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Nov. 21 (NBD) -- Kweichow Moutai Group has been making a string of personnel changes in its subsidiaries, after shares of it Shanghai-listed arm Kweichow Moutai Co., Ltd (600519. SH) plunged on disappointing earnings in late October.

Kweichow Moutai Co., Ltd, Chinese luxury liquor maker, posted its weakest quarterly profit growth since 2015, sending its shares down by a daily limit of 10 percent on October 29.

The group on Monday appointed a task force led by Chen Hua to manage its e-commerce subsidiary (hereinafter referred to as "emaotai.cn") and Wang Xiaowei as new chairman at its sales company.

Different from the past, this round of personnel changes are made in the very units that would affect the pricing of Moutai liquor.

The task force is expected to identify existing problems in the e-commerce company so as to work out targeted solutions.

Founded in 2014 with a registered capital of 100 million yuan (14.4 million U.S. dollars), emaotai.cn is aimed to integrate e-commerce resources of all units of Kweichow Moutai Group so as to increase synergy, meet the needs of market development and promote the transformation of the traditional marketing mode of the group.

Holding a 40 percent stake in emaotai.cn, Kweichow Moutai Group has set great hopes on the e-commerce unit in its efforts to push forward digital transformation and stabilize the price of Moutai liquor.

When emaotai.cn launched it cloud e-commerce platform cmaotai.com last September, dealers of Moutai liquor were demanded to sell 30 percent of the remaining quota of Moutai's classic Feitian 53 percent liquor on the new platform, in a bid to insure that dealers sell Moutai liquor at stable prices as well as to accelerate the integration of online and offline sales.

However, such move failed to stabilize the liquor prices, as some dealers sold the rest of the products through other channels to make more money, and speculators stocked up the liquor via the cloud platform and sold at a higher price, news outlet Yicai reported citing internal source.

Kweichow Moutai Group didn't conceal the problems in emaotai.cn, saying that problems existing in the e-commerce unit are mainly manifested in three aspects, which include insufficient precautions against commercial bribery and other violations and loose internal control.

The group required the e-commerce company to face up to the problems and carry out clean-up and rectification work in an all-round way.

Behind the intensive changes within Kweichow Moutai Group lies its awareness of the risks inside the company, said an industry observer familiar with Kweichow Moutai Group.

Some industry insiders predicted that changes and reforms would be pushed deeper to the level of dealers of Moutai liquor.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn