November 18 marked the celebration of the 70th anniversary of Jinyuanchun Liquor Co., Ltd. and the official opening of Jinyuanchun Ecological Distillery that consumed a total investment of RMB 1.5 billion, including RMB 600 million for the first phase, from the Group. It is now the largest ecological distillery in the south of Shandong Province and a complex of liquor culture, ecological environmental protection, and industrial tourism in Tengzhou.

Unveiling of the 1,000-mu Ecological Distillery

Covering a planned area of 1,000mu, Jinyuanchun Ecological Distillery is built in two phases. The first phase spanned an area of 340mu and needed an investment of RMB 600 million. The construction started in April 2016 and mainly included an automated mechanized brewing workshop with an annual production capacity of 2,000t, a fully automated liquor body center with an annual capacity of 20,000t, a packaging workshop with 6 mechanized production lines, a pool of pottery jars totaling 5,000t (including 2,000t ina semi-underground cave), a 20,000m2 finished product packaging warehouse, a sewage treatment station with a daily capacity of 200t, a 1,500m2 liquor culture museum, and a 1,000m2 technology R&D testing center, as well as office and reception facilities.

Yan Tao, president of the Group, said in an address for the 70th anniversary that Jinyuanchun marks a strong presence of the Group in the North China market and that thisecological distillery project is an important step to upgrade the liquor market layout of the Group. Jinyuanchun will, according to President Yan, embark on an innovative path combining internal upgrading with market expansion.

In 1948, following the liberation of Tengzhou, the No.7 Branch of Luzhongnan Industrial and Commercial Bureau incorporated distilleries including Ruiquan, Dequan, Daquan, and Ruiyuan to the original Donglinquan Distillery in Tengzhou and founded Tengxian Brewery. It was the first state-owned enterprise in Tengzhou after the founding of New China and was the predecessor of Jinyuanchun Liquor Co., Ltd. today. Jinyuanchun not only absorbs the essence of the ancient liquor culture in Tengzhou, but also inherits the traditional winemaking process of Donglinquan Distillery that was dated back to more than 150 years ago.

Since 2016, first-line liquor brands in the country have been declining, which has further aggravated the survival environment of local liquor companies. However, Jinyuanchun opens up a completely different development trajectory and, with increasingly expanding market scale, has ranked among the top liquor brands in Shandong.

He Henghui, executive director of VATS Group, said that emphasizing precision and stability in channel development, network construction and product supply, Jinyuanchun focuses on the core market, aims at target consumers, and ensures the strong support of enterprise resources for market development.

Industry Leaders Gather in Jinyuanchun Ecological Distillery

To Discuss the Development Strategy of Luzhou-flavor Liquor with “Shandong Characteristics”

At the Cave Sealing Cultural Festival, Wang Guiyu, a liquor master, Cheng Jinsong, the deputy director of the National Food Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, Xie Yuqiu, a national judge of the Fifth Board of China National Food Industry Association and former management director and chief craftsman of Jiangsu Yanghe Distillery Co., Ltd., He Bing, an economics expert and a liquor culture historian, Zhao Tong, editor-in-chief of the magazine Liquor Making and researcher-level senior engineer, and national judges from Jindong Group were invited to taste and evaluate three finished liquor products and two raw liquor products of Jinyuanchun. The judges commented a 38-degree liquor product that would be on the market as having “clear and transparent appearance, strong cellar and grain fragrance, sweet and refreshing taste, comfortable and elegant flavor, mild but not weak aftertaste, consistent liquor body, and no residual taste ---all in a typical style.”

According to Zhu Guojun, chief technical engineer of Jindong Group, Shandong liquor is mostly low-grade and “taking a gulp” is a drinking manner written in the DNA of Shandong people. Rooted in Tengzhou, Jinyuanchun adheres to the traditional Luzhou-flavor liquor making craftsmanship. Due to its research on local dietary habits for many years, it has developed liquor body that suits the taste of local consumers and thus become more competitive.

Brand empowerment

Fuels Jinyuanchun to Start a New Journey

As part of the celebrations, Jinyuanchun Liquor Co., Ltd. held its first Cave Sealing Cultural Festival. For the first time, traditional liquor cultures such as ritual ceremony and cave sealing were introduced to Tengzhou and attracted more than a thousand consumers.

Branding leads the company to navigate in the changing consumer environment. Over the course of channel development for more than 10 years, Jinyuanchun neglected the investment in branding. Under the impact of the overall environment over the past two years, it restarted the branding efforts by digging the liquor culture and exploring its brand connotation. At this cave sealing cultural festival, Xie Wei, general manager of Jinyuanchun Liquor Sales Co., Ltd., gave a speech named “New Branding Gist” and described emotionally how the “goodwill” culture of Tengzhou as an ancient kingdom drives the brand development of Jinyuanchun. In the meantime, a press conference for brand upgrade was held. The new logo was designed with dominant red and black colors to suit the brand concept of “drinking Jinyuanchun to celebrate good news”. Good producing areas never fail in producing good liquor. Xie Wei explained the natural superior advantages of the “Weishan Lake Wetland” as a liquor producing area from nine aspects.

To respond to the transformation and upgrading of liquor industry driven by mass consumption upgrade, Jinyuanchun has taken the first step by satisfying consumers’ needs for health, taste and personality, building affectionate ties with consumers in Shandong, and launching brand upgrade in its journey to expand from its base in the south of Shandong.