Sichuan Swellfun Co.,Ltd. has seen another CEO depart after less than two years, despite being recruited with a near ten-million-yuan annual salary. On May 6, 2026, Swellfun announced that Hu Tingzhou had resigned from his positions as director, CEO, member of the strategy committee, member of the nomination committee, and legal representative, effective immediately, citing personal reasons. Until a new CEO is appointed, Chief Strategy Officer Zhou Zhiming will act as interim CEO. Hu Tingzhou's original term was set to expire on June 4, 2027, meaning he left the position approximately one year early.
A Near Ten-Million-Yuan Salary Still Couldn't Retain Him Following the departure of former CEO Mark Edwards in 2023, the CEO position at Swellfun remained vacant for over a year. Consequently, Hu Tingzhou's appointment was initially met with high expectations. Public records show that Hu Tingzhou was born in 1976. He holds a bachelor's degree in Applied Chemistry from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and later earned an EMBA from CEIBS. Prior to joining Swellfun, he held management roles in sales and operations at several prominent companies, including Procter & Gamble, Kodak, and PepsiCo, and served as General Manager of Hershey China, Chief Product Officer for Ping An Group's Life Insurance division, and President of Yuyuan Tourist Mart. After assuming his role in July 2024, he received pre-tax compensation of 6.2339 million yuan within his first half-year. His total pre-tax compensation for 2025 surged to 9.9644 million yuan, approaching ten million. Roughly calculated, Hu Tingzhou received over 16 million yuan from Swellfun in less than two years. In contrast, 69-year-old Chairman Fan Xiangfu received only 1.162 million yuan in compensation last year.
It is worth noting that Hu Tingzhou's departure was not entirely unexpected—the CEO position at Swellfun has a notorious reputation for being a "hot potato." Since global spirits giant Diageo became the controlling shareholder in 2013, the company has changed CEOs eight times over 16 years, with an average tenure of less than two years; the longest tenure lasted only three years. This frequency of turnover is unmatched within the entire baijiu (Chinese white spirits) industry.
Strategic Dilemma Under Performance Pressure Behind the frequent executive changes lies immense performance pressure during a period of deep industry adjustment. During Hu Tingzhou's tenure, Swellfun faced unprecedented challenges. According to the company's 2025 annual report, operating revenue was 3.038 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 41.77%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 406 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 69.73%. This performance dragged the company's revenue back to levels seen six years ago, while net profit hit an eight-year low. More critically, net cash flow from operating activities was negative 624 million yuan, a significant deterioration from the positive 744 million yuan in the same period the previous year.
During his tenure, Hu Tingzhou attempted to address market changes by elevating the brand's positioning. In March 2025, he officially launched the "Swellfun + The First Workshop" dual-brand strategy at a press conference in Chengdu. The main brand "Swellfun" focuses on the sub-premium price segment of 300 to 800 yuan, while "The First Workshop" targets museum-level premium baijiu priced above 800 yuan. Furthermore, in December 2025, Swellfun signed actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai as its brand ambassador. However, he was operating in an exceptionally difficult environment—2025 saw the premium segment as the most notably chilled price band within the baijiu industry. This directly poured cold water on Hu Tingzhou's strategic initiatives.
Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that Hu Tingzhou did contribute to some improvement in Swellfun's performance. For the first quarter of 2026, although the company's revenue continued to decline year-on-year, it showed significant improvement on a quarter-on-quarter basis, and operating cash flow turned positive to approximately 70 million yuan. The issue, however, is that Hu Tingzhou departed at this critical juncture, casting uncertainty over who will continue to advance the "dual-brand" strategy.
Conclusion In fact, the frequent leadership changes at Swellfun are closely linked to the attitude of its controlling shareholder, Diageo. Diageo's investment cost in Swellfun has exceeded 9.5 billion yuan. Today, however, the returns on this investment are shrinking. Moreover, the continued decline of its Chinese baijiu business has dragged down Diageo's overall performance. Against this backdrop, market rumors about a potential sale of Swellfun have persisted for a long time. In February 2026, Diageo's management addressed the market speculation regarding "selling Swellfun" during an earnings briefing. Management clearly stated they had "never discussed selling Swellfun," and such talk was purely market conjecture. However, it is noteworthy that Diageo added: "If a third party proactively presents us with an offer we cannot refuse to acquire assets outside our strategic plan, as a rational enterprise, we would obviously listen and engage." In other words—we are not actively selling, but if the price is right enough, one never knows.
As performance pressure continues to mount, what fate awaits Swellfun's next CEO?
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