"Three golden monkeys are a good cup of milk"
This well-known advertising slogan once resounded all over the motherland, and defeated the "White Rabbit Milk Candy" that appeared earlier than it with the advantage of being close to the people and high quality.
In 1992, the traditional Chinese Year of the Monkey, Shenqiu Food Factory launched a milk candy called "Golden Monkey", which has a dense and mellow taste, and is deeply loved by consumers.
People only know that the golden monkey milk candy is delicious, but they don't know that its predecessor is an electrical repair factory, because it can't go on and is on the verge of bankruptcy, so it has to transform, which is why it has the later "golden monkey".
Zhao Qisan, as the founder of the golden monkey, has been controversial, some people say he is a traitor, some people say he is a national entrepreneur, what are the two completely different evaluations?
Zhao Qisan, who is now 70 years old, threatened to start a second business, abandon sugar and salt, and began to enter the domestic high-end salt industry, so where should the golden monkey go?
The golden snub-nosed monkey can have today's results, inseparable from Zhao Qisan's persistence for decades, leading the factory to turn losses into profits, just when he was fully preparing to go public, but there was news that he was going to sell the golden monkey to a foreign company, is this true?
In 2014, the directors of Golden Monkey negotiated to sell 80% of the company's shares to the United States Shihao Company for 2.4168 billion yuan, because the United States and Golden Monkey often have internal differences in decision-making, and then acquired the remaining 20% of the equity at a price of 604.2 million yuan.
Zhao Qisan's private sale of the golden monkey to the American group attracted the anger of many people, but two years later, the golden monkey was acquired by a company in Henan for 270 million yuan.
After going around in circles, the price of the golden monkey has shrunk by nearly 10 times, could it be that this is secretly operated by Zhao Qisan?
The source in this article comes from official media, but in order to improve the readability of the article, the details may be polished, please read sensibly, for reference only!
Zhao Qisan was ordered in danger
In 1979, Zhao Qisan, who was 31 years old, worked as an electrical maintenance master in the county's factory.
Perhaps because of his own experience, he was sent to a county agricultural machinery repair factory as the director, which was a happy thing, but he was sad and sullen all day long, because what he took over was not fragrant and sweet at all, but a hot potato.
Who in the neighborhood doesn't know that this factory doesn't make money, not to mention, there is a foreign debt of 1.12 million yuan, and his salary was only 48 yuan a month at that time, and many people avoided the sky-high hole.
Zhao Qisan had no choice but to come here, looking at the dilapidated factory and the 37 workers waiting for wages, a sense of responsibility arose, he must let the workers have enough to eat.
It was with this belief that Zhao Qisan decided to transform the factory, and after he borrowed a few hundred yuan, he came to Shanghai alone to find a new way out for the factory.
After some investigation, he unexpectedly found that some foods are very popular in Shanghai now, such as pastries, canned food and yuba, which are not available in Henan.
The information gap between the two places gave him hope, and he could often take a car to Shanghai to see what was popular, and then immediately return to Henan for production, and the middleman earned the information gap.
After Zhao Qisan determined the direction, he was ready to start construction, but from agricultural machinery maintenance to food processing, it was completely a leap between the two fields, and the factory had to be cleaned up again, where would the money come from?
He raised funds door-to-door, but the effect was not good, after all, a factory with a debt of 1.12 million yuan, what kind of fame can be tossed?
Zhao Qisan sold everything that could be sold in the factory, scraped together the money to buy equipment, started the transformation road, and renamed the company Shenqiu Food General Factory.
Under his leadership, the factory, which was about to close down, turned losses into profits, not only repaying the company's arrears, but also making up for foreign debts.
Ten years later, the income of Shenqiu Food Factory has reached tens of millions, and it is no longer the broken factory that was on the verge of bankruptcy, but the only shortcoming is that there is no product with core value, how did Zhao Qisan overcome this problem?
Three golden monkeys and a glass of milk
In 1992, China's railway construction has developed, the original way to make money by taking advantage of the information gap between Shanghai and the mainland is no longer popular, and another point is that the wave of reform has risen, more people have begun to do business, market competition pressure is very high, and the development of enterprises is difficult.
Zhao Qisan seriously realized that the time for transformation is coming again, which aspect will he transform to this time?
When he was attending the exhibition in Shanghai, he was attracted by a kind of "pillow-shaped candy cube", which he decisively thought would be a very promising field.
Compared with the last transformation, this time he bought Shanghai's new pillow toffee technology and toffee production line with a wave of his hand, and began the second transformation of the company.
It just so happened that this year was the Year of the Monkey, and he personally liked the golden snub-nosed monkey very much, so he named the toffee "golden snub-nosed monkey".
