"In the past, as long as the owner of the pig farm knew you well enough and the feed was not too expensive, he would buy it. But now that the second or third generation is running the business, what else can I do to attract him besides the performance of the feed?" Li Jianxing, business manager of the Concentrate Business Department of DaChan Great Wall Group Feed Division, said that competition in the pig feed market in the past focused mostly on meeting customer price demands. However, the number of pig farms in Taiwan has declined in recent years, and in 2024 it hit a new low, falling below 6,000. He began to think about strategic transformation.
Li Jianxing has been working in the pig feed market north of Chiayi, Taiwan for nearly 20 years. He explained that pig farms have been required to update equipment and feed in recent years to eliminate surrounding odors. Most small and older pig farmers cannot afford the cost of renovation, so most of them choose Exit. If you want to win more customers to use your own feed, you must come up with other strategies. "After all, there are pigs and there is feed, so we have to stand from the customer's perspective and solve their problems."
Assist pig farmers to maintain their breeding scale and obtain long-term commitment to order feed
For example, small pig farmers raising less than 1,000 pigs must introduce temperature control equipment to monitor the quality of pigs on the farm in order to cope with manpower shortages and low management efficiency. If customers do not have these equipment, They may be eliminated sooner or later. "They don't want to invest in the early stage. They think it will take several years to recoup the investment of tens of millions?"
In order to help these pig farmers maintain their breeding scale, Li Jianxing formulated the "Rock Plan": the so-called rock refers to the foundation for building houses; DaChan Group will provide technical support, such as improving the water curtain system and feed formula, establishing an environmental control system, so that Pig farmers lay the foundation for technology. In this way, pig farmers can obtain a long-term commitment to order feed. Among them, one customer regularly purchases 500 tons of feed every month.
As for large customers who have updated their equipment, although they can have a stable supply of pigs, their profits may be damaged due to price fluctuations in market auctions. For example, the auction price difference of a pig may reach 600 yuan. If calculated based on 100 pigs per car, the price difference will be 60,000 yuan. Li Jianxing assisted in the "de-marketization of meat products", skipping the processes of auction bidding and collecting market fees, and used a direct sales model to cooperate with the Japanese pork chop chain Saboten in which the group invested, allowing pork to be delivered directly from the farm to the table. This increases the profit margin of pig farmers.
This strategy targets large households in counties and cities, which is the key to increasing DaChan Feed's market share. For example, there is a pig farmer who raises at least 20,000 pigs (a pig farmer with more than 5,000 pigs is considered a large-scale pig farmer), which is a must-have for every feed factory in Taiwan. Li Jianxing knows that feed or equipment is not a problem, so he breaks out of the framework of his own business and Successfully mediates cooperation between the group's restaurants and customers to create a win-win situation.
Established a "Pig Raising Demonstration Farm" and increased pig feed market share by 6%
In addition to consolidating medium and large customers, Li Jianxing also develops sales strategies for small customers. "The largest cooperative in Taiwan has nearly 170 members, most of whom are small and medium-sized pig farmers." These cooperatives are located in different towns and have regional cohesion. The average number of pigs of individual pig farmers is about 2,000, which adds up to 30 Tens of thousands of pigs are an important source of customers for DaChan.
He pointed out that the key to entering the cooperative market lies in the group leaders. "Cooperate with the leader first, and then things will go more smoothly." To successfully convince key leaders to cooperate, you must first arrange a test. If you want to test the lactation feed, you will first weigh the initial weight of the piglet before eating the DaChan feed, and then look at its weight a month later to calculate the feed efficiency (feed weight/animal weight gain, the lower the value, the higher the efficiency) . The industry average is 2.7 to 2.8, and DaChan can reach 2.4. "The value is better than his original, so he has no reason to keep the original feed formula." After obtaining cooperation, the leader's pig farm will be turned into a demonstration farm to attract others. Members buy feed.
In the past year, under the leadership of Li Jianxing, DaChan pig feed's market share increased by 6% in the business area he was responsible for, and it also achieved 13% growth despite an average industry sales growth rate of 8%. He not only expands customers, but also devotes the group's resources. "Buying DaChan Feed today is like buying the entire DaChan service team, which is equivalent to getting a set of solutions."
Where there are pigs, there is feed. We must stand from the customer's perspective and solve their problems.
