"Master Kang" Wei Yingjiao

In mainland China, the brand is well known, but the name of the Wei brothers who founded the company is relatively unknown. Many people even assume that the owner of the company is surnamed, Kang. The four Wei brothers, who grew up in Changhua, Taiwan, took over the Dingxin oil factory in 1978 after their father died. After more than 20 years of hard work in mainland China, Master Kong has achieved its leading position in China's food industry.

The Chinese NBA rookie Jeremy Lin's "Linsanity" appeal on the other side of the ocean is not small. Even Wei Yingjiao, who has always been the low-key chairman of Ting Xin International Group, was conquered by him. In an interview with reporters recently, Wei Yingjiao, also known as "the second chairman", said publicly that Master Kong wants Lin to be the face of its beverage products in the future, and is currently in talks with his agent.

A bowl of instant noodles makes a legend

In the 1980s, Ting Hsin's development in Taiwan was always unsatisfactory. The Wei brothers took NT $150 million to the mainland to test the waters. In the three years FROM 1989 TO 1991, THEY SET UP four JOINT ventures in Beijing, Jinan, Qinhuangdao, Tongliao, and other places. Have tried "top good fragrance oil", "Kang Lai egg crisp roll" castor oil, and other products, which have little effect, but also lost more than half of the principal. The fourth younger brother Wei Yingxing takes the train to go on a business trip to the mainland to eat the experience of instant noodles, make, however "master Kang" instant noodles can be born, and one cannot close, achieved the food empire of Wei's brothers.

In 1991, Wei Yingjiao's fourth brother Wei Yingxing was eating instant noodles brought from his hometown in Taiwan on the train. The smell attracted people to look on and from time to time people asked where they could buy such instant noodles. "The mainland is so big, with so many people taking trains, how big the market for instant noodles should be!" Even later employees who joined Master Kong were happy to describe Wei's excitement. Aftermarket investigation found that although many mainland instant noodle enterprises, instant noodle product polarization is obvious, quality and price moderate terminal products left large blank. So the Wei brothers decided to change their plans to build a biscuit factory in Tianjin and make instant noodles instead.

On August 21, 1992, TING XIN INTERNATIONAL INVESTED 8 MILLION US DOLLARS TO ESTABLISH THE PRODUCTION LINE OF INSTANT NOODLES IN TEDA. "Master Kong" was born the first bowl of moderate price, taste suitable for Chinese braised beef noodles. The Wei BROTHERS decided to seize the opportunity to establish a "No. 1 brand" image, advertising heavily in the country between the launch of the product. With the "Master Kong instant noodles, delicious visible" advertising words together, Xiangpiao the country's "Master Kong" almost became synonymous with instant noodles in the hearts of the people. It is said that the sellers around the country at that time were able to mention goods early, not hesitate to ask people to find a relationship, and even raise the price to take delivery, the delivery team often encircled the factory area.

To rapidly expand production capacity and control sales channels, since 1994, "Master Kong" has successively set up production bases in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Chongqing, Xi 'a Shenyang, and other places, and formed a regionalized production and sales pattern in the whole country. At this time instant noodles are no longer "Master Kong" all, the product line is also constantly enriched. Tingxin International gradually developed into a comprehensive food manufacturer and formed three main businesses: Dingjin in charge of drinks, Dingyuan in charge of pastry, and Dingyi in charge of convenience food.

Transnational cooperation, mixed industry development

After Tingyi was listed in Hong Kong in 1996, the Wei brothers expanded even more rapidly. Ding Xin Group has acquired the fast-food chain from the United States and "have fun and food" ramen, in Shanghai, Wei's brothers founded Tesco supermarket, the establishment of cold room, enter the dairy market. After their successful business in China, the Wei brothers, eager to return to Taiwan to further their family business, invested heavily in 1988 to acquire Wei Quan Group, the second largest food company in Taiwan with a history of 50 years.

In the late 1990s, too fast business expansion and increased investment in fixed assets made Tingyi's cash flow start to turn over, and its financial statement showed red light. The collapse of its stock price further worsened its financial position. At this time taste, all share prices plunged more to make master Kong's financial crisis.

In 1999, the Wei brothers decided to sell a stake in Tingyi Holdings to save the crisis. After COMMUNICATING WITH the UNI-PRESIDENT GROUP, Sanyo FOOD, and other ORGANIZATIONS, THE WEI BROTHERS 'sincerity impressed THE team OF Sanyo Food Co., LTD. Sanyo Food paid $140 million in cash to acquire 33.1889 percent of Tingyi and entrusted Wei with the management of the company. Since then, Tingyi has repeatedly attracted overseas strategic partners to participate in its enterprises.

In early 2004, Japan's Asahi Breweries and Itochu jointly paid $384 million in cash for a 50% stake in Tingyi's Tingyi Beverage Company. That year, Britain's TESCO Group, the world's third-largest supermarket chain, paid 140 million pounds (2.13 billion yuan) for a 50 percent stake in the chain. In 2008, Itochu paid another $710m for a 20% stake in Ting Hsin. In 2010, Asahi Breweries bought 6. 54% shares in Ting Hsin Group using the stock exchange, with a total amount of 520 million US dollars.

