The birth of the Hong Kong Island family

A New Year Comes (1971).

On New Year's Day, Lin Zhichao took his two daughters Lin Wanzhu (16 years old) and Lin Huizhu (14 years old), followed by Xu Caiying and Lin Ruicheng (13 years old), and the family of five went shopping in Causeway Bay.

Currently, Lin Zhichao has four sons working and studying abroad, namely Lin Ruihuan (22 years old), Lin Ruijiang (20 years old), Lin Ruihai (19 years old), and Lin Ruikai (17 years old). These four sons will not have any winter vacation or Spring Festival this year. Return to Hong Kong.

There are two other sons who are originally from overseas, Lin Ruidong (16 years old) and Lin Ruinan (12 years old), and they have not returned to Hong Kong this year.

As the children get busy with their studies, the Lin family usually only gathers for about a month during the summer vacation, or once every few years during the winter vacation.

Generally speaking, the relationship between the brothers is still very good. After all, mothers have a good relationship, which affects the relationship between their children.

Lin Zhichao is the "nine sons of a dragon", exactly nine children. Of course, he is not sure whether there will be illegitimate children in the future (it is very likely that there will be).

"Dad, did that Uniqlo store steal the name of our company?" the eldest daughter Lin Wanzhu asked curiously, pointing to a store on the third floor of Xintiandi Shopping Center.

Although Lin Wanzhu is the daughter of Xu Caiying, her personality is more similar to that of Tang Caiyun - elegant and intelligent, with a certain understanding of her own business, and she usually prefers Tang Caiyun as the 'mother'; while Lin Huizhu, the daughter of Tang Caiyun, is the little girl in the family. The princess prefers Xu Caiying.

In the end, neither Tang Caiyun nor Xu Caiying emphasized who was the biological mother, resulting in the two daughters becoming indistinguishable.

"It's not a misappropriation. It was originally opened by our company. We just happened to go shopping and see how it goes!" After saying that, Lin Zhichao was about to walk in with his two daughters.

On the contrary, Lin Huizhu said mischievously: "When you go shopping with dad, your eyes and thoughts are all about business. It's so boring!"

Lin Zhichao was suddenly embarrassed. He couldn't refute what his youngest daughter said. He was a person who always thought about business.

Seeing the apologetic expression on her father's face, Lin Huizhu immediately took Lin Zhichao's arm and said, "Dad, I was kidding you! As long as dad comes out with us, we will all be so happy!"

Lin Zhichao smiled and said with a smile: "You girl, you are so weird!"

His two daughters are his pistachio, and they are very popular with Lin Zhichao. Because of this, they will also be regarded as one of the successors in the future.

"Bruce Lee" son Lin Ruicheng pointed at the Uniqlo poster in surprise from behind.

Lin Zhichao looked at the poster at the door. It was Bruce Lee's endorsement poster for the Uniqlo brand. Bruce Lee was quite fashionable in jeans and a cardigan.

It is said that the annual endorsement fee is 80,000 Hong Kong dollars, and the contract has been signed for a total of three years. The price is not high. Bruce Lee's net worth has risen sharply since last summer vacation.

After walking into Uniqlo, the waiter greeted with a smile: "Welcome!"

Lin Zhichao nodded, and then started to experience it by himself. The clerk inside didn't follow him, so the whole shopping was more self-service.

There are many obvious differences from other clothing stores. Many of the clothes here are stacked together and placed as much as possible in the limited space. Different sizes of one style are stacked in a container or in a conspicuous place, with posters and models on display, which is very conspicuous.

It is certainly correct to say that it is a 'fast-moving brand', but it is a bit biased to say that it is completely a fast-moving brand. Because this era is not suitable for fast-moving brands, because the delivery of fashion elements and the supply chain are not as convenient as in later generations.

The "boss" female store manager Qiu Yue finally discovered that Lin Zhichao's identity was not simple. She was not just the boss she had met once, so she quickly stepped forward to say hello.

