---
title: "Relying Solely on a Cup of Bayberry Juice, Annual Sales Reach 20 Million Yuan—How Did He Do It?"
description: "Wang Chengyou, founder of Chengyou Wangji, turned a traditional bayberry drink into a best-selling 'internet-famous' beverage, achieving annual sales of 20 million yuan. Through persistent innovation in packaging, strategic use of freezers, and expansion into scenic spots, he built a distribution network of over 50 dealers without a single salesperson."
author: "徐璐"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2018-07-29"
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# Relying Solely on a Cup of Bayberry Juice, Annual Sales Reach 20 Million Yuan—How Did He Do It?

> Wang Chengyou, founder of Chengyou Wangji, turned a traditional bayberry drink into a best-selling 'internet-famous' beverage, achieving annual sales of 20 million yuan. Through persistent innovation in packaging, strategic use of freezers, and expansion into scenic spots, he built a distribution network of over 50 dealers without a single salesperson.

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Most so-called 'geniuses' work hard behind the scenes; most good businesses are built step by step.
When the reporter met Wang Chengyou, he was busy negotiating a contract with a distributor from Xinjiang. This dark-skinned man, wearing an ordinary black T-shirt with dust on his shoes, hardly matched the image of a shrewd and capable business owner.
For a long time, Wang Chengyou was not only the boss but also responsible for product development, customer acquisition, and business operations. Even now that iced bayberry juice is sold nationwide, he and his wife still handle all company affairs.
This was Wang Chengyou's first interview, and he seemed a bit nervous, constantly turning his bracelet and avoiding eye contact. As his phone kept ringing, he explained in a strong local accent, 'Sorry, a customer from Hainan is here.' Essentially, Wang Chengyou is a down-to-earth businessman. It is precisely for this reason that he persisted for 14 years, turning iced bayberry juice from an unpopular product into a new 'internet-famous' drink with annual sales of 3 million cups. However, the growth logic behind this hit product remains largely unknown to the outside world.
In Wang Chengyou's narrative, you don't hear terms like financing, business models, or corporate strategy—words that have become clichés. Instead, you hear about how he researched equipment, found the most suitable packaging, and sold products with a thick skin—the ups and downs along the way.
Too many people dream of making money 'lying down,' with lofty theories and tactics flying everywhere, but there seems to be a lack of voices on how to do business steadily and earnestly. Perhaps it's because those who truly work hard rarely speak.
1
**'Internet-famous' is truly red**
Taking a bus from Guiyang city center, it takes about 3 hours to reach Qingyan Ancient Town on the outskirts. Among the dazzling array of goods in the town's shops, a freezer with the sign 'Chengyou Wangji' stands out.
In 2004, Wang Chengyou registered the trademark 'Chengyou Wangji' under his own name, aiming to turn the ancestral iced bayberry juice into another culinary名片 of Qingyan, alongside pig trotters and cake paste porridge.
But this was not an easy task.
Bayberry soup is not rare, especially in Qingyan. Locals traditionally boil fresh bayberries into a soup and sell it in their own shops, priced from 5 to 8 yuan per bowl.
However, Wang Chengyou's iced bayberry juice has a distinctive feature: its bright red color. During his time working in Guangzhou, Wang Chengyou had been exposed to cocktail mixing, so he naturally wouldn't miss the potential selling point of color. He kept pondering whether he could work on packaging to reinforce this product memory point.
Initially, Wang Chengyou considered using bottled packaging similar to Master Kong or Pepsi, 'but after all, we're not on the same level as those brands; without freshness, why would customers pick our product at first glance?' Therefore, he needed packaging that would make consumers recognize it as Chengyou Wangji's iced bayberry juice at a glance.
It wasn't until 2015 that Wang Chengyou saw a Korean kimchi product at the Capital Airport. He was immediately attracted by its packaging, similar to a Lock & Lock fresh-keeping box. This packaging, which combined a handmade feel with quality, gave him a sense of finding a treasure for the first time.
So, he traced the packaging supplier to Qingdao. But Wang Chengyou's demand was too small, with a unit packaging cost as high as 1.5 yuan, so the supplier was unwilling to supply him. They even advised him that using such packaging for a low-volume, low-margin drink like iced bayberry juice would likely result in losses.
