--- title: "From 200 Yuan to Industry's 'Top Butcher', Now Losses and Disappearance from Top 500 Private Enterprises: Can This Meat Giant Bloom Again?" description: "Yurun Group, once ranked 112th among China's top 500 enterprises, 39th in manufacturing, 8th among private enterprises, and 1st in meat processing, with two listed companies and nearly 130,000 employees, released its 2017 interim report, but was absent from the latest private enterprise 500 list. The company faces declining revenue, heavy debts, lawsuits, cash shortages, and layoffs, while its founder remains missing." author: "New Distribution" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2017-09-09" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/from-200-yuan-to-industry-s-top-butcher-now-losses-and-disappearance-fro-fcc5e60d/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/from-200-yuan-to-industry-s-top-butcher-now-losses-and-disappearance-fro-fcc5e60d.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/naM596ywJPjhmhxYF1K9gA" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E4%BB%8E200%E5%85%83%E8%B5%B7%E5%AE%B6%E5%88%B0%E8%A1%8C%E4%B8%9A-%E7%AC%AC%E4%B8%80%E5%B1%A0%E5%A4%AB-%E5%A6%82%E4%BB%8A%E5%8D%B4%E6%8E%A5%E8%BF%9E%E4%BA%8F%E6%8D%9F%E6%B6%88%E5%A4%B1%E5%9C%A8%E6%B0%91%E8%90%A5%E4%BC%81%E4%B8%9A500%E5%BC%BA-%E8%BF%99%E5%AE%B6%E8%82%89%E5%88%B6%E5%93%81%E5%B7%A8%E5%A4%B4%E8%83%BD%E5%90%A6%E7%BB%BD%E6%94%BE%E7%AC%AC%E4%BA%8C%E6%98%A5-fcc5e60d.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/from-200-yuan-to-industry-s-top-butcher-now-losses-and-disappearance-fro-fcc5e60d/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # From 200 Yuan to Industry's 'Top Butcher', Now Losses and Disappearance from Top 500 Private Enterprises: Can This Meat Giant Bloom Again? > Yurun Group, once ranked 112th among China's top 500 enterprises, 39th in manufacturing, 8th among private enterprises, and 1st in meat processing, with two listed companies and nearly 130,000 employees, released its 2017 interim report, but was absent from the latest private enterprise 500 list. The company faces declining revenue, heavy debts, lawsuits, cash shortages, and layoffs, while its founder remains missing. Click image for details Once ranked 112th among China's top 500 enterprises, 39th in manufacturing, 8th among private enterprises, and 1st in meat processing, with two listed companies, headquartered in Nanjing, Jiangsu, employing nearly 130,000 people, and with over 300 subsidiaries across 30 provinces, Yurun Group released its 2017 interim report, but was absent from the private enterprise 500 list announced the day before. **Main revenue continues to decline sharply, huge debts to repay, multiple lawsuits, cash about to run out, massive layoffs, and worse, the founder and largest shareholder remains missing.** What's happening to the meat industry? In China's meat industry, the top three giants include Shuanghui, Jinluo, and Yurun. After peak development, each is now at a transformation crossroads, and their fortunes seem mixed. Recently, Yurun Group's 2017 interim report showed Yurun Food's revenue of HK$5.802 billion for the first half of 2017, down 35.4% year-on-year; net loss of HK$552 million, narrowing losses by 25.07%. Since 2011, when Yurun Group established food, property, commerce, logistics, tourism, finance, and construction groups to diversify, Yurun Food faced a food safety crisis in 2012, losing market share, then suffered its first net loss in 2015, and has been mired in losses since. In 2016, revenue fell 17%, with losses up to HK$2.3 billion. In the first half of 2017, revenue was only HK$5.8 billion, a third of the HK$16.5 billion in the same period of 2011, its peak. In comparison, Shuanghui also seems to face bottlenecks. Its 2017 interim report showed revenue of RMB 23.9 billion, down about 6% from RMB 25.5 billion in the same period of 2016; net profit of about RMB 1.904 billion, down over 11% from RMB 2.151 billion; total assets of RMB 20.3 billion, down 4.78% year-on-year. From 2013 to 2016, Shuanghui's revenue was RMB 44.95 billion, 45.7 billion, 44.7 billion, and 51.8 billion; net profit was RMB 3.858 billion, 4.04 billion, 4.255 billion, and 4.405 billion. Profit growth was single-digit, and revenue fluctuated. Analysts say Shuanghui's slaughtering business contributes main revenue, while meat products contribute main profit. Previously, Shuanghui had cost advantages from low US pork prices, but as international pork prices lost advantage, costs are now similar to domestic pork, so Shuanghui competes on equal footing. In contrast, Jinluo Group announced at its 2017 semi-annual distributor conference that its meat products sales grew over 10% in the first half, achieving strong results. President Guo Weishi proposed strengthening channel expansion and service construction to accelerate growth in the second half, targeting over 15% growth, aiming to lead the industry. Experts say Jinluo's achievements in product, marketing, and service innovation are evident, and its proactive innovation is worth learning from. From 200 yuan to billions in debt: Yurun's past and present Like many older entrepreneurs, Yurun founder Zhu Yicai started from scratch. Born in Tongcheng, Anhui, Zhu rose from a poor farming family to university, then was assigned to a shipping company under the Anhui Provincial Transportation Department. In that era, escaping rural life and securing a government job was the goal for many. But Zhu was an exception. "Sitting in an office all day and growing old was frightening to me," he said. After over a year, he quit his stable job and started a seafood business with just 200 yuan, earning his first pot of gold: 4.8 million yuan. In 1992, Zhu stopped the seafood business, traveled across the country, and surveyed over 20 cities including Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Chongqing. With keen market insight, he avoided the fierce competition in high-temperature meat products and targeted the low-temperature segment, which was still a blank but had huge potential. Speed was crucial. He chose Nanjing for its favorable transportation, consumption, and policy environment, founded Yurun Group, and began his real venture. **As a giant in China's meat industry, Yurun was founded in 1993 and has been around for 24 years, during which it repeatedly became an industry leader.