China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporter Chen Zhuoqiong.
There are three or four bakeries within 500 meters of Jianshe Middle Road, the most lively road in Zixi County, Jiangxi Province, and the love bakery run by Qiu Haixiang and Zhou Ying is the most lively one.
At 9 o'clock in the morning, Zhou Ying put the freshly baked bread on the shelves, and she had to free up her hands to answer various orders**, and the small bakery was crowded with customers carrying large bags and small bags.
During the Spring Festival, there was no proofing at the Love Bakery, and the couple and four cake chefs worked until the early hours of the morning every day, working overtime to make cakes for the elderly in the county.
The children who went out to work hard returned to their hometowns for the New Year, and many elderly people moved the "big event" of birthday to the moment of family reunion. The young husband-and-wife shopkeeper said that this was "not to make money, but what if every store closes and the old people go to order cakes?" ”
Zixi County, with a permanent population of less than 100,000 people, is surrounded by mountains and does not grow wheat or produce flour, but in the past 30 years, it has come out of a "bread army" of more than 40,000 people60,000 stores have been opened in more than 1,000 cities across the country, and it is known as the "hometown of Chinese bread".
In 1987, two local veterans used the baking skills they learned in the army to pool money to open the "first bakery" of Zixi people in Yingtan, Jiangxi Province, igniting the spark of "Zixi bread". Since then, relatives with relatives, neighbors with neighbors, Zixi people and "bread" have broken into the lives of Chinese people.
The little girl buys bread in the store. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of Zixi County Party Committee.
The bread man "walked out and walked back."
The first batch of Zixi people who went out to make a living bought a car and a house by doing a "bread" business, and lived a good life with their families. The stories of hard work and prosperity reassured the Zixi people who were watching, and the young people packed their bags and went out to seize the beachhead.
In the mid-90s of the 20th century, it was not uncommon for Zixi people who went to other places to do bread business to become 10,000 yuan households in a month. During the New Year's holidays, Zixi people always don't forget to greet each other, "Make bread in ** this year?" The answer is also the same, "It's okay, it's okay", the subtext of this sentence is often: count the money until your hands cramp.
At that time, not only peasants and workers made bread, but also cadres, workers, and teachers of some administrative institutions were suspended from pay or resigned to make bread. Zixi people's bakery gradually moved from the alley to the main street, bidding farewell to the "workshop-style" extensive business model, and turning to the "front store and back factory" store-based direct operation.
In his 20s, You Xiaohui opened his first bakery in Nanjing. He recalled that in the early days, Zixi people often only looked at ** and did not have a bakery. At that time, most of the "mom-and-pop shops" were opened, and the business model was "wholesale + small quantity retail". After the direct operation of the store, the owners of small shops began to pay attention to the decoration of the store, opened a chain store, and gradually gained brand awareness.
The variety of bread is also becoming more and more abundant. In the beginning, a bread crust was broken in the middle, squeezed with cream and sprinkled with decerated coconut, and it became two flavors, and when it was fried in a pan, it became a new flavor. Later, toast bread, tiger skin rolls, meat floss bread, cheese buns, croissants, etc., are becoming more and more diverse, bringing more choices to diners.
You Xiaohui earned his first pot of gold by making "bread", and he also became a millionaire in the first 10 years of the 21st century. At the peak of his business, Yau had seven bakeries, a chocolate factory and a bread factory.
In the initial stage of Zixi's bread industry, the local ** began to provide small "bread loans". Zixi people who want to open a bakery in other places can easily get a start-up capital of several thousand to tens of thousands of yuan. In 2001, Zixi established the country's first county-level bread industry association, and the local courts, industry and commerce, public security and other departments also set up a professional team to provide legal, financial or technical assistance to Zixi bread merchants abroad.
Zixi "bread people" kept going out and coming back one after another. You Xiaohui returned to Zixi in 2018 to start a business, and more than 70 entrepreneurs who were "invited" to return to their hometown to plan Zixi's bread industry. The county provides them with a series of services such as venues, settlement, capital, technology, and policy fulfillment in accordance with the "one enterprise and one policy".
The bakery is developing in a group.
Deng Hanxing has run bakeries in Zhejiang and Jiangsu, 12 years ago, he chose to bring his bread business to Shangrao, Jiangxi, which is a little closer to his hometown Zixi, and in the days of struggle for "bread", Deng Hanxing built a team and built a brand, hoping to run the bread industry into a business for several generations.
This middle-aged man has experienced the good situation of "as long as you are willing to endure hardships, you can earn money", and also witnessed the development and change process of the domestic bread industry from "quantitative accumulation" to "qualitative progress". Nowadays, the pace of change of bread products is faster than ever, and the sales channels are also changing, and there are all kinds of Chinese pastry shops, private dessert shops and snack shops that are emerging in an endless stream of Chinese pastry shops, private dessert shops and snack shops.
