Meizheng Bio-Tech: growth with gratitude

Editor's note: "We declined offers from many other high-tech parks, because Wuxi National Hi-tech District (WND) gave us so much support as we grew that it would never cross our mind to leave," says Li Qifu, general manager of Meizheng Bio-Tech.

Meizheng Bio-Tech is a startup specializing in rapid detection food safety. Established in 2014, the firm has quickly grown into an enterprise leader, renowned pushing technical performance and quicker detection in food safety.

Meizheng has developed systems capable of detecting illegal drug residue in seafoodat a higher rates that of other processes used in the industry. The company’s reagents, which are used to detect abnormalities in food, are able to detect any food safety problems at the lowest possible levels and parameters.

First bunkmates then business partners

The founders of Meizheng, Li Qifu and Liu Jiapeng, current chairman of the company, used to be college roommates sharing the same bunk bed.

Neither of them expected to become business partners in future, after parting ways after graduation to pursue their own careers. Li worked as a software engineer in the IT industry, while Liu gained experience at GE Healthcare China.

In 2013 the two post-1970 alumni had their first business contact. Li began working on Internet of Things (IoT) applications; coincidently, Liu was engaged in an IoT-based program of supervising the hygienic index of grain procurement.

During their cooperation, Li became interested in the biotechnology industry.

By the end of the year, Li traveled to Beijing to discuss details of further cooperation, meeting Dr. Zhang Xun from Jiangnan University. Li highly appreciated Zhang’s talents, and the trio of like-minded entrepreneurs joined hands together.

In March 2014, Meizheng Bio-Tech was registered in Wuxi, dedicated to the R&D of rapid detection of food safety products of high throughput and sensitivity.

Stable support from WND

Recalling Meizheng's early days, Li couldn't help but show his gratitude for WND's help and support during the company's growth. The livable environment of Wuxi with its stable labor market and steady flow of talents from Jiangnan University were two reasons they chose to settle in WND.

But the most crucial factor was the support and guidance which WND gave to Meizheng. "We were still investigating whether to move to WND," Li said. "But the support they offered to us, help us make our decision to set up here."

Li and his team moved into a relatively small 300-sq-m space for office work, experiments and pilot production. Business soon ramped up and the company was quickly in need of a bigger working area, and so WND supplied them with the space they needed.

Meizhang is today located in a 3,500-sq-m workspace, complete with freeze-dryer and workshops over three floors.

"Entrepreneurial environment, investment attraction and enterprise services are excellent in WND.We are grateful to the government's timely and consecutive help, which gives us a sense of belonging," Li said.

Customer service, customer care

Meizheng not only supplies its clients with the latest in cutting edge food safety detection technology, but also excellent customer service. A Guangdong-based import and export company used Meizheng's techniques for discovering malachite green in its seafood products. The tests came back clear for the company, but customs tests reported otherwise.

As a result, Zhang took his lab equipment to the Guangdong company in order to help them solve their problem, discovering that they had not cleaned their centrifuges in the correct manner, contaminating samples sent to customs. Thanks to Zhang's consideration and service the Guangdong company was able to resubmit samples to customs for testing and passed, saving them a lot of money.