When I was young, I raised chicks. We got them in front of our school, but they often didn't live long, which was upsetting. However, there was someone who became a chaebol by bringing about change. Today, in Korea, there's UJ, a brand founded by a self-made first-generation entrepreneur. Recently, there was news about an auction involving three items, including a Napoleon hat. This hat, which was auctioned for about 2.6 billion won with personal funds in 2014, is famous for being the highest price ever in hat auctions. While driving, I heard on the radio that Napoleon's hat was up for auction. So, Park Daewon decided to buy it. He liked Napoleon because he was considered one of the most challenging and positive figures in the world. Now, he expresses that if he has that money, he wants to help those in need.

They say there's a reason for everything, right? It's nice to hear this story again. Anyway, what kind of ethnicity do you think we are? There are 102 ethnic groups. On the other hand, I couldn't do it, but let's talk about something else. When did it start? Korean people eat so much chicken that the number of chicken franchises across the country has surpassed the number of McDonald's stores worldwide from a while back. This brand is at the core of the poultry industry, starting from chicks, the feed they eat, and the chicken products made from them, as well as the distribution channels for the feed ingredients and grains. It doesn't stop there; we also deal with shipping. Today’s topic is about a university student who started a business with chicks and became a chaebol in the livestock industry, ranked 27th in the Samsung business group.

This is a discount item. But does it make sense? Yesterday, I became a wealthy person through a liquor business. Originally, I am the son of a steel mill owner. Here's the story: In the late 1960s, my grandmother gave me some chicks as a gift. I raised them and everyone loved them. I would catch frogs, boil them, and use a pot for cooking. It must have been much better than boiling them in Canada. Anyway, I mixed the chicks with the greens and fed them. I noticed that each chick was worth less than 10 won, but the bigger ones were selling for 250 won each. So, when I raised ten of them, it amounted to 2,500 won. Raising them was fun and beneficial, but it was also quite a lot of work. After raising and selling them, I would buy 100 more chicks. I kept repeating this process. By the time I was in the sixth grade, the scale had grown to 18 pigs, and we had other projects as well. We made them ourselves.

이렇게 규모가 커졌는데, 애들은 밥을 어떻게 먹었냐면, 새벽에 리어카를 끌고 근처에 있는 물류 공장에서 6km를 끌고 가서 곡식 찌꺼기를 얻어다가 박준이 중학교 때까지 계속했습니다. 너무 재밌었던 거죠. 돈도 걸리고, 새로 돈도 벌고 재밌으니까 중학교 때 계속 반장이었고, 학교도 잘 다녔습니다. 그런데 갑자기 고등학교 안 가겠다는 선언을 하죠. 엄마, 봐, 나 사업할 거야. 이번 부모님이 교육자셨는데, 뭐라고 했을까요? 야, 농사 지어서 과정에 얻으려고 그래? 아버님이 계속 반대하다가 말을 안 듣고, 더 질문하십니다. 도차서 막대로 보시고. 그런데 이 어린 아이가 계속 반대하니까 가출을 결심합니다. 자식 이기는 부모 없다고 하죠. 결국 농업 고등학교로 진학을 합니다.

Of course, the business continued to grow, and as it expanded, I started hiring friends and adults as employees. When we held classes, the staff would wait outside to process payments. It was quite a spectacle. My mom was involved too, but I wondered if there was really a reason for her to do all the cooking. By the time I graduated high school, we had raised thousands of chickens and hundreds of pigs. In the mid-1970s, my first salary from the Samsung business was 250,000 won, which was almost three times what I had earned before. I had saved about 40 million won at that time. It seems like some of those who became very wealthy had similar experiences. For reference, I had various experiences from a young age, and I heard that I had traveled a lot even as a child. They were quite unique individuals. Anyway, later on...

