By Li Dongyang He turned a chemical plant started with 60,000 yuan into a leading domestic detergent company with 1.9 billion in annual sales, ranking fifth globally. His company is viewed by P&G as its biggest rival, and P&G has repeatedly sought cooperation, but he has flatly refused. His company owns famous brands such as Diao Pai, Chonergy, and Nice, yet he is extremely low-key. The Hurun Rich List cannot even determine his wealth and lists him as a 'hidden rich'. He is Zhuang Qichuan, Chairman and President of Nice Group. Nice toothpaste Diao Pai laundry powder From 60,000 Yuan to 1.9 Billion in Annual Sales: P&G's True Rival In the fiercely competitive daily chemical industry, P&G's position as the 'big brother' is hard to shake. However, after P&G's global president conducted research in China, he said: 'Nice is a company with a strong cultural heritage, and its true rival in China in the future will be Nice.' 'Where water doesn't flow, Diao Pai laundry powder has been sold in.' From P&G's evaluation of its competitor Nice, it's easy to see the foreign giant's fear of Nice. With its strong strength, P&G has always been adept at acquiring rival brands. Once, in order to cooperate with Nice, P&G even offered a 'blank contract' with terms to be set by Nice, but Zhuang Qichuan politely declined. Moreover, Nice's strong development forced P&G to 'break convention': As a Fortune 500 company, P&G only had others do OEM for it, never did OEM for others. But in China, not only P&G but also Henkel did OEM for Nice's Diao Pai laundry powder, becoming an 'exception'. But this company that keeps rivals on edge was, in fact, just a chemical plant started with 60,000 yuan more than forty years ago, producing only a single product: soap. From 60,000 yuan to 1.9 billion in annual sales, every step of Nice's progress bears the mark of Zhuang Qichuan. A Group of People Who Refuse to Accept Fate Achieved Provincial Number One In 1968, during the Cultural Revolution, a group of veteran cadres founded the predecessor of Nice, Lishui Chemical Plant, producing only a single product: soap. At that time, under the planned economy, the small-scale Lishui Chemical Plant struggled to develop, ranking second from last in the industry, and was listed by superiors for closure, suspension, merger, or conversion. At the end of 1984, the Lishui Chemical Plant stopped production, and workers had no wages, surviving by selling soap on the streets. Because the previous factory director was promoted to a government position, Zhuang Qichuan was pushed into the position of factory director. Taking on a critical mission, the chemical plant was indeed a mess at that time. Zhuang Qichuan faced two choices: one was to follow the arrangements of superiors; the other was to do it himself and be self-reliant. The second path was clearly more difficult. However, this 'left-hander' who claimed not to accept fate stubbornly chose the latter, determined to expand the factory. At that time, the chemical plant had no resources, no technology, and its geographical 'remoteness' was a fatal flaw. So whether to expand was a matter for later; the first priority was survival. Thus, Zhuang Qichuan first found cooperation with the 'big brother' Shanghai Soap Factory, doing OEM for them to learn their advanced technology. Later, he introduced more advanced technology and equipment from abroad and developed a proprietary brand, Nice soap, which was unexpectedly called a 'world-class boutique'. However, before the factory could celebrate, a warning came from superiors: at that time, soap was produced by state-designated enterprises, and Lishui was not on that list. Continue or stop? That was the question. In the end, the bold Zhuang Qichuan chose to continue production, gradually leading the factory onto the right track. In 1989, there was a nationwide coal shortage. The stubborn Zhuang Qichuan used firewood instead of coal to keep production going. Once, when Li Zemin, then Secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, visited the factory and saw workers with blistered hands persisting in chopping firewood to keep the boiler red-hot, he couldn't help praising their 'poor stick' entrepreneurial spirit. With no money and no technology, the chemical plant seemed good for nothing. But Zhuang Qichuan managed to make Nice the provincial number one in just two years. Later, someone asked: How did Nice succeed when it was inferior in everything? Zhuang Qichuan replied: Because there was a group of people who refused to accept fate. Marketing Tactics So Unconventional, He Was Called a 'Prodigal Son' Under Zhuang Qichuan's leadership, the factory basically solved its survival problems. But what really made it take off was in the 1990s, thanks to a soap. At that time, laundry soap was large, rough, waxy yellow, bare without packaging, and had a bad smell, so it was commonly called 'stinky soap'. More importantly, there was no national brand in the laundry soap market at that time. Seeing this 'pain point', in March 1992, after the Lishui Chemical Plant cooperated with Hong Kong Likang Company to establish 'Zhejiang Nice Daily Chemical Co., Ltd.', Nice focused its breakthrough on laundry soap. Soon, Nice developed a new type of soap: Diao Pai Super Energy Soap. The new soap was blue in color with a concave line in the middle. It was not only soft and had strong decontamination power, but also wrapped in a plastic film bag, with a large eagle on the outer packaging to symbolize quick decontamination, which was truly innovative. However, the initial launch of Diao Pai was not so optimistic. In desperation, Zhuang