Source | Lingshou
From 10:00 on December 8 to 10:00 on December 9, the 51% stake held by controlling shareholder Henan Qiaohua in Wine Convenience was publicly auctioned on a judicial auction platform.
On December 9, the Alibaba Assets website showed that Henan Qiaohua's 38.3121 million shares of Wine Convenience (51% of total share capital) were auctioned in three lots, with a total transaction price of 68.3996 million yuan, all won by Gongqingcheng Chuangdongfang Huake Equity Investment Partnership (Chuangdongfang Huake).
This company, once the largest alcohol distribution chain in Central China and an industry star, has completely changed hands.
In the past two years, not only Wine Convenience but also several well-known alcohol distribution companies have fallen into difficulties, becoming a microcosm of the industry's deep adjustment.
The golden age of alcohol retail chain enterprises is long gone.
Leading Players Collectively 'Losing Speed'
Open a mobile app, select a bottle of Moutai or Wuliangye, and have it delivered to your doorstep within 20 minutes—this ultimate convenience was once the biggest selling point of new alcohol retail.
Companies like 1919, Wine Convenience, and Jiuxian.com, relying on the 'online ordering + offline instant delivery' model, were once highly anticipated by the capital market, with valuations often reaching billions.
However, when the tide receded, these former star companies are now struggling in the mire.
The story of Wine Convenience is the most dramatic. This company, born in Henan, a major liquor-producing province, grew from annual revenue of less than 100 million yuan to over 1 billion yuan under its founder's management, becoming one of the few liquor chain enterprises in China to cross this threshold. After listing on the New Third Board in 2016, capital such as Everbright Securities, Legend Holdings, and Henan State-owned Capital Fund entered.
But the turning point came unexpectedly. In November 2024, Wine Convenience announced that its actual controller, Yu Zengyun, was under criminal investigation by the Shangcheng Branch of Hangzhou Public Security Bureau on suspicion of fundraising fraud. Over 96% of the shares held by the controlling shareholder were pledged to banks, and all equity was judicially frozen.
In 2024, Wine Convenience achieved operating revenue of 1.679 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.77%; net profit loss of 109 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 468.03%, the largest loss in nearly 10 years. In the first half of 2025, Wine Convenience achieved revenue of 598 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 37.1%; net profit of -62 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 641.51%.
"The actual controller's involvement has brought difficulties in renewing loans from financial institutions, tight cash flow from operating activities, and delayed payment to suppliers," Wine Convenience stated in its annual report. To 'recover', the company had to sell its subsidiary in Zhumadian for about 4 million yuan and shift most of its famous liquor procurement from direct brand purchases to purchases from distributors—because the former requires large advance payments, while the latter offers more flexible payment terms.
According to public information, on December 9, 2025, Henan Qiaohua's 38.3121 million shares of Wine Convenience (51% of total share capital) were won by Chuangdongfang Huake at a transaction price of 68.3996 million yuan.
Wine Convenience's predicament is not an isolated case.
The situation of 1919 is equally lamentable. This company, listed on the New Third Board in 2014, was the first public company in the domestic alcohol distribution industry. At its peak, it had over 2,800 stores. After receiving 2 billion yuan in strategic investment from Alibaba in 2018, it was regarded as a unicorn in new alcohol retail.
However, Alibaba's investment did not change the company's loss trend. From 2016 to 2022, 1919's net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was -86.58 million yuan, -49.97 million yuan, -630 million yuan, -530 million yuan, -277 million yuan, +51.32 million yuan, and -3.65 million yuan, respectively. In seven years, only 2021 was profitable.
By the first half of 2020, Alibaba's 2 billion yuan investment had been fully used—600 million yuan for capital expenditure, 884 million yuan for supplementary working capital, and 509 million yuan for repaying bank loans. The money was spent, but the results were unsatisfactory.
In June 2023, 1919 was officially delisted from the New Third Board, ending its nearly nine-year listing career. Worse, in 2025, a 'Complaint Letter Regarding 1919 Alcohol Direct Supply Seriously Arrears in Online Settlement Funds for Stores Nationwide' circulated in the industry, revealing that the company had been massively defaulting on payments to franchisees nationwide since June 2025. According to multiple media reports, the company has been listed as a person subject to enforcement multiple times, and the franchisee rights protection group has over 400 members.
