Chapter 325: The Profitable Purified Water Business

Regardless of the industry, nowadays, Yang Wendong just provides some opinions and guides the strategic direction, and then lets professional managers develop according to the requirements.

As a time traveler, it is almost impossible for the direction he points to be wrong.

In the cultural field, there may be some uncertainty, but the probability is not high. In this era of entertainment scarcity, the story of Nezha and Erlang Shen, even if it cannot become a super hit, will definitely have some achievements.

Monday, February 2:

Yang Wendong came to North Point of Hong Kong Island, where there is a newly opened large factory.

"Mr. Yang, welcome to Watsons North Point Factory." Zhou Haoran said with a smile.

Yang Wendong got off the car, took a look and said, "Very good, it looks more impressive than in the photo."

In the middle of last year, Watsons placed an order for canning equipment from Krones of Germany based on demand. Subsequently, based on the demand for equipment, it bought a piece of industrial land in North Point, Hong Kong Island, and built its own factory.

Zhou Haoran said: "This production line mainly has stamping equipment in the early stage, so it can only be placed on the ground, just one floor. When I bought the land, I also considered future expansion and other beverage businesses, so I bought a larger one."

"It doesn't matter. The bigger the area, the better." Yang Wendong didn't care at all.

When it comes to his own industrial factories, he is very generous in purchasing land. As long as his subordinates think that bigger is better, he will buy a bigger one. Anyway, he will make a lot of money from real estate in a few decades.

Zhou Haoran added: "At present, the entire production line has been installed and is being debugged. Some products have also been produced."

"Oh, let's go and take a look." Yang Wendong immediately became interested.

Soon, the two arrived at the door of the beverage filling production line workshop.

"Boom~~"

There was a roar from inside the workshop, and a middle-aged man in blue work clothes was already waiting at the door.

Zhou Haoran introduced: "Mr. Yang, this is Liu Zhisheng, the workshop director of the beverage factory."

"Hello, Mr. Yang." Liu Zhisheng greeted them and then said, "Mr. Yang, Mr. Zhou, it's quite noisy in the workshop, and we need to consider safety issues. Please wear safety helmets, earplugs, and change into safety shoes."

"Okay, thank you." Yang Wendong nodded and said.

Afterwards, everyone changed into safety gear and entered the factory. The first thing they saw was several large steel coils placed on wooden frames, and one coil was on top of the equipment.

The steel sheet on the steel coil is pulled to the front, and behind it is a large stamping equipment.

Liu Zhisheng introduced: "Mr. Yang, this is our early production equipment for cans, which can punch thin steel plates several times and eventually become the bottle body;
Among them, it is also necessary to go through a hot stamping device, that is, the component needs to be heated and then stamped.
After the bottle is formed, it will be cleaned, sterilized at high temperature, filled and sealed.

Yang Wendong and others also followed Liu Zhisheng and walked around the entire production line, getting a general understanding of it.

Coming to the end of the production line, Zhou Haoran took a few packaged cans and said, "Mr. Yang, please taste it."

"Is this very different from what's made in the lab?" Yang Wendong asked with a smile, and took the drink.

Zhou Haoran said: "It will be a little different. The process of beverage processing, mass production and laboratory will be different, so we need to spend a lot of time to debug the production line, and wait until it is very close to our previous taste before we are ready to launch it."

"That will indeed take some time." Yang Wendong nodded.

Zhou Haoran said: "It is also because we did not have a production line before, so this first batch of beverages can only be debugged after the equipment arrives; if there are new beverages in the future, it will not take so much time."

"Yeah." Yang Wendong didn't care. After opening the can, he took a sip and said, "I think it's about the same."

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "Yes, almost. Even if Coca-Cola and Pepsi are placed in a cup, not many people can accurately distinguish them.

But we still need to debug it well, because it involves the stability of the taste of the beverage, otherwise the taste will change frequently, which will be troublesome. "

Yang Wendong agreed and said, "Okay, then wait until you're sure there won't be any problems before launching it. It's not very hot these days, so launching the herbal tea later won't have much of an impact."

"Yes." Zhou Haoran added: "It just so happens that we also need some time to test the production quality of our cans and do various tests to avoid problems with the cans after a long time or during transportation."

"Okay, these must be controlled well. Quality is the foundation." Yang Wendong said, "I will invest resources in publicity after you have confirmed it."

Promotion can only be carried out before preparing for listing. In the past, many companies in the mainland made this mistake. The promotion was in place, but there were problems with the quality. As a result, the greater the investment in promotion, the more miserable the death.

Zhou Haoran agreed and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Yang, I will pay attention to quality. I have also specially invited two engineers from Germany, one to be responsible for equipment and the other for can production."

Today's Changxing Group is large enough and has hired many foreigners. This is very normal within Changxing. The person in charge of the subsidiary can act first and report later according to his own requirements, as long as there are no issues of principle.

"Okay, thank you for your hard work." Yang Wendong added: "Once the cans are successfully launched on the market, I will give extra red envelopes to everyone in the factory."

Appropriate incentives are still necessary, especially for new projects, new technologies, new production lines, etc.; with incentives, everyone will work faster, which will be more cost-effective at the company level.

"Thank you, Mr. Yang." Zhou Haoran, Liu Zhisheng and others were obviously very happy.

Yang Wendong asked again: "The workshop next to it is also quite large. What kind of beverages are they making?"

Zhou Haoran replied: "It's not about making beverages, but purified water. This is a project launched in cooperation with Carrefour, but now the scale is getting bigger and bigger."

"Pure water? Then go and take a look." Yang Wendong also became interested.

