Zhang Yin’s story: 27-year-old is still in Hong Kong, and at 50, he became the richest man in China.

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Source: Venture Intelligence Unit (Micro-letter ID: cyzk88), Author: Tang

Speaking of China’s richest man, who are you thinking of? Wang Jianlin or Ma Yun?

It is not surprising to think of the two of them. They are basically synonymous with the "richest man": Wang Jianlin's Wanda Empire covers commercial real estate, hotels, tourism, culture, department stores and other industries, with an annual income of 150 billion yuan; Ma Yun’s Alibaba and Taobao.com have changed the consumption concept and consumption habits of a generation of Chinese people.

But for so long in reform and opening up, Wang Jianlin and Ma Yun have been the richest people in China. Have you heard that one of the richest men is relying on collecting and selling waste paper as the richest man in China?

More legendary than this: At the age of 27, she was still in the streets of Hong Kong. She earned the first pot of gold at the age of 33, and then opened up the US market. Later she returned to the mainland to start a business. In just 20 years, she became the richest man in China.

In the 2008 US subprime mortgage crisis, her company suffered a serious shock, and even once fell into a situation of bankruptcy, but she gritted her teeth and tried her best to finally pull the company out of the bankruptcy vortex!

In FY2016, her company's product sales reached 13 million tons, sales of 32.1 billion yuan, and profits of 5.86 billion. In the "2016 Hurun Report", she ranked 49th with 33 billion members and ranked 5th in the 2016 Hurun Women's Rich List.

Moreover, according to the statistics of the World Wealth Organization, she is the richest woman among the world's novices!

Who is this person? She is the chairman of Haolong Paper Co., Ltd., Zhang Yin.

From joint venture executives to Hong Kong's ruined king

Zhang Yinzu was born in Jixi, Heilongjiang Province. He was born in a poor military family in Guangdong Province in the 1950s. There are 7 brothers and sisters in the family. Because her father was criticized and jailed during the Cultural Revolution, as a boss, she provoked the burden of the family early, which also shaped her independent, strong and generous personality.

In 1982, Zhang Yin, an accounting graduate, came to Shenzhen to sway. She first worked as an accountant in a fabric company, and after half a year she switched to a well-paid joint venture, serving as finance minister and trade minister.

It stands to reason that all of this is in accordance with Zhang Yin's ideal career plan, but a business trip has changed her destiny. At that time, she went to Hong Kong to buy waste paper on behalf of the company. In two days, she saw the waste paper piled up in the waste paper recycling plant, which was continuously packaged into the freight container and sent to the mainland.

After inquiring, Zhang Yin learned that due to the lack of domestic forest resources, especially the construction of fast-growing forests for papermaking, the waste paper and wood pulp, which are raw materials for high-grade paper production, need to be imported from Hong Kong. The acquisition of waste paper in Hong Kong and resale it back to the Mainland was a profitable business at the time.

Seeing such business opportunities and the previous work experience have made her a lot of contacts in the paper industry in the Mainland and Hong Kong. Many people have suggested that she go to Hong Kong to do waste paper trade. Although she is quite heart-warming, she is still very hesitant: I really want to give up the generous treatment of the company, and go to Hong Kong to be a bad one?

After thinking about it, Zhang Yin still feels that she is going to start a business in Hong Kong. Later, she said: If it fails, I will go back to work in Shenzhen if I am too big, how can I be hungry? If I waste this opportunity, I will blame myself for a lifetime!

Hard hit with the underworld

In the spring of 1985, 27-year-old Zhang Yin gave up Shenzhen's generous salary and housing, took advantage of the 30,000 yuan of the two partners, and came to Hong Kong alone, renting a 37-square-meter office and setting up a camp. Hong Kong and Shenzhen Paper Products Factory has started a waste paper recycling trade. Her entrepreneurial path also started.

Although the waste paper did not seem to have any technical content, the water inside was quite deep, and Zhang Yin was quickly given a lesson. Because I was new to the first time, I didn't know how to do it. The recovered waste paper would always be mixed with wet paper and moldy paper, and even garbage. It is good to have half the pass rate.

As a last resort, Zhang Yin can only use the most stupid way: check one by one. The waste paper pulled by each car, Zhang Yin and partners must be carefully checked before passing, sometimes it takes a whole day to read a car waste paper.

In less than a month, Zhang Yin lost a dozen pounds, but she also practiced a fire-eyed eye. "Look at it, who is good, who is bad, who is credible, who is slippery, I can see it at a glance, who is cheating No, I can't."

But adulteration is only a trivial matter, and more horrible is behind. At that time, the waste paper recycling business in Hong Kong was monopolized by the triad society. The pulp they sold to the waste paper purchaser had a moisture content of 30%, while the reasonable proportion was only 10% to 15%. But the waste paper recyclers are also afraid to speak out, can only knock down their teeth and swallow.

Zhang Yin, from the northeast, regardless of this set, faced the triad of water-mixed pulp, she said nothing, which angered the triad. During that time, Zhang Yin not only received many intimidation calls from triads, but even his own factory was repeatedly troubled by triad people. The glass was crushed, the waste paper was poured on the water, and even said that Burn the factory!

