[Wang Li Coffee Father and son dominate the Legend of Coffee] Dad conquered China Starbucks and his son won the WBC crown.

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The scene is in Budapest in June 2017, at the World Cup Brewing Competition (WBrC), one of the four major events of the World Coffee Olympics, Wang ce, a 29-year-old from Taiwan, beat the coffee master of 41 countries and held up the championship trophy. He is the first person in Taiwan and the first person in the Chinese community to win the championship.

Wang ce is considered a dark horse because he won the championship in the second competition after only three years of coffee education, while his Greek chef, Stefanos Domatiotis, took ten years to win the championship.

They met only three times in twelve years.

Before becoming a champion, "I am just the son of so-and-so."

Before becoming the world champion, "I was just a nobody in the coffee circle, I was just the son of so-and-so." "said Wang ce.

Wang ce's so-and-so is Wang Zucen, president of Shanghai Wang Li Coffee, who is called "coffee king" by Chinese coffee circle. He has a leading position in China's coffee equipment and system service industry. Large chains such as Starbucks, KFC and CoCo are all responsible for coffee machine equipment and maintenance services in more than 20, 000 stores.

Wang ce worked as a barista at Wang Li's booth at the 2015 Hotelex exhibition in Guangzhou, with father and son in the same frame. But it was obvious that Wang ce was still not famous at that time. Source: Wang Li Coffee Project

Small file _ Wang Zhu Cen

Born: 1959

Education: master of Asian Institute of Management, Naval Academy

Experience: vice president of Asia and head of China of Medpies

Current position: president of Wang Li Coffee

Small file _ Wang ce

Born: 1988

Education: master of Food Management, University of Sally, United Kingdom, Department of Microbiology, Metropolitan University of Manchester

Transcript: champion of the 2017 World Cup Cooking Competition

On December 6, 2017, Starbucks opened its second selection roaster in Shanghai. It is the largest Starbucks store in the world, covering an area of more than 800 ping, including a coffee bean roaster. Customers can visit and taste hand-brewed coffee. The relevant machinery and equipment in the store also comes from Wang Li Coffee.

The father and son use coffee to enter the world, one dominating in China and the other making a name in the world, but the relationship between them is inseparable, even a little strange.

When I was a child, when my parents talked about "Wang ce", they talked about the "Wang ce Coffee Company" set up in Taiwan, not him. Wang ce was sent to study in England at the age of 12, and until he graduated from college, father and son met only three times for 48 hours each time. There is no common topic, when we get along briefly, the father talks about work and the son listens silently.

Wang Zhu Cen, President of Wang Li Coffee Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

My father started a business at the age of 46.

From a small business to Starbucks, he is indispensable.

The story of the entanglement between coffee and family began 20 years ago.

Wang entered the Chinese market in the 1990s, when she was vice president of Asia and head of China at Middleby, the leading commercial kitchen equipment brand. Then he stepped into the coffee equipment, all because of Starbucks.

Starbucks entered China in 1999. For Chinese consumers, tea culture has a history of thousands of years, but coffee is an unfamiliar drink, not to mention that Starbucks can find local coffee machine equipment agents and maintenance service providers, so they turn to Wang Zucen, who works in Medpi, for help.

"I wrote a letter to the company at that time, but the company felt that Starbucks had only three stores, which was too small, and that it would not cost to open a special service chain for it, so it asked me to help in private. "he said.

Meade had an annual turnover of nearly NT $10 billion that year (it reached nearly NT $70 billion last year) and did not like Starbucks as a small business, but this small business unexpectedly became an opportunity for him to start a business in China. When Starbucks picked up speed, he couldn't just "help," so he resigned as vice president in 2005 and started a business at the age of 46.

He started from acting as a coffee machine, stepping into logistics, service, and starting a coffee raw material business. First set up a logistics center and customer service center with an area of more than 2,000 ping in Shanghai to strengthen machine distribution and maintenance services, and then set up a trading company to import coffee and tea raw materials.

From three Starbucks stores to 3,000 stores in 139 cities across China, the growth of Wang Li Coffee is closely related to the expansion of Starbucks.

Provide service and maintain equipment maintenance unit

The customer will follow us immediately and promise to arrive at the store in four hours.

Why would Starbucks work with a Taiwanese businessman instead of a local Chinese mainland businessman? Because he built a moat that made it impossible for opponents to attack: for Starbucks to set up a maintenance service network in 139 cities, he spent a lot of money training 180 maintenance engineers and promised to "come to the store within four hours."

With Starbucks announcing that it will have 5,000 stores in China by 2021, it will pay heavy costs in 2017, expanding its maintenance army to 300 and expanding its customer service center to 100.

Is it true that competitors can't raise troops for confrontation?

