"History of the back-wind of the otter sacrifice ".
Text: Ruby Chen
Source: Foodaily Daily Food (ID: foodaily)
In May this year, the launch of Moutai ice cream caused a sensation in the industry. Everyone was very curious about what the flavor of ice cream of this "old-level" company in the liquor industry is? The discussion increased dramatically for a time, and the number of readings on topics related to Weibo and even exceeded 100 million.
Moutai ice cream topic popularity (Photo source: Weibo)
However, this is not the first time alcoholic ice cream has appeared in people's sight.
As early as 2016, Otter Festival and the well-known Japanese ice cream shop "Shi Shi Leng Yan", which has a history of more than 70 years, jointly launched the sake 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 The scarcity of products that were only sold in some areas became a hot topic at that time.
Fuji cold-salt shop and Otter Festival alcoholic rice ice cream poster (Photo source: Internet)
But this is not the first cross-border collaboration of Otter Festival.
In 2014, Otter Festival cooperated with Mon cher, a high-end dessert shop in Osaka , and launched a cream sandwich soft chocolate and pound cake that added Otter Festival high-end sake "two cuts and three points". The richness of fresh cream complements the mellowness of Otter Festival, melts in the mouth and has a refreshing aftertaste, bringing consumers a unique and luxurious taste experience. Once the product was launched, it won wide praise from consumers.
Creamy sandwich soft chocolate and pound cake jointly launched by the Otter Festival and Mon cher in 2014 (Photo source: official)
In 2017, the world-class well-known dessert master Hiroki Tsujiguchi launched a seasonal limited chocolate with the sake of the Otter Festival - "Otter Festival Matcha Truffle". The product perfectly blends the mellow aroma of the Otter Festival "two cuts and three points" with the Uji high-end Matcha , giving birth to a wonderful and high-end taste. This innovative dessert was also exhibited at the world's largest chocolate festival, "SALON DU CHOCOLATE", held in 2017 and was very popular.
2017's limited "Otter Festival × Uji Matcha " Truffle Chocolate (Photo source: otoriyosetecho)
In December 2020, Otter Festival was jointly established with Japan's chain burger restaurant MOS BURGER for the first time to launch the "Otter Festival Mixed Milk Shake". The product is based on MOS BURGER's classic vanilla milkshake, and innovatively added Otter Festival sweet wine. The combination of the two delicious food complements each other and is deeply loved by consumers. It sold 200,000 copies in just 10 days of its release.
2020 The sweet wine milk shake jointly launched by Otter Festival and MOS BURGER (Photo source: official)
represents a delicious feast that integrates wine and various categories, but in fact it reflects the attempt and efforts of a traditional Japanese wine company to embrace youth. "Otter Festival" was launched in 1990. As synonymous with Japanese sake , "Otter Festival" successfully gained a large number of loyal fans at the beginning of its release due to its impactful taste and unique and rich fruity aroma.
In 2021, despite the unprecedented severe form of the industry due to the epidemic, the "Otter Festival" still hit a historical high sales of 14.1 billion yen. Needless to say, its popularity in Japan is also well-known overseas, and it is well-known for being given to former US President Obama as a gift. At present, the "Otter Festival" has been exported to more than 30 countries around the world.
Otter Festival "two cuts and three points" (Photo source: wiki)
However, the birth process of such a famous top sake brand is not as glamorous as it is now.The manufacturer behind the Otter Festival brand, Asahijiu, has a history of 74 years. It was once just a "small winery in the mountains of Yamaguchi Prefecture". In the 1980s, there were 5 wineries in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and Asahijiu ranked fourth in performance. It is such a small wine cellar with almost no future in the mountains. It struggled to survive in the sluggish sales and miraculously launched a new brand Otter Festival, realizing the change of fate.
What has this local winery experienced? Why can we "resurrect the dead"? What inspiration can the story behind the company give traditional wine companies that are trying to transform? Foodaily summarized the two important "giving up" decisions of Xujiu Enterprise to launch this issue of the new XIU.
