The Industrial Giant Reborn

On December 14, under the witness of Deutsche Bank, the board of directors of Bitzer signed a comprehensive acquisition agreement with Lei Shengli, Chen Zhiwen and others. The transaction price was 13.25 million US dollars. It is necessary to wait until three months later to pay, which is also to prevent that if the problem is found within three months, there can be more convenient solutions.

On the afternoon of the signing day, Chen Zhiwen arranged for finance to remit the funds from Midea Group's overseas account to the other party. So far, Midea Group's first acquisition in Europe has been successfully completed. As long as there are no problems in the follow-up, the final payment will be settled in three months. Just clear it.

BITZER itself is a company with normal operations and does not need additional funds in a short period of time. The first task it has received now is to start communicating with Deutsche Bank, intending to use their relationship to contact BMW's senior management. Then find a way to enter BMW's supply chain system.

The reason for choosing BMW is also because the relationship between Deutsche Bank and BMW is closer, and it is easier to succeed in theory. This is the suggestion of Deutsche Bank. Cooperation, especially when they conduct in-depth investigations and know that there are bosses behind Midea who own several companies with assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Hong Kong, they immediately treat them as high-level customers and fully intend to meet the needs of customers.

The automotive industry has always been known for its rigor. Even if a supplier has Volkswagen’s supply history and the introduction of Deutsche Bank, if it wants to enter BMW’s supply chain, it has to figure it out slowly. It may take years, especially here in Germany. , more sensitive to technology and quality.

After taking over the Bitzer company, Lei Shengli only stayed for one more day. After arranging some things and leaving a team of 6 people, he was ready to leave Germany and return to Hong Kong. The business of electrical appliances has entered the off-season, but the arcades are booming, not to mention, winter itself is also a time when bar business is booming.

After returning to Hong Kong, he also needs to arrange for people to come to Germany to learn various technologies, but this may only be a trivial matter.

Naturally, Chen Zhiwen would not stay in Germany for a long time. After the blizzard in Germany, he chartered a plane with Lufthansa, and experienced a long journey with Zhang Yunxue and her good friends.

"This plane is really good, but it's a little too small, and it's a bit crowded when there are too many people." After getting off the plane, Chen Zhiwen stretched his waist and said.

"Is this already the largest private jet? Is there a private jet bigger than Gulfstream?" Zhang Yunxue asked curiously.

Chen Zhiwen asked: "What is the plane of the President of the United States?"

"Boeing 747? Brother Wen, do you want to buy a Boeing 747?" Zhang Yunxue asked in surprise.

"Of course not, but 737 can still be considered. Wait for a while." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

If buying a private yacht is purely for enjoyment, then a private jet is absolutely not. The biggest use of a private jet is not for pleasure, but to send its owner to the place where it needs to go at the fastest speed, and for many For the CEOs of companies with higher social status or Fortune 500 companies, their time cannot be wasted waiting for the plane at the airport.

Therefore, when you need a private jet, you should buy it. The luxury of a private jet is just incidental. After all, a private jet with a transatlantic voyage in the 1970s was worth tens of millions of dollars, and the decoration of the million-dollar level is not counted. What.

However, the current Chen Zhiwen has not yet reached the time when he really needs to buy. At present, he has not yet reached the point where he needs to travel to Europe and the United States frequently. Before 80 years, his core business was still in Hong Kong. Business development will also reach a relatively strong point. At that time, private jets will be necessary, and there will be no problem with funding at that time.

In the past few years, it is enough to rent directly when needed, and a cross-continent is only about 100,000 US dollars.

Another advantage of a private jet is that it can be parked at a small airport, which is much more convenient than a large aviation airport. After getting off the plane, you can leave directly by car. Costco also arranged for people to come over.

"There are still many places to play in Los Angeles. You can go and play by yourself, and you can just go back to the hotel at night." After Chen Zhiwen gave Zhang Yunxue a card, he boarded the car arranged by Costco.

At the airport, Zhang Yunxue and a few of her friends were left behind, but they found a car soon, and a group of girls drove directly to the Hollywood check-in place.

More than an hour later, Chen Zhiwen, several assistants and bodyguards came to the Costco supermarket located in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Pierce built the Costco headquarters building.

As soon as Chen Zhiwen got out of the car, he saw Pierce who came to pick him up.

"Pierce, you look younger." Chen Zhiwen joked.

"Hahaha, Eric, you really know how to joke. I'm very old, and I'm going to retire in a few years. You are just young." Pierce laughed, although he also thought he was old , but which elderly person does not like to hear people say that they are not old?

"That's not okay, you have to work for at least another 15 years, no, 20 years, and together we will build Costco into one of the largest supermarkets in the world." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

I don’t dare to think about becoming the number one, but it’s okay to be one of them. In history, Costco has become the top ten supermarkets in the world. In this life, I have stronger funds and faster expansion, plus some prophets Advantages, the choice of low-cost and good-mart suppliers in the mainland in the future, the same team, it is definitely not difficult to do better.

However, it is a bit difficult to surpass Wal-Mart. It is very difficult on the track of ordinary supermarkets. However, retail is a very wide range of industries, and supermarkets are only one of them. In the future, Costco will also have the opportunity to enter the retail industry in the non-supermarket field. Maybe there is a chance to compete with Wal-Mart.

"That's impossible. My body may not be able to bear it, but even if I retire, I will cultivate an excellent team to take over Costco. The current Costco is developing very well." Pierce said.

