Guo Benheng, President of Bright Dairy Co., Ltd.: Only good intentions can make good milk
On February 13, at the meeting of the Chairman of the China Dairy Industry Association, Bright Milk submitted A "Proposal on "Building a Harmonious Dairy Industry Chain in China"" has aroused heated discussion among industry insiders.
As the first listed company in the industry, Bright Dairy was once the well-deserved leader of China’s dairy industry. However, with the rise of Yili and Mengniu, Bright Dairy's sales revenue has fallen back to third place, although it still maintains the lead in many fields.
After the melamine incident, Sanlu, which had an annual output of tens of billions, collapsed overnight. Mengniu and Yili were also involved. Sales dropped sharply, and China's dairy industry encountered an unprecedented crisis of trust. Before and after the crisis, many people were worried about Guangming: Can this old state-owned enterprise, which has only shown accelerating growth in the past two years, cope with this ever-changing crisis? But afterwards it was discovered that although Guangming was not spared during this crisis, he was not seriously injured. By the beginning of 2009, Bright Dairy's sales business had not only fully recovered, but had even begun to grow in January.
The reason why Guangming Dairy Co., Ltd. can recover quickly from the crisis is that when the melamine incident occurred, it tested the judgment, decision-making and execution capabilities of the company's management in crisis management. . But in the long run, whether a company can successfully tide over difficulties is related to a company's character. A company's character determines consumers' reputation, and consumers' choices determine whether a company can tide over difficulties.
The milk source revolution does not happen overnight
"The fact that Bright Dairy can achieve a comprehensive recovery in sales revenue relatively quickly means that consumers have more trust in the quality of Bright Dairy." Guo Benheng is quite pleased with this.
After the melamine incident, most dairy companies across the country have focused on the issue of milk sources. Guo Benheng believes that this is the right direction: "For the current Chinese dairy industry, there have always been intermediate (processing) ) The problem of weak two ends (milk source and after-sales service). The key to strict quality control is to grasp the problem of milk source, because the production line of China's dairy industry has reached a high level. Taking Guangming Dairy as an example, our production line It can be said that it has reached the world's advanced level, and its management capabilities are no worse than those of its world's advanced counterparts. However, there is still a big gap between China's milk sources and the world's advanced level."
For this time, Bright Energy is in the dairy industry." The impact of the 9/11 incident was smaller and the recovery was faster. Guo Benheng believes that the fundamental reason is that Bright Dairy has spent a lot of money and effort on milk source management in recent years.
On September 25 last year, half a month after the melamine incident broke out, Guo Benheng wrote an internal letter to all employees titled "We Will Always Be Together." The letter stated: "In the face of difficulties and challenges that have never happened before in the history of the national and even world dairy industry, some died and some suffered internal injuries, but we only suffered external injuries."
The so-called "trauma" refers to domestic Among the three giants in the dairy industry, Guangming had the fewest problematic product categories detected and the most concentrated regions. Five batches of yogurt products were produced and sold in Beijing, and one batch was produced in Wuhan. The problem with these six batches of yogurt all lies in the auxiliary material used - industrial milk powder. The milk powder comes from a domestic supplier. In other words, Guangming has no problem with the most fundamental source of milk.
Despite this, Guo Benheng was still cruel: he would not accept milk from free-range farmers: "No milk from free-range farmers means there are no second-tier milk dealers, and the melamine incident was due to the existence of second-tier dealers. Up." Guo Benheng emphasized repeatedly.
In fact, Bright Dairy is far ahead in the country when it comes to controlling the source of loose milk. According to media reports, before September 2008, Bright Dairy had 210 self-operated ranches and nearly 500 cooperative ranches across the country, accounting for the vast majority of the milk source structure, with loose milk accounting for only about 5%. At that time, for other domestic dairy companies, loose milk accounted for more than 80% of their milk source structure.
According to Guo Benheng, as early as around 2002, Bright Dairy refused to accept milk from retail households in Shanghai, and this move greatly improved the level of Shanghai’s milk farming industry: “At present, Shanghai’s milk farming industry can It is said that it has reached the world's advanced level, regardless of the degree of concentrated cattle raising, the output of dairy cows or the quality of milk, it has reached this point.
"Before 2003, many milk stations in Shanghai were small in scale and had no concept of long-term business integrity. The problem of antibiotics was difficult to solve. At that time, Guangming had already begun to stipulate in its corporate standards the detection of antibiotic residues and labeling antibiotic-free As a result, by the end of 2004, Guangming achieved large-scale cattle raising in Shanghai, with more than 100 cattle per household, all using mechanized milking and on-site cooling systems.
Our company. The standards are much stricter than the national standards
Guangming's milk source revolution is only an important step in its dairy product quality management. There are other unique tricks in Guangming's quality management "package". p> Guangming has gradually expanded the "milk source revolution" of rejecting loose milk to the whole country, and used "identity cards" to manage cows. According to the information provided by Guangming, the so-called "identity card" refers to the one issued for each cow. A code that carries comprehensive information. Through this "ID card", managers can easily and quickly grasp the cow's family pedigree, health status, daily routine, milk production efficiency and quality, etc., and can control raw milk through it quality and provide timely and effective services to avoid fraud in raw milk to the greatest extent. Through the ID card, you can also check the status of the past generations of dairy cows to prevent inbreeding and lay the foundation for cultivating the next generation of better-quality dairy cows.
