The Industrial Giant Reborn

"The investment is indeed not small." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. You must know that when the supplier bears the initial cost of goods, the cost of opening a new store at Costco is only about one million US dollars, but now a logistics center may be seven or eight times that of a new store.

"Eric, this matter is not urgent, because it will take at least half a year for us to stabilize the current five branches. I am already looking for new branch addresses in five other cities in California. When these few open, at least By the end of the year, I can still use the current model to supply these ten branches, but the cost will be higher, but if we go out of California, we need a logistics center. In fact, the west coast is better than California’s economy, and other states also have Some cities are okay, but they are too scattered, and if suppliers all use logistics to supply, the cost will be too high." Pierce continued.

The main population of the United States is concentrated on the east and west coasts, and there are many cities in the middle, but they are far away from each other. This is also the reason why the aviation industry in the United States is developed. Their populations are concentrated in cities, and the cities are scattered in various places.

Chen Zhiwen naturally knew this, and asked, "Then when do we need to build this logistics center?"

"If we don't need to rush to expand, it will be fine in two or three years, but if we want to control the West Coast soon, it is best to start investing early next year." Pierce suggested.

"Okay, I'll get ready." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, Costco's expansion, plus the logistics center, is a short-term investment of tens of millions of dollars, but the investment still needs to be invested, otherwise, will there be more stores? In the logistics distribution center, the cost in all aspects will increase sharply, that is, the self-destruction of the city wall.

The supermarket itself is also an asset-heavy industry. Once it collapses in, you can only step on the gas pedal and speed up desperately. Otherwise, you will be defeated by other players sooner or later, especially Wal-Mart, which has known warehouse-style supermarkets in advance. Enough, it is very likely to enter the market, which may be a few years earlier than in the original history, and as long as you occupy the big cities first, others can only choose the rest.

Of course, it is also possible to fight together in a big city and lose both sides, but Sam Walton should not do this. After all, Wal-Mart’s biggest competitors are giant retailers such as Kmart and Sears with a turnover exceeding tens of billions of dollars. company.

"Actually, we can also take out loans, but in this case, our financial situation will be known by the bank." Pierce said suddenly.

"Loans are fine, but Costco won't be mortgaged." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile, he doesn't want to directly mortgage several companies under him now. Red Bull, Midea's Arcade Profit, and Costco are all private companies, and their financial status is It is extremely confidential, and if it is mortgaged, the data must be handed over to the bank. Although the bank is definitely required to keep it confidential by law, who actually knows?

These companies either have high profit margins or high capital turnover. Any investor or person in the relevant industry will know the potential of these new industries when they see the financial report data. Once leaked, the industry giants will find out and enter the market If so, it will be troublesome.

Midea’s arcade machines are better. Chen Zhiwen’s memory of future generations has an unparalleled advantage, but Red Bull and Costco don’t have much advantage. Even if they launch first now, they have just left the starting point. If others are willing to spend money, they still have a chance of.

This is the last thing Chen Zhiwen wants to happen, so Wal-Mart's stock is the best collateral. However, Hong Kong may need a lot of funds at any time, but fortunately, next year, Wal-Mart's stock may rise by two Thirty points, which brought Chen Zhiwen a credit line of tens of millions of dollars out of thin air.

"OK, you are the boss, you are responsible for the financial matters." Pierce said with a smile, he knew that the logistics center is not a problem, in fact, for him, the development speed of Costco is too fast, if not for his boss It is simply impossible for normal entrepreneurs to have this ability with a large amount of additional capital injection.

"The development is going too smoothly, and the demand for funds is also fast!" Chen Zhiwen smiled and shook his head. When he planned to start from the functional drinks and electronics industries, he estimated that these two industries would not consume too much money. Electric appliances cost money, but arcade machines can be covered easily. Although Red Bull spends a lot on advertising, it also comes from its own profits. As long as there are no problems, it will be fine.

Only direct retail investment in the United States must consume a lot of money. Fortunately, knowing that Wal-Mart’s stock price has risen very sharply in the past few years, we started acquisitions early. Very high investment project, but also obtained enough collateral to maintain the extremely rapid expansion of Costco.

Other investments, such as acquisitions in Hong Kong, consume a lot of money, but like Wal-Mart stock, Chen Zhiwen knows that it will rise in the future, and he only needs to wait to get a return. The only exception may be Wharf, which may happen with Jardine The fierce acquisition battle, and the actual acquisition, the huge project of Harbor City is also a very big gold swallowing beast.

These are basically the limits of Chen Zhiwen's ability to personally participate in investment at present. After these projects succeed one by one, he will have the energy to plan other projects. However, this does not affect other investment projects that do not need to worry about but only need to pay.

One is a small joint venture project with Buffett in Hong Kong, because Chen Zhiwen has already prepared the land and construction. After the equipment of Berkshire Hathaway arrived, he started construction soon and started supplying goods in Hong Kong. At the same time, a small amount is also exported to the United States.

The second is the trading company for supermarket products. With two major customers in the United States, Chen Zhiwen only ordered the trading company to try its best to open up the market of the next few major supermarket giants in Europe, such as Auchan, Tesco, Metro, Carrefour, etc. Several supermarkets are not very big at present, if not for the lack of funds and the fact that some of these supermarkets are not listed, Chen Zhiwen may also invest in several more.

However, judging from the rate of return, the benefits of these companies are still inferior to those of Wal-Mart. After all, the European market is too chaotic. It is not the business environment, but the division of culture and language, which makes the local market of these companies too small. Expansion requires higher costs, making it difficult to achieve the level of Wal-Mart in scale.

If Europe is really a country, there will definitely be a giant like Wal-Mart in the retail field.

As for other large supermarkets such as Kmart, I don’t care at all. After all, the energy of trading companies is limited, and there is no need to spend too many resources to conquer a giant that is about to go bankrupt in the future, and the internal waters of this giant are very deep. , It is extremely difficult to enter their supply chain when they are at their peak.

And the third is a company that Chen Zhiwen wants to invest in. This company is located in Portland, Oregon, in northern California.

After observing the newly opened Costco supermarket in San Francisco for two days, Chen Zhiwen brought a group of himself to Oregon in northern California. With the recommendation letter from Citibank, Chen Zhiwen met the person he needed to meet——Phil Knight.