But Wang Chengyou stubbornly believed in his judgment. Even though it seemed uneconomical to others, he insisted on bringing this packaging back to Qingyan regardless of cost.
With the new packaging, the unit price of Chengyou Wangji iced bayberry juice rose to 8 yuan, but it successfully differentiated itself from competitors, and sales continued to rise, 'selling a thousand or so cups a day.' After tasting success, Wang Chengyou iterated on the packaging. The rectangular box was not ergonomic, so he changed it to a trapezoidal shape, wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, for easier gripping. The Lock & Lock-style lid could be reused for storing dry goods or seasonings, inadvertently achieving secondary brand exposure.
The unique packaging helped consumers visually recognize the Chengyou Wangji brand, ultimately converting into sales.
However, Wang Chengyou faced a new 'happy problem.' Initially, to make a delicious iced bayberry juice, he had the whole family involved, 'boiling bayberry soup in the middle of the night.' But this handmade process couldn't keep up with rising sales. After discussing with his family, he introduced a small piece of equipment.
After several months of trial and error, he managed to develop a semi-handmade, semi-mechanized method that 'preserved the handmade process while supplementing it with equipment.' The maximum daily production of iced bayberry juice soared to 70,000–80,000 cups.
For local traditional foods, the gap between handmade craftsmanship and standardization/scaling is extremely difficult to bridge, and it is also a fatal weakness hindering their expansion to the national market. But at the same time, it is the inevitable path toward industrial production.
2
**The Butterfly Effect of a Freezer**
Watching the bustling crowd in his shop, Wang Chengyou had an idea: could other merchants in Qingyan also sell his iced bayberry juice?
He thought of many methods, but surprisingly, it was a freezer that ultimately helped the product go out.
One major feature of Wang Chengyou's iced bayberry juice is that it requires continuous frozen storage to maintain its color and taste. To this end, he specifically found the freezer supplier for Häagen-Dazs and Başak, and ordered a batch of exclusive freezers for Chengyou Wangji iced bayberry juice.
These customized freezers were like enlarged versions of the packaging boxes, printed with the Chengyou Wangji logo—a walking advertisement.
His ideal scenario was: place the freezers in other merchants' shops and share the profits. These merchants had their own main businesses and wouldn't need to invest effort in iced bayberry juice, so they wouldn't care about the product's gross margin.
But reality was harsh. When Wang Chengyou approached Jin Bixuan, a famous snack shop in Qingyan, they directly said, 'We can make bayberry soup ourselves; why should we sell your product?' Even worse, without brand and sales guarantees, placing a free freezer at someone's shop entrance seemed like an obstacle to their business.
'To sell this product, I had no choice but to be thick-skinned.' Wang Chengyou frequently went to Jin Bixuan to eat and chat, and after much persuasion, he secured a trial sales opportunity: 'I'll give you the goods for free first, and all the money from sales goes to you. If you think the iced bayberry juice doesn't sell well, I'll take it back immediately.'
Wang Chengyou persisted with this 'subsidizing' approach for a year. At that time, as long as any merchant was willing to let him try, whether they sold handicrafts or local specialties, he didn't mind.
Gradually, these merchants found that Wang Chengyou's iced bayberry juice indeed sold well and brought good returns. Finally, Wang Chengyou opened the first important channel for iced bayberry juice with a freezer.
Perhaps Wang Chengyou hasn't realized that he used freezers for cross-industry cooperation, entering different consumer circles. Consumers from restaurants, handicraft shops, and specialty retail stores all became potential users of iced bayberry juice. More importantly, the standalone freezers reduced consumers' decision-making costs, increasing the likelihood of conversion to sales.
Through channel cooperation mainly with restaurants, Wang Chengyou not only captured the Qingyan market but also drove his 'little broken car' to deliver goods to Guiyang, 70 kilometers away, regardless of whether the order was for 50 or 100 cups, expanding his distribution points to 80.
After the restaurant channel took shape, Wang Chengyou also thought about how to open more markets.
