Rentai Food: A single character “Ren” takes the company far and wide.

Reporter Zhu Yulong

　　(Business Card) Name: Liaoning Rentai Food Group

　　Address: Tai'an County, Anshan City, Liaoning Province

　　Project: Breeding of laying hens, incubation, feed processing, broiler farming, and slaughtering & processing.

　　Scale: Annual sales revenue of 400 million yuan

　　(Slow-motion replay) In 1993, Rentai separated from the Tai'an County Food Company. With just six employees, one table, one chair, one telephone, and four leaky office rooms, plus a debt of over 2,000 yuan and salaries for nine retired employees—this was all that Rentai Company had at the very beginning of its journey.

　　That year, Guo Zhongren, who had been appointed in a time of crisis, conducted thorough research and deliberations and set the company’s development direction toward broiler chicken slaughter—a field that at the time had yet to attract much attention.

　　(Narrator) On July 8, 1993, Ren Tai’s first meat chicken slaughtering production line went into operation! Fifteen years have passed, and today Ren Tai has amply demonstrated that Guo Zhongren has chosen a path to success.

　　(Keyword 1) Looking back on Ren Tai’s journey, Guo Zhongren’s answer seems remarkably simple: it’s the single character “Ren.”

　　The “ren” character in Renta’s name is reflected in its products—specifically, their impeccable quality. From the very beginning of its establishment, Renta has positioned its products with one principle in mind: quality will always be the best on the market.

　　Guo Zhongren’s first lesson to his employees was about product quality. At that time, quality management for chicken in the market was not stringent; many small-scale vendors, driven by petty profits, passed off inferior products as high-quality ones—and some even injected water into the chicken. Guo Zhongren said, “If we want to develop sustainably, quality must always come first. We’ll never resort to any underhanded or unethical practices.” After Ren Tai’s products were launched, their impeccable quality quickly enabled them to gain a firm foothold in the market. Within less than half a year of operation, the company had recouped its initial investment and generated 380,000 yuan in profits and taxes.

　　(Narrator) With the support of the Tai'an County Government and the Anshan Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, from 1994 to 1996, Guo Zhongren acquired the frozen-food plant located on the same premises and subsequently invested 6 million yuan to build a production line that meets international standards, capable of processing 15,000 chickens per day. He also established a feather meal factory and a deep-processing workshop for export products. Moreover, Ren Tai was the first company in Tai'an County to obtain independent foreign trade export rights, and its products are now exported to Japan and Europe. Among the more than 10,000 shipments exported by Ren Tai, not a single incident has ever occurred. Today, the Japanese-registered company of Ren Tai has been recognized by Japan as an enterprise exempted from inspection.

　　In April 1998, Guo Zhongren carried out a standardized shareholding reform of the enterprise and established Anshan Rentai Meat and Poultry Co., Ltd. After the reform, the enterprise saved over one million yuan in three areas—packaging, electricity, and fuel—within the same year. Lowering costs means that the enterprise’s products have gained greater competitiveness.

　　(Keyword 2) Still referring to the character “ren,” when applied to business operations, it manifests as credibility.

　　“A person cannot stand without trust,” is the life principle that Guo Zhongren has always upheld—and it’s also Ren Tai’s guiding business philosophy. Time and again, Guo Zhongren reminds his employees: Only by being trustworthy as individuals can a company build its reputation, and only then can its products earn credibility.

　　For more than a decade, Deputy General Manager Tian Sumei has had a habit: as soon as the Spring Festival is over each year, she calls her distributors to inform them that the workers hired by the company at this time of year may occasionally produce defective products due to technical reasons. If the distributors feel these defects are affecting sales, the company can adjust its pricing accordingly. Tian Sumei says that, in fact, such issues only arise for about one or two days each year—but we refuse to sweep them under the rug. This isn't just a matter of being responsible to our distributors; it’s also a way of taking responsibility for our own brand.

　　It is precisely this meticulous and attentive management that has earned Rentai a well-deserved reputation within the industry. Many distributors pay upfront before picking up their goods, because they firmly believe that Rentai will never break its promises.

　　(Narrator) In 2000 and 2005, Rentai invested nearly 80 million yuan in total to build a meat chicken processing facility that meets international standards, bringing the company’s annual production capacity to 40 million birds and its annual sales revenue to nearly 400 million yuan. Driven by Rentai, the number of meat chicken farmers in Taian County has grown from just over 100 households in 1993 to more than 6,000 households today. The company has also provided employment for over 600 previously unemployed workers. The company has obtained ISO 9001:2000 quality management system certification and HACCP food safety management system certification. In 2004, the “Rentai” brand name was recognized by the provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce as a well-known enterprise brand, and in the 2005 China Top 100 Growing Enterprises ranking, Rentai ranked 12th.

　　(In close-up) As one new project after another comes to fruition, Ren Tai’s next goal is to become a national-level agricultural product processing base. This year, Ren Tai and Taiwan Dacheng Group’s Liaoning Dacheng Agricultural and Pastoral Industry Co., Ltd. officially signed a cooperation agreement in Taian, introducing advanced management practices and well-known brands to achieve mutually beneficial development. On July 12, the construction of a new production line capable of slaughtering 15 million meat ducks annually was officially launched, opening up even broader business opportunities for Ren Tai. Meanwhile, on another construction site to the west of the meat duck factory, a state-of-the-art processed chicken products production line with an annual capacity of 30,000 tons—a project requiring an investment of 145 million yuan—is now under vigorous construction...

　　Although the autumn winds are growing cooler, they can’t dampen the passionate entrepreneurial spirit of the Ren Tai people. After 15 years of dedicated efforts and relentless striving, a farming enterprise that has attracted nationwide attention is rapidly rising in our city.