Chapter 503 Red Bull

Chapter 503 Red Bull

Chapter 503 Red Bull
"Okay, do it as soon as possible and notify me if there is any progress." Yang Wendong nodded.

This kind of large-scale natural disaster is indeed beyond human control. Although influenza does not seem to threaten life on weekdays, its low mortality rate and high infectiousness ultimately claim more lives.

However, viruses with high mortality rates such as Ebola and rabies do not kill many people because they are not contagious and humans take them seriously.

Of course, there are also hexagonal warriors, such as smallpox and AIDS.

It is a pity that Hong Kong does not have the possibility to develop pharmaceuticals, otherwise it would have been able to develop drugs like Oseltamivir, which would have saved many people and also earned huge profits.

Zhou Haoran agreed, "I understand. Changxing Real Estate has many such factories. Masks can be produced with simple equipment and manual assembly, just like Changxing Industrial's mouse traps. It can be put into production in a month."

"Well, let Dongsheng factory make the mask equipment." Yang Wendong said.

As long as there is an industrial foundation, this kind of simple industrial product can be produced rapidly in a very short time.

"Okay." Zhou Haoran replied.

Yang Wendong continued: "Then let's talk about the third thing. Do you know what energy drinks are?"

"Refreshing?" Zhou Haoran was stunned for a moment and asked, "Mr. Yang is talking about some European and American beverage brands that bottle coffee and sell it as a beverage."

"It's not coffee, but a sweet drink." Yang Wendong paused and said, "A friend of mine went to Thailand for a trip and told me that there are many drinks there that can refresh you, and the effect is stronger than coffee.
I think there will be a big market for this kind of beverage. There is no such beverage in the world at present. This may be our opportunity."

It is already the year 68, and after ten years of traveling through time, his capital is considered to be quite strong. Although it does not meet the standards of an international consortium, it is still considered to be among the best in Asia.

Especially in the next few years, Hong Kong real estate will be able to increase four or five times, his wealth will grow by the same or even more times, and the electronics industry is also about to develop. He is confident that he can seize some opportunities. In addition, companies such as Changxing Shipping and Changxing Industry are also constantly making large amounts of cash. This makes him confident and he can start planning bigger plans.

The first one in this plan is naturally the "Red Bull" drink, which will be the single drink second only to Pepsi and Coca-Cola in terms of profit in the future. It can be said to be the only chance besides the two colas.

Although the beverage industry has a large market, it is already mature. Even a new beverage like Red Bull requires a large investment to promote. This is why Yang Wendong did not do this in his early years. Only when he has enough capital can he successfully promote it, especially in the media field. When the content of Changxing Film Company and TVB can influence the Asian market and Li Xiaolong can become popular all over the world, it will be more conducive to the promotion of Red Bull.

"From Thailand?" Zhou Haoran thought for a moment and said, "I haven't researched this aspect. I don't know where in Thailand I can buy the drink you mentioned, Mr. Yang. I'll send someone to buy it now."

Yang Wendong replied, "It's a brand-name drink. I don't recognize the name. It's written in Thai. I think I lost the bottle, but it doesn't have much impact. According to my friend, there are many small workshops producing this kind of drink. Send more people over there, buy more drinks, and then we can do more research in Hong Kong."

In history, Red Bull was actually a type of Thai functional beverage, and was not even better than others. It was just made successful by capital, just like Coca-Cola. In fact, any beverage company of a certain scale can make its own cola.

Therefore, the most important thing is promotion, but you also have to confirm the ingredients after buying it back to see if you can optimize the ingredients and taste. Only after you have achieved the best, then promote it. There must have been such steps in history.

"Okay, then I'll send more people over." Zhou Haoran replied.

Since the boss had spoken, he naturally had to send a lot of people over. Whether it was salary or air tickets, it was nothing to Watsons.

"Okay, send the samples over as soon as possible." Yang Wendong said.

If Red Bull can achieve the heights of its past history in this life, it will not only gain an industry with annual profits of billions of dollars, but also bring a large-scale industry to Hong Kong in the future.

