Chapter 638 Proposal for Cooperation
Hearing Song Yuanchao's question, Ying Anlun smiled faintly. He pointed at the tea set in front of him and said, "Although I grew up in the United States, I received a traditional Chinese education. We Chinese have an old saying, 'Food is the first necessity of the people.' My father was in the catering business when he was young. People always need to eat. Eating is a necessary need and instinct of human beings. In any era and any environment, filling the stomach is the first priority."
"Plus, many Chinese people are already engaged in the catering industry, and Chinese food is famous all over the world. Moreover, my father had just arrived in the United States and had no experience in other industries, let alone connections. Starting with the catering industry was the most suitable choice."
Song Yuanchao acknowledged that Ying Anlun was right, and he thought so too.
Ying Anlun continued, "Chinese food is famous all over the world, but it is not easy to copy. A restaurant may become famous, but if it opens a branch, the taste will be different because the chefs' skills vary. This is the disadvantage of Chinese food, and it is also the biggest difference from Western food or fast food."
At this point, Ying Anlun paused before continuing: "You know fast food like Burger King, McDonald's, and KFC, right?"
Song Yuanchao nodded. Ying Anlun was probably thinking about how to explain to Song Yuanchao. After all, these brands were not available in China. Ordinary people would be completely confused if they heard about these brands, but Song Yuanchao was different. Not to mention that he had memories of later generations, his current identity also gave him more sources of information than ordinary Chinese people.
You have to know that Song Yuanchao is the big boss of Xiangjiang Shenghua Group, and these fast food businesses have existed in Hong Kong for a long time. Ying Anlun continued to mention these things just now because he thought of this.
Ying Anlun laughed and continued, "Now that you know, you can understand that compared to these Western fast food industries, the biggest disadvantage of Chinese food is that the products cannot be standardized and industrially replicated. And to a certain extent, if Chinese food can be industrially operated and replicated like Western food, then do you think it will still be Chinese food?"
Song Yuanchao also laughed. Ying Anlun was right. The characteristics of Chinese food are the varied flavors and the fact that it depends entirely on the chef's skills . These are fundamentally different from Western food. To copy the fast food industry and make Chinese food an industrialized operation would not be possible even thirty or forty years later, let alone now.
"This is the biggest problem with Chinese cuisine. If you just open a restaurant and the owner is the chef, it's not that important. But it's different when you open a restaurant chain. The ingredients of each store can be standardized, but the chefs can't. And even if it's the same chef, the taste of the two dishes cooked will be slightly different, not to mention different chefs."
"For this reason, as the scale of the restaurant chain grows, the more problems it causes. This is also the case with our Yingjia restaurants. As the number of branches increases, it becomes more difficult to control them."
Ying Anlun sighed, somewhat helplessly: "If this problem cannot be solved, the restaurant chain will not be able to develop into an enterprise, and it will never be able to reach the level of those Western fast food chains. Moreover, for Westerners, although Chinese food is good, it is not Western food after all. Sometimes it is okay to change the taste and try something new, but it is impossible for them to take it as their staple food like Western food."
"I discovered this problem when I was in college and thought of many ways to solve it, but the facts told me that this is an unsolvable problem. From this point of view, there is no need to continue to run Ying's chain restaurant. The development of this industry has reached its limit. No matter how hard I try, I will never be able to reach the scale of those fast food industries."
Song Yuanchao understood Ying Anlun's idea. After taking over the family business, Ying Anlun wanted to make a career. However, when he took over, he found that the end of the Chinese restaurant chain was just around the corner. No matter how hard he tried or how he changed it, he was powerless to change the inherent nature and drawbacks of Chinese food. Perhaps this was his helplessness.
Ying Anlun laughed at himself and shook his head, "When I saw the truth, I realized that there was no future in continuing the family restaurant chain. At best, I would just be running those restaurants and doing repetitive work every day. You know what? When I think about having to do this for decades until I'm the same age as my father, I feel like I'm going crazy."
"Oh my God! I don't want to be busy in a kitchen full of oil smoke every day. I am not like my father who can do the same repetitive work in a restaurant for decades. If that were the case, I would definitely go crazy." Ying Anlun shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands. "So, I decided to end the family chain restaurant and sell all the restaurants."
"I studied business and management in college. My father's plan was to take over the family restaurant business, which I did. Unfortunately, my father and I had different ideas, and I can't say who was right or wrong, because from his perspective, there was nothing wrong with running a restaurant business, and he was considered successful in this industry."
"But times have changed. Coupled with the inherent limitations of Chinese food, this industry is doomed to have no future. But if I stop doing Chinese food and start doing Western fast food, I will inevitably have to compete with other fast food giants. Commercial competition is cruel, and I have no confidence in my success in competing with them, so after much deliberation, I decided to choose my current business."
