Gu井 Tribute Wine is too strong, Yingjia and Kouzi Cave can no longer catch up.

Questioning AI · How does Yingjia Tribute Liquor respond to growth pressures after changing its general manager?

In Anhui’s liquor industry, a silent undercurrent is brewing.

Last week, Yingjia Tribute Liquor replaced its general manager. Under the backdrop of industry adjustments, the pressure to grow has become more tangible. At the same time, after losing the trademark dispute over “Dongzang,” Yingjia has recently started to shift its main products in the market, fundamentally amplifying the brand’s crisis awareness.

Anhui is not a top-tier liquor production area, and its consumption capacity is not outstanding, yet it is one of the most successful regions in liquor industry operations, with four listed liquor companies, tying for first place with Sichuan.

Local liquor brands “One Super, Two Strongs” face collective encirclement by national brands. The competitive pressure in Anhui’s liquor market is evident.

In this unique market environment, Gujinggong Liquor, which broke through with its vintage raw pulp series, was born. Yingjia Tribute Liquor also followed a strategic path, leveraging its Dongzang series to surpass Kouzi Jiao, ranking second within the province.

Gujinggong Liquor, with a scale of over 20 billion yuan, owns three major brands: Gujing, Huanghelou, and Mingguang. It continues to explore multi-brand, youth-oriented, and traffic-driven operations. Meanwhile, Yingjia Tribute Liquor and Kouzi Jiao are temporarily caught in their own difficulties.

It is foreseeable that in the Anhui liquor market, the gap between the top and the two strong brands will only widen. In the stock-liquor market, the smaller brands behind them will have less and less room to break through.

Yingjia Tribute Liquor at a Critical Moment

Last week, Anhui-listed liquor company Yingjia Tribute Liquor (603198.SH) experienced a major personnel shake-up, with General Manager Qin Hai resigning.

Qin Hai is a veteran of Yingjia Tribute Liquor. Starting as a workshop worker and director at Foziling Distillery, he later joined the management team alongside Ni Yongpei. Since 2014, he has served as a director, and from September 2023, he has been the general manager, with a term scheduled until September 2026.

He was succeeded by another veteran, Yang Zhaobing. The announcement shows that Yang was also a worker at Foziling Distillery, and has long been in the sales system of Yingjia Tribute Liquor. From 2014, he became a director of the company, and from 2020 to 2026, he concurrently serves as general manager of the sales company.

The reason for Qin Hai’s departure from this key position is straightforward: Yingjia Tribute Liquor has failed to meet its performance targets for two years, forcing the company to appoint a CEO with a better understanding of sales.

Previously, Yingjia Tribute Liquor repeatedly set a goal of 10 billion yuan; last May, during the 70th anniversary of its founding and the 10th anniversary of its listing, it announced a target of 15 billion yuan to enter the top tier of national liquor brands. However, based on current progress, not only is the short-term goal of 10 billion unlikely, but it also seems increasingly distant.

Yingjia Tribute Liquor hails from the Dabie Mountains in Huoshan County, Anhui. It was listed in 2015, becoming one of the youngest A-share liquor companies, ranking third among Anhui listed liquor companies at that time.

Yingjia is fortunate. Shortly after going public, it caught the industry’s upcycle. Its older brother, Gujinggong, advanced its high-end strategy through its vintage raw pulp series, achieving value enhancement. Yingjia followed suit, leveraging its Dongzang series to forge its golden era.

From 2020 to 2024, Yingjia’s revenue jumped from 3 billion yuan and less than 1 billion yuan in net profit to over 7 billion yuan in revenue and over 2.5 billion yuan in net profit in 2024. Since 2022, it has surpassed Kouzi Jiao to become the second-largest in Anhui.

Yingjia’s most prominent strength is profitability. In 2024, its gross profit margin reached 77%, and net profit margin exceeded 35%, ranking high in the liquor sector, surpassing its older brother Gujinggong.

However, in recent years, the momentum of Yingjia’s Dongzang series has weakened. The disadvantages of weak outside markets have been magnified. Like most listed liquor companies, Yingjia has fallen into a growth bottleneck, even experiencing a decline in performance.

In the first three quarters of 2025, the company’s revenue was 4.516 billion yuan, down 18.09% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to the parent was 1.511 billion yuan, down 24.67% year-on-year.

A more serious hidden crisis is also emerging. Yingjia’s recent focus on the Dongzang series is facing brand and trademark challenges.

In fact, the Dongzang series, like the vintage raw pulp, does not necessarily mean it has been stored in a cave for 10 or 20 years; it is merely a brand name. They rely on brand influence to shape consumer perception and continuously impact purchasing decisions.

Due to a lawsuit filed by Anhui Linshui Yuquan under Jinliufu, in 2024, the State Intellectual Property Office invalidated Yingjia’s “Eco Dongzang” series trademarks. After losing the first and second rounds of administrative litigation, Yingjia, sensing the risk, is now adjusting its brand and product strategy, renaming its main products from “Dongzang” to “Gongjiu,” and changing “Dong6” and “Dong9” to “Gong6” and “Gong9.”

If Yingjia’s continued investment in the “Dongzang” label cannot be used anymore, the company’s risks will go beyond simply changing a CEO.

The Changing Landscape of Anhui Liquor

The core reason for Yingjia’s growth crisis is that the Anhui liquor market, in an era of stock or even shrinking volume, is too fiercely competitive.

