The Industrial Giant Reborn

"Have you considered the mainland market?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.

"Mainland? Can't our products enter?" Qin Zhihao was stunned.

"It's just that I can't get in now, but I might have a chance in the future." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and then said: "These are a bit too far-fetched. You should take down the market in Hong Kong first and then talk about it."

In fact, in the 1980s, there was no shortage of milk in China, but the problem was that it was difficult to ensure that it would not deteriorate during transportation. This led to the fact that, for people near cattle farms, the cost of drinking milk until they vomited may be more expensive than drinking boiled water Low, and in the distance, even in some cities, even if you have money, you can't buy milk.

For this problem, we need to rely on a company named Tetra Pak in Europe. This company is the world's top supplier of beverage packaging equipment. It has the most advanced aseptic sterilization technology, which can seal milk and yogurt after sterilization. Generally, it can maintain a shelf life of half a year.

It’s just that this kind of equipment is very expensive. Given the domestic foreign exchange situation in the 1980s, it was impossible to buy this kind of equipment. If Yili’s dairy industry develops well, it can go to the mainland to do this business, or build a milk factory in the mainland , Self-produced and sold.

The dairy industry in the mainland is a super big market. Mengniu + Yili of later generations, if you can get one of the industries, it is very good, and you have the advantage of overseas terminal retail. As long as you can do well in China, you may be able to It can be made into milk powder for export, and even worse, dairy products can also be used as snacks.

These things are just too far away, and Chen Zhiwen can only make a long-term goal, at least this direction is feasible.

"Okay, then I will arrange for the former Milk International employees to go overseas to buy equipment and cows." Qin Zhihao said.

"Okay." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

"One more thing, Mr. Chen, our instant noodles have already begun to be exported to Japan and the United States. Judging from the feedback we have received so far, it is not ideal." Qin Zhihao reported with some shame.

"As expected, it's not a fresh food. There are hundreds of instant noodle companies in Japan, and there is no culture of eating instant noodles in the United States. It is expected that our sales are not good." Chen Zhiwen said indifferently.

Japan is the ancestor of instant noodles. It has been playing for more than 20 years. It is too difficult for foreign players to get in. As for the United States, instant noodles are not eaten there. Instant noodles can be changed into soup and sold to Americans for drinking.

The main markets for instant noodles are the mainland and Southeast Asia. Now they are being sent to Japan, the United States and even Europe, just to stabilize the business. After all, no matter how low the purchasing power is in Europe, America and Japan, such a large base can still support an instant noodle company in Hong Kong. Survive first, and then slowly find ways to do better. At the same time, you can also try to enter the Southeast Asian market, especially if ParknShop is rolled out in Asia, the effect should be good. .

Of course, this is also due to Xinghe Trade, otherwise, there would be no way for non-branded instant noodles to enter American supermarkets.

Red Bull's decision to compete with Dairy Milk International for the Hong Kong dairy market was indeed unexpected by Chen Zhiwen. Since his subordinates are interested, he will naturally support it. With experience, go to domestic investment in the future.

There are many grasslands in the country, and the effect of raising dairy cows there should be good. If it can be done well in the interior, then an industry no less than instant noodles can be obtained. Maybe it can also be used to reduce costs and sell large-scale overseas European and American countries, which would be even more profitable.

On July 20, Zhao Defeng formally signed a letter of intent for cooperation with Galaxy Group. The Zhao family exchanged 5 square kilometers of land in Tianshuiwei for two industrial office buildings in Hung Hom and a small hotel property in Kowloon Peninsula.

From the perspective of area, Zhao Defeng naturally suffered a big loss, but the current 5 square kilometers of land, the Zhao family can't earn a penny from this wasteland, and occasionally some fish in the fish pond, but converted into two industrial office buildings and A small hotel is enough for the entire Zhao family to have a net income of several million Hong Kong dollars a year, and the whole family will have no worries for several lifetimes.

This may be more meaningful than guarding a large piece of wasteland, at least for the current Zhao family.

After obtaining the land in Tianshuiwei, Chen Zhiwen also made a special trip, and finally decided with Xu Jinhong, Qin Zhihao, and Zhou Jiayang on the location of the factory, cattle farm and port. In fact, it was only a small part of the land. Keep it as it is, it will be abandoned and not developed, and it will have no commercial value.

There will be no planting here. All the fodder grass can be imported from Southeast Asia, or from the mainland next door. It may not be possible now, but after the opening, Chen Zhiwen remembers that the first investment in the Shekou Industrial Zone was a company specializing in feed in Thailand. Large groups can just meet their own needs.

