Speaking of Yan Bin and his Reignwood Group, most people may not have any impression, but when it comes to "sleepy and tired to drink Red Bull", most people probably know it.
It was this bottle of drink that created a precedent for functional drinks in the land of China, and it was this bottle that sent Yan Bin to the wealth list and became an entrepreneur who made significant contributions to the reform of China's food industry. In this issue, Ziya Tong Fun Merchant will talk about Yan Bin and his Red Bull past.
Yan Bin, who was born in Shandong in 1954, was a man with ideas, and in the era of industrial Daqing and agricultural Dazhai, he went to Thailand with 90 yuan in his arms, hoping to develop there.
When he first arrived in a foreign country, a peasant boy who graduated from junior high school, had no relatives and no reason, did not speak Thai, and had a hard life, how to fill his stomach became a problem he had to face seriously every day, and at the most difficult time, a restaurant in Chinatown took him in.
Yan Bin, who has gone through hardships, knows that life is not easy, with a flexible mind and hard work, he quickly won the trust of the boss, was promoted to restaurant manager, life began to settle down, and he gradually came into contact with the operation and management of the restaurant.
In the 1990s, when thai real estate prices soared, Yan Bin seized the opportunity to found reignwood Group, devoted himself to the real estate industry, and soon became a Thai company with a position in Thailand.
At that time, China was vigorously promoting the economy, the people's living standards had improved significantly, and the investment environment was constantly improving. Yan Bin is keenly aware that a series of changes in China will inevitably bring immeasurable development opportunities to the consumer market.
After a lot of research, Yan Bin found a beverage that was very popular in Southeast Asia, that is, Red Bull, which later occupied a large number of functional drink markets in China. If southeast Asian people like it, can it also be promoted in China? He wants to introduce it to the Chinese market.
Born in Thailand, Red Bull Beverage is popular around the world for its unique anti-fatigue features. In 1993, the founder Xu Shubiao introduced Red Bull Beverage to Hainan, China, but because there was no such beverage category in China at that time, and there was no market access approval, Xu Shubiao ended in failure.
Although he learned about Xu's failure experience, Yan Bin, who believed that "Red Bull can do it", still did not give up, and he had his own set of combination punches to open the market.
First of all, Yan Bin found Xu Shubiao, who was also a Thai Chinese, and he quickly got Xu's authorization and persuaded Xu Shubiao to modify the formula to adapt to the Chinese market and meet the approval requirements.
Then, in cooperation with China Food Industry Corporation and Shenzhen Zhonghao (Group) Co., Ltd., he obtained the production license approval for the formula and content of "vitamin functional drinks" through China Food Industry Corporation, laying the foundation for Red Bull to legally enter the domestic market. Next, Yan Bin spent nearly 7 years to obtain the "Red Bull" trademark in China.
With the formula, the brand, and the production license, Yan Bin cleared the obstacles for Red Bull to be listed in China. However, a beverage product listing also needs to have a broad market understanding, and the Chinese beverage market at that time was the world of Coca-Cola, Wahaha, Lebashi, Jianlibao and other enterprises, and no one had heard of any functional drinks.
If there is no market, then cultivate the market.
Yan Bin started from the Spring Festival Gala, started from the sponsorship of sports events, and with advanced investment regardless of cost, the slogan "thirsty to drink Red Bull, sleepy and tired to drink Red Bull" was implanted in the hearts of young consumer groups, making the Red Bull brand almost a household name.
With Yan Bin's dazzling combination of punches, Red Bull vitamin functional drinks have rapidly dug up in the Chinese beverage market, becoming the strongest functional beverage brand in China as early as 2012, occupying 80% of the market share of the entire domestic anti-fatigue beverage market.
Yan Bin also transformed from a Thai overseas Chinese businessman into the "godfather" of China's functional drinks, appeared on the Hurun Rich List, and served as the honorary president of the China Overseas Chinese Merchants Federation.
Just when Yan Bin's Red Bull business was booming, a major event with a profound impact on Red Bull occurred. In March 2012, Red Bull founder Xu Shubiao died of illness. The original tacit cooperation between the two sides has changed.
The second-generation heir of Tencel in Thailand, controlled by the Hsu family, negotiated with Yan Bin about the equity, dividends and cooperation of China's Red Bull.
