Churin & Co. ( elisted is the largest

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...

, the capital of

Heilongjiang Province Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Established in 1867, the company has a history of over 150 years. The company invented Hongchang sausages in 1909, a staple in the local Russian-influenced cuisine. The then state-owned Churin was broken into two when the retail part (and the stock code) was privatized in 2004, forming the Churin Group (). The food industry part was subsequently privatized as Qiulin Lidaosi (; more etymologically Churin-Litovsk) in 2007. The two descendants have been in conflict since 2011, when Churin Group expelled Qiulin Lidaosi products from its stores and formed its own food manufactory.

History

Russian roots

Qiulin Group's history went back to 1867 when Ivan Yakovlevich Churin (October 16, 1833 - April 30, 1895), a Russian who was born in

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and mn, Эрхүү, ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is ...

, opened a store in

Nikolayevsk-on-Amur Nikolayevsk-on-Amur (russian: Никола́евск-на-Аму́ре, translit=Nikoláyevsk-na-Amúrye) is a town in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia located on the Amur River close to its liman in the Pacific Ocean. Population: Geography The town is ...

. In 1882, he established Churin & Co. (russian: Чурин и Ко) in

Khabarovsk Khabarovsk ( rus, Хабaровск, a=Хабаровск.ogg, r=Habárovsk, p=xɐˈbarəfsk) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia,Law #109 located from the China ...

, with his business partners Касьяновы, Бабинцевы, Писаревы, and Мамонтовы. As the

Chinese Eastern Railway The Chinese Eastern Railway or CER (, russian: Китайско-Восточная железная дорога, or , ''Kitaysko-Vostochnaya Zheleznaya Doroga'' or ''KVZhD''), is the historical name for a railway system in Northeast China (als ...

was completed in 1904, Churin expanded his business to

with the same name (, "Churin foreign trading Co."). The current building of the company's department store is from 1904. Later his business further expanded to Lushun and

Yingkou Yingkou () is a coastal prefecture-level city of central southern Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, on the northeastern shore of Liaodong Bay. It is the third-smallest city in Liaoning with a total area of , and the ninth most populo ...

Move to China

After the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

in 1917, Churin moved its headquarters to

in 1923, and established its branches in

Dalian Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on the ...

Mukden Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the provi ...

Changchun Changchun (, ; ), also romanized as Ch'angch'un, is the capital and largest city of Jilin Province, People's Republic of China. Lying in the center of the Songliao Plain, Changchun is administered as a , comprising 7 districts, 1 county and 3 c ...

, Siping,

Jilin Jilin (; alternately romanized as Kirin or Chilin) is one of the three provinces of Northeast China. Its capital and largest city is Changchun. Jilin borders North Korea (Rasŏn, North Hamgyong, Ryanggang and Chagang) and Russia (Prim ...

Heihe Heihe (; ; Russian: Хэйхэ) is a prefecture-level city of northern Heilongjiang province, China, located on the Russian border, on the south bank of the Amur (Heilong) River, across the river from Blagoveshchensk. At the 2020 census, 1,2 ...

and

Hailar Hailar District, formerly a county-level city, is an urban district that serves as the seat of the prefecture-level city Hulunbuir in northeastern Inner Mongolia, China. Hulunbuir, due to its massive size, is a city in administrative terms only, ...

during the 1930s. It, however, became controlled by

Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tril ...

in 1937, and was under Japanese management in 1941. File:Vladavostak.jpg,

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...

store, an old picture File:Владивосток, перекрёсток Светланской и Алеутской, 2012-06-14.jpg, Vladivostok store, a recent picture File:Магазин купца Чурина, Уссурийск.JPG,

Ussuriysk Ussuriysk (russian: Уссури́йск) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, located in the fertile valley of the Razdolnaya River, north of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the krai, and about ...

store After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Churin was owned by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1947, and was returned to China under state ownership in 1953. During the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

its name was changed to "The East Is Red" Department Store, but was changed to its original name in 1984. Qiulin Group was registered in the

Shanghai Stock Exchange The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) is a stock exchange based in the city of Shanghai, China. It is one of the three stock exchanges operating independently in mainland China, the others being the Beijing Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exc ...

in 1996, and was acquired by Dalian's

Dashang Group Dashang Group (), headquartered in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China, operates department stores, Xinmate (New Mart) supermarkets and other retail business. It is the largest retailer in Northeast China. General Dashang Group with its headquarter ...

in the same year.

Breakup and conflict

Qiulin Kvass on supermarket shelf (20220324092053)

As mentioned above, Churin was broken apart during privatization, with the retail part going to "Churin Group" and the food industry part (meat processing and confectionery) going to "Qiulin Lidaosi". The two tolerated each other until 2011, when Churin Group founded a "Churin Food" to replace the products supplied by Qiulin Lidaosi, producing

kvass Kvass is a fermented cereal-based Alcohol by volume, low alcoholic beverage with a slightly cloudy appearance, light-brown colour and sweet-sour taste. It may be flavoured with berries, fruits, herbs or honey. Kvass stems from the northeastern ...

and Hongchang. In the same year, Qiulin Lidaosi expanded its operations by producing

and dalieba. Conflict between the two entities resurfaced in 2020, when Churin Group's trademark application "秋林集团 Churin Group" was rejected due to similarity with Qiulin Lidaosi's trademark "秋林 Qiulin". Around the same time, Churin Group came under investigation due to mismanagement, culminating in the termination of its SHSE ticker on March 26, 2021 for continued losses.

Churin Group

Retail

Churin Group owns the following retail locations: * The original Harbin store, close to Museum of Heilongjiang Province Station ( 博物馆站) of Line 1. * A store in

Jilin City Jilin City (), alternately romanized as Kirin, is the second-largest city and former capital of Jilin province in northeast China. As of the 2020 census, 3,623,713 people resided within its administrative area of and 1,895,865 in its buil ...

.Jilin Province Qiulin Group
(in Chinese) Churin Group's Department Store has a large food department, which is especially well known for its Russian-style

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

, called Dalieba ( 大列巴) and

sausage A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders. ...

, called Hongchang ( 红肠). Various other types food are sold in other cities within

Northeast China Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of t ...

Food & drink expansion

References

{{Reflist

External links

Qiulin Group
(Beware: Automatic music) Companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Department stores of China Companies based in Harbin