Falling below 450 yuan? Langjiu takes the initiative to adjust prices, actually building momentum for long-term growth

Listing | Zhongfang Network

Review | Li Xiaoyan

As the Baijiu industry enters a critical stage of stock competition and faces pressure in the sub-premium segment, every strategic adjustment by leading liquor companies attracts industry attention. Recently, Langjiu held a national distributor conference in Chengdu, officially announcing the optimization of the Honghua Lang·15 pricing system and the implementation of marketing organization reforms. This proactive approach aims to solve market difficulties and solidify development foundations through win-win cooperation between manufacturers and distributors. This adjustment is not a passive response to market fluctuations but a forward-looking strategic deployment based on long-term planning. It is a key move to restore channel ecology, strengthen product competitiveness, and achieve annual targets, demonstrating the confidence and wisdom of top-tier liquor companies to navigate cycles.

Currently, the Baijiu industry exhibits a “dumbbell-shaped” competitive pattern, with the ultra-premium and mass segments performing steadily. The 300-800 yuan sub-premium segment has become the most fiercely competitive “red ocean” market, where price inversion and high channel inventory are common industry issues. As a core product in Langjiu’s sub-premium range, Honghua Lang·15 occupies key consumption scenarios such as banquets, business, and gifts, serving as a crucial link connecting mass and high-end consumers. Facing unbalanced online and offline pricing and squeezed channel profits, Langjiu decisively adjusted the Honghua Lang·15 pricing system, lowering ex-factory price from 489 yuan to 439 yuan, while simultaneously optimizing the suggested retail price to 599 yuan. This pragmatic pricing aligns with consumer trends and stabilizes market expectations through transparent pricing.

Unlike some industry players’ passive price cuts, Langjiu’s price adjustment focuses on “protecting channel interests, maintaining brand value, and activating consumer demand.” It also introduced a policy to compensate distributors with 50 yuan per bottle for inventory adjustments, fully covering the costs of inventory price changes, thereby eliminating distributor concerns. This “manufacturer bears the cost, channels maintain profits, and consumers benefit” model not only restores the product pricing system and resolves online-offline price inversion but also strengthens the community of shared interests between manufacturers and distributors. In a challenging industry environment, Langjiu’s proactive channel concessions demonstrate responsibility toward partners and convey confidence in long-term market development.

Behind the price adjustment lies Langjiu’s precise product matrix positioning and strategic cultivation. Honghua Lang·15, as a benchmark sub-premium product, inherits the high-end value of Qinghua Lang and connects to the mass market of Honghua Lang·10, forming a clear, synergistic product hierarchy. The price optimization further enhances Honghua Lang·15’s value for money, accurately matching the quality demands of the emerging middle class and the scale needs of banquet scenarios. Data shows that by 2025, Honghua Lang banquet sales will increase by 73% year-on-year, becoming a core engine for market growth. Post-price adjustment, product competitiveness continues to improve, with prospects of further capturing market share in the sub-premium segment and consolidating Langjiu’s leading position in the sauce-flavor track.

If price adjustment is a tactical move to respond to market changes, then marketing organization reform is the strategic cornerstone for Langjiu’s long-term development. In February, Langjiu officially launched a restructuring of its marketing system, abolishing the original departmental setup and establishing five sales companies: Qinghua Lang, Honghua Lang, Longma Lang, E-commerce KA, and International Business, overseeing ten sales regions. This new model, “5 sales companies + 10 regions,” was fully operational by early March, with a revamped management team. It adopts a professional, refined, and flat organizational structure to break down barriers between brand operation and market execution.

This organizational reform breaks traditional hierarchical barriers, achieving an organic combination of brand specialization and regional deep cultivation. Qinghua Lang focuses on high-end business and collectible scenarios, maintaining a high brand value; Honghua Lang targets sub-premium banquet and mass consumption markets, creating a scale growth engine; Longma Lang, E-commerce KA, and International Business cover niche markets, online channels, and overseas expansion respectively, forming a comprehensive marketing network across categories, channels, and scenarios. The ten sales regions are precisely divided into core and potential markets, with seven major provinces and cities—Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan—operating independently, while Hebei, Tianjin, Anhui, Zhejiang, and others collaborate to optimize resource allocation and market penetration, significantly improving marketing efficiency and responsiveness.

The dual drive of organizational innovation and price adjustment injects strong momentum into Langjiu’s 2026 development. Looking back at 2025, amid industry adjustments, Langjiu met its annual production and operation goals on schedule, with distributor shipments slightly increasing year-on-year, delivering a remarkable counter-cyclical growth. The number of merchants increased by over 800, with nearly 100,000 new terminal stores added, total bottle openings grew by 18%, and Langjiu Manor members increased by 44%, all reflecting comprehensive enhancement of product strength, brand influence, and channel capabilities. In terms of capacity, annual production of sauce-flavor liquor reached 70,000-80,000 tons, with storage exceeding 300,000 tons for both sauce and mixed-flavor spirits, laying a solid foundation for long-term development.

Looking ahead to 2026, industry competition will intensify, but Langjiu’s growth logic remains clear and confident. As a key milestone of the “351” project, 2025 achieved the phased goal of over 30 billion yuan in sales revenue, with Qinghua Lang and Honghua Lang entering the billion-yuan flagship level. The price optimization and organizational reform of Honghua Lang·15 are strategic moves to support Langjiu’s long-term ambitions. In the future, Langjiu will continue to focus on the “quality, brand, and taste” strategy, driven by both sauce-flavor and mixed-flavor spirits, leveraging its robust capacity of 500,000 tons of sauce-flavor spirits and nearly 200,000 tons of mixed-flavor spirits to steadily reach annual sales targets of 70 to 100 billion yuan.

From an industry perspective, Langjiu’s proactive adjustments offer valuable lessons for the transformation of the Baijiu sector. Under the trends of rationalized consumption and market consolidation, leading companies must abandon extensive growth models, return to core product, channel, and consumer fundamentals to seize opportunities in a stock-based competition. Langjiu’s price adjustments restore channel ecology, organizational reforms improve operational efficiency, and product quality solidifies brand foundation—charting a path of “steady operation, squeezed growth, and win-win cooperation.” Its strategic resilience—embracing change proactively rather than passively reacting—becomes the core competitive advantage for top-tier companies to navigate cycles.

Market adjustments are both challenges and opportunities for reshuffling and strengthening industry leaders. Langjiu’s Honghua Lang·15 price system optimization restores value to sub-premium products; organizational reforms improve market operation efficiency; and binding interests with channels ensures a healthier, more stable ecosystem. With the new pricing system implemented and the new marketing system in place, Langjiu will further consolidate its market position, activate consumer potential, and achieve high-quality growth in the 2026 industry competition.

Standing at a new development starting point, Langjiu is actively responding to industry changes with strategic confidence. From deepening product quality to upgrading branding, from optimizing channels to organizational reforms, Langjiu remains committed to its original craft of brewing fine liquor and pursuing win-win cooperation with partners. With clear strategic guidance, strong quality support, and a stable channel ecosystem, Langjiu is poised to transcend cycles, grow against the trend, and continue writing a new chapter in China’s Baijiu industry, contributing to the revitalization of Sichuan liquor and the high-quality development of China’s Baijiu sector.