[China Liquor Network] Recently, Luzhou Liquor Industry Association (hereinafter referred to as "Luzhou Liquor Association") obtained a total of 3.2 billion yuan of credit from a number of banks including Agricultural Bank of China, China Minsheng Bank and Luzhou Bank. Prior to this, the financial industry of this wine city and the wine industry have maintained a close linkage - focusing on the liquor industry, the high-tech branch of Luzhou Bank, Sichuan Wine Group applied for bank credit of 5 billion, exclusive credit service "Wine City together". All kinds of financial projects around the liquor industry, from the lead of the local government, to between liquor enterprises and banks, and then to the overall coordination of industry institutions, the gene of "liquor + finance" is running in the blood of the liquor city.
Out of Luzhou, the frequent cooperation between banks and the liquor industry, the "liquor" banks have been listed, and the financial layout of liquor enterprises has gradually opened up... Liquor industry from "will make money" gradually to "will use money" direction.
01, the bank into the liquor industry
It is not uncommon for local financial institutions to promote the development of the liquor industry in major wine cities in China. The last round of bank drinking was around 2012. At that time, at the end of the "golden decade", due to the impact of the eight provisions and the plasticizer incident, the rapid development of the liquor industry slowed down and entered the adjustment period. The financing of the wine industry has also changed from the earlier "10,000 industries to the dynasty" to few people.
Entering the cyclical adjustment, the blow to thousands of small and medium-sized wine enterprises is self-evident, and the most intuitive impact is the narrowing of sales. Data show that in the first year (2013) after the end of the "golden decade", the sales revenue of 1,423 liquor enterprises above scale in China was 501.801 billion yuan, an increase of 11.22%. What looks like growth on the surface has slowed to its slowest pace since 2009. In the same period, the total profit of 80.487 billion yuan was lower than that of the same period last year. And 86 enterprises lost money, not only the loss of enterprises increased by 16 enterprises over the same period last year, the cumulative loss also increased by 1.38 times over the previous year to 831 million yuan.
The impact of the narrowing of sales falls on enterprises, which is the problem of pressure on the capital chain. If two years earlier, whether it is scale expansion or brand upgrading, a liquor company as long as it can tell a logical and consistent story, the capital is willing to pay. You know, in the golden decade, there are more than 100 A-share listed companies involved in the liquor industry, the investment amount ranges from tens of millions to billions, which is no shortage of Lenovo Group over 2 billion yuan investment such A big deal.
As the tide receded, small and medium-sized liquor companies became helpless naked swimmers. At this time, the financial institutions of the bank will focus on the solid foundation but briefly frustrated liquor industry. It was also at this time that "liquor supply chain financing" entered the historical stage as the innovative financing of liquor enterprises.
In the 2014 "Chinese Wine Innovation Model? At the "Supply chain Financing" summit forum, Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, Agricultural Bank and other banks revealed the work plan for liquor supply chain financing. It is also from this year that the financial system for the purchase, production, sales and distributor of raw materials in the liquor industry gradually filled up.
It is worth mentioning that, as a part of the wine supply chain, the vertical e-commerce of wine with both mode innovation and wine circulation functions ushered in the outbreak period, wine fairy network, wine American network, also buy wine, wine Shang red wine network, China Wine network, etc., are the capital darling of this period.
Back in 2024, the situation of the liquor industry at this time is somewhat similar to that of 2013 - it has just experienced a capital boom and entered a period of adjustment after encountering irresistible factors. At this time, the credit from financial institutions is undoubtedly a timely rain for many small and medium-sized liquor enterprises trapped in the financial pressure in the liquor industry.
Since entering 2023, various projects and products of the bank for the wine industry have gathered into a timely rain in this dilemma. For example, the "Hunan wine loan" launched by the Hunan branch of the Bank of Communications, the "liquor e loan" launched by the Shanxi branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, the "water loan" of the Mianzhu branch of the Postal Savings Bank, the "wine chain e loan" launched by the Sichuan Bank of China, and so on. Among them, there are many similar "Sichuan wine e loan" (Agricultural Bank Luzhou Branch) and other products that have lasted for more than 10 years.
02, liquor company capital turnover station
If the establishment of innovative loan projects by financial institutions such as banks is a kind of off-site support, the layout of large liquor enterprises in the financial industry is to explore the financing problem of the liquor industry from the inside. "Liquor" banks are a prime example.
The so-called "liquor" banks actually refer to Luzhou Bank, Guizhou Bank, Yibin Bank and other banks that are closely related to the wine industry. These banks are usually controlled by wine enterprises or related enterprises, and their business is also highly focused on the wine industry.