** In 1997, Yurun pioneered private acquisition of state-owned enterprises by acquiring Nanjing Canned Food Factory. In 1999, its low-temperature meat sales and market share ranked first nationally. In 2000, it was designated a national key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization by eight ministries, while Shuanghui only received this in 2007. On October 3, 2005, Yurun Food listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, while Jinluo, now growing rapidly, has yet to find a listing opportunity. In 2011, Yurun established seven group companies covering food, property, commerce, logistics, tourism, finance, and construction, showing its potential and strength to lead the industry. However, Yurun seemed unprepared for diversification and has been declining since 2012. Yurun has always valued brand building. It owns one China Well-known Trademark, three China Famous Brands, and one China Time-honored Brand. It has four major brands: "Yurun", "Wangrun", "Furun", and "Dazhong Roulian". By 2008, it had applied for 190 domestic trademarks including "Yurun", and 9 international trademarks including "YURUN". Since 2007, Yurun invested heavily in prime-time ads on CCTV channels to boost brand awareness, focused on product quality, engaged in social welfare, and built a good corporate citizen image, greatly enhancing brand reputation and loyalty. In the 2008 China Brand List, Yurun's brand value doubled to RMB 7 billion, ranking 38th. Yurun also introduced a new model of "company + government + base + farmer cooperative", developing four information systems for agricultural product resource management, real-time trading, logistics distribution, and fund settlement, providing market analysis, supply-demand information, price publishing, and electronic settlement services to users across the supply chain. These measures aim to ensure safe and quality food on consumers' tables. Additionally, to address the north-south imbalance in agricultural development, Yurun formed an "agricultural whole industry chain" model, covering global procurement centers, distribution centers, and agricultural product bases, integrating farmers into the chain before, during, and after production. The turning point for Yurun's decline was the 2012 "Hejiang County ham sausage" incident. Some students at Foyin Town Central Primary School in Hejiang County, Luzhou, Sichuan, experienced abdominal pain and dizziness after eating Yurun ham sausages, with over 20 kept for observation. This incident involving primary school students' food safety was zero-tolerance, causing Yurun to never recover. Not only did performance decline, but cash flow also became problematic. Main business could no longer generate normal cash inflow, while large-scale investments continued to consume funds. Meanwhile, in 2009, Yurun invested RMB 150 million in a pig breeding base in Yonggu Town, Xiaoxian County, Anhui, planning to produce 20,000 breeding pigs annually, some for export, with annual output value of nearly RMB 500 million. However, to this day, the factory is built, but no pigs are heard or smelled. In 2010, Yurun invested RMB 350 million in Lanxi County, Heilongjiang, to build a 100,000-square-meter pig slaughterhouse, expected to start production in October 2011, with an annual capacity of 2 million pigs, generating RMB 2.8 billion in sales and employing 1,500 people. Today, the factory is complete but overgrown with weeds, with no sign of operation. These issues caused Yurun to fall like dominoes, and its former pride and glory are now dim. **Experts analyze that Yurun Food's main feature is low-temperature meat products, while rival Shuanghui has advantages in high-temperature products.** However, in recent years, Shuanghui, Jinluo, and others have expanded into the low-temperature market while maintaining original businesses, posing a huge impact on Yurun Food and affecting sales. Meanwhile, Yurun Group's diversification has affected Yurun Food's development. Facing current losses, Yurun Group should adopt a focus strategy, ensuring its cold fresh meat business and laying out upstream and downstream industries. Additionally, following a "number one or number two" strategy, it should close, transfer, merge, or stop other businesses to achieve healthy development. From a once-dominant meat giant to years of losses, can Yurun recreate its glory during transformation? Worth watching! Source: Kuaixiaomen (ID: kxguancha) Click image for details **The 3rd (CFIC) China FMCG + Internet Conference** will be held in Chongqing in October 2017, closely围绕 the theme "New Forces, New Ecology", inviting **1000+ distributors, 500+ brand owners, 200+ B2B platform founders, and 100+ investment institutions** to explore new chapters of cross-border integration! **Core topics of this conference:** > * **How can the FMCG industry leverage B2B for new growth opportunities?** > > > > > > > * **How to build the new supply chain behind new retail?** > > > > > > > * **How can intra-city logistics help B2B achieve leapfrog development?** > **Highlights of this conference:** > * **The industry's first "2017 China FMCG B2B Industry Competitiveness White Paper"** > > > > > * **Case sharing of excellent transforming distributors** > > > > > * **Upgraded conference and exhibition, Hall 6 Internet Technology Exhibition strengthens networking** > > > > > * **Leaders from Alibaba Retail Link, Puhua Finance, EASIA Supply Chain, Best Store Plus, Yijiupi, Unilever, Haiding Technology, and Yunmei Shares will deliver speeches and share pioneering views.** > > October 17-18, 2017 Chongqing International Expo Center Registration is now open. Long press the QR code below or click "Read Original" to register. Early bird tickets before September 15 enjoy a 30% discount! Add friend and note "Conference Registration" Click the links below to review the first and second FMCG + Internet conferences: 2016 "FMCG + Internet" Summit Forum 2017 (2nd) China FMCG + Internet Conference Click the links below to review the first and second FMCG + Internet conferences: [2016 "FMCG + Internet" Summit Forum]() -END- --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671