In London, Birmingham and Manchester, the three most important cities in the UNITED, you will see a group of Chinese cultural buildings with red tile glazed cornices, which are not Chinatown, but made of
The "Rong Ye Hang Commercial Center" founded by the largest Chinese enterprise in the United Kingdom
。 When it comes to Rong Ye Xing, it is a household name in the British Chinese community.
Ye Huanrong,
Hakka
He was born in 1940 in Tangxia Town, Dongguan City.
Chairman of the British Leaf Brothers Enterprise, Chairman of Rongye Bank, the richest Chinese businessman in the United Kingdom
。
In 1970, the three brothers founded Rong Ye Bank in Birmingham, England, and were the first Chinese to enter the list of the richest people in britain, and they were also legendary figures among British Chinese.
In 2010, he was awarded the Order of non-commissioned officers of the British Empire (OBE) by the Queen.
Start your business in the UK with £10
Born in Guangdong, Ye Huanrong spent his childhood in Dongguan, and after the loss of his family property, his family moved to Hong Kong to complete his studies in Hong Kong.
In 1959, Ye Huanrong came to Britain with 10 pounds
Like all young people who have left their hometown to dream of panning for gold, Ye Huanrong is also ambitious, but when he first arrived in London, reality hit him hard. Finally, through the hometown association, he found a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant.
This job, Ye Huanrong has been doing for 2 years, washing dishes for more than 10 hours a day, and his body is like a loose rack after work, and he does not want to get up when he lies down. After doing it for 2 years, the boss saw that Ye Huanrong was diligent and clever, so he promoted him to the front desk waiter.
At this time, Ye Huanrong began to calculate, do I want to be a waiter for the rest of my life? So, he accumulated experience while working, and at the same time secretly saved a little money.
Within 2 years, he had figured out how a restaurant was run, and at the age of 25, he and two other friends jointly established London's first Chinese restaurant
Ye Huanrong has a business acumen, and the accumulation of the previous few years has also helped a lot, and within 3 months, he has made a restaurant flourish.
Soon, he opened 2 restaurants and 2 takeaway stores in succession, and the business was still booming
However, Ye Huanrong still felt unsatisfied, and he began to ponder again: This kind of small restaurant can't open a big deal, do I have to live this life in front of pots and pans every day?
Make 600 million businesses from a story
In the busyness of all day and day,
An article about Hilton inspired him
After World War I, Hilton wanted to buy a Bank of Texas, but the seller kept raising the price without success.
Frustrated, Hilton stayed at a local inn and reflected on his choices, but found that the hotel was full and people were sleeping in the lobby.
So, I turned around and bought this hotel, and since then, I have "gone all the way down" the development path of the hotel industry.
This story resonated with Ye Huanrong. At that time, he was not yet married, and he was tired of the complicated and boring life of restaurants, so he decided to supply Chinese restaurants instead of running restaurants.
Because he knows that the former is more profitable than the latter
In 1969, Ye Huanrong teamed up with his younger brother Ye Jirong to open the first Chinese-style grocery store in Birmingham. Business expands quickly,
By the end of the 1980s, it had developed into the largest Chinese enterprise in the Uk
Today, RongYe Hong has four supermarket chains in the three most important cities in the UK, London, Birmingham and Manchester, employing more than 300 people.
Supplying over 2,000 Chinese restaurants and retail outlets in the UK with annual sales of £70 million (around $620 million)
！
Success comes from wisdom and a little luck
When recalling his entrepreneurial path, Ye Huanrong always jokingly said,
His family did not leave him much of a fortune, but it gave him the cells and brain to do business
。 Indeed, he always showed extraordinary wisdom in major decisions.
Many people asked why the RongYe Guild chose to open in Birmingham instead of London, and Ye Huanrong replied, "If you are in London, you are just a small fish in a big pool, London is too big, if you open a shop in London, people a few streets away do not know its existence; if you open a shop in Birmingham, everyone knows it for 3 months." "In addition to little competition, Birmingham also has a relatively well-developed motorway network." In just two and a half or three hours, our vans deliver 3/4 of the uk's users. "Ye Huanrong relies on this unique innate business spirituality, acquired very business insight and wisdom and diligence,
Wrote a legendary chapter from a dishwasher to a rich man
Always think of yourself as Chinese
His career grew bigger and bigger, and Ye Huanrong became the richest man of Chinese descent in Britain. In 2010,
The Queen of England personally awarded him the Order of non-Commissioned Officers of the British Empire (OBE)
British Prince Charles listed him as a guest of honor, and even former British Prime Minister Blair and Cameron had to pay him three points.
Even though he has been away from home for many years, Ye Huanrong has always regarded himself as a Chinese.
Since 2000, he has set up the "Ye Huanrong Brothers Scholarship" to sponsor Peking University Tsinghua students to study in Cambridge, Cambridge students to peking university Tsinghua and other projects
He always said that talent is China's future, so he should donate money to cultivate talents for China. He also often organizes scholarship-winning class reunions to encourage male and female students to make friends and get married.
Ye Huanrong jokingly said that these are all Chinese elites, Chinese "excellent varieties", do not cheap foreigners.
As for his own children, he also made it clear: "
It didn't matter that they were flirting with people of any nationality, but my grandchildren must have looked like me, with yellow skin and dark eyes.
It can be said that Ye Huanrong's every move shows his love for China.
When I opened my first shop in Birmingham, the guys went to the opposite bar after work to drink, but the bar owner was very unwelcome.
After Ye Huanrong observed it, he found that the original employees always like to litter, so they are not welcomed. Finally, Ye Huanrong said:
Chinese you must first love yourself, and others will respect you.
”
In the corridor connecting the office and the supermarket lobby in Rongye Bank, there is a dressing mirror, and Ye Huanrong asks each staff member to sort out their own appearance on the mirror and make sure to serve customers with the best posture."
Because we go out not only represent Rongye bank, but also represent Chinese
Ye Huanrong said as he sorted out his collar in the mirror.