Duck Dynasty Down: Quanjude's Profit Sees Steep Decline in 2013

Steven Schwankert | Jan 23, 2014 3:00 pm | Add a comment | 2298 reads

Things must be tough when even Beijing's most famous Peking duck brand's sales suffer.

Quanjude announced Wednesday that its 2013 net profit dropped 28.4 percent compared last year, a drop the company attributed to "the market environment, a reduction in high-end reception services, and a national H7N9 avian influenza epidemic that affected business," Beijing News reported.

No doubt the ongoing crackdown on official largesse has put a dent in the duck business, particularly in the capital city where Quanjude is considered the top of heap in terms of the city's most famous dish.

But before anyone's hankies come out, the century-old duck purveyor still posted a net profit of RMB 109 million. That's a lot of duck.

Quanjude is not alone in suffering from the crackdown on extravagance. Both domestic and international high-end spirits have suffered losses this year, and even Beijing's flower markets – purveyors of fancy high-end bouquets that typically decorate all manner of government meetings and sent as congratulations – are feeling the pinch.

The Beijing News cites National Bureau of Statistics data showing that food and beverage revenue nationwide grew a mere 9% in 2013, the first time in 22 years the industry has not seen double-digit growth. This overall trend disgusises the impact on the high-end of the business: according to the Chinese Hotel Industry Association, nearly 90% of high-end restaurants report that turnover in 2013 fell between 40 to 50 percent