--- title: "Uni-President vs. Master Kong: Single Product vs. Terminal, Who Will Win in the Future?" description: "Uni-President focuses on single products, achieving success with individual items, while Master Kong emphasizes terminal channels, even winning over Pepsi. Both Taiwanese brands leverage their strengths, with Uni-President innovating products and Master Kong dominating distribution. Uni-President's CEO claims to have stopped paying attention to Master Kong, signaling a shift towards product-centric strategy." author: "关公" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2015-10-09" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/uni-president-vs-master-kong-single-product-vs-terminal-who-will-win-in-004b2479/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/uni-president-vs-master-kong-single-product-vs-terminal-who-will-win-in-004b2479.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/s77grMFPECLVdrjO9_72wg" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E7%BB%9F%E4%B8%80%E4%B8%8E%E5%BA%B7%E5%B8%88%E5%82%85-%E5%8D%95%E5%93%81vs%E7%BB%88%E7%AB%AF-%E6%9C%AA%E6%9D%A5%E8%B0%81%E8%83%BD%E8%83%9C-004b2479.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/uni-president-vs-master-kong-single-product-vs-terminal-who-will-win-in-004b2479/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Uni-President vs. Master Kong: Single Product vs. Terminal, Who Will Win in the Future? > Uni-President focuses on single products, achieving success with individual items, while Master Kong emphasizes terminal channels, even winning over Pepsi. Both Taiwanese brands leverage their strengths, with Uni-President innovating products and Master Kong dominating distribution. Uni-President's CEO claims to have stopped paying attention to Master Kong, signaling a shift towards product-centric strategy. Introduction: Uni-President's single products are king; with just one product, it can dominate the market. Product development has always been Uni-President's top priority and a source of pride. Master Kong, also from Taiwan, focuses more on terminals, believing that controlling the terminal is key, even international brand Pepsi has surrendered to it. These two brands from the same place each play to their strengths. Uni-President continuously breaks sales records with individual products, creating one product champion after another. Master Kong firmly holds onto terminals, selling whatever sells well, and copying Uni-President's products, constantly reinforcing its image as the terminal king. Recently, Uni-President China's general manager Hou Ronglong told reporters, "I haven't paid attention to Master Kong for a long time." This implies he doesn't see Master Kong as a competitor, while Master Kong habitually watches Uni-President's every move. These two Taiwanese companies have been competing for years, each leveraging their advantages, splitting the market. According to recent reports from Taiwanese media, Uni-President China (0220.HK), listed in Hong Kong, recently organized a special trip for Taiwanese journalists to Xi'an to meet with General Manager Hou Ronglong. Since Luo Zhixian will turn 60 next year and retire as general manager of Uni-President Enterprises, this high-profile arrangement to discuss the mainland market with Taiwanese media is noteworthy. No longer channel-first, product is paramount Hou Ronglong, 51, said in an interview that the three years from 2015 to 2017 are crucial. "We need to go all out; being too conservative will only let opportunities slip away." He also said he hasn't paid attention to Master Kong for a long time. "The day the media stops comparing the two companies, we can say Uni-President China's transformation has succeeded!" He introduced that "the era of channel-first is gradually passing; now it's product power that leads." To this end, in the fourth quarter of last year, they added a research institute and established a "dual R&D team PK system." Each team has its own office, and new products are submitted to an innovation committee for evaluation, with performance indicators calculated at year-end. Hou Ronglong stated that they will strictly implement a last-place elimination system because the mainland market cannot be taken lightly. The report also mentioned that Uni-President China has changed its "centralized" approach, delegating power internally and simplifying hierarchy, while externally listening to consumer voices and inviting college students to participate in development decisions, calling them the "post-90s consumer review panel." Hou Ronglong cited two beverage products, Hai Zhi Yan and Xiao Ming Tong Xue, as examples, saying that in the fourth quarter of last year, consumer participation in development increased the success rate of new products. The report said that since last year, when both Master Kong and Uni-President canceled the practice of giving away ham sausages with instant noodles in the mainland, the situation has changed. Uni-President has clearly decided to "be itself" (i.e., break away from price wars and develop its own high-end products). "2.0 Products" for a high-end, high-profit market Hou Ronglong stated that the mainland market is severely oversupplied, and raw material prices provide good bargaining space, so Uni-President will no longer launch mid-to-low-priced products. Emphasizing a shift "from quantity to quality," they will promote "2.0 products," with the goal of becoming the "most valuable company" in China's FMCG sector by 2020. He further explained that "2.0 products" are positioned by gross margin and pricing: instant noodles must have a gross margin above 35% and a retail price above 5 yuan; beverages must have a gross margin above 40% and a retail price above 4 yuan. Hou Ronglong said that in the first half of the year, mid-to-high-end products accounted for about 17% of Uni-President China's revenue. This year's target for "2.0 products" is to reach 17%-20% of revenue, next year to increase to 28.7%, and by 2017 to reach 37.3%. He revealed that this year they have already launched a 10-yuan instant noodle product called "Champion List," and by the end of the year, an even higher-end product, "Man Han Yan," will be launched. He also introduced that after the Shanxi base goes into production next year, Uni-President will have 36 bases in the mainland market, and the pace of factory construction will slow down. Capital expenditure will decrease from 2.7 billion yuan this year to 2.3 billion next year, and further to 2 billion in 2017. In May, Taiwanese media reported that Luo Zhixian is expected to hand over the general manager position next year, listing a number of "new generation leaders" of Uni-President, including Lu Qizhao (head of distribution), Huang Ruidian (instant food), Luo Qiutian (general food), Huang Zhaokai (dairy and beverages), Wu Kunlin (health), Su Chongming (finance), Wu Zongbin (accounting), Wang Ruisheng (technology), and Hou Ronglong (Uni-President China). "It is expected that any of them could be the new general manager, but they all need to show results to gain the appreciation of the senior leaders," the report said. **-END-** Content Selection Click on the title below to read directly: [Practical Guide for Route Salesperson Customer Relationship Management (with 228-page PPT training tutorial for grassroots sales staff download)] --- ## 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