"if you want to grab this position, you have to build such a team. Many people have a big head when they think of it. Because this is not only the cost of manpower, but also the problems of parts management and deployment. "Lian Yuchang, chief financial officer of Wang Li Coffee Company, said.

Lin Dongxin, general manager of Jinloke International Group, a well-known provider of raw materials, equipment, and maintenance services for hand tea products on both sides of the strait, said that the leading position of Wang Li Coffee is this service network. "it's not that there is no competition in China, but they all sign contracts with local third-party maintenance providers, and the quality can't be controlled. I went to the store for three hours, but it didn't arrive until three days later. Both self-service and Wang Li coffee are notoriously expensive, but Dalian lock industry is not looking at money, but quality.

Wang Zhu Cen has a firm foothold in coffee equipment and maintenance services, and other large chains such as KFC and CoCo have also become its customers. At present, this service network business accounts for 60% of the company's total revenue, and the other 40% comes from coffee beans and tea sales. Wang Li Coffee had revenue of 350 million yuan (NT $1.6 billion) in 2016 and maintained a revenue growth rate of more than 15 per cent in the past three years.

His coffee business grew up with the Chinese market-- China's coffee imports over the years and Wang Li's coffee trends.

Afraid of stability, "what if things turn against me at the extreme?"

After a trip to the United States, I decided to invest in fine coffee.

In theory, as long as he continues to keep pace with the development of major customers, the growth of the company is not a problem. However, he is most afraid of "stability".

"without competitors, many people will be content with the status quo. The higher the profit, the lower the competitiveness. If there are no other bigger customers, one day things will go to extremes. What should I do? "he was worried.

On the contrary, when he reached the top, he was full of a sense of crisis and actively tried the possibility of diversified business development. In order to understand the cold chain logistics, he spent millions of yuan to buy a container of frozen bagels and tried to sell them; he was afraid that everyone would shop online in the future, so he spent millions of yuan to set up an e-commerce group and set up an e-commerce platform to understand the possibility of selling coffee online.

Although neither of the two experiments was feasible in the end, he thought it was worth spending money on experience. "it was like paying millions of dollars to evaluate a lawyer, and in the end, he said that the case could not be fought, because losing may cost you tens of millions of dollars!. "

Finally, during a flight to Starbucks' Seattle headquarters for a meeting in the spring of 2012, he found the answer to the company's next growth curve: boutique coffee.

In the middle of the meeting, he was shocked when he walked into the Roy Street Coffee and Tea (Roy street Coffee and Tea), which was founded by then-Starbucks CEO Howard Schutz (Howard Schultz) in 2009.

"inside, the shop assistants are all wearing jeans and tattoos on their arms. The products come from the neighbors (such as the products of the surrounding bakeries). The tea is special, and the coffee beans are freshly baked and hand-made! He recalled the scene and said it was a little excited, because it was completely different from the Starbucks he was familiar with.

At that time, the store manager invited him to do a cup review (Cupping), found that rival coffee beans taste better, the store manager said without panic: "so Starbucks still has a lot of room to adjust!" "

Now he understands that Starbucks, which detonated the third coffee revolution, began to prepare for the fourth revolution. "Starbucks is going to be an imaginary enemy to attack itself and understand the market demand and the latest trends." "

He thought that the next step in his career should be the development of boutique coffee. But he doesn't have any of the raw beans, roasting and grinding skills or even the way the coffee is displayed for fine coffee.

As soon as the plane returning to Shanghai landed, he immediately called a meeting of the business department to announce: Wang Li wants to make boutique coffee, set up a coffee research office, and spend 10 million yuan (about NT $46 million) on raw beans on the manor, which is equivalent to 1/10 of the company's turnover that year.

Employees are against it because high-quality beans are expensive and the acceptance of the Chinese market is unclear.

Commercial coffee beans cost more than NT $100 a kilogram, and fine beans from the manor can be as high as NT $25000 a kilogram. On the other hand, the price of a cup of hand-made coffee is at least 1.5 times or even 12 times that of a chain coffee shop. At present, 70% of the coffee consumer market in China only drinks instant coffee, and it is not without reason for employees to worry.

The staff rebounded and didn't put him out of his mind. He set up another group to find a master's degree in food-related "secret research" in the warehouse on the third floor of the Shanghai headquarters, delving into all kinds of data from baking, grinding to brewing, as well as teaching classes with foreign coffee experts. He strictly forbids employees on the first and second floors to set foot on the third floor, and researchers on the third floor are not allowed to go downstairs. For a long time, the staff was curious and asked frequently: can you go upstairs and have a taste?

"Yes, but if you go upstairs, you have to go to class and learn coffee! "the plan worked, and he turned the curiosity of his staff into a motivation for learning, and put Wang Li's boutique coffee institute on track.

