Quality, service key to Rongs' success
11/8/2004 16:07
It's one of those unexplainable rules in life - everyone loves an underdog
success story.
Yu Changde knows firsthand about success.
The newly
appointed manager of Rongs, a glucose products manufacturer, still remembers
when he joined the company 17 years ago.
Yu first arrived at Jinquan Glucose
Factory (which was late renamed Rongs) in Zhuhang Town, Jinshan District, when
it was a small company struggling to avoid bankruptcy. It's annual output was
about 3 million yuan (US$361,446).
"Although at that time the factory was
close to bankruptcy, we believed that producing glucose was blessed with a
bright future. We felt the domestic food industry would develop," Yu
said.
The manager says the secret to Rongs success is its pursuit of quality
and service.
"Quality is the life of a business," he said. "While trying to
reduce production costs we have made every effort to maintain high
standards."
In the mean time, the company also understood the value of
customer service.
During the mid-1990s, an opportunity appeared when a famous
candy joint venture lacked raw materials. The company was unable to find a
domestic supplier for its special needs and had to rely on imported
products.
Once Yu found out, he organized a research team to prepare the
special product.
"We realized the importance of creating products to meet our
customers' needs," he said. "In that way we gained a good reputation in the
industry and at the same time developed our ability to innovate."
After
several months of sleepless nights with his co-workers in the lab, they finally
developed the ideal material for the customer. Rongs has been its main supplier
ever since.
"It was beneficial for both of us," he said. "While the customer
saved both money and time, we have also improved our technology."
"What's
more, during the process we set up our company culture."
At this point the
company changed its name from Jinquan to Rongs, which means merge in
Chinese.
Many famous large enterprises, both at home and abroad, have become
Rongs clients including Unilever, Perfetti and Wahaha Group.
Starting in
2000, Yu noticed fierce competition in the domestic glucose industry and decided
to find new business avenues.
"After a trip to France and Sweden, I found
that corn oil sold very well in Europe while at the same time, there were no
corn oil producers in China," he said.
Yu decided to fill that gap. He called
on the company's long-term business relationship with corn suppliers in the
northeast.
After thorough research, he found there were only a few imported
brands of corn oil sold in the local market, which was dominated by traditional
rapeseed oil and soybean oil.
It has taken the company a long time to
convince people about the advantages of corn oil, which contains vitamin E and
is especially good for senior citizens, but it has paid off.
"People nowadays
are paying more and more attention to their health," Yu said. "Our pure non
gene-transferred oil has won more and more preference from customers."
Rongs'
oil products account for more than 50 percent of the local corn oil market. It
also sells well in Eastern China.
"I still have many development plans for
Rongs," said the 45-year-old Jinshan native with a smile. "Every employee of
Rongs will keep on learning and we will try our best to bring a bright future to
the company."
Zhang Yi
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