Huazhi Wine Chain, known as the 'first stock in alcohol distribution', is also having a hard time. This company, listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2019, saw its revenue exceed 10 billion yuan for the first time in 2023, but just a year later, it failed to maintain its position in the '100 billion club'.
In 2024, Huazhi Wine Chain achieved revenue of 9.464 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.49%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 44.4459 million yuan, a sharp year-on-year decrease of 81.11%; non-GAAP net profit was 25.17 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 85.97%. In the fourth quarter, the peak season for alcohol sales, the company actually suffered a loss of 123 million yuan.
"Price inversion of famous liquors, high inventory, and channel pressure are reflected in the financial statements," Huazhi Wine Chain explained in its annual report. In the first half of 2025, the company's revenue further declined to 3.949 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 33.55%; net profit was 56.2055 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 63.75%.
Once-glorious alcohol retail chains are now collectively in a difficult situation.
The Consumer Market Has Completely Changed
The difficulties of alcohol distribution chain enterprises appear to be individual cases of internal governance and capital chain breaks, but beneath the iceberg lies a profound transformation of the entire baijiu consumer market.
"At least 50% of distributors and tobacco and liquor stores will face a life-and-death test, and 80% of small and medium-sized baijiu brands will be eliminated by the market," warned Hao Hongfeng, chairman of Jiuxian Group, in a speech in May this year.
This is not alarmist. According to the '2024 China Baijiu Market Mid-Year Research Report' released by the China Alcoholic Drinks Association, compared with the same period in 2023, in the first half of 2024, over 60% of distributors and terminal retailers reported increased inventory, over 30% faced cash flow pressure, over 40% reported increased price inversion in actual sales prices, and over 50% reported reduced profit margins.
The root of the change lies in the sharp contraction of consumption scenarios.
"Government consumption is restricted, business sales are downgraded and less frequent, ordinary consumers lack confidence, and overall market demand is weak," an industry insider told the author. In the past, the core customers of alcohol distribution chain enterprises were business banquets and government receptions, and high-end and sub-high-end baijiu were the main source of profits. But now, these consumption scenarios are rapidly shrinking.
"In the past, people were willing to pay for brand premiums and marketing packaging, but in the past two years, many 'high-price myths' have been shattered," an alcohol distributor told the author. Consumers have become more rational in their consumption concepts. "In the current environment, it's not that people don't drink, but they are unwilling to waste money."
This shift in consumer psychology has directly impacted the business model of alcohol distribution chain enterprises.
In the past, the core competitiveness of these enterprises lay in 'famous liquor endorsement'—by establishing cooperative relationships with leading brands like Moutai and Wuliangye, they obtained stable supply and channel advantages. However, the problem is that distribution enterprises themselves do not have pricing power and have limited bargaining power. In the 'golden age' when the price system of high-end baijiu was stable, this model could continue to operate; but once the price system loosens, channel merchants become the first to be squeezed.
Take Feitian Moutai as an example: the market price for loose bottles has fallen from a high of nearly 3,000 yuan per bottle to around 2,100 yuan per bottle, with terminal prices down over 20% year-on-year, and channel profit margins have narrowed significantly. Huazhi Wine Chain's inventory write-down provision in 2024 was as high as 60.8373 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of over 110%.
At the same time, the channel strategies of liquor companies are also undergoing fundamental changes.
"Manufacturers' channel sinking and direct sales are the general trend," industry insiders point out. Famous liquor companies are strengthening their direct sales channels. Moutai's 'i Moutai' platform has annual revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan, achieving 10.25 billion yuan in alcohol revenue (excluding tax) in the first half of 2024. In the first half of 2025, 21 listed liquor companies reduced their distributors by 1,701, showing a significant contraction in overall distributor scale.
"Liquor companies' own platforms are often more competitive than vertical alcohol e-commerce," an industry insider said. Distribution enterprises are constrained by the supply and allocation of leading brands and lack core advantages to attract consumers. "When liquor companies begin to 'de-intermediate', the living space for distributors is greatly compressed."
