《Jinghua Time》. Finance. People
Reporter: HU Xiaohong
Chairman of the Board of DaChan Food Mr. Mark Han Jia-Hwan
DaChan Food (Asia) Limited (DaChan Food), a company with annual sales volume of nearly 10 billion Yuan, and a chicken meat supplier that offers 1/3 of chicken products to KFC, remains unknown to many people. “Many people said that I was very stupid and asked me why I could not directly manufacture the terminal products. In my opinion, It is because of the conscience and effort that DaChan Food can offer reassured products to our consumers”. On the last day of 2009, in Beijing headquarters, Mr. Mark Han Jia-Hwan, the Chairman of the Board of DaChan Food that has been listed in Hong Kong, proudly told the reporter ”now, DaChan Food decides to move out of shadows and extends its brand to the retail terminal”.
“Sisters’ Kitchen” gives ID to chickens
Mr. WANG Shi, Mark Han’s friend and the chairman of the board of China Vanke, proposed the suggestion to Mark Han, saying “you have done so well in the upstream of the food chain. So when you enter the consumption terminal, your product should not be sold under the brand of DaChan, because DaChan is more like a name of a manufacturing enterprise. You should give your new brand a catchy name, just like Coca-Cola did”.
At the end of 2009, a “Sisters’ Kitchen” Roast Chicken Model Store of DaChan Food was opened in SOHO Shangdu at Chaoyang CBD of Beijing. Mark Han defines “Sisters’ Kitchen” roast chicken store as the family kitchen for those white-collar female who love delicious food but cannot cook the food themselves.
“Sisters’ Kitchen” roast chicken store directly faces consumers and does not offer seats inside the store and hopes that consumers can take the delicious food directly home. Products sold under the brand of “Sisters’ Kitchen” include fresh chicken meat products, semi-cooked food and others sold in supermarkets. consumers can easily obtain such information via mobile phone or Internet by simply inputting the 10-digit reassurance code on the package of a bag or a box of chicken meat products sold under the brand of “Sisters’ Kitchen” as breeding farm, breeder, time of brooding and market availability.
Keep promises to purchase the sick chickens
DaChan Food entered the markets in mainland China in 1990. “Like Uni-President, Chef Kang and other enterprises that later entered the markets in mainland China, we are all food companies. But what is different is that they directly started from the sales terminal, so they become known to everyone. As for DaChan Food, we started from the upstream of the food chain”. Mark Han told the reporter that his company ran its business in the order of animal feeds, selection of chicken breeder, feeding of chicks and so on, and the core of its business was how to turn safe grain products into safe food chicken products.
Mark Han’s chicken feeding mode is a contract. “We sign contracts with farmers and supply chicks to them. The farmers use our feeds and feeding methods. At the same time, we send technicians to give the farmers necessary directions. Finally, we inspect the chickens and purchase them back”. Mark Han told the reporter since DaChan Food promised to purchase the fed chickens finally, what the farmers needed to do was to feed chickens.
The contract is more like a trust and promise. Many years ago, the sudden ruthless bird flu severely beat the chicken feeding farmers. However, Mark Han would rather purchase the sick chickens from these farmers at a loss of more than 100 million Yuan than turn his back. This has won DaChan Food respect from the contract farmers and the orders from foreign food companies that always stick to stringent requirements.
DaChan Food is one of the largest chicken meat supplier to McDonald’s, Dicos and some others in China besides KFC. In 2008, DaChan Food was appointed to be one of two licensed chicken meat suppliers to Beijing Olympic Games.
Dual roles
The boss, the fighting fish
In 1957, Mr. HAN Haoran, Mark Han’s father, established Taidong Agricultural Products Processing Factory in Taiwan. The father rode the bicycle and peddled the golden and fragrant soybean cakes and crystal clear edible oil that were made amid steam and sweat. From then on, DaChan Great Wall Group stepped onto the way of development.
At that time, Mark Han was 2 years old. Unfortunately, Mark Han had poliomyelitis when he was 1 year old. Though accompanied by crutches since then, yet Mark Han finally obtained the Master Degree in Enterprise Management from University of Chicago after witnessing the hardships his family went through in the course of starting business and with his mother’s urge that he should be fully devoted to his study.
“For more than 50 years, I have never found that there is any particular inconvenience for me. Sometimes, when I introduce myself to others, I will naturally forget the disability”. In 1990, Mark Han took the position as president of the Group and began to think about the entry into the markets in mainland China.
Mark Han with crutches is vigorous and is joked as “fighting fish”. “You must have a sense of responsibility in running a business. This means that you must stay competitive. You must fight, otherwise you will be beaten by your competitors”. In 2007, under his leadership, DaChan Food (Asia) Limited was established.
A filial son
Mark Han said that though he had bad temper, yet he had strong points, for example, to realize his mistakes. He joked that when he was in elementary school, he was ever awarded the prize for his courage to admit his mistakes.
Mark Han wears an opal ring. “This is from my mom when I celebrated my 50th birthday”, Mark Han told the reporter, “my father wore the ring for 30 years. My mom gave it to me and reasoned with that the opal ring was like the eyes of the parents. We are watching you every day. Never rush to do anything, and always smile. Besides, my mom also warned me not to eat too much”, Mark Han happily smiled.
“My goal is to forge the company that my father set up into the most respectable one, and this is the best gift for my parents”, Mark Han says, “I love this business. Different from energy or petroleum industry which are a kind of cowboy economy, agricultural and animal husbandry industry is a kind of sustainable economy. Every spring, you sow seeds, and you will reap the harvest as long as you work hard. And the harvest is sustainable”.
