An executive of a well-known aromatic liquor company believes that it is beyond reproach for various aroma types and liquor companies to expand marketing and promotion, but it is not appropriate to develop by belittling other aromatic liquors.

In the face of market changes, Yibin liquor companies, which are known for their strong fragrance, have also had to start adjusting to the market.

The relevant person in charge of a well-known liquor company in Yibin introduced to First Finance and Economics that the company has built a new factory area, the preliminary project has been completed, and it is now being demonstrated whether it is all used for sauce wine production or half of the flavor and half of the sauce. He believes that the sauce and wine fever may last for 3 to 5 years. Because the upfront work has been completed, the product can be launched earlier than other capitals that have just entered.

The person in charge said that the impact of the sauce wine fever on the strong wine market is still relatively obvious, and the profit margin of sauce wine is also higher. But now one of the factors that enterprises are still considering is that Yibin is a wuliang fragrant production area, and making sauce wine may not be as good as Guizhou in the market.

The liquor industry places great emphasis on production areas, which is also a reason why various sauce liquor investments have flocked to Moutai Town. However, under the background of the hot sauce liquor market, many liquor companies in Yibin have also begun to produce sauce-flavored liquor. And due to the long production cycle of sauce wine and the relatively limited production capacity, some wine companies in Yibin also provide base wine for Guizhou sauce wine.

Imabarizao is a liquor company based on base liquor, and has become a base liquor base for many well-known brands. The company is now also developing sauce wine, which currently has an annual output of 5,000 tons of sauce-flavored liquor, and also provides base wine for some sauce liquor companies in Guizhou.

Liuzhixiang Liquor Is a Wuliang Aromatic Liquor Brewing Enterprise built by Hubei Jinjiu Company. In addition to the fragrant base in Yibin, Jinjiu also has production bases for sauce liquor, strong fragrant liquor and rice-flavored liquor in Guizhou, Hubei and Guangxi, respectively, and its Guizhou base is located in Maotai Town.

Defend the fragrant IP

Although the market for sauce wine is rising rapidly and the market for fragrant wine is shrinking, fragrant wine still occupies the main body of the market, and the output in 2020 still accounts for 60% of the share. However, the fragrance liquor once occupied more than 70% of the country's share, but it is still replaced by the fragrant liquor, will the liquor industry once again enter the aroma substitution?

Wang Dazhou told First Finance and Economics that it is expected that in the next 20 years, sauce wine is still in a period of outlet, and aromatic liquor is still the main body of the market, but it will be robbed of part of the market share by sauce wine.

Market changes have brought about a sense of crisis. From the perspective of Sichuan Province, in recent years, Sichuan has issued a number of policy documents and adopted a variety of means to achieve the revitalization of Sichuan wine. As the capital of fragrant liquor, Yibin is more urgent, and has introduced a series of policies to support the development of the liquor industry and strengthen the IP of Yibin.

In March this year, the "Yibin Liquor Industry Development Plan (2021-2025)" was released, and in June, the "Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Liquor Industry" and the "Support Policy for Promoting the High-quality Development of the Liquor Industry" were issued, and nine aspects such as supporting the development of leading enterprises, the construction of high-quality and fragrant liquor production areas, and the development of liquor industry functional areas were introduced.

Li Qiang, deputy director of the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Industry and Military-Civilian Integration (Municipal Liquor Promotion Bureau), said that Yibin should create "the world's main production area of high-quality and fragrant liquor" and create the best winemaking ecosystem from the industrial ecology. By 2025, the operating income and total profit of Yibin Liquor will exceed 200 billion yuan and 60 billion yuan respectively, and the output will exceed 1 million hectolitres.

Among them, the expansion of Wuliangye is a key point. Wuliangye will increase its production capacity by 123,000 kiloliters during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. In 2020, Wuliangye produced 126,000 kiloliters, which is equivalent to recreating another Wuliangye in the next five years. By 2025, Wuliangye Co., Ltd. will achieve operating income of more than 100 billion yuan.

In addition, the enterprise ladder will be optimized. In addition to the head of Wuliangye, it is also necessary to achieve a number of enterprises with operating income of 50 billion yuan, 5 billion yuan and 1 billion yuan. Create 5 to 10 well-known liquor brands with market influence in the country. "Yibin production area has Wuliangye faucet to lead, need two or three brands other than Wuliangye, in order to make Yibin production area louder." Liu Dongshu said.

In accordance with Yibin's planning, accelerate the construction of a new pattern of "one core, multiple points, strong chain circle" with Wuliangye Industrial Park as the core area and Cuiping District, Nanxi District, Xuzhou District, Jiang'an County, Changning County as multiple points, and promote the concentration of advantageous enterprises, high-quality projects and high-quality elements to "one core and multiple points" to achieve intensive cluster development.

Among them, Nanxi District has become a development focus. Nanxi District has built a liquor and food industrial park. Yang Chenggang, deputy director of the Nanxi District Economic and Commercial Science and Technology Bureau, told First Finance and Economics that Nanxi District has become a centralized park second only to Cuiping District, where Wuliangye is located. The purpose is to strengthen the cluster of the fragrant wine industry and form a pattern of sauce wine for Renhuai and strong wine for Yibin.

Attracting the big and attracting the strong is an important means to achieve this goal. In addition to the above-mentioned attraction of Hubei Jinjiu and Yongle Ancient Cellar Wine, there are well-known enterprises such as Hubei Baiyunbian and Shandong Guoguo American Wine Industry Group to invest and settle down. Not only that, Li Qiang said that he is negotiating with a number of well-known national investment institutions, capital is on the one hand, and more important is the channels brought by these capitals.

In fact, although capital has entered the sauce wine industry in a big way, fragrant wine is also a key investment direction for investors, and Yibin is still the strongest IP of fragrant wine. For example, unlike many investors who flock to Renhuai, Guangdong Yongle Ancient Cellar Wine Industry has chosen Strong Aroma as the entrance to the liquor industry. In 2019, Yongle Ancient Cellar reorganized Yibin Red Chamber Dream Wine Industry.

Wu Qianwen, chairman of Yongle Ancient Cellar, told First Finance and Economics that before that, they had also visited many places, including Renhuai. However, she believes that it still needs to be done in a down-to-earth manner, and there is no need to catch the wind. Yongle Ancient Cellar plans to invest 3 billion yuan in Yibin, and the production capacity is expected to reach 38,000 tons after completion in 2024.

Wang Dazhou also said that Jinjiu chose to invest in Yibin, and it is also the IP of Yibin's strong liquor, which adds a lot of points to its products. Jinjiu will invest 2.5 billion yuan in Yibin, and it is expected to build the first mechanized and intelligent liquor brewing base in China in 2023, with a production capacity of 37,000 tons and a wine storage capacity of 150,000 tons after completion.

"It's not that fragrant wine can't work, it's definitely ok, it's just being impacted in a certain period of time, and we must firmly believe in this." Liu Dongshu said that through the multiple forces of the government and enterprises, we should promote the quality and brand improvement, promote Wuliang Liquor to a higher level, and firmly grasp the position of the leader.