How Yuanqi Forest’s ‘Three‑Control’ Strategy Uses Digital Tools to Cut Costs, Stabilize Prices, and Streamline SKUs

In early 2024, Yuanqi Forest disclosed three consecutive years of double‑digit growth; founder Tang Binsen set 2025 as a high‑quality growth year and defined the “three‑control” core strategy: control expenses, stabilize price, and simplify SKUs.

The three‑control logic is that expense control is the root, price stability the fruit, and SKU simplification the means; together they solve the long‑standing “growth‑fat, fee‑inefficiency” problem in the beverage sector.

Expense control: fast‑moving consumer goods have long channel chains and high marketing spend; many brands chase scale by pouring unlimited fees, leading to cost inflation and profit erosion. Yuanqi Forest puts expense control first to cut off the crude growth path and regain operational ownership.

Price stability: price is the sole metric of profit distribution in channels; price chaos (price inversion, channel dumping, random discounts) destroys channel motivation. By locking the price system, Yuanqi Forest protects channel profitability, a prerequisite for sustainable growth.

SKU simplification: contrary to the belief that more SKUs equal more sales, over‑splitting dilutes production, supply‑chain and marketing resources, preventing a core flagship product. Reducing SKUs concentrates resources on a single strong product, enabling expense control and price stability.

The three elements form a closed loop: fewer SKUs lower resource consumption, enabling expense control; controlled expenses prevent chaotic promotions, preserving price stability; stable prices reinforce channel confidence and drive flagship sales, delivering high‑quality growth.

Industry context: most struggling beverage brands suffer price‑plate collapse caused by fee out‑of‑control. Traditional fee models treat expense as the sole lever for sales, leading to a “fee‑for‑sales” loop where higher fees cause price chaos, which then requires even higher fees.

Traditional distributor fee systems create a “fee black hole”: entrenched利益, lack of supervision, and no closed‑loop verification, making brands passive and profit‑draining.

Digital transformation: Yuanqi Forest does not hard‑reset the old system but builds a new digital platform that directly connects to terminals, monitors sales, and allocates fees, bypassing distributor interception.

Digital core values: (1) expense reaches terminals directly, eliminating interception; (2) full traceability of fee allocation, scenario, execution and verification; (3) sales data are digitized, allowing real‑time evaluation of fee efficiency and reallocation to high‑performing terminals.

With digital expense control, price plates stay stable, channel profit is protected, and the brand can sustainably grow. The “three‑control” strategy thus serves as a practical lesson for the whole beverage industry.