A recent internal complaint letter has directly targeted a newly appointed executive.
Recently, a significant internal controversy has emerged at Sichuan Swellfun Co.,Ltd. (SHSE: 600779), with a complaint precisely aimed at its new General Manager.
On June 15, 2026, an internal staff petition related to Sichuan Swellfun was leaked, drawing market attention. The subject of the complaint is Gan Xiaofeng, the company's General Manager who just assumed his role on June 1. The content involves his conduct, decisions, policy adjustments, and management style during his first week in office.
Has someone already challenged the new leader after just half a month? What level of dissatisfaction has this stirred among employees? Gan Xiaofeng is the first local, hands-on executive hired from outside the foreign-invested system since Diageo gained control of Sichuan Swellfun. Chairman Fan Xiangfu even expressed high expectations for him during the inauguration ceremony, quoting a classic Chinese poem. However, the emergence of this complaint letter has quickly cast a shadow over this personnel appointment, adding uncertainty.
According to an analysis by the self-media account "Xingjiu Rizhi," the complaint is "not merely the opinion of one or two employees but reflects a substantial internal faction powerful enough to counterbalance the General Manager and influence company strategy." The core of the entire incident revolves around the fate of the Shanghai office. Whether it's a single employee speaking out or a so-called "faction" creating a major disruption, this event has undeniably brought Sichuan Swellfun's long-standing internal governance issues to the forefront.
Zhu Danpeng, a Chinese food industry analyst, believes this turmoil represents a governance risk for Sichuan Swellfun beyond its business operations. It reflects that the company's internal control and risk management systems need strengthening and highlights the磨合 between local professional managers and a foreign-invested management atmosphere, as well as the long-term challenge of integrating Chinese and Western management cultures.
As of the market close on June 18, 2026, Sichuan Swellfun's stock closed at 28.97 yuan per share, up 0.56%, with a total market capitalization of 14.123 billion yuan.
Praise Turns to Internal Fire
The complaint letter is titled "Please Save Sichuan Swellfun, or Watch It Perish Indifferently"—the title alone suggests significant issues.
The recipient is Chairman Fan Xiangfu, who had just expressed his expectations for Gan Xiaofeng.
The complaint letter primarily involves four areas of concern.
First, during his inaugural speech to two thousand employees, Gan Xiaofeng publicly encouraged staff to have more sons, stating the reason was "because only men have the strength to work and fight together!" The letter claims this sparked internal disagreement, noting that nearly half of Sichuan Swellfun's employees are women.
Regarding business decisions, the letter states that Gan Xiaofeng proposed closing the Shanghai office without conducting frontline research or market assessment. Shanghai is a core operational hub for Sichuan Swellfun in East China, handling sales management, distributor liaison, and market information collection. The complainants question whether this decision underwent board review or collective management discussion.
On policy, Gan Xiaofeng is accused of adjusting the company's long-standing office smoking ban without following internal compliance procedures, allowing smoking in independent offices and meeting rooms, and converting idle areas into smoking points. The complainants state that exhaust facilities in related areas are no longer functional and that these areas are close to production zones.
Regarding management style, the letter reflects that since his arrival, Gan Xiaofeng has frequently arranged sudden staff gatherings and issued impromptu instructions, including late-night meeting notices and organizing large groups of employees to wait at external venues only to cancel last minute, disrupting normal work rhythms.
According to Tencent News' "Jiu Yun," after the complaint reached Chairman Fan Xiangfu, Sichuan Swellfun hastily convened an all-staff meeting on June 12. Gan Xiaofeng attended, addressed each point, and apologized. The related issues have reportedly been internally rectified and resolved. Separately, Sina Finance's "Jiuye Neican" cited a company representative saying: "The company is full of confidence in its operations and hopes shareholders will focus on the operational level. We cannot verify these situations, nor can we say if they are right or wrong. If it's criticism of the company, we accept it humbly. For those wanting more information, we have nothing further to say."
The shift from the Chairman's public praise to staff实名举报 occurred within just a few days. This turn of events has shifted external focus from discussions of individual conduct to concerns about corporate governance.
Bai Wenxi, Deputy Chairman of the China Enterprise Capital Alliance and Chief Economist for China Region, analyzed that the complaint spans strategic decision-making, institutional management, and corporate culture—a broad scope unlikely to have accumulated in just one week. It appears more like long-standing internal management disagreements surfacing with the arrival of a new leader. The company's somewhat vague response also reflects shortcomings in its internal issue-handling mechanisms.
Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangoal Institution, added that a new manager encountering internal dissent immediately upon taking office, against a backdrop of performance pressure, relates to factors like the company's long-term governance structure and team trust levels, not merely short-term磨合 issues.
