Chapter 368 - 177: Steady Rise

Chapter 368: Chapter 177: Steady Rise

While Jiang Miao was marshaling forces and preparing for a recruitment drive at headquarters,

good news arrived from Hero Dairy.

After nearly six weeks of dietary conditioning, the daily milk yield of the 8,500 A-line, O-line, and Z-line cows (out of a total of 10,000 at the Luling Dairy Farm) increased from an average of 34–36 kilograms to 44–46 kilograms, an average increase of 28.5%.

Meanwhile, the improvements to their feed and nutritional supplements had only increased costs by 7%.

What delighted everyone at the Luling Dairy Farm even more was the excellent quality of the raw milk these cows produced.

Its protein content was approximately 3.65%, similar to the pure milk from the premium sub-brands of the country’s three major dairy companies. Its fat content was around 4.26%—an important factor affecting taste, as higher fat content means a richer mouthfeel. The carbohydrate content (mainly lactose) was about 5.13%, and it contained approximately 128 milligrams of calcium per 100 milliliters.

Lin Datong, the head of the Luling Breeding Base, was currently at the dairy processing plant across the river from the farm, along with Li Xinhua and a few others.

In the sample preparation lab, Ma Qianyang, the manager of the Luling Milk Plant, held several one-liter bottles of pure milk and poured a glass for each of them. "This is a pure milk product made by sterilizing the raw milk at high temperatures and then bottling it directly."

Lin Datong took a small sip and savored it. "This tastes great. It’s rich and smooth, without any noticeable gamy smell. Instead, it has a strong, pleasant milky aroma and a hint of sweetness."

"It really is. It’s much better than the old pure milk that tasted like water," Li Xinhua said after taking a sip. He, too, felt the Luling Base’s milk was excellent.

Next, Ma Qianyang opened another one-liter bottle of pasteurized milk and poured a glass for them as well. "This is fresh milk, treated using pasteurization."

Lin Datong and Li Xinhua each took another taste.

"The pasteurized milk has a lighter, more natural mouthfeel and an even richer milky aroma, though there is a slight gamy smell." As someone who had long worked in the dairy industry, Lin Datong was very familiar with the tastes of various types of fresh milk, pure milk, low-fat milk, and yogurt.

Li Xinhua wasn’t a fan of the lighter fresh milk, preferring the richer taste of the pure milk. "I still prefer the pure milk."

Setting down his glass, Lin Datong shook his head. "Pasteurized milk is a bit more nutritious, but at this stage, we can only produce the high-temperature pure milk."

"That’s right." Ma Qianyang knew very well the situation Hero Dairy was currently facing.

Domestic growth in dairy consumption was quite sluggish, and pasteurized milk has a relatively short shelf life. After Hero Dairy had suspended its liquid milk sales, it would take time to win back consumers and rebuild its customer base.

Relying solely on the Hailufeng Specialty Store app wouldn’t work. Even though the app now had 27 million users, not many of them were actually willing to place orders.

Take Tao Net, one of the three e-commerce giants, for example. They currently had a total of 870 million registered users, yet their daily order volume was only in the tens of millions. Only during events like Singles’ Day could they break the one-hundred-million-order mark in a day.

And they could only barely manage that scale of tens of millions of daily orders because of their vast product categories and huge first-mover advantage.

Meanwhile, the Hailufeng Specialty Store app’s product categories were concentrated on agricultural goods, which further reduced the overall scale of orders.

According to the E-commerce Division’s statistics,

the Hailufeng Specialty Store app currently had around 2 million daily active users, with an average of 30,000 to 50,000 orders per day in July.

This number also had to exclude regular clients like eel farmers, high-end restaurants, and small distributors. This group of users accounted for only about one-twentieth of the daily orders, but they contributed the most to the total revenue.

Li Xinhua had read the E-commerce Division’s internal monthly report. Currently, for the company’s retail products, the strawberries, Ginseng Fruit, and Tomatoes were basically snatched up the moment they were listed. Sales of honey and fish products, however, were just so-so. This was mainly because their production volume was too large; fortunately, their good value for the price increased consumers’ willingness to buy.

"I agree that we can only sell the high-temperature pure milk for now, but we can’t just sit back and do nothing. I’ve already sent an application to the head office, asking the Physical Store Division to increase the number of physical stores throughout Gan Province and Eastern Guangdong as quickly as possible."

"Manager Li, what did headquarters say?" Ma Qianyang asked hurriedly.

He was very concerned about this issue, as the scale of the physical stores would determine Hero Dairy’s upcoming production plan. ℴℴ𝘮

Li Xinhua said with a smile, "Headquarters has approved it. However, Manager Jiang of the Physical Store Division is currently opening stores in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region. She’ll send a deputy manager over and has also asked us and the Gannan Branch to help out."

Ma Qianyang continued to ask, "Manager Li, how many stores does the Physical Store Division have now?"

"Hmm..." Li Xinhua recalled for a moment. "Fifty in the Pearl River Delta, sixty-five in the Yangtze River Delta, plus the four at headquarters... so about 119 stores."

"That many already?" Lin Datong was very surprised. He hadn’t realized the company was expanding its physical store presence so quickly.

"Let’s not be blindly optimistic." Li Xinhua poured cold water on their enthusiasm. "Currently, only the four stores at headquarters are operational. The Pearl River Delta stores will likely open successively in early September. The ones in the Yangtze River Delta have just started renovations, so we’ll probably have to wait until October. As for Beijing-Tianjin and our area, we’re just starting to purchase the properties. The earliest they could open would be this November."