Liu Jie, general manager of Youhe Group Co., Ltd.: Rely on science and technology to seize the new track of the industry

Source: Economic Daily

Recently, Liu Jie, general manager of Youhe Group Co., Ltd., has been under some pressure.

After an extraordinary 2020, The goal of Unhod Group this year is to double its performance. How? Liu Jie replied: "Adhere to scientific and technological innovation and data empowerment." ”

Walking into the headquarters office of Youhe Group, there is a huge display screen on the left side of the main entrance, which displays the supplier price index, import volume, customer growth trend, sales trend and other data in real time. It's hard to imagine that such transparent, highly integrated, intelligent data analysis comes from a company whose main business is import services for frozen meat.

"Strictly speaking, we are no longer an import agency company, but a global full-chain integrated service platform based on the industrial Internet." Liu Jie told reporters that over the years, with the help of scientific and technological innovation, the company has grown into "2020 Top 100 Private Enterprises in Guangdong Province" and "Top 200 Chinese Import Enterprises in 2019". Next, the company's service platform will build a global food safety guarantee system through data empowerment, so that the people can eat more at ease and more at ease.

For the food industry, safety comes first. "Especially for imported food, it is difficult for the people to be truly assured in the absence of traceability information." Liu Jie said that the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020 is an opportunity for the company. Affected by the overseas epidemic, the safety of imported frozen products has become the focus of society. The company has strengthened its confidence in scientific and technological innovation and accelerated the development of the traceability system for frozen products.

On December 12, 2020, UOHe Group officially released the "You Cold Chain" global traceability system, which comprehensively applies new technologies such as Internet technology, Internet of Things, big data, and blockchain to affix "ID cards" to each imported frozen product to achieve positive traceability and reverse traceability.

"Based on our network of global meat production areas, we have reached strategic cooperation with source suppliers." Liu Jie said that starting from the source pasture and slaughterhouse, the company gave each box of meat a "first stop code". This code will follow the product, and in each circulation link, it will be endowed with the corresponding origin, processing plant, customs clearance, inspection and quarantine, nucleic acid test report, disinfection report, receiving enterprise and other information, forming a "one code to the end" upstream and downstream traceability closed loop. In the end, consumers only need to "scan" with their mobile phones to clearly obtain the traceability information of the product.

"Based on this traceability system, we are building a food safety guarantee system, so that the people can pay for the real good things, the market value of the product can be fully tapped, and the industry can achieve real prosperity and stability." Liu Jie said that at present, in accordance with the requirements of relevant ministries and commissions of the state, youhe Group is jointly developing a traceability system for all categories of imported food with relevant national agencies.

Behind the global traceability system of "You cold chain" is actually the diligent pursuit of scientific and technological innovation by Youhe Group for many years. Liu Jie, who has a professional background in computer science, has a deep feeling for enterprise information management: "Frozen products are a very traditional industry, and the chain of import links is very long. In order to have a better and greater development, it is necessary to combine science and technology, improve the ratio of manpower, and carry out refined management. This is also our core competitiveness and the endogenous driving force for the development of enterprises. ”

In 2014, UHod Group began its first technological "electrocution". Liu Jie said that there was no concept of information management in the industry before, and even most of the domestic meat wholesalers were still handwriting bookkeeping. All product management of the company also relies on excel forms. As the port business continues to expand, the form is getting bigger and bigger, so large that the computer can't move. "It makes us work very painfully. What to do? An information management system must be used. Liu Jie recalled that in this process, because the conventional general system did not match the company's needs, it failed twice. The third time, the company decided to do it itself.

"As soon as the decision was proposed, everyone thought it was crazy: how could a traditional industry like ours build its own IT team? As a company with no technical experience and no IT genes, we don't even know where the technicians are. Liu Jie said that we contacted the implementer of the previous system, and at the suggestion of the other party, purchased their underlying architecture, and developed the system on the basis of the system to build our own management system.

"In 2016, as information management matured, we further developed the underlying architecture. Today, the system is fully autonomous and has been iterated to the second version. Our IT team has also grown from the earliest 3 people to the current 100 people, which is the largest department of the company. Liu Jie said that the company has also made a comprehensive transformation, relying on the intelligent operation of artificial intelligence to achieve full-chain risk control and information analysis of business processes. At present, the company has 2 invention patents and 10 computer software copyrights. "Now our customers also do not use handwritten bookkeeping, on the mobile phone can achieve a key query, into our enterprise WeChat group, enter the corresponding instructions, intelligent customer service robot can provide orders, inventory and other customer information at any time." Liu Jie is quite proud of this.

"Enterprise development, to maintain the momentum of continuous innovation and continuous progress"

In the interview, the track is a word that Liu Jie frequently mentions. In her view, "for business managers, if they can't choose a track well, it is fatal to the development of the enterprise."

There are two major "track" changes in the development of Youhe Group: one is to transform from the import of waste plastics and waste hardware to the import of frozen meat products; the other is to upgrade from a single port service model to a full coverage of national maritime ports.

