Continuing to withstand pressure while steadily moving forward, the secret to how Jiushengyuan breaks through is hidden here.

Ask AI · How can Jiu Shiyuan respond to market volatility through improving quality and efficiency?

Produced by | China Interview Network

Reviewed by | Li Xiaoyan

As a leading publicly listed liquor company in Jiangsu Province, Jiu Shiyuan has always upheld the mission of “brewing fine liquor and forging good relationships.” Amid the wave of deep industry adjustment in the baijiu sector, it sticks to the root of quality and deepens its strategic layout. Although in 2025 it faces challenges such as phased performance adjustments and a complex, ever-changing market environment, the company focuses on “improving quality and efficiency” as its core, continuously усилиes its efforts in brand building, channel optimization, capacity upgrades, and other areas. It not only acknowledges shortcomings in development, but also accumulates momentum through hard work to build a solid foundation for high-quality development during the “15th Five-Year Plan.”

Since the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, Jiu Shiyuan has locked onto the direction of high-quality development and delivered a phased answer sheet marked by both quantity and quality rising together. Over the five years, the company’s revenue grew from RMB 5.1 billion to RMB 11.5 billion, achieving a doubling growth rate. In 2023, it was among the first to break the RMB 10 billion mark, successfully joining the “RMB 10 billion club” in the baijiu industry, becoming one of the faster-growing RMB 10 billion brands in the sector. This leap not only showcases Jiu Shiyuan’s development resilience, but also confirms the vitality of its “quality + culture” dual-engine strategy.

Against the backdrop of industry demand fluctuations in 2025 and pressure on premium consumption, the company saw phased adjustments in revenue and profit. In the first three quarters, it recorded total operating revenue of RMB 8.882 billion and attributable net profit of RMB 2.549 billion, with Q3 single-quarter performance declining somewhat due to the off-season and demand factors. But the company always maintains strategic focus; it does not blindly pursue short-term growth rates. Instead, it shifts its emphasis to structural optimization and quality enhancement. As the company stated in its 2025 “Improving Quality and Efficiency—Return with Better Returns” action plan, it will focus on its core businesses to enhance operating quality and drive the enterprise’s transformation from growth in scale to quality-and-efficiency driven development.

What deserves recognition is that, despite near-term pressure, Jiu Shiyuan’s core strategic goals for the “14th Five-Year Plan” are steadily being advanced. Its market share in the provincial market continues to rise, and breakthroughs outside the province have been notable. In 2024, the off-provincial market growth rate of the Guo Yuan brand reached 36.5%, and more than 40 prefecture-level segments surpassed 10 million yuan each. Its national expansion layout is gradually breaking through; its brand matrix continues to be optimized. The Guo Yuan V series’ premium image has surged into the spotlight, and the large-single product strategies such as Si Kai and Dui Kai are advancing steadily, with classic revitalization results becoming evident for the Gua Geng brand. Capacity strength has also been increasingly solidified: its koji-making and base spirit capacities broke through 80,000 tons, and its tao jars storage capacity reached 300,000 tons, providing ample momentum for long-term development. At the company’s 2026 work conference, it clearly stated it would “complete all targets and tasks of the ‘14th Five-Year Plan’ with success,” which is an objective summary of the five-year development outcomes and also a firm confidence in future development.

With intensifying industry competition and changes in the market environment, Jiu Shiyuan takes reform and innovation as its main theme, leveraging efforts across channels, organization, and products to solve development challenges and unlock internal momentum.

On the channel front, the company deepens the building of a “shared destiny between manufacturers and merchants,” and practices the concept of “we are one family.” Through the mechanisms of “nurturing merchants, supporting merchants, enriching merchants, and strengthening merchants,” it builds a channel ecosystem of mutual benefit and win-win outcomes. It also introduces a “big marketing management and control” system, conducts dealer training and assessments, optimizes inventory management, and improves terminal sell-through efficiency, effectively addressing inventory pressure caused by market volatility. At the same time, it focuses on improving and refining efforts within the province and makes key breakthroughs outside the province. Relying on the Yangtze River Delta integration and the strategy of strengthening the Jiangsu-region around the province, it expands emerging markets, gradually reduces dependence on the provincial market, and opens up space for national development.