At that time, there was only one toffee brand on the market, White Rabbit, but because of the high price, many consumers could only shy away from eating it but couldn't afford it.
This also gives the golden monkey an opportunity to seize the market, the market price of the golden monkey is very common, and many people will not feel pressure when buying, so there is a state of being out of stock as soon as it is on sale.
In 1993, after Zhao Qisan acquired Shanghai Penglai Food Factory, he registered and established Shanghai Golden Monkey Food Co., Ltd., deliberately creating their own local brand.
Since then, Golden Monkey Milk Candy has been officially established, started its market battle, and has become the leader in sugar products.
In 2003, the advertising slogan of the golden monkey toffee was "three golden monkeys are equal to a glass of milk", because of this sentence, the white rabbit sued the golden monkey for infringement, but it had no impact at all.
As early as 1956, the White Rabbit used the advertising slogan "Seven White Rabbits are equal to a glass of milk", but the Golden Monkey not only copied this advertising slogan many years later, but also carried out a strength beating, changing seven to three.
The White Rabbit Milk Candy was not angry, so he sued the Golden Monkey Milk Candy in court to defend his rights, but who knows, it did not affect the market share of the Golden Monkey, what should it be.
In 2005, Wang Baogen, then general manager of Shanghai Golden Monkey Food Co., Ltd., told the media: "Constantly running the market is Lao Zhao's secret. ”
When many people learn about Zhao Qisan's hard work model, they will say that he is a "follower", because he leads the transformation of the factory to follow others.
At the beginning, the food industry imitated Shanghai's pastries, yuba, etc., and when it was no longer popular, it began to make toffee again, imitating the white rabbit, and successfully surpassed.
Even he himself admits that the market economy is to run the market, to follow the trend, and to do whatever is popular in the market, but not blindly, but still with a brain.
Milk candy turned into table salt
Perhaps it is precisely because of his marketing strategy of "following the trend" that the company will be difficult when preparing to go public, and finally fall to the point of selling to foreign companies.
Many people familiar with the matter also said that Zhao Qisan's marketing strategy laid the groundwork for the ending of the golden monkey, after all, he has no core of his own, he has been plagiarizing, and sooner or later something will happen.
As early as 2015, the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce reported that Shanghai Golden Snub-nosed Monkey was fined 1.93 million yuan for counterfeiting the three-dimensional trademark of Ferrero Company in Italy without permission.
In 2008, Zhao Qisan was 60 years old this year, and handed over the company's industry to his son Zhao Dongwang.
At this time, the proportion of golden monkey toffee on the market has seriously declined, and the company began to research chocolate, biscuits and new products, but to no avail.
Until 2012, the IPO of Golden Monkey shares was terminated, the annual sales were bleak, and it was about to go bankrupt, Zhao Qisan went out of the company at the age of 67.
After all, it was like a factory that was about to go bankrupt before, operating an enterprise with an adult income of more than 100 million, and this time everyone still believes in Zhao Qisan's ability and looks forward to the new look of the golden monkey.
But who knew that after waiting for two years, Zhao Qisan actually sold the Golden Monkey Enterprise to the Hershey Group of the United States for 3 billion yuan, from a national entrepreneur to a controversial traitor.
My favorite milk candy has become an old American enterprise, but Chinese consumers have not done it, no matter how good you produce, I just don't buy it, two years later, the golden monkey returned to the hands of the Chinese, and was borrowed by Henan Yuxiang for 270 million yuan.
Many people are curious whether Zhao Qisan operated it, after all, there was a difference of 2.7 billion yuan before and after, and it was fair and honest to pit Lao Mei's money.
Zhao Qisan also made a clear response to this, Henan Yuxiang has nothing to do with him, he is not interested in toffee now, but is ready to start a second business and study the field of high-end salt industry.
A person's quality should be judged by many aspects, although Zhao Qisan sold the golden monkey, but his drive to the domestic economy is undeniable, without him there would be no golden monkey brand.
In addition to the influence of human beings, the development of enterprises also has the interference of the market economy and the environment, so as long as you do what you should do, the rest will be left to God's will.
Resources:
China Network: "Sugar King" Zhao Qisan said goodbye to the golden snub-nosed monkey completely
The national brand has encountered a copycat, what if the golden monkey wins the infringement lawsuit, who still eats sugar these years?
Xinhuanet: "Sugar King" Zhao Qisan said goodbye to the golden monkey and started a business to target the salt market
Dahe Daily: Zhao Qisan, deputy to the National People's Congress: The second venture aims at the blue ocean of the salt industry and drums and cheers for the industry