On the one hand, through the Guangzhou Yao Energy Company under its control, the launch of "Red Bull Aneji Beverage" hit the market, not only did not abide by the original 50-year cooperation agreement with Yan Bin, but also did not recognize Yan Bin's five major production bases for Red Bull over the years, and developed a dealer system throughout the country.
The purpose of the Hsu heirs is nothing more than to put the brand and production control of Red Bull in China in the hands of Thai Tencel.
What's worse is that in 2014, Tencel thailand stopped supplying raw materials to China Red Bull, allowing China Red Bull to hand over all intellectual property documents to Thai Tencel, and at the same time recruiting middle and senior employees of the original Red Bull operation team at high salaries to create a new operation team of Thai Tencel in the form of digging corners.
Faced with the step-by-step advance of Thai Tencel, Yan Bin initially chose to make partial concessions. But when he saw the true purpose of Thai Tencel, the decisive man began to use legal weapons to protect the fruits of his struggle.
However, the dispute between China's Red Bull involves the sales of Red Bull series of beverages in the entire Chinese market, with annual sales of more than 20 billion yuan, in the face of such huge economic benefits, Thai Tencel is willing to let go easily, and the two sides have launched a fierce game around the ownership and use of the Chinese Red Bull trademark.
At the same time, Yan Bin actively planned to accelerate the research and development of new products of Reignwood Group, launched a warhorse energy vitamin drink with anti-fatigue function, laid out high-end drinking bottled water, natural coconut water, children's juice and other categories, and gradually built a product matrix covering all consumption age groups to cope with the adverse effects of Thai Tencel in the market.
Since 2016, the dispute between China Red Bull has lasted for 5 years, involving legal issues such as the ownership and use rights of The Red Bull trademark of China, as well as the validity of the cooperation agreement signed between Xu and Yan Bin, as well as a series of market means such as tencel cutting off raw materials, launching new products, and digging corners, and involving the interests of all suppliers, distributors and consumers in the upstream and downstream of the entire industrial chain of China Red Bull.
Relatively speaking, Yan Bin is more passive, but in the 26 years of development of China Red Bull, Yan Bin and Reignwood Group have invested huge energy and financial resources, while Thai Tencel has done nothing except share profits, yan Bin and Reignwood Group are the core guarantee for the development of China Red Bull.
The results are not yet available, but we believe that the law will uphold fairness and justice, and will protect the legitimate rights and interests of suppliers, distributors and consumers.
For Yan Bin, that hard-working experience can never be forgotten, and he has deeply experienced the pain, struggle and confusion caused by poverty.
In the process of developing Red Bull in China, in a corner that is not noticed by the public, Yan Bin has witnessed the poor and difficult life of many people. Draught does not forget to dig wells, Yan Bin, and Reignwood Group can have today's achievements, inseparable from China, inseparable from China's economic development, but also inseparable from China's thousands of consumers.
Yan Bin decided to combine the development of the enterprise with the feeling of serving the country and the main pulse of national development, actively participate in public welfare undertakings, assume social responsibility, and use practical actions to help those in need and places.
Over the years, he and his enterprises have actively participated in poverty alleviation and various social welfare undertakings in various forms such as project poverty alleviation, donation of hope projects, and the establishment of various special funds, and have been elected as the honorary president of the China Charity Federation for his outstanding contributions.
At the snap of a finger, Yan Bin has been working in the Chinese beverage market for 26 years. Under his leadership, Red Bull of China has developed from scratch to become the No.1 of China's functional drinks, with annual sales of 20 billion yuan and a total tax of 21 billion yuan.
Starting from China Red Bull, Reignwood Group has also developed into a large-scale enterprise group with assets of more than 100 billion yuan covering many fields such as fast-moving consumer goods, green health, general aviation, landmark real estate, resources and energy, culture and sports.
These achievements are not only the result of the continuous struggle of Yan Bin and his team, but also the result of the choice of the majority of Chinese consumers.
In 2018, in a meritorious entrepreneur appraisal sponsored by the China Food Industry Association, Yan Bin ranked first in the meritorious entrepreneur hot list with 717423 votes.
At this point, the story of Yan Bin and China's Red Bull has come to an end, what do you think about this? Everyone is welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss.
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Golden glitter