Yabao Lu Liquor Guyue Longshan Breaks into the "Red Sea"

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(Source: Beijing Business Daily)

From sauce-flavored liquor 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 over into the liqueur track. Reviewing Guyue Longshan’s recent development trajectory, it’s clear that its cross-industry steps are accelerating noticeably. Notably, while Guyue Longshan is busy expanding into new tracks, competitors behind are quietly surpassing it. According to the Q3 2025 report, Kuaiji Mountain achieved revenue of 1.212 billion yuan, taking the “Number One Rice Wine” throne from Guyue Longshan, which had held the position for many years. When “defending the city” faces challenges, “cross-industry” becomes Guyue Longshan’s most prominent strategic label. Is this move a clever way to activate the brand, or a helpless act of strategic confusion?

From Sauce-flavored Liquor, 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 Health Rice Wine, and Yellow Jujube 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 at this time is clearly not a sudden whim but a reflection of 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%. With 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 response, Sun Aibao, Secretary of the Party Committee 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 alcohol industry. Currently, while maintaining its core rice wine business, Guyue Longshan is actively planning and expanding into the liqueur sector, ranking among the top five Chinese companies in liqueur development alongside Wuliangye, Luzhou Laojiao, Jinjui, and Hainan Yedao.

Before officially entering the liqueur market, 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 entry into the sauce-flavored liquor track with three series of sauce liquor products. In 2024, Guyue Longshan launched a coffee-infused yellow rice wine combining Yunnan small-grain coffee and Shaoxing yellow rice wine. Subsequently, it collaborated with the popular IP Capybara Little Yellow Pig to launch “Fahuang Tengda,” a sparkling coffee yellow rice wine. In November 2025, Guyue Longshan officially formed a strategic partnership with China Resources Beer, and the following month, jointly launched its first co-branded product, “Yue Xiao Beer.”

Wine marketing expert Xiao Zhuqing pointed out that future rice wine 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 topics can perhaps be found in its performance in the first three quarters of 2025.

Financial reports show that in the first three quarters of 2025, Guyue Longshan’s revenue was 1.186 billion yuan, down 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 reveals that Guyue Longshan’s pressure is even more severe. In Q3 2025, its revenue was only 293 million yuan, a sharp decline of nearly 27% year-on-year. Additionally, contract liabilities reflecting 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’s revenue was 1.21 billion yuan, up 14.12%, with net profit of 116 million yuan, up 3.23%. In Q3 alone, revenue reached 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 yellow rice wine, contributed 150 million yuan in “other wine” revenue, a year-on-year increase of 109.2%.

Industry researcher Ouyang Qianli pointed out that although both Kuaiji Mountain and Guyue Longshan are listed companies in the yellow rice wine sector—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 youthful branding, with its related products achieving good results. In contrast, Guyue Longshan faces many considerations and often falls into a dilemma of “both want and need.”

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

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 for new wine drinks. They are likely to choose products of their own, pushing liqueur and pre-mixed drinks into the mainstream.

Faced with this irreversible generational shift in consumption, traditional wine companies eager to attract young consumers must step out of their conventional tracks. Cross-industry collaborations have 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 yellow rice wine flavors, and then leveraging the health concept of liqueur to meet the “punk health preservation” trend, Guyue Longshan is trying to build a “yellow wine+” product matrix to capture the new generation of consumers.

“Chasing the Trend” Game

Whether cross-industry can help Guyue Longshan, currently under performance anxiety, breathe a sigh of relief remains uncertain based on current market feedback. However, it seems that there is still a long way to go for cross-industry efforts to gain recognition from young consumers.

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

A Beijing Business Daily reporter checked Tmall’s Snowflake Beer official flagship store and found that only 9 units of Yue Xiao Beer Green Plum Sparkling Rice Wine (330ml, 12-pack) had been sold; while only 5 units of Yue Xiao Beer Dried Tangerine Yuzu Rice Wine (330ml, 12-pack) had been sold. Industry analysts suggest that “yellow wine + beer” channel synergy may be effective in core markets like Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, but outside East China, whether beer channels can drive yellow rice wine and derivative sales remains to be seen.

The cold reception of the beer trial has not stopped Guyue Longshan’s cross-industry push; instead, it has prompted the company to place bigger bets on the broader prospects of the liqueur market.

With the liqueur market already exceeding 80 billion yuan, how much market space remains for Guyue Longshan? Currently, the market is being fiercely contested by health-oriented brands like Jinjui and many other liquor giants entering the scene, continuously dividing the liqueur market share. To carve out a slice of this pie, Guyue Longshan must rely not only on speed but also on product strength, channel development, and brand storytelling to create differentiation.

Beijing Business Daily Reporter Liu Yibo and Feng Ruonan