Anhui is not a top-tier liquor production area. Its output is less than Sichuan’s, its industry influence far less than Guizhou’s. Although located in the Huang-Huai liquor region, its total output is less than neighboring Hubei. Its market share is about 5%, not ranking in the top five nationwide.

Anhui’s liquor consumption is also not prominent. With a total scale of around 40 billion yuan, it is only a “younger brother” compared to traditional liquor-consuming provinces like Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu, Sichuan, and Guangdong.

However, Anhui’s industry operation is among the best nationwide. The number of listed liquor companies in the province has reached four, on par with Sichuan, with Yingjia Tribute Liquor and Kouzi Jiao both being private enterprises.

Therefore, in this relatively modest market scale, competition is more intense than in most liquor markets.

Like most markets nationwide, Anhui’s high-end liquor market is dominated by top brands like Moutai and Wuliangye. If a local high-end player must be chosen, only Gujinggong’s Gu30 qualifies.

In the increasingly stable and fiercely competitive sub-high-end market of recent years, Gujinggong’s Gu20 leads. National brands like Yanghe’s Menzhilan and Jiannanchun’s Crystal Sword compete fiercely, while local brands Yingjia Tribute Liquor, Kouzi Jiao, and Jinzhi Zi Liquor share the remaining market.

It was in this sub-high-end liquor battle that Yingjia Tribute Liquor, leveraging its Dongzang series, overtook Kouzi Jiao during its strategic lull.

Earlier, Kouzi Jiao was the steady “second brother” in Anhui’s liquor market, with a strong share in the sub-high-end segment, and its profitability once outperformed Gujinggong and Yingjia Tribute Liquor, with net profits once surpassing the “big brother.”

After going public, Kouzi Jiao’s product, channel, and management highlights diminished, while the actual controller was busy reducing holdings and cashing out, giving Yingjia Tribute Liquor an opportunity.

It is even more regrettable that Jinzhi Zi Liquor (600199.SH), which went public earlier and had a larger initial voice, also owns the Fuyang market, the most prominent in Anhui liquor culture. Unfortunately, it missed the best recovery cycle focused on high-endization. Even with recent involvement from China Resources’ mixed-ownership reform, it has been unable to reverse the decline, merely watching the major changes in Anhui’s liquor market.

In this 40-billion-yuan market, local forces form “One Super, Two Strongs”: Gujinggong with over 20 billion yuan in revenue, Yingjia Tribute Liquor and Kouzi Jiao with 5-10 billion yuan each, capturing over half of the market share. The remaining small brands, including Jinzhi Zi, Wengwang Gongjiu under Laobaigan, Xuan Liquor, Wan Liquor, and Linshui Yuquan, can only continue to shrink in the corner, unable to make a move.

Gujinggong’s New Path

Gujinggong is one of China’s “Old Eight Famous Liquors.” Listed in 1996, it is the fourth listed company in the A-share liquor sector, much earlier than Wuliangye and Kweichow Moutai.

When Kouzi Jiao (603589.SH) and Yingjia Tribute Liquor went public in 2015, Gujinggong was in a period of industry adjustment, experiencing a quiet phase.

Through its vintage raw pulp series, it fought high-endization; under immense pressure, it acquired Hubei’s Huanghelou Liquor and used this as a foothold to focus on the Hubei market. These two strategies enabled Gujinggong to rapidly achieve a billion-yuan scale in 2019 and surpass 20 billion yuan by 2023, becoming a “growth king” in the liquor market during those years.

Under the sun, nothing is new. Due to similar reasons as Yingjia Tribute Liquor—market contraction, intensified competition, and declining strategy effectiveness—Gujinggong, once a growth pioneer, has also fallen into its own business bottleneck.

In the first three quarters of 2025, its revenue was 16.425 billion yuan, down 13.87% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to the parent was 3.96 billion yuan, down 16.57%.

In the second half of 2025, it was nearly the coldest period in the past decade for the liquor industry. Fortunately, with inventory optimization and industry clearing, the market is bottoming out. However, everyone knows that after the cycle shifts, the market will not return in the same state.

Strategically, Gujinggong’s most clear direction is to expand Mingguang Liquor, cultivating it as the next Huanghelou. As a result, Mingguang’s exposure across major channels has increased. Many outsiders on social media are curious: What kind of liquor is Mingguang? Is it good?

This year, during the Spring Festival, many people mistook the “Minglvye” on highway billboards for “Milk Green Wave” or “Wang Green Wave,” causing Mingguang to unexpectedly go viral. Gujinggong responded quickly, launching the “Mingguang Three-piece Set,” including Minglvye, to ride this wave of traffic, similar to last year’s viral “Guangde Three-piece Set.”

From misreading to embracing traffic, this also shows Gujinggong’s active effort to appeal to young consumers.

Currently, almost all liquor companies face an ultimate anxiety: what will future consumers, especially today’s young people, do if they do not drink liquor?

Last year, amid the trend of low-alcohol liquor, Gujinggong also launched light versions of its popular vintage raw pulp products, such as Gu20 and Gu8, with alcohol content reduced to 26 degrees and prices lowered accordingly.

Of course, whether it’s expanding Mingguang, low-alcohol and youth-oriented products, or adapting to the era of liquor consumption, these are all attempts by Gujinggong to prepare for future liquor consumption trends. There is still a long way to go before truly becoming a new growth driver.

It is precisely through these beneficial and ongoing efforts that the gap between Gujinggong, Yingjia Tribute Liquor, and Kouzi Jiao is being widened infinitely.