The Baijiu sector dragged down China Resources Beer’s business, and the new chairman of the board stated that questioning the Baijiu strategy is premature.

Ask AI · How will Zhao Chunwu regroup after the significant impairment of China Resources Beer’s liquor business?

Reporter Zheng Yuxin

On March 23, China Resources Beer (0291.HK) released its financial report showing that total operating revenue for 2025 was 37.985 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.68%; net profit was 3.371 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 28.87%.

This is the first annual report since Zhao Chunwu took over as the chairman of the board from Hou Xiaohai. In September 2025, China Resources Beer announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that executive director Zhao Chunwu was transferred from president to chairman of the board. After Hou Xiaohai stepped down, Zhao Chunwu temporarily assumed the responsibilities of chairman during the transition period.

China Resources Beer’s business is divided into two major segments: beer and liquor. Overall, the beer segment showed relative stability in 2025, while the liquor segment dragged down performance. The beer business achieved revenue of approximately 36.489 billion yuan, a slight increase compared to 36.486 billion yuan in the same period last year; the liquor business achieved revenue of 1.496 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 30.39%, down from 2.149 billion yuan in the same period last year.

As the second growth curve for China Resources Beer, the company invested over 12 billion Hong Kong dollars in 2023 to acquire 55.19% of Guizhou Jinsha Liquor, officially entering the liquor business. However, during a period of deep adjustment in the liquor industry, Jinsha Liquor’s performance did not meet expectations, leading China Resources Beer to recognize an impairment of approximately 2.877 billion yuan in goodwill for its liquor business in 2025.

During the earnings call, Zhao Chunwu stated that the goodwill impairment for the liquor business was a conclusion derived from careful consideration of macroeconomic factors and the liquor industry cycle.

After the significant impairment of 2.8 billion yuan, how this beer company reassesses and advances its liquor business has become critical.

Zhao Chunwu acknowledged that the liquor industry is indeed facing unprecedented difficulties, and the severe fluctuations in the industry are difficult to predict. He believes that such situations are normal, as companies cannot foresee changes in the entire industry, especially when influenced by external factors.

Zhao Chunwu still believes that limited diversification aligns with China Resources Beer’s corporate positioning, and the choice of liquor is based on thorough consideration. Compared to other alcoholic beverages like wine and whiskey, liquor remains a better choice. The Chinese beer market has entered a period of turbulence and adjustment, and for China Resources Beer to maintain growth, it must build a second growth curve. Zhao Chunwu stated: “Not doing or choosing won’t lead to mistakes, but for corporate development, if you do nothing, you might unknowingly be left behind by the times.”

Zhao Chunwu mentioned that China Resources Beer has been in the beer business for over 30 years and has only been in the liquor business for three years. He believes it is too early to question the strategy or even consider adjustments based solely on three years of experience; the company still needs to continue its efforts and persist for a while, and should not doubt the initial strategic direction due to industry fluctuations. He emphasized the importance of maintaining long-term confidence in the liquor business and vowed to regroup and start again.

Regarding the specific operational path of the liquor business, Jin Hanquan, president of China Resources Beer responsible for the liquor segment, explained it from five aspects.

The first is to stabilize the brand. China Resources Liquor currently has two main brands: Zhaiyao and Jinsha Huisha. Among them, Zhaiyao is positioned as a high-end sauce-flavored brand, focusing on high-end business and cultural marketing, shifting advertising from broad-based to precise targeting; the Jinsha Huisha series aims to cultivate the mass market, investing resources to develop more marketable products.

The second is to stabilize pricing. Jin Hanquan pointed out that they now implement a unified management of expenses nationwide, where expenses at the distributor level manifest as price differences, significantly reducing the likelihood of product diversion and resale. Internally, they implement traceability for every bottle of liquor to ensure that every region and supply chain is traceable, and there is a dedicated supervision team in the market to strictly control product flow and low-price diversion. In terms of sales policy, they have completely abandoned the previous bare-price rebate model and now implement profit sharing between the terminal and distributors.

The third is to stabilize channels. Jin Hanquan stated that in the past, there was a lack of control over distributor channel resources, leading to a basic model of extensive expansion; they are currently conducting distributor governance activities, aiming to cultivate them throughout their lifecycle to become partners rather than a one-time transactional relationship.

The fourth is to improve efficiency, with measures including optimizing product structure, further solidifying the status of Zhaiyao’s flagship products, and phasing out a batch of low-margin SKUs, such as certain customized products.

Jin Hanquan noted that the last point is to deepen the synergy between the liquor business and the China Resources ecosystem.

On the beer business side, in 2025, beer sales reached 11.03 million kiloliters, a year-on-year increase of 1.4%, with premiumization remaining the main growth driver. In 2025, sales of premium (8 yuan and above) beers achieved single-digit growth, and Heineken’s sales increased by 20% year-on-year. Thanks to the continued development of the premiumization strategy, China Resources Beer’s gross profit margin increased by 0.5 percentage points year-on-year to 43.1% in 2025.

Zhao Chunwu believes that the premiumization of beer has entered the second half, with changes in demand, scenarios, and channels for beer, particularly with the rise of new consumer groups driving the demand for craft, health-conscious, and personalized beer consumption. For example, real-time retail platform data shows that after 10 PM, beer consumption experiences a new peak period, and during this time, the purchasing tiers of beer in the market are generally higher, with high demands for chilled and instant delivery. On the other hand, the emergence of new channels such as various liquor stations and beer exchanges has also brought new increments. These new scenarios and channels were not present in the past industry.

In terms of new consumption channels, China Resources Beer has formed strategic partnerships with key online platforms such as Alibaba, Meituan Flash Purchase, JD.com, Ele.me, Yima Wine Delivery, and Jiu Xiaoyi, developing a total of 15 e-commerce exclusive customized products for e-commerce channels. China Resources Beer is also exploring new business models such as customization and contract manufacturing.