Can the New Leader's Fire Still Burn?
Following media disclosure of the complaint, there has been much speculation about the future of newly appointed General Manager Gan Xiaofeng. However, from a general corporate governance perspective, if Chairman Fan Xiangfu and the board were to adjust personnel now, it would directly negate the selection outcome, impacting the company's market image and the board's credibility.
Following the "complaint letter incident," will Sichuan Swellfun immediately remove its new leader? An industry insider close to the company believes an immediate removal is unlikely, as the most critical factor for the company remains delivering performance.
The company's choice of Gan Xiaofeng is directly related to his professional background.
Gan Xiaofeng, 54, has held positions including Sales Head for Heineken's Southeast China region, Deputy General Manager and General Manager of the Sales Company for China Resources Snow Breweries' Guangdong regional company, Head of the Nightclub Department at China Resources Snow Breweries headquarters, and General Manager of China Resources Beverage Jingzhi Baijiu Company. He has over 20 years of experience in channel and sales management within the beverage alcohol industry. As mentioned, he is the first local, channel-focused executive hired from outside since Diageo's控股. This choice has been interpreted by the market as the company's attempt to strengthen local market operational capabilities and break free from previous issues of foreign executives struggling to adapt.
But the impact of the complaint incident is real and cannot be immediately ignored.
Internally, trust between management and staff has been fractured. That a complaint letter could be sent within his first week, claiming support from "many colleagues behind," indicates strong resistance to the new manager among some employees. If not addressed promptly, this sentiment will test subsequent work推进 and organizational execution.
Externally, the ongoing发酵 of the incident has increased观望情绪 among some distributors. Sichuan Swellfun's wholesale and代理 channel revenue had already fallen by over 50% in 2025, and the number of distributors continued to decline净 in Q1 2026. In this context, channel partner confidence is more important than ever.
The self-media account "Xingjiu Rizhi" opined that the complaint letter's author positions themselves as righteous, but issues like smoking areas and employees waiting excessively for leadership are matters for direct communication and磨合. Decisions like closing an office, similar to layoffs, could follow standardized employee申诉 channels. Yet, the most radical path of public投诉举报 was chosen. It's not hard to see that these presented complaints are actually perfectly packaged舆论弹药, with the core purpose being to制造舆论压力 and resist reforms affecting vested interests.
To date, Sichuan Swellfun's response to the complaint has remained at the internal meeting level. The company has reinstated the smoking ban and temporarily suspended处理 of the Shanghai office closure, but it has not issued an official statement or investigation结论 externally. This approach leaves room for discussion regarding corporate governance and information disclosure.
Objectively, the market has reason to maintain a审慎态度 regarding this senior professional manager's cross-industry move and his adaptation to the new sector. Gan Xiaofeng's core operational experience is concentrated in the beer/FMCG industry. The growth logic, channel ecosystems, and user经营方式 of the two alcohol categories are distinctly different. Of course, this审慎 does not equate to judging his personal能力存在短板. However, with Sichuan Swellfun's performance连续受挫 and growth space备受压缩, the market places high hopes on the new manager to deliver tangible improvements,放大 the potential adaptation短板 inherent in a cross-industry appointment.
Taking the decision to close the Shanghai office mentioned in the complaint as an example, the beer industry's core revolves around standardization, high turnover, and broad coverage, competing for market share through深度分销 and dense终端, making压缩区域管理成本 a常规操作. Sub-premium baijiu is different; it relies more on圈层营销, relationship维护, and regional深耕. A core city like Shanghai is not just a major sales hub but also a brand showcase window and a channel辐射枢纽. Directly applying beer industry management logic to baijiu operations极易产生明显的业态适配性问题.
Bai Wenxi, analyzing the Shanghai office closure decision, pointed out that in the beer industry, closing regional administrative centers and centralizing headquarters management is common. However, in the baijiu industry, especially the sub-premium segment, the impact of such decisions on regional market channel relationships and distributor信心 often far outweighs the cost savings.
Jiang Han also believes Sichuan Swellfun currently faces a complex situation交织 of governance structure, strategic direction, and channel信心 issues. While the new leader possesses rich sales experience, at this critical juncture where Sichuan Swellfun's internal governance is混乱 and its strategy urgently needs重塑, relying solely on a set of FMCG tactics is unlikely to fundamentally扭转经营困局.
Jiang Han further analyzed that Sichuan Swellfun's most pressing operational risk is持续恶化 of cash flow due to high channel inventory and失控价盘. Secondly, to overcome difficulties, the top priority should be重塑渠道信心 and理顺内部决策机制. Furthermore, it must end跨城跨层级的内耗, centralize operational decision-making authority at headquarters to提升响应效率, while ensuring distributor profits alongside控货稳价, using time to stabilize the basic盘.