More deadly is the impact of new channels. The instant retail and live-streaming e-commerce businesses of platforms like Meituan, Douyin, and JD.com have risen rapidly, further diverting customers from traditional alcohol chains. Hao Hongfeng revealed that live-streaming sales now account for 30% of Jiuxian Group's total sales.
He even complained in his speech that e-commerce platforms can expand through price subsidies, but they harm liquor companies and merchants, and even make offline distributors 'dead'. But complaints aside, the rationality of a businessman still led him to embrace live-streaming.
However, when traffic is intercepted by platforms and liquor companies begin to 'enter the field themselves', how much space is left for distribution enterprises?
Winter and Transformation Game
If alcohol chain enterprises are the 'aorta' of the industry, then the millions of tobacco and liquor stores scattered across cities and streets are the 'nerve endings' that penetrate every capillary of the channel. And these endings are experiencing an unprecedented winter.
"If it really doesn't work, I'm ready to close the store," said Wang Hua (pseudonym), who has run a tobacco and liquor specialty store in a northern city in Shandong for nearly 16 years, helplessly. "Today's turnover is only 453 yuan, while rent, utilities, and labor costs are 300 yuan."
Wang Hua's experience is not an isolated case. According to research by Changjiang Jiudao, the deep reshuffle in the alcohol distribution field has been triggered by persistent industry ills such as stagnant sales, inventory backlog, and price inversion. From 2021 to 2024, the average revenue of tobacco and liquor store terminals shrank by 40%; since 2025, store closures have emerged in many places. The China Tobacco and Alcohol Circulation Association predicts that by 2025, the number of tobacco and alcohol retail stores nationwide will decrease by 17%-22%, and individual small stores will become the hardest hit by closures.
"Now peers are comparing who is worse off; there is no worst, only worse," Wang Hua said. Last year, business was already poor; high-end cigarettes couldn't sell even at reduced prices, and low-priced cigarettes were difficult to stock due to policy restrictions. "In the past, during the off-season for baijiu, we could rely on cigarettes to cover costs like rent and labor. But in recent years, cigarette sales and profits have also been worrying."
In fact, 'double decline in tobacco and alcohol profits' has become an industry consensus.
On the baijiu side, prices of famous liquors are generally inverted, and it has become the norm to earn 5-10 yuan per box of liquor sold. With the inversion of famous liquor profits and declining market demand, operating pressure has increased significantly. Some companies are no longer opening new stores but optimizing existing ones.
On the cigarette side, sales of high-end cigarettes have plummeted, and prices have also inverted. A tobacco and liquor store owner in Guangzhou introduced that entering 2025, almost all popular cigarettes priced above 20 yuan have experienced price inversion. "To realize cash, you have to sell at low prices; selling cigarettes has turned from profit to loss for tobacco and liquor stores."
In this regard, industry analysts believe that tobacco and liquor stores have high costs and low efficiency, making it increasingly difficult to make profits. Their traffic has been seized by others, and online low prices have further compressed their profit margins. If they don't have group-buying capabilities, it's basically hard to survive. As for the difficulties faced by tobacco and liquor stores in 2025, with 'one-third profitable, one-third break-even, and one-third losing money', the pressure next year may be even more prominent. And tobacco and liquor stores lacking famous liquor and group-buying customer resources are likely to be eliminated during the adjustment period.
Facing difficulties, survivors are also trying to transform.
Some tobacco and liquor store owners are actively seeking change: some join national liquor chain stores, some increase efforts in group-buying business expansion, some use community group-buying and instant retail platforms to increase store sales, and enhance the stickiness of old customers through community building; chain liquor company Jiuxian Group chooses to bet on its own brands; Huazhi Wine Chain is saving itself by optimizing inventory, upgrading stores, and focusing on premium wines...
But transformation is never easy. For example, as an intermediate link, distribution liquor companies currently have relatively low profits, high investment in terminal construction, long cycles, and are difficult to manage. In addition, under the current trend of manufacturer channel sinking and direct sales, distribution liquor companies face multiple competitions from social capital and industry capital, need to strengthen profitability, and have weak anti-risk capabilities.
For alcohol chain enterprises and millions of tobacco and liquor stores, when the logic of the consumer market has completely changed, those days of making money effortlessly are gone. With the acceleration of reshuffling, the real test is just beginning.