After the reporting and the recall announcement, Jiangnan Group basically stopped dealing with the milk powder issue, only following the directives from above.
However, public opinion was intensely debated. Many reporters rushed to Fuyang, publishing their firsthand reports and uncovering even bigger news.
This incident was discovered four months earlier than in history. Although most children still suffered irreversible damage, many lives were saved.
Because it was discovered early and the cause of the illness was quickly identified as malnutrition from the milk powder, timely and appropriate treatment was administered, saving a large number of children from the brink of death.
It is worth mentioning, however, that this was not the SL milk powder incident as many remembered. That incident occurred in 2008, and the cause of the illness was different.
The Fuyang milk powder used starch and saccharin to counterfeit milk powder. This fake milk powder was not toxic in itself, but it lacked the necessary nutrients for infant formula, leading to infant malnutrition.
The SL milk powder incident, which happened five years later, involved the addition of SLQA, a toxic chemical substance, to the milk powder, which was a genuine case of poisoning.
In fact, it wasn't just SL Milk Powder that added SLQA. Future national brands like Yili and Mengniu also had SLQA detected in their milk powder at the time. It was just that the outbreak occurred with SL Milk Powder, making it seem as if it was all SL Milk Powder's fault.
Of course, there was an advantage to this: by focusing the blame on SL Milk Powder, it prevented the entire dairy industry from collapsing.
The reason for this nationwide poisoning by all companies was that the poison was not added by the milk powder manufacturers, but by the dairy farmers themselves; it was the dairy farmers who added SLQA to the milk.
At that time, many dairy farmers produced milk that did not meet the platform's acquisition requirements for milk protein content. If the requirements were not met, the dairy companies would not purchase the milk, and this milk would either be sold at a low price to some small brands or simply discarded.
In reality, dairy farmers had exclusive purchase agreements with a dairy company, meaning their milk could only be sold to that specific enterprise. As long as the milk passed inspection, the company was obligated to purchase it.
Therefore, if their milk failed to meet the protein standards, the only option was to discard it.
To ensure their milk passed inspection and was purchased by the company, and to avoid huge losses, dairy farmers came up with the ingenious method of adding SLQA to the milk.
Adding sjQA did not actually increase the milk protein content. However, it could deceive the testing methods at the time, making the equipment detect a significantly higher protein content, thus meeting the milk acquisition standards.
Initially, this method was discovered by dairy farmers in the main milk sources for SL Milk Powder. This method then quickly spread throughout the milk source regions. Consequently, SL Milk Powder was the most severely affected, with almost all milk powder produced containing sjQA.
Later, this method also spread to dairy farmers supplying other companies, leading to other milk powder companies also having such milk. However, by this time, the truth had already come out. Although other dairy companies also detected corresponding results, they did not suffer severe consequences, and thus narrowly escaped.
Only SL Milk Powder completely exploded. The chairman and dozens of senior executives were sentenced, as were a large number of dairy farmers, including three who received the death penalty.
But what was most absurd was that later, to permanently solve the sjQA problem, under the leadership of two leading enterprises, the industry association formulated new standards.
In these standards, the requirements for various dairy products were comprehensively lowered, especially the protein content requirement.
Originally, China's national milk powder standards were the highest in the world. After this "improvement," they became much lower than European standards.
Under the guise of lowering standards, all dairy farmers' milk would meet the requirements, and they would have no reason to add sjQA to the milk.
Truly perfect logic, it was truly admirable!
Huang He did not want such a situation to happen again, and even less did he want China's dairy industry to be dominated by foreign enterprises. Therefore, Huang He saw this opportunity as an entry point to influence China's dairy industry and prevent similar incidents from occurring.
However, Huang He had no idea how to approach it, as he and Jiangnan Group had no influence over the entire dairy industry at this time. Influencing a change in the entire industry was truly a difficult task.
As Huang He was pondering how to proceed, an unexpected guest arrived.
The visitor was Qu Wei, the owner of "Liushang Qu Shui Cai Wei Shi." She had become quite famous. Following a major news event in Paris earlier this year, Hanfu had once again become a global sensation. The Hanfu blind boxes, with a global limited edition of 10 million boxes, were priced at 99 RMB per box or 19 Euros per box. Five million boxes were sold in China and five million abroad.
All of them were sold out within three days, generating an astonishing sales revenue of 1.5 billion RMB for the company and establishing Qu Wei as a world-class fashion designer.
She had even received an invitation to next year's Paris Fashion Week. It wouldn't be news if Qu Wei attended Paris Fashion Week; instead, it would be big news if she *didn't* attend.
Qu Wei came to find Huang He to discuss a new business model for "Liushang Qu Shui Cai Wei Shi," specifically opening specialty stores and adopting a regular sales model, rather than the current somewhat distorted blind box model.