"This is naturally better, but, again, don't worry too much about trivial matters. For the current Costco, you should ignore things that don't exceed a million dollars, and just be responsible for the overall planning with peace of mind. It is." Chen Zhiwen said.

In the original history, Pierce retired in the late 1980s. At that time, he was over 70 years old and lacked energy. However, Chen Zhiwen estimated that the time when Costco started its business for ten years was the busiest and most tiring time for him. Subsequent expansions are very energy-intensive, especially when various financial issues and risk issues need to be considered.

But now, it is much better. There is no trouble. It only needs to train relevant talents step by step and open new stores. There is no need to worry about funds, and there is no need to find ways to reduce costs. High-quality Hong Kong goods are constantly coming from across the ocean.

Chen Zhiwen naturally hopes that Pierce can manage for a few more years. At the same time, the most important thing is to cultivate the next generation of successors and build a talent training system for the entire company. For this reason, he also allocated millions of dollars for the talent training plan to prevent After more than ten years, the management gap is faced.

"I've already done that, don't worry." Pierce laughed.

"Okay." Chen Zhiwen nodded, glanced at the building in front of him, and said involuntarily, "Pierce, what is the floor area of ​​your headquarters?"

"It's about 50,000 square feet. Anyway, the land here is cheap. It's like a gift. I'll build it bigger. If it's not too big and inconvenient for internal communication, I don't want to build a 9-story building." Pierce said with a smile.

"It's good enough." Chen Zhiwen nodded, more than 50,000 square feet, almost 6,000 square meters, that is, a building with a floor area of ​​70*80 meters, and it takes a while to go around. Many industrial office buildings in Hong Kong are Not this area.

The less valuable the land, the larger the floor area and the shorter the floor. This is a classic in the real estate industry, because when the local area is cheap enough, it is not cost-effective to build high-rise buildings. It is better to acquire more land and build shorter. If they are too short, the single-floor area will be too large, which is not conducive to the rapid and effective communication of internal employees. After all, the elevator needs to be convenient and 20-30 floors high. In the 1970s, new buildings generally have 30-40 floors. After 90 years , All kinds of buildings basically have more than 60 floors, because they are too short, and they can't afford the high cost of buying land.

If there is such a large piece of land in Central Hong Kong, Chen Zhiwen must build a seventy or eighty-story building!

A few people came to the ninth floor of the building. Looking from the window, it was already the tallest building in the vicinity. In the suburbs of the old beautiful city, there are actually not many taller buildings, and the houses are mainly villas.

"Eric, what do you drink?" Pierce asked.

"I don't care, coffee and tea are fine, the important thing is what do you want to drink?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"Me?" Pierce was stunned for a moment, not understanding what his boss meant.

But when Chen Zhiwen took out a bottle similar to Coke from his small bag, he understood and asked, "Is this Coke produced in a Hong Kong factory?"

"It's not a factory, it's a laboratory. This is a sample. I brought it to you specially. You can drink it." Chen Zhiwen handed the Coke over.

Pierce found the Coke bottle, opened the bottle cap, took a sip, and said after a while: "It's a bit sweeter, and it feels a little different from Coca-Cola or Pepsi, but the difference is not big. I drank it because I knew it in advance. If you don’t care, you may not be able to tell the difference.”

"Coke is similar in itself, there is not much difference, the main problem is the brand." Chen Zhiwen said.

"The brand doesn't matter, as long as the price is cheap enough, and Costco's main focus is cheap, ordinary customers may not care about it. As long as they get used to it, the so-called brand will have no advantage." Pierce said.

"Since you think there is no problem, in a few days I will arrange for thousands of bottles to be airlifted from Hong Kong, and then you will arrange for someone to conduct a double-blind test to see if the taste compares with Coca-Cola and whether it matches the American taste." Chen Zhiwen said .

The so-called double-blind test finds a certain number of people, lets them experience two different drinks without telling the tester and the testee, and finally obtains the data of how many people like which one.

The reason why we don’t even tell the tester is to ensure the fairness of the test. This test is commonly used in the beverage and pharmaceutical industries. The most famous one is Pepsi last year. The double-blind test of Pepsi and Coca-Cola was broadcast live on TV. The test data shows that Americans are more suitable for Pepsi, killing the prestige of Coca-Cola's number one overlord.

But having said that, taste is very important, but not that important. Even if the experimental data is not deceiving, Pepsi is more popular with Americans, but after hundreds of years of competition, Pepsi has not been an opponent of Coca-Cola, and the market share has always been very different. Only Barely adding a bunch of food businesses of its own, it can compete with Coca-Cola on the top 500 list.

This is also the ultimate advantage brought by the brand. It is almost impossible for anyone to surpass Coca-Cola in the field of cola. Similarly, as long as Red Bull monopolizes the field of energy drinks, it will be indestructible.

However, the taste cannot be ignored just because the brand factor is not superior. A beverage that is very unsuitable for American tastes is a question of whether it can survive. The Hong Kong factory also needs to be confirmed before it dares to start mass production.

"Okay, this kind of test will take a while, and it will be Christmas again soon, and it is estimated that it will not be completed until February and March." Pierce said.

"Okay, there's no rush. Hong Kong also needs time to prepare the factory." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Pierce went on to say: "This document is my budget list for building the first Costco logistics center in Los Angeles, including a land area of ​​about 1 million square feet. I will build 3 large warehouses on it. There are internal equipment and the first batch of heavy trucks, the number is 50, and the total price is about 6 million US dollars, but it is a little bit over budget. Eric, you want to use supercomputers to process the data of Costco, I I consulted IBM, and their quotation was 15 million US dollars, which is too high."