Cover image | "Into the Wild" Text | Feng Ma Niu (WeChat public account: Feng Lun Feng Ma Niu) "From the day I went into business, I never made money my first goal. I think money can be more or less, but the most important thing is that what you do must be more." Coming from a rural background, after decades of entrepreneurial trials, Zhu Xinli, chairman of Huiyuan Group, has become famous and wealthy, with all his hair turned white, but he still believes that being a farmer is best. Once, because of poverty, Zhu Xinli was unwilling to be a farmer; now every time he goes to the countryside, he forgets to return, and he thoroughly enjoys this state of life. In 1952, Zhu Xinli, the second child in his family, was born in the Yimeng Mountain area of Shandong Province. When he was very young, his father often told him stories from classic novels such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," "Journey to the West," and "Water Margin." Deeply influenced, he later applied their philosophy to enterprise management. After the reform and opening up, Zhu Xinli enrolled in a mechanical technical school to learn driving and car repair. At the age of 30, he contracted a car and started a transportation business. With his skilled driving, he earned more than 50,000 yuan in the first year. Ambitious and not content with small wealth, he said, "It's not much skill for one person to get rich; the real ability is to let the surrounding villagers share in the benefits!" In 1984, with the unanimous recommendation of leaders and villagers, Zhu Xinli was elected village head. At the first villagers' representative meeting after taking office, Zhu Xinli solemnly proposed a well-considered suggestion: vigorously develop agricultural and sideline industries, and plant all the village's land with grapes! The meeting immediately erupted in chaos, with waves of questioning and opposition from villagers: "Our ancestors have lived by growing crops; if we don't grow crops, what will we eat?" The meeting ended in discord, but Zhu Xinli was unwilling to give up easily. He first convened a meeting of village cadres, asking them to lead by example and hand over their land, promising to provide 500 jin of flour per person per household free of charge each year. Then Zhu Xinli personally drove a large bus to take village cadres to Daze Mountain in Jiaodong, which had prospered through grape cultivation, for an inspection tour. Seeing how others lived, what they ate and wore, compared to their own living conditions, the village cadres were deeply shocked. ▲ "Yang Shanzhou" | Wholeheartedly serving the people To quickly change the village's backward appearance, he began a journey of seeking information, visiting famous factories, and inviting experts. When the new project went into production, Zhu Xinli acted as both designer and commander, working day and night at the construction site, so busy that he didn't even have time to see his mother before she died of coronary heart disease in the hospital. Hard work brought abundant fruits. In 1986, the village's 13 industrial, agricultural, and commercial enterprises flourished, with a total output value of 10.6 million yuan, and per capita income increased from 270 yuan in 1984 to 900 yuan. After serving as village cadre for six years, in 1989, at the age of 36, Zhu Xinli chose to return to school and began a three-year university study program at the Shandong Provincial Economic Management Cadre College. Reflecting on this learning experience, Zhu Xinli once said, "If I hadn't studied at the management cadre college, I might have continued working in the village, or sought an official position in local government, and would not have embarked on the path of entrepreneurship." In 1992, Shandong's "Dazhong Daily" published a huge photo of a fruit farmer from Yimeng Mountain taking a hard bite of an apple he couldn't sell. The caption read, "If I can't sell them, I'll eat them." This photo deeply stung Zhu Xinli, who had been deputy director of the Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Commission of Yiyuan County, Shandong, for less than a year, and was one of the reasons prompting him to resign and go into business. Of course, what attracted him more was the almost blank concentrated apple juice market in China at the time. So he took over the worst enterprise in the county—a county-run cannery that was in debt of 10 million yuan, had been shut down for three years, and had already gone bankrupt. ▲ "Pioneers of Entrepreneurship" | Using restructuring to turn the enterprise around To solve a problem, one must first find its root. Zhu Xinli conducted surveys in major cities and identified the crux: the market had an ample supply of fresh fruit, so many people no longer wanted to eat canned fruit; moreover, canned fruit was expensive and the tinplate packaging was troublesome to open, naturally losing market share. Zhu Xinli wanted to use restructuring again to turn the enterprise around. Due to a persistent shortage of funds, the factory couldn't even provide meals. Zhu Xinli used his own savings to buy cheap flour, dug up some vegetables from outside, steamed some buns, and made do. At every meal, he led by example, eating with relish and urging everyone to eat more. When the first batch of concentrated juice was produced, Zhu Xinli received reliable news from a friend that Germany would host an international food exposition. Faced with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Zhu Xinli hesitated as never before. At that time, Huiyuan was severely short of funds, but he finally made the difficult decision: go! In October 1993, Zhu Xinli went alone to Munich with