After news emerged that the Moutai Distributor Association has halted its daily operations, many people's first reaction was: is the distributor group about to be marginalized? In fact, there is no need to be so pessimistic.
The association was merely a self-governing liaison organization among distributors, not the distributor system itself. Kweichow Moutai Co.,Ltd. (600519) has also made it clear that this adjustment is a response to requirements for standardized management of social organizations, involving a systematic review and optimization of supporting operational mechanisms, while routine business such as sales and brand implementation in each province and region continues as usual, and support for market activities has not been interrupted.
What truly deserves attention is the changing role of distributors. In 2025, Moutai's direct sales channel revenue share exceeded 50% for the first time, and further expanded to 56% in the first half of 2026, with the iMoutai platform alone contributing 43.63% of revenue. As control over goods and pricing becomes increasingly concentrated in the hands of the manufacturer, the space for traditional distributors to make quick profits from the price gap between ex-factory prices and retail prices is indeed narrowing.
But a narrowing space does not mean there is no value. To give a very concrete example, Moutai proposed this year a "comprehensive turn toward consumers," aiming to deeply expand everyday consumption scenarios such as casual gatherings with friends and family reunions, and to conduct age-segmented operations targeting young people aged 18 to 45. These things cannot be covered by online platforms and self-operated stores alone 鈥?placing an order online only completes a transaction, while true penetration of consumption scenarios, customer relationship maintenance, and localized experiences still depend on distributors rooted in cities across the country to implement.
From another perspective, the functions the association used to undertake, such as coordinating cross-regional goods diversion, stabilizing prices, and collectively negotiating quotas, were already out of step with the "comprehensive turn toward consumers" direction. Now that the manufacturer has made channel rules smoother, distributors instead no longer need to spend energy on internal games and can shift their focus to terminal services and consumer operations. In 2026, Moutai proposed shifting from "self-sales plus distribution" to a multi-dimensional system of "self-sales plus distribution plus agency sales plus consignment sales," which in essence leaves distributors a new positioning: from wholesalers earning price gaps to terminal service providers earning service fees.
So it is not that distributors no longer have value, but that the era when "getting a quota meant easy money" has passed. Distributors who can quickly complete the transformation and solidly carry out consumer operations in local markets will instead gain more opportunities in the new system. The pie of the channel has always been there; only the way it is sliced has changed.
Disclaimer: This article was generated by an AI large model based on public information and does not represent the views of Sina Finance. If you have any questions, please contact: biz@staff.sina.com.cn.
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