Text |Yang Wen
In September last year, after six years of strategic reorganization, the Chongqing liquor brand Shixian Taibai ushered in a new journey with the slogan of "Chongqing Liquor Revitalization and Rejuvenation", which attracted widespread attention in the industry.
Recently, Shixian Taibai held the 2024 explosive product promotion conference with the theme of "Chongqing Wine Revitalization and Glory Mountain City", which once again sparked heated discussions in the industry.
Channel Nine learned that the opportunity behind this promotion meeting is the "explosive product creation plan" clearly proposed and supported by Chongqing Municipality. As the only liquor brand selected for Chongqing's Top Ten Explosive Products Creation Plan, Shixian Taibai has continuously improved its brand influence with the help of policy support, production area advantages, and Luzhou Laojiao's empowerment. Its brand renewal and high-profile voice have also given hope to the "revitalization of Chongqing liquor".
01 Good brewing and drinking, but Chongqing wine is seriously lagging behind
Chongqing liquor has a history of more than 3,000 years, and "Ba people are good at brewing, and the county is famous for liquor" has long been famous.
It is located in the 30** winemaking belt at north latitude, which is in the same vein as Sichuan, and has the same long history of winemaking. In particular, Baisha Town, Jiangjin District, Chongqing, is adjacent to Luzhou in the west and Xishui and Moutai in Guizhou in the south.
Relevant data show that before the 60s of the last century, Sichuan fragrant liquor accounted for more than 80% of the total output of liquor in the region, so much that it even needed to be coordinated by the Ministry of Commerce throughout the country. In the 90s, the annual output could still reach 20-300,000 tons, accounting for one-third of the regional liquor production in the same period.
Since the reform and opening up, Chongqing liquor has also had infinite scenery. Especially in the more than ten years since the beginning of Chongqing in 1997, it was the first period of Chongqing's liquor development. In 2009, "Jinjiangjin" liquor won the honor of "Representative of Chinese Baijiu Xiaoqu Flavor Type", and Chongqing became the largest production and sales center of Xiaoqu Qingxiang Liquor in China.
It can be seen that Chongqing not only has a long history of liquor, but also has given birth to a highly influential liquor brand.
What's more, Chongqing people are also very good at drinking, and the alcohol consumption market is broad. According to relevant survey data, the Chongqing market has an annual share of 50 billion yuan of alcohol consumption, of which liquor consumption accounts for a large share, with a scale of about 26 billion yuan.
However, in the last round of adjustment period of liquor, the overall decline of Chongqing liquor was obvious. So far, in addition to Jiang Xiaobai's occupation of some low-end small-bottle liquor markets in Chongqing's local liquor, Jinjiangjin and Yubei Laojiao have only adhered to some districts and counties such as Jiangjin and Yubei; And Revlon, Dinu, Junshen, Shi Song and other Chongqing liquor brands have long disappeared.
In addition, the strong market capacity and open and inclusive attitude have allowed foreign liquor brands to continue to attack the Chongqing market. According to Zhao Junhui, a member of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the share of Chongqing liquor in the city's 50 billion alcohol consumption market is less than 10%. Sichuan Luzhou Laojiao accounted for 30, Wuliangye accounted for 10, Kweichow Moutai accounted for 20, and other foreign liquor brands accounted for more than 10.
Some industry analysts believe that the small market share, small enterprise scale, small brand marketing power, loss of the local market, and obstruction of the national road are important reasons for the decline in the development of Chongqing liquor.
02 **Policy support to help the revitalization of Chongqing liquor
In recent years, the liquor industry has entered a period of structural adjustment, accelerated reshuffle, and high-quality growth. In this context, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi and other countries have shouted the slogan of revitalization with the support of the first, and Chongqing has also made the "revitalization of Chongqing wine" full of possibilities because of its unique winemaking history and location advantages.
As early as 2021, the "Outline of the Construction Plan for the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle" proposed to "support Zigong, Luzhou, Neijiang, Yibin, Jiangjin, Yongchuan, Rongchang and other cities to jointly build a pilot zone for the integrated development of southern Sichuan and Chongqing".
