The Industrial Giant Reborn

In the blink of an eye, it was December.

It has been a month and a half since Henry Morgan left Hong Kong.

Backed by the Morgan family, Henry Morgan has very good contacts in all aspects of the United States, and this is a new market that can make a lot of profits. With the combination of the two aspects, they quickly established a large-scale network in hundreds of cities in the United States. The following distribution chain system involves every local bar, shopping mall and some places with a large flow of people.

As for the school and the airport, Chen Zhiwen only knew that Henry Morgan contacted him personally, but he didn't know the specific situation.

After airlifting 500 arcade machines to the United States and putting them in various places, they immediately attracted a large number of people, which also made the dealers from Henry Morgan to every city see the hope of Dole.

Subsequently, Hong Kong received an order for 15,000 Snake arcade machines at one time. According to the previous agreement, Midea directly received a one-time advance payment of 18.75 million US dollars on its overseas account, which was like a shot in the arm. , Let the management of Midea feel as if it has been beaten with chicken blood, and the entire factory has also begun to produce at full capacity.

The compressor company's acquisition negotiations have also entered the final stage. After the news was released a month ago, Lei Shengli also obtained a cooperation intention from an investment bank in the United States. They also expressed that they can find a company in the United States that meets the acquisition target of the United States. requirements.

Naturally, Lei Shengli never refuses anyone who comes to his door. For his headaches, how to persuade the other company to sell him, how to respond to inquiries from the local government, and how to deal with legal issues, just let the investment company handle it. Pay a certain amount of consulting fees and intermediary fees.

In the end, Lei Shengli was still optimistic about the Bitzer company located in Germany. Under the leadership of Deutsche Bank, the two parties have basically reached the point where they are about to sign a memorandum of understanding.

However, before that, Chen Zhiwen, the boss, had to take a look. After all, it was a company that would cost tens of millions of dollars to acquire. This could be said to be a major acquisition second only to Hutchison.

Federal Republic of Germany, Munich:

"Chen Sheng, the Bitzer factory is in front of you." Lei Shengli pointed to the front of a BMW commercial vehicle driving on a wide road with different factories on the left and right.

"Okay, there are so many factories in Germany." Chen Zhiwen looked around and couldn't help but said, after getting off the plane in Munich, he directly boarded the car that Lei Shengli came to pick up the plane, except that he was in the city at first. , After leaving the urban area, he entered the industrial area, which was full of various factories, but because the name was in German, he couldn't understand it either.

Soon, the car started to slow down and came to the gate of a factory. Five or six white Germans also came outside the gate.

"Hello, Mr. Chen, I'm Bestin Shore, the general manager of Bitzer." As soon as Chen Zhiwen and Lei Shengli got out of the car, the leader of the Germanic group walked over with a smile and spoke fluent English. Said.

"Hi, nice to meet you." Chen Zhiwen also shook hands and said with a smile, the two of them actually didn't need any translators, as everyone could speak English, only in very serious business negotiations would they need professional translators.

"Chen Sheng, this is." Lei Shengli also introduced several other white people one by one, and Chen Zhiwen also shook hands one by one, including Bai Siting, these people are currently the top management of Bitzer In the future, if I acquire this company myself, I still need to count on them to continue to run the entire company.

"Mr. Chen, please." After everyone knew each other's names, Besting invited several people into the factory.

"Mr. Chen, the current main business of BITZER is divided into three parts. The first part is the automobile business, which mainly provides compressors for cars for the public. The second part is industrial use. We produce many industrial compressors of different specifications. , The third is civilian use, mainly to provide compressors for air-conditioning production companies. This is the workshop." Along the way, Besting introduced the entire factory to Chen Zhiwen, including the scale, factory workshop conditions, etc. Chen Zhiwen was also patient Listen, don't bother. In fact, Lei Shengli had compiled all of these materials for him before.

During the walk, many German workers looked at them with curious eyes, obviously knowing that this group of Asians was planning to acquire their company, which is relatively rare in Germany and even Europe.

Bitzer's factory area is about 20,000 square meters, and the building area is about 40,000 square meters, which is not very large. After walking around for half an hour, a group of people came to the front office.

Entering a conference room, bananas, strawberries, oranges, and two other fruits that Chen Zhiwen didn't know the names of were already placed on the table in the middle, and it was unknown if it was intentional. There were also several bottles of Red Bull on the table.

In the conference room, there are no display screens of later generations, only two whiteboards, which are probably used for writing on a daily basis, but there is a projector on the wall in the middle, just like the ones in the schools of later generations in the 1990s. The meeting room suddenly became darker, and then the projector was turned on, and a stack of words appeared on the white wall in front of it, and the source of the words was a piece of transparent paper with words written on it, which was similar to Chen Zhiwen's memories of attending classes when he was a child. In the same situation as in the book, the required things are written on the transparent paper in advance, and then irradiated on the white cloth or white wall through reflection.

As Chen Zhiwen who came here for the first time, although he already knew about the situation of Bitzer, Besting still gave an overview again.

Ten minutes later, after Besting finished speaking, Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and asked, "Mr. Shaw, in your mind, what is Bitzer's core business at present? Automotive, industrial, or civil?"

"Mr. Chen, at present our company's main business is industrial compressors. Many industrial refrigeration equipment and compressors for refrigerated rooms in Germany are our customers. As for automotive compressors, our business volume accounts for almost 30%. It is to supply the public." Besting replied: "There is nothing wrong with this ratio, I think it is very good now."

"What about civilian use? This market should be huge?" Chen Zhiwen asked, "Why don't you want to focus on developing the civilian use market?"

Besting said: "Because the civilian air conditioner market in Europe is very small, Mr. Chen, you may not know that there is basically no high temperature in summer in Europe, and natural gas heating is mainly used in winter, and even many cars do not need air conditioners." , Even for Volkswagen, cars sold in Europe basically do not have air conditioning.

