Traveling through 70's wine

Chapter 205 Growth

Wen Qing changed the keys for the three newly purchased apartments and would decide how to decorate them after she went back and thought about it.

The storefront in Hongkou District is planned to be rented to Changxia Wine Industry to open a store, and the other two houses may be used for personal use or rented out.

After returning to Erxia Village, she went to the winery to find Liu Quan and Wang Jianguo and told them about her idea of ​​opening a specialty store in Songjiang. Liu Quan was very excited. Is Changxia Liquor finally going to move out of North China and attack East China?

Wen Qing handed the note with the address of the store in Hongkou and the key to Liu Quan, and signed a rental agreement with the winery. She remembered that the three specialty stores in Beijing were all her property, but they were all rented to the winery, so she told Liu Quan that she also needed to fill in the lease contract.

Liu Quan was a little embarrassed. He had wanted to remind Wen Qing of this matter a long time ago, but Wen Qing didn't mention it, so he just casually skipped it. Now that Wen Qing brought it up, he immediately took the contract and signed the agreement with Wen Qing.

The rent Wen Qing asked for was not high. The single-family shop of more than 300 square meters only had an annual rent of 8 yuan, which was lower than the rent of the second courtyard of Yu Linhu. After all, it was his own business.

During the few days she spent in Songjiang, she not only looked for a house, but also visited local department stores, grocery stores, free markets and restaurants. The local market is dominated by strong-flavored liquor, supplemented by rice wine. The better-selling liquors are Wuliangye and Zhijiang Daqu.

Wen Qing briefly told Liu Quan what she had observed. Liu Quan said, "Sister Wen, I think the packaging of our Changxia wine is too simple. Nowadays, the packaging of liquor is developing in the direction of gift boxes. Bottled wine alone does not look high-end."

Changxia wine is now sold in plain bottles packed in corrugated cardboard boxes, six bottles in a box, and must be transported with great care.

Wen Qing nodded, "Well, our Changxia Special Brew won the silver medal. As the saying goes, clothes make the Buddha, and products also need to be packaged well. We can also launch a batch of high-end wines and specialize in the gift market."

Wang Guozhang and Tan Yuanfang were called in to blend a batch of commemorative wines to maintain the flavor characteristics of the award-winning wines. The wine bottles should be made of thick-walled crystal glass bottles with a dignified and elegant appearance, and the outer packaging should be individually packaged in cardboard boxes.

Tan Yuanfang immediately contacted the glass factory and the printing factory to design the wine bottles and make the outer packaging. After rejecting five or six plans, Wen Qing decided on a hexagonal crystal glass bottle and a bright yellow and dark blue gift box with dragon and phoenix patterns.

She personally found the glass factory to cooperate with and supervised the production of thick-walled crystal glass bottles, requiring that the wine bottles must be as transparent as crystal. The glass factory studied a variety of glass formulas and finally decided on a formula while ensuring that it met food safety requirements. Since the materials were relatively expensive, the cost of glass bottles increased by 10% compared to before. Wen Qing did not intend to save this little packaging fee, and happily signed a new agreement with the glass factory.

Now market competition is gradually emerging. Changxia Winery's business is booming and the order volume is constantly increasing. Both the glass products factory and the packaging factory do not want to lose this customer and are patting their chests to guarantee the quality of their supply.

Liu Quan took the office staff to Songjiang and began to decorate the store.

He went to the address Wen Qing gave him and found a Southeast Asian-style arcade building. He immediately thought it was too grand and decided to renovate the upstairs into the office of Changxia Wine Shanghai Branch, with it as the center to radiate to the provinces of East China and Southeast China. He found a special design company to plan the decoration style of the store, requiring it to reflect the style of Changxia Wine and the local characteristics of Songjiang.

The decoration company was very professional and soon came up with a plan. After Liu Quan called Wen Qing to report, the plan was confirmed and construction began. Liu Quan stayed to supervise and also took time to investigate the market. This big city also gave him a lot of inspiration.

Liu Quan is just a high school graduate, but during these ten years of work, his horizons have gradually broadened. Now facing the Songjiang market, he is not afraid, but excited about doing business. The demand in this country's leading city is staggering. He secretly made up his mind that he must capture this market and take Changxia Wine Industry to a higher level.

Liu Quan reported his idea to Wen Qing, who also agreed. Songjiang is the largest city in China, and a product can only be considered a preliminary success if it can gain a foothold here.

She immediately discussed with Wang Jianguo about expanding production, and the first 100 wine cellars in the second workshop began production. Now the second 100 wine cellars have also been maintained and can start brewing wine.

The second workshop also uses the running cellar method for brewing wine. The weather in July and August is relatively hot, which is not very suitable for brewing wine, but the winemaking work cannot be stopped due to weather reasons.

Wen Qing installed a groundwater circulation device in the workshop in the new factory to pump up groundwater and transport it to the wine-making workshop through pipes. The groundwater is warm in winter and cool in summer. The underground water pipes surrounding the wine cellar are just right for cooling down the wine cellar. Finally, part of the groundwater returns to the deep well to prevent groundwater depletion. In addition, the workshop space is high and the air is well circulated, so the temperature in the wine-making workshop can be kept below 30 degrees in summer without affecting winemaking.

Wang Jianguo's second apprentice Tang Lin and third apprentice Chang Yingshan assisted him in the daily work of the two wine-making workshops in the new factory. The fruit wine workshop is a seasonal production workshop, and usually wine is made after the fruits are picked in autumn. Wen Qing always felt that it was a waste and hoped to start winemaking, but due to the lack of suitable raw materials, he had to give it up temporarily.

Chang Yingshan is a sturdy man in his thirties. He doesn't talk much and gives Wen Qing the impression of being an honest man who follows his master.

Wang Jianguo asked him to talk about the situation in workshops 1000 and 800. He blushed and stayed silent for a long time. Wang Jianguo's face turned black before he said, "Director Wen, there are 200 wine cellars, 1 stainless steel wine tanks, and 100 special wine tanks for fruit wine in the new factory. Now wine cellars 220 to 130 have started brewing. Every quarter, about 90 tons of wine are produced, including tons of light-flavor liquor and tons of strong-flavor liquor."

Wang Jianguo added: "All stainless steel brewing tanks have been put into use. As more wine cellars are put into use, the output of light-fragrance liquor will gradually increase in the future."

Wen Qing asked: "How many workers do we have in our new factory?"

Chang Yingshan replied: "There are 100 people now, and people are still a little nervous."

Although the new factory has a relatively high degree of automation, there are many wine cellars, and more workers are needed to maximize production capacity.

Wen Qing saw that the workers in the factory were extremely busy at their respective posts. For light-flavor liquor, the mash is directly poured into the wine sieve for steaming, and the spreading and mixing of the koji are all done by machines, which can usually be done by two people. However, for strong-flavor liquor, the process starts with shoveling the mash, removing the mash layer by layer, removing the yellow water, and then steaming the liquor in layers, which requires a lot of manpower.

Wen Qing nodded, went to check the maintenance of the wine cellar, looked at the test results, and agreed to start trial production.

The first time of steaming grain and making residue is very simple, just mix the steamed grain residue with koji and put it into the cellar for fermentation.

Chang Yingshan asked the workers to put the soaked grains into the steamer and steam them. He himself checked the amount of water, the proportion of rice husks added, the thickness of the grains in the steamer, the steam production, and adjusted the heat at any time.

This time, only 100 wine cellars were put into use, and the process of steaming grain and fermenting it in the cellars would last for more than ten days.