"Chasing the Wind" Game: How Guoyue Longshan's Cross-Boundary Dew Wine Quenches Thirst

(Source: Beijing Business Daily)

From soy sauce wine to craft beer, and now to liqueur, this time the leading rice wine company Guyue Longshan has once again become the industry focus. On March 18, Beijing Business Daily learned that Guyue Longshan is crossing into the liqueur track. Reviewing the company’s recent development trajectory, it’s clear that its cross-industry moves are accelerating noticeably. Notably, while Guyue Longshan is busy expanding into new sectors, competitors behind it have quietly surpassed. According to the third-quarter 2025 report, Kuaiji Mountain achieved revenue of 1.212 billion yuan, taking the throne from Guyue Longshan, which had long been the “King of Huangjiu.” When “defending the city” faces challenges, “cross-industry” becomes Guyue Longshan’s most prominent strategic label. But is this move a clever way to activate the brand, or a helpless act of strategic confusion?

From soy sauce wine, beer to liqueur

It is understood that Guyue Longshan has launched four new products in the liqueur sector: Herbal No. 1, Herbal No. 2, Prime Minister’s Gate Health Huangjiu, and Polygonatum Root Wine. Regarding the distribution of these new products, Guyue Longshan’s secretariat told Beijing Business Daily that they are not yet aware of the specific situation.

Guyue Longshan’s decision to enter the liqueur market now is clearly not a sudden impulse but a response to industry trends. According to data from the China Alcoholic Drinks Association, the market size of liqueur surpassed 80 billion yuan in 2025, with a year-on-year growth of 40%. Driven by this growth rate, liqueur has overtaken wine to become the third-largest alcohol category in China, after Baijiu and beer. Industry experts expect this market to potentially exceed 200 billion yuan by 2030.

In this regard, Sun Aibao, Party Secretary and Chairman of Huangjiu Group (Guyue Longshan), stated that beyond the traditional four major liquor categories, liqueur is becoming a new growth track for the industry. Currently, while maintaining its core Huangjiu business, Guyue Longshan is actively planning and expanding into the liqueur sector. It has already ranked among the top five Chinese companies in liqueur development, alongside Wuliangye, Luzhou Laojiao, Jinjui, and Hainan Yedao.

Before officially entering the liqueur sector, Guyue Longshan had already extended its cross-industry reach into other popular liquor categories. Beijing Business Daily’s review of data shows that as early as the 2020 Autumn Sugar and Wine Fair, Guyue Longshan, through its subsidiary Shaoxing Nu’er Hong Brewing Co., Ltd., first experimented with cross-industry, announcing its entry into the soy sauce wine sector with three series of soy sauce wines. In 2024, Guyue Longshan launched a coffee Huangjiu combining Yunnan small-grain coffee and Shaoxing Huangjiu. Subsequently, it collaborated with the popular IP Capybara Little Yellow Pig to launch “Fuhuang Tengda,” a sparkling coffee Huangjiu. In November 2025, Guyue Longshan officially formed a strategic partnership with China Resources Beer, and the following month launched its first co-branded product, “Yue Xiao Beer.”

Wine marketing expert Xiao Zhuqing pointed out that future Huangjiu companies should strengthen brand youthfulness by innovating marketing methods and channels, such as social media marketing, influencer live streams, and cross-industry collaborations, to enhance brand awareness and influence among young consumers. Additionally, they should focus on exploring and promoting brand culture, telling compelling brand stories, and increasing cultural connotations and added value to boost competitiveness.

Anxiety about youth and slowing performance

The underlying logic behind Guyue Longshan’s urgent pursuit of trending sectors may be revealed in its 2025 first three quarters’ financial results.

Financial reports show that in the first three quarters of 2025, Guyue Longshan achieved revenue of 1.186 billion yuan, a decrease of 8.1% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders was 135 million yuan, a slight increase of 0.17%. More shocking is the change in rankings. During the same period, Kuaiji Mountain achieved revenue of 1.212 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.12%, surpassing Guyue Longshan for the first time.

Quarterly data shows that Guyue Longshan’s pressure is even more severe. In Q3 2025, its revenue was only 293 million yuan, down nearly 27% year-on-year. Additionally, contract liabilities, which reflect distributor payment enthusiasm, decreased by 68.16% year-on-year.