In March 2023, Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality jointly issued the "Overall Plan for Promoting the Integrated Development of Southern Sichuan and Western Chongqing" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), which proposes that southern Sichuan and Chongqing will cultivate advantageous industrial clusters with international influence. Focusing on the liquor industry, the two places will give full play to the unique advantages of the country's only "strong fragrance, sauce aroma, and fragrance" liquor production area, support the upgrading and linkage development of liquor industrial parks in Yibin, Luzhou, Jiangjin and other places, build a leading liquor production base and intelligent brewing base in the country, drive the development of raw grain planting, design and packaging, base liquor brewing and other industries in Zigong, Rongchang and other places, cultivate a number of high-quality liquor industry clusters, and improve the development level of the whole liquor industry chain.
At the "2023 Joint Meeting on Promoting the Construction of the South-Chongqing-West Integrated Development Pilot Zone" held in October 2023, it was proposed that the three well-known liquor brands of Luzhou Laojiao, Yibin Wuliangye and Jiangjinjiang Xiaobai will give full play to the unique advantages of the only "strong fragrance, sauce fragrance and light fragrance" liquor production area in the country, and accelerate the cultivation of food and beverage advantageous industrial clusters.
At the joint meeting, it was clear that the liquor industrial parks in Yibin, Luzhou, Jiangjin and other places will be upgraded and developed in tandem, give full play to the role of leading liquor enterprises, and drive the in-depth cooperation of the whole industrial chain such as regional liquor special grain planting, production area construction, ecological cave storage, technological innovation, brand building, market expansion, and wine and tourism integration.
At the same time, the "Ten Policies for Supporting the High-quality Development of Food and Agricultural Products Processing Industry in Chongqing" issued in 2023 also clearly stated that it will support the implementation of the "Explosive Product Creation Plan", and take the "Explosive Product Creation Plan" as the key link to carry out centralized brand publicity and promotion activities, strengthen Chongqing's industrial leader, play a good role in Chongqing's golden signboard, aim at the market side and make efforts on the supply side, optimize the ecology of the whole industry, and promote the high-quality development of the food and agricultural product processing industry.
It can be seen that since last year, the support for the "revitalization of Chongqing liquor" has been significantly enhanced, and the introduction and support of a series of policies and documents are gathering strength for the Chongqing liquor brand, promoting it to further enhance its influence, and expanding the scale and strength of the liquor industry.
03 The company takes active actions to lead the revitalization of Yujiu
The revitalization of Chongqing liquor is inseparable from the influence and drive of leading enterprises.
The representative brand of the new generation of "Chongqing liquor" is Jiang Xiaobai. Jiang Xiaobai, who founded the brand in 2011, has gone through more than ten years. At present, Jiang Xiaobai has two brands, "Jiang Xiaobai + Meijian", "Jiang Xiaobai" broadens the liquor track with sorghum wine, and "Meijian" uses green plum wine to meet the dining scene of Chinese people, both of which have become the head brands in the two tracks of traditional liquor and new liquor.
In October 2021, Chongqing Jiangjin District issued the "14th Five-Year Development Plan for Consumer Goods Industry", which also clearly proposed to make use of the birthplace and standard-setting advantages of Jiangjin fragrant liquor, with the goal of "Chongqing liquor revitalization" and Jiang Xiaobai as the leader, actively develop the Jiangjin liquor industry, build Chongqing liquor city, and build Baisha into an advantageous production area of China's fragrant liquor.
After a year, in October 2022, Jiangjin District signed a contract with Jiangxiaobai Liquor Co., Ltd., proposing the strategy of "upgrading fragrant natural liquor and targeting 10 billion new famous liquor", relying on the good natural ecological conditions of Jiangjin area, through the reorganization of capital, talents, innovation and other factors, to drive the leapfrog development of Jiangjin liquor sector, boost the enterprise to become stronger and bigger, and boost the revitalization of Chongqing liquor.
