Noodle maker's revamp is a recipe for success

First success

All the workers' efforts had finally paid off. Now, they needed orders.

In 1992, the factory took its new formula rice noodles to a food expo in Hainan province. For publicity purposes, the team used a photo of a 2.3 kg weight suspended from a single uncooked noodle, and claimed a bundle of about 20 strings of noodles was enough to sustain the weight of a person weighing 48 kg.

The photo attracted the attention of a company in Jiangxi that specialized in the import and export of cereals and oils, which introduced the factory to China Resources (Holdings) in Hong Kong, which is now a Fortune Global 500 enterprise.

Two months later, the mill had its first order, from Canada, for 100 boxes of rice noodles, weighing 2.4 tons. It took nearly two weeks to complete the order. Lacking a logo or packaging materials, the team opted to use the China Resources logo and has stuck with it ever since.

It was also the year the socialist market economy was introduced as part of the reform and opening-up policy, launched by Deng Xiaoping in 1978.

The policy, involving a series of reforms aimed at attracting foreign investment, enabled China to achieve average annual GDP growth of 9.7 percent from 1978 until 2016.

However, the days of food shortages were still indelibly imprinted in people's minds. Domestic purchasing power was limited, so a 24 kg box of rice noodles produced by Guo's factory, priced at HK$180, was beyond the means of most people in the mainland.

As a result, the company steered clear of the mainland market until 2003, when it had established its market overseas. As living standards in the mainland rose, price was no longer a deterrent.

Now, the mainland market accounts for the largest share of Jiangxi Wufeng's annual sales. Last year, the company produced 30,000 tons of rice noodles, of which 55 percent were sold in the mainland, mainly in key metropolitan areas such as Beijing and Shanghai. The remainder was sold overseas.

Despite its success, the company is determined to improve sales in the mainland.

To that end, in 2014, it started a store on Tmall.com, China's largest business-to-consumer online retail platform, run by Alibaba Group. However, online sales remain sluggish because rice noodles from Jiangxi have low public recognition, according to Guo.

"To perform better in the mainland retail market, we need to improve brand awareness and recognition," she said.

Many of the company's peers in Jiangxi face the same problem. Unlike Yunnan province and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, whose reputations have long been established, the province does not have a strong reputation for high-quality rice noodles.