On the products and brand front, it sticks to a positioning of mid-to-premium, aligning with trends in the baijiu market toward reduced degree of alcohol, younger demographics, and healthier consumption. It builds its core competitiveness in the 500-yuan price band. It also digs deep into the core of “relationship culture,” enhancing brand visibility and premium-earning ability through brand promotion and cultural communication. Over 20 years, the Guo Yuan brand has grown into the youngest RMB 10 billion brand in the industry, becoming a core support for the company’s high-quality development. Meanwhile, it promotes product innovation and optimizes its product structure, balancing premium breakthroughs with demand from mass consumers, offering diversified product choices for different scenarios, and strengthening market fit.

On the organization and management front, it advances organizational change, optimizes its structure and compensation system, implements a strategic talent “3333工程” (3333 Project), builds a tiered lineup of core talent, and strengthens lean management. It implements the “six major management systems,” advances digital transformation, and was recognized as an “excellent benchmark enterprise for digital transformation.” With AI enabling the full-chain marketing, production, and management processes, it improves operational efficiency. It also keeps a firm hold on the risk bottom line, coordinating development and safety, implements the “Work Safety and Environmental Safety Foundation-Building Action,” and strengthens the foundation for safe development to safeguard steady operations for the company.

Currently, Jiu Shiyuan indeed faces some phased challenges and needs to tackle them with greater resolve. First, under performance pressure, the inventory scale reached RMB 6.1 billion, setting a historical high; contract liabilities fell to RMB 520 million, the lowest in nearly five years, reflecting that terminal sell-through pressure remains and dealers’ willingness to place orders needs to be further improved. Second, sales expenses are rising and do not match revenue growth: in the first three quarters of 2025, sales expenses increased year-on-year, but revenue declined, meaning cost-efficiency needs to be further optimized. Third, the pace of national expansion still needs to be accelerated. While there have been breakthroughs in off-provincial markets, the overall proportion remains insufficient, and brand influence needs further penetration.

In response to these challenges, the company has already defined a path to break the impasse. 2026 will serve as the opening year of the “15th Five-Year Plan.” Jiu Shiyuan will adhere to making progress while ensuring stability, and leverage progress to promote stability, fully fighting four major campaigns: the campaign for breakthroughs in market depth, focusing on intensive cultivation in core regions and expanding key markets; the campaign for brand enhancement and structural upgrading, deepening cultural empowerment and product innovation; the campaign for organizational activation and efficiency improvement, optimizing mechanisms to energize vitality; and the campaign for manufacturer-dealer coordination and ecosystem co-building, strengthening the foundation for channel win-win cooperation. At the same time, taking reform and innovation as the main theme, it will unlock the potential of resource and factor elements, implement three major empowerment initiatives—brand value, front-and-back coordination, and organizational mechanisms—to build a strong engine for continuous growth.

From a long-term perspective, Jiu Shiyuan’s development advantages remain evident. As a core enterprise in the Huaihe River liquor belt, it has high-quality brewing raw materials and unique brewing processes, with a deep foundation in quality. Its “relationship culture” brand differentiation is particularly strong, and it has strong competitiveness in the mid-to-premium track. Its Jiangsu stronghold market is stable, with a solid consumption base, providing robust support for national expansion. It also has sufficient capacity and reserves, laying a solid hardware foundation for long-term development. As the industry gradually returns to rationality and the trend of consumption upgrading remains unchanged, Jiu Shiyuan—by virtue of precise strategic positioning, a solid product foundation, and strong channel cohesion—has the potential to achieve a countertrend breakthrough amid adjustments.

From achieving both quantity and quality rising together in the “14th Five-Year Plan,” to building strength and breaking through in the “15th Five-Year Plan,” Jiu Shiyuan has always stayed true to its development aspiration of “quality as the soul and relationship as the pulse.” Facing phased challenges in 2025, the company neither avoids them nor gets flustered. Using improving quality and efficiency as the key lever, and reform and innovation as the driving force, it accumulates strength through staying grounded, and seeks breakthroughs through transformation.

Competition in the baijiu industry, in essence, is competition in quality, brand, and long-termism. Jiu Shiyuan fulfills responsibility with down-to-earth execution and drives development with innovation. It not only faces up to the shortcomings in development, but also remains firmly committed to strategic resolve for high-quality development. With the guidance of the “15th Five-Year Plan” blueprint, Jiu Shiyuan is expected to win the opening battle with a more steady posture and stronger momentum, writing a new chapter in China’s high-quality baijiu development—moving from “Jiu Shiyuan of Jiangsu” to “Jiu Shiyuan of China,” and creating even greater new development achievements.