concentrated juice produced by imported equipment, carrying Shandong big pancakes, and with a friend's child studying in Germany as interpreter. On the last day of the exposition, a frustrated Zhu Xinli met his first major buyer—a Swiss trading company took a liking to Huiyuan's concentrated apple juice, took samples, tested over 50 indicators, and finally sent a special plane to pick up Zhu Xinli for negotiations. Thanks to the excellent product quality, the two parties signed a contract. When Zhu Xinli's plane landed in Beijing, the Swiss company's letter of credit for 5 million US dollars had already been opened at Huiyuan's bank. All employees were overjoyed and excited when they heard the good news. In 1994, Zhu Xinli began to think about a strategic model shift. He decided to move Huiyuan's headquarters from Shandong to Beijing, while keeping the export base in Shandong. This allowed Huiyuan to launch larger-scale market operations in the domestic market, walking on two legs. He knew well that in an international central city like Beijing, resources, market, and brand all had greater potential for expansion. At that time, Shunyi was still a suburb, surrounded by farmland and sparsely populated. In such an environment, many employees were homesick and low-spirited. Zhu Xinli wrote a song overnight to encourage employees: "We, the people of Huiyuan, are no different; since leaving our hometown, we want to make something of ourselves!" At night, Zhu Xinli was a workshop worker; during the day, he acted as a marketing person, driving an old, worn-out van through every street and alley in Beijing. At the end of 1997, Zhu Xinli won the bid for a 5-second prime-time ad slot on CCTV's News Broadcast for 70 million yuan. More importantly, the move to Beijing helped Huiyuan avoid a "life-and-death crisis" in the juice industry—the Asian financial crisis. By 2000, Huiyuan topped the juice industry with a 23% market share, but its growth was purely driven by industrial operations, and it was unfamiliar with capital operations, which made Zhu Xinli eager to join hands with big capital. ▲ "Wall Street" | Each side gives the other a one-week "deadline" In 2001, Zhu Xinli, with the dream of expanding Huiyuan, began seeking strategic partners. D'Long's Xinjiang Tunhe invested 510 million yuan to establish a joint venture with Huiyuan Juice, holding 51% of the shares, while Huiyuan Juice contributed most of its core assets for a 49% stake. The "D'Long era" lasted only two years. During this period, both banks and equipment suppliers opened doors for Huiyuan Juice. Huiyuan Juice also quickly established and acquired 26 large juice production and processing bases nationwide, basically completing the national industrial layout of "Big Huiyuan," and many production lines were updated to internationally advanced levels. During the two years of cooperation with D'Long, Huiyuan Juice completed first and second phase investments totaling about 2 billion yuan. However, at this point, D'Long began frequently asking Zhu Xinli for loans. When the borrowing reached 380 million yuan and repayment seemed indefinitely delayed, Zhu Xinli realized D'Long's crisis was coming. He began planning how to buy back the equity from the Tang Wanxin brothers to extricate Beijing Huiyuan from the D'Long system. At that time, D'Long, mired in a financial crisis, also wanted to buy out Huiyuan entirely. After negotiations reached a deadlock, Zhu Xinli, in desperation, took a risky step: he proposed a "bet" plan: each side gave the other a one-week "deadline": "Either you buy my 49%, or I buy your 51%. Within one week, whoever can come up with the cash buys!" Zhu Xinli issued an ultimatum to Tang Wanping. Because they assumed Huiyuan couldn't raise the money, Tang Wanping finally agreed to the plan. Back in Beijing, Zhu Xinli borrowed 200 million yuan the next day. In contrast, the Tang brothers were not so lucky. First, Tang Wanping suddenly suffered a cerebral hemorrhage; then, the Tang brothers were busy putting out fires everywhere, overwhelmed and unable to attend to the share dispute with Huiyuan, and finally had to agree to withdraw. On May 16, 2003, Xinjiang Tunhe announced the official sale of its 51% stake in Beijing Huiyuan for 530 million yuan. At D'Long's request, Zhu Xinli found a company called "Hubei Weiling" to act as the buyer, dramatically extricating himself from D'Long. A year later, the "D'Long system" collapsed, and Huiyuan was the only company that exited unscathed. ▲ "The Big Short" | Rejecting several investment banks After parting with D'Long, several international investment banks, including Morgan Stanley, Peregrine, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and Capital Group, all set their sights on Huiyuan Juice, ready to besiege and hunt. Although talks with Morgan Stanley were deep, Zhu Xinli was not moved by their Mengniu story, because he understood Mengniu's betting conditions, which could ruin the company's future with naked profit-seeking clauses. Zhu Xinli considered it best to discuss cooperation with industry investors, so he successively contacted France's Danone, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Taiwan's Uni-President. In 2005, Huiyuan Juice was established in the Cayman Islands, and Taiwan's Uni-President purchased 5% of Huiyuan Juice shares for 30.3 million US dollars, accelerating Huiyuan Juice's listing plans. However, due to mainland investment quota issues, the joint venture between Huiyuan and Uni-President ultimately failed. In July 2006, before Huiyuan's listing, Danone, along with US Warburg Pincus, the Dutch Development Bank, and Hong Kong's Value Partners, entered