Lin Zhichao turned around and said with a smile: "Hey, aren't you Qiu Yue, the store manager of crocodile shirts?"

Qiu Yue was immediately inspired. She had only met her once, when she was the deputy store manager. She didn't expect her boss to remember it so clearly.

"Well, the head office asked me to work here."

Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "That's just right. Tell me, what is Uniqlo's positioning? Can Hong Kong people accept this model?"

Qiu Yue was immediately flattered, and then said: "UNIQLO positions men's and women's clothing and children's clothing in a Western style, which is more popular among young people. Our jeans are selling well only for a short period of time. Hong Kong people don't seem to accept this positioning and style yet. many."

According to what this shop owner meant, Uniqlo was the ‘first to try’. After all, no first-tier European and American brands had entered Hong Kong at this time, and Hong Kong clothing was at a historic crossroads.

Even jeans actually became popular in the United States in the late 1950s, and in the 1960s it became popular in the West. The Beatles were more fond of them.

However, Bruce Lee's endorsement still had a great effect, and more and more people in Hong Kong suddenly bought jeans.

Lin Zhichao finally nodded and said: "We must have confidence. We are the first to eat crabs. As long as we strengthen publicity in the future, Hong Kong will definitely learn the clothing of Western metropolises."

Qiu Yue said: "The boss is right! Celebrity endorsement ads are still very effective. The general manager said that it is already very good to be able to open at the current level!"

Lin Zhichao looked around and saw that there were still many young men and women buying, and said: "Do it well and study hard. In the future, the potential of this corporate brand will not be lost to crocodile shirts."

Qiu Yue suddenly became excited. The boss meant that Uniqlo had potential and she would have channels for promotion in the future.

"Yes, boss!"

After a round, Lin Zhichao and his family have also gained something. Although Lin Zhichao wears more formal clothes, he doesn't mind looking younger.

As for Uniqlo, Lin Zhichao is full of confidence. The 1970s were the exploratory period, and the 1980s were the development period.

On the first working day after New Year's Day, Lin Zhichao came to Universal Group and held a meeting with senior executives.

Foreign executives such as Bobby Blair also attended the meeting. There were about a quarter of the foreign senior executives in the entire conference room. The meeting was of course held in English.

Currently, Universal Group controls 252 ships (including 50 VLCCs and ULCCs, totaling 12 million tons), totaling approximately 22.8 million tons, which is more than double the Soviet Union’s merchant ships, accounting for 4~5% of the world’s merchant ships. Accounting for about 8~10% of the world's oil tankers.

To put it bluntly, Lin Zhichao controls the lifeblood of the global economy. If one day he gets mad and stops all his merchant ships at the port, the freight rates for world shipping will immediately skyrocket.

At the same time, the debts of Global Shipping and Worldwide Shipping will all be "theoretically paid off" in up to half a year. Since the beginning of last year, Universal Shipping has almost stopped shipbuilding. After delivering the remaining 10 VLCC/ULCCs in the second half of this year (1971), there will be few launching ceremonies belonging to the Universal Group in the future.

"Starting from this year, all oil tankers with a contract of less than 100,000 tons will be sold when their contracts expire. After all, the oil tankers are too small and the operating costs are too high, so it is obviously not cost-effective." During the meeting, Lin Zhichao made arrangements.

Universal Group has approximately two 70,000-ton oil tankers, eight 50,000-ton oil tankers, and two 30,000-ton oil tankers, totaling nearly 700,000 tons of small oil tankers.

As for why Lin Zhichao didn't cash out the 100,000-ton oil tanker, it was because it was not necessary. Universal Group has about 50 oil tankers of 100,000 to 150,000 tons, with a total tonnage of about 5.5 million tons; Lin Zhichao is preparing to sign long-term contracts for these ships, trying to skip the "idle period" from 1973 to 1974; at the same time, he will also Keep some 100,000-ton oil tankers and plan to speculate in spot oil.