Song Yuanchao understood Ying Anlun's thoughts very well. He asked himself, if he were to consider the problem from Ying Anlun's perspective, he would probably do the same as him, right?
Ying Anlun told Song Yuanchao that although he had withdrawn from the catering industry, the concept that food is the first necessity of the people still applies to current investments, which is why he entered the agricultural products industry.
Moreover, the prospects of the agricultural products industry are much greater than that of the catering industry. Facts have proved that he made the right move. Now his company is developing very well, and has gradually shifted from processing agricultural raw materials and auxiliary materials to farms and animal husbandry. In addition, several of his partners have deep backgrounds, so his future is bright.
"Perhaps my company can cooperate with your company, such as juice, cooking oil and wheat. I heard that your current beverage and instant noodle products are selling very well, and the past few years are the best time for continuous expansion."
"That's no problem. We can indeed cooperate on raw materials. But you also know that the current domestic foreign exchange is in short supply. Importing raw and auxiliary materials from abroad requires a large amount of foreign exchange, even if we are a joint venture." Song Yuanchao replied with a smile.
Ying Anlun nodded to show his understanding and said, "I have also learned about this situation and it is indeed the case, but I think there is always a way to solve it. What do you think?"
Song Yuanchao immediately laughed. Ying Anlun was right. There was a way, but it was a bit troublesome.
In fact, cooperating with Ying Anlun is not without benefits. After all, from Ying Anlun's story, Song Yuanchao also saw business opportunities and a stable source of raw and auxiliary materials.
At present, the country has not yet reached the level of a comprehensive market economy. It is still mainly a planned economy with a market economy as a supplement.
In this case, the raw material planning problem is often what restricts the development of enterprises. Even a joint venture like Si Te cannot avoid it. Although Si Te enjoys policy preferences to some extent and has a larger planned share of raw materials than ordinary state-owned enterprises, it is still not enough compared to Si Te's rapid development speed.
There is no need to talk about the other things, let’s just take instant noodles as an example.
The main raw materials for instant noodles are flour and cooking oil, which are the basic raw materials for making instant noodles. However, the planned share of these two types of raw materials can no longer meet the needs of Si Te Company, especially since the sales of instant noodles have continued to rise since the beginning of this year. By last month, the national sales of instant noodles had already exceeded the level of the whole year last year.
Under such circumstances, the planned raw materials allocated to Si Te Company had long been sold out. In order to maintain production and meet market demand, Si Te Company could only purchase unplanned raw materials on the market at high prices.
But you have to know that unplanned raw materials are not only expensive, but their sources are often not from the same channel or the same batch of products. Raw materials from different channels and origins will lead to differences in the quality of raw materials. Even if Sit Company has good control over quality, it cannot avoid such problems.
Before coming to Changan, the company's quality control department raised this issue and demanded the solution of unified procurement and control of raw material quality to ensure product quality.
But this issue has been discussed for several days without any result, because it is simply impossible to do.
At present, we can only make continuous adjustments in the production process according to the different sources and qualities of raw materials, but doing so will result in a decrease in production volume and a waste of manpower.
If there is a long-term, stable and reasonably priced raw material channel, it will be a good thing for Sit Company, and the problems that have been troubling it before will be easily solved.
Ying Anlun is in the agricultural products business. Agriculture in the United States is very developed, and wheat products accounted for more than a quarter of the world's total at the beginning of this century.
Although domestic wheat production has increased significantly in recent years, it still cannot meet domestic demand, and a large part of it has to rely on imports.
China's wheat production will continue to rise in the next two or three decades and eventually reach the top in the world, but that is a story for the future. At least now, the United States' wheat production far exceeds that of China, ranking among the top in the world, second only to India.
"Why don't you mention this to Annie? After all, you are her elder brother." Song Yuanchao asked curiously.
Ying Anlun smiled and said, "Business is business. Annie is my sister, but you are the chairman of the board of directors of the company, aren't you?"
Song Yuanchao was immediately happy. What Ying Anlun said was not wrong. Separating business and personal relationships was indeed a common practice in the Western business community.
Moreover, Ying Anlun is also a very smart person. He knows very well that although his sister is a major shareholder of Si Te Company, Song Yuanchao is the real boss of Si Te Company. If he bypasses Song Yuanchao and talks to Ying Annie directly about this matter, although it may succeed, such an approach will make Song Yuanchao unhappy. Moreover, this is a long-term business. Once the cooperation is successful, it will benefit both parties. Why should he settle for second best?
It would be more appropriate to talk to Song Yuanchao directly. At the same time, he could also take this opportunity to express his position and help Song Yuanchao dispel his concerns.
