Chapter 332 The Agent Price War Begins

Chapter 332 The Agent Price War Begins

Chapter 332 The Agent Price War Begins

Paper will be difficult to replace in the next hundred years. Even in the electronic age, the impact on A4 paper is not that great. However, toilet paper and napkins are an eternal need.

As early as a few years ago when post-it notes began to be produced, Yang Wendong had thought about entering the papermaking industry, but was unable to implement it due to various factors such as capital, manpower, and environment. Now the time has come.

Wei Zetao smiled and said, "Okay, I will first contact some channels in Hong Kong and overseas to communicate with potential customer groups."

"Well, in fact, the essence is still a price issue." Yang Wendong added: "If we want to find a way to control costs, we should learn more from similar overseas companies in this regard."

"I understand." Wei Zetao said, "The management team of the Wanwan Paper Factory is also Chinese who were recruited from Japan. They have experience in this area. Moreover, both labor and environmental costs are much lower in Taiwan than in Japan. With Changxing Shipping, transportation will be much better, both for the import of raw materials and the export of products."

"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "When this factory opens, I will go to Taiwan to take a look."

Wei Zetao smiled and said, "Okay, I'll let you know the specific time later."

"Um"

Time is quickly approaching the end of March:

On the 26th, Yang Wendong came to the Maxim's Bakery on Harcourt Road in Admiralty. After learning the news, the Wu brothers also came to accompany him in person.

"Mr. Yang, why did you come here in person? Just tell us what kind of pastries you need and we will arrange for someone to deliver them." Wu Zhan De said with a smile.

Although the cooperation agreement between Changxing Group and Maxim's Foods has not yet been finalized, the general direction has basically been determined, and only some details remain.

In the future, Yang Wendong will not only be a shareholder of the company, but also a strategic partner and the pillar behind Maxim's Food Company. He also promised that he would not fight for management rights as long as there is no serious loss. Under such circumstances, the Wu brothers naturally respect Yang Wendong very much.

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "I don't know what to eat either. Come over and see for yourself, then you'll know what you need."

This is also the reason why many supermarkets and offline retailers can still maintain certain advantages when facing online competition from the Internet decades later. After all, online shopping is always inferior to physical shopping.

And pastry products will not be easily impacted by the Internet in the future. The shorter the shelf life, the more advantages they have.

"Haha, okay, then I'll introduce you to pastries of various flavors," Wu Zhan De said with a smile.

He then explained the types and features of his pastries to Yang Wendong, Zheng Zhijie and others, and everyone tasted some.

Finally, Yang Wendong pointed out a few items and called to his assistant: "Send these cakes to my house."

"Okay, Mr. Yang." After the assistant agreed, he immediately arranged for someone to pack the pastries and send them home.

After looking at the pastries, Yang Wendong, Zheng Zhijie and the Wu brothers went to a nearby cafe.

"Is this coffee shop also yours?" Yang Wendong asked, looking at the words "Maxim's" above the store.

"Yes." Wu Zhande explained, "Mr. Yang, currently in Hong Kong, the main group with the ability to consume high-end food is still the British foreigners. After buying cakes, many foreign customers said that they hope to find a place where they can drink coffee and eat cakes while drinking coffee, so I opened a cafe nearby."

"This coffee is indeed a good business. I suggest you focus on developing in this direction." Yang Wendong said with a smile.

Wu Chan-tak asked, "Why? In Hong Kong, only the British like coffee, right? Although they have enough spending power, their total number is still far less than that of the Chinese."

"That's certainly the case in Hong Kong," Yang Wendong replied, "but if you have the ability to expand overseas in the future, the performance of the coffee chain will far exceed that of the pastry shop."

Judging from the situation he had experienced in his previous life, there are many international coffee chain brands around the world, and Starbucks has become one of the world’s top 500 companies.

There are some chain pastry shops, but their scale and brand are not on the same order of magnitude as those of coffee shops.

"Expanding overseas?" Wu Zhande said with a smile, "I will be very satisfied if I can gain a foothold in Hong Kong."

Yang Wendong said with a smile: "You think so now, but if one day you really gain a foothold in Hong Kong, or even monopolize Hong Kong's cake shops and coffee shops, you will definitely find a way to expand.