Under pressure, Zhang Yin still did not retreat, she did not ask the other, just do business well. The triad is also picking soft persimmons to pinch, watching Zhang Yin so embarrassed, plus the police asked, this thing will not be.

This time, Zhang Yin was famous all at once. Everyone knows that there is a mainland girl who dares to challenge the triad. In addition, Zhang Yin insists on controlling the quality of waste paper, and is also fair and reasonable. More and more people are willing to sell waste paper to her. In less than 6 years, she became the largest waste paper exporter in Hong Kong.

During this period, Zhang Yin also encountered the most important part of his life - the Brazilian Taiwan compatriot Liu Mingzhong, the two not only formed a shackle, but also a future tacit business partner.

Hong Kong is too small, we go to the United States to open a factory!

Although it has made a name for itself in Hong Kong, Hong Kong is still too small to keep up with the growing demand for waste paper in the Mainland. Soon, Zhang Yin made an amazing decision: to open a factory in the United States!

At that time, the United States was rich in forest resources, the paper industry was developed, and the waste paper recycling system was extremely scientific. The recycling rate of the old corrugated boxes was as high as 75%, and it was hailed as “Saudi Arabia in waste”.

Old car in the US used car yard

In February 1990, Zhang Yin and her husband established the US Central South Holding Company. In the unfamiliar market, Zhang Yin's start is very difficult. To save money, the couple rented an apartment in Monterey Park, east of Los Angeles, and worked as an office during the day and slept there at night.

Because there are no connections, they can only split the two ways. She carries the translator. One person in Liu Mingzhong runs a factory and introduces Zhongnan to others. Please ask the other party to sell the waste paper to themselves. Because he is too busy, Liu Mingzhong often has no time to eat, while driving, while eating hamburgers.

Later, some domestic partners saw that Zhongnan Holdings had done a lot. Zhang Yin said: It has been developing so well in a few years. Is the US business easy to do? Zhang Yin laughed and said: No moment is not hard.

After a few months in the United States, Zhang Yin also slowly gained a foothold in the United States and identified several fixed waste paper suppliers. At that time, China’s trade with the United States increased significantly, creating a huge trade surplus. Ships loaded with the United States were often half-storage or light-storage when returning, so there was a good discount on the freight rate.

Knowing this news, Zhang Yin immediately used these "shun-boats" to transport waste paper to the country, which not only fixed the transportation route, but also reduced the transportation cost, and took the lead in the fierce competition.

Relying on the US market, Zhang Yin's industrial chain is becoming more and more perfect. She has continuously transported waste paper from low-cost recycling in the United States to mainland China, and then sold the processed cattle cardboard to all parts of the world. In just 10 years, Zhang Yin has established seven packaging plants and transportation companies in the United States, and the commercial landscape continues to expand.

In 2001, Zhongnan Holdings ranked first in the US waste paper export industry, and its leading position has not been shaken. Zhang Yin has thus become a well-known female entrepreneur in the United States, ranking 54th among the list of all-emerging entrepreneurs. The American media called it "the king of waste paper."

Go back to China to set up a factory and sell paper to Americans!

Although Zhang Yin started from waste paper, she did not like the media always calling her "collecting waste products" because she always felt that she was doing "technical environmental protection enterprises."

Moreover, Zhang Yin at that time, ambition is far more than a middleman who buys and sells waste paper. She has a bigger dream of transporting American waste paper back to China, producing high-end paper products on the mainland, and then selling it back to the United States to earn Americans' money!

In 1996, Zhang Yin invested 110 million US dollars in Dongguan to establish Nine Dragons Paper, which officially transformed from waste paper trade to waste paper. After more than one year, the first production line of Xiaolong was completed and put into production, with an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons of high-grade cattle cardboard. At the same time, the production scale of most paper mills in China is only about 50,000 tons per year.

After more than two years, Zhang Yin has repeatedly invested heavily in installing two production lines in the Dongguan base. So far, Nine Dragons Paper has established its position as a leading manufacturer of packaging paperboard in China with three production lines and one million tons of production capacity.

Then, Zhang Yin went north and set up a papermaking base with a capacity of 950,000 tons in Taicang, Jiangsu Province, which is equivalent to rebuilding a dragon on the edge of the Yangtze River. At the end of 2005, Nine Dragons Paper had an annual production capacity of 3.3 million tons and a market share of 17% in China, making it the No. 1 in China, the second in Asia and the eighth largest in the world.

On March 3, 2006, Nine Dragons Paper landed on the main board of Hong Kong, and the IPO raised HK$3.4 billion for the group. Many well-known wealthy people have bought a large number of shares of Xiaolong, including Kerry Group Kwok Heinian, Henderson Land Lee Siu Kee, and New World Development Cheng Yukun.

"2006 Hurun Fortune List" shows that Zhang Yin ranked first with 27 billion net worth, becoming China's first female richest man. The list is calculated based on only 74.7% of the shares of Zhanglong held by Zhang Yin, and the US Central South Holdings is not counted.

