The Industrial Giant Reborn

"We have both businesses." Zhou Jiayang said, "Let Wu Shenglai talk to you."

"Okay, is he outside?" Chen Zhiwen nodded and asked again.

Although there are many senior executives within the entire group company, their businesses are completely different. Therefore, unless the boss Chen Zhiwen gives permission, they cannot disclose their own affairs to each other. For example, many things about Midea, It was impossible to tell Red Bull executives that this was normal for any large company.

Watsons still belongs to Hutchison, so Zhou Jiayang can know everything. However, Wu Weibing is only in charge of Watsons, so naturally he will not know about Hutchison's other businesses, so he has not come in before.

"Okay, I'll let him in." Zhou Jiayang nodded and said.

Soon, Wu Weibing walked in and said, "Hello, Chen Sheng."

"Sit down and be casual. We are in a semi-tourist state now." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

Bringing a group of senior executives to the UK this time is a relaxing and paid trip in itself. As the top executive of the company, while gaining a lot of income and freedom, you also have great responsibilities. Even during the trip, if something big happens , it still needs to be dealt with. At most, it is not an urgent matter and it is not a very important matter. You can ignore it for the time being and wait until you officially go to work.

"Okay, thank you." Wu Weibing also sat down.

"I heard from Lao Zhou that you want to bring Watsons' cosmetics business and supermarket retail business to the UK?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"Yes, but it's not just the UK. My idea is for the whole of Europe. Currently, the UK is the first stop, because language communication here is relatively convenient. In terms of culture, there are also many British people in Hong Kong, who can better It’s easy to adapt,” Wu Weibing said.

Watsons' business in Hong Kong also takes full account of the many British ghosts in Hong Kong. Although not everyone in this group is rich, they can basically come to Hong Kong, and at least some of them are middle- and high-income people. Therefore, The business department will also fully study the needs of these people, which can be considered experienced.

"Yes, the goal is big, I like it." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said: "The market potential of the entire Europe is not lower than that of the United States, and some industries are even not lower than that of the entire Asia, especially cosmetics. We Asians basically use them occasionally. One thing, there are more women, but European and American white people often use it, so the market needs to be conquered."

Unless it is a local industry such as real estate, in other normal consumer goods markets, from lighters to cars, the ultimate goal is to sell to more people, so international expansion is inevitable.

The same is naturally true for the cosmetics business, especially because Europeans generally have a heavy body odor and most have the habit of applying perfume to their bodies. This has even become a necessary daily necessities for some people in Europe, as important as water, electricity, food and accommodation. The market potential here is far greater than in Asia where perfume is only used as cosmetics.

Although the market competition in Europe is definitely fierce, historically Li Jiacheng has had the opportunity to succeed in Europe, so he will definitely have it. It depends on the capital operation ability. After all, this is not research and development of cosmetics, but purely controlling the terminal with funds. For consumption places, even if they cannot compete with those old brands, they can still be acquired.

Of course, if there is money, there will be money, but if you want to run it well, it still depends on the ability of the team.

"Yes, the demand for cosmetics in the UK is very high, and I have calculated that even if Hong Kong cosmetics are shipped to the UK, it will still be cheaper after including tariffs, so I am planning to set up a subsidiary in the UK. Specialized in franchise brand management, transportation control, brand building and other businesses," Wu Weibing said.

"Cheap is better, but for perfumes and cosmetics, people may pay more attention to brands. Our main cosmetics at Watsons are small brands that are partly developed and partly purchased by ourselves, so it is not that easy to succeed." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and smiled.

Really big brand cosmetics, in fact, do not supply companies like Watsons at all. First, they have their own specialty stores. Second, in addition to the specialty stores, they also have a large number of cooperation orders with local supermarkets. Third, they They are not fools. They can see that Watson's business model, once successful, may actually affect themselves.

Therefore, some of Watsons' main cosmetics are mid-range brands purchased by themselves, or they are made by themselves to minimize costs and ensure that the quality is above the mid-range level.

There is no way, when the scale is not super big enough, many big brands will not pay attention to you.

"This is indeed true. It can only be achieved through long-term operation. But as long as it reaches the scale of the UK, it will be enough. If this market is opened up, it will have a great impact on our own cosmetics research or the research and development of our suppliers. Help." Wu Weibing said.

