Niu Gensheng: The rags to riches story of China's dairy mogul

Niu Gensheng, the founder of Mengniu Dairy, a multi-billion yuan dairy company from China and also the visionary mind behind Aice, one of Southeast Asia’s biggest ice-cream brands, who recently turned 67, is one of China’s most prominent philanthropists. 

Born into poverty in 1958, Niu was sold by his parents for 50 yuan (approximately Rs 590 today) to a cattle farmer who went on to raise him as his own child. At the age of 8, Niu was forced into labour, sweeping streets and doing odd jobs after his adoptive family lost their wealth in a political purge. Soon after that, he lost both his adoptive parents.

Despite the trauma he faced at a young age, Niu bravely started his career as a bottle washer in a dairy factory which later became “Yili”, a behemoth in the dairy industry of China. Over the years, Miu climbed the ranks to become the vice president of Yili but was later forced to leave due to internal politics and intensifying competition.

In 1999, Niu Gensheng founded Mengniu Dairy with a funding of 10 million yuan (Rs 11.6 crore today) while Yili was already worth a whopping 1.2 billion yuan (Rs 1,400 crore today). The bold decision to focus on China’s rural belt with advertisements in local dialects, low prices and an appeal to the mass market led to Mengniu dethroning Yili as China’s top dairy company

Niu credited his success to “betraying common sense” in business, according to a report by South China Morning Post.

This business approach of appealing largely to a lower income audience was repeated when Niu introduced Aice, an ice cream brand, to Indonesia.

Aice’s low prices ranging from 900 to 1500 Indonesian rupiah (Rs 5 to 9) and the introduction of locally attuned flavours like durian and coconut milk coffee has led to Aice to become southeast Asia’s biggest ice-cream companies. The brand’s decision to support local vendors by supplying free freezers and subsidising electricity costs also helped popularise it. 

This move was also in line with Niu Gensheng’s continued philanthropic efforts. He has been consistently involved in funding treatment for critically ill children in Inner Mongolia and helping establish schools across China.