Almost the entire city of Detroit is filled with automobile processing plants, parts production plants, and various automobile modification workshops. Therefore, what was prosperous before is now desolate.
There are many very advanced automobile production lines, but now there are no people in the factory buildings, except for a few security guards closing the gates. Along the way, Yang Dongxu couldn't help but wonder whether it was a wrong choice to open a branch here. However, this thought just passed by and he had his own plans.
"Can you help me buy some automobile smelting technology and some parts production technology?" Yang Dongxu couldn't help but ask.
"There is a saying in the United States that I very much agree with. If you want to eat beef, you don't have to open a breeding farm, because you are just a beef eater, not a cattle raiser." Dave turned to look at Yang Dongxu and said.
Of course, if you can master the entire production chain of an industry, you will be the only one in this industry. However, such a behemoth cannot last long because such an industry chain is too bloated. Once one link collapses, the entire Companies will be broken up.
The wisest choice is to master some core technologies that are not easily broken, such as engine technology and transmission technology, and then use these as the core to purchase other auto parts to assemble a car.
When purchasing parts, you have a lot of autonomy. You don't have to worry about the production cost of this part or how the technology is innovated. You only need to know whether the part is suitable for your own car. If not, then buy it from another company.
"I know what you mean. I don't mean to hold the entire automobile production chain in my hands. After all, that is unrealistic, and it is very likely to attract antitrust laws. I purchased these technologies to transfer them to some partners.
I don't need to buy some overly sensitive technology, just the medium technology you can sell. Then I bought it, took it back, and sold it to others to make a profit. Yang Dongxu said.
"Well..." Dave hesitated and said, "If this was the time when China and the United States first established diplomatic relations, there would be no problem with what you said, and even buying some sensitive technologies would be no problem, but now... ..."
"The market price does not require you to offer those preferential prices to partners. You just give me an average market price. Then 5% of the final price of each technology purchase is your remuneration." Yang Dongxu said.
He naturally knows about the technological blockade imposed on China in the international market. Some technologies that have been eliminated are sold more expensively than high-tech technologies.
"I need to think about this." Faced with the huge temptation, Dave chose to remain calm: "You know the premise of freedom of speech is political correctness, and how inhumane the officials at the Ministry of Commerce are when some sensitive regulations are involved. . If you invest and build a factory in the United States, I can get you an unexpected discount. Buying technology and sending it back to China is a bit..."
"Okay, let's put this matter aside for now. If you feel it's operational, we'll talk about it again. Do you have any good suggestions for purchasing a car production line now?" Yang Dongxu asked.
"I have shown you so many places and introduced so many things to you, so I think you know it well. It is very simple to buy a car production line in Detroit, and it is also very simple to recruit skilled workers and engineers. As long as you have money, everything can be done. But have you ever thought about another way?"
"What way?" Yang Dongxu asked.
"Lease or OEM." Dave said.
"Leasing or OEM?" Yang Dongxu raised his eyebrows, and then his eyes became brighter and brighter.
"That's right leasing or OEM. After these few days of observation, I found that you don't seem to care too much about the sales of cars in North America. You just want to assemble the cars here and ship them back to China." Dave observed Yang Dongxu's Expression changes.
"Then what?" Yang Dongxu's eyes flickered. He obviously didn't expect that the old man Dave had such a keen sense. He knew the purpose of building a factory in the United States without saying anything.
"If this is the case, you only need to spend a lot of money to purchase a better engine production line, and then hand over other things to other automobile manufacturers for OEM. Or even leasing an automobile production line will be more cost-effective than buying it. many.
At the same time, it is easier to operate this matter. After all, you are just looking for a foundry partner or leasing a factory instead of buying it and turning it into your personal property. This will save a lot of trouble in the review. "
"The engine production line is not sensitive?" Yang Dongxu glanced at Dave.
"But you are producing in Detroit, aren't you? Besides, you are producing engines, and you are not buying engine production technology. What's so sensitive about it? The British brought potatoes to the United States, can't they fry the potatoes into French fries?" Dave said. .
