"Three golden monkey tofties are a good cup of milk. ”
Among many domestic candy brands, Golden Monkey Milk Candy used to be among the top three, but now, it has gradually disappeared from the shelves carrying the memories of the 80s and 90s.
And this is inseparable from the acquisition turmoil experienced by the golden snub-nosed monkey.
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In 2008, Golden Monkey Milk Candy became popular with its assured milk source, and its annual sales reached 2 billion, achieving the peak of the brand's revenue.
But the good times did not last long, and in the next few years, the golden monkey toffee was slowly left out in the market, coupled with the impact of some negative news, the group's operation began to have problems.
At this time, Zhao Qisan, the founder of the Golden Monkey Group, made a controversial decision: to sell the Golden Monkey brand to an American company.
The acquisition was finally sold at a price of 2.6 billion, and after the news came out, overwhelming doubts surrounded Zhao Qisan.
"Another national enterprise sold to foreigners!"
In 2014, the American Hershey Group acquired 80% of the shares of Golden Monkey Candy for 2.4168 billion, and two years later, the remaining 20% of the shares were also acquired by the other party at a price of 235.3 million.
After this news came out, many Chinese people were helpless and angry.
On today's dazzling supermarket shelves, the golden monkey toffee is inconspicuous and has long faded out of the historical stage, but at that time, it and the White Rabbit toffee were frequent customers on the table of every household, and they were also the pride of domestic candy.
Such a national brand was sold to a foreign country, and it was naturally difficult for people to accept it.
As the founder of the Golden Monkey Group, Zhao Qisan also has mixed feelings at the moment, and he did not expect to get to this point.
Zhao Qisan
And the beginning of everything started when he took over an electrical appliance factory.
In 1979, in Shenqiu County, Henan Province, 31-year-old Zhao Qisan stood in front of a township-run electrical appliance factory, and he became the new director of the factory.
This sounds like a good thing, and people can't help but guess what kind of background Zhao Qisan has.
But this is not the case, he was originally just an ordinary worker in an electrical factory, and this time he was also ordered to take office.
At this time, the electrical appliance factory was burdened with a huge debt of 1.22 million, with only more than 30 employees left, and it was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Even now, 1.22 million is not a small number, let alone in the 70s. In front of Zhao Qisan, the newly appointed factory director, is a mess.
But he didn't give up, but repeatedly thought about ways to revitalize the factory, saying that wealth often coexists with crisis, and if you get through this difficulty, isn't it an opportunity for yourself?
Soon, Zhao Qisan really found the problem: at that time, the reform and opening up had just begun, most of the people's lives were not rich, electrical appliances were actually "luxury" for most people, and the natural benefits of electrical appliances factories were not good.
In order to find a new direction, Zhao Qisan went to Shanghai to investigate, and then decided to transform the electrical appliance factory into a food factory.
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With such an idea, Zhao Qisan took the factory to make a series of changes, and the "Shenqiu County Food General Factory" was freshly baked.
However, the road ahead for the food factory is still difficult......
After Zhao Qisan successfully transformed the factory, he faced a big problem: no funds.
The new factory built had no food masters, no good equipment, and even couldn't afford raw materials, and Zhao Qisan didn't know how he got through it during that time.
"Squatting on the wharf, sleeping in the station and bathhouse, pulling a cart to go to the village to visit the household, selling along the street, not eating for a day or two is a common thing, and the wheat has to rely on the staff to make up ......"
Zhao Qisan took the wheat made up by the employees, gritted his teeth and borrowed 10,000 yuan from a loan shark, and invited a few pastry chefs in Shanghai to make some popular moon cakes and pastries from the raw materials, and the food factory finally had a product.
"At that time, I ate the first batch of baked pastries and thought how they were so delicious. ”
After getting through the initial difficulties, Zhao Qisan tasted the sweetness of hard work, and the food factory began to make a profit, earning back more than 30,000 yuan in a year.