as strategic investors. This acquisition was at a higher price, paying about 220 million US dollars for 35% of Huiyuan's equity, with Danone holding about 22.18%. "I used 700 million to buy back D'Long's 51% stake, but two years later, Uni-President and Danone spent 2 billion to get just over 22% of my shares." Zhu Xinli was very pleased about this. In February 2007, Huiyuan Juice was listed in Hong Kong, issuing 400 million shares and raising HK$2.4 billion, making it the largest IPO in Hong Kong that year. However, after listing, Huiyuan faced strong channel and cost pressures from competitors like Master Kong, Uni-President, and Coca-Cola, coupled with the global financial crisis reducing total demand in the juice market. In September 2008, Huiyuan's first-half financial report showed negative growth for the first time in two key profitability indicators: sales and gross profit. "The bigger Huiyuan Juice's摊子 (operation), the longer the battle line, the greater the risk, and the more worries. When the brand is small, you carry it in your hand; when it's big, you carry it on your back; now it's on my head. I'm almost 60, how much longer can I hold it?" Exhausted physically and mentally, Zhu Xinli believed the fastest and best way to solve these bottlenecks was to sell Huiyuan Juice, quickly obtain funds, withdraw from the fiercely competitive finished juice market, shrink the battle line, and turn to the upstream raw material market to make a comeback. ▲ "Hunting Ground" | Acquisition rejected At a premium of nearly 3 times, cashing out 41.53% of equity for HK$7.4 billion, on September 3, 2008, after more than a decade in the juice industry, Zhu Xinli chose to exit Huiyuan Juice, which he had built from scratch. After signing the acquisition agreement with Coca-Cola, Zhu Xinli found a mountain valley and locked himself away for three days and nights. Facing various doubts and criticisms, Zhu Xinli emphasized, "Selling Huiyuan at the best price was a decision made because of the high price. An enterprise indeed needs to be raised like a son, but sold like a pig. Why? Because it's market behavior. If you can calculate the accounts, you do it; if you can't, you don't. Why is it normal for Li Ka-shing to sell his company, but abnormal for Zhu Xinli to sell juice? A painter can't paint just one painting in his life and keep it locked at home forever!" On March 18, 2009, after waiting over six months, "resigned to fate," Zhu Xinli finally heard the sound of the other shoe dropping. On that day, the Ministry of Commerce announced that, according to Article 28 of the Anti-Monopoly Law, it determined that Coca-Cola's acquisition of China Huiyuan would have an adverse impact on competition and prohibited the acquisition. This was the first and largest foreign acquisition case to be vetoed since the Anti-Monopoly Law took effect in August 2008. In just half a year, Zhu Xinli's personal wealth experienced a roller coaster. When Huiyuan resumed trading on March 20, its stock price was cut in half, falling more than 50%. In one day, Zhu Xinli lost HK$4.45 billion. At Coca-Cola's original offer, he could have cashed out nearly US$1 billion. On the day the acquisition was rejected, Zhu Xinli immediately convened a meeting of all regional managers of Huiyuan Group, internally announcing the suspension of upstream orchard business. He made major adjustments to the company's strategy, quickly launching low-concentration juice products and reallocating distribution networks. At the same time, the "enter cities, go to countryside" market strategy was launched nationwide. "The only thing to do now is to make the juice business stronger and bigger, show its greater value, and then act at the right time." ▲ Zhu Xinli | Always on the road Starting in 2014, Zhu Xinli began introducing the spirit and methods of the Internet into Huiyuan, and suddenly had an epiphany: agriculture, investment, and juice all improved rapidly. "The Internet is the wealth of this era; don't be afraid of it. We must embrace the new normal with Internet thinking. As entrepreneurs, whether it's the super normal or the new normal, there are opportunities for us, and business opportunities are limitless. There's a saying by Zeng Guofan that left a deep impression on me: The smartest people are willing to put in the hardest work." In fact, when he was studying, Zhu Xinli was an active person, liking singing and making friends. After graduation, he even served as the Youth League secretary. Now his hobbies are only two: work and study. Zhu Xinli is very afraid of being ruthlessly eliminated by the information society. Today, Huiyuan Group has established more than 130 business entities nationwide, connected to over 10 million mu of high-quality fruit, vegetable, tea, grain, and other planting bases, and established a sales network covering almost the entire country. At the same time, with the juice industry as the main body, it has formed a new pattern where Huiyuan Juice, Huiyuan Fruit Industry, and Huiyuan Agriculture promote each other and develop together. With an endless spirit of research, Zhu Xinli has led Huiyuan all the way. Even at the crossroads of Huiyuan's fate, he persists and bravely moves forward! "That day, I had to hit the road, for my restless heart, for the survival of self-respect, for the proof of self. The bitterness of the road has melted into my eyes, and the confusion of my soul has become my determination. On the road, with the voice of my heart; on the road, only for those who accompany me; on the road, it is the long journey of my life; on the road, only for those who warm me..." Source: Feng Lun Feng Ma Niu (ID: fengluntalk) -END-