Tao Huabi: Two sons, one built an unfinished building and the other smashed the signboard of "Laoganma"

Because in June 5438 +2020 10, an "uncompleted residential building" appeared somewhere in Kunming, the owner had no choice but to find that one of the developers turned out to be Li Guishan, the eldest son of Tao Huabi, the founder of the famous condiment tycoon Laoganma.

At one time, there was a rumor that "Laodopted Mother's enterprise went bad when it invested in Gai Lou", and the sales of "Laodopted Mother" series products also fell sharply, which brought serious losses to enterprises.

In order to restore the reputation of "Laoganma", 73-year-old Tao Huabi took the initiative to appear in front of the public, saying: "The real estate was built by my son Li Guishan, but this is a personal investment and has nothing to do with the enterprise."

People sigh: "Why is Laoganma getting more and more tasteless?"

1989 In June, the weather in midsummer was particularly sultry, but a small shop named "Affordable Hotel" in Longdongbao, Nanming District, Guiyang City, Sichuan Province was crowded with people, and everyone was shouting, "Boss, give me a bean jelly, and remember to put more hot sauce in your house, especially this one."

The middle-aged woman in the shop, wearing an apron, looks very capable. She is Tao Huabi, and this scene happened before she officially founded the brand "Laodopted Mother".

1989 At the beginning of this year, Tao Huabi opened a restaurant, which specializes in selling cold noodles and bean jelly. The facade of the storefront is similar to that of any small restaurant in a small street today. It is simple and simple, but as the saying goes, "Good wine is not afraid of the depth of the alley." Her shop is the beginning of a legend.

At the end of last century, the domestic economic development was still on the rise, and the people were generally poor, not to mention the catering business in Tao Huabi. Even if it sold very well, the income was very small.

But she is kind by nature, always "helping" the poor students in some schools around her, and often making free lunches for them. The word "Laoganma" has also spread because of the word of mouth of the students.

Besides the beneficial quality, the biggest symbol of Tao Huabi is the delicious hot sauce.

At first, she made hot sauce just as a seasoning for bean jelly and didn't take it to heart. Until one day, she got up early and felt unwell, so it was not convenient to go to the nearby vegetable market to buy peppers.

However, as soon as the door opened at noon, many customers came one after another. When they learned that there was no hot sauce, they turned around and muttered, "It's a waste of time to come here to eat this sauce."

This sentence awakened Tao Huabi and made her realize that the hot sauce she brewed was so popular. Since then, she has regarded buying peppers as the key to her business, rain or shine.

In addition, Tao Huabi continues to develop its potential. After several years of repeated research and trial-production, the spicy sauce with unique flavor was finally produced, which was strongly sought after by customers. Some people even bought hot sauce instead of bean jelly when they arrived at the store.

For Tao Huabi, although hot sauce is a stable income, the sales of cold noodles and bean jelly are declining day by day, even unsalable, which makes her a little depressed: obviously, she sells staple food, how can she become a sauce seller?

To Tao Huabi's surprise, several bean jelly shops with good sales around him actually bought their own hot sauce. The unique bean jelly with all-flavor sauce makes people linger, and customers are gradually increasing.

At this time, she didn't realize the huge business opportunities behind the hot sauce, but felt that she couldn't sell the sauce alone in the future, and she had to sell it with her own staple food.

You know, the passenger flow of small shops will not increase after reaching a certain amount, and most of them are customers in the surrounding areas, and Liancheng can't do without it, which means that Tao Huabi's income is limited, and it won't become a big climate in the long run.

At that time, the spring breeze of reform and opening up had spread all over China, and all provinces and cities were preaching the slogan "Development is the last word". The staff of Tao Huabi Sub-district Office found the development prospect of her homemade Chili sauce, and persuaded her to open a Chili sauce factory for mass production.

However, for Tao Huabi with a little knowledge, this is an adventure that she has never tried. She dare not bet on the small shop where the whole family lives. Moreover, if she is allowed to close the store, her classmates will have no place to eat as before.

Tao Huabi was reasonable and politely refused the kindness of the sub-district office.