The subprime mortgage crisis hits and turns the tide

But the good times are not long, Zhang Yin’s richest man has not been sitting for a long time. In 2008, the US subprime mortgage crisis came.

At the end of 2008, the price of waste paper fell from a few hundred dollars a year ago to a hundred and eighty dollars. The stock was piled up like garbage.

Due to the decline in export volume and the sharp fall in the price of finished products, Xiaolong also experienced cash shortages and inventory backlogs, and its corporate debt once rushed to HK$12.3 billion.

Affected by this, Xiaolong's share price also plunged 40.28% in two weeks. Zhang Yin's net worth evaporated by 13.4 billion Hong Kong dollars in one day, and shrank more than 90% in half a year. To make matters worse, a news about the upcoming bankruptcy of Nine Dragons Paper began to spread.

Although Zhang Yin repeatedly denied the rumors of "application for bankruptcy", it still could not stop the parties from questioning. The bank asked for a field trip, and the external engineering team asked for an immediate checkout... "From mid-2008 to the end of the year, the days are really difficult. Every time I go back to the office, I feel very heavy. Sometimes I feel difficult even when I walk." Say.

At the crucial moment, Zhang Yin showed amazing persistence and perseverance. Even if the company's internal and external difficulties, the group's stock price and cash flow fell to the bottom, Xiaolong insisted on rejecting many investment bank and PE financing plans. "As long as it involves the dilution of equity, I will not accept it." Zhang Yin said.

In the midst of the crisis, Zhang Yin led the team to set a policy of “total contraction, weather the winter” and adopted a series of measures to turn the tide:

1. First of all, she stopped the loss and stopped some expansion projects in time.

2. Secondly, she focused on adjusting the sales and procurement policies to convert the previous 32-day procurement cycle into a 7-day cycle.

3. Strengthen the coordination between the purchasing department, the sales department and the internal production line. The stock of the main raw materials is controlled within 36 days, the inventory of the products is kept within 15 days, and the production plan is flexibly adjusted according to the needs of the customers.

4. Turn the focus of competition to the domestic market. In the past, the proportion of domestic and foreign sales of Nine Dragons Paper was almost 1:1. In the case of difficulties in export sales, Nine Dragons began to expand its domestic demand market and adjusted the domestic sales ratio to over 80% after half a year.

5. Replace waste paper raw materials from imports to domestic products. In the past, the Group used imported waste paper in most cases, and with the Tianjin and Chongqing papermaking bases in operation, more than 50% of the raw materials in these two places were changed to domestic waste paper. The proportion of domestically produced waste paper in the old bases of Dongguan and Taicang has also reached about 30%.

Zhang Yin’s efforts have paid off, and Xiaolong not only steadily recovered, but also showed a faster growth rate than before. In 2009, Xiaolong launched two debt relief operations to settle all foreign exchange loans.

After that, the Vietnam base of the group, Quanzhou, Shenyang and Leshan bases were completed and put into production. Not only did the domestic market share rise steadily, but also accelerated the occupation of ASEAN markets such as Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

Nine Dragons Paper's 2009 financial report showed that its profit for the first half of the fiscal year was only 302 million, but it quickly rose to 1.338 billion yuan in the second half of the fiscal year, an increase of 414%. Under the leadership of Zhang Yin, Xiaolong finally passed the storm!

What is more gratifying to her is that in the extraordinary circumstances of the financial crisis, Xiaolong did “no bad debts” and all the money was collected.

In 2010, Xiaolong created a record profit of 2.22 billion yuan. By 2016, this figure reached an astonishing 5.86 billion yuan! Xiaolong and Zhang Yin have created a miracle together!

Zhang Yin’s secret to success

Talking about the secret of success, Zhang Yin said that his greatest characteristic is to bury himself in his own business and do everything in his power. "If you can only build a three-star hotel, you will never be mad at building five-star."

In addition, Zhang Yin has a unique understanding of management because he has studied finance and accounting. Advocate the humanized management of "personal small family, company big family". It not only provides subordinates with a space to give full play to their talents, but also says that they can do it in terms of treatment and help solve practical difficulties.

Zhang Yin said that her favorite thing is to watch the employees exercise and dance on the sports field after work. Whenever I saw a couple of people walking together and playing with children, Zhang Yin was very happy, and her heart was filled with a huge sense of accomplishment.

Looking back on Zhang Yin's 30 years of entrepreneurial history, from Hong Kong's "receiving waste paper" to the papermaking king, from the first female richest to the bankruptcy edge, and finally climbed from the bottom. Every step that Zhang Yin has gone through reflects the firmness and hard work of entrepreneurs.

Although there have been countless setbacks in the middle, this woman has not been convinced. Every setback is a tempering of her. In the end, she can grind into a sharp sword, and squander the square in the market, it is difficult to rival!

In fact, all entrepreneurs are like this. They may be the same as ordinary people at the beginning, but they are different from ordinary people. They have been working hard to move forward toward their goals.

Even if the dream sounds unrealistic, success seems to be in the foreseeable future, but the most crucial point - even if it is not criticized, is unwavering, has always adhered to its own beliefs, and strives to move forward until the day of success!

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