Based on his success in Qingyan, Wang Chengyou planned to enter other scenic spots in Guizhou Province. In his view, scenic areas have large crowds and high average spending, which aligns well with the price positioning of iced bayberry juice. So, following the same pattern, he developed local merchants in scenic spots like Zunyi Conference Site, Huangguoshu Waterfall, and Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village to promote his freezers and trial-sell iced bayberry juice.
Relying on the huge foot traffic and rapid word-of-mouth in tourist attractions, the popularity of Chengyou Wangji iced bayberry juice rose accordingly. To Wang Chengyou's surprise, some tourists were also businessmen from other provinces. After tasting the drink, they proactively approached him, hoping to sell the product in their home provinces.
In 2017, Guizhou Chengyou Wangji Shanyuan Food Co., Ltd. was established. Without a single salesperson, the distribution network of Chengyou Wangji gradually expanded, exceeding 50 within just one year.
3
**The 'Transformation' of Bayberries**
As one of the main bayberry-producing regions, Guizhou has long lacked mature circulation mechanisms and channels, leading to the awkward phenomenon of unsold produce in bumper years and insufficient supply in lean years.
In 2017, thousands of tons of bayberries in Wantun Town, Xingyi City, Guizhou, were unsold, making it a local headache to sell them even at a loss. Therefore, this year, Wang Chengyou distributed 200,000 turnover baskets to farmers in advance to prepare for the bayberry procurement season. As a result, the reporter tried to contact Wang Chengyou for several consecutive weeks, but he couldn't spare even one hour for an interview.
In fact, the bayberry procurement period lasts no more than a week, which is a test of manpower and logistics. One day, Wang Chengyou sent 5 vehicles, but they could only load part of the bayberries. Some farmers arrived late and got anxious, complaining, 'Why aren't you buying mine?' After all, Wang Chengyou's price was 5 yuan/kg, double that of the same period last year.
The 'Bayberry King' transformed into the 'Life-Saving King.'
Wang Chengyou purchased a total of 7,000 tons of bayberries, more than tripling last year's 2,000 tons. Despite this, facing the doubled demand for bayberries, Wang Chengyou still worried that production couldn't keep up with sales, so he had to find ways to stabilize the upstream supply chain.
Therefore, in the form of 'company + farmers + base,' Wang Chengyou established a 5,000-mu bayberry base in Huishui and Qingyan with the local government. This not only increased farmers' production and income but also allowed early intervention in bayberry cultivation, ensuring stable harvests regardless of weather.
It seems that integration in the industrial chain has eliminated Wang Chengyou's worries. But the complexity of competition is fiercer than imagined.
Just last year, several factories popped up in Guizhou, producing products almost identical to Chengyou Wangji iced bayberry juice in both packaging and product. Wang Chengyou admitted, 'Iced bayberry juice has no technical barriers; anyone who has tasted it can make it.' But his secret lies in the differences in color and taste. Unexpectedly, this became a powerful weapon against competition.
As expected, these factories didn't last long and all closed down. To Wang Chengyou's amusement, one factory, after closing, had a batch of bayberries left and approached him, hoping he would buy them all. 'Could they be toxic?' Wang Chengyou instinctively worried and asked them to provide a test report. The other party said, 'I've already lost hundreds of thousands of yuan, and you still want me to provide a test report?' On the premise of ensuring safety, Wang Chengyou still wanted to help his former competitor. After all, within Guizhou Province, no one else had such a large demand for bayberry procurement.
This episode also served as a wake-up call for Wang Chengyou, making him realize that imitation is an unavoidable issue. Therefore, he is preparing a product traceability system: consumers can scan a QR code to get information such as which orchard the bayberries came from, the picking date, and the production date.
In fact, for Wang Chengyou, the problems he faces go far beyond this. With the expansion of the iced bayberry distribution network, managing channels and product quality will be huge challenges. 'Iced bayberry juice is now an 'internet-famous' product, floating in the air, and I want to make it solid.' To move forward, formalized corporate management is an inevitable transformation he must undergo.
At the end of the interview, Wang Chengyou received a phone call, instructing someone to handle the passport application for an exhibition in Macau. He smiled sheepishly and said, 'Although we haven't started exporting yet, it doesn't hurt to prepare in advance.'
—Just like when he registered the trademark, changed packaging, and customized freezers in advance, he never imagined the business would grow as big as it is now.
Source: Business World Magazine
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