---
title: "Selling 980 Million Chicken Feet: What Gives Him Confidence?"
description: "He thought he would run a hotpot business for life, but unexpectedly ventured into pickled pepper products, losing four hotpot restaurants and his house in the process. Through persistence, he turned chicken feet into a 900 million yuan business. He is Lu Youzhong, the head of Youyou Food."
author: "关丹丹"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2017-08-16"
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# Selling 980 Million Chicken Feet: What Gives Him Confidence?

> He thought he would run a hotpot business for life, but unexpectedly ventured into pickled pepper products, losing four hotpot restaurants and his house in the process. Through persistence, he turned chicken feet into a 900 million yuan business. He is Lu Youzhong, the head of Youyou Food.

He thought he would run a hotpot business for life, but unexpectedly ventured into pickled pepper products, losing four hotpot restaurants and his house in the process. Through persistence, he turned chicken feet into a 900 million yuan business. He is Lu Youzhong, the head of Youyou Food.
Born in Chongqing in 1955, Lu Youzhong grew up in a region where, as the saying goes, "Hunan people are not afraid of spicy, Guizhou people are afraid of not spicy, and Sichuan people are afraid of not spicy enough." Indeed, in the humid and rainy Chongqing, chili is not just a seasoning but the soul of food; "numbing and spicy is the only way to enjoy it."
His mother was an excellent cook, and her signature dishes included meat tofu pudding and pickled cabbage fish, which Lu Youzhong could never get enough of.
In 1983, his mother opened a hotpot restaurant right at their doorstep. Although the shop had only four tables, it thrived thanks to her culinary skills, at least ensuring the family's basic needs.
However, the small business lasted only five years. By 1988, the Chongqing hotpot industry saw major growth, with chains like "Kuan Bandeng" and "Qi Hotpot" emerging everywhere, squeezing out Lu Youzhong's mother's restaurant.
His mother, now older, was ready to quit. But Lu Youzhong couldn't accept it, thinking, "Where I fell, I must get up."
But those branded hotpot restaurants either had fresh lamb, unique seasonings, or excellent service. How could his small, featureless business compete? He pondered for over half a year without finding a solution.
It wasn't until pickled vegetables caught his attention. In the spring of 1993, during a family reunion dinner, his mother prepared a table full of chicken, duck, fish, and meat, but his niece found it greasy and specifically asked for pickled vegetables.
Lu Youzhong's eyes lit up! Pickled vegetables are not to be underestimated; they have a history of over 1,000 years in Sichuan. The ingredients are humble home vegetables like radish, wild pepper, cowpea, mustard greens, young ginger, and chili, but after fermentation in a jar, they become salty and sour appetizers, especially effective at cutting through grease—truly exceptional.
"Add a plate of pickled vegetables to the seasonings!" So Lu Youzhong turned pickled vegetables into a seasoning and developed a series of pickled vegetable dishes, including pickled vegetable stir-fried twice-cooked pork and pickled vegetable stir-fried fish, over 10 varieties in total.
As a result, this simple side dish not only saved his hotpot restaurant but also allowed him to open four branches in Chongqing and Chengdu.
In the autumn of 1996, Lu Youzhong accidentally fished out a few chicken feet from the pickle jar, probably thrown in by a busy chef by mistake. He was about to get angry when he discovered the chicken feet were sour and spicy. The sourness was different from vinegar, and the spiciness wasn't purely dry heat; it was "balanced sour and spicy, crispy, fragrant, and fresh." He ended up eating all five chicken feet in one go.
At that time, chicken feet in Chongqing were always braised in brine, which made them salty and not crispy. "Pickled vegetables were always vegetarian; no one had pickled meat. Since chicken feet taste so good, why not try?"
So he put wild peppers in a jar, blanched the chicken feet in boiling water, rinsed them in cold water, cut them into sections, and added them. A week later, the sour, spicy, refreshing, and chewy pickled pepper chicken feet were ready.
Soon, a new dish appeared in his restaurant: "Pickled Pepper Chicken Feet." It was an instant hit with diners, many of whom took bags of it home as a must-have snack with beer.
Seeing customers take it to go, Lu Youzhong's mind raced: "If I could sell pickled pepper chicken feet to every household, what a huge market that would be!" And what if he sold them nationwide? The more he thought, the more excited he became.
So, right after the Spring Festival in 1997, Lu Youzhong founded Youyou Food, specializing in producing pickled pepper chicken feet.
Soon, a big order came: in March of that year, he received an order for 700 cases from a supermarket in Chengdu. Workers worked four consecutive nights and finally finished on the fifth day. Early on the sixth day, Lu Youzhong personally drove a small truck to Chengdu.
But when he opened the door, he smelled something off. On closer inspection, all the vacuum-packed chicken feet had swollen bags. Lu Youzhong was stunned: "How can vacuum packaging have a shelf life?" But the other party certainly wouldn't accept spoiled chicken feet.
Overnight, he lost 270,000 yuan. More despairingly, if the swelling problem wasn't solved, losses would continue to grow.
Moreover, because Lu Youzhong was too focused on chicken feet research, he neglected his hotpot restaurants. The three branches in Chengdu were already suffering heavy losses, and only the local one could barely survive.
The veterans who had started the business with him thought he was crazy—abandoning a good business to study chicken feet—so they all left, leaving Lu Youzhong alone. He had to sell the three restaurants in Chongqing at a loss, which not only cost him 5 million yuan but also left him with over 1 million yuan in debt.
At the critical moment, his wife stepped up, taking out a 1 million yuan deposit book, which was a loan secured by their house from the Jiangbei branch: "Let's start from scratch."
