---
title: "Without Adding a Single Employee, How Did This Distributor's Sales Surge 60% in 2022?"
description: "Distributors must excel in two strategic choices: 'path selection' and 'digital operations.' This article introduces the experience of Beijing Guoyingjian, a distributor that achieved a 60% sales increase in 2022 despite market challenges, by focusing on brand operation and digital transformation."
author: "陈思廷"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2023-01-30"
language: "en"
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# Without Adding a Single Employee, How Did This Distributor's Sales Surge 60% in 2022?

> Distributors must excel in two strategic choices: 'path selection' and 'digital operations.' This article introduces the experience of Beijing Guoyingjian, a distributor that achieved a 60% sales increase in 2022 despite market challenges, by focusing on brand operation and digital transformation.

**Introduction: Distributors must excel in two strategic choices: 'path selection' and 'digital operations'!**
Where should distributors go? This is undoubtedly the most concerning question for distributors today. The past decade has been the most turbulent for FMCG channels and the most accelerated period of survival of the fittest among distributors. In recent years, after visiting a large number of distributors, New Distribution found that those who excelled in the two strategic choices of 'path selection' and 'digital operations' have leveraged external uncertainties to rise. Conversely, those who fell short in these areas either struggled with repeated choices or barely survived on the edge of profit and loss. "To reach the other side of success, the most effective way is to follow in the footsteps of pioneers and listen to their adventures along the way." Today, we introduce to readers the experience of a major distributor who achieved a 60% performance growth in the Beijing market in 2022.

**Without Adding a Single Employee, She Achieved 60% Sales Growth in 2022**
Beijing Guoyingjian Economic and Trade Co., Ltd. is a distributor with nearly 20 years of operating history, primarily representing Snow Beer, Nongfu Spring, Qiaqia series, as well as some mass-market liquor, condiments, dairy brands, and instant food products. As is well known, the Beijing market in 2022 experienced multiple COVID-19 outbreaks in May and November, causing widespread operational pressure and even survival difficulties for distributors. Yet, under such circumstances, Beijing Guoyingjian's performance in 2022 surged by over 60% compared to the same period in 2021. In an abnormal year, for a distributor already at a scale of over 100 million yuan, this is an outstanding achievement that deserves attention and study. Gao Jingjing, General Manager of Beijing Guoyingjian, is also an old friend of New Distribution, having participated in almost all learning activities organized by New Distribution in recent years. Although she is an outstanding post-85s distributor, she is a seasoned first-generation entrepreneur who has been working in the FMCG trading field from scratch since 2005. Her brilliant and tortuous entrepreneurial journey has been introduced in special articles by New Distribution multiple times. According to Gao Jingjing, the performance growth in 2022 mainly came from three aspects: First, category expansion, adding some snack foods such as Qiaqia, condiments, dairy products, instant food brands and products; Second, digital capabilities, not only achieving systematic and digital management across the company, but also online channel growth almost keeping pace with offline channel growth; Third, organizational and model innovation, implementing a "platform + brand business unit" model based on digital management, enabling effective all-staff marketing where every individual is a productive force. Gao Jingjing believes that the first aspect is visible to everyone, but the second and third aspects are the real foundation. Without this foundation, category expansion can only lead to a vicious cycle of increasing revenue without increasing profit. After several years of learning, exploration, and practice, she gradually found an innovative organization and model suitable for herself, building a digital operation and management system that ordinary distributors cannot possess. Gao Jingjing stated that although performance grew by over 60% in 2022, the company added almost no new staff except for one professional supervisor in the finance department. This means that in 2022, Guoyingjian's per capita efficiency increased by over 60%, and the company's profitability and employee income also grew significantly.

**Brand Operator**
**Is the Development Path Suitable for Most Distributors**
Every distributor who has completed the accumulation from 0 to 1 faces the choice among several development paths: developing downward into chain convenience stores? Horizontal diversification? Transforming into digital B2B? Sticking close to brands and becoming a brand operator? During nearly two decades of entrepreneurship, Gao Jingjing has tried multiple choices and experienced the troubles brought by the B2B wave. But in 2018, she determined Guoyingjian's positioning as a brand operator. Among these paths, there is no right or wrong, nor is there a single correct path. **Every distributor can make the most suitable choice based on their actual situation, resources, experience, and opportunities.** The most suitable choice is the most correct path. Why position as a brand operator? After multiple explorations, Gao Jingjing began to form her own thoughts and judgments. She once opened over a dozen supermarkets but eventually found that retail is an extremely profound discipline. Opening a few stores is fine, but to develop into standardized chain supermarkets, given the knowledge, experience, and wealth accumulation of distributors, this is almost an insurmountable challenge. There may be successful cases, but it is definitely not something most distributors can achieve. She might be one of the earliest practitioners of the FMCG B2B model in China. Around 2014, Guoyingjian had over 4,000 terminal customers in Dongcheng District, Beijing. She decided to become a full-category supplier centered on terminal customers. Over several years, her supplied goods accounted for 60% of terminal customers' sales, operating over 4,000 SKUs, with almost all best-selling items in the market in her warehouse. As a result, at the end of the year, Guoyingjian's net profit was almost zero! The expenses of a sales and service team of over 100 people almost completely consumed the extremely thin distribution profits of best-selling items! Without capital support, advanced systems and management capabilities, or strong upstream negotiation power, Guoyingjian's transformation to B2B was also unviable. In 2018, Guoyingjian decided to take the path of brand operator. Gao Jingjing believes that **distributors best understand the needs of manufacturers and terminals. Manufacturers need teams to develop the market, and this need is increasingly strong as labor costs rise. The numerous small and medium terminals also need more professional brand teams to provide in-depth and thoughtful services, which is the foundation for distributors' survival.** After determining this positioning, Guoyingjian cut off almost all distribution-type brand products and focused on operating agency brands, with the core brand being Nongfu Spring. During this period, Gao Jingjing actively approached manufacturers, seizing every opportunity to learn professional marketing and team management knowledge from Nongfu Spring's team, and received strong support from Nongfu Spring. Within a few years, brand sales in Gao Jingjing's responsible area multiplied! Guoyingjian's team became increasingly professional day by day, management gradually standardized, and distribution and terminal networks became more complete, laying part of the foundation and capability for horizontal category expansion.

**Digitalization is the Foundation**
**Organizational and Model Innovation is the Soul**
As a distributor, Guoyingjian's digital transformation has been full of twists and turns. To this end, Gao Jingjing goes on in-depth study tours several times a year, has "apprenticed" to countless mentors, and spent nearly one million yuan on custom development of digital systems. It was not until 2022 that Gao Jingjing believed her company's digital transformation had basically met the first step of success criteria. **"A digital system must match each distributor's own business model. If it doesn't match, no matter how advanced it is, it won't be used,"** Gao Jingjing believes. "Digitalization is just a tool and a foundation. Our business model is implemented on this system. The system adapts to the business model, not the other way around."

Chen Siting, CEO of New Distribution, senior FMCG media professional, and consultant.
Former editor-in-chief of "Sales and Marketing" magazine, marketing consultant for Tanmuzhu, and founder of the internet supply chain project "Wanchaobang." He studies the Chinese market with a professional perspective, conducting in-depth research and practice in consumer brand planning and communication, distributor model transformation and upgrading, and supply chain innovation and reform.


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