In 2008, UO Group was formally established. As one of the founding team members, Liu Jie is responsible for the company's operations. In the early days of the establishment of the company, it was mainly engaged in the import of waste plastics and waste hardware. Liu Jie said: "At that time, the domestic manufacturing industry was at the lower end, and the supply of raw materials was insufficient. Waste plastics, waste hardware imports, as products of the times, have played a certain role in promoting the development of China's manufacturing industry. But during a factory visit in October 2009, she found that the industry was not sustainable, "I saw around the factory that the street was full of similar products, there was no high-end industry."

"After research and judgment, in July 2012, we decided to suspend all imports of waste plastics and waste hardware and switch to the food industry. Although the profit margin of the food industry is not high, it is a people's livelihood industry, and the operation system is basically the same. Liu Jie said.

On October 3, 2012, Liu Jie received the first import order for chicken leg jelly products from Tyson Foods Co., Ltd. in the United States, with a total of 48 containers and a value of more than $15 million. She told reporters that at that time, the largest seller of chicken legs in Guangdong Province urgently needed to import a batch of goods from Tyson. However, due to the serious smuggling of frozen products and the low transparency of the declared prices of frozen products, the actual import price cannot be supported by customs valuation in the declaration process. This makes the customer's cost forecast inaccurate and makes a loss. "The best solution is to communicate with the customs to provide more credible information to prove the authenticity of the import price and let the customs trust us." Liu Jie recalled that at that time, we provided two solutions: one was willing to pay a compliance deposit of 5 million yuan; the other was willing to use the bank d/p (payment payment) method to collect the whole process of funds by the bank, and make customs declarations according to the actual payment of the foreign exchange bill by the bank. In order to ensure the clarity and transparency of the capital chain, the company agreed with the customer to trade in the form of "one cabinet and one single", and finally generated a customs declaration form and a quarantine certificate. This scheme is still in use today and has formed industry rules.

"This incident made me realize that only by adhering to standardized operation, transparent management and ensuring corporate credibility can we achieve long-term development." Liu Jie said that the order made the company famous in the industry and became the exclusive agent of Tyson's poultry products in China. On the recommendation of the American Poultry Association, we also won the Chinese agency service rights of the top three chicken exporters in the United States. In June 2013, the import volume of Youhe Group ranked first in Shenzhen.

The pace of development of U-He Group has not stopped. "Enterprise development can not have a small wealth is a peaceful mentality, to maintain continuous innovation and continuous progress of the momentum." After the Spring Festival in 2013, Liu Jie took two colleagues to Tianjin to start a new business expansion.

"Previously, import service companies were all operating locally, and there was no cross-port service model. With the rapid rise of China's Internet, information barriers have been broken, downstream sales channels are becoming more and more diversified, if you can not provide full-port solutions, customers will eventually abandon us. Liu Jie said.

Under the leadership of Liu Jie, after half a year, UHe Group successfully gained a firm foothold in Tianjin and expanded its business to Shanghai, Dalian, Qingdao, Xiamen, Ningbo and other places in the following two years. At present, UOHe Group has achieved full coverage of the world's upstream export factories and all domestic maritime ports.

"If you continue to operate in the traditional trading model, it is easy to lose customer stickiness"

In 2014, with the launch of the information management platform and the full coverage of the national maritime ports, Youhe Group began to gradually open up the upstream and downstream industrial chains, completely abandoning the operation mode of "buying low and selling high" and "middlemen earning the difference" of traditional trading companies, and transforming into a comprehensive service platform, with service value as the main revenue.

"Because, on the one hand, the profit margin of the frozen product industry itself is very low; on the other hand, since 2014, as the Chinese market has become more transparent and open, more and more overseas merchants have come to China to set up direct companies." If we continue to operate in the traditional trading model, it is easy to lose customer stickiness. As a service platform, we can provide more accurate and efficient services and form a unique competitive advantage. The construction of the service system is our current moat. Liu Jie said.

At present, UHod Group can provide services for nearly 2,000 downstream wholesalers and meat product companies in China, with a market coverage rate of more than 60%, and set up branches in Europe, South America, North America, Africa and other regions. In 2020, the import volume of meat imports of UHo Group was close to one-fifth of China's total commercial trade imports, and the number of orders received increased by 20% compared with 2019.

Liu Jie explained that although China is the world's largest importer of frozen products, it does not have international discourse power and pricing power. An important reason is that in the international bargaining negotiations, the domestic industry does not have the industry price index as a reference, and it is difficult for enterprises to accurately distinguish the authenticity of the information provided by the opponent, which is very passive in international procurement. At present, Youhe Group has built a data center platform on the basis of erp enterprise management system to open up the data of various departments and form a big data intelligent analysis platform; through data empowerment, the formation of a price index and customer evaluation system can conduct more accurate analysis and judgment on customers and industries.

Liu Jie believes that with the transformation and upgrading of China's animal husbandry industry and the continuous increase in food safety protection, meat supply will develop in the direction of fresh and frozen. (Economic Daily-China Economic Network reporter Yang Yangteng)