Recently, Yuan Qisenlin announced that sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate and other preservatives will no longer be added to its whole line of bubble aquatic products, becoming the first food enterprise in China not to add the above preservatives to carbonated drinks, and taking a key step towards the product concept of focusing on health.

Behind the "zero preservative", on the one hand, the three factories that have been put into production in Yuan Qi Forest have all completed the deployment of the most advanced aseptic carbonic acid production line in the industry. On the other hand, it means that Yuan Qi Forest has changed from the previous light asset mode of OEM to the heavy asset mode of self-built and self-produced, thus realizing the "freedom" of the supply chain. Supply chain integration and effective competition have become one of the key factors that determine the future development of domestic brands.

The technical fulcrum of "zero preservative"-aseptic carbonic acid production line

At the beginning of this year, Yuan Qisenlin officially launched the "0 preservative" program, which has covered all the production capacity of bubble water. There is no need to add preservatives such as sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate to preserve the vitality forest, and the whole process of feed liquid, packaging and environment is aseptic.

Aseptic production line is a necessary prerequisite to realize "zero preservative" in bubble water. The production line adopts aseptic carbonated filling technology, reaching the industry-leading log6 microbial control level, that is to say, the probability of microbial influence is not higher than one bottle in every one million bottles of beverages in Yuan Qi Forest.

It is reported that there are currently less than 30 aseptic carbonic acid production lines of the same scale in the world, 8 of which have been put into operation in Yuan Qi Forest, and 24 are expected to be put into operation next year. By then, Yuan Qi Forest will also become the beverage enterprise with the largest number of aseptic carbonic acid production lines in the world.

In the process of production and distribution, Yuan Qi Forest has realized full automation, covering the whole process of water treatment, blending, sterilization, filling and packaging, improving the detection accuracy and ensuring the product quality. Cancel unnecessary manual contact and constantly optimize the sterile environment; At the same time, the data tracks the whole production process, and any problems can be quickly located. Up to 50 quality tests are completed by automated equipment to ensure the safety of every detail.

"In order not to add preservatives such as sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate, our investment is very huge, but it is very worthwhile. Our ideal beverage factory has less unnecessary additives, high aseptic requirements and is more environmentally friendly. " Li Bingqian, general manager of Yuan Qisenlin Production Center, said that the cost of aseptic production line is several times that of traditional production line.

Because preservatives are beneficial to long-term storage, transportation and circulation, almost all traditional carbonated beverage enterprises in the world will use preservatives that meet the national standard, especially sodium benzoate. However, with the improvement of the health concept of modern consumer groups and people drinking various drinks and foods more frequently in multiple scenarios, reducing the addition of preservatives has become an inevitable trend in the upgrading of the food industry.

"Yuan Qi Forest just wants to tell you that carbonated drinks can be healthier, not only without sugar, but also without preservatives such as sodium benzoate. This time, we are at the forefront of international giants. " Li Bingqian said.

It should be pointed out that "0 preservative" is the first step of Yuan Qi Forest's "30 factories" strategy. Based on the growing demand of young consumers for a healthy diet, Yuan Qisenlin hopes to further improve the technological standards on the basis of building his own factory and gradually realize the three goals of "zero preservatives", "zero pollution" and "zero carbon".

"Zero pollution" mainly refers to sewage treatment. Yuan Qi Forest Factory improves the utilization rate of water resources through RO concentrated water recovery, water-saving management of key water points, water utilization in sewage treatment and upgrading of oxygen-consuming sewage treatment process. Through high-standard water treatment process, the treated reclaimed water in the future can also be used for urban municipal greening to realize the recycling of water resources. In terms of solid waste discharge, the factory will move towards "zero landfill" to protect soil health and reduce the impact on the environment.

In terms of "zero carbon", Yuan Qi Forest promised to achieve the goal of five self-built factories becoming domestic carbon-neutral beverage demonstration factories in 2025, making them truly "zero carbon factories". Yuan Qi Forest revealed that since the first day of the company's establishment, Yuan Qi Forest has never used PVC labels, and all bottles and packaging are made of PET environmental protection materials. Yuan Qisenlin attaches great importance to green and low carbon. All the self-built factories are equipped with rooftop solar photovoltaic systems, and the energy supply adopts renewable and clean energy such as photovoltaic.

Li Bingqian said that Yuan Qisenlin hopes that through several efforts, the whole society will finally realize "no-burden consumption", so that consumers will have no physical and psychological burden and the environment will have no pollution burden.

