Our reporter Xie Lan Intern reporter Liang Aonan
Wind data shows that, as of April 25, the reporter reported that the 2023 performance of the other eight beer listed companies, except * ST West Development, had been announced among the nine A-share and H-share beer listed companies. The above eight companies achieved a total revenue of 157.488 billion yuan last year, up 8.51% year on year; The total net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 18.161 billion yuan, up 9.59% year on year. Among them, 6 beer enterprises achieved double growth in revenue and net profit last year.
On the whole, the current beer market presents an oligopoly pattern, with dislocation competition among enterprises, significant differentiation advantages and outstanding high-end achievements.
Only one company lost money
According to the data of China Alcohol Industry Association, in 2023, the national beer industry will achieve a total output of 37.89 million kiloliters, an increase of 0.8% year on year, and a sales revenue of 186.3 billion yuan, an increase of 8.6% year on year; The total profit was 26 billion yuan, up 15.1% year on year, and the profit growth continued to outperform the growth of output and sales revenue.
According to the beer enterprise financial report in 2023, the top five domestic beer brands have contributed absolute strength. Last year, the revenue of China Resources Beer, Tsingtao Beer, Chongqing Beer, Yanjing Beer and Zhujiang Beer was 38.932 billion yuan, 33.937 billion yuan, 14.815 billion yuan, 14.213 billion yuan and 5.378 billion yuan, with year-on-year growth of 10.4%, 5.49%, 7.66%, 5.53% and 9.13% respectively. The above five enterprises achieved a total revenue of 107.274 billion yuan and a total net profit of 12.026 billion yuan.
Among the eight beer enterprises that have disclosed their annual reports, only Lanzhou Yellow River will be in a loss in 2023. Last year, the company realized an operating income of about 241 million yuan, down 9.47% year on year; The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was -46.7207 million yuan, down 59.76% year on year.
As a regional brand beer production enterprise, Lanzhou Yellow River is mainly engaged in the production and sales of "Yellow River", "Qinghai Lake" double brand series beer and "Yellow River" series malt and other products. The production and sales of beer and malt account for more than 90% of the company's main business.
Lanzhou Yellow River said that in 2023, the company's malt product cost will be high, the market competitiveness will be weak, and the bargaining power will be weak. In addition, the company's own consumption of beer in the main business will be reduced, which will not be able to effectively drive the malt sales, resulting in a year-on-year decline in the company's malt production, sales and sales revenue during the reporting period.
"Due to the small scale and limited sales volume of Lanzhou Yellow River, it has many difficulties on its way to profitability. At present, it has not observed the trend of enterprise performance improvement." Fang Gang, an expert in the beer industry, said in an interview with Securities Daily.
In addition, Budweiser Asia Pacific's sales in China, South Korea and other important markets declined in the fourth quarter of last year. In 2023, the company's net profit was 852 million dollars (about 6.134 billion yuan), down 6.68% year on year.
High end development
In 2023, the sales of beer business of Tsingtao Beer, Chongqing Beer, Yanjing Beer, Budweiser Asia Pacific and other enterprises will only increase slightly in "single digits". When the incremental market is difficult to develop, how to seek new growth in the stock market has become a topic that beer enterprises continue to pay attention to.
In this context, in 2023, beer enterprises will spare no effort to promote the construction of high-end products and constantly optimize the product structure. The revenue of high-end and middle and high-end beer of many enterprises will account for more than 60%.
From the perspective of high-end beer sales, in 2023, the sales volume of China Resources Beer's high-grade beer and above will increase by 18.9% year on year, the sales volume of Qingdao Beer's medium and high-end beer and above will increase by 10.5% year on year, the sales revenue of Chongqing Beer's high-end products will increase by 5.18% year on year, the sales revenue of Yanjing Beer's medium and high-end products will increase by 13.32% year on year, and the sales volume of Pearl River Beer's high-end beer products will increase by 15.96% year on year. In addition, Budweiser's Asia Pacific high-end and ultra high-end product revenue has reached double-digit growth.
High end beer has the attribute of higher gross profit, which drives the performance of beer enterprises to improve continuously, and is expected to continue to raise the profitability of each manufacturer. The management of a beer enterprise told the reporter of Securities Daily that in the past year, despite the trend of shrinking consumption and consumption differentiation in the industry, some consumers became more rational and turned to pursue cost performance, but the high-end trend of the industry was not interrupted by market changes.
Yang Ke, CEO of Budweiser Asia Pacific and co chairman of the Board of Directors, said at the performance meeting that the sales of the middle and low end beer market in China had declined, but the growth of the high-end and ultra high-end beer market was still very good. In 2024, Budweiser Asia Pacific will continue its high-end strategy and continue to pursue high-quality growth.
Hou Xiaohai, chairman of the board of directors of China Resources Beer, also told the reporter of Securities Daily: "By 2023, the proportion of the company's products of the second and higher grade will have reached 22%." It is understood that in the high-end market planning of China Resources Beer, Snow Chunsheng, Heineken and superX blue bottles have been identified as the top three brands with sales targets of more than one million tons.
Cai Xuefei, an analyst in the liquor industry and general manager of Zhiqu Consulting, told the Securities Daily that the beer industry is moving from a price oriented industrial light beer to a diversified direction characterized by style and taste, such as fine brewing, puree, white beer, black beer, etc., and with the continuous improvement of the consumption level, consumers' demand for high-quality beer is growing, It has driven the high-end development of the entire beer industry.
Fang Gang told reporters that at present, the strategies and actions of the five beer giants in high-end are relatively consistent, but the high-end process and speed of different enterprises are different, and the high-end speed of the head enterprises is faster. On the market level, the contradiction between high-end and cost performance is a test for enterprises.
Founder Securities Research News shows that there is still enough room for the upgrading of China's beer industry structure. At the same time, the leading players in the beer industry have reached the consensus of "high-end high-quality development+profit appeal". Under the measures of "product+channel+region" to continue to promote the upgrading of the beer industry, China's beer industry has become resilient to high-end development.
"The high-end beer is the common result of consumption upgrading and enterprise development, but the high-end beer market in China is still in the initial stage, and the sense of value of domestic beer brands needs to be improved, facing multiple challenges such as consumer education, category innovation, quality promotion and purchasing habits, as well as competition from foreign beer giants, the market still needs long-term cultivation." Cai Xuefei said.
