Lu Rutao, a 40-year-old native of Chashan Town, Dongguan City, won the title of "China Famous Chef" and was a national special pastry chef. 1999, with the support of his family, he invested 654.38 million yuan to open the first sacred heart bakery in Chashan, and started his entrepreneurial journey. After just six years of development, Dongguan Shengxin Co., Ltd. is now a large group company integrating production, sales and scientific research, with a production base of 10000 square meters and an automatic production line imported from Japan. It has R&D centers and workshops of bread, cakes, biscuits, lotus seeds, cakes and pastries museums, dozens of cake shops and nearly 3,000 square meters of education and training bases. It has provided more than 1000 jobs for the society. "Sacred Heart" brand moon cakes won the "Quality and Reputation Product Award" of China Moon Cake Festival in 200 1 "Diaoyutai State Guesthouse". For two consecutive years, it has become a Mid-Autumn Festival condolence gift for the honor guards of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. In 2006, it won the title of "Top Ten Mooncakes" in China. The walnut crisp, oil angle and moon cakes produced by the company were listed as the designated products of the patriotic New Year group meeting and economic and trade cooperation and exchange meeting held in the Great Hall of the People in 2005. In 2004, Lu Rutao was awarded the title of "Excellent Private Entrepreneur in China" in the solemn Great Hall of the People, and in 2005, he was awarded the title of "Patriotic Entrepreneur". Flowers and honors swarmed in, all of which made people feel shocked and surprised!
How does Sacred Heart survive and develop rapidly in a highly competitive environment? With this curiosity, the reporter finally interviewed Mr. Lu Rutao, the chairman of Dongguan Shengxin Food Co., Ltd., the main author of this article. Through a close dialogue with Lu Rutao, a wonderful entrepreneurial story appeared in the reporter's field of vision. Speaking of starting a business, Lu Rutao talked about a childhood experience. Lu Rutao is the boss of the family. Four brothers and sisters, life is very difficult. /kloc-At the age of 0/6, the five brothers and sisters wanted to buy two moon cakes for their parents to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, so they quietly took the firewood cut up the mountain a few days ago to the market and bought two moon cakes with the 70 cents they earned in 3 yuan. On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, just as parents were sad because they had no money to buy moon cakes, five brothers and sisters took out two moon cakes and gave them to their parents. On the Mid-Autumn Festival that year, my parents were moved to tears because of these two moon cakes. From that moment on, Lu Rutao secretly vowed to change all this with his life.
In the early 1980s, Lu Rutao's family was not rich. He only attended junior high school, and then he taught himself. 1984 After working as a building handyman for a year, I went to the restaurant of Chashan Supply and Marketing Cooperative to learn how to make snacks from the master. Two years later, once he went to Guangzhou, he saw exquisite cakes in the dim sum window of the South Building and the dim sum window of Dechang Bakery. They are delicious and beautiful, which really makes him linger. Lu Rutao is a visionary. At that time, he thought that if he could learn this unique skill and become a senior pastry chef, he would be a top entrepreneurial master when he returned to his hometown. With this dream, he asked others to accept him as an apprentice. At that time, people saw that he was very determined and promised to take him in, but the condition was that he would be an office worker for three months without pay. In his mind, if you want to come, you will come. No pains, no gains. As long as he can learn a skill, he can do anything. When the three-month handyman expired, the master saw that he was willing to endure hardships and began to teach him how to make egg tarts, moon cakes and celebrate the New Year in oil angle. Lu Rutao carefully observed the small moves, links and the weight of raw materials of each variety, learned the actual operation, took notes after work, and summed up the experience of the day. So, studying in Guangzhou is five years. In the meantime, he also came to consult the national super dim sum masters He Shihuang and Luo Xinquan, and learned from the teachers.
Learning to make snacks is actually learning a food culture, both Chinese and western, and you can't finish learning it! Lu Rutao doesn't think it's a good thing that young people want to fly before their wings grow hard. In the early 1990s, he was lucky enough to go to a star-rated hotel in Beijing as a pastry chef with his master. Combining the characteristics of North and South dim sum, they made more varieties and patterns to choose from. Later, he was recommended by the manager to communicate in the Great Hall of the People. Oil angle, walnut crisp and Cantonese moon cakes are naturally his strong points. From then on, he became a famous pastry chef and had more opportunities to learn and communicate with pastry chefs. In his words, there is no end to art, no end to learning, and friendship with art. In 2000, Lu Rutao was proficient in cakes. When it comes to the motivation of starting a business, it is actually an accidental opportunity. At that time, in order to improve his cultural quality, Lu Rutao signed up for the "Advanced Seminar for Private Enterprises" of the Central Party School. When chatting with the professor after class, the professor patted him on the shoulder and said encouragingly, "Your craftsmanship is really good. If you can turn your knowledge and technology into industry, it will be more beneficial to yourself and society. " With such a little encouragement from the university professor, he was really tempted. With the dream of turning technology into industry, he finally embarked on the road of entrepreneurship after many twists and turns.
