Kweichow Moutai told investors that the liquor industry is still in a deep adjustment, and that the next stage of its market work is to match supply with demand rather than chase targets or overload channels.
Director Wang Li, acting as general manager, spoke on November 10 at the 2026 third-quarter results briefing of Kweichow Moutai Co., Ltd. (Shanghai: 600519), according to a report by The Paper.
“The industry remains in a deep adjustment. Weak consumer demand and fewer consumption occasions have not fundamentally changed,” Wang said. “Both Kweichow Moutai liquor and Moutai sauce-aroma liquor face challenges and tests from the market.”
She said market-oriented reform is meant to build, on a balanced supply side, a system in which supply fits demand, volume and price stay in balance, and the market is orderly and stable. The company, she said, cannot manage by indicators alone or “drain the pond to catch all the fish.”
How management described the market
Moutai began a consumer-centered, demand-driven transformation at the start of 2026. Wang said the markets for Moutai liquor and Moutai sauce-aroma liquor now show supply aligned with demand, stable prices, and healthy channel inventories. She said the earlier reform had achieved some results and met the company’s expectations, while adding that market conditions still need to be viewed objectively.
In the first three quarters, total revenue rose and net profit edged lower. In the third quarter, both revenue and net profit grew. The report said that, with the industry in a deep adjustment, the results exceeded some institutions’ expectations. Asked whether that meant performance had bottomed, that Moutai would be among the first to move through the cycle, and that the fourth quarter and the full year could turn positive, Wang said shareholders and investors should look at the company over a longer cycle. If operations remain sound and market fundamentals stay steady, she said, the company can move through the cycle and achieve high-quality, sustainable development.
Contract liabilities and gross margin
Contract liabilities were 2.084 billion yuan at the end of the third quarter, down about 74% from 8.007 billion yuan at the end of the previous year. For liquor companies, contract liabilities are often treated as a reservoir of future growth and a sign of dealers’ willingness to pay in advance.
Wang said a sharp drop does not mean channels lack confidence. The traditional model of taking advance payments and pushing stock onto channels, she said, no longer fits deep changes among consumers, and the scale of advances is no longer the main measure of supply and demand.
In 2026, she said, the company has focused on consumers and demand and has tried to replace channel stuffing with a closer match between supply and the market. Self-operated channels reach buying power more directly, and some products in social channels use a consignment model in which ownership does not transfer. Neither creates advance receipts. The company also allocates social-channel products according to sell-through and inventory in each region and at each distributor, and arranges payment only before goods are released, in order to keep channels healthy.
Gross margin for the first three quarters was 89.58%, down 1.71 percentage points from a year earlier. Wang said that from January to September 2026 sales volume rose and operating costs rose with it, while the comprehensive price per ton across the product range moved back toward real consumption and revenue per ton fell. Costs therefore rose faster than revenue, and the margin was slightly lower. She said the ratio of profit to costs and expenses for the period was in a reasonable range compared with the past ten years. The briefing, as reported, did not give that ratio.
Moutai liquor and the sauce-aroma series
Wang said that in the first three quarters of 2026, with the industry in a deep adjustment and demand weak, the company carried out a broad shift toward the consumer. Sales of Moutai liquor were steady and orderly, the Moutai sauce-aroma market was basically stable, and overall supply, prices, and the channel setup were in reasonable shape.
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 increase in series liquor, Wang said the company pushed ahead with the market shift for Moutai sauce-aroma liquor, dropped the old stuffing model, and moved to refined operations that set supply according to sell-through. The focus was better placement, inventory control, stable prices, stronger sell-through, and more efficient spending. The company used the “double festival” selling period, and results showed stable prices with higher volume.
She said both Moutai liquor and Moutai sauce-aroma liquor still face market tests. For Moutai liquor, earlier reforms focused more on the supply side, while this round focuses on the market. Volume-price balance and market stability are important tests of whether operations are healthy, and releases must also protect the supply-side balance required by traditional production methods.