At the same time, some engineers from Milk International are working on research and development of equipment, quotations, etc. of various companies.

After everything was settled, Chen Zhiwen let his subordinates operate on their own. He was only guiding the direction of these future potential businesses. In fact, even without his guidance, when Red Bull reached a certain scale, it would gradually diversify. After all, the popularity of Red Bull itself allows it to have channels for dialogue with large global supermarkets, and there is no shortage of funds and talents. It will definitely find a way to make more common food or drinks. Whenever there is an opportunity, it will try. It's okay to fail, and it's a big profit if you succeed.

Red Bull in the original history has actually done diversification of categories, but it is not food, but investment in various sports events, buying teams, teams, etc. The direction is different from that of Red Bull today, and when Red Bull arrives, it will be enough At that time, it can also develop in this direction. Not to mention other things, if you win the American NBA team and train a few Chinese players, then the domestic beverage and food market will be more stable.

Leisure Building.

Niu Bijian is standing next to the French windows facing the sun, looking melancholy at the huge building complex opposite the Victoria Harbor in the distance, which used to be an attempt by the Jardine Matheson Group for a new shopping model in Hong Kong in the future.

As early as the era of Henry Keswick, the previous taipan, Jardine's executives discovered a serious problem, that is, the shopping mode before the 1960s could no longer meet the shopping needs of many local and foreign tourists in Hong Kong.

The reason is very simple. The shopping malls in Central are located in various office buildings, usually on the lower floors. However, the area of ​​the office buildings is limited. After shopping for a while, all the customers are gone. They need to go to another shopping mall, but the problem is If it is too hot in summer, rainy or windy, it will not be conducive to the exchange of customer traffic among various shopping malls. In addition, the homogeneity is serious, and many people feel bored and stop coming.

It doesn't matter if each shopping mall belongs to a different owner, but the main commercial buildings on the Central side are all owned by Landmark, and there is too little traffic, which is not conducive to Landmark's increase in rent.

As a result, the entire Jardine Matheson Group carried out two plans, one for the reconstruction of the Central District, renovating more than a dozen buildings in the Central District, redesigning many plans, and connecting all shopping malls with sky bridges, so that no matter what the outside environment is It does not affect the flow of customers among different shopping malls. The second one is to use Wharf to relocate the port in Tsim Sha Tsui, opposite Central, to build the largest shopping mall in Hong Kong - Harbor City.

The capital consumption of Harbor City is more than that of Hongkong Land’s Central District reconstruction. Unfortunately, after nearly 10 years of hard work, I did not expect to be snatched away when the fruit is about to be harvested. Moreover, if Wharf succeeds, there may be Affect Hongkong's business.

"Dong dong dong" there was a knock on the door behind him, Niu Bijian turned his head and saw that it was Bao Fuda, and said, "What's wrong?"

"It's not a big deal, but I think I need to talk to you." Bao Fuda walked in and said, "Recently, many people in the milk company's dairy department have proposed resignation, which has affected the normal operation, so the people below reported it. It’s just a trivial matter, but the place where these people go is a new subsidiary of Red Bull, called Yili Dairy.”

"Red Bull? Chen Zhiwen also wants to enter the milk supply market?" Niu Bijian immediately got excited after hearing this.

"Yes, and I also found out that Galaxy Real Estate bought a large piece of land in Tianshuiwei, North District, and planned to build a large dairy farm there," Bao Fuda said.

"The scale of the milk distribution industry is not small, but the market is only in Hong Kong. With Chen Zhiwen's style, it doesn't seem like he will pay attention to this industry. It is probably his Red Bull company. He wants to do this." Niubi Jian thought for a while and said.

Consortiums in Hong Kong like diversification the most, and so is Jardine Harmony. There are probably hundreds of subsidiaries under them, and these subsidiaries may also have different businesses. Generally speaking, professional managers like them may not be able to say out of all business.

But they can control the company by focusing on two points. The first is naturally the company's key business, and the second is the financial status of each subsidiary. The financial status is not good. If they find out which business is responsible, they will cut it when it should be cut. The financial status is average. , then keep going, and the leader will not ask too much. Such excellent financial performance means that it is very likely to become one of the main businesses, so it will naturally be valued.

They are already familiar with these routines, and Niu Bijian has also studied Chen Zhiwen's family history and daily business behavior, so he can come up with this answer.

