Lu’an, Anhui Has Investigated 27 Illegal Vaping Cases, Seizing 108,000 Fruit-Flavored Products Worth

Lu’an is located in western Anhui Province, at the northern foothills of the Dabie Mountains, and is deeply rooted in red culture.

“Only by unswervingly strengthening Party building within the enterprise can we further enhance strategic resolve, leadership, and execution, and further consolidate the foundation for corporate development,” said Wu Bixiang, Party secretary, director, and general manager of the Lu’an Tobacco Monopoly Bureau (Company), when discussing Party-building work recently.

In recent years, the Lu’an Bureau (Company) has actively explored deep integration between Party building and business operations, continuously strengthened the foundations of Party-building work, and steadily extended Party building to the grassroots level, using high-quality Party building to lead and support high-quality corporate development.

Strengthening Regulation to Maintain High Pressure and Clean Up the Market

At the end of 2022, non-compliant fruit-flavored vaping products shaped like “milk tea cups,” “cola cans,” and “toy bears” appeared on the Lu’an market, seriously endangering the healthy development of minors.

Lu’an’s tobacco monopoly enforcement team responded immediately. Following the unified deployment of a special campaign by the Anhui Provincial Bureau, key Party-member personnel from both city- and county-level units took the lead and joined forces with public security and market regulation authorities to launch tough enforcement actions. They consecutively investigated 27 cases and seized 108,000 non-compliant fruit-flavored vaping products, with a case value exceeding RMB 20 million.

In the view of Zhang Hua, member of the Party leadership group and deputy director of the Lu’an Bureau, Lu’an used joint Party-building initiatives as a lever to concentrate the strong combined force of Party members, ensuring significant results in anti-counterfeiting and network-crackdown efforts.

To give full play to the先锋模范 role of Party members and extend Party building to grassroots management offices (stations), the Lu’an Bureau established Party-member task-force positions staffed mainly by outstanding Party members with strong Party spirit, excellent performance, solid professional skills, and a tough work style, achieving deep integration of Party building with anti-counterfeiting and network-crackdown work. It also incorporated the requirements for standardized grassroots office (station) construction into all Party-building work, achieving deep integration of Party building with standardized grassroots office (station) development. In addition, it organized selection activities for “Five-Good” Party groups and “Four-Excellent” Party members, achieving deep integration of Party building with tobacco monopoly team development and stimulating the entrepreneurial vitality of grassroots offices (stations).

In addition, the Party branch of the Lu’an Bureau’s monopoly division paired up with the Party branch of the city public security bureau’s food, drug, and environmental crime investigation detachment, further deepening cooperation in anti-counterfeiting and network-crackdown efforts.

Today, Lu’an Tobacco operates as “one chessboard,” implementing the working approach of “raiding dens, blocking sources, cutting channels, and clearing the market,” while further strengthening coordination and cooperation with public security, market regulation, and other departments. In 2022, the Lu’an Bureau, together with relevant departments, cracked 3 national-standard online cases and 3 provincial-standard online cases, delivering a strong blow to illegal actors and effectively purifying the cigarette market environment.

Strengthening Guidance to Energize Terminal Operations

“My shop used to be just a small room. Now it’s a star-rated modern retail terminal, and my profits have gone up too. That’s all thanks to the help from the tobacco company!” On March 20, Song Guoxue, owner of Guoxue Supermarket in Nanbei Sicun, Huoqiu County, Lu’an, told reporters.

Before 2020, Song Guoxue’s store was just a small grocery shop with a single storefront. Cigarettes were placed haphazardly on one shelf, while non-tobacco products were also piled messily on the shelves, and business performance was far from ideal.

At the time, the Lu’an Bureau (Company) was making strong efforts to advance star-rated terminal development. With the advice and support of customer manager Xu Rui, Song Guoxue began renovating the shop. He adjusted shelf placement, rearranged price tags, improved cigarette displays, applied to install a cloud POS system, and replanned the cigarette sales area.

After the star-rated terminal demonstration store was completed, the gross profit margin from cigarette sales at Guoxue Supermarket increased by 5% compared with before the renovation. As the small shop grew steadily, Song Guoxue felt genuinely delighted.

Since 2021, the Lu’an Bureau (Company) has made improving the operational capabilities of rural retail clients an important part of its “I Do Practical Things for the People” initiative, guiding rural retail clients to beautify their stores and improve terminal image; equipping clients with in-store digital management systems and helping them carry out digital operations. To date, the city has built 2,670 modern retail terminals, including 687 rural modern terminals, further improving clients’ business capabilities.

To address the cash-flow difficulties faced by cigarette retail clients, the finance department of the Lu’an Bureau (Company) proposed the concept of “shifting the service focus downward and moving service checkpoints forward,” organizing finance personnel to enter operating entities directly, gathering problems from the public while sending professionals down to the front line.

“After listening to the explanations from the tobacco company’s finance staff, I gained a systematic understanding of financial management, capital risk, and credit records, and I feel more confident about my future cigarette business,” said Zhu Xinzhang, owner of Sheyouji Life Supermarket.

“The Lu’an Bureau (Company) also organizes Party-member先锋 teams and public-welfare volunteers to actively carry out assistance activities for clients in difficulty,” said Chen Li, member of the Party leadership group and deputy general manager of the Lu’an Bureau (Company). “By teaching clients how to sort out their sales accounts, we effectively improve their business capabilities and profitability.”

Strengthening Support to Deliver Warm Customer Service

An average of 1,400 cases of cigarettes sorted per day, about four times the normal daily average; a 100% delivery fulfillment rate... #p#Page Title#e#

Behind these figures is the hard work of Lu’an Tobacco’s logistics personnel fighting to ensure cigarette market supply during this year’s New Year’s Day and Spring Festival holiday period.

“Although I can’t make deliveries right now, I can still do what I’m able to—driving the shuttle bus, helping with restocking, and so on,” said Zhang Hui, a 54-year-old Communist Party member and delivery worker at the Lu’an Bureau (Company) logistics center, during a phone call to Wang Weibing, head of the logistics center’s delivery department, on January 2. Zhang had undergone surgery less than a month earlier. After learning that the logistics center faced heavy sorting and distribution tasks and a shortage of personnel, he voluntarily asked to help share the workload.

“I’ll take the delivery route on the Tuanshan line in Yeji District—I know the road conditions there well.” On January 4, as an unexpected rain-and-snow spell hit western Anhui, Zheng Yuanyuan, driver of the “Party Member Pioneer Vehicle” in Delivery Team 3 of the Lu’an Bureau (Company) logistics center, volunteered to take on the most difficult delivery route.

When thinking is stable, hearts align. Using the “Party Building into Teams” initiative as a starting point, the Lu’an Bureau (Company) logistics center created an organizational model of “leadership members + team Party members + team leaders + team employees,” giving full play to the fighting-fortress role of grassroots Party organizations and the先锋模范 role of Party members. It also established “Party Member Pioneer Posts” and “Party Member Pioneer Vehicles,” making full use of the exemplary and leading role of the logistics center’s 28 Party members, advancing lean improvement activities, and enhancing customer service levels.

In addition, the logistics center Party branch organized Party members to go down to the front line and brought themed Party Day activities into the workshop, putting into practice the principle that “where there are difficulties and where there is need, Party members will be there.” As the “Party Building into Teams” initiative continues to deepen, the morale and spirit of the logistics center workforce have taken on a completely new look.

With Party building at the helm, the sails are full; now is the time to hold high the banner and press forward. Riding the winds of the new era, the people of Lu’an Tobacco are striding ahead with confidence, working hard to write a new chapter in high-quality corporate development.