JDB, the herbal tea seller, is now venturing into logistics. According to Qichacha data, Beijing Dayun Tongtai Logistics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dayun Tongtai"), invested by JDB (China) Beverage Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "JDB China"), has been registered, marking JDB's first logistics company. The legal representative of Dayun Tongtai is Chen Jingkun, with a registered capital of 100 million RMB. JDB China is the largest shareholder with a 60% stake, contributing 60 million RMB, while the second largest shareholder is Dongguan Tonghui Logistics Co., Ltd., holding 40% with a contribution of 40 million RMB. It is reported that the company's business scope mainly includes road freight transport, warehousing services (limited to general warehousing), loading and unloading services, logistics technology development, and technical services. In March 2018, JDB President Li Chunlin stated that JDB's future strategic goals are to embark on a second venture, increase revenue and reduce expenditure, integrate advantageous resources, and achieve a successful listing within three years. Industry analysts suggest that JDB's entry into logistics aims to achieve professional operations through informatization, improve efficiency and service quality, and reduce costs. However, some analysts argue that for JDB, which is under financial strain, investing a large sum in logistics at this time will undoubtedly tighten its capital chain further, and the high costs of the logistics industry may be difficult for JDB to bear at this stage. What's the Motive Behind Logistics? In recent years, the public's impression of JDB has remained tied to its landmark trademark dispute with Wanglaoji. In 2017, the red-can dispute between Wanglaoji and JDB ended with a "shared" resolution, but prior to that, Wanglaoji had been steadily eroding market share, reaching up to 70% in the herbal tea market. In 2018, JDB's recovery path was fraught with difficulties. In March, JDB was rumored to have serious capital chain problems, leading to worker strikes due to unpaid wages, followed by unpaid logistics and raw material supplier bills, and even suppliers blockading the factory. In May, the East China region experienced widespread stockouts and a production halt crisis. From June to August, can suppliers COFCO Packaging and ORG, who held JDB's "lifeline," ceased cooperation with JDB. COFCO Group accounts for over 90% of JDB's production capacity, and being cut off during the peak summer sales season was a fatal blow to JDB. In September, following COFCO's "supply cut," another issue arose: Zhonghong Co., Ltd. announced the resumption of trading and also declared that it was negotiating to terminate the restructuring agreement with JDB Group. It is evident that JDB's capital chain is already stretched thin, and reducing costs is crucial for JDB at this point. For years, JDB's logistics costs have remained high. A JDB official previously told Beijing Business Today that the average transportation cost per box of beverages is around 6 RMB, which accounts for about 12% of a beverage company's costs. If JDB establishes its own logistics company, it could reduce this by 40%. It is understood that JDB's old rival Wanglaoji has not yet established its own logistics company. Not Just JDB JDB is not the first beverage brand to venture into logistics. On March 27, Wahaha established an intelligent robot company to enter the smart logistics industry. The legal representative of this company is Zong Qinghou, with the largest shareholder being Wahaha Commercial Co., Ltd., holding 65% of the shares, with a registered capital of 40 million RMB. Zong Qinghou is the ultimate beneficiary and serves as chairman, holding 52.15% of the shares. Unlike JDB, Wahaha focuses not on distribution but on the "loading and unloading" sector. Previously, Wahaha had established precision machinery companies, electromechanical research institutes, and other research and production institutions, developing high-speed palletizers, sleeve labelers, labeling machines, bottle unscramblers, and other conveying and packaging machinery. They have also developed robotic technology to solve automatic loading of boxed items, including parallel robots, series robots, SCARA robots, robotic palletizing workstations, and gantry palletizing robots. For example, Wahaha's intelligent gantry robot system: when Wahaha products come off the assembly line, they are placed onto standardized pallets (1.2m x 1m) via intelligent, automated palletizing workstations, then transported by forklift to the robot for loading. Through batch product loading and unloading, the entire process from product off the line to factory exit is unmanned and information-managed, reducing reliance on labor and thereby improving economic efficiency. After this intelligent gantry robot system was put into operation, each unit saves 450,000 RMB in labor costs annually, with an expected total annual savings of 67.5 million RMB. In early 2017, Zong Qinghou stated that Wahaha's move into robotics was based on two judgments: first, no one is willing to do manual labor, and second, dangerous and health-harming work should not be done by humans. Wahaha believes that modern logistics processes involve the organic integration of packaging, warehousing, transportation, loading and unloading, circulation processing, distribution, and related logistics information to form a complete supply chain. Among these, loading and unloading is one of the most critical links. Loading and unloading is an activity that inevitably occurs at the beginning and end of other logistics activities, serving as a connection between them. It runs through different logistics stages and is an important subsystem of the logistics system. In the entire process of transportation and storage, loading and unloading accounts for about half of the total logistics time and about 20-40% of freight costs. Therefore, improving loading and unloading methods can significantly enhance the economic and social benefits of logistics activities. Brands' Logistics Dreams Self-built logistics is more common in the department store and home appliance industries, such as Midea's Ande Logistics and Haier's RRS Logistics, which are typical examples. These companies can build their own logistics because their scale is large enough. In the process of building their supply chains, they have gradually improved warehousing, trunk line transportation, and other aspects. All warehouse-to-warehouse transfers essentially operate like a logistics company. Such companies have enough cargo volume to support the costs of each trunk line, and in such cases, self-built logistics often saves more costs. For some small and medium-sized enterprises, they may have large cargo volumes on trunk lines in a few cities, but the cargo volume on other national trunk lines is insufficient to support the round-trip cost of a logistics vehicle. In such cases, they typically use third-party logistics. Industry experts say that given JDB's situation last year, whether its current cargo volume can support self-built logistics remains to be seen. The claim that establishing its own logistics company could reduce costs by 40% is a theoretical conclusion, and it is hard to say whether it can be achieved in practice. In cities where JDB has strong sales, self-built logistics can indeed save costs due to sufficient cargo volume, but in cities with lower sales, self-built logistics may become a burden. The expert also suggested that JDB might use self-built logistics on routes with sufficient cargo volume, while using third-party logistics in markets with lower volume. Source: Tianxia Wangshang (ID: txws_txws) Once adopted, tips will be paid 400-2000 RMB. China FMCG + Internet Professional New Media Dedicated to FMCG manufacturers' transformation, upgrading, and channel digitalization solutions