Half a month later, the headquarters of Galaxy Tower in Admiralty, Hong Kong:
"Mr. Chen, this is Sime Darby Group's information. Take a look." Dis, general manager of HSBC Group's Hudoli Financial Investment Company, placed a small stack of information on Chen Zhiwen's desk.
"Okay, thank you Mr. Dis." Chen Zhiwen also said politely.
In the era before the Internet, it was very difficult to check information about a company, especially overseas companies.
Qin Zhihao's suggestion also moved Chen Zhiwen. Generally speaking, Taohua Datong has great strategic significance for the food business that Red Bull is preparing to enter. In addition, Taohua Datong was also established in 1908. As long as it existed and developed at that time, Today's companies have a lot of land under their ownership, and the locations are not bad, because even if they had no money at that time, they chose corner areas, but with the development of Hong Kong over the past few decades, these places have become good locations. In this commercial area, you won’t lose money no matter what you do now.
After finding out that Taohua Datong was acquired by a Malaysian Sime Darby Group in 1972, Chen Zhiwen entrusted Hu Duoli to contact the company. Hu Duoli had never heard of this company, so he began to use his own connections to communicate with a Malaysian company. The commercial bank contacted Sime Darby and obtained customary information, which was translated into Chinese and sent over.
"Simée Darby Company is a multinational company in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Its main businesses are real estate, automobile sales, heavy machinery sales, oil refining, and rubber planting. It has strong comprehensive strength and is considered a very large company in Malaysia." A simple introduction said that it is much easier to talk about it than to read it. It is not right to let your customers spend time reading the information.
"Involving real estate business? Then they acquired Taohua Datong to enter the Hong Kong real estate market?" Chen Zhiwen asked while looking at the information.
Dis nodded and said: "That should be the meaning. In 1972, Hong Kong real estate was at its peak and the market was very hot. But in early 1973, the real estate market collapsed. When Sime Darby acquired Taohua Datong, it was the highest The stock price has not returned to that time, so it must have been a loss.
Moreover, Sime Darby itself has also been affected by the oil crisis, and its performance in recent years has not been very good. In addition, the current land price in Hong Kong has not recovered to what it was in 1972, so it has not been developed. "
"Buying land in 1972, you are really good at it." Chen Zhiwen smiled and asked: "What is Sime Darby's response to my acquisition proposal?"
"They said we can talk, but there are certain conditions," Diess said.
"What are the conditions?" Chen Zhiwen asked. This is not the core industry of his company and can usually be negotiated. In shopping malls, there are many acquisitions of such independent businesses.
"Simée Darby knows that you want to acquire Taohua Datong. They said they can give you a normal price, but they want Red Bull's exclusive agency rights in Malaysia, including Very Coca-Cola, as well as Red Bull's other beverages and food." Dis said that this is no longer a question of price, it can only be found by the client.
"The ambition is not small. Does this company have channels for this?" Chen Zhiwen did not refuse directly. In fact, Red Bull has been developing the European and American markets in the past few years, and the increase in production capacity has not been able to keep up with the demand in Europe and the United States. So I basically didn’t consider other places outside of Europe and the United States. At most, Japan and Hong Kong have some supplies. Hong Kong has a small population. In Japan, it is more difficult to enter, because Japan has an older energy drink brand in its own country. Already occupied the market.
Outside of Europe, the United States and Japan, Red Bull has basically not started to expand. At most, it has sent people to conduct preliminary market surveys and taste tests. If it enters these countries in the future, it will not be possible to enter them all at once. It will definitely give priority to those with large market potential. , a good place for research.
"Yes, Sime Darby also has food retail channels in Malaysia. Many soy sauces and sauces from Taohua Datong enter Malaysia through this channel," said Dis.
"Okay, let's do this. I'll discuss it with the management of Red Bull. They will send people to Malaysia to investigate. If it's really suitable, we can talk about it." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and agreed.
In Europe and the United States, you can still focus on the supermarket chain market and just find small dealers in other places. But this is not the case in Southeast Asia. The economy here has not yet promoted large-scale supermarket chains. In most of these countries, retail sales are of various types. Street shops, that is, mom-and-pop shops. In this case, if they want to sell drinks, they can only rely on powerful local distributors.
Although Malaysia's economy is a bit worse, the population is still large. Taken together, it can be regarded as Red Bull's first stop to enter other markets besides Europe and the United States. It is good to succeed, but you can also learn from experience if it fails.
