"The strongest leader".

Picture source @Visual China

text | Juchao WAVE, author | Lao Yu'er, editor | Yang Xuran

When the matter is over, he brushes off his clothes and goes away, hiding deep in his body and reputation.

This sentence is extremely appropriate when placed on the whole body of Zhou Bin, the "King of Mustard Mustard" of the generation.

A few days ago, Fuling Zhacai issued an announcement stating that the company's chairman Zhou Binquan will no longer serve as the company's director, chairman, chairman of the board of directors' strategic committee, and will no longer hold any position in the company because he has reached the statutory retirement age.

In the 23 years since Zhou Binquan took over the Fuling Mustard Group, he has not only revived a local state-owned enterprise that was on the verge of bankruptcy, but also led it to grow into the "number one pickle stock" and become one of the models for the reform of state-owned enterprises.

For more than 23 years, Zhou Binquan has remained at the top of the Fuling Mustard Group, becoming one of the representatives of the "strongest top leaders" among Chinese state-owned listed companies.

Now, the business career of a generation of legendary helmsmen has come to an end, and he has retired after success. However, the legend of the “King of Mustard Mustard” in China’s business world will not come to an end, but will appear repeatedly in the descriptions of various classic business cases.

01 The King of Pickled Vegetables

Pickled mustard belongs to the agricultural products category, the pickled products category, and the pickled products category. It is an authentic subcategory. As early as 1988, Fuling District of Chongqing realized the market value of mustard and established the Chongqing Fuling Mustard Group. Thus Wujiang brand mustard was born.

However, like many poorly managed state-owned enterprises of that era, by the end of 1999, Fuling Mustard was heavily in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy.

This year, Zhou Binquan was already an executive of Fuling Jiantao, an old listed company under Fuling State-owned Assets. However, with a transfer order, Zhou Binquan began to serve as party committee secretary, chairman and general manager of Fuling Mustard Group in 2000.

Although his rank has risen, Fuling Zhacai at that time was a mess full of holes. If he was not careful, he might get stuck in the quagmire. At a critical moment, 37-year-old Zhou Binquan took over the task at the critical moment, showing the responsibility of a state-owned enterprise cadre; in the following years, he turned the tide and showed the ability of an entrepreneur.

Zhou Binquan made three historic contributions to Fuling mustard.

The first is to bring Fuling mustard back to life.

At that time, Fuling Zhacai did not have many valuable assets, only a demolition compensation of 150 million yuan. Zhou Binquan did not use the money to pay off debts, but to industrialize Fuling mustard. He made the decision to spend a lot of money to introduce mechanized and automated production lines from abroad. After the first production line was completed and put into operation, the output of one factory equaled that of more than 20 factories in the past.

Just one year later, Fuling mustard turned a profit and truly came back to life.

The second is to make Fuling pickled mustard become a national famous brand.

In 2004, CCTV FMCG advertising was mainly exclusive to large companies in markets worth hundreds of billions, such as instant noodles and milk. Zhou Binquan, who was determined to make the Fuling mustard brand bigger, gritted his teeth and spent a lot of money to invite Zhang Tielin to place an advertisement on CCTV. Under the catalysis of the popular "Huang Ama" at that time, Wujiang mustard quickly became popular all over the country and grew into a national famous brand product. It lasted for 20 years. How popular is

? From RT-Mart, Yonghui Supermarket, Wal-Mart, Carrefour and other well-known supermarket chains across the country and farmers' markets at all levels across the country, to retail terminals such as convenience stores in urban and rural areas, there is no trace of Fuling mustard on the shelves, and they dare not say that they are complete. of supermarkets.

The third is to truly make Fuling Mustard Cane grow into a modern enterprise.

This modernization is reflected in production. Zhou Binquan has always insisted on automating production to reduce costs and increase efficiency. From the completion of the industry's first fully automated production line in 2005 to the commissioning of the industry's first digital production workshop in 2019, Zhou Binquan has upgraded the entire process of mustard production and processing from traditional manual operations to automation.

In 2013, the revenue of Fuling mustard increased from 813 million to 2.175 billion in 2022, but the cost increased from 502 million to 936 million, which was far lower than the growth of revenue.

In addition, the progress of Fuling mustard as an enterprise is also reflected in the modernization of management. Zhou Binquan abandoned the extensive management methods of state-owned enterprises in the past and carried out more refined management operations. The most typical approach of

is to increase prices. In the 14 years from 2008 to 2021, the price of Fuling mustard increased 13 times. Although this approach is considered "simple and crude" by some observers, from a corporate perspective, it is the constant price increases that stimulate the passion of dealers and highlight the value of mustard to the greatest extent.

In 2010, Fuling pickled mustard was listed on the A-share market, officially becoming the first pickled vegetable stock. In the 13 years from 2010 to 2022, the company's operating income increased from 545 million yuan to 2.548 billion yuan, and the attributable net profit increased from 56 million yuan to 899 million yuan.

02 The top evergreen tree

is able to achieve such in-depth and sophisticated understanding of such a narrow category, which is due to Zhou Binquan’s precise grasp of the industry and products. Countless state-owned enterprises have disappeared in the long river of history under the impact of the market economy. But Zhou Binquan can step on the drum of the times step by step and sing all the way.

Fuling mustard stock price performance (since listing)

He has been able to strategize in the position of chairman for more than 20 years. This is quite rare among the leaders of state-owned enterprises. From his appointment in 2000 to his retirement in 2023, Zhou Binquan has always been in the position of chairman.

