On November 16, the 70^th anniversary ceremony of Anhui Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd., and the 6th Cave Stored Liquor Culture Festival were celebrated in the No. 1 Asian Studio of Anhui Broadcasting and Television Station. The six-year-old cave stored liquor culture festival may have a profound impact on the future market landscape of the liquor industry in Anhui.

The future development of regional old famous liquor enterprises received widespread attention for some time. As more and more brands become concentrated at a faster pace, many local liquor brands find themselves trapped in a serious survival crisis under the attack by first-line famous liquor companies and regional leading companies.

Under this context, Anhui Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd. has maintained a five-fold growth rate as a new star among regional old brand. How could it possibly make it?

At the Age of 70, Linshui Is the First to Pull the Trigger of Transformation

What could be a more meaning “gift” than having ten thousand tons of high-quality raw liquor shipped into its cave at the 70th birthday of a company?

Linshui Distillery, full name “State-owned Anhui Linshui Distillery”, was established by the local government on the basis of the original “Wulong Xingfang” in 1949. It was one of the earliest state-owned liquor enterprises in Anhui Province. In January 2004, the distillery was acquired by Jindong Group and was renamed Anhui Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd. Linshui Liquor had won the first prize in the Anhui Famous Liquor Competition for three consecutive sessions and later got three gold medals in the Concours Mondialde Bruxelles. This 70-year-old traditional regional liquor brand opens a new chapter for the development of the liquor industry in Anhui. 

As other major liquor enterprises compete to stake a claim to territory in full swing in 2019, Linshui remains “calm”, immersed itself in thinking about the future development direction of the liquor industry.

The storage of ten thousand tons of high-quality raw liquor in cave is the first action taken by Linshui Liquor in a “quality revolution”.

A different scene appeared at this event. Linshui presented the biggest prize, “Craftsman of Honesty”, to a cave keeper named Chen Guangming in the cave base in Dabie Mountain, and Fang Xiyuan, a national first-class mixologist who works in Linshui. The backgrounds of these two winners clearly show how Linshui is devoted to quality.

From the storage oft ten thousand tons of raw liquor, the opening of a new cave storage base to the award of “Craftsman of Honesty”, Linshui Liquor has drawn an accurate roadmap for its “quality revolution”: Cave stored liquor must break through the original expression of quality and replace it with a consumer language to foster a new cognitive expression and quality values that lead consumer demand; the product consumption experience must be improved by focusing on differentiation and interaction centering round the “five senses” of sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch to deliver the best consumer experience and turn it into the first driving force for continuous quality innovation.

The 70-year-old liquor brand turns a new chapter, ushering in its radical market changes.

Real Cave Storage, Real Vintage, Great Mixed Flavor - That’s All Linshui’s Devotion and Innovation Are About

A blueprint has been drawn. Action is the key. The core of quality breakthrough is the breakthrough in liquor body.

As a pioneer of cave stored mixed-flavor liquor, Linshui Liquor pursues the goal of “being better committed to real cave storage, real vintage and great mixed flavor” in its “quality revolution”. In 2008, Linshui Liquor took the lead in develop cave stored iquor in Anhui. It built a six-kilometer cave storage base in Dabie Mountain and the model of rolling storage of ten thousand tons of liquor in cave.

Eleven years later, Linshui Liquor has no intention to stop its commitment to cave storage. On November 15, No. 3 Liquor Storage Cave, another new cave that Linshui built in Dabie Mountain, was put into use. For liquor enterprises, storage is the most costly business. Generally, many liquor enterprises tend to reduce the storage of raw liquor during the recession of the industry. However, Linshui Liquor goes the other way around and keeps expanding the volume of cave stored liquor.

Persistent commitment to one single goal in spite of the passage of 11 years is a sure testimony of the firm belief in the cave storage strategy. This “firm belief” turns out to be so precious in the liquor industry.

Up to now, Linshui has become the earliest, largest and most savvy enterprise in cave stored liquor development in East China.

“The 70-year-old heritage fosters a sophisticated corporate culture and cultivates an excellent technical team in Linshui. This talent advantage is relatively outstanding in Anhui and even the country.”When attending this first development forum on cave stored mixed-flavor liquor in China that was sponsored by Linshui Liquor, Ma Yong, secretary of the Party Committee, vice president and secretary-general of China National Food Industry Association, said that the water, soil, climate and ecological environment in Dabie Mountain would be the unique conditions for Linshui Liquor to develop good-quality mixed-flavor liquor with Anhui characteristics in the future. This batch of nice liquor that absorbs the aura of heaven and earth and the essence of the Moon and the Sun has become a solid foundation for Linshui Liquor to secure its fame in Anhui and even in the country in the future.

Wu Xiangdong, chairman of Jindong Group, said, “Linqui Liquor has a promising future.It spent 15 years making a kind of cave stored high-end liquor in the mixed-flavor category and delivers it from Dabie Mountain after a storage period of three to six years. The products taste as sweet as mountain spring water, as mellow and delicate as baby’s skin. These two qualities are sufficient to rate it as top liquor in China. The majority of consumers in Anhui know liquor well. I am convinced that the cave stored mixed-flavor liquor that Linshui makes in Dabie Mountain will become a new signature of premium liquor in China in the next 15 years.”

Clearly, the development of cave stored mixed-flavor liquor has attracted industry attention and serves as a model for the development of Chinese liquor with different flavors. In addition, unlike other factories operating mechanized assembly lines, Linshui Liquor has the most distinctive feature: the hand-crafted brewing skills that have been passed down for thousands of years. The 117 ancient cellars dating back to the days of “Wulong Xingfang” in the Ming and Qing Dynasties are full of beneficial microorganisms. Optimization efforts that have been made from generation to generation have turned them into a unique microbial community, onet hat is very beneficial to the purification and enhanced softness of liquor body.

In 2014, taking advantage of the unique condition of cave storage, Linshui Liquor created the Cave Stored Liquor Culture Festival. Over the past six years, progress has been made in both the volumes and prices of customized and jar sealed products from Linshui Liquor. This year once again witnessed a substantial increase in sales at the event.

From the perspectives of industry insiders, paying tribute to high quality in spite of a slow process and restoring liquor back to its origin with “a stupid method” are actions taken by Linshui Liquor in a new round of outward development attempt from a new starting point.