Whether the person "in the灯火阑珊处" can shoulder the重任 of improving performance is the core concern for Sichuan Swellfun in transition. Gan Xiaofeng possesses local channel resources unavailable to the company's previous foreign executives and has arrived during a window where the company faces performance pressure and needs forceful调整. However, the "complaint letter incident" exposes that修复企业内部关系,重建团队信任, and adjusting management方式 all require time. And the market is not giving Sichuan Swellfun much宽裕 time.
When all筹码 are押在一个人身上, yet the开局 encounters such波折, whether subsequent expectations can be转化为实际成效 still requires持续观察.
Persistent Performance Woes and Frequent Leadership Changes
The position Gan Xiaofeng has taken over has seen an unusually high turnover rate within the baijiu industry in recent years.
Looking back, in July 2024, Hu Tingzhou took over from acting General Manager Ai Enhua, with a planned three-year term that ended prematurely in May 2026, lasting less than two years. After Hu Tingzhou's departure, Chief Strategy Officer Zhou Zhiming acted as代理总经理 for only one month before Gan Xiaofeng's appointment. Within five years, this position has changed hands five times.
Extending the timeline further, since Diageo gradually gained control of Sichuan Swellfun starting in 2010, the company has更换了 nine General Managers, with an average tenure of less than two years.
Behind the frequent executive changes are持续承压的经营数据.
The 2025 annual report shows Sichuan Swellfun's full-year revenue was 3.038 billion yuan, a year-on-year下滑 of 41.77%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 406 million yuan, a下滑 of 69.73%. The situation did not improve entering 2026. First-quarter revenue was 816 million yuan, down 14.92% year-on-year; net profit was 171 million yuan, down 10.12%. Notably, the net cash flow from operating activities changed from approximately 744 million yuan in 2024 to about -624 million yuan in 2025.
Breaking down the business structure, the pressure is evident. In 2025, Sichuan Swellfun's new channel revenue grew 23.77%, but wholesale and代理 revenue decreased by 50.95%. Their respective revenues were approximately 653 million yuan and 2.208 billion yuan, with毛利率分别减少 4.32% and 1.56%.
From an inventory perspective, Sichuan Swellfun's 2025 production volume was 10.2948 million liters, sales volume was 8.4504 million liters, and inventory volume (including finished and semi-finished products) was 82.4258 million liters. Production and sales volumes decreased by 22.23% and 29.14% year-on-year, respectively, while inventory increased by 14.77% year-on-year.
Explaining the revenue decline, Sichuan Swellfun emphasized that traditional business banquet consumption scenarios recovered slowly in 2025, and industry inventory remained at high levels overall. Addressing inventory, the company stated it is actively seeking solutions, focusing on C-end开瓶率 and establishing consumer banquet增值体验 activities. Piloted last year in cities like Chengdu and Quanzhou, these activities aimed to promote the开瓶与流转 of inventory products.
Following each round of业绩下行, a personnel adjustment often follows. With core人事权 concentrated in Chairman Fan Xiangfu's hands, this pattern of "changing leaders upon业绩下滑" has almost become a固定节奏.
Why are Sichuan Swellfun's executive changes so frequent? This requires looking at the控股股东 level.
Bai Wenxi believes the根源 lies in Diageo's始终存在摇摆 regarding strategic positioning. "In the years since控股, Sichuan Swellfun has attempted国际化,高端化,本土化, among other directions. The constant adjustment of strategic重心 means each General Manager faces different考核目标和资源配置方式, affecting management stability and strategic连续性." He also mentioned that Diageo applying some FMCG industry management methods to a baijiu enterprise differs from the白酒行业's longer cultivation周期 characteristics.
Jiang Han补充指出 that the foreign控股方's考核方式, primarily based on short-term performance indicators, has a结构性差异 with the白酒产业's long-cycle, heavy沉淀特征. "Under performance pressure, managers tend to focus on short-term data表现, squeezing space for long-term strategic布局. The模式 of adjusting management upon未达预期业绩 also容易导致战略延续性不足, causing渠道合作方 to adopt a观望心态."
This cycle of "high salary, short任期" might have sustained the situation during the industry's上行期. But as the baijiu industry整体 enters an调整周期, Sichuan Swellfun needs to重新思考解决路径.
In Bai Wenxi's view, against the backdrop of the白酒行业深度调整, what Sichuan Swellfun needs is not another "救火队长" but a彻底的战略反思,治理重构, and文化重建. Otherwise, the play of "the enduring Sichuan Swellfun with its流水般的总经理" will continue to be performed.
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