Chapter 284 Watson's Progress
Chapter 284 Watson's Progress
As an ordinary person, even if he is one of the most powerful Chinese in Hong Kong today, there is a limit to what he can do when facing a full-scale drought.
If we want to do better, we need to make full use of more funds. On the one hand, Changxing Charity Foundation has also begun to accept social funds;
On the other hand, water will also become a business, but there is no privilege to sell water, so cooperating with the water company is the best way.
The next day, Yang Wendong came to Watsons headquarters in North Point, Hong Kong Island:
Zhou Haoran naturally went out to greet him in person.
"Hello, Mr. Yang." Zhou Haoran said with several of his subordinates.
Although Watsons has been acquired for some time, Yang Wendong rarely came here except in the early days.
"Your house is a bit too old." Yang Wendong looked around and said, "Find some time to tear down the old building and build a better new one."
Although he doesn't care much about the appearance, Yang Wendong feels that some houses are too old and should be replaced. They are uncomfortable to live in, not to mention that this is a beverage factory. If it is too old, it will not give people confidence.
"Okay." Zhou Haoran quickly agreed: "When the company's business improves, I will definitely move to a new building."
"Yeah," Yang Wendong nodded, and then followed everyone to tour the company.
Although the property and other things have not changed, the people inside have changed a lot, especially the foreigners and those who were close to them, basically all of them have left.
Zhou Haoran introduced, "Mr. Yang, the main employees of Watsons are all poached from Taikoo, United Beverage Factory or some other beverage companies to fill the shortage of personnel after the foreigners left."
"Well, okay." Yang Wendong didn't care too much. For ordinary employees in such a small company, the personnel rights are given to the subsidiaries below.
Zhou Haoran then introduced Yang Wendong and then came to the laboratory.
Yang Wendong asked: "What kind of experiments are being conducted here?"
Zhou Haoran said: "It is a test of blending various beverages, including soda and the herbal tea beverage you mentioned before, Mr. Yang."
"Herbal tea? Then try some." Yang Wendong nodded.
It is impossible for Watsons to be a rival to Coca-Cola in the cola field, and fruit drinks are not in line with the technology of this era, nor are they suitable for the environment of Hong Kong. So tea drinks suitable for Asians are the direction of development that Yang Wendong currently requires for Watsons.
"Okay, this way." Zhou Haoran then took Yang Wendong into the laboratory.
In the laboratory, there are various glass beakers on many tables, containing various drinks. There is also a sticky note on each glass with different names written on it.
"This sticky note has a wide range of uses." Yang Wendong said with a smile.
Zhou Haoran said: "Yes, it is very convenient. Otherwise, we still have to write on the glass, which is easy to erase. In 59, we started using sticky notes internally."
Yang Wendong asked: "Isn't it easy to fall off? The stickiness of the sticky note is not very strong, right?"
Stickers already existed in this era, and Yang Wendong had seen them in the United States.
In Hong Kong, there are no trading companies importing it, probably because of low demand.
This is why small areas often lack various things.
But now, it’s almost done. The production capacity of Post-it Notes is close to the sales volume, and the channels have started advertising.
Zhou Haoran nodded and said, "It is easy to fall off, but overall it is more convenient. It would be even better if there were stickers with stronger adhesion."
"Well, it's good as long as it works." Yang Wendong nodded, then asked, "Where is the herbal tea?"
"Here." A technician quickly brought over bottles of glass test cups.
Looking at the light blue liquid in front of him, Yang Wendong asked uncertainly: "Can I drink this?"
Seeing a bunch of test cups together made him instinctively feel that these should be chemicals. Not to mention drinking them, he was instinctively unwilling to even smell them or let their skin come into contact with them.
Zhou Haoran said, "Don't worry, Mr. Yang. All the liquids here are made from civilian food materials and normal water. There are no chemical reagents."
After saying that, he picked up a beaker and drank it, and the others did the same.
"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded. He also felt that he might be worrying too much.
