Yanjing Beer Makes a Strong "Breakthrough": Achieves Record Highs in Revenue and Net Profit by 2025

Ask AI · How can the new management team double net profit in four years?

On the evening of April 2, Yanjing Brewery released its 2025 performance quick report. The data show that in 2025, the company achieved beer sales volume of 4.053 million kiloliters, up 1.21% year over year; Yanjing U8 sales volume of 0.9 million kiloliters, up 29.31%; operating revenue of RMB 15.333 billion, up 4.54%; and net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of RMB 1.679 billion, up 59.06%. Both revenue and profits reached record highs for the period.

In the era of stock competition in the beer industry, Yanjing used a series of astonishing numbers to prove to the market the power of “revival,” completing a brilliant turnaround from “bottoming out and rebounding” to a “strong breakthrough.” In today’s sluggish consumer environment, why can Yanjing Beer ride through the cycle and grow against the trend? At a key turning point in the industry’s shift from “scale expansion” to “value deepening,” with this beer leader with more than 40 years of history, what exactly has it done right?

Four-Year Doubling Growth: A Performance Record That Spans the Cycle

Since the new management team took office in May 2022, Yanjing Brewery has pursued progress and proactively pushed for change. The results are reflected on the financial statements—its operating performance has remained strong and growing steadily despite the headwinds.

Let’s move the clock back to the starting point of the transformation. The data show that in 2022, the company achieved net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of RMB 352 million, up 54.51% year over year. At that time, this growth rate had already started to show its sharp edge, but the market more often viewed it as a restorative increase driven by a low base.

However, over the next three years, Yanjing broke all doubts with sustained high growth. In 2023, the company’s net profit attributable to shareholders reached RMB 645 million, with a year-over-year growth rate as high as 83.02%. In 2024, the company’s performance moved up another level: net profit attributable to shareholders first exceeded the RMB 1 billion mark, reaching RMB 1.056 billion, up 63.74% year over year.

In the past year of 2025, Yanjing Beer’s strong momentum showed no signs of slowing down. The performance quick report shows that in 2025, the company achieved net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 1.679 billion, up 59.06% year over year. This means that from 2022 to 2025, Yanjing Beer’s net profit attributable to shareholders surged from RMB 352 million to a scale of more than RMB 1.6 billion. It has maintained an exceptionally high growth rate of more than 50% for four consecutive years, with its growth rate ranking among the top in the industry.

Notably, the company’s loss in the fourth quarter of 2025 narrowed significantly. Compared with the net profit attributable to shareholders loss of RMB 232 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, the company’s net loss in the fourth quarter of 2025 narrowed sharply to RMB 91 million, effectively demonstrating strong results from cost control and profit release.

U8 Takes the Lead: A Victory of the Big Single Product Strategy

Behind growth that rides through the cycle, there must be a solid product logic. Looking back at Yanjing’s development path over these four years, the rise of Yanjing U8 is undoubtedly the main thread throughout.

In 2022, the starting point of this high-growth cycle, Yanjing U8 sales reached 390,000 kiloliters, up more than 50% year over year, showing early signs of a potential big single product. In 2023, U8 continued to deliver fast growth of 36%, with sales breaking 530,000 kiloliters. By 2024, Yanjing U8 sales reached 696,000 kiloliters, up 31.40%. In 2025, Yanjing U8 sales jumped to 900,000 kiloliters, up 29.31% year over year.

Yanjing U8 as a big single product not only contributes stable revenue and profit to Yanjing Beer, but also becomes an important medium for brand-to-consumer communication. Through continuous product iteration and scenario-based marketing, it keeps strengthening consumers’ brand perception.

The success of Yanjing U8 is not just a victory in terms of sales—it also reflects Yanjing Beer’s strategic resolve. As the company’s management responded earlier, between Yanjing’s refreshing profile and Yanjing U8, the company firmly chose U8, which has greater potential for brand youthfulness.

This decision helped Yanjing Beer successfully capture the wave of consumption upgrading, with the revenue share of mid-to-high-end products continuing to rise. In the first half of 2025, revenue from mid-to-high-end products reached RMB 5.536 billion, up 9.32%, showing clear results from product mix upgrades.

As U8 continued to maintain steady growth momentum in 2025, its scale effects as a “million-ton-class” potential big single product are accelerating. This provides solid support for the sustained upward trend in the company’s unit price and the stability of gross margin.

On March 25, the company launched its new big single product, “Yanjing A10 All-Grain Special Brew.” This is the latest breakout single product newly created by Yanjing Beer after Yanjing U8. With the core concept of “pure craftsmanship, brewing a classic masterpiece,” it aims to become a benchmark for quality in the industry.

The launch of Yanjing A10 is not only a completion of the product lineup, but also an important move in Yanjing’s strategy of brand youthfulness and premiumization.

In the new era of beer consumption today, Yanjing Beer has formed a clear product strategy: on the one hand, it uses Yanjing U8 to tap into the youth-oriented mainstream market; on the other hand, it uses mid-to-high-end products represented by Yanjing A10 to meet the needs of consumption upgrading. The two work like two wheels and two wings, jointly carrying Yanjing Beer’s strategic determination to “start a second entrepreneurship and achieve revival.”

Meanwhile, Yanjing Beer is also actively promoting product diversification. In addition to beer and PepsiTe (Beist) beverages, the company is also developing healthy foods such as natto, with promising momentum. The company carries out a “beer + beverage” combined marketing approach, implements its diversification strategy on the ground, and builds a three-dimensional market layout to create new growth opportunities.

Looking Ahead: Yanjing’s Revival Is Timely

Yanjing Beer’s continuous improvement in performance over the past five years has provided a successful example for traditional enterprises to transform and upgrade. This transformation is reflected not only in financial data, but also in a shift in operating philosophy. From pursuing scale to focusing on quality; from extensive investment to refined operations, Yanjing Beer is undergoing a profound revolution in business management.

From a capital perspective, this “structural improvement” is more attractive than mere scale growth. It means that even in an industry that is broadly stagnant, there is still room to create incremental gains by reshaping products and channels. As scale dividends gradually fade, competition in China’s beer industry is entering deep water in its transition from scale expansion to value deepening.

At the same time, the company attaches great importance to shareholder investment returns. While maintaining growth in operating performance, it continues to increase the proportion of dividends. For fiscal year 2024, the company distributed cash dividends of RMB 0.19 per share (including tax). In addition, the company made its first dividend payment in mid-2025—cash dividends of RMB 1.00 per 10 shares (including tax). By adding the mid-year dividend in this way, the company implements the “improve quality and efficiency while returning value” policy, delivering “hard cash” directly to investors.

Industry experts point out that Yanjing Beer’s growth against the trend is neither accidental nor lucky. The resilience behind its countercyclical growth comes from the resonance among strategic focus, governance changes, and opportunities offered by the times. And with the momentum of work such as advancing brand youthfulness, stylishness, and premiumization at higher levels, Yanjing Beer’s development momentum and potential will be released further.