Does the development of "Laoganma" really stop here? Judging from the present results, of course not.

Although Tao Huabi doesn't agree, the factory has planted seeds in her heart and only needs a little push.

The staff of the sub-district office did not give up after the communication failed, but found the students sponsored by Tao Huabi to persuade with the neighbors of hot sauce.

"dopted mother, the hot sauce you made is so delicious that you can't make money in this small place. It is better to build a factory so that people all over China and the world can taste such delicious food. "

Hearing the persuasion of the students, Tao Huabi refused, saying, "Who will cook for you when I leave?" ? Buying rice will definitely cost money again. "

At this time, the owner of the shop next door stood up and said, "You can do it with confidence and boldness. Our shop is responsible for the meals of these children, but we have a reluctant invitation. It would be great if you could send us some hot sauce. "

Tao Huabi nodded and choked and said, "Of course, I am relieved that they can have a good place to eat."

1In September, 1996, Tao Huabi closed its restaurants which had been operating for many years. When she stared at the sign of "affordable restaurant" in front of her door, she vowed in her heart that she would bring the truly affordable grade hot sauce to everyone. Behind this, there are expectations for the second half of the year and hard feelings for the first half.

From 65438 to 0947, Tao Huabi was born in a poor mountain village. Happiness was originally a happy thing, but for Taoist parents who prefer boys to girls, the eighth daughter is tantamount to a "burden."

Therefore, Tao Huabi hardly got much affection in her childhood, didn't go to school for a few days, and barely knew a few words, which also added a lot of trouble for her to build a hot sauce factory.

Because of her poor family, she learned to work at an early age, and she was busy, but she still couldn't get the good looks of her parents.

When Tao Huabi was 20 years old, the Taos' parents arranged marriages everywhere, hoping that she would get married as soon as possible and save a ration for her family. Under the introduction of the matchmaker, she met a local geological surveyor.

The two are not congenial, but more practical for the rest of their lives.

However, the married life is not as easy as Tao Huabi imagined.

Soon after, Tao Huabi's husband fell ill and needed medical treatment, but the medical expenses were a good expense. In order to support this family, she began to buy tofu, get up early to grind beans, and walk around the streets early to sell them. It's hard.

Later, Tao Huabi's two sons were born, which made the family even worse. The burden of life crushed her shoulders. In order to save money, she developed the bottle of hot sauce.

No one expected that this would add a fire to Tao Huabi's career. However, the middle process is tortuous.

One day, Tao Huabi was picking tofu in the surrounding village. Suddenly, his neighbor came panting and shouted, "Stop selling, something happened to your family."

She wobbled and could hardly stand up. When she hurried home, her husband was dying and died in a short time, leaving orphans and widows to live hard.

Seeing that both children were of school age, Tao Huabi was worried that the money from selling tofu could not afford the tuition, so he used his savings to open a restaurant.

At that time, she was forced to take the road of "making a living" just to survive, and then set up a factory to start a business, in order to make life better. But everything is difficult before it is easy, and the operation of the hot sauce factory will soon hit a wall.

At first, Tao Huabi sold it to the local bean jelly shop in Hui 'an with the signboard of "Laoganma" hot sauce. Because of the fame in earlier years, bean jelly shops are willing to buy it.

However, although the output of the factory is small, all kinds of bean jelly shops can't digest it. In desperation, she can only look to major retail stores, hoping that condiments such as soy sauce and vinegar can be sold directly to ordinary people.

It's easier said than done. First, the issue of popularity, and then the supply and marketing channels, how to carry out the two, let Tao Huabi broke his brain.

Not knowing any marketing strategy, she remembered the experience of selling tofu on the street. I decided to take a bag of hot sauce and send it to various food stores and canteens for trial sale, which was well received.

At that time, except Sichuan, Chongqing, Hunan, Guizhou and other places, there were not many areas that liked "spicy taste". However, with the economic and trade exchanges before the province, the northern and southern regions began to try spicy features different from the local ones, and Laoganma just caught up with this trend and began to sell them all over the country.

