A veteran's coffee dream

For Wu Zhibiao, who has worked hard in Shenzhen for more than ten years, the activity day of Sri Lanka Pavilion at Shanghai World Expo 2010 is definitely a day worth remembering. On the same day, Sri Lanka Prime Minister Jayaratna, who made a special trip to China's Shanghai World Expo Park to participate in the National Pavilion Day activities, took time out of his tight schedule to meet a special guest-Wu Zhibiao from Shenzhen. This middle-aged man with a simple smile was interviewed as a major buyer of coffee and tea in Sri Lanka. Recalling his coffee dream that he had persisted for more than ten years, Wu Zhibiao sighed,"Like a cup of coffee, bitter sweet come."

Self-made veterans, coffee.

Wu Zhibiao, whose ancestral home is Qingzhou, Guangxi, was born in Hainan in 1966. Since childhood, Wu Zhibiao's family has been very poor. After graduating from high school, he came to Guangxi frontier defense for two years. After retiring from five in 1985, he returned to Hainan to work as a market administrator in the farmers 'market. Because the salary is too low, in order to earn more and support his family, Wu Zhibiao decided to resign and go to sea.

In the first few years, Wu Zhibiao had poured grain and oil and invested in plastic factories. Although he earned a lot, he soon lost all his money. After his business failed, he came to Zhuhai to help people drive, which is where he planted the seeds of his story with coffee and tea.

While driving in Zhuhai, Wu Zhibiao met a Malaysian businessman. The businessman told Wu Zhibiao,"Coffee will have a huge market in China in the future." A decade ago, Malaysia was like China today, with few cafes, but now it is all over the streets of Malaysia." Wu Zhibiao remembered these words. After market research, he was excited to find that coffee did have a great market demand in China.

In 1999, Wu Zhibiao took out 8000 yuan earned by driving and sold coffee from Guangzhou to Zhangmutou bars and restaurants. He said: "It was very hard at that time, running two or three times a week in Guangzhou, and the purchase was by hand." After that, we'll sell them to tea restaurants and western restaurants one by one." Meanwhile, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the coffee and Hong Kong-style milk tea industry, he came to Hong Kong alone and spent 800 yuan a day to learn from Hong Kong masters. Learn to let Wu Zhibiao know that real high-quality milk tea is brewed with black tea from Sri Lanka. At that time, Sri Lanka black tea had been consumed in Hong Kong for more than 100 years.

Opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared. In 2000, Shanghai hosted the International Black Tea and Coffee Exhibition, which included commercial representatives from Sri Lanka. Wu Zhibiao arrived in Shanghai to hold talks with Sri Lanka representatives, although the talks were extremely difficult. Fortunately, Wu Zhibiao finally got cooperation with Sri Lanka, and since then he has formed an indissoluble bond with coffee and black tea in Sri Lanka.

The road to pursuing dreams has been bumpy for three times

In fact, Wu Zhibiao's career was not as smooth as he thought. He moved three times in the factory alone. Every time he talks about these things, Wu Zhibiao laughs and says that he is "a good thing."

In 2003, Wu Zhibiao opened his first coffee processing plant in Longgang by selling coffee on a hand-trailer. As soon as the factory was built, it encountered SARS. During this period, all restaurants and bars had few customers, which directly led to a sharp drop in the purchase volume of merchants, and the coffee produced was also left unattended in the warehouse.

More serious is that "SARS" just passed, he just decorated the factory building because of municipal engineering land acquisition needs to be demolished. When Wu Zhibiao prepared to receive compensation for demolition according to relevant regulations, he found that due to his lack of experience, the rented factory license was incomplete and he could not obtain compensation from the government. In desperation, he had to abandon the factory in a hurry to rebuild.

Not long after the relocation of the factory, the domestic food industry began to implement the "QS" food quality and safety market access system. Wu Zhibiao's second factory building, which was selected under time constraints, did not meet the standards due to its close proximity to the road and its old age. This made him face the choice of abandoning the renovation investment again, relocating, or simply "closing the factory and switching".

After several twists and turns, Wu Zhibiao had little money left at that time, but the former soldier decided to insist. After carefully examining a series of problems such as environment and formalities, Wu Zhibiao finally moved the factory to Pingshan, Longgang. After the renovation of the new factory building, Wu Zhibiao was so poor that he could not even pay his employees 'salaries. In a hurry, Wu Zhibiao transferred the company's equity to introduce an investment shareholder. Just when he thought all was over and he was ready to show off, the 2008 financial crisis hit, and other losses caused the shareholder to withdraw all his money overnight.

Wu Zhibiao said he was at a loss as if he had suddenly been drained. At the most difficult moment, the government of Longgang District learned about the specific situation of Wu Zhibiao's enterprise, and the government came forward to give the enterprise a discount loan to secure a sum of "life-saving money", and provided many free opportunities for the enterprise to participate in exhibitions and promote sales at home and abroad. At this point, Wu Zhibiao has been struggling to support the cause finally ushered in the dawn.

Hard work to win honor for Shenzhen enterprises

In an interview with reporters, Wu Zhibiao personally brewed a pot of fragrant and mellow coffee for reporters. The aroma was lingering. He told reporters about the culture of various coffee and black tea. Wu Zhibiao said he spent 10 years connecting with the world's top 500 companies. From importing a container cabinet every year to promoting it everywhere, to developing to 35 containers every year, and then to purchasing an order this year as high as 160 million yuan, his fate with coffee and black tea has come down in his insistence. His company not only provides Sri Lanka origin coffee, black tea and other raw materials for many well-known enterprises in China, but also has reached a cooperative relationship with the world's top 500 candy company, Fanfan Mailer.

Wu Zhibiao and his enterprises have been valued by the Sri Lanka government due to the rapid growth of purchase trade quota. Therefore, Wu Zhibiao was received by the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka at the Shanghai World Expo. At the dinner party, Sri Lanka Prime Minister Jayaratna left his business card to Wu Zhibiao. Wu Zhibiao said that the moment he took over the prime minister's business card, the pride of being a Chinese and a Shenzhen entrepreneur made people feel excited.