01
abandoned the inefficient traditional brewing method,
uses intelligent production to innovate the sake industry
In 1984, the third president of Asahi Sai, Hiroshi Sakurai, inherited his father's winery. That year, the winery's sake production was 126 kiloliters, sales of 97 million yen, and its performance decreased by 15% year-on-year, and was on the verge of bankruptcy. As mentioned earlier, the situation can be said to be quite unclear. What's worse is that the ever-increasing deficit and the deteriorating operating conditions year by year have led to the resignation of "Du" a core technical staff member of Xujiuzhou. Without "Du's", Xujiu's production was basically in a stagnant state, which made Xujiu, who was originally struggling on the "line of life and death", even more difficult. With almost no brewing skills, President Sakurai made a difficult decision, "then you will no longer hire "Du" and let your own employees make wine."
Here I briefly introduce the traditional Japanese profession of "Du's": "Du's" means a traditional Japanese winemaker, generally a experienced man, with all the authority and responsibilities related to brewing, which is equivalent to the "chief brewing officer" of a wine company. has long formed a clear division of labor system: that is, "Du's" is responsible for brewing wine, and the winery focuses on sales.
The traditional "Du" team composition (Photo source: SAKE street)
In the background of such a "sky collapse", Xujiuzuo, who was unwilling to give up, turned the belief of "living" into a spark, and turned the heavy pressure from the outside into a prairie fire. As long as the spark is not extinguished, it can "never stop". So an innovation that could change the history of Japanese sake began quietly in this remote mountain winery.
1) Replace "Du's" with digital brewing
In Japan, hiring "Du's" is a tradition in the sake industry. Every year when it is suitable for brewing, "Dushi" will bring his own team of winemakers from other regions to sign a contract with the wine cellar. "Dushi" as an outsourcing staff with brewing technology, does not participate in the company's production activities during the non-brewing season (summer). The advantage of is that it can save a piece of expenses, and the disadvantage is that all brewing programs rely on "Dushi"'s experience and intuition , which may eventually lead to uneven product quality. In addition, non-industrialized production will also lead to the inability to effectively increase production volume. Secondly, "Du's" is unwilling to disclose its technology, which has led to the gradual "blind-boxing" of winemaking technology.
The new Otter Festival Society was built in 2015 (Photo source: スーパーCEO)
Therefore, Xujiu Zao took the resignation of "Du's" as an opportunity to start from "Du's" "The body of the "facial body" has changed to the system for employees to brew wine. The biggest advantage of digitization and mechanization is that when the flavor of the wine is deviated from the expected, can quickly find out the reason. employees measure the temperature of each wine cabinet every day and chart it. All data will be retained as experience. In contrast, if brewed by "Du's", such detailed numerical measurements will generally not be carried out, and even if done, they will not be publicly used to the wine company.In addition, similar to the detailed process of removing rice moisture, "Du" generally perceives the changes in weight based on its own experience. Although the employees of the Otter Festival do not have rich experience, can use sensors to measure weight or judge the degree of moisture loss, which is more accurate and efficient. The digital management of the otter festival manages and analyzes the data of the entire manufacturing process to ensure the stable quality of the otter festival. (Photo source: Nihon Keizai Shimbun)
employees are mixing steamed rice with wine koji (Photo source: official website)
However, not all work has been automated, because the machine also has unsensible subtleties, such as the temperature management and rice washing process of wine rice are manually completed by employees, which also reflects the persistence of Asahijiu in brewing high-quality wine.
2) Annual production is not just an increase in output
Japanese wine is generally brewed in winter, called "cold production", while the application of intelligent production helps the otter festival achieve annual production. This has increased the output of the otter festival, and also improved the operating rate of production equipment. has generated economies of scale and reduced production costs.
Otter Festival Steamer in the annual production plant can steam 1.5 tons of rice per hour, which is significantly improved compared to manual efficiency
(Photo source: Navi.)
Compared with the traditional "cold production", annual production has another obvious advantage, which is that it can brew wine more flexibly and will not be unable to brew wine because of the missed opportunity. And because of the increase in the number of brewing times, can also improve employees' skills faster.
Annual brewing is inseparable from temperature control equipment and temperature management technology. Constant temperature and humidity in the winery building are also one of the reasons to ensure excellent quality of the otter festival: that is, the temperature and humidity will not change due to changes in climatic conditions, which will affect the status of the wine rice and lead to deterioration in taste or quality. Compared with traditional winter brewing, the product produced throughout the year in Otter Festival is more stable.