After the Speaker of the National Assembly succeeded, he said that people often choose their careers based on popularity. However, popularity is not the truth. Just because others are doing something, does that mean you have to do it too? Discussions and the outcomes of majority votes change with the times. The message is not to blindly follow others but to pursue what you like and what you are good at. There are many people who, even as they get older, still do not know what they are good at or what they enjoy. It’s impressive for someone at a young age to have clarity in this regard. Anyway, in my hometown, there were enough resources to live comfortably. My mother ran a small household, but she didn’t listen to her mother and managed to start a proper poultry farm. The number of chickens she raised reached the scale of tens of thousands. Between 1970 and 1980, chicken consumption increased nearly fivefold. The young owner was doing exceptionally well, and the father and daughter team was thriving. However, problems began to arise in the 1980s with the government's livestock policies.

As the eldest daughter's policy was implemented and the supply of monsters increased, prices fell, and even chicken prices dropped due to an epidemic. They had invested heavily, but business became difficult. They fell into a cycle of high-interest loans, and as their business failed, they were chased by creditors. Unable to pay the interest, they ended up hiding in a pigpen, setting up a mosquito net, and couldn't sleep. The once-thriving owner in their twenties faced a downfall. However, they still had to repay the debts, so they closed the business and got a job as a salesperson in the food industry to continue paying off the debts. They worked hard, and during those years, they did have some income. What they noticed was that while pig prices fluctuated greatly, the prices of other goods remained stable. They thought that if they restarted their business later, they would have a good plan in mind. As I have explained before, dairy processing companies deal with raw milk that has a short shelf life.

It's similar to producing processed milk and making powdered milk. Anyway, it's hard for a person to forget memories from their childhood, right? Factors like this lead to a resolution to repay all debts throughout the growth process. Back in the mid-1980s, in order to save on labor costs, I would wake up early in the morning, pulling a cart to clean chicken manure. Before the sun was even up, I had already completed a day's worth of work, and I kept working, gradually improving my situation. Previously, the business focused mainly on individual farms, but I started to corporate it. What does that mean? In the past, everything from breeding to raising chickens was done by a single farm. However, once the chicks hatched, they would be transferred to the farms. The farms would raise them, and then I would perform surgeries on them. After that, I would process them in large quantities, which meant I was managing many individual farms. There, I would also provide feed and other necessary supplies.

Supplies were being provided, and at the same time, the Korean fried chicken craze was sweeping through. The spread of seasoned fried chicken coincided with the Korean Wave. As we approached August 1st, global companies like KFC were entering the market. What about this? It’s characteristic of Park Soo-ho. In 1988, a discount food company was established, aiming to provide strength like a forest during the hot summer. At that time, it was said that the takeoff of an airplane was similar; it needed to gain speed. The largest domestic chicken processing plant at that time could produce about 30,000 units, but the employees were struggling to meet demand, as the factory could produce 200,000 units a day. They decided to build a new factory, which became the largest chicken processing plant in the country. There was also a chick hatchery. With this strategic move, as the supply increased, the number of franchise chicken shops rose, leading to even greater demand. It was a virtuous cycle.

In the summer of 1997, they succeeded in getting listed on the KOSDAQ, and in the fall, they built the largest sixth factory. There was a saying that angels danced in their words. They borrowed bicycles to build something really big. However, before they could properly operate the newly built factory, the interest rates became too burdensome. They had to actively attract foreign investment and were probably quite busy with that. Earlier, it was mentioned that they got listed that summer. At that time, a bank researcher visited the Harim factory for a two-night, three-day exploration. They thoroughly inspected the factory and the farms, and after analyzing everything, they produced a report. However, this was translated into English. At that time, foreign capital investing in agricultural production-related companies found Korean blue-chip companies to be very undervalued. This was part of the company's efforts to attract funds.

As evaluations merged, $20 million in foreign investment was secured by the end of the following year. Even now, $20 million is a significant amount, but back then, it was a time when there were no billion-dollar ventures, and only the top-tier companies were able to survive. Just before that time, an unexpected lifeline came down. What if all the researchers were on board? What would happen? After that, with the IMF foreign exchange crisis, recovery began, and as the demand for chicken skyrocketed, over 300,000 chickens were processed daily, producing more than 200 items, including ham. Harim began to take off. This was, of course, with the involvement of various companies, including those in animal pharmaceuticals and home shopping, which had established a solid foundation. They were on their way to achieving the goal of controlling farms, factories, and markets. Then, in May 2003, one early morning, a fire broke out at the largest domestic factory I mentioned earlier. It was a massive fire that lasted nearly 13 hours, and the factory was almost completely burned down.

