Reading guide: In the good season of "fireworks in Yangzhou in March", the Eagle Brother Factory Exploration Team came to the Keshan Tomorrow Factory in Yangzhou on April 17, and opened the 16th station of the Eagle Brother Factory Tour.
The name "Keshan" may not be familiar to practitioners in the pet industry, but after visiting the self-owned factory of Keshan brand, we are refreshed by this start-up:
Keshan is a company that seriously wants to make a career in the pet industry.
The reason why Keshan is evaluated in this way is because it chose to build its own factory at the beginning of its establishment, attaches importance to research and development, and has invested more than 70 million yuan in total under the premise of zero income, first gnawing the two hard bones of "production and research and development" - Self-built high-standard fully automated factory of human food grade fresh meat baking grain, independent research and development to build its own scientific research team, set up pet food research institute and doctoral group, and then seek market development and long-term brand construction after doing a solid job in basic skills, showing that Keshan has been ready to promote the development of the pet industry for a long time from the beginning.
PS: The following is a first-hand dynamic compiled by the Eagle Brother Factory Visiting Team based on the on-site visit to the Keshan Tomorrow Factory for your reference.
original intention
Why did Keshan choose to build a factory first and name it "Tomorrow's Factory"?
The carving brother factory exploration team learned in the on-site communication with the Keshan team that the founder of the Keshan brand, Nemo, is a serial entrepreneur who founded a clothing brand with a revenue of more than 1.5 billion yuan last year in Yangzhou; This planted a seed of love for him to choose the pet food industry for his second venture. And this seed eventually gave birth to today's Keshan brand.
Nemo shared that the successful experience of starting his own business in the past benefited from "original intention" and "perseverance", which has also become the core value of the development of the Keshan brand. In his words, "Pets are the dearest and beloved family members of Keshan, and we hope to cook for our families, so that every bite that furry children can eat is safe, fresh, healthy and nutritious."
After learning about Nemo's first entrepreneurial experience, we felt that its accurate judgment and implementation of market strategies such as differentiated group positioning, high-quality product development, high-growth channel development, self-owned R&D and supply chain capability construction helped its business continue to operate upward.
This also unlocks the answer to the question in our minds about "why did Keshan choose to build a factory first":
First, we are determined to invest in our own factories and R&D teams under the premise of no market development, avoid the problems of product homogenization, uncontrollable production scheduling, and unstable product quality caused by OEM cooperation, and put an end to the hidden dangers of shoddy and fraud.
The second is the differentiated card position in the rapidly developing fresh meat baked grain market, which is a scientific food brand in the start-up stage, seeking a rapidly developing position in the incremental market.
The third is to choose to use human food-grade fresh meat as raw materials, choose to cooperate with well-known poultry meat manufacturers Yike and Zhengda Food, insist on high-quality product development, and dare to promise that it is a real and nutritious pet food.
At the same time, it named its own factory "Tomorrow's Factory", which has also become an important part of Keshan's original intention. In this regard, Nemo shared the meaning behind the naming of the factory of tomorrow:
First of all, with tomorrow as the direction and the end as the beginning, we hope that Keshan Factory can focus on the future, take the health and nutrition of pets as its own responsibility, and continue to seek the well-being of furry children;
Secondly, with tomorrow as the proposition, it is hoped that Keshan Factory can pursue innovation, R&D and technology-driven, and create innovative products with market competitiveness and vitality;
Finally, taking tomorrow as the responsibility, we hope that Keshan Factory will pay attention to humanistic development and assume social responsibility, increase its own soft power, and contribute to the sustainable development of society.
In fact, behind the completion of the factory of tomorrow, the Keshan team has done its homework seriously.
In June 2022, Nemo led the team to interview experts from a number of universities, organized seminars and market demonstrations in the pet food industry, discussed the research and development cooperation of pet food, and finally made a rational judgment before deciding to enter the pet industry.
Therefore, Keshan's involvement in the pet industry is prepared, and it has a strong executive style of doing things - in less than nine months, from taking land to build a factory in January 2023, building a GMP 100,000-level clean workshop in July, obtaining a production license in August, and putting the whole line into trial production in September, and then on September 16, Keshan's first cat food product S300 was officially unveiled, and in October, the official mini program mall, Jingdong, Tmall, and Douyin flagship stores were launched for sale, which can be described as "all the way open".
resolution
Why does Keshan want to build a high-specification factory?
According to the official information, the cumulative investment of Keshan Tomorrow Factory is more than 70 million yuan, covering a total area of more than 19,000 square meters, the production workshop has mastered the core patented technology of "negative pressure multi-zone low-temperature baking", the quality control laboratory has more than 30 sets of quality inspection systems and supporting instruments and equipment, through the HACCP system certification and FDA registration qualification, in line with fediaf, AAFCO and other international standards, the first phase of the production project can achieve an annual output of 50,000 tons of fresh meat baked grain, and the estimated full production operating income can reach 1 billion yuan.
As a very enlightening harvest of this carving brother's visit to the factory, it comes from the systematic solution of Keshan Tomorrow Factory for the use of fresh meat raw materials.
The first is the transportation environment for the procurement of fresh meat raw materials, which is equipped with its own refrigerated trucks and cold storage, and is put into cold chain operation to ensure that the raw materials will not deteriorate or pollute during transportation.
The second is the warehousing quality inspection of fresh meat raw materials and the inspection of finished products, the safety risk and quality monitoring of meat raw materials, and the freshness of finished particles are detected.
