The history of Ding Xin can be traced back to 1959. Wei's father, Wei Dehe, opened a small oil mill in Changhua Village, Taiwan Province, and named it "Ding Xin". This workshop-style small enterprise, inherited by four brothers and three sisters of the Wei family, has been operating in a bleak way, maintaining the scale of small and medium-sized enterprises.
1989, Wei, one of the four brothers, was entrusted by his family to transfer from Hong Kong to the mainland. He thought about one province after another, and almost visited the whole family. Because the family business is an oil mill, he naturally thought of developing an edible oil in the mainland. At that time, the mainland market was almost all bulk oil, not to mention high quality and brand. Wei Lizhi developed "top quality sesame oil" and created the image of "Taiwan Province edible oil".
Speaking of it, Wei has not studied the pasta market, and this discovery is purely a brainwave. In Chinese mainland, in order to save money, he often sits in the hard seat of the train and eats instant noodles brought from Taiwan Province Province. Later, it was gradually discovered that people who rode together were often very curious about his instant noodles, and people often watched and even asked where they could buy them. Wei came up with the idea of opening an instant noodle factory.
After two losses, Wei did not dare to act rashly this time. He and his assistant made a detailed investigation and analysis of the market, and found that there were only two kinds of instant noodles available in the mainland market at that time: one was imported instant noodles, which were sold at airports and restaurants, but it was difficult to promote because of the high price, and the other was bagged noodles with extremely low price, which was cheap but had a bad taste. Is there really no instant noodles suitable for ordinary people in the mainland market? Wei decided to put all his eggs in one basket.
The year of 199 1 coincided with the bidding of Tianjin Science and Technology Development Zone. Wei registered a food company in the development zone, and devoted all his money to the production of braised beef noodles with a strong flavor of "Master Kong". After detailed market research, he determined that it was the most suitable for mainlanders. At that time, the Wei family had no experience in producing instant noodles, and Wei Yinghang was unable to buy machinery and equipment after renting land to build a factory. The Wei family came to Taiwan Province Province for an emergency loan for some production equipment. They used the so-called money to get the loan and got the deposit in advance. And equipment manufacturers are all delaying payment. In this way, some capital was raised to pay the arrears in the purchase of machinery. In the words of Wei Yingzhou, the later chairman of Ding Xin Company, it is very dangerous to walk like a tightrope.
Before production, the problem came out again: the "oil bag" originally packed in instant noodle bags could not be trial-produced anyway. Putting liquid oil into plastic bags is not as easy as you think. If the temperature is too high, the oil will melt, and if it is too low, it will affect the taste. In order to save the emergency, Wei had to ask his eldest brother to do it himself. In a state of extreme tension, Wei Yingzhou stayed indoors for a week, thinking hard, and finally put the oil into a plastic bag.
Ding Yi decided to use an animated character that is relatively easy to remember, instead of advertising with real people twice as before. In terms of address, in order to adapt to the thinking mode of northerners, Ding Yi decided to use the word "master" to look more professional, while the surname used the word "health" to create the image of "health food expert who pays attention to health and food". At that time, Taiwan Province Province was still very attractive to mainland audiences. In order to cater to the audience's psychology, this "Master Kong" should have belonged to Taiwan Province Province! This is in line with the characteristics of strong flavor and sufficient quantity of braised beef noodles, and the advertising word is designed as "delicious and delicious".
The TV advertisements of 199 1 are generally dull and the cost is quite cheap. In the prime time of CCTV, advertising only needs 500 yuan RMB, which is almost equal to no money for advertising! Ding Yi decided to launch a large-scale advertising campaign of Master Kong, and broadcast it in the prime time before CCTV Taiwan drama. As soon as the advertisement of "Master Kong" with beautiful voice was launched, it immediately caught fire, and all localities began to pay attention to "Master Kong" and set off a buying frenzy. The enthusiasm of the people immediately spread to wholesalers, and even there was a long queue in front of Dingyi. Wholesalers would rather pay in advance than order in advance.
In order to meet the hot demand, Ding Yi had to invest a lot of cash in the circulation field, and used the advance deposit to buy advanced foreign machinery and equipment and recruit trainers. 1992, the first bowl of noodles came out. Within half a year, the number of workers on Dingyi production line soared from more than 300 to three or four thousand, and the production line also expanded to many cities outside Tianjin. "Master Kong" sells well all over the country.
"The most important thing is that we seized the opportunity and the image of' the first brand'," said Li Jiaqun, vice president of Ding Xin Group, many years later. "If it is today, no brand can do this."
Rare opportunities and unique marketing planning have created Master Kong. Since then, "Master Kong" has occupied a leading position in the mainland instant noodle market for more than ten years.
Since "Master Kong" instant noodles sold well in 1992, the total capital of Tianjin Dingyi has increased rapidly from the initial $8 million to $200 million, and the whole assets have increased by 25 times. By 1995, the annual turnover increased from 27 million in that year to 2.45 billion yuan. At this time, the production scale of the group is in short supply, so we have to continue to set up factories and lay production lines in various places. Although by 1996, the newly established Guangzhou Dingyi and Hangzhou Dingyi had occupied the South China and East China markets respectively, the turnover of Tianjin Dingyi still reached 2.3 billion yuan. The business of the whole company is almost in crazy development.
At the beginning of the establishment of the enterprise, the supporting facilities for production in the mainland were not yet complete. At that time, Ding Yi set out to establish "Ding Zheng" company to produce packaging accessories, which not only undertook domestic business, but also contracted foreign business. Since then, the company has diversified.