Wuliangye Revenue Falls 37.68% and Profit 48.25% in Third Quarter
Key Facts
Wuliangye Yibin recorded revenue of 4.442 billion yuan in the third quarter of 2026, down 37.68% from the same period a year earlier, while net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company fell 48.25% to 957.7 million yuan. The company reported the figures in its financial report published on October 28, noting that the quarterly data were unaudited. In its disclosure, it said, "Weak market demand led to lower sales of related products, causing revenue and profit for the period to decline year on year." The quarterly drop presents a different picture from the nine-month results, in which cumulative revenue and profit remained above their levels a year earlier. The figures also showed similar declines in basic earnings and earnings per share during the quarter.
Net profit after excluding non-recurring items was 957.4 million yuan, down 48.16% year on year, close to the decline in reported net profit. Basic earnings per share were 0.2475 yuan, down 48.11% from the third quarter of 2025. These indicators reflect a broad contraction in the period’s results, rather than a decline confined to a single profit item. The disclosure cited here did not specify which products saw lower sales or how much each contributed to the decline. The company directly attributed the result to weak demand and lower product sales, without ascribing it to weakness in Chinese consumption overall.
From January to September, revenue rose 7.25% to 32.858 billion yuan, and net profit attributable to shareholders increased 49.98% to 9.711 billion yuan. The contrast between this cumulative growth and the sharp decline in the third quarter highlights the different trajectory of results in the latest quarter and the preceding months. The company attributed nine-month profit growth to a lower earnings base in the same period a year earlier and improved sales momentum for core products during the peak sales season around the Spring Festival. It said measures taken during the season supported sales of core products. The increase in cumulative profit was therefore supported by comparison and seasonal factors cited by the company, alongside the weak demand that weighed on the third quarter.
On liquidity, net cash generated from operating activities totaled 46.684 million yuan in the first nine months, down 99.83% from the same period a year earlier. The company attributed the decline to a higher comparison base, adjustments to its collection policy as the market changed and the resulting decrease in cash collected, as well as a lower value of banker's acceptances due compared with the previous year. This explanation indicates that operating cash flow was affected by collection factors and the timing of bank paper maturities, as well as the year-on-year comparison. At the end of September, total assets stood at 171.96 billion yuan, down 9.49% from the end of 2025. Equity attributable to shareholders of the listed company also fell 1.25% to 118.44 billion yuan over the same period.
Industry data provide a broader context, though they do not necessarily match the company’s sales performance. The value added of China’s alcoholic beverages, beverages and refined tea manufacturing sector rose 5.5% year on year in September, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China. In separate data on the baijiu industry, China’s output reached 3.549 million kiloliters in 2025, down 12.1% from the previous year, marking a decline for the sixth consecutive year since 2020, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service. These indicators differ in scope and period from Wuliangye’s quarterly results, while the company identified weak demand and lower sales of its products as the reasons for its decline. In non-manufacturing activity, China’s index stood at 50.2% in September, up 1.2 percentage points from the previous month.
China’s October non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index reading was scheduled for release on October 31, 2026, with a forecast of 50.5 compared with the previous reading of 50.2. The index measures non-manufacturing business activity and does not on its own determine the direction of demand for the company’s products. The expected reading follows September data showing the index rose 1.2 percentage points from the previous month. Wuliangye’s quarterly results, meanwhile, remain linked in the company’s explanation to what it called weak demand and lower product sales. The economic release is the next milestone cited in the available data after the financial report was published on October 28.