On November 10, 2026, Kweichow Moutai Co., Ltd. (600519.SH) held its third-quarter results briefing. Director Wang Li, who is performing the duties of general manager, said the industry is still in a deep adjustment, consumer demand is weak, and fewer consumption occasions have not fundamentally changed. Both Kweichow Moutai liquor and Moutai sauce-aroma liquor face challenges from the market, she said.
Wang said the aim of market-oriented reform is to build, on top of supply-side balance, a system in which supply matches demand, volume and price are balanced, and the market is orderly and stable. She said the company cannot chase indicators alone or exhaust the market, and that this will be the main direction of its next stage of market work.
Moutai began a consumer-centered, demand-driven market reform at the start of 2026. Wang said the markets for Moutai liquor and Moutai sauce-aroma liquor now show product supply that fits demand, stable prices and healthy channel inventories. She said the earlier reform has had some effect and met the company’s expectations, while the market still needs to be viewed objectively.
Results and a longer view
In the first three quarters, total revenue rose and net profit edged lower. In the third quarter, both revenue and net profit grew. The results exceeded the expectations of some institutions during the industry downturn.
Asked whether that meant results had already bottomed, the company would be first to move through the cycle, and fourth-quarter and full-year results would turn positive, Wang said shareholders and investors should look at Moutai over a longer period. If operations stay healthy and market fundamentals remain solid, the company can move through the cycle and achieve high-quality, sustainable development, she said.
Contract liabilities and margin
Contract liabilities were 2.084 billion yuan at the end of the third quarter, down from 8.007 billion yuan at the end of last year, a drop of about 74%. For liquor companies, contract liabilities have often been treated as a reservoir of future performance and a sign of dealers’ willingness to pay in advance.
Wang said the traditional industry practice of pushing goods onto channels through advance payments no longer fits deep changes among consumers. As market-oriented operations advance, the size of advance receipts is no longer the main indicator of supply and demand.
She said that in 2026 the company has focused on consumers and demand, and has moved away from stuffing channels so that supply can track demand. Self-operated channels reach consumers more directly, and some products in social channels use a consignment model in which ownership does not transfer. Neither arrangement creates advance receipts. The company also places products with social channels according to sell-through and inventory in each region and at each distributor, and arranges payment only before that placement, in order to keep channels healthy.
Gross margin in the first three quarters was 89.58%, down 1.71 percentage points from a year earlier. Wang said sales volume rose from January to September 2026, so operating costs rose, while the combined price per ton across the product range moved back toward real consumption demand and revenue per ton fell. Costs therefore grew faster than revenue, and the gross margin was slightly lower. She said the profit ratio relative to costs and expenses remained in a reasonable range compared with the past 10 years.
Liquor and series strategy
Wang said that, with the liquor industry in a deep adjustment and demand weak, the company carried out a market shift oriented fully toward consumers. Sales of Kweichow Moutai liquor were steady and orderly, the sauce-aroma market was basically stable, and supply, prices and channel conditions were generally sound.
In the first three quarters, Moutai liquor revenue was 112.925 billion yuan, up 2.18% year on year. Series-liquor revenue was 17.969 billion yuan, up 0.48%.
On the small rise in series liquor, Wang said the company advanced the market reform of Moutai sauce-aroma liquor from January to September 2026. It dropped the old model of growing by stuffing channels and instead set placements according to sell-through, focusing on better allocation, inventory control, stable prices, stronger sell-through and more efficient spending. It used the dual-holiday sales window, and performance showed stable prices with higher volume, she said.
Wang said both Moutai liquor and sauce-aroma liquor still face market tests. For Moutai liquor, earlier reforms focused more on supply, while this round focuses on the market. Volume-price balance and a steady market are important tests of whether operations are healthy, and placements must still protect supply-side balance and traditional production methods.
For sauce-aroma liquor, the third quarter caught the dual-holiday sell-through opportunity. Channel inventory was healthy, terminal sell-through was relatively good, and third-quarter revenue rose substantially from a year earlier. Wang said the team’s effort deserved recognition, but product strength, brand strength and the market base still need to improve, as does finer, sell-through-driven operation. Market stability and volume-price balance will be the main reference points.
