A century of Ji Shang
The fifth issue of the "100 Years of Jishang" series of planning walks into the 350-year-old Chinese time-honored brand "Huaimao" to understand the legendary story of this three-hundred-year-old Jishang enterprise experience.
There are few such brands, from the birth of 1671 (10 years of Qing Kangxi) to today, more than three hundred years to do only one thing, continue to serve consumers with high-quality and delicious products, in the eyes of the industry its charm has never faded, in the people to win the praise passed down from generation to generation.
Today, our program invited the person in charge of Baoding Huaimao Food Technology Co., Ltd. to talk about the development and butterfly change of this brand, as well as the long-term planning of the future.
Three hundred and fifty years old Nine generations eat locust Mao
Founded in 1671, Huaimao Sauce Garden is one of the long-established brands in China's sauce industry, and the two famous products "Huaimao Sweet Noodle Sauce" and "Huaimao Pickle" are famous for their high-quality raw materials, exquisite craftsmanship and rich sauce flavor.
Where did the word "Huai Mao" come from? There are many legends and anecdotes about the origin. But Li Jun said that the vast majority agreed with this statement: in 1671 (the 10th year of kangxi), the Shaoxing zhao clan settled in Baoding Province and opened a shop at the second intersection of West Avenue, which is now the intersection of Yonghua Avenue and West Avenue, under a large locust tree in the northeast corner.
This location just happens to have an ancient locust tree through the house, very lush, Zhao clan borrowed the scenery to make love, so he took the word "Huai Mao" to name the small shop "Huai Mao", looking forward to the prosperity of business, fu yin descendants.
Li Jun said that it is rumored that Zhao first purchased from the Cheng family, which made noodle sauce locally, and then sold it, which also confirmed from the side that before "Huai Mao", Baoding's sauce-making skills had long existed. Subsequently, Zhao added Shaoxing's sauce making process on the basis of the local sauce source, so that the flavor of Huaimao's noodle sauce was sweet, salty and delicious, rich and mellow, and the "Huaimao" gradually developed.
Passed down for 350 years, some of the most important steps in the more than 20 processes of sauce making have been preserved to this day. For example, the old tradition of "sunshine natural drying sauce" is still continuing, in most of the sweet noodle sauce fermentation more than 20 days on the market environment, each cylinder of huaimao sweet noodle sauce must be dried by about 60 days of sun to ensure that the sweet noodle sauce flavor is the best.
At that time, Huaimao pickles were not only home-cooked dishes of ordinary people's homes, but also had a relationship with the court. According to the Records of the Guangxu Imperial Court, in the twenty-seventh year of the Qing Dynasty (1901 AD), Empress Dowager Cixi returned to Beijing from Xi'an via Baoding, tasted the Huaimao pickles and gave her the name "Taiping Cuisine", which means "Taiping Under Heaven". Since then, the value of Huaimao pickles has doubled, one or two or seven dollars per kilogram of silver, with a current price of more than 500 yuan.
Driven by Huai Mao, Baoding sauce industry has gradually developed from small to large, from less to more. In 1924, the sauce industry union joined 81 sauce gardens, with more than 20,000 large tanks, and the annual production of noodle sauce was more than 3.2 million jin and 4 million jin of pickles. In addition to Huai Mao, the big households in the sauce garden also include Kuisheng, Wenxingyong, Quanshunhe, Quanxing and so on. At that time, there were more than 80 kinds of products in Huaimao.
"Striving for excellence in products and constantly adapting to consumer needs is the concept that Huaimao has been adhering to for 350 years." Li Jun said that the long-established enterprises have experienced uninterrupted production in the past 350 years and created brilliant achievements in the new era, because in each historical period, they have focused on the needs of consumers and can endure for a long time.
A new butterfly change for the old brand
As a long-established brand with a history of more than 300 years, it is inseparable from the inheritance and innovation of the brand, and it is also inseparable from the dedication of every Huaimao person and the excellence of the process.
In 1955, Baoding sauce industry accelerated the pace of public-private partnership, the government integrated Baoding City Kuisheng, Juhecheng, Wenxing Stack, Huai Changyong and other more than 20 sauce stores, the establishment of Baoding City public-private partnership Huaimao pickle manufacturing plant, three hundred years old brand into a new stage of development.
In 1983, in order to restore the old brand, with the approval of the relevant departments, the Baoding State-owned Pickle Factory was renamed Baoding Huaimao Pickle Factory, and the "Huaimao" trademark was registered, and the old name of Huaimao was circulated.
In 1988, Huai Mao, who was constantly learning to develop new products, had more than 50 kinds of pickle products, and won the silver medal of the first China Food Expo with its assorted pickles.
In 1999, Huaimao Pickle Factory was restructured into a joint-stock enterprise - Hebei Baoding Huaimao Co., Ltd. Since then, Huaimao's production and operation has entered the tide of market economy.
In 2006, because of the reputation of Huaimao, it has been passed down from generation to generation for more than 300 years, and was recognized by the Ministry of Commerce as the first "Chinese Time-honored Brand"; the production technology of Huaimao pickle was also rated as "Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage".
Take science and technology as the guide to inherit the Chinese sauce culture
"Huaimao represents the cultural imprint of a city and is a brand of food cultural heritage belonging to baoding people." Li Jun said that 350 years of deep historical inheritance and unremitting innovation have gradually formed the brand essence of Huaimao people to "brew assured food and shape noble personality".
With the profound historical and cultural accumulation and the efforts of generations of Huaimao people, the enterprise has also ushered in new changes. In 2007, Tianxiang Holdings invested in Huaimao, and Huaimao, which has capital assistance, fully opened the road of industrialization development. This capital injection has played a vital role in the relocation of the Huaimao factory and the third restructuring.
Li Jun said, "The relocation and upgrading process is not as smooth as imagined, but full of challenges. "In 2014, Huai Mao actively responded to the strategic pattern of coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei and established a new factory in Dingxing, Hebei. The production process of noodle sauce is regionally strong, the degree of automation is relatively backward, and relocating the new factory is not only an expansion of scale, but also a process innovation based on the improvement of production capacity.
Under the arduous research of Huaimao engineers, many of the technologies and equipment have achieved technological innovation and promoted the development of the industry. For example, Huaimao independently developed a special flour continuous steaming machine, which greatly improved the starch gelatinization rate while realizing fully automatic steaming noodles, which led to the technological progress of the overall industry.
Today, in the Sauce Culture Museum of HuaiMao Dingxing New Factory, there is a group of restored sculptures of ancient sauce craftsmanship. The group of sculptures is composed of 46 figures, more than 50 sauce tanks, carriages and well sheds, and the overall length is 18 meters.
This group of sculptures shows the whole process of the old craftsmen of Huaimao from drawing water, waku and making koji to the sun and night dew, and the finished product of the ancient method of brewing the sweet noodle sauce of Huaimao. In the factory building not far away, the advanced steaming machine and the curvature machine rumbled. The contrast between ancient and modern, tradition and modernity, manpower and science and technology also reflects the ingenuity of "the old brand represents the advanced productive forces".
Strive for excellence to make a good sauce, ingenuity and inheritance without slacking off. Huai Mao integrates "traditional skills" and "modern industry", and strives to maintain the essence and quality of traditional craftsmanship, continue to provide more diversified services for the consumer goods market, meet the taste needs of generations of consumers, and become the eternal memory of their tongues. In the new era, "Huai Mao" will be more leafy and fragrant.
Author | The new Jishang Legend Studio
Edit | Lihui
Hebei Comprehensive Broadcasting
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