"Wang Li Coffee does a good job of maintenance service, but no matter what, to put it bluntly, it is a maintenance company," Lian Yuchang analyzed, "but when the company has foreign coffee champions from all over the world to teach, brew coffee for you, beautiful hand-brewing technology …... The image of this company is upgrade! "

Two years ago, Starbucks began selling hand-brewed coffee in some stores around the world, including China, at a price more than 1.5 times that of Italian coffee. Nestl é bought Blue Bottle Coffee, a well-known US boutique coffee brand, this year, two major coffee leaders, both see the development potential of fine coffee in the future.

Military character, always wondering where the battlefield is.

But at the expense of family life, divorce, father and son strangers

Why can Wang Zhu Cen see this market ahead of the Chinese industry? It has something to do with his background: he is a businessman with a military character.

In his early years, he went to the Naval Academy, which taught him one thing: "find the right time, in the right place, and in the right way, die in battle!" He said that if you want to choose the time to die, you must have the ability to imagine where the enemy is at any time. "otherwise you would have killed battlefield in the first place."

On the other hand, in business, if you want to lose, you should also choose a key battlefield and lose in a glorious battle, rather than losing without a fight in a senseless battlefield.

He always thinks about where the battlefield is and where the enemy is. Over the past few decades in business, all I have been thinking about is: what will people's life be like? Where will my future enemies be?

He remained vigilant and built his own coffee kingdom, but also at the expense of family life.

He and his wife divorced when Wang ce was five years old, and then his father and son got together less and divorced more. Wang ce went to study in England at the age of 12, growing up with the key word "loneliness." He talked about the process of fighting for his career, foaming at the mouth, but when he talked about it, his expression was lonely. "I pay too little to my family." They are all fighting for their careers. "

Wang Zhu Cen (right) and Wang ce (left) moved to Shanghai to work as a researcher in the company, and coffee gradually became a chain of affection between father and son.

The son stepped into the coffee circle because of bitter meat.

Until the competition found out, "I may be very strong."

Until the year Wang ze graduated from university, Wang Zhu Cen flew to England to attend the graduation ceremony, urging him to switch from volunteering marine biology to a master's degree in food management. then he moved Wang to Shanghai to work as a researcher and coffee in the company. it gradually became a bond between father and son.

"at that time, he used bitter meat tricks, saying that he was in poor health and wanted me to help. Wang ce said that he moved to Shanghai in 2014 and spent two years squatting in the research room on the third floor to do data. "after I went to Japan to learn Italian coffee with Yuwa Iwase (the coffee master champion of the 2014 and 2015 World Cup), I saw the guests drink coffee and said it was good. At that moment, I knew it was meaningful. "

Although coffee brings them closer, the unfamiliar father and son have become accustomed to living separately. Wang ce did not live with his father during his two years in Shanghai.

The father is domineering and is always in a state of preparation for war. the son is delicate and just wants to do his own thing well. "I am not a belligerent person, and British education does not encourage rankings and rankings. I just have to do my job well. "said Wang ce.

Until he took part in the WBrC contest, he wanted to win for the first time and found himself for the first time, "if I compete with others in an environment, I may be very strong." "

"I can't be humiliated. Although I am a nobody in the coffee circle, my father is famous. People know who my father is. I use the best beans and have a world champion coach." I can't lose! "he said.

It turned out that both father and son had competitive blood.

Now that both father and son have become champions in a certain area of the coffee industry, it's hard not to think of succession. But in fact, apart from Wang Zehui, who occasionally works as a lecturer in the company as a world champion, there is not much overlap between father and son at other times, and they take different paths on both sides of the strait.

After winning the prize, he became popular on both sides of the strait.

My father was on the same stage and was introduced as "Wang ce's father".

In the coming year, Dad plans to spend at least 40 million yuan (about NT $180 million) on building a "DreamWorks" on the mainland, including laboratories, coffee bean roasting plants, and coffee colleges, to build a Chinese coffee "Blue Ribbon Academy." My son wants to be a boutique coffee brand in Taiwan, such as Arabica Coffee, a popular coffee shop in Japan, and Blue bottle in the United States, and then go all over the world.

In November this year, at a coffee exhibition in Taiwan, Wang ce lined up with coffee champions from Greece and Japan to brew coffee with skillful and elegant movement. coffee fans raised their mobile phones and snapped wildly, like an idol signing concert.

On this day, my father flew in especially from Shanghai, leaving a rare group photo of father and son. "(in Budapest) the day he won the championship, someone finally came to introduce me as Wang ce's father.... no, no, no. He said with a look of pride in his eyes.

Many enterprises are facing the problem of succession, and they are also groping for the future in understanding each other. This is not a typical story of second-generation inheritance, and this pair of father and son choose to work hard and make their coffee kingdom more possible.