With funds, there was hope. But Lu Youzhong knew that without solving the swelling problem, any investment would be in vain.
In August of that year, Lu Youzhong brought a bag of chicken feet to the Food Research Institute of Southwest Agricultural University. An old professor, after hearing his story, told him, "You're too bold, using pickling methods for meat."
What was the issue? It turned out that chicken feet naturally produce bacteria during fermentation, and it's these bacteria that cause spoilage. The professor, being a professor, quickly solved the tricky spoilage problem by selecting composite lactic acid bacteria strains: "This preserves the taste of the pickled chicken feet and extends the shelf life."
But by then, the 1 million yuan was almost gone. Without money for advertising, Lu Youzhong set up a stall at a bus stop in downtown Chongqing. At first, people were afraid to try, so he ate first and then invited others to taste: "If it's not good, you don't have to pay."
Some brave souls tried one, and as soon as it hit their mouths, their tongues and lips were overwhelmed by the spiciness, "making them want more."
Once he gained some reputation, Lu Youzhong went to the market to set up points, visiting small shops, malls, and any place related to food sales.
The turning point came in 2000, when Lu Youzhong brought 100 boxes of pickled pepper chicken feet to the Chongqing trade fair. As soon as the goods arrived, customers immediately bought them, triggering a rush of over 1,000 people: "Grab it quickly, afraid of being snatched; it was pure grabbing."
As a result, before the 15-day fair ended, his pickled pepper chicken feet became famous, and many supermarkets came to place orders.
This success attracted imitators, and worse, they tried to poach his talent. On May Day 2001, the quality inspection director was poached with "a house plus 1.5 times salary." At that time, only three people in the factory mastered the core technology of pickled pepper chicken feet, and the director was one of them.
For a time, pickled pepper chicken feet products of all sizes flooded the market, with promotions and advertisements everywhere. Learning from this lesson, Lu Youzhong became smarter and immediately filed a patent for pickled pepper chicken feet with the State Intellectual Property Office, "closing the back door."
After that, Lu Youzhong developed over 50 products, including pickled pepper bamboo shoots and pickled pepper chicken wings.
Initially, in Chongqing, Lu Youzhong didn't use the distribution model but direct sales: "Delivering personally to 15 supermarkets in Chongqing." But he could manage one city; what about the whole country? So he divided the country into seven major regions, including Beijing and Shanghai, "managing by region."
Who would manage them? Distributors, of course. To attract distributors, Lu Youzhong offered sweet deals: "8% rebate, unconditional returns for unsold goods." As a result, within two months, he had 12 first-tier distributors and 120 second-tier distributors.
Of course, distributors are shrewd; without some tactics, they wouldn't follow orders.
In 2003, Lu Youzhong made three adjustments to distributor policies. First, payment before delivery; no payment, no shipment. Second, distributors were graded. Third, cross-region sales were prohibited: "Minor violations led to refunds; serious ones led to suspension of supply and cancellation of distribution rights. Of course, excellent distributors received generous year-end rewards, including cash and cars."
Under the heavy rewards and penalties, distributors worked hard. By 2005, pickled pepper chicken feet were available in major provincial capitals across North China, East China, Central China, and South China. That year, Lu Youzhong's revenue exceeded 5 million yuan.
Afterwards, to cater to different tastes nationwide, Lu Youzhong developed numbing and spicy pepper flavor, sour and spicy pickled cabbage flavor, and a milder wild pepper flavor. During that period, many women watched Korean dramas and men watched ball games, with pickled pepper chicken feet as a standard accompaniment.
However, unexpected events occurred. Just as Lu Youzhong was rolling up his sleeves to expand nationwide, in 2011, a toxic chicken feet incident suddenly broke out in Jiangsu.
Lu Youzhong dared not be careless: "I must be fully alert." From then on, whether it was chicken feet or auxiliary ingredients like chili, they were all purchased uniformly, choosing the most reliable suppliers to ensure all raw materials were sampled and tested, with traceable origins.
Cost control also required careful thought. Lu Youzhong made purchase plans based on the off-peak and peak seasons of raw material supply. For example, after the avian flu incident, chicken feet prices dropped, so he took the opportunity to buy in bulk.
He saved where possible but spent where necessary. In 2006, Lu Youzhong invested over 20 million yuan to introduce bio-preservation technology from the United States to further reduce additives and "ensure nutritional value."
Preservation was achieved, but the taste was not as good as before. At that time, irradiation sterilization came into his view: "It's specially for sealed packaging, with strong penetration and, crucially, no toxic residues."
With safety, preservation, and taste all addressed, Lu Youzhong entered the fast lane. By 2013, he had over 700 distributors and annual revenue exceeded 1 billion yuan.
In 2014, Lu Youzhong listed Youyou Food on the New Third Board, and his personal wealth approached 2.6 billion yuan.
Today, Lu Youzhong has developed three major series—pickled products, braised products, and seasonings—with over 200 products. In 2016 alone, he sold nearly 100 million packs of pickled pepper chicken feet!
"Continue to provide safe and reassuring leisure food, always on the entrepreneurial path," is Lu Youzhong's expectation for the future and his commitment to consumers.
Source: Master's and Doctor's Circle
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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 关丹丹
- Published: 2017-08-16
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/selling-980-million-chicken-feet-what-gives-him-confidence-8856f970/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/KxAISIexFMBhif8oVUqAOw

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