"It seems like a good choice." Yang Dongxu touched his chin.
Dave feels good. He has no intention of directly opening the North American market. In other words, he has no intention of investing in a car production plant in Detroit and using this as a base to enter the North American market.
What he really needs is just an assembly foundry, and then he can assemble the cars and then resell them in the country as imported cars.
I don’t know since when, the imported price of a brand of car is at least 30% more expensive than that of a domestic joint venture, or even more than twice as much.
Although this is due to regional protection taxes, it is more due to the people's distrust of the quality of domestic automobile production and the feeling that driving an imported car is more prestigious than driving a joint venture car.
When he acquired Maserati and started BMW in China, Yang Dongxu was not stupid enough to completely bring Maserati into the country and become the Chinese automobile industry.
It is a joint venture built by BMW Motors Co., Ltd. in cooperation with the Shanghai Municipal Government. So currently there are sports cars produced by BMW, but there is no Maserati sports car that is completely imported from Italy.
Nowadays, when government vehicles mostly use Audi, the commercial vehicle market becomes more and more active. He needs to build a foreign production line for Audi and Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles to meet the domestic market's demand for imported cars of these two types.
Although he himself is not a fan of foreign things, you have to admit it. Having fully imported cars is very useful for building your own brand in the country. When it comes to imports, everyone thinks of high-end products, and even if they are more expensive, they will bite the bullet and buy them.
Even though the internal parts of these cars are the same, one is produced abroad and may use some foreign parts, but the others, such as the engine, are not different at all. It's just that one is produced abroad and the other is produced through a joint venture.
So for the same engine, if you just add the word "import" in front of it, the car can be sold for a lot more money. Why doesn't he make so much money?
After a brief walk around Detroit, Dave introduced a few friends to Yang Dongxu. It’s just a simple acquaintance to get acquainted with each other, and we will get to know each other better and wait until the investment is finalized to see if we can cooperate with each other.
After staying in Detroit for two days, Yang Dongxu first flew to New York, then to the Magic City, and then flew directly to Hangzhou without stopping.
Carrefour, which had been dormant for some time, is back, and this time it’s even more aggressive. Because this time they completed the merger and acquisition of Promedes and became a giant in the European food retail industry and the second largest in the world's retail industry.
Carrying the momentum of the world's second-largest international retail giant, Carrefour executives are preparing to further increase investment in China and capture this dividend market with a huge population.
"What's the specific situation?" In the Hangzhou office of Millennium Supermarket, Yang Dongxu didn't adjust the time difference at all after returning, but came directly here.
"This time it is more difficult to deal with than last time. Someone from above has already greeted me, implying that we can no longer engage in rough price wars." Hu Dashan said with some worry.
This time Carrefour's attack was not only aggressive but also played tricks. Carrefour and Wanwan's Uni-President Enterprise are partners. Therefore, this time he entered the mainland retail market, not by himself, but by using the mainland official's attitude towards Bayan enterprises and pulling Uni-President together.
However, although they cooperated with Uni-President, they did not want to share the cake in their bowl with Uni-President, so they used the slogan of helping Uni-President distribute goods. That is to say, every time Carrefour opens a store, when there are overlapping products with Uni-President Food Company, it will give priority to Uni-President products to be put on the shelves, and it will give extremely large discounts in some cost aspects.
That's right, when products are put on supermarket shelves, the supermarket does not pay the product supplier. Instead, the supermarket pays the supermarket before the product wants to enter the supermarket, such as scanning the QR code to pay for entry and entry fees.
When a supermarket opens a branch, the supplier will have to pay opening fees. When the branch celebrates its anniversary, the supplier will have to pay festival fees. If the supplier wants to send personnel to conduct promotional activities in the supermarket, it will also have to pay management fees to the promotional personnel.
And this salesperson usually sends at least two, one real promotion. One is a porter loading and unloading goods in a supermarket.
If a supermarket puts up a banner to promote products, the suppliers of the products promoted on the banner will also have to pay. In short, a supermarket not only makes a profit from the price difference of retail products, but also makes a lot of money from suppliers.
