KWEICHOW Moutai Co.’s revenue rose 16.9 percent in the first half of this year compared with the same period a year ago — a strong showing for most mature consumer brands.

But by the high standards of China’s premier grain liquor, it’s underwhelming.

For the world’s most profitable distillery, which also briefly became China’s first 1,000-yuan (US$145.30) stock, revenue growth has fallen to its lowest level since 2016 and also dipped below its 10-year average.

The Shanghai-listed distiller reported revenue of 41.2 billion yuan Wednesday and a net income of 20 billion yuan, 26.6 percent more than a year ago.

The latest earnings show that the distiller has its work cut out in the second half if it wants to maintain its winning streak of the past, which saw it consistently topping its own estimates.

Moutai, which benefited as China’s middle class became more affluent, will now have to weather economic weakness in its home market where growth has dipped to the slowest since 1992.

One thing that shields this investors’ darling from China’s weak economy is its unique scarcity. Moutai’s baijiu remains the toast of choice among wealthy Chinese consumers, ensuring demand stays high, but a long distilling period of five years and constrained land to grow its grain keeps liquor stock limited.

“We think Moutai’s supply and demand structure has not changed, so we can regard quarterly fluctuations as unimportant,” Great Wall Securities analysts Zhang Yuguang and Huang Ruiyun wrote in a note Monday, adding that there wasn’t much to worry about in the long term. (SD-Agencies)