Because Red Bull's profits are high enough, the labor costs in Hong Kong are not a big deal no matter how high they are, because the original Red Bull factories in the 21st century were opened in developed countries such as the United States and Switzerland, where the labor costs are no lower than those in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's population in the future will be only seven or eight million. A good industry will be enough to feed and economically radiate many people, and the beverage industry does not have high requirements for the industrial chain. Even if other industries in Hong Kong disappear in the future, it can still exist independently.

This can be regarded as the last trick left for Hong Kong's industry, especially the future New Territories. In the past, the Hong Kong government built a town there, but there were only residential buildings and nothing else. Eventually, these places were transformed into slums. If the Red Bull factory is there, the entire town can be supported by Red Bull. If the company plans earlier, it can also obtain rich real estate returns. This can be regarded as a win-win situation for all parties.

After arranging everything, Yang Wendong's life returned to normal. He spent half of his time working and the other half with his family and children. In addition to staying at home, he also frequently took a cruise to travel at sea, and his life was very carefree.

Half a month later, in May, Zhou Haoran came to Yang Wendong's office in Changxing Building with a lot of different drinks.

Looking at the drinks in the glass bottles in front of him, Yang Wendong asked, "Are these the drinks you brought back from Thailand?"

Zhou Haoran replied: "Yes, there are 26 species in total. This is the first batch found. My people are still searching in Thailand. This batch was sent back by air first."

"Have you got the recipes for these drinks?" Yang Wendong asked again.

Zhou Haoran said: "No, we have had some contact with these factories, but they would not give us the formula without the acquisition.
However, according to the investigation of the materials supplied by these factories, it should be sugar, caffeine, taurine, lemon, vitamins and the like, but we don’t know what the proportion is.”

"Well, that's enough. Have you tried all these flavors?" Yang Wendong asked again.

Zhou Haoran said awkwardly: "I have tried it, but it doesn't feel very good. However, we have also tested its refreshing effect, and it is indeed very good. Many factory workers drank a bottle after finishing their night shift and felt more energetic."

"It's very effective in refreshing the mind, but the taste is not good." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Now you understand why this drink has not spread to other places, right?"

"Taste." Zhou Haoran nodded and said, "No matter how nutritious a drink is or how powerful some of its functions are, it's useless if it doesn't taste good.

As long as the taste is similar, if it has other functions, that would be a bonus, just like our ginger water drink in Watsons.”

"Yes, beverages are meant to be drunk. Customers spend money to buy them, so they have to enjoy them, and sweetness is a must." Yang Wendong also said: "So if we want to launch this kind of refreshing beverage, we must change the taste to at least not be unpalatable." Unpalatable beverages with special effects will also have a market, and a small number of people may drink them with their noses pinched, but if you want to make it a global hit, it must taste good, and then combined with capital promotion;
This was true even for the early days of Coca-Cola. In fact, the word “coca” represented an ingredient that was more addictive than sugar.

Zhou Haoran said: "Then I will arrange for the laboratory to conduct research to see how to make the taste better."

"Well, we should invest more manpower and resources to develop functional beverages that are suitable for promotion as soon as possible." Yang Wendong also said.

The unpalatable taste of functional drinks cannot be changed so easily. Otherwise, people in Thailand are not fools. Everyone knows to add sugar to them. But if there are other stimulating flavors in the drinks, adding sugar will not be able to suppress the odor. If too much is added, the sweetness will become too sweet and not tasty.

Therefore, it is necessary to strike a balance in many areas such as sweetness, taste, functionality, production cost and process; this kind of research is not necessarily easy. The beverage industry has low R&D costs because once a product is developed, it does not need to be changed, but the prerequisite is that it must be developed first.

"Okay." Zhou Haoran agreed and said, "I will let the laboratory engineers go all out to research functional beverages."

He knew that his boss really valued this functional drink, otherwise, given his boss's status, he would not have kept an eye on it for so long.

"Yeah." Yang Wendong asked again: "What's the situation in Malaysia?"

Zhou Haoran replied: "I went to Kuala Lumpur a week ago and talked with the local investment promotion officials. They still welcome us to invest in the sugar factory. However, there is a problem. The scale of sugar plant cultivation in Malaysia is not large enough."

"What do you mean? Are there any natural disasters?" Yang Wendong asked.