Feng Yongfa said: "Almost all of these ships will expire in the past two years. If they are sold, considering the life of the oil tankers, the price will not be too high."

The life span of oil tankers is generally 20 years, and rarely exceeds 30 years, while the life span of cargo ships is 30 to 40 years. This batch of oil tankers were almost all built in the mid-1950s, so they are actually worthless.

What Feng Yongfa means is that if it is a business, it may be more cost-effective than selling.

He is a housekeeper by nature, so he prefers to calculate economic accounts.

But another vice president, Bobby Blair, said: "It is right to eliminate them in time. The cost of continuing to operate these oil tankers is high, and the risk factor is also high. In addition, the group should do something between bulk carriers and container ships." I personally think we should clean up some bulk carriers and purchase some container ships. This is a long-term development strategy."

The two vice presidents started to compete, and Feng Yongfa continued: "The group has stopped building ships since the beginning of last year, and only occasionally needs to build one. This is the boss controlling risks. This year, the group's debt will also be zero." In this way, the group's risk is extremely low. Whether it is a small oil tanker or a bulk carrier, it can actually avoid risks through long-term leasing."

Lin Zhichao listened to everyone's discussion and motioned for more people to participate. Soon everyone expressed their opinions. They were all discussing things and there was no dispute of opinion.

Lin Zhichao understood this very clearly.

In the end, he made a final decision: "No matter how cheap the small oil tanker is, it will be sold when it expires. In the future, 100,000-ton oil tankers will also be gradually phased out. In the future, we will only operate VLCC-class oil tankers (including ULCC). And in bulk carriers, Among container transportation, we choose container transportation for long-term development. However, container transportation should not develop too fast. Therefore, I plan to list China Star Shipping in the next two years and use the method of listing funds to develop container transportation. As for elimination As for bulk carriers, we actually only have about 50 global shipping ships with a total of 1.2 million tons; therefore, we can take our time on this matter and choose to sell it without long-term lease.”

Overall, Bobby Blair's remarks are more in line with Lin Zhichao's meaning, but he is too radical. It is not feasible to vigorously develop container transportation. After all, this requires a process; three freighters cannot be eliminated too quickly or too much. Originally, global shipping Not much.

And Feng Yongfa's statement is not wrong. Anyway, Universal Group has no debts and does not need to consider risks at all. With so many ships in hand, it can make more money.

The ‘oil crisis’ of 1973-1974 lasted only half a year. Around November 1973, Middle Eastern oil was not sold to the United States and Europe, but to Japan (the Japanese were soft on the oil from the beginning and did not support Israel); by April and May 1974, some European countries If they couldn't bear it, they said they didn't support Israel, and the Middle East sold them oil. However, the Netherlands and the United States in Europe have always insisted on Israel, and it probably took a long time before they obtained Middle East oil.

Overall, this downturn in shipping conditions is short-lived, but has a huge impact.

Later period:

Japan deeply felt the strategic significance of oil resources to the country, so it frantically imported oil and then stored it. In addition, it developed nuclear energy in the late 1970s. Therefore, starting in 1978, it reduced a lot of oil imports, so the demand for transportation capacity also increased. Descend.

The United Kingdom restarted the development of North Sea oil fields, and the United States also restarted the development of its own oil fields. Therefore, shipping began to completely decline in 1980, reaching a low point in 1985.

Feng Yongfa was not discouraged, but continued to suggest: "How should the two listed companies under the group plan?"

He is talking about Asia Shipping and Longfeng International. Currently, Asia Shipping has a load capacity of 1.5 million tons and Longfeng International has a load capacity of 500,000 tons.

In addition, Global Group has three partnership companies (accounting for one-third of the shares), with a total load capacity of over 1 million tons; these three companies have stopped developing and are only operating the existing fleet.

