The birth of the Hong Kong Island family

At the beginning of a new week, Lin Zhichao summoned the management of Changjiang Real Estate to start arranging work.

"Next, we are going to start the 'Old Gas Works Site' project at Ferry Street in Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon. The 20 tenement buildings (5 floors) in this project will be subcontracted to two contractors, and the engineering department of Cheung Kong Properties will manage and dispatch them uniformly. Huang Manager, does your engineering department have any problems?"

The engineering department of Changjiang Real Estate has the largest number of employees and is also the most professional and technical department, with a total of six employees. At the same time, Lin Zhichao is also a member of this department, and he usually likes the work of this department.

Huang Changhong said confidently: "There is no problem! The Shanlin Road, Magic Street, and Happy Valley projects are all on track. Our department can ensure that the four projects start at the same time. Even Boss Tang's factory construction will not be affected."

It's normal. After all, although there are many projects, the contractor is actually responsible for supervising and organizing the construction. The engineering department of Changjiang Real Estate is more of a supervisor and assistant.

Lin Zhichao said with a smile: "I may also build a factory here, do you have no problem?"

Huang Changhong said: "No problem, there are many contractors who want to cooperate with us, and we have enough manpower."

Although Lin Zhichao intends to support Sun Jian as a contractor, not all projects will be handed over to him. Changjiang Real Estate must maintain multiple contractors at his disposal.

Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "Okay, it will probably be a matter of one or two months."

Next, everyone discussed the arrangements for the ‘Old Ferry Street Gas Works Site Project’. This is also a private housing estate, consisting of a total of 20 tenement buildings (5 storeys high), with a total of 100 floors.

The preliminary work has been completed. It was originally planned to start construction in December, but we have been waiting for sufficient funds, so it is expected to start in early February and be completed in the first half of 1949.

As for sales, they will definitely be placed in the second half of this year (1948), when the market's purchasing power is stronger. By then, there will be many wealthy people and descendants of warlords coming to Hong Kong, and they will all be high-quality customers.

Therefore, for this project, Lin Zhichao feels that there is no problem in earning 1 million Hong Kong dollars, and there is no need to share it with others.

As a result, the net asset value of the entire Yangtze River Real Estate will reach 2.8 to 3 million in the second half of this year. Lin Zhichao only invested 760,000 Hong Kong dollars, and the value quadrupled in two years. It was a huge profit; it would have been impossible without the right time, place and people.

Of course, Lin Zhichao will definitely invest the money, and it is impossible to leave it idle in his account. He has too many investment directions.

When Lin Zhichao came to the production plant of Cheung Kong Industrial, he observed the production area very carefully, stopping from time to time to think about how to improve the machine? What is the direction of improvement?

Although he is not a professional mechanical engineer, many machines are actually improved by the production boss instructing the mechanical engineer according to the actual situation. After all, mechanical engineers only know about mechanical production and research and development, but not necessarily the direction of improvement.

"Boss, this Mr. Smith took our name card and said he wanted to inspect our factory!" Wang Liang, the production manager, walked in with a tall foreigner and said.

Lin Zhichao greeted him with a smile, and said in English: "Mr. Smith, hello, I am the boss here, you can call me 'Lin'."

It is impossible for a foreigner to inspect a factory for no reason, let alone with a name card of his own company. It is very likely that he is a zipper businessman that Li Gaofu met at RB last time.

Smith looked at the small Changjiang Industrial factory and said, "Boss Lin, your factory seems a little small."

Lin Zhichao was not in a hurry, and said: "The new factory is still under construction, and there will be dozens of them here."

Smith did not continue the topic, but said: "Mind if I take a tour?"

"Of course! I'll take you!"

Next, Smith's impression quickly changed and he said: "Although your factory is small, it is orderly and very clean, which makes my eyes shine."

Lin Zhichao confidently introduced: "Our factory implements 4S management, sorting (Seiri), rectifying (Seiton), sweeping (Seiso), and cleaning (Seiketsu)."

Smith was immediately interested and visited in more detail.

"Where are your procedures for making sliders? Is it outsourcing?"

"Of course not! Since the place is too small, we have rented a nearby factory. I can take you to visit."

He was sure that this foreigner might bring some changes to the company, so he introduced him very enthusiastically.

An hour later, Lin Zhichao took Smith back to the office building.

