"Mr. William, long time no see!"
"Mr. Lin, nice to see you again!"
William, a toy dealer whom he met at a British exhibition, came to the Yangtze River Toy Factory for inspection. Lin Zhichao personally received his old friend.
After the two exchanged pleasantries, they inspected the production workshop.
Yangtze Toys is divided into two floors of factories: the first floor produces various toys such as clockwork, gears, and trolleys; the first floor produces plastic doll toys.
In fact, all toys require plastic, so injection molding machines and other machines are purchased in large quantities, and they are all new machines.
William is a 50-year-old veteran toy dealer. He was shocked that Lin Zhichao, whom he met once, had such a huge business, and OEM toys was only a small business. At the same time, he was shocked by the workshop of Yangtze Toy Factory. The clean and tidy environment, uniform work clothes, and brand-new machines all shocked him.
He came to inspect the Hong Kong factory based on the idea of 'lowering costs', and he already had a preconceived impression - he thought that Hong Kong's factories were 'dirty and messy' and had 'old-fashioned equipment'.
Unexpectedly, the management of the Yangtze Toy Factory was not inferior to that of the European factories, and the equipment was also very good.
After picking up the samples and conducting various experiments, William asked: "Mr. Lin, your equipment looks like it has just been imported, presumably because of the embargo. But your superb technology and quality are nothing like new imports." OK manufacturer, what’s the reason for this?”
Lin Zhichao said calmly: "Shortly after the inspection in London the year before last year, we established a toy department to develop popular toy technologies in Europe and the United States. As soon as the embargo ended, we immediately purchased various machines, and our technicians and management We have already made sufficient preparations. Therefore, I contacted you immediately and asked for cooperation."
William gave a thumbs up and said, "You are an amazing businessman."
Ke Yanping and others on the side showed proud expressions.
At this time, the Yangtze Toy Factory was still expanding and had just over 300 workers, but it was estimated that there might be thousands of workers within a year. By then, the number of employees in the entire Yangtze River Industry will probably reach three to four thousand, which would be truly spectacular.
At the same time, Lin Zhichao is also considering adding more industrial buildings. Anyway, the Yangtze River Industrial Park has plenty of land and can probably build more than 1.5 million square feet of factories, and there is no need to build high-rise factories (more than five floors).
At the end of the inspection, William had no problem with the strength of the Yangtze Toy Factory, so he said: "Mr. Lin, Manager Ke, I have great trust in the strength of the Yangtze Toy Factory, and I plan to sign an OEM contract with you to produce at least Fifty thousand pieces of toys of all kinds. The contract can be signed tomorrow, and I can also take the opportunity to visit Hong Kong and see why so many British people commemorate this place."
Although the words were a bit unpleasant, Lin Zhichao still smiled and said: "Since Manager William is interested in Hong Kong, then give us a chance to entertain you as landlords. In this way, I may not be able to accompany you in person because of too much work. But if you let General Manager Ke and the others entertain you, you will definitely come back satisfied."
Accompanying William on the inspection showed the friendship from back then, otherwise Lin Zhichao would not have accompanied him in person. These industries are not core industries for Lin Zhichao, so he fully delegates power to his subordinates.
If he did well, everyone would be better off, and he would not hesitate to reward his subordinates with high salaries; if he did poorly, he would have to replace people with generals, or even shut down the business directly.
To put it bluntly, everyone develops according to the plan he has planned, and they have grasped the general direction. If they can't do it well, they are really incompetent.
William said nonchalantly: "I'm very familiar with Manager Ke, Mr. Lin doesn't need to worry about it."
Lin Zhichao nodded and said to Ke Yanping: "Enter Manager William well for me. We are all old friends."
"Okay, boss."
In terms of entertaining merchants, Yangtze River Industry has a complete system and guidance: usually they eat in hotels, and merchants don't go to entertainment venues until they are fully satisfied. However, we will not actively seek special services. We will only arrange them for customers after they request them.
Generally speaking, merchants can still restrain themselves, and only a few merchants can't hold it in any longer. However, Lin Zhichao's subordinates are strictly prohibited from providing special services, especially using public funds to satisfy personal desires.
The next day.
Lin Zhichao did not have time to accompany William, so he took time to accompany Bourne Mechanical Gauss and his party, and provided warm hospitality.
In the Changjiang Zipper factory, Gauss watched dozens of machines continuously producing high-quality zippers, feeling envious and proud.