People can never predict the future, but as long as there is a possibility, they will keep trying to make progress, and you and I are the same."

In the history of human business, many people never thought that they would become the "richest man" when they started their own business, or that their company would become an industry giant. For example, there were so many Internet companies in the past, such as Tencent, which was still a small player in the Internet in 2002.

But later it developed smoothly and encountered the trend of the times. After taking off, it was impossible to stop.

Wu Chan-tak nodded and said, "That's right. When I started Maxim's Catering, I just wanted to build one store. Later, when the business was good, I thought about opening a few more stores. Then, I opened cakes and coffee. I really couldn't stop."

"Haha, me too." Yang Wendong also said: "The Hong Kong market is too small. If we want to develop well, we must expand overseas. This is the case with my industry. Let's not talk about industry for now. Even Carrefour supermarkets will expand overseas in the future."

"I still admire Mr. Yang's ambition." Wu Zhande paused and said, "So Mr. Yang thinks it's easier to start an overseas chain of coffee than cakes? But my idea is that even if we expand overseas, we should first enter Southeast Asian countries or Japan. In these places, cakes sell better than coffee."

"In these places, cakes do sell well," Yang Wendong said, "but the core problem is that cakes are difficult to standardize and have a short shelf life, which means that when the scale is large, the management difficulty will increase exponentially;

And we have to consider the different tastes in different places, but coffee is much better and can be easily standardized.”

Wu Chan-te thought for a moment and said, "What Mr. Yang said makes sense. In fact, this problem exists in all Chinese restaurants. Even in Hong Kong, the tastes of many chain restaurants are different because the chefs are different."

"Yes." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "That's about what I mean."

Wu Zhande said, "I understand this, but I am good at pastries. I have just started the coffee business. I will study it later." "I am just making a suggestion." Yang Wendong said, "If Maxim's Foods continues to expand, it can invest resources in coffee. Even in Southeast Asia, as the economy develops, more and more people will drink coffee."

In the next few decades, Western culture will still control the world, causing regions with newly developed economies to learn from Europe and the United States in many areas, even those cultures that have nothing to do with the economy itself, such as drinking coffee.

There are many people who don't have to drink, but they insist on drinking.
"Okay, thank you for the reminder." Wu Zhande said with a smile: "Mr. Yang, I didn't expect that you know so much about these things even though you don't work in the catering industry. That's amazing."

"It's just theoretical knowledge." Yang Wendong said again: "Mr. Wu, have you made a decision on the matter we discussed last time?"

Wu Zhande replied: "Mr. Yang, I can agree to transfer the 30% equity you proposed earlier, but I have another request."

"You say." Yang Wendong asked.

Wu Zhan De said: "I hope that in addition to the capital for the investment, Mr. Yang can also lend me a separate amount of funds."

"You need so much money? Are you planning for a big expansion?" Yang Wendong asked back.

Wu Chan-tak said: "Yes, I have considered this aspect. One is that Jardine Matheson has put a lot of pressure on me. For such a large enterprise, it may only be a word from the top management, but they may invest millions or even tens of millions of funds to compete with me. If I don't have enough cash, I will lose in the end.

In addition, I am planning to enter Carrefour to make pastries. Although I don’t need a very large store, you have more than 40 Carrefour stores under your control. With so many stores, it will require a lot of investment and recruitment, which is quite costly and laborious.”

Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, "I can't lend you money directly, but I can arrange for Hang Seng or Bank of East Asia to lend you money. With me on board, you will be satisfied with both the amount and the interest."

Although Changxing Group is not short of money, it is better to keep its own funds as long as possible.

"Okay, that's fine." Wu Chan De replied. This is a common situation in business cooperation.

Yang Wendong added: "Not only now, but also in the future, Maxim's Foods will need funds. As long as it is reasonable, there will be no problem in getting a bank loan. There are also various preferential policies."

"I understand." Wu Zhan De said with a smile.

Once large capital investment is introduced, the risk level on the bank's side will be much lower. If the risk is low, both the loan amount and the interest will be much lower.

