- Sales of sparkling and youth-oriented products propel 2025 revenue to 1.82 billion yuan, up 11.7%
- Net profit rises 24.7%, but yellow wine remains largely confined to traditional Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai strongholds
Shaoxing-based Kuaijishan, one of China’s three publicly listed rice wine producers, reported record revenue for 2025, driven by surging sales of its fizzy rice wine and other youth-focused offerings.
The company said revenue climbed 11.68% to 1.82 billion yuan ($265 million), while net profit attributable to shareholders rose 24.7% to 245 million yuan, marking a four-year high.
In the photo on the left, Pan Xingxiang, chief advisor to Kuaijishan, stirs a vat of fermenting rice wine with a rake, helping micro-organisms break down glucose—a key step that determines the quality of the final product. In the photo on the right, Pan tastes fizzy rice wine alongside a disciple and fellow brewer. Pan is a nationally recognized yellow wine master and a national-level inheritor of intangible cultural heritage. —— Photos courtesy of Pan Xingxiang
Yellow wine, a traditional Chinese alcoholic beverage fermented using primarily rice, has struggled with an aging image and shrinking consumer base among the younger demographic in recent years. Fierce competition with other types of alcoholic drinks has also eroded its market share.
Kuaijishan has responded with a high-end, youth-oriented strategy, launching new products such as its sparkling wine series “Shuang” in 2023.
Branded to appeal to trends like “self-indulgent micro-drinking” and “punk wellness,” the fizzy line became a billion-yuan seller in just two years. The brewer didn’t disclose specific sales figures for the category in its earnings report, though.
In 2025, revenue from sparkling yellow wine alone exceeded 70 million yuan in the first half, growing more than 60% year on year.
Despite these gains, Kuaijishan acknowledged that yellow wine’s overall market share remains small, with production and consumption still limited to traditional Yangtze Delta region covering Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.
The company’s scale and profitability are limited, and market expansion efforts are constrained by investment capacity and regional familiarity, the disclosure noted.
