Recently I saw a piece of sad and regrettable news:
Chairman of the Lee Kum Kee Group, a world-renowned seasoning brand, and the third generation of the familyLi Wenda died with his family on July 2021, 7, at the age of 26.Since then, Lee Kum Kee Group's official website also issued an obituary.
For the Chinese, Lee Kum Kee has accompanied many people for more than half a century.I believe that those who love to cook must have Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce, soy sauce or other Lee Kum Kee brand seasonings at home.
As the third-generation head of Lee Kum Kee, Li Wenda, known as the "king of oyster sauce", also has a legendary life.
According to the Forbes ranking evaluation, Li Wenda$ 174 billionThe net worth ranks 110th in the world's richest list and 6th in the Hong Kong rich list.
After the death of Mr. Li Wenda, Bloomberg News Weekly and the Hong Kong South China Morning Post immediately published related articles, saying that Mr. Li Wenda was an inspiring leader. Under his leadership,Lee Kum Kee has grown from a small family workshop to an internationally renowned brand, The brand has also extended to real estate, catering, health food and other fields, successfully making Lee Kum Kee a world-renowned condiment brand.
Today we will talkThe little-known story behind Lee Kum Kee and the head Li Wenda.....
The unexpected joy in the small fishing village
Founder of Lee Kum Kee in 1888Li JinshangStill a 20-year-old boy, he opened a small teahouse in a small fishing village in Zhuhai, Guangdong, mainly selling oyster meat and oyster soup.
One day, he brought out the oyster meat and forgot to turn off the heat. The oyster soup in the small pot was simmered for a long time and condensed into a coffee color. Li Jinshang tasted it with annoyance, and unexpectedly found that the oyster soup was fragrant and rich, which was never seen in the market. The best cooking condiments ever.
Later, Lee Kam Sang founded the predecessor of Lee Kum Kee——Lee Kum Kee Oyster Sauce, Specializing in the production and sale of high-quality oyster sauce and shrimp paste.And widely welcomed by the local people.After a century, oyster sauce has become an indispensable main seasoning for Cantonese cuisine and even home cooking.
Although the business is doing well, Li Jinshang, who was born in turbulent times, has suffered from fires and wars.Later, his family moved from Guangdong to Hong Kong and Macau,Rebuild the industry again.He always adhered to the business principle of "100 catties of oysters only produce 2 catties of oil", and soon oyster sauce continued to become popular in other countries.
After that, Li Jinshang’s sons inherited their father’s mantle, using high-quality Li’s special oyster sauce as the stepping stone, using flexible business acumen, and with the help of overseas Chinese merchants from Hong Kong and Macau, slowly expanding the oyster sauce business to Southeast Asia and even the other side of the ocean. Of North America.
With the further expansion of the sales scope, Lee Kum Kee’s production capacity has not kept up with the pace of expansion, which not only greatly restricted the development speed of Lee Kum Kee, but also facedInternal business divergence, once fell apartThe situation makes people sigh.
The era that belongs to Li Wenda is here
Just then, in 1929, Lee Kum Kee's third-generation successor, Lee Man Tat, was born in Macau.
His father refused Li Wenda’s premature entry into Lee Kum Kee’s management. First he let his branch in Guangzhou actually participate in the production and sales of oyster sauce; then he returned to a shop in Macau to continue to accumulate business experience; it was not until 1954 that Li Wenda returned to the family business. .But for eleven years of dormant Lee Kum Kee, Lee Wenda only won the title of "named person in charge of a family business."In 1972, it was nearly50-year-old Li Wenda finally assumed the post of chairman of the companyWith many years of overseas experience, he understands the tastes and hobbies of overseas Chinese very well and has formed his own standards.
Make drastic reforms and break into overseas markets
He first changed the old trademark that has been used for more than half a century into a more capableComply with overseas market developmentThe English label; and then took the lead in introducing fully automatic production lines in the condiment industry, abandoning the original small workshop business model, adjusting the business direction several times according to market demand, making drastic reforms, and entering the European and American markets.