The damage was immense. The property damage from the fire was close to 100 billion won, but the insurance payout was less than 20 billion won. At that time, Harim was producing about a quarter of the domestic chicken supply, so the supply chain was in chaos. Shortly after, in a further blow, the first case of avian influenza in the country occurred, leading to mass deaths of chickens. People began to avoid eating chicken out of fear, and sales plummeted. In this situation, there was no hope for attracting foreign investment. We needed to build a new factory, but collateral had decreased, and banks were reluctant to lend due to the significant drop in sales. The competition in the industry intensified, and for the first time, Chairman Kim Heung-guk felt that he might not be able to overcome this crisis. He expressed this thought in front of the employees for the first time and struggled to sleep at night. He decided to take on the challenge and even had to go out to borrow money.

At that time, my heart was really in disarray, but I went ahead and operated the business anyway. I was at an age where I was about to start anew, and it turned out well. If productivity increases at this point, it would be even better. Miraculously, I succeeded in persuading them, and actually took out a loan to build three factories. Productivity improved, and within a year, the business was normalized. After two years, we achieved the highest profits. In 2007, we began producing pig feed and processing pork. In 2011, during the global financial crisis, we acquired the Allen Family Foods in the U.S. After that, we exported Samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) to the U.S. Many people were surprised. When we acquired Pan Ocean in 2015, a lot of people were concerned. They wondered how a company selling chicken and pork could venture into the shipping industry. It seemed quite challenging, especially since the shipping market was at its worst at that time.

But the answer I gave at that time was a masterpiece. You can have a one-person household. So, if you buy a calf and raise it to become a large cow, how many years will it take? If you buy a somewhat weak cow, it takes about three months to fatten it up and recover. Buying a fattened cow is difficult to talk about. During tough economic times, we carefully observe companies and target those that are struggling. Moreover, one of our business strategies is to purchase feed, most of which is imported, and a significant portion of the feed cost is shipping. Since we don't have a domestic feed model, we are trying to secure stable resources and manage shipping costs. And what happened? Our strategy worked, and recently, we have been benefiting significantly from the shipping industry. So, we are adapting our business to create convenient meals suitable for single-person households.

Also, while planning a large-scale logistics center in Gangnam, Seoul, they are aiming to innovate delivery as well. Harim is doing very well, but there are some issues. It seems that the restructuring of their governance is aimed at succession planning for management rights. The issue arises when the management rights of a large company are inherited by the son with money. There are ongoing discussions about whether they are suppressing the holding company's stock price too much to reduce taxes. Anyway, I want to reiterate that investments should be made cautiously. What will be the future of the Harim Group? Will the dream of becoming a global food company beyond Korea be realized? What was the secret behind the founder, Kim Hong-guk, starting the business with just a few chicks? I would like to conclude with a remark he made when he displayed a collection of hats he bought at an auction: Countless things flow behind.

부정적인 사람은 99%의 가능성이 있어도 나머지 1%만 보게 됩니다. 그리고 스스로 기회를 차버리죠. 결국 기회는 1%의 가능성을 본 긍정적인 사람이 가집니다. 긍정과 부정은 백지 한 장을 씁니다. 천 명 중에 한 명이라도 이걸 보고 인생이 달라진다면 말씀해 주세요. 타니까 마실 것 입니다. 

A negative person will only see the remaining 1% even if there is a 99% chance. They end up rejecting opportunities themselves. Ultimately, it is the positive person who sees the 1% chance that seizes the opportunity. Positivity and negativity fill a blank page. If even one out of a thousand people sees this and their life changes, please let me know. It will be worth it.

치킨의 민족을 만든 재벌의 시작은 병아리 10마리였다! 축산업계의 삼성, 하림 이야기 / 소비더머니

브랜드에 얽힌 사람과 돈, 그리고 세상의 변화.
하지만 소비더머니를 통해 전하고 싶은 것은,
'이야기' 그 자체입니다.


* 문의  
brandstory@mbc.co.kr