Once upon a time, "Liushang Qu Shui Cai Wei Shi" was a normal clothing brand. However, facing a crisis of bankruptcy, it had to submit to Huang He and became the main supplier of luxury blind boxes for Jiangnan Group.
Currently, the main business of "Liushang Qu Shui Cai Wei Shi" was producing various Hanfu for the blind boxes. Although this model allowed "Liushang Qu Shui Cai Wei Shi" to earn a lot of money, Qu Wei had become somewhat unhappy over time.
After all, this was not a normal way to run a fashion business, so Qu Wei had the long-cherished idea of opening specialty stores and came to negotiate with Huang He.
"I have no objection to you opening these specialty stores!" Huang He nodded. "After all, I am also committed to building China's own luxury brand. But now that I have finally built up the brand value of 'Liushang Qu Shui Cai Wei Shi,' this brand must not be allowed to fall again."
"Your stores must be decorated to the most luxurious standards and can only be located in the prime core areas of the most top-tier CBDs in China and even the world. Furthermore, the price of any piece of clothing must not be lower than 100,000 RMB, with an average price of around 500,000 to 1 million RMB!"
"Also, the quantity must be limited. For each of the four seasons – spring, summer, autumn, and winter – at most four new styles are allowed, two for men and two for women. The production volume for each style must not exceed 100 pieces, preferably set at 88 pieces."
"And that top-tier CBD flagship store we're taking over must have an area of over 500 square meters, but it will only display 8 pieces of clothing in total, all protected by the finest glass, making them inaccessible for customers to touch under normal circumstances."
"Only by becoming a member of our flagship store, and then requesting the staff to open the glass display cases, can customers have the opportunity to touch them by hand!"
"Of course, trying them on is absolutely out of the question. Our clothes do not accept any try-ons."
"If you want to buy, only members will have the right to purchase. However, to showcase our service, members don't need to come to the store. We will personally send our designers to the members' homes to measure their figures, listen to their minor but detailed personal preferences, and then meticulously craft each piece of clothing."
"These 88 pieces of clothing may look similar, but each piece will have its unique differences. No member will ever buy an identical piece from us!" Huang He became more and more excited as he spoke.
"Oh no, the price is set too low. Add a zero to everything. The cheapest piece of clothing should be 1 million RMB, but the most expensive should not exceed 5 million RMB. We're not monsters, are we!"
"Boss... you think too highly of me!" Qu Wei was dumbfounded. Not a single fashion brand in China could afford such a marketing strategy right now, and even globally, only a handful of the top luxury brands could play this game.
"No matter what, you need to set up this framework first. You must firmly believe that our clothing is the most luxurious item in the world, and then you can make buyers believe in your brand value!" Huang He said with a smile.
"How can people believe that? Buyers aren't stupid!" Qu Wei mumbled.
"That's right, buyers are not stupid, so what they need is for the clothing to fulfill their purpose and needs!"
"Purchasers of luxury goods are using them to prove their status. In fact, whether the luxury item itself is good or not is not important. For example, Chanel clothes and bags have to be discarded after being worn two or three times and cannot be worn again!"
"If you dare to wash these clothes, you'll find that once washed, they will experience severe color fading, shrinkage, pilling, and other terrible situations."
"For handbags, there will be situations like rust on metal logos and decay of leather..." Can such items be said to have quality that justifies their price?"
"But as long as everyone accepts this price, and believes it's worth that much, then the value of luxury goods is perfectly established!" Huang He said with a smile. "Anyway, remember, for our handbags and clothes, no matter through which channel they are sold, they must strictly adhere to the pricing. It is not allowed to secretly lower the ex-factory price to increase sales, or to sell them directly at a discount, or to engage in other strange promotional activities!"
"You must remember, for top luxury brands, once pricing is lowered from the sales end, it is an insult to all buyers who purchased the product at a high price. They will not allow you to sell at the same price next time. Your clothing prices can only continue to rise; they are never allowed to fall!"
"This is the operational strategy of top luxury brands! It's to let everyone know that we are not designed for ordinary people, and we only make money from the wealthy. Anyway, their money is just a number!"
Huang He said a lot of these things, and Qu Wei listened with a dizzy head. She had never imagined that running a luxury brand would be such a troublesome endeavor.
"Boss, do you know what my dream is?" Qu Wei couldn't help but ask.
"What is it?" Huang He was about to say he wasn't interested, but considering he had eaten this little beauty several times, and it was in the wild, he couldn't be too heartless.
"My dream is to let more people wear the Hanfu designed by me, not to create this kind of niche, high-end, top luxury brand where every piece of clothing is astronomically priced and unaffordable for most people!" Qu Wei said with a serious expression.