Anhui Golden Seed Winery Co., Ltd. (Golden Seed Wine), a subsidiary of Anhui Golden Seed Group, one of the “Four Golden Flowers” in the Anhui liquor industry, announced on January 12 that it expects a negative net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company for the fiscal year 2025. This indicates that even after three years of China Resources (Group) Co., Ltd., a central state-owned enterprise, taking over Golden Seed Wine, the company has still not been able to turn around its loss-making situation.
In the “Provisional Announcement of Expected Losses for the Year 2025” released on the 12th, Golden Seed Wine stated: “The financial department’s preliminary estimate forecasts a negative net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company for the year 2025, with operating performance showing a loss for the year.”
According to a report by Shanghai Newspaper Group’s “Blue Whale News” on January 12, the company has been incurring losses since 2021. In 2021, the company’s net profit attributable to the parent company was a loss of 166 million yuan, followed by losses of 187 million yuan in 2022, 22.0696 million yuan in 2023, and 258 million yuan in 2024. By the third quarter of 2025, the accumulated losses had reached 100 million yuan. Over the past five years, Golden Seed Wine is expected to have accumulated total losses exceeding 700 million yuan.
To reverse the trend of losses, in 2022, China Resources Co., Ltd.’s subsidiary, CR Investment and Asset Management Co., Ltd., acquired a 49% stake in Golden Seed Group, becoming the second largest shareholder of Golden Seed Group. At the time, there were high expectations in the market for China Resources’ takeover of Golden Seed Wine, but the operational results so far have not met expectations.
According to a report by Sina Finance on January 12, in 2024, the revenue from Golden Seed Wine’s liquor business plummeted by 24.33% to 744 million yuan, returning to the level of 2021. By the third quarter of 2025, liquor revenue further dropped to 512 million yuan. The performance of its core high-end product, Fuhexiang series, has been bleak.
Furthermore, the company’s profitability has been deteriorating. In 2024, the gross profit margin of Golden Seed Wine’s liquor business dropped by 10.44 percentage points to 38.4%, with significant declines in the gross profit margins of high-end and mid-range liquors by 18.58 and 20.91 percentage points, respectively. Although the gross profit margin rebounded to 43.26% by the third quarter of 2025, it is still far below the industry average. Meanwhile, the sales expense ratio increased to 31.84%, combined with a 12.47% management expense ratio, totaling a 44.31% expense ratio, exceeding the 34.94% comprehensive gross profit margin. This has set off a vicious cycle of “more losses, more investment; more investment, more losses”.
An industry insider told “Blue Whale News” that the current development dilemma faced by Golden Seed Wine reflects the common challenges encountered by regional liquor enterprises. From the perspective of the industry’s overall environment, the competition in the liquor market has been intensifying in recent years, with the squeeze effect becoming more pronounced. The survival space for regional liquor companies is being continuously squeezed, leading to increasing operational pressures.
Meanwhile, leading Chinese liquor company, Kweichow Moutai, also lowered the prices of several of its liquors at the end of last month to cope with the sluggish market.
According to reports from Hongxing News, “First Financial” and other media on January 12, Kweichow Moutai reduced the wholesale contract prices of several products, with some products seeing reductions of over a thousand yuan. For example, the price of aged Kweichow Moutai liquor was lowered from 5,399 yuan per bottle to 3,409 yuan, a reduction of 1,990 yuan; Boutique Moutai decreased from 2,969 yuan per bottle to 1,859 yuan, a reduction of 1,110 yuan; Moutai 1935 was adjusted from 798 yuan per bottle to 668 yuan, a decrease of 130 yuan. Some distributors said that after the official price reduction, the selling price decreased by an average of about 200 yuan.
Alcohol industry commentator Xiao Zhuqing noted that Moutai’s marketing transformation this time aims to win back consumers. Moutai Group Chairman Chen Hua also stated, “Moutai liquor agents can still make money, but the era of huge profits is gone.”
However, some liquor merchants are unhappy with Moutai’s official price adjustments. One liquor dealer told “First Financial” that the cost of the boutique Moutai they previously purchased was higher than 2,299 yuan per bottle, and with Moutai’s official price reduction, they are facing potential losses. The demand for Moutai in daily liquor business operations has become uncertain due to the future pricing policies within the industry.
Anhui Golden Seed Winery Co., Ltd. is a listed company under Anhui Golden Seed Group, a state-owned large enterprise group with state-owned investment entities and authorized operating qualifications. It was established on July 23, 1998, and is headquartered in Fuyang City, Anhui Province, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1998.