What I envy is that he is a machine maker, but he is "acquired" by a product maker; what he is proud of is that all the equipment of Yangtze Zipper come from Bourne Machinery. It can even be said that Bourne Machinery has supported Yangtze Zipper.
Now, Bourne Machinery has acquired 50% of the equity of Yangtze River Zipper, and the cooperation between the two companies will be closer. Bourne Machinery has set up a R&D center in Hong Kong, located in the Yangtze River Industrial Park.
The R&D center mainly provides information on mechanical research based on the production of Yangtze zippers, and deepens communication between the two parties. Therefore, the five employees in the office are all engineers, and are equipped with English and German language translators.
"Manager Gauss, we plan to eliminate the automatic rice arranging machines that are more than three years old, and this will be the case in the future; at the same time, it is expected to purchase at least 25 automatic zipper rice arranging machines every year." Lin Zhichao said confidently.
With the popularity of Western-style clothing, the reduction in the cost of aluminum alloy and copper raw materials, and the opening of the US market to Hong Kong, Yangtze Zipper is now facing great development opportunities, with annual growth expected to be more than 50%.
Gauss said in surprise: "Is the growth so great?"
Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "The global demand for zippers is growing very fast, and zippers are popular in clothes, bags, boots and other aspects. Therefore, as the market increases, our Yangtze Zipper can also usher in explosive growth based on our foundation."
At present, Yangtze Zipper and YKK Zipper should be equally matched opponents, and the two companies are relatively peaceful and dump their products around the world. This year's profit for Yangtze Zipper is expected to exceed HK$11 million, and next year it is expected to exceed HK$16 million.
In such a situation of huge growth, we can only increase investment. The annual purchase of equipment is not less than 5 million Hong Kong dollars, and the research and development expenses are also about 2 million Hong Kong dollars. The R&D team of Yangtze Zipper has been developed to 30 years. Many people specialize in zipper-related research.
Gauss said happily: "This is good news. We will also give Yangtze Zipper the greatest support in the field of zipper machinery and develop a variety of zipper machinery."
What he wants is this result, otherwise Lin Zhichao would not have spent 1.2 million US dollars to invest in Bourne Machinery. This money basically used most of the savings from Yangtze Zipper.
Bourne Machinery has also begun research and development in the field of 'injection molding machines'. Gauss followed Lin Zhichao's advice. After all, plastic products are a new industry with greater opportunities.
In traditional textile machinery, competition is too fierce.
After inspecting the zipper factory, Lin Zhichao took Gauss, toy designers, marketing planners and other people from cooperative toy companies to the Yangtze River Toy Factory.
After everyone inspected the workshop, they sat in the conference room for a meeting.
Gauss smiled and said: "Mr. Lin, I have to say that your requirements are very high and you are very well prepared!"
A German designer I knew handed Lin Zhichao some design drawings of 'Beer Lily', and he looked at them seriously.
"It's a good thing to have high requirements. If you have an imperfect product, I believe you will also feel that it will not succeed!"
Gauss nodded and said: "Yes! I also think it is necessary to pursue perfection in Bierlili's design. Especially her clothing, it really makes me focus on it."
To put it bluntly, Beerlily is just a hard plastic toy. Her appearance is based on the previous German adult dolls, so the shape is very important. The blonde hairstyle and various costumes are the real gimmicks.
A Beer doll has many sets of clothes and styles, so customers will buy many of the same Beer dolls. Some are wearing princess dresses, some are wearing lace underwear, some are wearing jeans with a white shirt and a bag, and some are fashionable. Wear evening gowns and so on. From the beginning, Bierlili had four looks, which also needed to be marketed with various pornographic jokes.
By analogy - future Barbie dolls will even need to cooperate with clothing companies to design styles.
At present, it is still very difficult to master the production technology of hard plastic dolls. Therefore, Yangtze Toy Factory relies on this technology to lead and does not need to worry about competitors from Hong Kong or even overseas. What's more, Yangtze Toy Factory also pursues 'brands', and its 'Barbie', 'Beer Lily' and 'Bond' are all toy brands.
After communicating with everyone for a long time, Lin Zhichao finally finalized the final and complete plan for Beer Lily. The next step was to register the patent, then organize production, and plan a marketing plan.
Since the cooperative toy company was far away in Germany, Lin Zhichao could only entrust Gauss with full authority to manage the company. He only sent two employees who knew English to go to Germany. Otherwise, it would be too far away to be sold.
After all, Gauss is an outsider, and there is no choice to cooperate with him. Fortunately, Bierlili is only a small brand.