Young people's consumption habits are also different from the past", through the downward trend of customer orders in several stores, Deng Hanxing found that young people with more choices are also more rational in consumption, "Buy a bread or cake, they will not only compare prices online, but also take the trouble to run a few more offline stores to compare prices." This means that at a time when labor costs, store rents, and raw materials are greatly reduced, bakeries need to save costs and provide more "cost-effective" options for young customers.
In the past two years, Deng Hanxing gradually found a way to transform, he chose to join the "Zixi Bread" brand, and many small bakery owners to develop together.
Through a series of measures such as the "Bread Culture Festival", Zixi County has gradually attracted villagers and leaders in the baking industry to return to their hometowns to start businesses, guide the return of industrial resources, establish Zixi Bread Technology Company, and work together to build the "Zixi Bread" brand. At present, with a total investment of about 600 million yuan, the Zixi County Bread** Factory has been completed and put into operation, operating in accordance with the model of "ABP + large-scale cold chain logistics + store sales", and developing direct stores and franchise stores.
In the bread factory, after proofing, baking, cooling, demoulding, packaging and sorting, the dough is delivered to the store in the early morning. Wu Jianping, the special commissioner of Zixi Bread Technology Development Co., Ltd., introduced that it can produce 130,000-150,000 pieces of bread products a day, including finished and semi-finished products, to meet the needs of 300-350 stores within a radius of 300 kilometers.
Zeng Changhua, the person in charge of the Zixi Bread Industry Development Office, saw the advantages of the group: the centralized procurement of bulk commodities such as flour, eggs, sugar, oil, and milk can reduce the cost of procurement, and put the research and development work in colleges and universities.
In the process of transformation, Deng Hanxing also experienced labor pains, and the most reluctant thing was to throw away the brand name and technical team that he had been operating for many years. Before this, Deng Hanxing ran six or seven bakeries in Guangfeng District, Shangrao City, and the business was "okay", and then he wanted to further develop the market, but he was trapped by "limited personal strength".
Now, Deng Hanxing's bread business has taken a new turn: he has successfully opened branches in several counties and districts of Shangrao. The county is building a "first-class kitchen" to provide "solutions" for procurement, warehousing, research and development, production, distribution and other links, which used to be the most laborious things for enterprises.
In the love bakery, the chef is decorating the cake. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of Zixi County Party Committee.
Young "old shops" have secrets.
Qiu Haixiang is the "second generation of bread", and took over the bakery run by his father more than ten years ago. Today, this shop has become a time-honored brand in Zixi, and the husband and wife have hired more than a dozen employees, one selling and the other producing.
The best thing sold in the store is a small meal bag, the shell is golden and crispy, bite down, full of milky flavor, one yuan a piece. Every morning and afternoon is the best time for business, and students will buy a few bags of bread after school and get home. The turnover in one day is five or six thousand yuan.
Summer has always been the off-season for bakeries, but in the past two years, with the popularity of rafting in Dajue Mountain, many young people who come to Zixi to travel in summer will also come to the love bakery to check in. The small store has received a good score on social software.
Bread raw materials are rising year by year, and the bread sold in the small shop has always maintained a people-friendly **, 4 yuan a sandwich, 6 yuan a meat floss seaweed roll, 8 yuan a bacon roll ......Most of the goods in the store can be bought within 10 yuan. Because of the booming business, the couple also took down the store next door a few years ago to expand the bakery.
Some of the customers have become friends with the couple from time to time, and the bread in the store has become a taste in their mouths, "if you don't eat it for a while, you will miss it". The bread and cakes in the small shop are all freshly made and sold to ensure the taste, and Zhou Ying, who meets the elderly and children who often patronize, will also take out the new products in the store for them to taste, which is the hospitality taught to her by her mother-in-law.
In Zhou Ying's words, "customers feel delicious, from recognizing your bread to recognizing this shop and you as a person" is a very fulfilling thing.
"Love Bread" has not had a branch, because it is considered that "poor management will affect word of mouth". Qiu Haixiang often goes out to learn how to make the most popular bakery products, and Zhou Ying will take photos of bread and desserts of various shapes and flavors and send them to Moments to "arouse" the appetite of old customers.
In order to be more in line with the consumption habits of young people, this old store also bid farewell to the past bulk weighing sales method, began to use customized packaging boxes and bags, priced by piece, large bread and gift boxes, can be sent to diners all over the country by express, the store also launched sugar-free, low-sugar products to meet the needs of niches.
Like all young people who are starting their own businesses, the couple also has their own "ambitions" - to run a small bakery into a "century-old shop", and now they are trying to improve the preservation technology so that diners from other provinces can taste the freshest "Zixi taste".
*: China Youth Daily client).