Moutai Deploys Five Overseas Sales Districts, Striving to Be a Worldwide Drink

HONG KONG, Sept 9, 2015 - (ACN Newswire) - 100 years ago, after shining and winning a gold prize at the international exposition, Moutai was starting its journey as China's national liquor. Experiencing such major changes as nationalization, reform and opening-up, as well as market economy, this timeless national brand now chooses to start again and fully explore overseas markets. In our interview, Yuan Renguo, Chairman of Moutai Group, indicates that the key for Moutai to go abroad is cultural integration. To attract more people to understand the charm of Chinese liquor, Moutai Group is preparing to set up five overseas sales districts and sell Moutai liquor to all corners of the world. "I believe that Moutai will become a worldwide drink sooner or later."

In 1915, Moutai liquor was taken to San Francisco, USA and exhibited at the Panama Pacific International Exposition. When moving exhibits, a Chinese representative dropped a Moutai jar. Immediately, the aroma permeated the air and visitors were attracted to taste Moutai. As a result, Moutai won a gold prize, leaving a legend of "revitalizing national prestige by wisely dropping a Moutai jar".

Yuan Renguo is proud of talking about Moutai's journey to fame. "Poor and weak, China at that time suffered much discrimination. Besides, with rustic packaging, Moutai liquor was unnoticed at the first few days." He says with a smile, "Thanks to the extraordinary wisdom of our ancestors, a world brand stood out from this drop, which could be regarded as China's earliest successful marketing case."

With deep feeling, Yuan Renguo says that the remote Moutai Town was courageous to participate in an overseas exhibition and won an international gold prize; this not only started a journey towards the world for China's national brands but also reflected our great confidence for national products. This year marks Moutai's 100th anniversary of winning the Panama gold prize and Moutai kicks off its overseas celebrations in Hong Kong on August 20. Later in October to November, Moutai will further hold commemorations in Russia, Milan, and the United States.

There were so many once fashionable national brands, but only an extremely few could survive for over a century and still shine today. Yuan Renguo thinks that the key for Moutai to remain timeless lies in its stringent principles on technique and quality. According to his introduction, from material feeding to delivery of finished product, each bottle of Moutai liquor is made through at least five years. Even at the time when supply falls short of demand and the retail prices are frequently ramped up, Moutai Group still sticks to the production principle of "not selling liquors before they are fully mature".

In Yuan Renguo's mind, every production stage of Moutai reflects not only the pursuit of "art" but also the adherence to "Tao". For example, the production process and technique are in tune with seasons; with "ferment production during the Dragon Boat Festival, material feeding during the Double Ninth Festival", steaming for nine times, fermenting for eight times, and collecting liquor for seven times, the entire cycle covers four seasons of a year. Yuan Renguo compares this to the principle that "time will tell" in the friendship of Chinese people; over long time, all impurities are eliminated but the mellowness and aroma remain in the liquor.

Moutai's blending process is also very exquisite. After being sealed and stored in pottery jars for three years, dozens of or even hundreds of liquors with different ages, stages, and alcohol contents are reasonably proportioned. Coming entirely from the carefully blended base liquors, without adding any other substances, Moutai features "the older, the better aroma". Yuan Renguo says frankly that Moutai's blending reflects Confucianism's enterprising spirit, benevolence, and harmony, Buddhism's charity, implicitness, and elusiveness, as well as Taoism's philosophy of learning from nature and achieving the harmony between man and nature.

In order to help overseas customers to have a better understanding of Moutai culture, Moutai Group is speeding up its layout in the global market. Yuan Renguo reveals that Moutai Group is preparing to set up five major sales districts, that is, North America, Russia, Western Europe, Japan and Korea, and Australia. According to accounts, Moutai currently has over 100 overseas agencies (including Hong Kong and Macau) and overseas sales account for 7-8%; however, most customers are overseas Chinese and the market penetration needs to be further improved.

Yuan Renguo intends to employ people overseas as local distributors, promote China's liquor culture from the perspective of foreigners, and introduce Moutai's health concept; he believes that these measures will have much better propaganda effect. He also points out that although the reduction of ex-factory price based on the tax rate of each country may lower the profit margin, still, based on the brand internationalization strategy for the coming 10 years, Moutai Group will continue to increase its overseas marketing efforts and make Moutai a truly international brand.

(From: Ta Kung Pao)





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