In February of the same year, it coincided withBreaking the ice in Sino-U.S. relations, US President Nixon’s visit to China, China implemented "panda diplomacy." This time Li Wenda saw the opportunity and immediately launched affordable and cost-effective products for the US market.Panda Brand Oyster Sauce, The success of the big sales, let the Lee Kum Kee brand into thousands of Chinese families in the United States.After opening up the American Chinese market with Panda brand oyster sauce, Lee Kum Kee took advantage of the victory and opened multiple sauce production lines in Hong Kong, Guangdong, North America and Southeast Asia, setting up oyster sauce, shrimp paste, soy sauce, chili sauce, etc.Dozens of categories, more than 220 condimentsKingdom of sauces.Products are sold in more than 80 countries!
In recent years, Lee Kum Kee has successively opened branches in Los Angeles, New York and other places, realizing the freedom of condiment for Chinese families in North America.
The Chinese dining table will always have Lee Kum Kee's place
As the third-generation heir, Lee Wenda transformed Lee Kum Kee sauce, which was originally positioned as "high-quality and high-priced" sauce, into a "high-quality and cost-effective" sauce.
in order toLet more people enjoy cheap and high-quality condiments.Li Wenda guided the technicians to Japan to learn advanced soy sauce brewing technology, escaped from the previous product system that only made oyster sauce and shrimp paste, and gained better market recognition; he brought the technology back to his country and improved the soy sauce brewing machine according to local needs.
In order to cater for the needs of Chinese people in all aspects of their diet, stir-fry and stew, Lee Kum Kee’s sauces are subdivided into soy sauce, dark soy sauce, steamed fish soy sauce, hot vegetable soy sauce, cold vegetable soy sauce, etc., which are in line with Chinese dietary habits. Condiments, greatly meet the needs of Chinese cooking diversity.
Break the curse of being rich in three generations
Li Wenda's contribution to the Lee Kum Kee Group goes beyond that.Li Wenda who is uneasy about the status quo, Always be prepared for danger.In his position, he carried out diversified operations and developed the simple "Lee Kum Kee" Oyster Sauce Farm into a comprehensive company producing various condiments. He continued to innovate in the condiment industry and created a diet trend.
Today's Lee Kum Kee Group has developed into a modern enterprise with diversified businesses. Regarding Lee Kum Kee's centuries-old glory, Lee Wen Tat once said:"Relying on the hard work of each generation and the unique corporate culture that has been nurtured by the family over the years with pragmatism, integrity, perpetual entrepreneurial spirit, thinking about people, benefiting society, and sharing results as its core values, our ambition is to take this Pan family business continues endlessly, beyond the millennium. "
After more than 100 years of development, Lee Kum Kee is now a well-known sauce brand.As a generation of "Oyster Sauce King", Li Wenda's life legend interprets howBreaking the curse of "no richer than three generations".
Mr. Li Wenda is gone, and he brings the delicious food into the kitchens of overseas Chinese.
I believe that in the future, the overseas Chinese dining table will become more and more delicious with the company of Lee Kum Kee~~
Now, Chinese in the United States can also buy Lee Kum Kee products through various channels.
On the one hand, it is the retail direction. You can buy Lee Kum Kee sauce through almost all mainstream Chinese supermarkets, as well as various Chinese e-commerce platforms; you can even learn the recipe tips for daily cooking through the official account for the retail consumer market.
Welcome everyone to follow the "Lee Kum Kee All Delicious" account
On the other hand, in the direction of catering, all the bosses who operate restaurant-related businesses can almost purchase the sauces specially created, designed and manufactured by Lee Kum Kee for restaurants through mainstream purchase channels; they can also learn about the purchase through the public account for the restaurant market. Information about discounts, new product status, restaurant recipes, etc.
"Lee Kum Kee Dining Circle" account that restaurant owners can follow
The picture comes from online public resources
The above content is organized through the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author.Reference website:
https://hk.lkk.com/zh-hk/about-lkk/overview
https://www.932.com.hk/press_news/%E7%99%BE%E5%B9%B4%E6%9D%8E%E9%8C%A6%E8%A8%98%E7%9A%84%E6%89%BF%E5%82%B3%E6%95%85%E4%BA%8B.215.html
https://www.zkxblog.com/lab/read-3734825.html
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%8E%E9%8C%A6%E8%A8%98
http://www.uschinapress.com/static/content/CJ/2021-07-27/869684896283627520.html
https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/hkstock/ggscyd/2021-07-27/doc-ikqcfnca9336249.shtml
https://sunnews.cc/finances/273364.html
https://www.sohu.com/a/479998519_120914498?scm=1002.590044.0.10647-1929
https://china.huanqiu.com/article/447ImYTrvs3
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