"Okay, I will inform Sime Darby right now. If the distribution agreement is reached, then the acquisition of Taohua Datong should not be a problem." Dis said happily. It is refreshing to cooperate with big capital. If it is other companies , must be unrestrained in many aspects, but Chen Zhiwen obviously does not have such a thing.
Time flies, and another month has passed.
During this period, Red Bull sent three groups of people to Malaysia to inspect the channels owned by Sime Darby Group. At the same time, Sime Darby Group also sent a business team to the Red Bull headquarters to conduct relevant business negotiations with Qin Zhihao. Negotiate price, shipment volume, distribution costs, publicity fees, etc.
On June 26, the two parties reached a cooperation agreement, and Red Bull authorized Sime Darby Group to be the exclusive agent of Red Bull and Very Coke beverage brands in Malaysia.
Generally, this kind of agency negotiation will not be so fast. It is obviously because of Red Bull’s demand for Taohua Datong and the shrinking of Sime Darby Group’s own business. It also urgently needs other profit points and opportunities in new industries, and both parties The signed agreement is only for three years. Within three years, if the development is successful, then the cooperation will naturally continue. If not, it will end.
This signing was also done in secret. However, Sime Darby is a company listed in Malaysia and naturally hopes to announce it to boost its stock price. However, there is no news in Hong Kong. Even in the Internet era, Hong Kong has No one will care who a Malaysian company obtains the agency rights, and Coca-Cola’s agency rights will not attract the attention of Hong Kong netizens.
But another news is different. On June 28, Galaxy Group acquired 45.7% of Taohua Datong’s shares from foreign investors and became the largest shareholder of Taohua Datong. The specific transaction price is unknown.
As soon as the news came out, everyone got used to it. After analysis, stock investors knew that Taohua Datong owned a large piece of land in Ngau Tau Kok, Kowloon, and Galaxy Group must have acquired it just for the land.
"The land of 222,000 square feet is not too big. It can barely be used to build a community. What do you think?" Chen Zhiwen said to Xu Jinhong, the person in charge of Galaxy Real Estate.
"The area is indeed not too big, but the location is not bad. This land, at the current market price, would cost 100 million." Xu Jinhong said, looking at the location on the map.
"Then the old rules are that Taohua Datong will release the land, Galaxy Real Estate will pay for it, and then they will develop it together, and the final share will be 55%. Taohua Datong will be managed by Galaxy in the future, but it will be operated independently. You should not interfere with their original team. "Chen Zhiwen added: "In addition, Red Bull will enter the food business, and Taohua Datong also needs to send some food-related engineers to help."
"Then why not just give Taohua Datong's food business to Red Bull?" Xu Jinhong asked.
"Red Bull only does large-scale business. Taohua Datong has many small categories, mainly kitchen categories. There is no need to give it to Red Bull, just cooperate with their development." Chen Zhiwen said.
Red Bull's positioning is to make popular drinks or food, while Taohua Datong's main direction is soy sauce, oil consumption, etc. The resources and contacts of the two are not overlapping at all, and it is useless to merge them together. What Red Bull needs is Taohua Datong. It’s just about the experience and ability of talented people in terms of habits.
"Okay, I will arrange for Taohua Datong engineers to go to Red Bull." Xu Jinhong nodded and said.
"In addition, I have given Taohua Datong a special task." Chen Zhiwen added: "To develop hot sauce, it uses different meats and dried beans as the main ingredients. The taste does not need to be so spicy, just moderate. For example, ordinary people can make some. Serve it directly with the meal. Those who like spicy food can eat it directly. It is almost at this level. The taste must be delicious. I don’t know how to adjust it. You can test it yourself."
"As for hot sauce, Taohua Datong has probably not studied it. Hong Kong people don't eat spicy food very much. I have to ask their engineers. Maybe they have studied it, but the market is not good." Xu Jinhong said that after taking over Taohua Datong, he I also communicated with the company's management, but I could only find some basic information in the past few days.
"Hong Kong and even Southeast Asia don't eat spicy food very much, but Europe and the United States are different. There are still many people who like it." Chen Zhiwen said.
Laoganma and other hot sauces of later generations are not only popular in China, but also sell well in many places in Europe and the United States. For a company like Taohua Datong with a market value of about 100 million Hong Kong dollars, it is a very big market. At the next 10%, the turnover can easily increase tenfold.