The third is the use environment of fresh meat raw material processing, which also reflects that it has been aware of the potential safety hazards that may be encountered in the daily use of fresh meat raw materials when the factory was built:
The first is to build a GMP 100,000-level purification dust-free workshop, including clean walls, air shower door channels, etc., to strictly control dust particles, microorganisms, pressure differences, etc., to meet pharmaceutical-grade standards.
Note: "GMP 100,000 level" refers to the control of 100,000 microparticles per square centimeter of space, which is generally the requirement of the production space environment of infant formula.
Secondly, the meat production workshop is equipped with automatic temperature control and dehumidification, air filtration and air conditioning system, which strictly controls the cleanliness, temperature and humidity, airflow, etc., and maintains a constant temperature and humidity production environment of 10-12 °C, so as to reduce the potential spoilage caused by temperature and humidity of fresh meat.
The second is the floor design in the workshop, especially the use of MKT® polyurethane mortar floor series products, with high chemical corrosion resistance, high and low temperature resistance (120 degrees to -40 degrees), high wear resistance, moisture resistance, impact resistance and other characteristics, non-toxic and environmental protection, once known as "the world's hardest industrial floor".
The ceiling design in the workshop is again, using 9512 new high-performance anti-mildew coating to solve the anti-mildew problem on the top surface of the wall, and at the same time, it has the functions of no discoloration, washing resistance, corrosion resistance, no peeling, no shedding, etc., in line with HACCP, FSMS, QMS and other certification standards.
Finally, the factory's biohazard prevention and control measures are selected to cooperate with the world's largest food cleaning products and biohazard control company ECOLAB in the United States, and the entrance of the workshop is full of pest monitoring lights, biopheromone trapping points and rodent monitoring devices around the factory, and according to the monthly cycle to summarize important information and rectification measures such as pests and rodents for safety and health inspection and improvement of the factory.
Of course, what also amazes the carving brother factory exploration team is that the baking grain production line equipment of Keshan has the Chinese process invention patent technology (patent number: 202210832289.8), which is specially used in baking pet food multi-stage partitioned hot air circulation automatic baking oven, 3 large temperature zones are configured to achieve partition drying, 6-stage temperature control design can automatically adjust the drying temperature, and experience rapid freshness, sterilization, dehydration, molding, slow drying, At the same time, through the recycling of the air channel, after many times of low-temperature bottom baking and surface baking, to ensure that the baked goods are uniform in color, crispy in taste, and effectively retain the nutrition and texture of fresh meat.
Compared with the traditional baking process, Keshan's patented baking process optimizes palatability and nutrient retention, which is mainly reflected in the fact that the suitable baking temperature fully produces the Maillard reaction and stimulates the original aroma of the food, and at the same time, realizes intelligent temperature control sterilization, without increasing the irradiation link and reducing the destruction of nutrients.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to sterilization, intelligent temperature control can also "protect bacteria" - escort the probiotics spraying process, ensure the addition of probiotics in [Keshan Cat Food S300], and achieve the "100% live probiotics" that are truly promised.
confidence
Self-built R&D team, set up pet food research institute and doctoral group
If the self-built factory is a great determination of Keshan to do a good job in the pet business, the self-built R&D team, the establishment of Keshan Pet Food Research Institute and doctoral group show its confidence in practicing long-termism.
At the same time, Keshan has also set up a pet food research institute and a doctoral group - pet food research institute through cooperation with well-known universities and research institutes to help it cultivate internal skills in the field of pet food, establish a scientific and rigorous scientific research viewpoint, and build a scientific, The doctoral team provides professional guidance on product development and quality control for the early preparation of Keshan, especially in the research and development of cat food S300 and the addition of probiotic triads, and will help the guidance and development of more new products of Keshan in the future.
According to the person in charge of research and development of Keshan, at present, Keshan has reached cooperation with the Food Safety and Quality Control Research Office of Yangzhou University, the Animal Nutrition and Health Research Laboratory of Yangzhou University, and the Pet Innovation Research Institute of Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences to establish research on pet food and pet health and nutrition.
Earlier, Keshan also cooperated with the Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences to complete the "Comparative Analysis Experiment on the Palatability of Full-price Full-term Cat Food and Full-price Kitten Cat Food", "Full-price Cat Food/Kitten Cat Food Safe Feeding Experiment", "Full-price Cat Food/Kitten Cat Food Digestibility Experiment", "Cat Strip Safe Feeding Experiment" and other projects; Comparative Analysis of Nutrient Results and Feeding Efficacy of Infant Cat Food".
epilogue
When we observe the truth of a company's practice of long-termism, we often look not at what it says, but what it does. This is the cornerstone of trust and the foundation of a business.
Keshan, who has emerged in the industry, has the original intention, determination, and more confidence, and has proved himself with practical actions, not an opportunist, but a long-termist.
As an entrepreneur, Keshan dares to build its own high-standard baked grain factory, from the application of systematic solutions for the processing of fresh meat raw materials, to the mastery of the baking production process of invention patents, from the establishment of an independent research and development team, to the establishment of a pet food research institute and a doctoral group, safety is not relaxed, quality is not compromised, and a bowl of family rice is made seriously for the hairy children.
This is an entrepreneur who comes prepared, and he is also an entrepreneur worthy of praise, looking forward to its future market performance and injecting a dose of fresh blood into the industry.