Wan Long - From an uneducated poor teenager to the tycoon of the world's largest pork production empire

According to Forbes China, at the age of 79, Wan Long entered the TOP 200 richest people in China in 2019 with the position #186.

According to Hurun Report of the same year, his fortune is up to 9 billion yuan. On the current Forbes billionaires list, Mr. Wan Long is ranked at #1664 globally and #372 in the China Rich List 2020 with a fortune of $1.7 billion.

Born in poverty, miserable childhood

Mr. Wan Long, born in September 1940, was born in La Ha, Ha Nam. In terms of education, he is a Bachelor of University, a senior economist and a senior political officer. With his outstanding achievements with his WH empire, he is known as the "godfather" of China's meat industry. However, if you look back at his starting point, many people will be surprised to know that it is just a round zero.

Wan Long was born into a poor family. Originally, his name was given with the wish to bring luck and prosperity, but his father died early. Families without economic breadwinners become even more miserable and destitute. The childhood of the teenager Wan Long was the days when he had to fend for himself, scavenge for wild vegetables, collect ticks, and stick a rented matchbox to earn food.

Before graduating from high school, Wan Long decided to join the army, become a railway soldier, reducing the burden on his family. Later, when he was discharged from the army, he was assigned to work in the dismal Luohe Meat Union meat factory, a business on the verge of bankruptcy, at any time in danger of not being able to pay employees' wages.

Here, Wan Long used his own foresight and ability to grasp strong trends to propose bold ideas to leaders. For example, when the price reform in China broke out in 1983, the price of pork was pushed up very high. Everyone in the factory thinks that meat should be stored in large quantities, waiting until Tet to sell it at a much higher price.

Only Wan Long has other thoughts. He shared with managers about his prediction that, the longer he waited, he was only afraid that the price of meat would plummet. Indeed, after only half a month, the price of pork dropped by 20%. After so many times, Mr. Wan Long won the trust of a large number of people with smart and bold ideas. This is the premise to open an important turning point in the path of promotion. In 1984, he was elected by everyone as the director of Luohe Meat Union Factory, welcoming the period of development and expansion of the whole meat product industry.

Courage to build a "giant" of the meat industry

Under the leadership of Wan Long, Luohe factory is constantly upgrading technology, paying attention to product quality, improving the conversion value of meat in the traditional industry. That same year, the unit increased its profit to 8,000 yuan.

In 1989, he founded the brand "Shuanghui". In February 1992, the first "Shuanghui" brand ham sausage product was launched into the market. The brand invested a lot of effort and money and gradually surpassed the industry leader Chundu with a market share of up to 70%.

In 1997, the businessman surnamed Wan continued to launch high-end products "Shuanghui King Zhongwang" - using fresh local pork as ingredients and possessing 90% real meat content. This has helped the business establish its strong position, standing firm in the midst of the Asian financial crisis that hit most industries hard.

Just one year later, Shuanghui recorded a sharp increase in sales, exceeding 2 billion yuan and becoming the leading brand in the industry. In December 1998, Shuanghui Industrial (now known as Shuanghui Development) became the first meat processor to go public.

However, the journey to become a "giant" of the world meat industry is not easy and covered with fresh flowers. In 2011, Shuanghui was almost "toppled over" because the "Clenbuterol" incident in its meat products was exposed. Clenbuterol is a lean substance for animals, can become the cause of cancer or other diseases in humans such as acute poisoning, muscle tremors, heart attack, heart palpitations, hypertension, dizziness.. .if used in overdose quantity.

The incident has seriously damaged the brand image of the business. Mr. Wan Long has decided to spend more than 200 million yuan a year to implement a series of reforms to improve food safety, including strict inspection of every live pig entering Shuanghui. Thanks to the timely change, he gradually regained the trust of users and revived the business. In 2014, he successfully launched Wanzhou International in Hong Kong and 2 years later, the business entered the TOP 500 large enterprises in the world.

At present, Mr. Wan Long has resigned as CEO and will only continue to hold the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors as well as Chairman of several important committees at WH Group.

Lifetime decisions make an entrepreneur's legend

In 1999, Mr. Wan Long was the first to introduce and bring the chilled meat production line to China. His decision has contributed to strongly promoting the management of the cool meat brand, at the same time expanding the chain of cool meat stores, changing the traditional model ever.

Thanks to these pioneering steps, he has helped Shuanghui to thrive, continue to maintain an absolute position in the meat industry and create a big gap with other competitors. The billionaire is also considered by the world's leading investors such as Goldman Sachs Group or CDH Investment as a "master of tricks". He owns the famous saying "Use capital, not control capital".

This bravery was most clearly demonstrated at the time of 2013. The billionaire made a bold decision that shocked the global market at that time when he spent $7.1 billion to acquire a manufacturing company. Smithfield is the world's largest pork producer. At that time, this was the most valuable M&A deal in China.

In 2014, more than 100 companies from China, the United States and Europe were listed by WH Group in Hong Kong, officially becoming the largest pork enterprise in the world. In 2016, the company was the only name representing China's domestic food industry to be included in the Fortune Global 500 list with a revenue of 140 billion yuan.

WH Group also continued to expand its presence in the US with the purchase of Clougherty Packing, California's largest pork processor, in 2017. At this point, nothing can replace the "giant" position. WH Group's meat industry is in the hands of Chinese billionaires.

It can be seen that, after a long hard journey, Wan Long from a poor boy who had to drop out of school to earn a living, has now become one of the famous business legends. He is a great inspiration for the young generation who want to rise up in the future.

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