"Mr. Smith, do you need a zipper?"

Smith said with a smile: "More than a month ago, a Mr. Li from your company happened to be selling your zippers, and I met him. I saw that your zippers are produced by automatic zipper machines, and I became interested. , so I left my contact information.”

Lin Zhichao pretended to be suddenly enlightened and said: "I heard Manager Li talking about you, but I didn't expect you would actually come to our company. I'm really happy!"

Smith took out a zipper from his bag. It was really produced by Cheung Kong Industries.

He tried it several times before saying: "I asked my staff to pull this zipper thousands of times to make sure it was of the same quality as zippers produced in the United States. Then I came to your factory for inspection with confidence. And I was very satisfied with the inspection just now. I think Mr. Lin, you are a boss who is good at management, so the products you produce must be right."

"Thanks"

Lin Zhichao was also a little surprised that this American zipper manufacturer actually asked his staff to pull zippers for more than a month before he came to investigate.

Of course, he quickly became excited, which meant that Smith would give a big order to Cheung Kong Industries.

Smith continued: "I inspected the RB zipper factory last year and found that they were all handmade, with high prices and poor quality. I was very disappointed. I didn't expect that soon, you would use automatic zipper machines in Hong Kong, and the products met my requirements. Mr. Lin, you are very smart and know that once you adopt automatic zipper machines, you will quickly occupy the Asian market."

Lin Zhichao replied: "I also learned from a magazine that automatic zipper machines have been used to produce zippers in Europe and the United States. So I was thinking that the products produced by the machines must be cheaper and of better quality."

The two had a lively chat. When he learned that Lin Zhichao intended to improve the automatic zipper machine and even develop an 'automatic slider stamping machine', Smith admired Lin Zhichao's ambition even more.

Finally, Smith finally returned to the topic: "I need 12,000 meters of copper zippers. At what price are you going to wholesale them to me?"

Lin Zhichao suppressed the ecstasy in his heart and quickly made calculations in his mind.

1 Mira zipper counts as 5 trouser zippers, and copper zippers are basically used in the military, jeans, and bags. Aluminum alloy zippers are commonly used in trouser zippers, but of course not absolutely.

The cost of 1 meter of copper zipper is about 3.2 Hong Kong dollars, which is already a reduced cost; at the same time, the cost of 1 meter of aluminum alloy zipper has been reduced to less than 2.5, which is less than 5 cents a piece.

The cost can still be reduced a lot, but Yangtze River Industries cannot do it at the moment.

“1.1 USD per meter (4.4 HKD)”

Smith was naturally ecstatic. The price was 25% cheaper than what he imported from the United States.

However, he still continued to counter-offer.

Lin Zhichao did not relent, he was sure that Smith had taken a big advantage.

At the same time, Yangtze River Industrial is currently not short of orders. Last month (1947.12), it completed 180,000 orders (36,000 meters).

"Okay, let's cooperate at this price first. I need you to deliver the goods within 20 days. Do you have enough raw materials?"

"Yes, we purchase the raw materials in large quantities, so they are quite sufficient."

Smith nodded. He also saw that Yangtze River Industrial was busy with orders, so he did not continue to bargain. He understood that this young man had found a way to make a fortune.

Seeing that this order has been negotiated, Lin Zhichao hopes to continue cooperation in the future, so he said: "Currently, we are building a new factory. We will definitely be able to reduce the cost price in the future. By then, while ensuring better quality, we will also sell to Your price is reduced."

Smith beamed and said, "OK, don't worry, we will cooperate for a long time."

In this way, Cheung Kong acquired a big customer.

Although Smith did not say the purpose of these zippers, Lin Zhichao guessed that they were orders from the US military stationed in Japan, otherwise copper zippers would not have been used.

As for long-term cooperation, Lin Zhichao feels that it is a bit uncertain, because once local zipper manufacturers switch to automatic zipper machine production, the local government will support domestic companies.

By then, it will be good if Yangtze River Industrial can get a share of the RB civilian market; otherwise, the RB market will be difficult. You know, the wages of RB workers in this era were not high. After World War II, RB's homeland was even worse than Hong Kong.

So, make money as soon as you can. There is no RB market, there are European, American, and Southeast Asian markets. If it cannot compete with YKK, it must at least open up the mid-to-low-end market.

In short, making money is no problem.