02
Give up the traditional brand left by my ancestors
Boldly explore a new track
In fact, the overall demand for sake in Japanese society is declining year by year. The main reasons are as follows:
1) The Japanese population has aging, resulting in a decrease in the main population of drinking;
2) Living habits tend to be Western, and the consumption of traditional Japanese wine is gradually decreasing. Consumers are more inclined to choose Western sake substitutes, such as beer, red wine, etc.;
3) Japanese consumers generally have low impression of sake: "It is easy to cause hangovers" and "pungent smell";
4) Sake wine companies generally have weak marketing awareness and ability
. In such an industry background, since 1985, the shipments and sales of Asahi Wine Manufacturing companies have ushered in counter-trend growth. Another important decision is to abandon the traditional brands left by their ancestors.
Japanese wine consumption and Asahijiu Shipeng shipments (Photo source: nippon official website)
Asahijiu Shipeng realized that consumers have a bad impression of "low quality" of Japanese sake, and has gradually transitioned from the stage of drinking and buying drunk to the stage of pursuing quality. Therefore, Asahijiu Shipeng decided to switch to a new track: that is, no longer produce ordinary low-end sake "Asahi Fuji", but instead produces the top wine tasting in the sake category - "Pure Rice Dainjiu". The transformation of digital production also provides certain basic guarantees for brand innovation and upgrading.
Therefore, the "otter festival" that embodies the hope of the whole factory was born.
Otter Festival "Two Cut and Three Fractions" series (Photo source: Wine Shop Inoueya)
Otter Festival products have common characteristics, namely "bright and fresh fruity fragrance" and "honey-like sweetness". Needless to say, people who like to drink Japanese wine, people who have never drunk sake can also accept it. The high palatability of is one of the reasons why the otter festival is popular. The love of consumers of has brought about a growth in sales. With the success of the Otter Festival, Asahijiuzuo has become the top manufacturer of pure rice Dainijiujiu, and the Otter Festival has also become a popular Japanese wine in short supply. The success of the otter festival is inseparable from Asahijiu's polishing and controlling products and quality:
1) Only produces Dainjiu with a step rate of less than 50% of the refined rice:
"Second rice step rate" refers to the ratio of polished white rice to unhulled rice. The lower the value, the higher the grinding rate, and the quality and price of sake will also increase accordingly. "Yin Li" is a sake produced by the "Yin Li creation" technique. The fermentation at low temperature brings a unique aroma to the wine body. The fermentation rate of "Yin Li" must be below 60%, while the ripe rice step rate of "Da Yin Li" is strictly limited to below 50%. Therefore, compared with ordinary wine, "Yin Li" wine requires high brewing technology and production costs.
2) Use unique centrifugation to separate and bottling methods:
When brewing Japanese wine, there is an important process called "up tank", which refers to the process of pressing and filtering the brewed sake mash and separating sake and wine meal. Asahijiu is the first winery in Japan to use centrifugation separator in the process of brewing Japanese wine. The centrifugation separator with a centrifugation separator per minute and other separation effects can perfectly achieve the filtering of wine without pressurization. Compared with one of the troublesome traditional techniques, the "bag hanging" trough is more time-cost and cost-effective, but the advantage is that it can maximize the aroma of sake, extract the delicious ingredients and aromas contained in the wine, and make the wine purer, presenting the wine to consumers in its best condition.
Otter Festival filling line (Photo source: Fourth quarter report)
product filling uses a unique hot and cold bottle bottling method, which can maximize the aroma and sweetness of the wine. After low-temperature bottling, the temperature rises rapidly and then cools rapidly. Compared with ordinary bottling processes, the hot and cold bottling method minimizes the loss of the aroma of the wine during the bottling process. In this way, the otters are treated with low temperature again, so that the temperature is balanced and stored, and finally delivered to the consumer.
03
While stabilizing the supply chain, it opened up a new battlefield.
The growth plan of the Otter Festival
Two bold strategies of giving up and upgrading helped Otter Festival successfully win a place in the sake market. Data shows that the sales of the Otter Festival brand have increased by nearly three times in three years from 2.5 billion yen in 2012 to 6.5 billion yen in the legal entity in 2015. has become the top manufacturer of pure rice Daini wine and has become a popular Japanese wine with shortage of supply. The stable growth of
is naturally inseparable from more efforts behind the otter sacrifice.