"Super Urban Agglomeration+Five Self-built Factories" to Solve the Bottleneck of Supply Chain

On the one hand, the realization of "zero preservatives" in Yuan Qi Forest benefited from the application of new technologies, on the other hand, it also meant that Yuan Qi Forest broke through the "iron curtain" of international giants for the first time in the supply chain field and achieved basic independence.

In recent years, there have been many "no supply" incidents in Yuan Qi forest. According to Li Bingqian, most domestic carbonated beverage production lines are in the hands of international giants. On 20 18, Yuan Qi Forest began to plan and build its own factory. At that time, the annual income of Yuan Qi Forest was only 200 million yuan. After experiencing the game of all parties around the supply chain, Yuan Qi Forest realized that it was necessary to solve the problem of stuck supply chain.

Since then, Yuan Qi Forest has started a series of actions to build its own factories.

In June 2020, the first self-built factory in Yuan Qi Forest, Anhui Chuzhou Factory, was put into operation. The factory is located in Langya Economic Development Zone, Chuzhou City, with a total area of 200 mu. In the second phase, six high-standard aseptic production lines have an annual production capacity of over 900 million bottles of beverages.

In April of 20021year, Tianjin Xiqing factory was completed and accepted, with a total area of 1 10 mu. * * It has four high-standard aseptic production lines with an annual production capacity of over 600 million bottles of beverages. In the same month, Guangdong Zhaoqing factory was put into operation, with a total area of 150 mu.

2002110 Yuan Qi Forest No.4 Factory in Xianning, Hubei officially entered the stage of equipment installation and commissioning, mainly for Central China, with an annual output of more than 900 million bottles of beverages, which is expected to be put into production at the end of this year at the earliest. On September 30th, Yuan Qi Forest No.5 Factory also broke ground in Dujiangyan, Sichuan, with an annual production capacity of more than 654.38+02 billion bottles of beverages, which is expected to be put into production next spring.

It is reported that Yuan Qisenlin's Xianning factory in Hubei Province will be an open "ecological park factory"; Dujiangyan factory in Sichuan is located in the production base of industrial and tourism integration, and is also the headquarters of R&D, which sells and solves the forest in the west of Yuan Qi. After completion, it will further enhance the development level of local green industries.

This series of actions also marks the initial completion of the national strategic layout of "five super urban agglomerations+self-built factories" laid out by Yuan Qisenlin from 20 19. The above-mentioned self-built factories correspond to the five major urban agglomerations of North China, East China, South China, Central China and Southwest China, focusing on the markets of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Sichuan-Chongqing and Central South China, directly covering 700 million people.

Up to now, five factories in Yuan Qi Forest plan to invest a total of 5.5 billion yuan, covering a total area of more than 1000 mu, and the total production capacity will exceed 5 billion bottles after all of them are put into production. Yuan Qi Forest's product development and supply chain are also more regionally targeted, because it has built its own factory and its flexibility and responsiveness to market changes.

In addition, the self-built factory has solved many R&D problems of Yuan Qi Forest. According to official data, in the past 12 months, more than 30 kinds of beverage flavors were added to Yuan Qi Forest, and the average product development cycle was 5.5 months. Many new products have special requirements for production lines. For example, Yuan Qi Forest Milk Tea has a high demand for production lines, and many domestic production lines can't process it. For another example, the "perfect score" of Yuan Qi forest juice products is micro-bubble+juice, which has never been seen in China and cannot be achieved by foundries.

The CICC Research Report pointed out that as major new consumer brands increase their investment in self-built factories to increase their production capacity and constantly improve their logistics and warehousing systems to achieve full control of digital production and marketing, supply chain integration and effective competition have become one of the key factors that determine the future development of domestic brands. Yuan Qisenlin's self-built factory can better cover the whole product life cycle of new product research and development, scale production and quality control.

"Zero tolerance" for food safety issues

Whether it is the "30 Factory" strategy or the construction of supply chain, food safety is the top priority. Wang Xuegang, president of Yuan Qi Forest Research Institute, said that food safety is the "least bargaining" bottom line in the construction of forest supply chain in Yuan Qi. Yuan Qi Woods takes a firm attitude of "zero tolerance" to any food safety issue.

To this end, Yuan Qi Forest established the Food Safety Committee, chaired by Tang Binsen, the founder of Yuan Qi Forest. For major decisions, the technical department will participate, and * * * will participate in decision-making. The Food Safety Committee has a "one-vote veto".

In order to ensure food safety, Yuan Qi Forest has established the principle of "food safety first, four strictest and one system", that is, the company gives priority to food safety in all matters, establishes the strictest standards, supervision, punishment and accountability system, and establishes a scientific, rigorous and effective quality management system.