--- title: "How Meijian Moved From Niche Plum Wine to Scaled Growth" description: "Meijian built scale through category focus, restaurant occasions, product standards, agricultural and production investment, disciplined expansion, and growth measured by repeat demand rather than channel inventory." author: "New Distribution" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2024-03-15" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/meijian-scaled-growth-low-alcohol/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/meijian-scaled-growth-low-alcohol.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/smrkn5-iVCOY4208DwPE6g" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E7%8E%B0%E5%9C%BA%E7%9B%B4%E5%87%BB%E4%B8%A8%E9%85%92%E4%B8%9A%E6%96%B0%E8%B6%8B%E5%8A%BF-%E6%A2%85%E8%A7%81%E5%B7%B2%E8%BF%9B%E5%85%A5%E8%A7%84%E6%A8%A1%E5%8C%96%E5%A2%9E%E9%95%BF%E7%9A%84%E6%96%B0%E9%98%B6%E6%AE%B5-17977bce.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/meijian-scaled-growth-low-alcohol/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # How Meijian Moved From Niche Plum Wine to Scaled Growth > Meijian built scale through category focus, restaurant occasions, product standards, agricultural and production investment, disciplined expansion, and growth measured by repeat demand rather than channel inventory. China's alcohol market was contracting when Meijian plum wine entered a new stage of growth. The wider category struggled with declining production, inventory, weak sell-through, and inverted prices, while lower-alcohol fruit wine, craft beer, and whisky attracted new consumers. Meijian reported overall sales growth of 39% in January and February 2024 and e-commerce growth of 48.6%. Chengdu became its first city with more than RMB 100 million in annual sales. The brand's estimated 2023 share of fruit wine across JD, Tmall, and Pinduoduo reached 22.8%. The important question is how a niche product begins to scale without losing the economics and consumer demand that made it distinctive. ## Compete in a New Demand Space Meijian did not try to win by copying the largest traditional alcohol brands. It focused on consumers seeking more diverse drinking choices and on fruit wine as one of the emerging directions alongside craft beer and whisky. The strategic principle was to understand the consumer at the end of the channel: the customer of the retailer who is the customer of the distributor. This shifts product development from what the manufacturer can make toward why, where, and with whom a person wants to drink. ## Scale the Occasion Before the Outlet Count Meijian's strongest offline development came through dining. In Chengdu, thousands of restaurants became product-discovery and consumption points during the spring trade-fair period. The brand focused on pairing chilled plum wine with spicy food and on family-banquet occasions. It also collaborated with restaurant brands on flavor, culture, and meal experience. During Spring Festival, Meijian reported double-digit sequential growth at Yonghui, with the fastest large-pack format up 177% and average national store sales of 23.6 units. The lesson is that an outlet becomes productive when a clear occasion activates it. Distribution count without occasion-level demand creates inventory rather than scale. ## Distinguish Endogenous and Extensional Growth Meijian described endogenous effective growth as expansion in product liking, scenario fit, repeat users, and consumer willingness to buy. Extensional growth included adding a controlled number of capable distributors and an appropriate number of productive outlets. The sequence matters. Consumer demand and model-market productivity should justify channel expansion. Expansion should not be used to conceal weak sell-through in existing markets. ## Product Standards Create Long-Term Value Meijian developed a whole-fruit brewing method, upgraded core products, and introduced variants using osmanthus and green mandarin flavors. It also established an age-statement system for plum wine, drawing inspiration from whisky regulation, and built a large cellar of aged plum wine in ceramic vessels. Standards can improve trust when they define verifiable product differences. They also create a shared language for the category, making premiumization more disciplined than simply adding luxury packaging. ## Scale Requires Investment Before the Launch Consumer awareness began around 2019, but the company said its new-alcohol research started in 2014. The team examined more than two hundred towns, tested nearly two hundred plum varieties, and ran 1,700 flavor experiments before selecting ten varieties for brewing. Meijian established growing bases in Guangdong, Fujian, Sichuan, and Yunnan and built a large modern plum-wine facility in Chongqing. The history shows why apparently rapid category growth can rest on years of agricultural, technical, and production work. ## Growth Is a Multi-Party Operating System Meijian connected farmers, researchers, brewers, brand teams, distributors, restaurants, and consumers. Its operating discipline can be summarized as product commitment, long-term investment, and basic capabilities. The brand aimed to do fewer actions that were genuinely effective, even when they were difficult. Scaled growth becomes durable when the product improves, consumers return, outlets remain productive, distributors earn, supply stays consistent, and the category standard becomes clearer. The direction may be visible from a distance. The work still happens close to the ground. --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671