For sauce-aroma liquor, she said the earlier shift allowed the business to catch “double festival” sell-through in the third quarter. Channel inventories were healthy, terminal sell-through was relatively good, and third-quarter revenue rose substantially year on year. She said the team’s effort deserved recognition, but product strength, brand strength, and the market base still need to improve, as does the precision of sell-through-led operations. Market stability and volume-price balance will be the main anchors.
Since the listing in 2001, Wang said, Moutai sauce-aroma liquor has generated more than 160 billion yuan in cumulative revenue, 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 a presence in the sub-premium and mid-to-high-end markets. Next, she said, the business will build on a larger group of sauce-aroma consumers, develop more consumption occasions, deepen identification with the Kweichow Moutai brand, and keep reinforcing the base for longer-term growth.
On base-liquor capacity, Wang said production for the 2027 Moutai liquor xiasha—the initial sorghum feeding in the brewing cycle—has ended. After an earlier overall assessment, the company did not add Moutai base-liquor capacity.
iMoutai, channels, and scarcity
Revenue through the digital platform iMoutai was 58.562 billion yuan in the first three quarters, up 3.61 times year on year, and contributed more than 40% of company revenue.
An investor asked whether the shift from channel push to consumer pull means Moutai has in substance taken back terminal pricing power, and how it will balance direct sales with traditional dealers over the long term.
Wang said earlier reforms focused more on the supply side, while this round focuses on the market, with volume-price balance and stability as the tests of healthy operations. Channel coordination, she said, will be the focus. First, while keeping the channel system and business model stable, the company will improve how social-channel partners are authorized, across sales, promotion, brand communication, and service. Second, iMoutai will keep aiming at consumers’ demands for fairness, authenticity, and convenience, and will move gradually from the current rush-to-buy model toward everyday selling that meets demand. Third, self-operated stores will keep broadening the customers they serve and open sales to the public to meet real consumption.
Wang said iMoutai has essentially listed the full ranges of Kweichow Moutai liquor and Moutai sauce-aroma liquor. Next, it will first shift from rush buying to everyday sales; second, serve as the first-release platform for new products; and third, be built into a service hub that works with offline stores and other outlets to improve service to consumers.
Asked about the view that Moutai is no longer scarce because it can be bought on iMoutai, at self-operated stores, and at specialty stores, Wang said its scarcity comes from the long-term combination of a unique natural ecology, a microbial ecology, and a human tradition that cannot be copied.
In the past, she said, layers of insulation on the supply side meant consumers dared not buy, could not buy, or had to pay a premium. That was a mismatch between supply and demand and a failure to reach real consumers. Blocked circulation and speculation made buying extremely inconvenient, and the idea that specialty stores had no liquor became a widely shared view. Treating the inability to buy—caused by hoarding and speculative premiums in distribution—as scarcity, she said, misunderstands what makes Moutai liquor scarce.
Overseas revenue, the interim 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 faced the same weak demand, and also channels that do not fit consumption, differences in culture and taste, regulation, and logistics costs. International business was under considerable pressure.
She said the company is respecting market conditions and continuing an international strategic shift. It is easing the load on channels and adjusting the pace of supply, and it is continuing to deal with “reflow” liquor—exports that come back into the domestic market—by tightening control of overseas channels and stepping up action against violations, so re-imports do not disturb the home market. Those steps had some effect on international revenue in the period. Next, she said, the company will take a long-term approach, improve overseas channels and the market setup, 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 plan for 2024–2026, the dividend for each of those years is paid twice, once for the full year and once at mid-year. The board is preparing the 2026 interim profit distribution under authorization from the shareholders’ meeting and, in line with that plan, will complete the distribution within 2026. The specific plan and timing will be set out in a later company announcement.
Net cash flow from operating activities from the start of the year through the end of the reporting period was 84.059 billion yuan, up 120.07% year on year. Yu said this was mainly because, in the first three quarters of 2026, the group finance company took in more deposits from member units, and because interbank deposits that the finance company could not withdraw at any time matured and were recovered. Net operating cash flow from the liquor business itself was broadly in line with the main business and rose slightly year on year.
According to Dazhihui VIP, as cited in the report, Kweichow Moutai closed on November 10 at 1,439 yuan a share, down 0.41%, with a market capitalization of 1.8 trillion yuan.
Original report: The Paper