1) Stable the supply chain and ensure the stable supply of upstream core raw materials
Otter Festival When choosing wine rice, Japan's "king of wine rice" - Yamada Nishi. The reason why this wine rice is highly rated is that it contains less protein than other wine rice, which will reduce the odor caused by brewing, and the wine aroma of the product is richer and purer.
The sensor installed in the rice fields can measure the ambient temperature, humidity, etc. in real time (Photo source: Fujitsu official website)
However, Yamada brocade is one of the varieties with particularly difficult cultivation. It is easy to fall over, the yield is unstable, and the cultivation is difficult. Therefore, there are fewer farmers who plant Yamada brocade, and it is difficult for wineries to obtain the required amount of wine rice in a stable manner. Although the shipments of high-end sake products such as pure m wine and yinjiu wine have continued to grow since 2010. However, Yamada Nishi's harvest did not catch up with the yield of sake, so Asahi Sai introduced Fujitsu's agricultural intelligent solution, "Akisai", to solve the problem of insufficient raw material supply through ICT (information and communication technology): terminals and sensors installed in the farmland will collect, accumulate and analyze crop growth information data at the production site to visualize the quality and cost of each farmland. In addition, the production plan and results can be predicted by analyzing these data and reflected in the next farming plan, which can effectively improve profitability and farming efficiency, and ultimately ensure the stable supply of the otter offering raw rice "Yamada Qian".
2) opens up a new market and launches epoch-making products - "Grinding First"
The launch of "Grinding First" marks the Otter Festival entering a new era: higher quality, higher prices with , benchmarking products are no longer limited to sake, but focus on targets that are comparable to high-end red wine. In recent years, as Japanese sake exported to overseas markets, there have been problems related to the competition between sake and red wine: whether overseas or domestic, Japanese sake has no product that can compete with red wine at the same price. So "Grinding First" was born. The original intention of R&D was to fill the gap in the price of high-end sake and to drive the development of Japanese sake.
Otter Festival "Ming First" (Photo source: Japanese 需トレンディ)
"Ming First" is the only high-end sake wine for the Otter Festival that does not disclose the precision rice steps and brewing techniques, and is also the main product of Otter Festival entering the high-price zone. A bottle of 720ml "Mirming" is priced at 38,500 yen, while the high-end sake "Two Cut and Three Minutes" 720ml package sold at 6,270 yen. Such a large price gap has led to the launch of "Mirming" and has attracted many consumers' doubts, and many people suspect that this is just a price marketing method.
, while Otter Festival chose to let the product speak. As the "Grinding First" who surpassed the "Two and Three Points" of the Otter Festival, it won the highest platinum award at KURA MASTER held in France in 2018, and was later given to former US President Obama as a gift by Abe. The quality and status of "Grinding First" are self-evident.
The otter festival that has gained so much praise will not stop there. The goal of the otter festival is to challenge more unknowns and possibilities. Only by constantly breaking through the "old me" can we achieve a better self.
04
written at the end
Looking at the development of the otter festival, what we see is a small winery on the verge of bankruptcy that does not abandon or give up. From being unknown to becoming the world-class, corporate strategy plays a very important role in it:
1. While the sales volume of new products is improving, the old product line is gradually abandoned, and makes the transformation transition smoother
2. Give up the old brand of , who has been operating for a century and has a stable customer base, and has laid out a brand new product
3 in the new era. The product positioning has changed, and the target customers of old products have become "past", actively communicates with the new consumer group
4. Abandoning the traditional production system, greatly improves the quality and output of products
In the increasingly depressed industry background, if enterprises do not seek change, continue to be a lazy "frog" in warm water, continue to have the old development ideas and business strategy, and maintain the old customer group and products, it will only continue to be stiff and decay.
If you want to seek new development, you must abandon the "old me". However, innovation will inevitably bring pain. Not all companies have the determination and courage to take the first step. Many companies have missed the best transformation nodes for stability and ultimately drowned in the torrent of the times. The successful experience and "strategic abandonment" of the
Otter Festival may give people some inspiration.
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