Now Wei's brother's industry has formed food as the center of the mixed industrial group. It includes four brands: Master Kong, Wei Quan, Decos, and Family Convenience, covering many fields such as convenience food, pastry, beverage, dairy, condiments, edible oil, catering, and chain retail. The Wei brothers also ranked fourth on Forbes Taiwan's rich list with a fortune of $5.7 billion.

"Unite the secondary enemies against the primary enemy"

Tingyi recently announced that its subsidiary, Tingyi Beverage Holding, has been formally approved by the Ministry of Commerce for the acquisition of 24 bottling plants and exclusive distribution rights of some brands of PepsiCo in China in exchange for a 5% stake in the subsidiary. At present, Tingyi and Pepsi rank second and fourth respectively in the soft drink market in the Mainland. After the deal is completed, Tingyi stands a good chance of displacing Coca-Cola's leading position on the mainland. Moreover, the alliance with Pepsi enables Master Kong to participate in the development of carbonated drinks, fruit juices, and sports drinks, filling the gap in the carbonated drinks market, and is expected to gain a larger share in the market with huge growth space such as fruit juices and sports drinks.

Mr. Wei said the strategy for the acquisition was to "unite with the secondary enemies and fight the primary enemies." He said the acquisition would allow Tingyi to add more carbonated drinks to its portfolio and, more importantly, to distance itself from rival Coca-Cola. Mr. Wei stressed that Tingyi's revenues in China were now 1.2 times larger than Coca-Cola's in China, but that it had "never been complacent" about defending Coke. He expects the Commerce Ministry's approval of the merger will increase the gap with Coca-Cola in China to 1.7 times.

Four brothers, hand in hand, complement each other

The four Wei brothers get along well with each other, but their personalities are quite different. In the process of cooperation, personality difference has played the advantage of complementary benefits. Eldest Wei Yingzhou is good at management, doing things domineering, work maniac, take militarization management; The second Wei Yingjiao salesman was born, the business ability is strong, good at communication, fundraising is his, the early years of the new group to find money rely on him; The third, Wei Yingchong, who was trained in finance, was a pious Tzu Chi man with a gentle and introverted personality. He did not talk much but was straightforward and did not beat around the bush. And old four Wei Yingxing is sociable, easy-going personality, wide knot good margin, often the spotlight. At ordinary times friends are broad, originality is dyeD-in, and the new career of crest new group is his first-hand development almost.

In the beginning, Wei Ying state body holds father post concurrently, once giving younger brothers the image that is difficult to approach, to maintain affection, although four brothers are separated now CROSS-STRAIT, but every year meeting regularly, at ordinary times also can hold a telephone conference, to contact each other's feelings. The Wei brothers are so tightly knit that until now, all four brothers have pooled their earnings into a single-family fund, with each family receiving a fixed monthly stipend for living expenses and their children's tuition covered by the CPF. Not only this, the other half of the Wei brothers of the new group is professional housekeeper almost, the company is not concerned, sister-in-law's relationship is very harmonious.

"My family had a standard communist system," Mr. Wei jokes. "The four brothers had the same share ownership and were sent to each company to serve, and all their salary dividends were handed back to the family and then invested. I have not thought about the succession. It is for my brother to think about things. We have to make the system work." He believes that Formosa Plastics has done the best job of succession. Formosa Plastics has a committee approach to collective management, and Wei wants the next generation to be chairman rather than CEO. He said that only by adopting the committee system can we achieve great achievements in the past century.

We have full confidence in the Chinese market

Many Taiwanese companies are optimistic about China as the world's giant factory and devote themselves to OEM or ODM in the mainland, where most of the profits fall into the pockets of multinational companies, while they only get meager processing points. Wei Yingjiao regards mainland China as a huge world market and is full of confidence in its future development. He believes the worst is over for the economy after Ma Ying-jeou's "golden decade" after his re-election. He says Tingyi will continue to raise wages for its employees in China. Tingyi has set annual increases at twice the rate of GDP growth so that it can afford higher wages.

He thinks you want to win in the world market, you must love this land, everyone loves the land, as a starting point, you will respect the land, when you respect, you'll do a lot of market research, what is he like to eat salty, or eat sweet, China 5000 years of history, south sweet, north salty, east sour spicy west habit, It hasn't changed. Master Kong is constantly trying to satisfy the tastes of people everywhere, such as making spicy dishes in Chengdu, mala dishes in Chongqing, and beef noodles with pickled cabbage in northeast China. Only in this way can we achieve great success.

Wei Yingjiao said: "China's urbanization rate from the current 47 percent, to the estimated 55 percent in 2020, and then to 60 percent in 2030, people's diet level will also change from the past full, to eat well, to eat smart, so Ting Xin should work on higher value-added products. Our MARKET SHARE 55.7%, is THE high price, low price mixed calculation results, if 1 yuan above as high price, our whole market share will reach 70%. In the future, we will seize the opportunity to make everyone love Master Kong."