Zhou Haoran shook his head and said, “No, Malaysia has only started to vigorously develop the sugar industry in recent years. Before that, their mainstream planting industry was rubber;
This year, many international sugar companies have booked a lot of production capacity in advance, including our factory in Hong Kong, which previously purchased sugar from Southeast Asian countries, using futures to buy out future sugar. "

"Then what do they mean?" Yang Wendong asked again.

Many large-scale agricultural industries around the world adopt the futures model, and even the industrial sector is the same. Most factories only produce after receiving orders, except for the very few exceptions where the products are very popular or they are seasonal products, and they may stock up in advance.

Even if industrial products cannot be sold after they are produced, they can be kept in the warehouse for a period of time without spoiling. However, this is not the case with agricultural products. After harvesting, they basically need to be sent away immediately, so large-scale agricultural product transactions are all futures transactions.

The four major grain traders of the future will control many agricultural countries in the world. In addition to relying on seeds produced through genetic technology, their futures orders also determine the agricultural choices of many countries.

Zhou Haoran said: "They suggested that we invest in a sugarcane farm, so that after the sugarcane is produced, we can make sugar ourselves."

"Farm?" Yang Wendong thought for a moment and asked, "Can we buy the farm over there? The kind with permanent ownership?"

Farms are the passion of many super-rich people in the future. Whether in Europe, the United States, South America or some Asian countries, buying a farm and becoming a landlord yourself, although you can't make much money, it is very fulfilling.
And from an investment perspective, farms do have very poor asset returns, not as good as an ordinary factory. But from a resource perspective, the amount of land on Earth is eternal. Even if Mars can be developed in the future, it will not affect the value of the land on Earth.

So from the perspective of a family that may live for a hundred years or even longer, this is a very cost-effective investment, because any business may go bankrupt, whether it is an oil giant, automobile giant, steel giant, financial giant, technology giant, etc., etc. No one knows how many of these giants will go bankrupt in a hundred years, but once the land is bought, it is forever, unless there is a problem with the country's laws, but this possibility is not great.

Of course, the only factor that really affects the value of land may be the birth of controlled nuclear fusion. Once it appears, the energy cost will be extremely low, and it may be possible to synthesize food in factories, but there is no hope for such a change within a hundred years, so there is no need to consider it.

Zhou Haoran replied: "Mr. Yang, there are still some permanent farms in Malaysia. They were once a British colony, so the laws are very similar to those in Hong Kong, whether it is commercial real estate or agricultural land."

"Well, what about planting? We don't know how to do it." Yang Wendong asked again.

Zhou Haoran replied: "It doesn't matter. We bought the land and need to invest in renovation, purchase fertilizers, etc. The planting can be left to the locals."

"That's something we can consider." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Then let's check the information first. If there's something suitable, we can buy it. But we also need to find a local bank to cooperate with. We should try to use as little of our own funds as possible and use the profits from this industrial chain in the future to repay the loan."

Permanent land is still worth buying. In fact, there was also some in South America in the 80s, but after all, it is too far away and one’s influence may not be able to reach too much there. It also depends on the scale of one’s own industrial development in the future.

As for Southeast Asia, it is possible. The sugar-making industry itself has already reached a certain scale, so buying farms and planting sugarcane can help one's own real economy, which is feasible to a certain extent.

However, this cannot be considered as real estate investment, it is simply treating the farm as part of an industrial chain.

Zhou Haoran said: "Okay, I'll go see if there is any suitable land."

Yang Wendong asked again: "How are the masks prepared?"

Yang Wendong was a little worried during this period because more and more people were infected with the flu, and TVB even broadcast the incident without his control.

Zhou Haoran replied: "We have already started small-scale production, but if this kind of medical supplies want to be put on the market, it must undergo certain tests, and the Hong Kong government also has some legal requirements for this kind of medical supplies. We need to pass the relevant approval before we can sell it;

Even if we want to export in the future, we have to apply for the corresponding country’s approval qualifications, otherwise we won’t be able to sell it.”

"Okay, then let's deal with the Hong Kong side as soon as possible. There's no rush for overseas issues for now." Yang Wendong nodded and said.

Although masks are available for sale in Hong Kong, they are not cheap and many are imported. The price can only be lowered when they are mass-produced here.

PS: Ask for monthly ticket

(End of this chapter)