The patent for 'Barbie' belongs to Lin Zhichao and Audrey Hepburn. After Hepburn finishes filming this movie, Lin Zhichao will have to sow the seeds to her; so even if Hepburn changes her mind in the future, it will at least belong to his children.
On the evening of the weekend, Lin Zhichao took his family to the Hong Kong Hotel on Pedder Street for dinner. At present, the business here is not as good as before. After all, there have been more mid-to-high-end restaurants in recent years.
Every time Lin Zhichao comes to the Hong Kong Hotel, he always thinks about its land.
You must know that the land of the Hong Kong Hotel is a first-class prosperous land. Later, it was built into the "China State Construction Building" by the Xu Aizhou family, becoming one of the representative buildings for the Chinese to enter the core area of Central.
This land is surrounded by the Lane Crawford headquarters, Gloucester Building, Royal Bank, including the Bank of East Asia, and No. 10 Ice House Street owned by Lin Zhichao. Later, Lane Crawford's headquarters was exchanged for the 'Yihe Building' across Pedder Street, so the famous Landmark Plaza (shopping mall + first-class building) was built in this area.
Lin Zhichan is very interested in Land's properties, but if he can place a beautiful building near the heart of Land, it would obviously be very good.
At the same time, after Global Shipping collected all its rent in November, its cash flow on the account has reached US$4.7 million, which is the amount after excluding operating costs. According to this trend, we will have disposable cash flow of US$6.8 million at the end of the year.
So Lin Zhichao is thinking that he should take over the current ownership of the Hong Kong Hotel (Pedter Street) to avoid the price rising several times in the future.
The land area of the Hong Kong Hotel is about 25,000 to 26,000 square feet. If based on the current market price, it is probably HK$8 to 10 million, which is 300 to 400 per square foot.
The key issue is that the Kadoorie family may not be willing to sell it. First, the hotel can continue to make money. Second, many people now predict that land prices in Hong Kong will rise. After all, the war is over.
In any case, Lin Zhichao felt that if he tried to contact the Kadoorie family, he would be able to accept it even if the price was a little higher; he would spend money on it and try to get it within one or two years.
After all, according to Lin Zhichao's speculation, the average annual increase in land prices in the past few years will reach 50%; while residential property prices will not rise too much and will still only fluctuate in the range of 20 to 50 Hong Kong dollars per square foot.
It is still the norm that land is expensive and buildings are cheap. There are many reasons. The first is the "development towards high-rise" in the following years and the concentration of development in the urban areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon.
In this way, if the Hong Kong Hotel land had been purchased in the mid-to-late 1950s, the price might have been HK$30 million. No wonder it is called "The Ship King Comes ashore (Hsu Ai-Chow)". Including construction costs, one building costs 40 million. And Xu Aizhou invested in several buildings continuously after 1957, and the funds landed were probably 70 to 80 million Hong Kong dollars. .
Lin Zhichao didn't know about other properties, nor did he envy them, but he really wanted to get the land at the China Construction Building. It was a land in the heart of Central. It is in a better location than Lam Chi-chao's land at No. 77 Des Voeux Road, and has a larger area. It is a rare treasure.
"What are you thinking about?" Tang Caiyun beside her reminded Lin Zhichao.
Lin Zhichao came back to his senses and looked at his whole family, including two wives, a mother, a sister, three sons, plus the five-month-old child in Tang Caiyun's belly, there were already nine people.
It can be called the 'Lin Zhichao Family'!
Because of this, Lin Zhichao now asks Tang Caiyun to get involved in the real estate development of Yangtze River Industries and communicate with his subordinates on how its industries will develop in the future.
This is called being prepared!
Rent-collecting properties are one of the magic weapons that can ensure the longevity of a family.
"I'm wondering if it's time for me to be the owner of this hotel." Lin Zhichao said with a smile.
Everyone looked at them with concern, and Tang Caiyun immediately said: "Will the Kadoorie family sell the hotel to you? Isn't this cultivating a competitor?"
She thought Lin Zhichao was going to open a hotel. After all, the Miramar Hotel had recently opened, although it only had fifty rooms in total.
Lin Zhichao said with a smile: "We are not opening a hotel, but we plan to buy it and build high-rise buildings and rent out office buildings in the future."
"oh"
Later, Lin Zhichao said to Xu Caiying: "Go to Universal Company to sign up, do some light work, and attend some meetings. Starting from next year, there will be more overseas business, and we need you to be a symbol of the Lin family in the company." people."