Lin Zhichao said: "Asia Shipping is an important listed company cultivated by our group. In the past two years, it has issued new shares to expand, mainly building ULCC-class oil tankers. It also has to sell small ships. But overall, the group is in the 1970s. The target of cultivation. As for Longfeng Shipping, it can also take advantage of the strong stock market to issue new shares to create VLCC."

His idea is very simple. Raise 200 million Hong Kong dollars from the stock market to develop these two listed companies. Universal Group will not issue rights issues, let the shares fall, leading to the oil crisis, and then increase its holdings at a low price. It is very cost-effective.

Among the two companies, Asia Shipping is the most important. It is expected that by 1978, it will be able to cultivate a shipping company with a capacity of 2 million tons, mainly large ships. Longfeng International can also grow to only one million tons of ships.

Of course, the most important thing for the two shipping companies is to purchase Wharf stocks in the future. So in recent years, Lin Zhichao has been eliminating the original foreign management and replacing them all with Chinese management from Universal Group, focusing on loyalty.

For the two listed companies, everyone discussed and made detailed arrangements.

For example, Asia Shipping built two ULCCs recently and will use the issuance of new shares later to slowly repay debts.

Since New Year's Day, Bruce Lee's second film "Fist of Fury" has been heavily promoted in Hong Kong and will be released as the Spring Festival release of Golden Harvest Films.

Last year, Golden Harvest Films won the title of Hong Kong's largest film company with three films that grossed more than 3 million at the box office (two films by Hui Guanwen and one by Bruce Lee). As for Shaw Brothers, although there are more movies released, without Wang Yu, there are only three movies that have exceeded one million.

Everyone can see that Shao Laoliu, a man who has been working in the film industry all his life, is no match for Lin Zhichao, the "God of Business", even in the film field that Shao Laoliu is most familiar with.

Everyone has also analyzed the advantages of Jiahe Films. There are three points in total:

First, adopt a dividend system to recruit film professionals such as Zou Wenhuai and Li Hanxiang to join;

Second, he is a good judge of people. Golden Harvest continuously discovered Bruce Lee and Xu Guanwen, both of whom became box office guarantees;

Third, the business methods are high, and the Shaw Brothers star Wang Yu is tempted to set up his own business, which makes the Shaw Brothers popular.

Although the general manager of Golden Harvest Films is Chow Wenhuai, Lin Zhichao himself also stated in the media that he rarely participated in Golden Harvest Films. The reason for establishing Golden Harvest Films was that he felt that Hong Kong films needed to change. The traditional production model was not conducive to the growth of the Hong Kong film industry. .But many people still give half of the credit to Lin Zhichao.

The week before the Lunar New Year.

"Shocking! The three-day box office of "Fist of Fury" hit a record of HK$1.5 million"

“For three consecutive days, all major cinemas in Hong Kong were full.”

On Monday, "Oriental Daily" gave front-page news to the movie "Fist of Fury".

In fact, from last Friday to the weekend, Hong Kong citizens were talking about "Fist of Fury". The movie was promoted for nearly half a month, and Hong Kong citizens crowded into the cinema in an instant.

For this movie, Lin Zhichao himself predicted a box office of 4 million, but he did not expect that it would be 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars in three days, and maybe 2.5 million Hong Kong dollars in the next month.

Because many citizens can't help but want to watch it immediately, even if the major cinemas are crowded, and there are even cases where scalpers increase the price of movie tickets.

In the evening, Lin Zhichao came to the media group and listened to the work reports of Zou Wenhuai and Qiao Shan.

Zou Wenhuai said excitedly: "Boss, Taiwanese publishers have come to cooperate with us. "Fist of Fury" has the potential to sweep across Asia!"

Last year's "Tangshan Brother" set off a huge box office boom in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The emotions of this "Fist of Fury" are obviously more on point and can resonate with the whole of Asia.

Lin Zhichao said: "So, I ask you to pay attention to the overseas distribution of Bruce Lee's movies. This "Fist of Fury" is more powerful than "Brother Tangshan", you can do whatever you want!"