It is worth mentioning that Tao Huabi has constantly changed the original hot sauce, and the raw material is still local peppers in Guizhou, but other condiments such as lobster sauce have been added, and finally lobster sauce with various flavors has been formed.

This is also the reason why "Laoganma" is warmly sought after. In that era when we couldn't afford to eat meat and vegetables, eating "Laoganma" dipped in steamed bread was a rare luxury for everyone who worked hard outside.

In addition, Tao Huabi, as a farmer entrepreneur, knows that employees are the top priority of the long-term development of the enterprise, so she regards employees as relatives, not only holding birthday parties and other caring activities for employees in person, but also giving them many generous welfare benefits.

From security guards and assembly line workers to management managers and big partners, Tao Huabi can call out each other's names almost as soon as they meet, which shows her carefulness and sense of responsibility.

Therefore, "Laoganma" has gradually developed from a small factory to a large enterprise today. Behind this is not only the products that attract consumers, but also the unswerving work of employees.

However, just as the major enterprises have embarked on the road of financing and listing, Tao Huabi has shown a firm attitude: under any circumstances, "Laoganma" will not go public. Even when the daily sales exceeded 2 million bottles, it never wavered.

Moreover, during the ups and downs of Laoganma, she never borrowed money from the bank or the government. Even if the financing group personally delivered the money to the door, she resolutely refused.

Some people laughed at Tao Huabi and said, "The thought of small farmers is short-sighted and can't achieve great things. "

But she said, "We will do our best, and we will live for a long time." She always adheres to the business principle of "cash on hand, delivery on hand".

Facts have proved that Tao Huabi's approach is very correct. It is better to trudge leisurely in the business sea than to push yourself to the wall. There is no worry, only the struggle to look forward.

However, the flourishing age of "Laoganma" that she carefully created was defiled by her two sons.

While Tao Huabi is making "dopted mother" bigger and stronger step by step, her two sons have also become her right-hand men, occupying important positions in the enterprise.

In 20 14, the information of Laoganma's investors changed, and Tao Huabi transferred all the remaining 1% equity to his second son, Li Miaoxing. Since then, the second son Li Miaoxing holds 565,438+0% of the shares, and the eldest son Li Guishan holds 49% of the shares.

For Laoganma, Li Miaoxing became the second actual controller with the right to speak after Tao Huabi, and her business philosophy was completely different from her mother's.

Because the local pepper in Guizhou has changed with the relationship between supply and demand, the purchase price has also increased accordingly. In order to save costs, li miao ignored the opposition and adopted the relatively cheap Henan pepper.

Different raw materials have caused changes in taste, and many consumers who insist on Laoganma exclaim: "The taste is getting worse and worse, and there is no pepper taste." What followed was a decline in sales.

In addition, Li Miaoxing did not continue Tao Huabi's practice of treating employees well, which led to changes in management. The continuous piracy of "Laoganma" in the market once made Tao Huabi make great efforts to "crack down on piracy".

A wave of unrest, another wave. Although Li Guishan, the eldest son, was the first person to run Laoganma with his mother Tao Huabi, he was very interested in capital investment.

However, due to the differences between Li Guishan and his partners, the capital chain broke. Because the house on the land could not be delivered on time, he fell into many contract disputes and was complained, which damaged the reputation of Laoganma.

The ruined situation caused by two sons can only be ended by mother Tao Huabi herself. First of all, she switched back to the local pepper raw materials in Guizhou, and invested a lot of publicity on "Laoganma is still the original taste", slowly saving the consumers who are about to lose.

In addition, Tao Huabi broke the practice of never giving interviews and personally responded that "the unfinished building caused by Li Guishan has nothing to do with Laoganma".

Finally, under a series of measures, Laoganma gradually recovered her original glory. However, now that Tao Huabi is nearly eighty years old, the enterprise will eventually be handed over to two sons.

As for the future of Laoganma, we don't know, but we hope that both of them can continue the tradition of their mother Tao Huabi and push Laoganma to a more prosperous development period.

For Tao Huabi, he achieved the grand scale of the enterprise by himself, which is a miracle in the business world and also completed his original mission. For her, there should be no regrets!