In this era, people’s chemical capabilities were probably not that strong. Even if they wanted to synthesize some beverages, they would at most use things like saccharin, and there would not be “technology and hard work”.
Then he also picked up a glass and started drinking.
A refreshing feeling goes down the throat, with a sweet taste.
Zhou Haoran asked, "What do you think, Mr. Yang?"
Yang Wendong said: "Not bad, it tastes like tea and is also sweet. What kind of tea is used?"
Zhou Haoran replied, "This is made from six types of tea purchased from China Resources. After mixing them in a certain ratio, the flavor is boiled and then added with appropriate amount of sugar."
"It feels good. How about the cost?" Yang Wendong asked again.
Zhou Haoran replied: "The cost of the laboratory is about 500 yuan for a 3 ml drink. The most expensive thing is the tea. Although the tea in the mainland is not expensive, we can't use too little when making tea, otherwise the tea taste will be too light.
Sugar is the second most expensive ingredient, costing about 5 cents per serving. This is normal, and prices are the same in the beverage industry, except for Swire, which has its own sugar factory.
"That's not a problem. If we sell drinks in cans, it's impossible for a bottle to be 500ml." Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, "200 or 250 is about right."
After listening to this, Zhou Haoran said, "Mr. Yang, let's talk about the cans alone later."
"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded.
Afterwards, he tasted dozens of other flavors of herbal tea, each with different ingredients or proportions.
Finally, Yang Wendong said: "It's really hard to choose this thing. I feel that they all taste the same." "In fact, the beverage industry is like this, especially sweet ones. There is no absolute good or bad taste." Zhou Haoran explained: "These drinks are actually the same. Later, they will be sent to the streets or shopping malls for random crowd testing.
The final choice of beverage formula we use still needs to be based on the tastes of specific groups of people.”
Yang Wendong asked: "Wouldn't it require tens of thousands of people to conduct the test?"
Zhou Haoran replied: "Yes, the final test is very time-consuming and costly because it requires long-term testing."
Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, “Well, you go find Liu Huayu, the person in charge of Carrefour. He can arrange for people to conduct tests in several Carrefour supermarkets;
This will not only save labor costs, but Carrefour itself has enough people, and they are a group with good spending power, which is suitable for your positioning. "
Zhou Haoran's eyes lit up and he said, "Mr. Yang's method is really good."
"Well, it's just the use of internal resources. If you have anything to do in the future, you can try to consider internal resources first." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Including when you launch new beverages in the future, you can also borrow the newspapers and radio stations of Changxing Media in Hong Kong, which will also have a good effect."
Although Hong Kong is a small market, it is large enough for a beverage to reach a certain scale.
The few local brands in Hong Kong all rely on the local market to survive, and at most export to a few nearby places such as Macau or Taiwan.
The main reason is that beverage packaging in this era is all made of glass, which is not only heavy but also easy to break, which creates a strong regional competition barrier.
Even a company as strong as Coca-Cola can only rely on the Swire Group for production.
"Okay." Zhou Haoran nodded and said.
After that, after visiting the production line, Yang Wendong came to a conference room on the 3rd floor of the administrative building.
Zhou Haoran said: "Mr. Yang, please make allowance for me. The conditions here are a bit poor."
"It's okay. It's much better than where I lived before." Yang Wendong didn't care and asked casually, "Have you seen the internal structure of the hut?"
Zhou Haoran shook his head and said, "I haven't seen it with my own eyes, but I've seen it in the newspaper. The environment is very bad."
Yang Wendong said: “Yes, the environment is very bad. I lived like that when I was a child. I am used to it and can live there.
But you should also be aware of the recent situation. There is a serious water shortage in various places. For people with ordinary conditions, at most it makes life a little difficult, but for people living in squatters, it is a devastating blow."
"I know that too." Zhou Haoran nodded and said, "Mr. Yang, your recent investment in the Kowloon Peninsula is to solve the problem of drought in the squatter areas.
It’s just that in this matter, we at Watsons don’t seem to be able to help.”
Yang Wendong said: "We don't need your help. What you should do is to run your business well, and it would be best if you can export on a large scale to create jobs.