Qichuan came up with a method to expand influence: giving away free samples. From today's perspective, this is not a big deal. But at that time, it was somewhat 'rebellious'. After all, a company with a profit of less than 1 million yuan giving away 1 million yuan for free was hard to understand, and even superiors called Zhuang Qichuan a 'prodigal son'. However, Zhuang Qichuan insisted on his opinion. As everyone saw, Diao Pai quickly opened up the market and jumped to become the leader in China's soap market, with its profit once accounting for an exaggerated 99.3% of the entire industry. To this day, Diao Pai's leading position in the soap field remains unshakable. Sharp Sense of Smell, Specializing in Tough Bones Diao Pai soap was a great success, but Zhuang Qichuan clearly had bigger ambitions. In 1998, when Zhuang Qichuan went to Qingdao to attend the National Washing Industry Conference, he specifically went to the laundry powder session to listen, hoping to find opportunities. He found that most people were complaining about the saturation of the laundry powder market and suggesting that the state raise entry barriers. The speaker had no intention, but the listener did. Just this one sentence made Zhuang Qichuan smell a business opportunity. His logic was: 'Any industry that fears competition must have unlimited room for market growth.' In fact, at that time, the laundry powder market was divided among the three giants P&G, Unilever, and Henkel in urban areas, while in rural areas, Qiqiang dominated. It seemed the pattern was set. Zhuang Qichuan refused to believe it and insisted on 'biting this hard bone'. After returning from Qingdao, he gathered his team to study the laundry powder project. Of course, Zhuang Qichuan was not acting blindly. Through detailed market research, he discovered a 'disadvantage' of foreign laundry powders: high prices and a lack of mid-to-low-end products. Finding this breakthrough, Zhuang Qichuan decided to spend heavily to build the largest fully automatic spray tower in the country at that time to produce Diao Pai laundry powder. Supported by production capacity and efficiency, Diao Pai laundry powder was priced extremely low. In addition to the product, Diao Pai's advertising was also very distinctive. The 'Understanding' TV commercial has long become a case study written into textbooks. With precise market positioning, quality-price advantages, and clever marketing tactics, Diao Pai successfully cracked the saturated laundry powder market and became the national sales champion the following year, becoming the laundry powder that P&G said 'can be sold where water doesn't flow'. In addition to laundry powder, under Zhuang Qichuan's leadership, Nice, after opening up the situation, gradually embarked on a path of multi-category expansion in the broader daily chemical field, occupying leading market positions in dishwashing liquid, laundry detergent, toothpaste, and other areas. P&G's 'Operation Shoot the Eagle' After the 2008 financial crisis, Nice maintained double-digit growth. 'Fellow trades are enemies.' The growing Nice obviously attracted P&G's attention. Once, P&G took out a blank contract and approached Nice for capital cooperation, with terms open to negotiation, but Zhuang Qichuan politely declined. In Zhuang Qichuan's view, this was just a repeat of foreign tactics; once they succeeded in 'recruiting' the brand, the national brand would 'flip the pancake' overnight. If recruitment failed, it's not hard to imagine that P&G would launch a 'Operation Shoot the Eagle' against Nice. Tide, which had never cut prices before, suddenly dropped from 3 yuan per bag to 1.9 yuan, and followed Diao Pai's distribution closely. Wherever Diao Pai was, Tide was there. For a time, it seemed like 'dark clouds pressing down, ready to flatten Diao Pai'. In the midst of the bloody storm, Zhuang Qichuan remained calm, even becoming stronger with each setback. He said: 'If you have the ability to kill me, then do it. But if you can't kill me, I will become stronger.' In the end, Nice did not die, but instead took the opportunity to transform from the low-end market to the mid-to-high-end market. Of course, Nice's future is still full of challenges. Even today, with declining performance, P&G's sales of nearly 500 billion yuan are still 25 times that of Nice, and it still holds a dominant position in many fields. The gap is as deep as a chasm, and Nice still has a long way to go to claim the crown. But for the strong, the strong get stronger; the more challenges, the more fighting spirit is ignited. As Zhuang Qichuan said: 'This is truly an exciting era.' -END- The best learning platform for FMCG distributors in China Focusing on providing professional, practical, and applicable tutorials for distributors and enterprises Committed to helping Chinese FMCG distributors grow rapidly The most professional and practical knowledge base in the FMCG industry Reply with the red number below to get the corresponding content Reply with number 1 to view the complete knowledge base | 001 Excellent Article Selection | 002 Distributor Market Operations | 003 Terminal Visit Management | 004 Sales Supervisor Skills | 005 Sales Improvement Techniques | 006 Channel Expansion | 007 Managing Distributors | 008 Distributor Development | 009 Distributor Internal Operations Management | 010 Team Management | 011 Efficient Distribution Techniques | 012 Sales Manager's Skills | 013 KA Operation Methods and Strategies | 014 First Lesson for New Salespeople | 015 Internet, Brands | 016 Distributor B2B Transformation | [Long press QR code to follow]