Compared to Kuaiji Mountain, financial data shows that in the first three quarters of 2025, Kuaiji Mountain achieved revenue of 1.21 billion yuan, up 14.12%, with net profit of 116 million yuan, up 3.23%. In Q3 alone, revenue was 395 million yuan, an increase of 21.09%, and net profit attributable to shareholders was 22.39 million yuan, up 2.47%. Notably, in the first three quarters of 2025, Kuaiji Mountain’s innovative categories, such as “One Day One Smoked” sparkling Huangjiu, supported 150 million yuan in “other wine” revenue, a 109.2% increase year-on-year.

Wine industry researcher Ouyang Qianli pointed out that although both Kuaiji Mountain and Guyue Longshan are listed Huangjiu companies—Kuaiji Mountain being a private enterprise and Guyue Longshan a state-owned enterprise—Kuaiji Mountain is more flexible in the market, firmly pursuing high-end and youth-oriented strategies, with its related products achieving good results. In contrast, Guyue Longshan’s approach involves many considerations and often falls into a dilemma of “both… and… and also…”

More worrying than revenue decline is the aging main consumer group. As Generation Z gradually becomes the main consumer force, their natural distance from “paternal” Huangjiu is evident. Therefore, whether through cross-industry beer or liqueur, Guyue Longshan is targeting the young consumer groups behind these sectors.

Qin Shuyao, President of the China Alcohol Circulation Association, pointed out that as “post-90s” and “post-00s” generations gradually take over, the new generation of consumers has become the main force in new alcohol drinks. They are likely to choose their own preferred products, pushing liqueur and pre-mixed drinks into the mainstream.

Faced with this irreversible generational shift, traditional alcohol companies eager to attract young consumers must break out of their conventional tracks. In this process, cross-industry collaboration has become the fastest way to break cognitive barriers and attract young traffic. Industry insiders note that by using beer’s low entry barrier to attract young people to Huangjiu flavors, and then leveraging the health concept of liqueur to meet the “punk health preservation” trend, Guyue Longshan is attempting to build a “Huangjiu+” product matrix to capture the new generation of consumers.

Crowded track

Whether cross-industry efforts can help the performance-anxious Guyue Longshan breathe easier remains uncertain based on current market feedback. However, it seems that there is still a long way to go for cross-industry to truly win recognition among young consumers.

In fact, the co-branded “Yue Xiao Beer” with China Resources Beer initially aimed to leverage China Resources Beer’s nationwide network of 2.3 million catering outlets and 13,000 distributors to break into the market. But slow or lagging channel sales have cast doubt on this product’s market performance.

Beijing Business Daily’s investigation of Tmall Snowflake Beer’s official flagship store found that only 9 units of “Yue Xiao Beer Green Plum Sparkling Island Huangjiu Brewed Beer 330ml 12-pack” had been sold; only 5 units of “Yue Xiao Beer Dried Tangerine Yuzu Huangjiu Brewed Beer 330ml 12-pack” had been sold. Industry analysts suggest that “Huangjiu + beer” channel synergy might be effective in the Yangtze River Delta and Shanghai regions, but outside East China, whether beer channels can drive Huangjiu and derivative product sales remains to be seen.

The cold reception of the beer trial has not stopped Guyue Longshan’s cross-industry push; instead, it has led to greater bets on the more promising liqueur market.

With the liqueur market already exceeding 80 billion yuan, how much market space is left for Guyue Longshan? Currently, the market is crowded with health-oriented brands like Jinjiu, and many major Baijiu producers are entering, continuously dividing the liqueur share. To carve out a piece of this pie, Guyue Longshan must rely not only on speed but also on product strength, channel development, and storytelling to create differentiation.

Cai Xuefei further pointed out that Guyue Longshan’s core logic in cross-industry is to seek new growth points and category value addition, but it is also a form of market exploration. However, while Kuaiji Mountain has achieved breakthroughs in its core Huangjiu business through “high-end + youthfulness,” Guyue Longshan’s diversified layout has yet to show comparable explosive power.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Liu Yibo and Feng Ruonan