There are indeed some air-conditioning companies in Germany, but their main business is export, and the volume is not large, so it is difficult to do well in this area. The other is the business of refrigerator compressors. We have done it before, but the profit is too low. Later, Xiao Mr. Föhler stopped this salesman, and the rest is only the demand from the industry, which has been strong, and this has always been the main business of BITZER. "

"Europe doesn't need air conditioners for residential use, but Asia does. If I buy BITZER, what do you think about setting up a branch in Hong Kong to manufacture residential air conditioners and refrigerators?" Chen Zhiwen asked with a smile.

"That would be the best, and we also need to open up new markets." Bai Siting nodded and said, for this possible future boss, the group of them naturally knew the other party's purpose, and it was for the sake of Bitzer. Over the past ten years, the technology and experience accumulated in the field of compressors have been transferred to Asia. Otherwise, why would an Asian company invest in German industry?

But they also really think this is a good idea. Going to Asia to build a factory producing civilian products will not do them any harm. Moreover, they can also use the Hong Kong factory as a springboard to sell their own industrial compressors to Going to Asia, coupled with the fact that the new boss is obviously stronger than the Schaufler family in terms of financial resources, will only improve the company's development.

"There is almost no basis for making compressors in Hong Kong. In this regard, what do you think should be done to enable Hong Kong to quickly produce suitable civilian compressors?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"I have also learned about the situation in Hong Kong from Mr. Lei. The biggest problem is that there are no relevant suppliers." Besting said: "Some parts inside the compressor are relatively precise. If there is no supplier who can process them , then it is necessary to purchase relevant industrial processing equipment from Germany, but there are no people in Hong Kong who know how to operate various processing equipment, so they need to be sent to Germany for training.

But I don’t have this kind of equipment here, and we all outsource the processing. In Germany, many factories only do what they are good at, and leave the rest to others. "

"I know that. It's not a problem to arrange people to come to Germany. There are still some people with processing background in Hong Kong. It's no problem to send them to Germany. It's no problem to wear a professional translator. I can buy the equipment." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

No way, in a place like Hong Kong that is only good at light industry, this problem will arise if you build something with a bit of technical content. Fortunately, the compressor is not very big. Although the quantity is large, there are not many types of parts. Much simpler.

Besting went on to say: "There is another problem, that is, the shell of the compressor is formed by forging. This equipment requires a huge investment and requires very high technical requirements. It will also cause certain environmental pollution. I am not sure about Hong Kong. Can it be done over there, and generally in Germany, companies with such forging equipment cannot only make one product, they need various orders to maintain the operation of the equipment, if it is in Hong Kong, it will cost millions of marks Such equipment would be very cost-effective."

"Then purchase from Germany and then ship to Hong Kong. We can do this in the initial stage, and then we will find new suppliers from Asia." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said: "If the order volume in Hong Kong can maintain this kind of equipment in the future, Then you can consider buying one. As for whether you can live in Hong Kong, it’s not very important. If you really can’t, you can invest in areas near Hong Kong, as long as you stay close.”

Today's Hong Kong still has high requirements for environmental protection. Many factories with high power consumption have also moved to Wanwan. Only those assembly factories that do not have any pollution will stay. This is also considered as the hollowing out of Hong Kong's manufacturing industry in the future One of the reasons is that although the environment is important, some polluting enterprises are not allowed to survive at all. Forcing them to leave will only lead to problems in the internal circulation of the industry. Many raw materials and parts of the industrial chain need to be imported and exported. It will add a lot of cost and time.

"If this is the case, it is naturally not a problem. It only takes a certain amount of time to train the colleagues in Hong Kong to be successful, and then send some colleagues in Europe to give guidance. I think in 3-5 years, the factories in Hong Kong can produce qualified products. Residential compressors." Bai Siting said.

You don't care about these costs anymore, as long as you really invest, you can naturally build a new factory in Hong Kong!

"Okay, for the establishment of the Asian factory, I do need enough help from your side, but for Bitzer's business in Europe, since the civilian use cannot be developed, the focus will be on the development of automobiles. Compared with the industrial market, even if Many cars in Europe do not have air conditioners, and the market is much larger and more stable than the industrial market.” Chen Zhiwen continued.

"The auto market is indeed much larger, but the competition in this industry is also very fierce. If you want to expand, you need a lot of funds, especially if you want to enter the supply chain of a certain auto brand, the initial cost is very high." Baisi Ting explained.

Chen Zhiwen said: "It doesn't matter if it costs a lot, I will invest the money, as long as you can enter the supply chain of more car companies."

In a stable market, if you want to get in, you have to pay a high price. Although the auto parts market is not a terminal civilian market, there is no investment in advertising fees, but basically every auto factory has its own supply. Businesses, the mutual interest chain has been formed, and anyone else who wants to get in must be willing to spend money, just like advertising in the civilian market.

Moreover, a strong automobile factory will not give orders to suppliers first and then wait for you to build production lines for production. Under normal circumstances, parts suppliers have to invest in production lines first, and spend a huge amount of money to produce products first, and then carry out various operations. This kind of test verification, and then let the car OEM to approve it, so that it is possible to get an order and enter the car brand's supply chain.

The above is the investment on the bright side, and there must be many more under the bright side.

Relatively speaking, it would be much better for a company like Bitzer who already has the experience of supplying to an automobile factory. Otherwise, it would be more difficult for a civilian brand to enter the auto parts industry.

"If Mr. Chen is willing to give full support, it will be better. Over the years, we have always wanted to develop in the automotive field, but we need to invest too much money, so there is no guarantee of success. Risk is also an important factor for us to consider." Baisting paused and said.