Quan people love to drink tea, and refreshments come with tea culture. In the memory of the old Quanzhou people, the refreshment is "Yuanhetang", peeling off the layers of candied fruit wrapped in oil paper, the fragrance is fragrant, salty and sweet.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the status of Yuanhetang candipress is like the current Godiva chocolate, high-end, expensive, with the name of "famous five continents, sweet and full of people", the products are exported to Japan, Canada, Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States, the Philippines and Hong Kong, Macao and other countries and regions, the peak period, assets of more than 100,000 yuan (folded into New Dollars). Now, that sweetness seems to have left Quanzhou, how to regain the past glory of Yuanhetang? This is the question that Ju Wenhui has been thinking about since he took over Yuanhetang. In addition to the competition of the same type of brand, Yuanhetang also has to face the competition of the current variety of leisure snacks.
Follow the ancient law and stick to the foundation of standing
In 2004, Yu Wenhui established the Minnan Tea Capital, but what surprised Yu Wenhui was that there were all kinds of refreshments in the tea shop, but it was the only one that lacked the source and the hall. After inquiring from many parties, I learned that since the 1990s, Genwado was once in a semi-discontinued state. For Ju Wenhui, Genwado is special, it is the sweetest memory of his childhood.
In 2008, You Wenhui began to take over Yuanhetang and became the general manager of Quanzhou Centennial Yuanhetang Food Co., Ltd. At that time, Yuanhetang was full of difficulties, there were no sales channels, long production cycles, high prices, etc., one by one problems were placed in front of You Wenhui, where was the road of Yuanhetang?
In the 1930s and 1940s, Yuanhetang was able to win the title of "famous in five continents, sweet and full of people", in addition to the reasons for the lack of materials at that time, there was also a very important point that the Yuanhetang candied fruit system selected the local abundant fruits as raw materials, took the freshest fruit, and then followed the ancient method, adhering to the traditional process of candied fruit, steaming with firewood, ceramic vat pickling, sun drying, so as to produce delicious and sweet preserves, which is the basis of The source and hall. Therefore, the first decision Ju Wenhui made when he took over Genwado was to keep the tradition and follow the ancient law.
For Genwado, following the ancient method is more cumbersome in the process and longer in the cycle, but it gives the preserves more delicious and healthy. With the improvement of economic development and consumption level, leisure food has gradually become a necessity of daily life, but at the same time, consumers pay more attention to the taste of food and green health, which coincides with the original intention of Yuanhetang.
In addition to following the ancient law, Ju Wenhui also adheres to "transparent production". For consumers, eating candied fruit, the most taboo is "dirty", many people always feel that when the candied fruit is dried, there will be mosquitoes and flies flying everywhere. Therefore, Yuanhetang adopts "transparent production", and the fired preserves are placed on the roof to dry, surrounded by a stainless steel mesh cover, which ensures that the preserves are clean and hygienic, and consumers can go to the production area to observe the production process of candied fruit, so that customers can buy peace of mind and eat with confidence.
Enterprise cooperation to rebuild channels
The lack of sales channels is an important factor in the decline of Yuanhetang. Quan people love to drink tea, in addition to tea on the tea table, there is no candied fruit as a tea match, therefore, Yuanhetang does not lack a market, what is missing is only a sales channel. To this end, the second thing You Wenhui did was to build a corporate cooperation model and rebuild sales channels.
The first direction of borrowing is tea enterprises, after communication and consultation with a number of enterprises, You Wenhui successfully reached cooperation with several large tea companies, and sold the tea of Yuanhetang candied fruit with the tea of major tea companies, and successfully opened the sales situation.
Quanzhou has the name of "Quannan Buddha Country" and "Minnan Penglai", Buddhist Taoist beliefs prevail, in addition to a variety of folk beliefs coexist, participate in a variety of temple activities, go to temples around the country to worship has become the habit of many Minnan people. Therefore, Yuanhetang developed and obtained a packaging patent for the Guanyin Li Buddha in the South China Sea, which contains 18 packs of Wuguo Liuzhai, peanuts, Wangwang snow cake, Ping An rice, and can also insert incense, lighters, shuwen, and there is also a guide map of worship, which can be described as a bag of gifts. The design is more than the national appearance patent, the unique design of this backpack, so that the product becomes a three-in-one backpack, can be lever, hand, backpack, the user can freely convert the type of backpack according to the needs of the environment, more humanized, once launched, it has received countless praise.
In addition, Yuanhetang has also cooperated with nearly 200 different types of merchants, making "Yuanhetang" everywhere, reawakening the childhood memories of Quanzhou people and further enhancing the brand awareness of Yuanhetang.
Tourism + industry cross-border redevelopment
In January 2021, the Fujian Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology and the Fujian Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism announced the first batch of fujian industrial tourism boutique routes, including Yuanhetang, three industrial tourism boutique routes on the list.
From the time You Wenhui took over Yuanhetang, he knew that industrial tourism and tourism factories are needed for the innovation and development of the industry, and the accumulation of Yuanhetang for a hundred years also provides an opportunity for the development of the tourism factory model.
In 2009, the Government of Licheng District of Quanzhou decided to transform the old factory building of Yuanhetang into a cultural and creative industry park, Yuanhe 1916 Creative Industry Park. Yuanhe 1916 Creative Park park makes full use of the scale and distribution of existing factories, in accordance with the principle of "retention, transformation, new construction" planning, the park planning covers a total area of 188 acres, construction area of 108518 square meters, including Zhongqiao Group's yuan and tang candied fruit factory, flour factory, oil factory, hemp spinning factory, TV factory and other old factories.
With the help of the opportunity of the development of Yuanhe 1916 Creative Industry Park, Yuanhetang combined tourism and industry, established the time-honored Yuanhetang Sightseeing Candied Fruit Factory, organically combined the traditional factory with sightseeing tourism, and also let the public know that the century-old Yuanhetang is still adhering to the ancient production method, while meeting the modern production process and food safety and hygiene requirements, taking the industrial production style such as factory production facilities, production processes, and workers' operations as tourism projects, with corresponding explanations, guides, DIY experience and other services. Let tourists get a variety of experiences such as sightseeing, leisure, science popularization, handicraft, shopping and so on. At present, the long-established Yuanhetang Tourism Factory has an ancient and early candied fruit culture exhibition hall, a tea culture exchange center, a reception hall, a product exhibition area, a candied fruit craft visit experience area and the entire park area for sightseeing.
In 1916, Zhuang Jiechao and Zhuang Jiemao brothers founded the Yuanhetang Candied Fruit Factory, for hundreds of years, Yuanhetang was known as "famous in the five continents, sweet and full of people", exported overseas, but also due to the impact of the market economy, once in a semi-suspended state, finally, Yuanhetang met You Wenhui. You Wenhui took up the burden of revitalizing the glory of Yuanhetang, reawakened the old Quanzhou people's memory of the old brand of Yuanhetang, and also kept the footsteps of young people leaving, and pushed out this century-old brand to let it go further.
Source: Contemporary Brands, No. 1, 2021