Watsons' cosmetics business mainly relies on capital. It was initially established in Hong Kong, and then went to Macau, Bay Area and many Southeast Asian countries. Unlike investing in large-scale supermarkets by itself, the cosmetics business is mainly based on local franchises, while transportation On the other hand, the cost is relatively low compared to the value of cosmetics. After large-scale publicity, the cosmetics business expanded very quickly in Southeast Asia, including many branches in Japan and South Korea.

The large number of terminal stores has also led to a very high purchase quantity of cosmetics by Watsons headquarters. In this way, like Galaxy Trading, it has a lot more say in suppliers, and Watsons has also acquired several Hong Kong cosmetics. The company develops and produces its own products, but it is only on a small scale and not considered its main business. It is purely a supplementary business.

"Okay, then designate a market research first, and then designate an investment plan. Let's test the waters in the UK first, as a bridgehead to enter Europe, and learn some experience first." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. It is only a matter of time before the cosmetics business enters Europe. Nowadays, Watsons has been operating smoothly and profitably in Asia in the past few years. The United States has also developed smoothly with some of its own resources. At this time, it is normal to continue to open up the European market. .

"Thank you Chen Sheng." Wu Weibing paused and then said: "For the daily necessities supermarket chain business, I also think it's time for us to enter Europe. I wonder what Chen Sheng thinks?"

"Baixin or RT-Mart?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"I think RT-Mart may be more suitable for Europe. Although Baixin's individual stores are smaller, they must be in places with a large population, which will lead to an increase in costs." Wu Weibing said.

Chen Zhiwen nodded and asked: "I agree with this. Europeans and Americans all have cars, which is indeed more suitable for large supermarkets in the suburbs. But the problem is that the current European supermarket chain groups have basically completed their layout. How do you fight against them? ?”

Before the 1960s, supermarkets were basically located in cities. However, with the popularity of cars, some smart entrepreneurs found that they would move supermarkets to the suburbs, reduce rents by a large amount, and then pass on the profits to consumers. At the same time, consumers came by car. Although there is a little extra gas expense, one-time shopping can also reduce a lot of time costs, which is a win-win situation. Then Wal-Mart took advantage of this opportunity and strengthened its strong operating capabilities to rise. As for our own Costco, it actually takes advantage of this trend, but the business model is still very different.

The same is true in Europe. In the 1960s, Carrefour, Auchan, Metro, etc. also rose up with the help of the same trend. Although it is not said that they have covered the entire Europe, so many supermarkets combined also formed a first-mover advantage and occupied the market. After entering a high-quality city, it will be exponentially more difficult for other people to enter the market, making it completely uneconomical.

Even Costco has a little difficulty, because Metro supermarkets in Europe actually adopt a similar model, but they can't match it at the capital level. When supermarkets enter other regions, they definitely can't solve the problem with capital alone. The problem of "acclimatization" is too common in the retail industry.

Historically, Wal-Mart supermarkets were larger than the major supermarket chains in Europe combined, but they still did not do well in Europe. The same is true in Asia and even South America. They will not die, but they will not be able to achieve a climate similar to that of the United States. In Chen Zhiwen's plan, Costco should give priority to occupying the U.S. and Canadian markets, because there will be strong competitors there. As for retail in other places, wait until the U.S. market stabilizes before trying to invest. If the investment fails, it will acquire local brands. , otherwise, if we develop Europe first, the United States may be stolen by Wal-Mart.

"Sheng Chen, I have analyzed the development process of supermarkets in Europe and the United States. To put it simply, the current supermarket pattern in Europe is about 10 years later than that in the United States. In other words, the current supermarket pattern in Europe is similar to that in the United States in 1973. , and at that time in the United States, Wal-Mart was only a small local supermarket chain." Wu Weibing said.

"Do you want to copy the development process of Wal-Mart in the United States? Build supermarkets in small cities?" Chen Zhiwen said with some surprise. If you look at it this way, it does make sense. The United States did not have World War II, so the supermarket industry was eliminated by Celtic decades ago. Sears was a semi-monopoly until Wal-Mart started building supermarkets in suburbs. Now in Europe, Carrefour and Auchan are also building supermarkets in suburbs, but their capital power is not comparable to that in the United States. Therefore, they only expand in some large and medium-sized cities, and smaller ones. But not.

"I have this idea, but there will be many differences, such as different languages ​​and tax rates in different places. It is difficult to unify the management. In addition, no matter how I imitate, it will be difficult to achieve the results of Wal-Mart, and the market is still It’s a little different, but it’s worth trying it,” Wu Weibing said.

"This may indeed be the last chance. There is no need to try. We can directly acquire a suitable local brand and then expand using this model." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said.