Unlike the brief thanks and blessings given by other listed company chairmen for their retirement, Fuling Zhacai used more than two pages and nearly a thousand words to praise Chairman Zhou Binquan in his retirement announcement.

excerpt:

Since joining the company in 2000, Zhou Binquan has always implemented the decisions and arrangements of the Fuling District Committee and District Government, adhered to the concept of being responsible to shareholders, and unswervingly led all employees of the company to create high-quality products, build brands, and promote reforms. , expand categories, strengthen management, work hard and work hard" "wrote a glorious chapter for the development of Fuling's mustard industry.

Since Fuling mustard has always been a state-controlled industry in Fuling District, this evaluation can be said to be the official conclusion of Zhou Binquan’s career.

Such a long service cycle and such a high service evaluation are very rare among the leaders of state-owned enterprises, especially local state-owned enterprises.

As we all know, the top leaders of state-owned enterprises often face expectations and pressures from both the administration and the market. It is very difficult to grasp the situation if they want to have both sides, but Zhou Binquan managed to balance the interests between the market and administration with ease.

Before

went public in 2010, Zhou Binquan implemented a mixed reform of Fuling Mustard, carried out equity reforms, introduced strategic investors, realized management shareholding, and used modern enterprise management to avoid administrative intervention in the market to the greatest extent. , thus meeting the market’s expectations for operations.

After reducing the constraints of administrative power, Fuling Zhacai returned the favor and repaid the government with taxes, employment, and industrial development. It meets the government’s expectations for its own enterprises.

According to Zhou Binquan’s retirement announcement, Fuling Mustard is already a “state-controlled listed company with an annual tax profit of over 1 billion yuan.” In addition to enterprise development, Fuling mustard has also effectively promoted regional employment and industrial economic development, meeting some performance needs of the local government.

According to upstream news reports, Fuling Mustard Group has long implemented the protective price purchase policy of "company + base + farmers" and formed a stable mutually beneficial cooperative relationship with farmers. "It has built 200,000 acres of raw material bases in more than 20 towns and villages in Fuling District. The per capita income of vegetable farmers exceeds 2,000 yuan/acre.

At the same time, it has also developed a radish base, established an export raw material base, and actively explored a new industrial development model - a joint-stock mustard professional cooperative. It has currently assisted in the establishment of 100 joint-stock mustard cooperatives. The professional cooperative of mustard mustard has led to the prosperity of 500,000 farmers in the region and the development of related industries in surrounding areas."

Over the past 20 years, not only has he been able to have both administrative and market success, Zhou Binquan also holds 10.31 million shares of Fuling mustard, making him the company's fourth largest shareholder. Shareholder, worth over 160 million.

With both fame and fortune, Zhou Binquan left the scene in style. It can be said that Zhou Binquan’s merits have been fulfilled.

Now, the successor must not only inherit the legacy created by Zhou Binquan, but also consider how to continue to grow on the shoulders of giants.

03 The king of mustard is hard to be

At the same time as the announcement of Zhou Binquan's retirement, the board of directors of Fuling mustard decided to nominate Gao Xiang as a non-independent director candidate for the fifth board of directors, and submitted it to Fuling mustard for review and vote at the shareholders' meeting held on December 28.

The market generally believes that Gao Xiang is currently the company’s party committee secretary and is expected to serve as the company’s new chairman.

In fact, no matter who is , it will not be easy for Zhou Binquan's successor. Because facing such a famous predecessor, it is not so easy to be the "King of Mustard".

In 2020, Zhou Binquan announced at the "Wujiang Mustard 2021 New Strategy Launch Meeting" that "Wujiang Mustard will use the Wujiang brand as the core to drive category development. In the next 3-5 years, it will achieve sales of 10 billion yuan and become the first brand in Chongqing." A food company with sales of tens of billions."

's bold words were spoken, but before they were realized, Zhou Binquan retired from the world. The pressure has been put on the successor.

The only way to get rid of the shadow of your predecessor is to do better than your predecessor. But how difficult it is. Especially today when some of the tricks used in the past are gradually becoming ineffective. The most typical thing about

is the price increase. There is almost no room for further price increases for Fuling mustard. In November 2021, Fuling Mustard will adjust the ex-factory prices of some products, with the increase range for each category ranging from 3% to 19%. This is the last price increase for Fuling mustard so far.

has also made instant noodles and side dishes that used to cost 5 cents a pack start to dominate, gradually breaking through the 3 yuan mark, even exceeding the price of instant noodles.

Since then, Fuling pickled mustard, which has an average price increase once a year, seems to have given up on the plan to increase prices. In November this year, the company publicly stated that the current consumer environment is weak and there are no price increase arrangements for the time being.

lost the weapon to increase prices, and Fuling mustard’s revenue growth slowed down. In the first three quarters of 2023, the company's total operating income was 1.952 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.61%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company was 659 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.34%.

Of course, the biggest concern is the single product.

In fact, as early as 2014, Fuling mustard began to embark on the road of diversification and looking for new growth points. It has launched radish and kelp shredded categories. In 2015, it spent 129 million yuan to acquire 100% equity of Sichuan Huitong Food Industry Co., Ltd. and entered the kimchi market.

But In the past ten years, in Fuling’s mustard revenue, the revenue share of mustard products has been the lowest at 84.48%, and ’s profit share has been the lowest at 85.48%. Especially in 2015, profits from mustard products accounted for an astonishing 99.93% of the company's total profits. The kimchi business, which has high hopes, has been below 10% for a long time except for this year's semi-annual report.

It can be said that the "super single product" of pickled mustard is the greatest success of Fuling pickled mustard in its decades of development. It is Zhou Binquan's greatest achievement, and it has also become the greatest confidence of this company.

But for Zhou Binquan’s successor, it will take considerable business wisdom to make breakthroughs based on past achievements and take the company to a new level.