"One City, One Beer": Chongqing Beer's Difficult Recovery: Non-GAAP Net Income Declines Again, Can 1L New Product Break Through?

(Photographed by Zhou Mengting)

This newspaper (chinatimes.net.cn) reporter Zhou Mengting Beijing reports

After a sluggish 2024, Chongqing Beer finally shows signs of recovery in 2025. On March 10, Chongqing Beer released its annual report, showing growth in sales, revenue, and net profit in 2025. However, beneath the surface of the recovery, there are hidden concerns. First, its core profit indicator, non-recurring net profit, continued the decline from 2024, decreasing by 2.78% year-on-year. Second, the “home base”—the Central Region market, which accounts for over 40% of revenue—saw a 1.43% year-on-year decline in revenue, making it the only one of the three major regions to slide.

Faced with ongoing industry pressure, Chongqing Beer is betting on 1L canned products to break through. The annual report repeatedly mentions this new product, calling it an important growth driver for non-draft channels. However, in an increasingly competitive market, whether this highly anticipated “new weapon” can truly shake up the market remains to be seen.

Non-recurring net profit continues to decline

On March 10, Chongqing Beer delivered a seemingly rebounding performance. The annual report shows that in 2025, Chongqing Beer achieved sales of 2.9952 million kiloliters, up 0.68% year-on-year; revenue of 14.722 billion yuan, up 0.53%; and net profit attributable to shareholders of 1.231 billion yuan, up 10.43%. In 2024, Chongqing Beer experienced a tough year, with declines in sales, revenue, net profit, and non-recurring net profit.

Although several financial indicators recovered in 2025, the non-recurring net profit, a key operating metric, continued its downward trend, decreasing by 2.78% year-on-year to 1.188 billion yuan. According to the financial report, the main reason for the net profit growth was a 37.105 million yuan gain from non-operating income, related to gains from non-recurring items unrelated to the company’s normal business operations. In 2024, due to a contractual dispute with its equity affiliate Chongqing Jiwei Beer Co., Ltd. (“Jiwei”), the company recognized an estimated liability of 254 million yuan.

Over the past year, the Chinese beer industry as a whole faced pressure. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2025, the total beer production of large-scale enterprises in China was 35.36 million kiloliters, down 1.1% year-on-year. Regarding Chongqing Beer’s performance, industry analyst Cai Xuefei told Huaxia Times that “this accurately reflects the current ‘stock game and structural differentiation’ development trend in the beer industry. Objectively, amid the overall decline in beer production, Chongqing Beer’s slight increase in sales and revenue, along with double-digit growth in net profit, indicates that its high-end strategy and cost control are effective. However, the near-stagnant revenue growth also exposes that relying solely on price hikes and product upgrades to drive growth may have reached a ceiling.”

By product grade, Chongqing Beer offers premium products priced at 8 yuan and above, mainstream products priced between 4 and 8 yuan, and economy products below 4 yuan. In 2025, these three categories accounted for 59.6%, 35.2%, and 2.2% of total revenue, respectively. Among them, only the high-end products saw a 2.19% year-on-year revenue increase, while mainstream and economy products declined by over 1%.

The main brands of Chongqing Beer’s premium products include Carlsberg, Leeburg, K1664, and Red Ussu. Over the past year, Chongqing Beer invested heavily in product premiumization, continuously strengthening the high-end positioning and emotional connection of Carlsberg, launching brand campaigns around collaborations with Zong Zongze and Liverpool’s Premier League championship, sponsoring the Foshan La Liga and Guangdong Super League for the first time, and partnering with Black Pearl Restaurant to expand high-end dining channels. Despite a slight 0.53% revenue increase, sales expenses rose by 5.66% to 2.655 billion yuan, with a sales expense ratio of about 18%.

1L Canned Products Become a Key Focus

In 2024, revenue from high-end products declined by 2.97%. In 2025, as this segment recovered, 1L canned products became an important growth driver. During the performance briefing on March 11, Chongqing Beer stated that in 2025, the company launched multiple 1L canned products, which are a key tool for promoting high-endization. The annual report also repeatedly mentions that 1L new products are an important growth driver for non-draft channels, with growth in craft beer and other segmented areas.

According to information provided by Chongqing Beer staff to Huaxia Times, their 1L products include “Ussu Jin Junmei Craft,” “Ussu Amber Lager,” “Chongqing Guobin Double Hop,” and “Fenghua Snow Moon Seasonal Brew.” Chongqing Beer also has high hopes for these products. The company indicated during the briefing that 1L canned beer can optimize product structure and better provide consumers with diverse consumption scenarios. They plan to expand flavor varieties to meet different needs.

Analyst Cai Xuefei believes that “large-capacity 1L products meet the sharing needs of families and outdoor scenarios, and their high unit price directly boosts per-ton alcohol price and gross margin, making them a core strategy for Chongqing Beer to ‘support volume with price.’ However, there are challenges: one is that some markets are caught in price wars; the other is that this is essentially competing for the traditional small bottle market rather than creating entirely new demand, so growth potential needs to be monitored.”

Another urgent issue for Chongqing Beer is how to regain its core regional markets. The company’s three main markets are Northwest, Central, and South regions, with the Central Region accounting for 40% of revenue, making it its largest revenue area. However, in 2025, this region’s revenue continued to decline from 2024, reaching 5.884 billion yuan, down 1.43% year-on-year, the only one of the three regions to slide.

Over the past two years, Chongqing Beer has been troubled by disputes with Jiwei. The core issue involved Shancheng Beer, but the matter was settled in January 2026, with Chongqing Beer paying Jiwei 100 million yuan in a lump sum and agreeing on profit-sharing arrangements.

Regarding the setback in the Central Region, Cai Xuefei analyzed that “this is fundamentally the result of both internal and external challenges. Internally, the long-standing distribution dispute with Jiwei drained management resources and channel efforts, disrupting the company’s strategic execution in the core market. Additionally, Chongqing Beer may have an aging channel structure. Externally, competitors like China Resources and Tsingtao are increasing investments, intensifying market competition. Meanwhile, local brands like Shancheng are struggling to grow, and international high-end brands have not fully penetrated the broader mass market, leading to a ‘difficult transition’ in the core market, which affects overall performance.”

Editor: Huang Xingli Chief Editor: Han Feng