This can be considered as one of the benefits of joining a large conglomerate. This is actually the reason why so many companies around the world form groups and stick together.

"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Although I won't give you a written promise, I can promise you verbally that as long as you don't have any major operational problems and it doesn't affect the interests of my companies, I won't sell these stocks casually. Even if I really want to sell, I will give priority to you."

Although with his investment, Maxim's Foods, which has always been the number one in history, will most likely continue to maintain its number one position, but there may be exceptions to everything, so he will not make any final statements.

Another thing is that it is difficult to control people's hearts and avoid special situations. After all, this is not like Walmart's investment, which cannot affect Walmart at all. As for Hong Kong, the future business situation is completely unknown.

"Thank you, Mr. Yang." Wu Zhan De said, "I will prepare the company's internal information and give it to your company. Then we will negotiate the transaction price and subsequent external funds."

"Okay, I'll have the people from Changxing Real Estate Company reach an agreement with you as soon as possible." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "From now on, you will mainly contact Zheng Zhijie. Changxing Real Estate itself has a lot of properties for rent, and you can also reach a long-term cooperation."

Although there is no problem renting out real estate in Hong Kong, stable properties are still the most profitable, just like Pao Yu-kang's ship, which can only bring higher returns if rented out for a long time.

"Okay." Wu Zhan De replied.

Yang Wendong added, "In addition, regarding Jardine's threat to you, my suggestion is to be more aggressive. For stores close to each other, you should engage in a price war. According to my investigation, your service is better, so as long as you keep the cost price or pay a little more, they will suffer heavy losses."

"But when it comes to funds, I can't compare with Jardine Matheson. Even with your investment, the gap is still far behind?" Wu Chan De asked uncertainly.

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Yes, but a large company like Jardine Matheson has too many businesses. They may not even know what their main businesses are. If a business is suffering from serious losses, it may be cancelled at any time. This is also the norm for large companies."

Many people think that big companies are very smart, but in fact this is not the case. There are too many companies in human history that have made obvious mistakes. Similarly, there are also many companies that have developed in extreme chaos and have lost sight of their main business.

This is also the reason why Yang Wendong restricted the different business companies under his control. He only allowed one subsidiary to develop in one direction. It could freely invest in the industrial chain and even in terminal retail, but it was not allowed to enter other obviously different industries. Even if it needed to hoard land, it would not be allowed to develop real estate itself in the future, in order to avoid business confusion.

Wu Chan-tak said, "Mr. Yang is right. The Jardine Matheson Group is indeed very large now, but it is also very chaotic."

"Among the British financial groups, only Swire has done relatively well." Yang Wendong smiled. "The others are all in pretty good shape, but they have strong foundations, so there won't be any problems for now."

The biggest reason for the decline of British capital in the 80s was not the rise of Chinese capital, but its own problems. Relatively speaking, only Swire was more stable and smarter, as it invested in G early on.

Wu Chande thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll do some more market research and formulate a plan for future expansion."

"Okay~" Yang Wendong nodded and said, "I can also give you a verbal promise. If Yihe is determined to compete with you for the market, I will fully support you."

Letting agents engage in price wars with each other is what big companies like to do. For example, in the past lives of Penguin and Alibaba, the former raised a group of wolves to drive away tigers.

Now, Jardine Matheson is determined to compete with him in the retail industry. In this industry, even for a time traveler like Yang Wendong, it would be difficult to gain absolute advantage in a short period of time. It would be better to consume Jardine Matheson's resources in other fields.

Of course, this is just the beginning. In the future, there will still be many excellent industries and founders among Chinese capital, and they will definitely compete for the existing market of British capital. This is the instinct of business development. It is just that due to funding or background reasons, they will not be able to succeed in a short period of time.

And you can invest in them, which is in line with your own long-term interests. After all, even a time traveler cannot invest infinitely in so many different industries. If you want to diversify, you can only choose a few core industries.

At the same time, they can also form an alliance with many Chinese capitals to devour British capital. In the 21st century, British capital still had some strength in Hong Kong. This shows that Chinese capital did not do well enough in history. If they give it a push, they can kill two birds with one stone.

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(End of this chapter)