At the 2025 annual shareholder meeting held in Chengdu on June 30, 2026, the leadership of Sichuan Swellfun Co., Ltd. presented a vision of cautious recovery. Led by Chairman Fan Xiangfu and General Manager Gan Xiaofeng, the management team addressed a critical challenge facing China’s premium spirits sector: a persistent inventory overhang and a fundamental shift in consumption patterns. The meeting served as a transparency exercise for a brand that has increasingly prioritized 'channel health' over raw expansion.
The Chinese white liquor, or baijiu, industry is currently navigating a 'deep adjustment phase.' Traditionally fueled by lavish business banquets and government spending, the sector now faces a cooling macroeconomy and a more frugal corporate culture. Swellfun’s management acknowledged that the recovery of traditional consumption scenarios has been slower than anticipated, forcing the company to pivot away from aggressive scale-driven growth toward a strategy of 'structural optimization.'
Central to this survival strategy is the 'BC-Linkage' model, which aims to bridge the gap between business inventories and consumer consumption. By incentivizing bottle-opening through digital QR code scans and enhancing terminal sales at the retail level, Swellfun reported a 25% increase in consumer scan rates in 2025. This shift signifies a move from a 'channel push' model, where stock often languished in distributor warehouses, to a 'consumer pull' model that emphasizes actual sell-through.
The company’s 'Dome 10,000 Stores' project represents an effort to deepen ties with high-end retail outlets through systematic empowerment and long-term partnership mechanisms. By focusing on the banquet market and premium tasting events, Swellfun is attempting to create 'emotional connections' with core consumers. This granular approach appears to be yielding early results, with the company reporting a 5% year-on-year increase in terminal sales for the first quarter of 2026, with half of its operating provinces seeing double-digit growth.
Looking ahead, Swellfun aims to continue its focus on 'long-termism' by maintaining strict market order and supply rhythm. Rather than flooding the market to meet short-term targets, the company is betting that a leaner, more digitally-integrated channel will provide a more stable foundation for the next industry cycle. As the premium spirits market stabilizes, Swellfun’s ability to manage its inventory while maintaining brand prestige will be a bellwether for the broader industry’s health.