Since then, the profitability of the food factory has increased year by year, and Zhao Qisan has also gained confidence and has continuously launched various new products, and popular beef jerky, canned food and other delicacies in first-tier cities have appeared in various parts of Henan.
Zhao Qisan's decades of operation have given this food factory a market value of tens of millions, and he has also begun to want to make a long-term product and brand.
In 1991, Zhao Qisan discovered the rise of domestic candy during an investigation, and he also ignited the idea of making candy, and the following year, he bought the new pillow toffee technology of the Shanghai Food Research Institute and founded the "Golden Monkey".
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Perhaps, as Zhao Qisan hoped, this year is the Year of the Monkey, and his "Golden Monkey" has also become popular, creating a sales miracle of more than 20 million that year.
In 2003, the advertising slogan "Three golden monkeys are a cup of milk!" appeared on CCTV, and golden monkey toffee swept all over the country.
Zhao Qisan was also very prescient, looking at the hot toffee, he immediately selected the milk source base in Henan and Inner Mongolia.
This move allowed the golden monkey toffee to escape in the 2008 "melamine" incident, and at the same time that some brands of toffee were taken off the shelves, the golden snub-nosed monkey brand became the conscience in the eyes of the Chinese people, and it became a big hit.
But after the peak of the year, the golden monkey began to go downhill, and its Xi "following the trend" is one of the keys.
From the rise of Zhao Qisan with a food factory, to the creation of the Golden Monkey brand, we can see that he has always had the thinking of "imitating explosive products".
The various new products of the early food factories are not mentioned for the time being, and the various main products of the golden monkey are also the same later: cylindrical toffee similar to the White Rabbit, pastries similar to Xu Fu Chi, and gummies similar to Wang Tsai......
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In fact, this is also the usual method of many brands, in the beginning, this kind of "following the trend" has been a market norm.
However, with the strengthening of brand awareness in recent years, some low-end copycat brands are rampant, and this behavior has attracted more and more controversy.
And the golden monkey was saddled with a lot of negative news because of this, and Zhao Qisan also discovered this, but at this time he was also a little powerless.
Since 2007, the sales of golden monkeys have not increased again, which is due to the reason of "following the trend" and the increasingly fierce market competition.
By 2014, Golden Monkey Candy fell out of the top ten in the candy industry, and Zhao Qisan was already disheartened because he failed to go public.
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As a result, the golden monkey was eventually acquired by the Hershey Group in the United States. But the strange thing is that three years later, the other party sold the golden snub-nosed monkey back at a very low price, why is this?
It turned out that Hershey Group was interested in the influence of the old brand Golden Monkey in the third and fourth tier cities, and was ready to open an opening in the domestic candy market from here.
Hershey Group products
But soon, they found out that this calculation had failed.
First of all, after the acquisition turmoil, many Chinese people were reluctant to buy the filter of the golden snub-nosed monkey, and the market reaction was not as good as expected.
Then there is the Golden Monkey Group, as a private enterprise, the internal management of American companies is completely different, and they completely cannot understand this model of talking about human feelings and calling brothers.
Not only could it not be integrated internally, but the business also could not be run, and when the Hershey Group wanted to send someone to communicate with the dealers, the other party ignored it.
In this way, Hershey Group acquired the Golden Monkey brand, but it couldn't control it at all, and finally had to stop losses in time.
In 2018, Hershey Group sold the golden monkey to Henan Yuxiang Food Co., Ltd. at a price of 270 million, and this "monkey" returned to the embrace of the motherland, which can be regarded as a beginning and an end.
However, it is still difficult for today's golden monkey toffee to return to its former glory.
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With the rapid development of the domestic economy, a variety of delicious foods continue to emerge, the era of scarcity of materials is gone, and the people's demand for candy is getting less and less.
But that sweetness, along with those unforgettable stories, will forever remain in the memory of a generation......