As the representative brands of "old" Chongqing liquor, Shixian Taibai and Jiangjin Distillery have achieved an annual output value of more than 1 billion yuan, and have a deep brand foundation and market foundation.
In 2017, on the occasion of the centenary of the establishment of Shixian Taibai, at the invitation of Chongqing City, Luzhou Laojiao participated in the strategic reorganization of Shixian Taibai.
In 2023, Luzhou City and Wanzhou District signed a strategic cooperation, and in July, they carried out the "Transporting Bad Stuff into Ten Thousand Homes" to help Shixian Taibai comprehensively improve quality and efficiency with the intangible cultural heritage brewing technology and product quality supervision system. In September, Shixian Taibai held a brand renewal and new product launch conference, with the support of Chongqing City, a new product matrix, the cultural heritage of Li Bai's poetry, and the empowerment of Luzhou Laojiao, so that it started a magnificent third entrepreneurial journey.
It can be seen from this that Shixian Taibai has formulated a ten-year quality revitalization plan, based on the three varieties to consolidate the quality, reshape the product matrix, dig deep into the cultural connotation and expression, and aim to create a new image of Chongqing's high-end liquor business card and contribute to the revitalization of Chongqing liquor.
Another representative brand, Jiangjin Distillery, has achieved good market performance in recent years while improving quality and adjusting structure, doing a thorough job in subdivided fields and accurately positioning people. Nine Channel visited and found that Jiangjin Laobaigan, a product of Jiangjin Distillery, is very popular in many cities in Sichuan, covering many supermarkets of all sizes, and is very popular.
According to the analysis of people in the wine industry, although the first and the brand of Chongqing liquor have begun to act and release a certain amount of voice, compared with the adjacent Guizhou, Sichuan and other production areas, the revitalization of Chongqing liquor still has a long, long way to go.
04 Multiple forces gather momentum and energy, and the revitalization of Chongqing wine has a new solution
Although the revitalization of Chongqing liquor is difficult and long, the advantages of large market, large sales, deep culture and potential make Chongqing liquor worthy of more expectations.
In the view of Channel 9, the advantages of fragrance, brand history, first-class support, and capital blessing have all added more certainty to the revitalization of Yujiu.
First of all, the fragrant liquor market is heating up, and Xiaoqu Qingxiang is ushering in development. According to the "Guiding Opinions on the Development of China's Liquor Industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan" period, the market size of fragrant liquor will exceed 2 million kiloliters and 130 billion yuan, and the proportion of the industry will increase from 15% to more than 20%.
When Channel Nine did market research last year, it was learned that whether it is in the northern market or the southern market, fragrant liquor has shown a stronger and stronger development momentum. Jiang Xiaobai and Jiangjin Laobaigan, the representative brands of Xiaoqu Qingxiang, have occupied the two core channels of catering and supermarkets, and Jiang Xiaobai's brand promotion and products can also be seen everywhere in major cities in Sichuan and Chongqing.
Secondly, the industry and enterprises should form an agglomeration effect and make suggestions for Yujiu. At present, the market competition in China's liquor industry has been upgraded to a comprehensive competition integrating policies, production areas, brands, and quality. The revitalization and growth of Chongqing Liquor requires the concerted efforts of the first industry, the association and the enterprise itself.
In recent years, with the comprehensive construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle and the International Consumption Center City, the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle has put on the agenda to jointly build a famous wine production area, providing more experience and potential energy for accelerating the "revitalization of Chongqing wine".
* Support in terms of funds, talents, investment promotion, etc.; Guidance of industry associations in the planning and guidance of production areas, standards and specifications; As well as the leadership of the leading enterprises in the production area, etc., will form a convergence effect and help Yujiu to become bigger and stronger.
In the context of the industry entering a period of deep adjustment, Yujiu may need to pay more time and energy, but for Yujiu, it is not a good opportunity to "overtake in the corner". With the support of Chongqing's first class, funds, talents, etc., and the implementation of a series of measures such as quality improvement, brand revival, market expansion, and industrial integration, the revitalization of Chongqing liquor is worthy of the industry's expectations.
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