Even if Hong Kong is hit by drought again one day, as long as the economy is strong, the people at the bottom will not have such a miserable life.”
The essence of all problems is still economics. Otherwise, if Hong Kong encounters a drought in the 21st century, even if there is no Dongjiang water, countless businessmen will find ways to transport water to Hong Kong, because Hong Kong people are rich and can afford expensive water.
"Mr. Yang is right." Zhou Haoran nodded, and then said: "For the beverage industry, if we want to export, the best model at present is to use cans;
Many beverages in Europe and the United States have begun to use cans for export, and Taikoo is the same. They have recently signed a can production line with German beverage packaging company Krones, including the front-end sheet stamping and forming, the middle-term filling, and the later stage of sealing and sterilization. "
"What is the production capacity of this production line? How much does it cost?" Yang Wendong asked.
Zhou Haoran replied: "This production line can produce 1000 bottles of beverages per hour, and the selling price is about $40."
"One thousand dollars an hour, a total price of $40?" Yang Wendong did some calculations and said, "If we depreciate it over five years, then the equipment depreciation cost for a can of beverage would be 5 cents?"
Zhou Haoran added: "Yes, and one can requires about 100 grams of tinplate, which costs about 2 yuan."
"This is probably much more expensive than the cost of the drink." Yang Wendong said with a smile.
Zhou Haoran said: “Yes, but in the beverage industry, it is normal for packaging to be more expensive than the beverage itself, and the transportation cost is more expensive than the packaging + beverage;
The advantage of using cans is that the transportation cost is much lower. First, they are not easy to break. Second, they are much lighter than glass. Therefore, the cost is actually lower in places like Europe, America and Japan. "
Yang Wendong asked: "The cost is relatively low in Europe, America and Japan. Do you mean it is relatively high in Hong Kong?"
Zhou Haoran nodded and said, "Yes, the beverage industry actually has a practice of recycling packaging, and this is also true for glass bottles and cans.
Glass bottles are heavy and fragile, which also affects the transportation cost when they are recycled. Cans are much better because they can be flattened for transportation to save space.
But the problem is that cans need to be recycled directly into steel furnaces, which is not possible in Hong Kong. Small steel mills do have this capability, but they cannot produce thin tinplate, and that is the problem.”
"So the raw materials have to be imported, which is a disadvantage." Yang Wendong finally understood: "But I think it is still more convenient than glass bottles. If the cost is high, then we can raise the price appropriately. Our brand positioning can also be higher."
Judging from the future development of the beverage industry, glass bottles will definitely be eliminated. Cans of this era have great advantages, especially in terms of transportation costs.
If you want to make beverages yourself, you definitely can’t rely on glass bottles. You can only sell them in Hong Kong. But the cost of shipping them out is too high, even if containers are delivered.
Zhou Haoran said: "This is not a big problem. We don't have many competitors for our herbal tea."
"Well, OK, then you can contact beverage equipment companies in Germany or other countries." Yang Wendong paused and said, "I want to buy a canned beverage production line as soon as possible.
Then you also need to find a suitable location in Hong Kong to build the new factory, but it would be best if it is near the sea. If the water supply is tight, I will arrange for a ship to deliver water directly, and build a large water reservoir in the factory. "
Although drought is imminent, the economy cannot but develop. If we can make money from beverages, we can buy a hundred times the amount of water we consume.
Besides, beverages don't consume much water. One million cans of water actually only consume a few hundred tons of water. If I can sell a few million of my herbal tea drinks before the drought ends, it will be considered a great success.
Zhou Haoran quickly agreed: "Okay, Mr. Yang."
Yang Wendong asked again: "Are the cosmetics stores and drug stores separated?"
"We have separated and are now operating independently." Zhou Haoran replied: "I have also contacted Zheng Zhijie and Mr. Zheng. He will find a suitable location for us to open a new store."
"Okay." Yang Wendong didn't ask any more questions.
Now is not the time to focus on developing cosmetics chain stores and pharmacies, just maintain normal operations.
PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)