"The question is, what should we do if this Yili competes with the milk company?" Bao Fuda said: "In recent years, we have increased the price of terminal milk a lot. If Yili lowers the price or even the cost price, we will It's troublesome, this is the method Chen Zhiwen often tries."

"Let's see first, the cows don't produce milk that fast. In half a year, Jardine's overseas situation will be better. Then we will look at it according to the situation." Niu Bijian said.

"Okay." Bao Fuda nodded. In fact, the milk business is just one of the fringe businesses of the whole Landmark. If Chen Zhiwen hadn't been involved, he wouldn't have paid much attention to it. Whoever dares to provoke him can just suppress it directly. Chen Zhiwen, for some reason, has to spend money to buy land and build a breeding farm to enter this market when the Hong Kong dairy market is already controlled by others. Theoretically speaking, the probability of success for ordinary people is extremely low.

Wednesday, July 26.

Chen Zhiwen, who was relatively leisurely during this time, personally came to Kai Tak Airport to pick up a person, who was Pierce, the current general manager of Costco.

"Eric, long time no see." Pierce immediately hugged Chen Zhiwen when he saw Chen Zhiwen.

"Pierce, I suspect that you are only 50 years old." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"Haha, I hope so. Unfortunately, this is just the surface. My body is not as good as before. I just took the plane, but I feel a little uncomfortable." Pierce said with a smile.

"Come into the air current?" Chen Zhiwen asked. Pierce is currently the core figure of Costco. Every time he travels, he always travels in first class. The reason why he doesn't choose a private jet is because the current private jet is too small, and it can turn the world upside down when it encounters a little airflow. It's him This young man can't stand it, especially for a long-distance flight, he might as well choose the first-class cabin of the Boeing 747.

If you feel that a seat is still crowded, you can book the entire first class.

"A small air current, but they're all fine, I'm the only one who suffers, haha, I'm old after all, so I can't compare." Pierce smiled, and then said: "Eric, this is Bernie Marcus, this is Bernie Marcus. This is the first time I come to Hong Kong, I think Bernie has a good idea and needs investment."

"Hello, Mr. Marcus." Chen Zhiwen nodded, shook hands and said, on the phone before, Chen Zhiwen knew Pierce's purpose for coming to Hong Kong, but he didn't say it very clearly on the phone, he only knew that Bernie in front of him had a very good personality. Idea, but lack of funds.

Before racking his brains, he didn't know who this person was, at least he wasn't very famous in later generations, but since he was favored by Pierce, he had some ability and contacts, if he wanted to invest, it didn't matter if he invested himself, and he didn't have much money if he failed. , If you succeed, you might even make a small profit.

"Hello, Mr. Chen, just call me Bernie." Bernie Marcus shook his hand and said.

"Okay." Chen Zhiwen nodded.

Pierce said: "Let's go to a quiet place to talk, Bernie has prepared a plan."

"Okay, let's go." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, when it comes to investment, it's always bad to talk on the road.

After a while, the group arrived at a meeting room on the highest floor of the Xinghe Building.

After Bernie took out a stack of documents from his briefcase, he said: "Mr. Chen, this is a business model that I have been conceiving for the past two years. It is very similar to Costco in many aspects, but the main business direction is It’s all kinds of furniture, building materials, tools, etc.”

"Furniture? Building materials?" Chen Zhiwen's eyes lit up, and he immediately took the file over.

I have to say that Bernie in front of me was well prepared. The business document alone was written in both Cantonese and English. It is very easy to read this kind of professional business documents, and he will have a headache if he reads too much.

The translator on the side also got a backup. She is not responsible for reading the commercial content, but only for checking whether there is any problem with the document translation, so as to avoid misunderstandings.

"Yes, this is a business model that Bernie conceived based on the special conditions of the United States." Pierce said with a smile: "In the United States, if a small thing breaks down in a family, the repair cost is very high. The main reason is that professional labor is expensive. In fact, ordinary people can make many things by themselves, but they can't buy the corresponding things, such as a piece of wood, and finally have to find someone, which is too expensive.

Therefore, the logic of this new business model is to provide various furniture parts, materials, and various tools. The advantage of this is that the transportation cost is low, because only wood needs to be transported instead of hollow cabinets. Agreed, Eric, what do you think? "

"Very good idea." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

This is more than good ah? This is Home Depot, another retail giant that intensifies material monopoly in later generations? Unexpectedly, it was delivered to the door on its own initiative.

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