Moutai’s Profit Slips as iMoutai Sales Soar 274%

Kweichow Moutai’s profit decline is continuing.

In the first half of 2026, net profit attributable to shareholders fell 1.95% year on year, extending the downturn after the Chinese baijiu giant recorded its first-ever annual profit decline in 2025.

But the chill felt by distributors on the ground may be even more pronounced than the financial results suggest.

While sales of flagship Feitian Moutai remain sluggish in the traditional retail market, the company’s proprietary e-commerce platform, iMoutai, is booming. Revenue from the platform surged 274% in the first half, overtaking Moutai’s wholesale and agency channels and highlighting a dramatic shift in how China’s most valuable baijiu producer is selling its products.

Profit Under Pressure for a Second Consecutive Reporting Period

Kweichow Moutai reported total operating revenue of RMB 92.28 billion (US13.60 billion) in the first half of 2026, up 1.3% year on year. Net profit attributable to shareholders fell 1.95% to RMB 44.52billion (US6.56 billion).

The decline follows a historic setback in 2025, when Moutai recorded its first annual fall in both revenue and attributable net profit since its listing. Revenue declined 1.21%, while net profit fell 4.53%.

Although revenue returned to modest growth in the first half of this year, the quarterly breakdown points to mounting pressure.

Net profit rose 1.47% year on year in the first quarter before falling 6.9% in the second. Second-quarter operating revenue also declined 5.23%.

Moutai nevertheless struck an upbeat tone in its interim report, saying the company had demonstrated strong resilience amid the industry’s cyclical and structural adjustment and had laid a solid foundation for achieving its full-year targets.

One figure, however, stands out: operating costs jumped 21.81% year on year in the first half, far outpacing the 1.3% increase in revenue.

Moutai attributed the rise to higher overall sales volumes alongside a recalibration of product prices to better reflect actual consumer demand. The shift resulted in lower revenue per tonne of baijiu, causing costs to rise much faster than revenue.

The company said the new pricing structure was better aligned with market demand.

The Benchmark for China’s Premium Baijiu Market

Kweichow Moutai Co., Ltd. is the most prominent producer in China’s baijiu industry, and its flagship Feitian Moutai has long served as a benchmark for the country’s premium spirits market.

The sauce-aroma baijiu has occupied a particularly important place in Chinese business entertaining and gifting. Its former official suggested retail price stood at RMB 1,499(US221) a bottle, but tight supply and intense demand once pushed its market price above RMB3,000 (US442).

That premium has steadily eroded.

As China’s business banquets and corporate entertainment have contracted, the wider baijiu industry has entered a prolonged period of adjustment, putting pressure on both demand and pricing. At one point in 2025, Feitian Moutai’s market price even slipped below RMB 1,499.

Against that backdrop, Moutai accelerated its market-oriented reforms in 2026.

From Jan. 1, the company abolished its market guidance price and introduced a dynamic pricing mechanism intended to follow market conditions while maintaining relative stability and balancing supply, demand, volume and price.

On the Ground, the Market Feels Colder

The financial statements tell one story. Distributors tell another.

Dong Huaicheng, general manager of Medoc 1855 Trading Co., Ltd. and a longtime observer of the Moutai market, said Feitian Moutai currently retails for more than RMB 1,700 (US$251) a bottle, with prices varying slightly between individual bottles and full cases.

Asked how he would characterize Moutai’s performance in the first half, Dong chose a single word: “cold.”

“Feitian Moutai is very difficult to sell right now,” Dong said. “It used to have a strong gifting function, and it still does, but the frequency of transactions has fallen dramatically.”

In his view, conditions in the frontline market are considerably weaker than the relative stability suggested by Moutai’s headline financial figures.

Dong argued that Moutai is not simply a consumer product. Its longstanding financial and investment attributes, as well as other factors including its importance to local government finances, may help explain why Feitian prices have remained resilient – and even recovered – despite weak sell-through at the retail level.

He stressed that Moutai’s reported revenue, market prices and actual consumer demand are shaped by multiple forces and do not necessarily move in tandem.

iMoutai Emerges as the Bright Spot

If the traditional market feels cold, Moutai’s own e-commerce platform is running hot.

In the first half of 2026, iMoutai generated RMB 40.26 billion (US$5.94 billion) in alcohol sales revenue excluding tax, according to the interim report – a staggering 274.18% increase from a year earlier.

That was equivalent to 43.63% of Kweichow Moutai’s total operating revenue.

The pace of growth even accelerated from the first quarter, when iMoutai revenue had risen 267.16% year on year.

More strikingly, iMoutai has now overtaken Moutai’s traditional wholesale and agency channels. Those channels generated RMB 38.70 billion (US$5.70 billion) during the first half, meaning Moutai sold more through its own digital platform than through wholesalers and distributors.

The dramatic shift can be traced to a major overhaul of Moutai’s distribution strategy that began in January.

Starting in 2026, Moutai opened iMoutai to direct sales of its core products. The platform, previously focused largely on customized and specialty offerings, expanded to include flagship products such as Feitian Moutai, with more labels gradually added.

Feitian’s arrival provided an immediate boost.

On Jan. 1, the 2026-vintage Feitian Moutai went on regular sale through iMoutai for the first time, priced at RMB 1,499 (US$221) a bottle. Despite several rounds of restocking, the entire allocation sold out within 30 minutes.

The rush continued. By Jan. 6, Chinese media reported that Feitian Moutai had sold out almost immediately after becoming available on iMoutai for six consecutive days.

Figures released in February by Moutai’s official “Xiao Mao iMoutai” WeChat account offer a sense of the scale.

In January alone, iMoutai added 6.28 million users, pushing monthly active users above 15.31 million. More than 1.45 million consumers purchased products through the platform, generating over 2.12 million orders.

Of those, more than 1.43 million orders were for 53% ABV 500ml Feitian Kweichow Moutai – roughly two-thirds of all orders placed that month.

The transformation is significant. What began largely as an online platform for specialty and customized products is rapidly becoming one of Moutai’s most important routes to market for its flagship labels.

With iMoutai accounting for nearly 44% of total operating revenue in the first half – and already generating more sales than the wholesale and agency channel – the balance of power within Moutai’s distribution system is shifting.

Seen in that light, iMoutai’s explosive growth is about more than a successful e-commerce platform. It is perhaps the clearest evidence yet of Moutai’s attempt to reshape its distribution model, take greater control of pricing and customer relationships, and move closer to the end consumer.

The question is whether that channel transformation can ultimately offset the chill still being felt in the market beyond Moutai’s own digital walls.