The drought in Hong Kong is still going on. The situation is a little better in winter, but there is still no water. Carrefour's purified water business is also selling like crazy, and it is sold out as soon as it is put on the shelves.

"Then go this way." Liu Zhisheng quickly pointed in the direction of an internal road.

The few of them soon arrived at the purified water workshop next door. Looking around, they saw countless white plastic barrels placed on a five-layer cart that was taller than a person.

The equipment is also very simple and is all manually operated. Workers simply add water into the bucket through the faucet and then seal it.

Yang Wendong picked up a bucket with 5L written on it and asked, "Can the water in this be drunk directly?"

Liu Zhisheng replied: "It is drinkable. We also sterilize the tap water before putting it into barrels.

However, because the sealing performance is not as good as that of a regular beverage production line, it usually needs to be used up within 2 weeks.”

Zhou Haoran also said: "Mr. Yang, it's not that we are reluctant to spend money to make it better, but this kind of barreled pure water is probably the first case in the world, and we can't find the corresponding equipment;
And we have marked this on the back of the bucket, please see it.”

Zhou Haoran also turned the bucket over, and Yang Wendong also saw the time reminder, a simple sticker with the production date written on it.

In this era, there is obviously no laser coding.

"Okay, water supply is tight right now, and I guess people won't keep the stuff for long after buying it." Yang Wendong didn't ask any further questions.

Afterwards, I walked from the workshop to the door and saw many people loading and unloading goods, some loading full barrels and some unloading empty barrels.

Yang Wendong then asked, "Are these not people from Carrefour?"

Zhou Haoran explained: “No, they are some local merchants from various places who come to me to buy water and then transport it to their own territory;
Mr. Yang, you also know that even Carrefour can only cover a small part of Hong Kong. There are many people from other places who have come to us to cooperate with us, and we cannot refuse them. The purchasing volume of these people is much larger than that of Carrefour. "

Yang Wendong asked again: "When did it start? The financial report for the last quarter of last year didn't seem to mention this matter, right?"

Zhou Haoran replied: "In the last quarter of last year, we actually did have it, but the scale was not large, and I only included it in the other categories in the financial report.

But after the beginning of the year, this business has experienced exponential growth, mainly because many merchants bought goods from us and then arranged for people to deliver water to their own territories. As a result, this business immediately expanded a lot.

Even Carrefour has started to do this, actively delivering water to your door. If it weren’t for the fact that it requires too many terminal retail outlets, Watsons would also want to get involved, as the profits are very high.”

"That's right. The water delivery business will definitely make money at this time." Yang Wendong smiled.

Once some people have nothing to eat, the price of food will rise exponentially, and ten times, dozens of times, or even a hundred times is normal.

And water is more important than food.

Zhou Haoran then waved his hand to send the others away, and then said: "Yes, in the past two months, the price of water here has almost tripled, but Carrefour is still the original price. I have not raised the price at my sister company."

"Same thing. The supply there is insufficient to meet the demand, so the price will definitely go up." Yang Wendong added, "Although the price increase is not good, the tap water we sell is not in urgent need. If you don't raise the price, the middlemen will do the same."

Yang Wendong could even contribute his own money to provide water to the poor people in the shanty towns as a charity, because this is the most basic water for daily life.

But if you sell clean water and have it delivered to your door, the main charge is for the service, so it’s a bit more expensive, but that’s also market demand.

Zhou Haoran said again: "Mr. Yang, now that we have finished looking at the workshop, shall we go up and take a look at the market and financial data?"

"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded.

Afterwards, several people went to the conference room on the third floor of the administrative building on the side of the factory.

Watsons’ finance department had already prepared the information and showed Yang Wendong the losses and profits of the company’s business one by one.

"Watsons made a profit of 1 in January?" Yang Wendong was very surprised after seeing the data.

Last month, also in January, when he and the group's chief financial officer, Sister Wang, summarized the business of each company, Watsons only made a profit of 50 last year.

This month now is equivalent to the whole of last year.

Zhou Haoran explained: "Mr. Yang, in fact, the company's normal businesses are developing better than before you acquired them, but there has not been a qualitative change.

The reason why the profit is so high is because of selling water, and it is estimated that this month will reach a new high, especially since summer is coming. If the drought continues, I dare not predict what the data will be in the future. "

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "If you continue like this, I estimate that your profits will be more profitable than Changxing Real Estate's residential development business."

Zhou Haoran said: "I didn't expect this to happen. Next, I plan to continue to expand the purified water production line. It's actually quite simple and all depends on people.
In addition, we need to continue to purchase plastic buckets. Although there is a recycling mechanism, some of them will be broken or old, and some cannot be recycled. Maybe some people think that these buckets are good for storing water and the price is not expensive, so they keep them. "

"Well, you decide for yourself." Yang Wendong asked again: "As for the water source, Changxing Shipping will definitely guarantee it. It means transporting water here. Is there any problem with the tap water?"

Zhou Haoran replied: "That's no problem. I've already discussed it with the water company. They won't be short of our water. Besides, this new factory also has a 200-cubic-meter water reservoir as a buffer."

"Okay, then you just need to do it well. This is also a short-term opportunity." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Although it won't last long, if we make enough money, we can also ensure the expansion of Watsons in other businesses in the future."

This can be considered a "trend", although it doesn't look good, but the money earned is mainly from the "service fees" of rich people.

If I do well, I might even be able to make back the money I put into charity in the squatter area.
Zhou Haoran agreed and said, "Okay, I will make a detailed plan for you to review."

(End of this chapter)

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