Master Kong instant noodles are the number one Instant Noodle company in China. Ting Hsin International Group (they own Master Kong) invloves the production and distribution of instant noodles, beverages and baked goods. The group is originally from Taiwan but has definitely established its presence in China. In fact, their Taiwanese market actually only covers a small part of their annual sales figures.
Did I also mention that it was freezing!? It was cold and windy! Usually, it's the wind that kills you. Anyways, after yesterday's successful first official 'working' day, we were excited for today as well. the Ting Hsin general manager saw to our arrival and gave us a thorough and friendly introduction to Ting Hsin's past, present and future. He also happily answered all our questions with much zest and enthusiasm. He promised us an entertaining tour of their instant noodle factory later on.
The above photo is Jimmy, Steph and Dwi in a monorail. Yes, Ting Hsin has it's own monorail. For what? To take you 50m away from their HQ to the front doorstep of their factory, also known as the World's first Instant Noodle Museum. Was it necessary? Absolutely not. But was it impressive? Yes, incredibly. In a way, it is Ting Hsin's way of showing that they have made it in China with their products, company culture and general way of doing business. After I saw their production line, I can say that Ting Hsin is pretty impressive, and totally safe for consumption! Everything is so systematic and professional. It makes me want to build my own production line.
Ting Hsin's Master Kong brand of instant noodles have over 200 flavours. This is to accommodate to all the different taste buds and liking of 1.4 billion Chinese. Each part of China is inclined to a different taste bud, whether sweet, sour, salty or spicy. And, Ting Hsin has made one for almost every taste bud imaginable. Out of the 200, there are 5 (which is pointed out in the photo) that appeals to the general Chinese population. They really ensure that their quality instant noodles satisfy their customers! I generally really enjoyed my tour at Ting Hsin. And yes, they did let us try their famous Roasted Red Braised Beef Instant Noodles (A special thanks to Kiat Lay for correcting my mandarin.
After Ting Hsin, we headed to a company at a more outskirt part of Tianjin called Land O' Lakes/Great Wall Enterprise (LOLGWE). It is a joint venture between an American company and a Chinese firm. It focuses on providing customers with quality ruminany feed products as well as technical services. Separately, LOL and GWE are the market leaders in their respective countries. However, when they merged to form a joint-venture, it is interesting to see they face a different set of challenges to their work.
We were also given a tour around their factory. Now, this was a vast difference between Ting Hsin and LOLGWE. LOLGWE was more informal, while Ting Hsin was very structured. There was quite a lot of dust and small particles in the air due to the type of products they were dealing with. Their company only started in 2005, so they are considered as a new company in the market.
We spoke to the general manager about some of the questions we had. I asked about the type of challenges that LOLGWE encountered with post-merger. The GM admitted that this is still an on-going challenge. Some have been solved, some are in the process of solving while some new ones are cropping up. This really taught me that to build an enterprise as large as Ting Hsin, they all have humble beginnings like LOLGWE and sometimes, people tend to forget that. They want to get to where Ting Hsin is now, but they do not want to go through the blood, sweat and tears required at LOLGWE's initial starting phase. This really has further enforced to me that the beginning is always the most difficult.
We were all required to wear construction hats when we toured the factory. Adorable, aren't we?
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