Guyue Longshan Regains Top Position in Rice Wine Market Cap! Value Rebound?

Is AI · Guyue Longshan’s return a sign of rational valuation recovery for rice wine?

Produced by | Zhongfang Network

Reviewed by | Li Xiaoyan

In spring 2026, the rice wine industry is undergoing a critical reshaping of its landscape. As of the close on March 17, Guyue Longshan slightly leads with a market value of 8.614 billion yuan, surpassing Kuaiji Mountain’s 8.194 billion yuan. Thanks to consistent solid performance over several days, in a nearly year-long battle of market capitalization, it narrowly defeated its rival and reestablished itself as the leader of the rice wine industry. From Kuaiji Mountain once leading with a gap exceeding 3 billion yuan, to now Guyue Longshan’s strong overtaking, this tug-of-war is not just a simple change in ranking but a calibration of the industry’s leading company’s strength amid deep transformation. It also vividly reflects how traditional liquor brands are moving toward youthfulness, nationwide reach, and value enhancement. Guyue Longshan’s return highlights the deep heritage of an old brand and injects stable confidence into high-quality industry development. Short-term challenges coexist with long-term growth, and the rice wine industry is entering a healthier competitive ecosystem.

Previously, Kuaiji Mountain’s youthful innovation and capital enthusiasm drove its market value to a peak of 12.7 billion yuan, with a P/E ratio exceeding 50 times, indicating a phase of valuation overreach amid rapid expansion. Market sentiment cooled, compounded by personnel adjustments, leading to a short-term wait-and-see attitude and a return of valuation to a reasonable range. This reflects the maturity of the capital market and creates an environment for Guyue Longshan to regain recognition based on its solid fundamentals.

Guyue Longshan’s recent return to the top spot is primarily supported by a long-term business philosophy. As a state-owned leader, the company adheres to quality standards and brand reputation, with a rigorous and standardized decision-making system. During industry volatility, it maintains strategic focus, avoiding excessive marketing and capital speculation that could cause operational fluctuations. Although its revenue in the first three quarters of 2025 was slightly lower than its competitor, the company boasts solid asset quality, strong brand barriers, and high-end products like Guojing 1959 that continuously reinforce brand value. Its extensive and stable distribution network further supports its position. Compared to aggressive strategies focused on high investment and rapid growth, Guyue Longshan’s steady approach aligns better with the development laws of traditional brewing industries and has attracted long-term capital interest.

Additionally, leveraging the core production area of Shaoxing rice wine, Guyue Longshan possesses a thousand-year brewing heritage and abundant aged base wines—an irreplaceable core asset. In an era where consumers increasingly value quality and traceability, its brand history, craftsmanship inheritance, and production capacity form a resilient strength across cycles. Its market value lead is not just a numerical overtaking but a market reaffirmation of the brand’s value, long-term operational safety, and industry leadership.

Undeniably, while Guyue Longshan has reclaimed the top spot, it still faces short-term operational challenges. Revenue in key markets fluctuated slightly in the first three quarters of 2025, high-end product growth faced obstacles, and youthful blockbuster products have yet to reach scale, putting short-term pressure on profitability. However, these issues are common in the industry’s transformation and are part of the necessary path from tradition to modernity, not signs of decline.

In response to the youth trend, Guyue Longshan is proactively innovating by exploring new categories such as small-batch beer, coffee rice wine, and non-premium rice wine, collaborating with quality resources like China Resources Beer and Sinopec EasyJet to expand into younger channels and consumption scenarios. Although it has yet to create a phenomenon-level flagship product, these multi-channel experiments accumulate valuable experience for future product iterations, demonstrating the company’s resolve and action in transformation. The success of Kuaiji Mountain’s daily brewing also pushes Guyue Longshan to accelerate innovation, optimize its product matrix, and focus resources on developing core flagship products. This healthy competition is driving both industry leaders to jointly expand the rice wine market.

In product structure optimization, Guyue Longshan is accelerating its efforts to escape the dilemma of underperforming high-end products and declining mass-market sales, focusing on the core price range of around 100 yuan, integrating resources to cultivate benchmark products. On the distribution side, while deepening its presence in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, it is also speeding up nationwide expansion to break regional limitations. Short-term fluctuations are normal during strategic adjustments; with ongoing reforms and resource concentration, its product and channel momentum will gradually release, and growth resilience is expected to strengthen.

Kuaiji Mountain’s innovative exploration is also commendable. Its youth-oriented marketing and blockbuster creation provide industry lessons, but issues such as revenue growth without profit increase, a gap between high-end and mass categories, and slow national expansion also prove that rice wine’s transformation cannot rely solely on marketing hype. It requires solid product strength and profitability support. Both industry leaders have their strengths and complement each other, forming a dynamic and mutually beneficial competition—combining the agility and innovation of private enterprises with the stability and depth of state-owned firms—driving the industry out of low-level competition.

The market cap tug-of-war between Guyue Longshan and Kuaiji Mountain essentially reflects the pain and hope of industry transformation. As a traditional liquor with 2,500 years of history, rice wine has faced challenges such as aging consumer groups, regional branding constraints, and slowing growth. However, under the leadership of these two giants, the industry is now experiencing a comprehensive breakthrough.

Healthy consumption trends and the rise of national culture present historic opportunities for rice wine. Its low-alcohol, gentle, nutritious attributes align with modern drinking preferences. The younger generation’s interest in traditional culture helps rice wine shed its old-ladylike image, making it an important carrier of the “mild intoxication economy” and new Chinese-style liquor. Continuous investment by the two giants in product innovation and brand youthfulness is rapidly bridging the gap with young consumers, expanding scenarios for pairing with meals, drinking alone, and socializing. The industry’s consumer demographic is continuously optimizing.

From an industry pattern perspective, the competition among leading companies accelerates industry upgrading. Rice wine enterprises are focusing on high-end, nationwide, and digital transformation, improving channel efficiency, product quality, and brand management. Policy support for traditional brewing industries continues, with faster development of Shaoxing rice wine production areas providing a favorable external environment. Market value competition is no longer zero-sum but promotes industry growth from stock competition to incremental value creation, enhancing the overall category value and market position of rice wine.

In the long run, Guyue Longshan’s return to leadership signifies a shift from capital-driven speculation back to fundamentals-driven industry development—an important marker of industry maturity. The resource advantages of state-owned enterprises, combined with the brand heritage and the market agility and innovation of private firms, will propel rice wine out of its transitional trough toward more sustainable growth.

Short-term fluctuations in market rankings do not hinder the long-term revival of the rice wine industry. Guyue Longshan’s reclaiming of the top spot is both a result of its prudent management and a rational industry development choice. The company is accelerating institutional innovation, optimizing personnel structure, improving market responsiveness, and addressing youth and nationwide expansion shortcomings. Kuaiji Mountain will also focus on improving profitability, balancing innovation investment with operational efficiency, and consolidating long-term development foundations.

This tug-of-war has no losers; the competition and cooperation between the two giants allow the rice wine industry to grow through competition and upgrade through adjustment. As an industry leader, Guyue Longshan will shoulder the mission of inheriting rice wine culture and promoting industry upgrading—rooted in quality and driven by innovation—to solidify its leading position. The entire rice wine industry will leverage this momentum to break through regional and age barriers and move toward a broader market.