China National Association for Liquor and Spirits Circulation and China Brand Strategy Research Institute jointly released the 2nd World's Top 100 Liquor Brands Value Research Report at the China National Convention Center in Beijing on August 28, 2019.

1. The world's 7th spirit champions

It is well known that spirits are high-concentration liquor and also called distilled liquor. According to the International Wine & Spirits Research (IWSR), the breakdown of spirits is as follows: transparent spirits (vodka, and rum, etc.) accounting for 43%, whisky accounting for 34%, liqueur accounting for 8%, brandy and cognac accounting for 7%, bitters accounting for 6%, and anisette accounting for 2%. Apparently, they forgot to include China's white spirits (Baijiu) therein. With Baijiu, there are seven categories of spirits, and the seven champions are separately:

2. The method to calculate

The interactions between Chinese and foreign drinking friends become more frequent with the deepening of international exchanges, and so does the circulation of Chinese and foreign famous liquors. Despite their fine quality, liquors have never been ranked, which virtually increases consumers' choice cost. And with the globalization today, it is even more troubling when it comes to what fine liquors are there in each country. As such, the Organizing Committee has released the list of World's Top 100 Liquor Brands to make Chinese and foreign drinking clear about the rankings of both Baijiu and foreign liquors among global liquors and provide a reference for everyone.

Mr. Gang Chen, Secretary-General of the World's Liquor Brand Value Evaluation Organizing Committee, detailed the evaluation method: V＝(P1+P2) * F*S, where, V is brand value, P1+P2 is supernormal profit, F is brand strength, and S is brand status, namely, the brand value evaluates intangible assets of liquors mainly from 3 aspects: economic indicators (including revenue and profits, etc.), brand strength (including enterprise nature, industry nature, leadership, stability, internationalism, and development tendency), and brand status (including brand positioning, brand architecture, brand communication, and brand management). In particular, it should be noted that unlike the list of top 200 Chinese liquor brands by value that calculates the value of enterprise brands, the list of world's top 100 liquor brands calculates the value of single product brands.

3. Why Diageo?

Possessing three among the world's seven spirits champions, Diageo is the group with the largest number of spirits champions, which conjures up the Chinese table tennis team. Diageo is a famous spirits group in the UK. It is among the Global 500 and is the world's largest foreign liquor (relative to Chinese liquors) company, with a range of top liquor brands involving distilled liquor, wine, and beer, etc.  A company similar to Diageo is Pernod Ricard. Let's see the renowned brands under them below.

Among the released list of the world's top 100 liquor brands, Diageo has 12 brands and Pernod Ricard has 10 brands, with the total brand value of products of the two companies reaching RMB1.118014 trillion, accounting for about 42.41% of the total brand value of all foreign liquor brands (RMB2.636165 trillion).

4. The best Vodka

As a national liquor of Russia like Moutai of China, there are many brands of vodka with a long history, which makes almost all Chinese people believe that Russia's vodka brands must come out top. However, Russia, the traditional core producing area and largest market of vodka, has only Five Lakes Vodka and Stolichnaya listed among the list of world's top 100 liquor brands, and their brand value and rankings are low, much lower than the British vodka. We can see from the list of world's top 100 liquor brands by value that the brand value of a bottle of British Smirnoff vodka is amount to that of 13 bottles of Russian Five Lakes vodka.

5. A battle between Chinese and U.S. liquor industries

Chinese brands are far ahead of U.S. brands among the world's top 100 liquor brands no matter in terms of the number selected or total brand value.

The excellent performance of Baijiu has contributed to the Chinese liquors' thoroughly defeating the U.S. liquors. There are mainly three reasons: firstly, there is a large base of drinking population in China, with huge consumption and market space; secondly, among the Chinese liquor companies, Moutai has become the liquor company with the highest market capitalization in the world; thirdly, consumers favor more high-end and better Baijiu with the consumption upgrade of the Chinese society, which has indirectly increased enterprise profits. Imported liquors account for a large share in the U.S. market, while, the long history and culture have contributed to the absolute dominance of Baijiu in the Chinese market. As a result, the cultivated own-brands vary greatly in the two markets.

6. Why Baijiu cannot be sold well over the world?  

The brand value of China's Kweichow Moutai ranks 1st among the world's famous liquors, however, European spirits still have a monopoly position in the international market. From the perspective of the market capitalization of listed companies, Moutai and Wuliangye have overwhelming advantages, but they have a very large gap with European spirits in terms of global influence, overseas income, and overseas profits. The following chart shows a comparison between the market capitalization of Chinese and foreign spirits companies (by Aug. 16, 2019, in RMB100 million)  

According to the relevant data statistics of the WHO, China is the largest distilled liquor producer and consumer in the world, with the annual average production accounting for about 30% of the total distilled liquor production in the world and consumption accounting for about 28.5% of the total distilled liquor sales in the world. However, the international market share of the British whisky is the highest, to reach 30.25% among famous liquors in the world; French brandy ranks 2nd, to reach a market share of about 11.5%-13% in the world; while, Baijiu only account for 0.76%. Take Pernod Ricard for instance, the overseas income of this French company exceeds 90% of its total income; by contrast, almost 95% of the income of Baijiu enterprises is achieved in the domestic market.

Chinese distilleries need to tell the world when should Baijiu be drunk.

For more information, please click here Spirit campany ranking 2019.pdf