According to Guangming, through the data management of ID cards, it is difficult for milk breeding operators to artificially increase production, because the daily information of each cow is recorded, and the system automatically generates natural curves for various items. If there is a sudden increase or decrease in quantity, a sudden increase in protein content, or unreasonable fluctuations in the ratio of various indicators, the curve will have an abnormal inflection point, prompting managers to check the actual situation and take corrective measures.
In addition to establishing In addition to ID cards, the quality inspection system is also a unique feature of Guangming Milk’s quality control. “Currently, China’s national standards for dairy products are relatively low. Our self-developed quality standards are based on EU standards, and we also test dairy products. Antibiotics, aflatoxins, nitrites, etc. ”
“Most people are aware of the dangers of antibiotics. Aflatoxin and nitrite are carcinogens, and the reason why these substances are present in milk is related to cows eating moldy feed. "Guo Benheng said, "Insisting on testing these toxic substances has increased the cost of Bright Dairy. For antibiotics alone, we have increased the cost by tens of millions every year compared with other domestic companies. After the standards have been raised, Bright Dairy will judge the price based on quality. It is 2 cents per kilogram higher than other companies, and our total annual cost will increase by hundreds of millions of yuan or more. ”
But Guo Benheng believes that it is still worthwhile to do so: “A company should always put consumers first. Without consumers’ approval, everything else is out of the question.” ”
Gaming the normal temperature and milk powder market
On February 2, Bright Dairy announced three major market goals for 2009: in terms of overall growth, fully realize the transition from recovery to growth, and exceed The growth rate of the industry; in terms of categories, we will strengthen freshness, break through normal temperature, and attack milk powder; in terms of brands, we will strengthen the Guangming brand and sub-brand Jianeng to further consolidate its market position. At the same time, we launched the first domestic room temperature yogurt "Mos "Lean".
"Our original idea was to recover in 2007, grow in 2008, and take off in 2009. After the 'melamine incident', we delayed the cycle by one year. "Whether it is internally or externally, Guo Benheng repeatedly emphasized this sentence. In his eyes, surviving the crisis is only the first step for Guangming. The key is to "turn crisis into opportunity" and occupy a leading position in the Chinese dairy market.
In fact, regardless of the milk powder "911" incident, after Guo Benheng took office, although the market share of fresh milk, fresh yogurt, and fresh cheese ranked first in the country, He is not satisfied with Bright Dairy’s old position in the national dairy market, especially its position in the normal temperature and milk powder market.
“If we, Bright Dairy, have advantages in quality and technology. , but we have to turn this advantage into sales revenue, market share and net profit. Only in this way can we be "the same on the outside and the inside". Just having the inside is not enough. " Guo Benheng said so.
In early 2007, new coach Guo Benheng was appointed to take charge of Guangming when the company was at a trough in development. A storm of "change" immediately swept through Guangming: not only the "matrix" organizational structure was reorganized into a "line" and a new Normal temperature division, and also changed the company's original "focus on fresh (dairy)" strategy to "focus on dairy industry, develop fresh, break through normal temperature", and also changed the product strategy from the previous "wide variety", and cut off more than 100 products with an iron fist products with low added value and low efficiency, and concentrate superior forces on "star products".
The benefits brought by this change are obvious: in 2005 and 2006, the overall growth rate of Guangming has dropped to about 2%, and the top three positions in the dairy industry have been squeezed out by Sanlu. In 2007, the overall growth rate of Guangming has been In 2008, its fresh milk market share reached 26%, still ranking first, its yogurt share increased from 44% to 47%, and its share of room temperature milk increased from 6% to 8%.
Guo Benheng was also very pleased with the sales performance in January 2009. “According to our statistics, our sales revenue in January 2009 increased by 7% year-on-year. Not only did we achieve a full recovery, but we also achieved a certain level of growth. Growth, this is a good start for us to fully realize the 2009 plan."
Guo Benheng is also very satisfied with the promotion of the new product "Mosliyan". According to Guo Benheng, Mosliyan is China's first room-temperature milk. The bacteria are sourced from the famous longevity village of Bulgaria - Mosliyan, hence the name. The sales revenue of this highly priced product exceeded 10 million yuan in just over 20 days in January.
■Character Profile
Guo Benheng, male, born in August 1963, has a doctorate in food science and is a member of the Communist Party of China. He currently serves as the general manager, deputy secretary of the party committee and director of the technical management committee of Bright Dairy Co., Ltd. He concurrently serves as a professor and doctoral supervisor at Jiangnan University and Shanghai Ocean University, director of the postdoctoral mobile station, director of the China Food Science and Technology Society, vice chairman of the Shanghai Food Society, vice chairman of the China Animal Products Processing Society, and consultant of the National Nutrition Advisory Committee. He once served as deputy dean of the Food College of Northeast Agricultural University, leader of provincial key disciplines, manager of the new product development department of Guangming Dairy Co., Ltd., director of the dairy training and research center, director of production technology, director of the technology center, deputy general manager, and president. He has been honored as one of the top ten scientific and technological elites in China's dairy industry, one of the top ten young economic figures in Shanghai in 2007, a model leader of the National Spark Plan, an outstanding scientific and technological talent in Shanghai, a model leader of the Shanghai Spark Plan, and a leader in Shanghai science and technology entrepreneurship.