China Resources Beer's Revenue and Shareholders' Profit Both Decline Year-over-Year

On March 23, China Resources Beer (HK00291) released its 2025 performance report. In 2025, the company achieved operating revenue of 37.985 billion yuan, a 1.68% decrease year-over-year; and attributable net profit of 3.371 billion yuan, down 28.87% year-over-year.

Among them, the company’s liquor business revenue was 1.496 billion yuan, a 30.77% decrease year-over-year. In terms of beer, the company achieved total sales of 11.03 million kiloliters, up 1.4%; and a pre-interest and tax profit of 7.908 billion yuan, up 21.62%.

China Resources Beer has officially entered the beer industry for over 30 years, while its crossover into the liquor industry has only been a few years. Currently, both liquor and beer are in the stock competition stage. How the beer industry seeks new growth and how the liquor business will break through have become market focuses.

On the day of the earnings release, the company also held an earnings briefing. Chairman Zhao Chunwu and senior executives appeared, with President Jin Hanquan attending his first earnings briefing since taking office. During the hour-long exchange, the management team responded to questions about industry status, future strategies, and market tactics.

Beer: Accelerate Filling Development Gaps in Emerging Businesses

When reviewing the company’s performance, management first responded to the overall decline indicators.

It is understood that under the continuous high-end development strategy, the company’s 2025 sales price per unit decreased by 1.4% year-over-year. Regarding this, senior executives stated that current sales prices and other indicators are under some pressure, but this is not due to market competition, rather a proactive business adjustment.

Since the gradual recovery of catering channels in the second half of last year, the company has re-optimized resource allocation, shifting some sales expenses toward product prices to capture market feedback more directly and quickly. This approach allows the company to anticipate market changes and take proactive measures rather than passively follow existing indicators.

Notably, in 2025, the company’s beer revenue reached 36.489 billion yuan, roughly flat compared to the previous year, benefiting from continued high-endization and lower raw material procurement costs. The gross profit margin of beer increased by 1.4 percentage points to 42.5%.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2025, the total beer production of enterprises above designated size was 35.36 million kiloliters, a decrease of 1.1% year-over-year.

Against this backdrop, the company’s beer sales in 2025 totaled 11.03 million kiloliters, up 1.4%. While outperforming the industry average, overall growth momentum remains limited.

At the briefing, Zhao Chunwu clarified the company’s future direction for beer—maintaining the high-end strategy.

“With changes in the external environment, the high-end story has become less popular in recent years,” Zhao said. However, data shows that sales of high-end beer products across companies have not declined, only the distribution structure has changed.

He noted that the company has maintained double-digit growth in the high-end market over the past few years, especially in the second half of last year and the first quarter of this year, with no signs of slowdown. Additionally, the growth of sub-premium and above products is accelerating.

In 2025, sales of sub-premium and above beers by China Resources Beer accounted for nearly 25% of total sales, with premium and above beers growing nearly 10 percentage points year-over-year. Notably, “Heineken” sales increased by nearly 20%, “Lao Snow” by 60%, and “Red爵” doubled.

Zhao believes that the high-endization of the beer industry has entered the “second half” since last year, with product structure gradually shifting from a “pyramid” to a more balanced form. The “apex” will gradually expand but not develop into an “inverted triangle.” He also expects that the growth momentum in the high-end segment will not decline significantly over the next five years.

With changing consumption patterns among young people and the emergence of new consumption scenarios and channels such as instant retail and e-commerce, Zhao emphasized the need to accelerate addressing development gaps in emerging businesses.

It is reported that in terms of new consumption channels, China Resources Beer has formed strategic partnerships with key online platforms including Alibaba, Meituan Flash Purchase, JD.com, Ele.me, Waimai Songjiu, and Jiuxiaoer. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the company developed 15 exclusive e-commerce customized products. Going forward, the company will explore new business models and actively promote rapid development of customized and OEM businesses.

Liquor: It’s Still Premature to Question the Entire Strategy

Compared to over 30 years of deep cultivation in the beer industry, China Resources Beer’s entry into the liquor industry has only been a few years. The company states that the liquor industry in 2025 is complex and undergoing structural deep adjustments. Facing declining market capacity, increased industry segmentation, rising inventories, and shrinking consumption scenarios, the industry experienced significant pressure in the second half of the year.

The financial report shows that in 2025, liquor business revenue was 1.496 billion yuan, down 30.77% year-over-year. Considering the market environment and actual operations, the company made an impairment provision of 2.877 billion yuan related to goodwill.

Zhao Chunwu responded first to the impairment, emphasizing that future the company will continue to maintain respect for the market, diligently manage operations, and fulfill disclosure obligations transparently and in accordance with regulations.

On January 10, 2023, China Resources Beer officially completed the transfer of 55.19% equity of Jinsha Brewery, which was incorporated into its financial statements. After acquiring Jinsha Brewery, the company proposed a “beer + liquor” dual empowerment strategy, adjusting personnel structures and establishing two major divisions: China Resources Snow Beer and China Resources Liquor. The product structure was also streamlined.

Regarding the progress of “beer-liquor empowerment,” Zhao admitted that there have been some effects but it is still not mature. He further explained that the company initially hoped to introduce liquor into existing beer channels, but in practice, the compatibility between liquor products and beer channels still varies.

He revealed that the company is re-evaluating the characteristics of different channels, researching what types of liquor products each channel needs, and what matching products the company can provide.

For the next steps in liquor strategy, President Jin Hanquan detailed plans from brand, pricing, and channel perspectives. He stated that Jinsha Brewery is implementing a dual-brand strategy: “Yao” (high-end sauce aroma) and “Jinsha” (mainstream). Yao targets high-end sauce aroma brands focusing on business and cultural marketing, while Jinsha aims to cultivate mass-market products, deploying different resources according to positioning.

Pricing is the lifeline of products. Since last year, the company has implemented measures mainly focused on cost control, maintaining a unified national pricing strategy, reducing dealer margins at the source, and minimizing stockpiling and price dumping risks. Internally, each bottle is traceable, with supervisory teams strictly controlling flow and low-price arbitrage. Sales policies have shifted from rebate-based pricing to profit-sharing with terminals and distributors, stabilizing prices. Since late last year, product prices have continued to rise and stabilized at reasonable levels.

In terms of channel stability, the company is shifting from rough expansion to full lifecycle management of distributors, emphasizing co-growth and avoiding excessive stockpiling. This transition from profit from stockpiling to profit from sales has had a positive market impact.

Regarding liquor business, Zhao reaffirmed the strategic importance of the white liquor layout as a key part of the company’s transformation. He pointed out that as the beer industry enters a period of turbulence, building a second growth curve is essential for sustained growth. Compared to other spirits, the liquor market is larger and offers more tolerance for error.

Zhao admitted that the liquor business faces unprecedented difficulties, and the industry’s volatility is hard to predict. “If we choose to do it, we must accept the challenge,” he said. “Our liquor business has only been around for about three years. Judging or questioning the entire strategy based on just these three years is premature. We need to keep working hard and persist for a while longer. Industry fluctuations shouldn’t negate our original strategic direction.”