Zou Wenhuai immediately said: "Yes, we must pay attention to overseas distribution!"

In its previous life in Singapore, tickets for "Fist of Fury" were sold ten times higher, and the army was deployed to maintain order; in the Philippines, it occupied movie theaters for half a year, forcing governments in Southeast Asia to formulate regulations to "reduce imported movies." To protect the development of local films.

After chatting for a while, Lin Zhichao left with satisfaction.

At this time, Hong Kong was full of Bruce Lee fans. Whether Bruce Lee was eating or going to the toilet, a large number of fans followed him; so much so that Golden Harvest Films sent many people to follow him to avoid accidents.

Zou Wenhuai also wanted to protect him personally, but Lin Zhichao laughed and scolded him. The general manager should look like a general manager, and how to protect an actor.

To sum up, one "Tangshan Brother" and one "Fist of Fury" may bring about 30 million yuan in profit to Jiahe Film, because these two movies can achieve very good results in Japan and the United States.

In the previous generation, Golden Harvest Films relied on these two films to completely establish itself in Hong Kong and make Chow Wenhuai a rich man in one fell swoop.

On the other side, Shao Laoliu was in a bad mood!

Golden Harvest Films has both Bruce Lee and Xu Guanwen, which is already an unshakable existence.

"Uncle Six, I heard that Wang Yu is filming a movie on the theme of "One-Armed Sword" in Taiwan. I'm afraid there is a shadow of Jiahe Film behind it. Otherwise, how can he get so much money as an actor?"

A senior executive came to tell Shao Laoliu something.

"Snapped"

Shao Laoliu suddenly slammed his desk and said angrily: "I can tolerate anything, but Wang Yu just filmed the theme of "One-Armed Sword", which is absolutely impossible! You Wang Yu, you are not being fooled. You know, no matter what, I’m going to have an operation on you! Go and ask General Manager Zhou to come!”

The senior management was shocked. This was the first time he saw Uncle Liu getting so angry. It seemed that Wang Yu was really being taken advantage of.

After a while, Zhou Duwen came to the office and heard about it.

"Boss, what are you going to do?"

Shao Laoliu said: "Hire some barristers for me to fight the lawsuit. Wang Yu's movies must not be released. The One-Arm series of movies is the copyright of our Shaw Brothers. This is a serious violation of the law."

Zhou Duwen was stunned. You must know that the cost of hiring several barristers to litigate the lawsuit may reach one million Hong Kong dollars. This is the first time that the boss, who has always valued money, is willing to spend so much money.

However, if you think about it, you will understand that the boss wants to knock the mountain and shake the tiger. It is obvious that he will kill Wang Yu, but in fact, he wants to show other Shaw Brothers movies.

As for Jiahe Movies, you can sit back and watch the fight. It's not their infringement anyway, they will only lose some money at most, but Jiahe is very wealthy.

"Okay, I'm going to collect evidence and find a lawyer."

Shao Laoliu nodded. Of course he understood that Wang Yu was being used, but he had to do it.

To be honest, he really hopes that Jiahe Films will recruit Wang Yu as his subordinate and then make the One-Armed Sword series; in this way, he can at least hurt Jiahe.

It was good now that Jiahe was clearly watching the fun, which really made him feel uncomfortable.

"This Zou Wenhuai is eating him inside and out!"

Shao Laoliu shouted angrily.

At that time, many people in Shaw Brothers Movies knew that the boss was scolding Zou Wenhuai.

As for scolding Lin Zhichao, it was impossible for Shao Laoliu to do so. He originally thought that it was Zou Wenhuai who did it. After all, Zou Wenhuai could do it.

What's more, Shao Laoliu also believed that whether it was Bruce Lee, Li Hanxiang, or Xu Guanwen, these were all gifts from Zou Wenhuai to the new owner. After all, no matter how good Lin Zhichao is in business, he will definitely not have time to figure it out in film.

Of course, Shao Laoliu would not dare to curse Lin Zhichao's social status and influence.