With the help of his parents, he only had 65,438+10,000 yuan to start a business. With a start-up capital of 654.38 million yuan, the first "Sacred Heart Cake Chain Store" was established.
The name "Sacred Heart" was personally named by the director of Chashan Industrial and Commercial Branch. "Sacred heart" means "the way of holiness, from the best to the best; The meaning of the heart is true and sincere. " Since then, Lu Rutao has always pursued his dream and corporate culture, led employees with green food, scientific development and humanistic ideas, and built his own brand.
Lu Rutao's sacred heart company can develop to today's achievements. In Lu Rutao's own words, after solving the problems of survival and food and clothing, people will think of how to develop and work for their ideals and careers, not just for money. Therefore, he often trains the staff of Sacred Heart to say: "Psychological wealth is the real wealth, and psychological wealth will have everything and the world. What you have now can only represent the past, not the future. You should be creative ... "Lu Rutao thought of taking the brand road from the beginning, and then promoted the market with the brand. From the very beginning, Lu Rutao was determined to build a brand. In his view, a good brand can open the market. The products of Sacred Heart became an instant hit in Beijing in 2004 because the series products of Sacred Heart have formed a good brand.
Lu Rutao often tells employees: Look at McDonald's and Coca-Cola, aren't they all brands? Nowadays, young people pursue fashionable clothes and pay attention to brands in catering. You have no brand, who agrees with you? How does society agree with you? When he first started his business, he also knew that it was not easy to create a brand. It must go through scientific research and strict appraisal. In order to meet the market consumption trend, he spared no expense in developing new products. Let's say that several high-grade nutritious moon cakes developed by Sacred Heart for the "Patriotic Spring Festival Group Meeting" held in the Great Hall of the People in 2005 cost hundreds of thousands of scientific research funds. However, he thinks it is worthwhile, because it opens up a high-consumption market for Sacred Heart. Sacred Heart is also preparing to enter the world market with such high-grade national cakes.
At present, the "Sacred Heart" series of moon cakes have won awards in many exchanges and appraisals, and the China Moon Cake Festival has won the quality and credibility product award. The gold medal products of Guangdong International Mooncake Festival in 2004, such as "Shi Sheng Flower Moon", "Seven Stars Accompanied by Moon" and "Swiss Style", are not only well-known in Beijing, but also very popular in supermarkets and specialty stores in Dongguan. This also shows that Lu Rutao's idea of playing the market by brand is right, which is also his magic weapon to win.
Struggle for your dream, not only do you not feel tired, on the contrary, you are still very happy, working hard and enjoying it; Doing what you love, though bitter, is Lu Rutao's bitter optimism. In fact, a person's success does not depend on hardships, and those who fail are often more difficult. Starting a business and developing an enterprise need "science" and strategic vision. Entrepreneurship must have a clear goal, get on the horse, don't blindly get on the horse, otherwise it will go further and further. If the road is right, don't be afraid of the long road. The development of enterprises also needs strategic vision. He believes that there is a chance for the success of an enterprise, that is, whether the products are timely, responsive and whether there is a market.
Lu Rutao saw the vacancy of "there are not many high-grade and high-grade Cantonese moon cakes" to make a brand. And with the improvement of people's living standards, the moon cakes that people want to eat are no longer those with more sugar and fat. The high-grade moon cakes made by Sacred Heart are to transform the traditional moon cakes and create nutritious moon cakes with low sugar, low fat and high fiber. Sacred heart people make different kinds of moon cakes with different consumption levels according to different consumer groups, such as the old, middle-aged and young, so they are very popular in the market.
Lu Rutao believes that one day sacred heart moon cakes will be able to squeeze into the world market, and he is full of confidence in this. McDonald's goes to every corner of the world by way of chain stores and franchising. When Lu Rutao started his business, it was also conceived in this way. He intends to use this form of chain operation to "sacred heart", not only to travel all over Dongguan, but also to travel all over the country and go to the world as a famous brand. He also has a bold idea: let the sacred heart brand enter the grocery store and make the sacred heart localized and popular. With the increasingly close ties between WTO and China, Sacred Heart products with China characteristics will surely go to the world.
Greatness comes from the ordinary, because the ordinary wants to be great. However, now Lu Rutao's first step is to cultivate talents. He said that "a single spark can start a prairie fire" and "sacred heart" is the kindling. The talent of sacred heart cultivation is fire. Now he spends a lot of time on technical training and product development. Now there are hundreds of varieties of Sacred Heart on the market, and more and better products will be put on the market in the future. We firmly believe that "green, science and technology, humanity" as the business philosophy of the sacred heart people will usher in a more brilliant tomorrow!