This was not obvious in China before because it used to be a seller's market. In terms of supply, there is no need to worry about selling the goods after they are produced. If you don’t buy mine, others will buy mine. At that time, major stores were begging suppliers for goods.
Now in 1999, domestic economic development has been further liberated, and various factories and food factories have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. Major international food giants have also entered the country. If they want to sell their products well and establish their own brand advantages, in addition to spending a lot of money on advertising, they must have in-depth cooperation with supermarkets and hypermarkets.
After all, online shopping has not taken off in China at all. The only outlets where goods are sold are supermarkets, hypermarkets, small stores in communities, etc. If you don’t give benefits and cut some meat, why should your products be displayed in supermarkets?
Therefore, the discount Carrefour gave to Uni-President this time will definitely make them excited, and the more branches it helps Carrefour open, the greater the discount will be. This is a win-win cooperation.
In addition to this, Carrefour also has a policy to increase localization and store autonomy. Localization is easy to understand, and the most important one is to find local partners and borrow their resources to gain a foothold.
The previous stores in Hangzhou used this policy, but it was forced back by Millennium Supermarket. But Millennium Supermarket can be hard-core in Hangzhou, which does not mean that it can be hard-core in all parts of the country. There are always places where Carrefour's partners are better than those who support Millennium Supermarket.
Branch autonomy is a major auxiliary to localization, which is to increase the power of each branch to put products on its own shelves. After all, every place has its own specialties and the preferences of customers in each place.
This autonomy can flexibly adjust the demand for goods by customers in major branches to the greatest extent. It also increases the power of branches in disguise, allowing local partners to gain more profits. People who cooperate in this way will naturally be more enthusiastic about helping Carrefour. develop.
"This time the wolf really came, and it was a ferocious hungry wolf. How is the membership system going?" Yang Dongxu rubbed his forehead.
Such a multinational company is not that easy to deal with in the first place, not to mention that it is the second largest retail company in the world. What if there weren't two brushes that could take his turn as the dick?
Therefore, he did not think that Carrefour or other foreign retail companies entering the country would be so easy to deal with from the beginning. Although Hangcheng won one game, one reason is that he has great advantages in resources in Hangcheng.
The second nature is that if it suffers long-term losses, Carrefour's shareholders will naturally not want their own interests to be harmed. But this time the opponent came back with great force.
Obviously, the top management has unified its voice, and there will be no objections to the temporary losses from shareholders. With the help of its own abundant capital, it can pry open the iron door of this huge market in one fell swoop and then dominate this market.
Any price war at this time will not be easy to win, no matter how hard he tries to replenish the blood of Millennium Supermarket. Can he have more money than the world's second-largest retail giant?
What's more, the country will definitely not allow him to do this. After all, introducing foreign investment has always been a strategy that is resolutely implemented. Although Millennium Supermarket has the cloak of Hong Kong investment in order to get discounts, it is the second largest retail giant in the world.
If it succeeds in entering the domestic market, it will have a positive effect on the country's introduction of other foreign capital. As for Hong Kong capital, they have already invested a lot in the mainland. Those who should make money are making money, and the discounts that should be given are also given. And compared with real foreign capital, Hong Kong capital is actually not that strong.
"The membership system has become popular, and in addition to a few points, it also provides certain pre-recharge discounts. Currently, the number of supermarket members has reached 3 million." Hu Dashan said.
I actually didn’t think too much about promoting member Kahu Dashan before, thinking it was just for stabilizing customer relationships. But now he discovered that membership cards can not only be used to secure customers, but also that there are so many loyal consumer members that the market value of Millennium Supermarket has increased a lot.
Sometimes when negotiating with suppliers, even if the supplier makes some harsh demands and refutes them, he can still say that Millennium Supermarket now has more than 3 million regular consumer members, and your products will be put on the shelves of Millennium Supermarket. , which means that you can directly face 3 million consumer customers, which has won a lot of benefits for the supermarket.
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