Baichuan Mingpin Supply Chain Co., Ltd. , one of China’s leading alcohol distributors, has released a new set of operating figures for 2025 that underscore its accelerating push into instant retail.
The company now operates a dual-brand structure combining its offline retail brand Baichuan Mingpin with its instant retail arm Jiu·Yizhan. Together, the network has expanded to more than 700 stores nationwide. Its membership system now covers over 1 million users, average daily alcohol sales exceed 300,000 bottles, and its downstream partner network has grown to more than 300,000 retail points across China.
As a relatively new instant retail format, Jiu·Yizhan has expanded rapidly. It is now present in 14 key cities, operates more than 120 directly owned stores, and promises delivery within 25 minutes in covered areas. Despite a broader industry slowdown, the brand’s assessed value has risen counter-cyclically to RMB 69.2 billion (about US$9.9 billion).
Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Hefei, Anhui province, Baichuan Mingpin is one of China’s best-known large-scale alcohol distributors. Its portfolio spans major baijiu brands including Moutai, Wuliangye, Jiannanchun, Fenjiu, Luzhou Laojiao and Yanghe, alongside international wine and spirits brands such as Penfolds, Changyu, Martell, Hennessy, Chivas and The Macallan. The company employs around 2,000 people and directly serves more than 5,000 city- and county-level distributors.
Baichuan Mingpin formally entered the instant retail space in 2023 with the launch of Jiu·Yizhan. Under its current expansion plan, the company aims to increase its store count to 2,000 by 2026 and to operate a combined total of 5,000 directly owned and franchised outlets nationwide under the Baichuan Mingpin and Jiu·Yizhan brands by 2028.
Jiu·Yizhan is already integrated with two major instant retail platforms, Meituan and Taobao Instant Shopping. Unlike Baichuan Mingpin’s offline stores, which emphasise premium displays, in-store experience and stylish interiors, Jiu·Yizhan follows a front-warehouse model. These outlets are typically located in lower-rent urban areas and are not necessarily street-facing. Store design is intentionally simple, serving primarily as storage and fulfilment hubs rather than retail showrooms.
The product mix on Jiu·Yizhan’s online stores includes its own-label beer alongside a broad selection of branded beers, baijiu and wines. In wine, the assortment features brands with strong recognition in China, including labels from the Lafite Rothschild group, Penfolds, Concha y Toro’s Casillero del Diablo, Oyster Bay, Hardys’ Oomoo and Montes. The platform also offers chilled white wine options, reflecting a relatively high level of category specialisation.
To capture emerging consumption trends, Jiu·Yizhan has also introduced a dedicated cocktail section, offering small-format spirits paired with mixers and ice cups, targeting the growing at-home cocktail culture among younger Chinese consumers.
Traditional alcohol distributors rush into instant retail
Baichuan Mingpin’s transformation reflects a broader shift among China’s traditional alcohol wholesalers and retailers, many of which are now accelerating their entry into instant retail after years of focusing on offline distribution. Other major players, including VATS Liquorand COFCO’s Wine & Wine, have made similar moves in recent years.
Analysts attribute the trend to a combination of macroeconomic and structural factors. Corporate and personal group purchasing has weakened amid broader economic pressure, while traditional alcohol consumption scenarios centred on business banquets have contracted sharply. At the same time, mass-market instant retail for alcohol has continued to grow at pace, offering an attractive channel for large distributors with established supply chains and store networks.
Instant retail has become one of the most closely watched segments in China’s alcohol industry. As previously reported, Meituan executives have estimated that the country’s alcohol instant retail market reached about RMB 24 billion (US$2.34 billion) in 2024. Over the next five years, the sector is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 53%, with total market size potentially approaching RMB 100 billion (US$14.3 billion) by 2027.
Meituan, China’s largest instant retail platform, has deepened its involvement through its self-operated alcohol delivery brand Waima Alcohol Delivery, which has expanded rapidly. According to data disclosed by Meituan late last year, Waima Alcohol Delivery now operates more than 2,000 front warehouses across over 200 cities, has accumulated more than 20 million users, and is expected to generate over RMB 6 billion (US$859 million) in sales in 2025.
Competition, however, extends well beyond alcohol. In 2025, major e-commerce platforms including Taobao and JD.com stepped up their investment in instant retail, deploying heavy subsidies to capture market share. The resulting escalation in delivery competition has put further pressure on alcohol merchants, with some subsidy-driven operators falling into a “scale without profits” trap.
Against this backdrop, how to achieve sustainable profitability in instant retail has become a central industry question. Baichuan Mingpin has expressed confidence in its approach, saying it has tested the profitability of more than 100 directly operated stores nationwide. According to the company, the single-store model has already been validated, with clear daily gross margin benchmarks and relatively transparent payback periods — laying the foundation for its planned expansion to 2,000 stores in 2026.
Discover more from Vino Joy News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