Now that she has raised a son, Xu Caiying can no longer be lazy. Soon Xu Caiying also interned at Oxfam for a long time.
As soon as Xu Caiying heard Lin Zhichao's tone, she knew that it was not okay to be lazy. Now that the family business was huge, the man also had anxiety; and as Lin Zhichao's woman, she should stand up, although she didn't like tedious work.
"Well, I'll listen to your arrangement!"
Seeing that Xu Caiying gradually learned to share the family's worries, Lin Zhichao also said with satisfaction: "Don't worry, the work is easy, I can take care of my family, and I still have time to socialize."
Xu Caiying said: "I don't want to be with those foreign ladies. It's just too boring. They treat nobles and nobles every day. It's really uncomfortable."
Lin Zhichao smiled. There are no aristocrats in Hong Kong. They are just self-righteous foreign ladies. Fortunately, Xu Caiying is Ge Mulian's friend and is not directly despised. What's more, Lin Zhichao is also considered a top rich man.
At the beginning of a new week, in the management conference room of Global Shipping, Lin Zhichao announced the formation of a remuneration committee and appointed Xu Caiying as chairman.
Xu Caiying suddenly felt a lot of pressure. It turned out that the remuneration committee had great powers - to evaluate the managers' performance, formulate and supervise the managers' remuneration plans, and provide opinions on the company's employee remuneration plans.
In the future, income plans such as employee pensions will also be developed (Hong Kong does not have an official pension, but some companies will develop internal pension opportunities to encourage employees to contribute until old age).
The management also immediately paid attention to Xu Caiying, the boss's wife. It was obvious that their future income and evaluation would be supervised by Xu Caiying.
Lin Zhichao saw everyone's expressions and understood everyone's thoughts, and said: "I will select 4 to 6 management members as part-time members of the remuneration committee. In fact, because we are not a listed company yet, this salary Committees are generally a good thing for all employees and the remuneration committee is something I report directly to."
The management of Global Shipping were somewhat reassured. They thought that the boss felt that the salary given to everyone was too high, so he established such a department.
Their salaries are indeed high. The salary of Global Shipping’s core senior executives is already one apartment per year, which is HK$20,000 to 30,000.
The management of Swire & Co. Ltd. is close to the British mainland, with an annual salary of 600 pounds to 3,000 pounds. This is already the highest annual salary among Hong Kong foreign companies.
As a large shipping company, Global Shipping's annual salary for management and technical elites is also in the range of 400 to 2,000 pounds (6,400 to 32,000 Hong Kong dollars); therefore, Global Shipping has a large number of operational and technical talents in its network.
On the other hand, at Taikoo & Co., Shi York originally advocated that both Chinese and British should be treated equally. But when his idea was implemented in white-collar workers, it went smoothly; when it was about to be implemented in blue-collar workers, Shiyok found that Taikoo could not afford the huge expenses and had to give up.
Global Shipping does not have this problem. What Lin Zhichao is good at is the 'shipping cycle'. Just like two companies with the same tonnage of ships, Global Shipping does not know how much more money it will make, so the salary expenditure has not been significantly affected yet.
By the mid-1980s, World Shipping must have laid off most of its workforce.
Feng Yongfa was the first to say: "It is really good to have such a department, which is not only conducive to the enthusiasm of the company's management and employees, but also can systematically and long-term salary development. What's more, Global Shipping is committed to developing modern large-scale shipping companies. Of course, We must keep up with the excellent management systems of the West.”
Immediately, everyone expressed their support.
In fact, Lin Zhichao placed Xu Caiying in this position to establish her power and influence.
Later, Lin Zhichao arranged for Global Shipping to recruit an exclusive female assistant for Xu Caiying, and her company status was officially confirmed.
After the meeting, Xu Caiying changed her usual liveliness and followed Lin Zhichao nervously to the office.
When no one was around, Xu Caiying said: "Husband, will I delay things? This salary committee has great responsibilities and rights, and I am not a business person."
Lin Zhichao smiled and took her hand, still feeling nervous, and said: "Just think of yourself as my 'puppet'. I am specifically involved in the work of this remuneration committee. So, you don't need to be nervous at all."
Xu Caiying's expression changed as expected, and she said happily: "Really?"
Lin Zhichao said helplessly: "Really! But you still have to study the management affairs of the company seriously. People always have to find something to do."
Xu Caiying nodded and said, "Well, I understand this, and I will definitely study hard." With her man watching, she felt no pressure.
(End of chapter)
