Amid a deep adjustment in the Chinese liquor industry, regional liquor companies are facing concentrated tests of their operational resilience.
In 2025, Hebei's representative brand Lao Bai Gan Jiu reported operating revenue of 4.121 billion yuan, down 23% year-on-year; net profit attributable to the parent company was 430 million yuan, a 45.4% decline compared to the same period last year.
This performance not only marked the largest drop in recent years but also fell significantly short of the revenue target of 5.47 billion yuan proposed at the beginning of the year, creating a clear gap between actual results and expectations.
From a structural perspective, the changes are even more telling. In 2025, products priced above 100 yuan generated revenue of 2.036 billion yuan, down 24.7% year-on-year; products priced below 100 yuan generated revenue of 2.062 billion yuan, down 21.4% year-on-year.
Amid overall contraction, the scale of mass-market price-point products has approached and begun to surpass that of high-end products.
Entering the first quarter of 2026, this trend intensified: revenue from products priced below 100 yuan grew 23.45% year-on-year to 619 million yuan, surpassing for the first time on a quarterly basis the 596 million yuan from products priced above 100 yuan.
Breaking down by brand matrix, in 2025, Hengshui Lao Bai Gan series revenue declined 17.4%; Wuling Liquor and Wenwang Gongjiu saw declines close to 30%, while Bancheng Shaoguo Liquor and Kongfujia Liquor both recorded double-digit drops.
Among them, Wuling Liquor, representing high-end sauce-aroma baijiu, saw its gross margin fall by 2.8 percentage points, indicating intensifying competitive pressure in the high-end price segment.
Regional markets failed to provide effective offsetting growth.
Revenue from its home base in Hebei province declined 18.64% year-on-year, with more pronounced drops in out-of-province markets such as Hunan, Anhui, and Shandong, signaling a temporary slowdown in expansion efforts. Against the backdrop of national famous liquor brands continuing to penetrate lower-tier channels, the growth space for regional liquor companies has been further compressed.
Viewed from an industry-wide perspective, Lao Bai Gan Jiu's shifts are far from isolated.
Since 2025, baijiu consumption structure has continued to shift downward, with the mainstream price range moving from 300–500 yuan to 100–300 yuan, demonstrating stronger resilience in mass-market consumption.
Accordingly, the growth logic for high-end products is shifting from &#34;price-driven&#34; to &#34;real demand-driven,&#34; while regional liquor companies, constrained by brand premium and channel capabilities, often feel the pressure sooner.
In the first quarter of 2026, Lao Bai Gan Jiu showed signs of operational recovery: revenue reached 1.22 billion yuan, up 4.5% year-on-year; net profit attributable to the parent company was 165 million yuan, up 8.6% year-on-year.
At the same time, the company began exploring new growth pathways.
In 2026, Lao Bai Gan Jiu plans to establish an e-commerce subsidiary to integrate multi-brand online businesses, strengthen supply chain and digital marketing capabilities, and attempt to fill the gap at new traffic entry points beyond the traditional &#34;quality + culture + channel&#34; model. However, the actual contribution of this layout to performance in the short term remains to be seen.
What needs vigilance is that the recovery process brings new variables. Accounts receivable surged 354.90% year-on-year in the first quarter; the company attributed this to increased credit sales.
This implies that in driving shipments and sales velocity, the company may have exchanged extended payment terms for revenue growth, requiring continued monitoring of subsequent collection quality and channel health.

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