Since the listing in 2001, Moutai sauce-aroma liquor has recorded cumulative revenue of more than 160 billion yuan, and its share of the listed company’s revenue has risen from 3.54% to 13.72%. It has developed separate brands, including Moutai 1935 and Moutai Prince, with some influence in the sub-premium and mid-to-high-end markets. Wang said it will continue to build on a broader base of sauce-aroma consumers, develop more consumption settings, deepen identification with the Kweichow Moutai brand and strengthen the company’s longer-term foundation.
On base-liquor capacity, Wang said the 2027 xiasha production round for Kweichow Moutai liquor — the initial production stage — has ended. After an earlier overall assessment, the company did not add new Moutai base-liquor capacity.
iMoutai, channels and scarcity
In the first three quarters, the digital platform iMoutai contributed 58.562 billion yuan of revenue, an increase of 3.61 times from a year earlier, and more than 40% of company revenue.
An investor asked whether the move from channel push to consumer pull meant Moutai had in substance recovered terminal pricing power, and how it would balance direct sales with traditional distributors over the long term.
Wang said this round of reform focuses on the market, with volume-price balance and market stability as important tests of healthy operations. Channel coordination will be a focus. First, while keeping the channel system and business model stable, the company will improve how it authorizes and works with social channel partners across sales, promotion, brand communication and service. Second, iMoutai will keep focusing on consumers’ demands for fairness, authenticity and convenience, and will gradually move from the current rush-purchase model to everyday selling that meets demand. Third, self-operated stores will keep broadening their target customers and open sales to the public to meet real demand.
Wang said iMoutai has basically put the full ranges of Kweichow Moutai liquor and Moutai sauce-aroma liquor online. Next, it will first shift from rush buying to everyday sales; second, serve as the launch platform for new products; and third, be developed as a service platform that works with offline stores and other service outlets.
Asked about the view that Moutai is no longer scarce because consumers can buy it on iMoutai, at self-operated stores and at specialty stores, Wang said its scarcity comes from the long-running combination of a unique natural ecology, micro-ecology and human ecology that cannot be copied.
She said that in the past, layers of insulation on the supply side left consumers unwilling to buy, unable to buy, or able to buy only at a premium. In essence, supply did not match demand and did not reach real consumers, while blocked distribution and speculation made buying extremely inconvenient. The notion that specialty stores had no liquor became a widely shared view. Treating the inability to buy — created by hoarding, speculation and a speculative premium in circulation — as scarcity misunderstands Moutai’s scarcity, she said.
Overseas sales, dividend and cash flow
Revenue from markets outside China was 1.641 billion yuan in the first three quarters, down 57.85% year on year. Wang said overseas markets in 2026 faced the same weak demand as elsewhere, and also a poor fit between channels and demand, differences in culture and taste, regulation and logistics costs. International business was under considerable pressure.
She said the company is respecting actual market conditions and continuing its international shift. It has eased pressure on channels and adjusted the pace of supply, and it has continued to deal with liquor flowing back from overseas, tightening channel control and enforcement against violations so exports do not disturb the domestic market. Those steps had some effect on international revenue in the period. The company will take a long-term approach, improve overseas channels and the market environment, and strengthen the base for international development.
On the interim dividend, chief financial officer and board secretary Yu Siming said that under the company’s cash-dividend return plan for 2024–2026, the annual cash dividend is paid twice, as a full-year dividend and an interim dividend. The board is preparing the 2026 interim profit-distribution plan under authorization from the shareholders’ meeting and will complete that interim distribution within 2026, as the plan commits. The specific distribution and timing will be set out in later company announcements.
The third-quarter report showed net cash flow from operating activities of 84.059 billion yuan from the beginning of the year to the end of the reporting period, up 120.07% year on year. Yu said this was mainly because the finance company took in more deposits from group member units in the first three quarters of 2026, and because interbank deposits that were not available for withdrawal at any time matured and were recovered. Net operating cash flow from the liquor business was broadly in line with the core business and rose slightly year on year.
According to Dazhihui VIP, Kweichow Moutai closed at 1,439 yuan a share on November 10, down 0.41%, with a market capitalization of 1.8 trillion yuan.
Original article: The Paper