For example, Wuliangye Group, the single largest shareholder of Yibin Bank, has two branches specializing in the liquor industry and cooperates closely with Wuliangye Group. The largest shareholder of Luzhou Bank is Luzhou Laojiao. On December 22, 2023, the first "liquor professional branch" high-tech branch of the bank was established, which is the first branch in Luzhou that focuses on liquor industry. Guizhou Bank and Guiyang Bank have Maotai Group behind the two banks, which are known as "Maosystem" banks.
For the behavior of liquor enterprises to participate in banks, Wang Pengbo, chief analyst of the financial industry of Broadcom Consulting, said that liquor shares in relevant banks, on the one hand, these large enterprises themselves are big customers of banks, on the other hand, enterprises can also use the financial industry to ensure capital needs, and it is easier to control the upstream and downstream of the industry.
Of course, there are also some views that the participation of wine enterprises in the bank may provide greater convenience for the loans of its affiliated dealers, and at the same time ease the financial pressure of dealers, it is also for the further shipment of wine enterprises to release exports. In fact, there are indeed many wine enterprises and banks to reach cooperation, for dealers and set up loan products, such as the Bank of China Shanxi branch for Fenjiu dealers launched "Fenjiu loan", Sichuan Bank of China "wine chain e loan" is to join hands with Luzhou Laojiao for its distributor customers.
It is worth noting that the above-mentioned Guizhou Bank, Guiyang Bank, Luzhou Bank, Yibin Bank and other "wine" banks have been listed. In addition, Yanghe Group, Fenjiu Group, Anhui Gujing Group, Sichuan Tuopai Shide Group also have investment tentacled to insurance companies, securities institutions and other areas closer to the former.
However, the layout of these financial fields is not only to "facilitate" investment in the liquor industry, but also to cross the horizon to all walks of life. For example, among the more than 10 companies that Moutai Investment Fund has invested in, Jiamei Packaging, Li Ziyuan, Wankai New Materials, Tianyi Shangjia, and New Jufeng are involved in various fields of beverage packaging, food and beverage, and high-tech materials.
03, loan trap and pie
Whether the bank enters the liquor bureau or the liquor enterprise is involved in finance, it is essentially the result of the balance of interests of the two parties. On the one hand, banks need stable customers in the wine industry and even stable cash flow of large wine industry groups, while wine companies are revitalizing the industrial chain and idle funds by going deep into the financial field.
However, in the wine industry, there are still many details to be worked out how to facilitate loans. Once the operation is improper, it may cause the situation of "forcing" dealers to take loans. Previously, some dealers broke the news to the media that some famous wine companies recommended exclusive loans while urging the end payment, and even wine sales companies were willing to provide guarantees for dealers to reach loans, after Luzhou Laojiao due to a long-term loan of more than 10 billion in 2023, it had been questioned to lend to wine merchants. Although Luzhou Laojiao has denied this speculation, products such as "wine merchant loan", "wine enterprise loan" and "wine people loan" set up by Longma Xingda, a small loan company under the company, have changed from the initial measures to ease the pressure on dealers to "iron proof" in public opinion.
Especially in the liquor dealers life is difficult at the moment, a seemingly timely loan, in the nervous environment also revealed a bit dangerous breath.
Taking the currently widely used "pledge of the right to take delivery" as an example, this type of loan application is generally a loan secured by the winery after the signing of an agreement between the wine distributor and the wine company. In the early stage of this process, the funds flow into the wine company from the bank through the dealer (after the loan is handed over to collect the goods), and in the later stage, the funds return to the bank (repay the loan) and the wine company (pay the final payment) after the dealer obtains the sales.
In principle, wine merchants only need to pay part of the deposit (get the right to take delivery) to operate famous wine. But at the same time, once the market sales encountered obstacles, or the product brand market influence of its own business is limited, this smooth fund flow route can not be successfully closed loop, the final result is that the channel product inventory is overstocked, dealers have no money to repay the loan.
At this point, the logical paradox of financial institutions lending to dealers also surfaced. In the case of industry adjustment and limited capital flow, the credit of financial institutions injected living money into the liquor supply chain to ease the financial pressure of the upstream and downstream industries, but the pressure that was relieved was only a delayed pressure in the case of poor market industry, and the ultimate solution to the problem was the consumer market.
But with the current pace of the market correction, it is not a good time to try to gamble with small. The "2024 China Liquor Market Interim Research Report" released by the China Liquor Association shows that in 2024, the recovery trend of the liquor industry is weak, in the context of stock competition, 80% of enterprises said that the market is cold, and in the case of stable holiday consumption, more than half of the dealers and terminal merchants said that the profit margin has been reduced.
A banker said that at present, there is no right or wrong (loan) product for banks to cooperate with wine companies, whether openly or secretly, and there are many industries outside the wine industry. Ultimately, it depends on the operation of front-line personnel, if implied or forced dealer loans, it is not a good thing for the bank, which means that the possibility of later payment will be discounted. However, due to the performance requirements, many times the salesman can only turn a blind eye. Only the lenders themselves can also do a good job of assessing the future market.