In fact, when the company has grown to its current scale, expansion is inevitable. Midea is also planning to enter the field of chips and LCDs. Several real estate companies are also constantly developing new land. This is inevitable for development. At most, it is a choice of horizontal or vertical expansion. question.
Originally, Chen Zhiwen never thought about making kitchen seasonings. Although the market is not small, it is far inferior to beverages and snacks. However, since Costco acquired Taohua Datong due to the demand of Costco, Taohua Datong’s main The products are kitchen seasonings, soy sauce, etc., so naturally it can give them some guidance for the future. Anyway, it’s just a mouthful.
"Yes, we have deep channel relationships with supermarkets in Europe and the United States, but Taohua Datong's soy sauce and sauces simply do not meet the tastes of Europeans and Americans, and it is impossible to prepare a location specifically for a small number of Chinese to use it. Without this supermarket channel, the acquisition of Taohua Datong would be a pity." Xu Jinhong thought for a while and said.
Thanks to Chen Zhiwen's early efforts, Galaxy Trading easily obtained stable orders from Costco and Wal-Mart. Then, relying on the huge purchase volume, it repeatedly selected supply chains with high cost performance, and then relied on these cost-effective products. It once opened up the channels of European supermarkets. Especially recently, relying on the boss's relationship, the entire Galaxy Trade has also entered the supply chain of Celtic, the largest supermarket in the United States, and its turnover has doubled.
Today, the annual turnover of Galaxy Trade exceeds one billion Hong Kong dollars, accounting for 2.7% of Hong Kong's entire exports. This figure is already terrifying in Hong Kong. The indirect employment driven by Galaxy Trade is as high as 10,000 to 20,000 people in Hong Kong. , many factories that make consumer goods are reluctant to accept orders. In fact, once they enter the supply chain of Galaxy Trading, the speed of production capacity expansion cannot match the speed of others placing orders.
Many of its own companies have also benefited from this. Although Very Coca-Cola is also seeking its own development overseas, it is still extremely dependent on Costco in the short term. Needless to say, Midea’s many electronic products, even if it is now not interested in Costco’s The degree of dependence is reduced, but the first steamed bun is the most important.
Since Taohua Datong has become its own company, it naturally needs to take advantage of this advantage. If the current business cannot enter the European and American markets, it would be good to change to a suitable one.
"At Costco, there are also a lot of kitchen seasonings, which are more Western, such as tomato sauce and cheese sauce. You can negotiate with Costco's purchasing department and try it if it suits you. I won't care about these things. , you can do whatever you want, if you can develop new business, develop new business. Taohua Datong has been established for almost 70 years, and now it is only such a small scale, which is too small." Chen Zhiwen continued.
In fact, he did not mention such small things. Taohua Datong will definitely rely on Costco in the future. After all, this is the inherent advantage of the entire group company. In addition to real estate investment in Hong Kong, everything else can be used. Guanxi, even Midea's games, if they enter home game consoles or handheld game consoles in the future, they will need to rely on Costco or Wal-Mart channels, although such products are not very dependent on independent supermarkets.
This is why even if funds are tight, I have to invest heavily in Costco. If this retail supermarket is successful, then many of my future businesses will have a basic guarantee, and the process from 0-1 will be very easy. Otherwise, Taohua Datong has created a delicious hot sauce, but if it wants to enter the US market, it won't be possible for a few years.
This is also the reason why Taohua Datong has been developing in Hong Kong. If it wants to develop overseas markets or even grow, it can be said that the probability is one in ten thousand.
"Okay, Chen Sheng." Xu Jinhong agreed.
"The most important thing is the ingredients of potato chips. Meeting the needs of Costco is the most important. It doesn't matter if you are a year late for hot sauce or something. I just remind you about the direction Taohua Datong will take in the future." Chen Zhiwen thought. After thinking for a while he said again.
"Okay." Xu Jinhong nodded and said.
"So that's what happened with Taohua Datong, right? Has anything happened to Galaxy Group recently?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.
"In terms of real estate, everything is normal. We are also developing our own land and developing land in joint ventures with other British investors, that is, Galaxy Trading. Recently, many local suppliers in Hong Kong are not very capable. I want to go and have a look at Wanwan. ." Xu Jinhong said.
"It doesn't matter. If Hong Kong can't keep up, then look for other places. There are also Chinese people in Wanwan, so it's the first choice, but Southeast Asian countries can also be considered." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.
From a rational point of view, Chen Zhiwen also hopes that factories in Hong Kong can undertake orders from Galaxy Trading. However, overseas supermarkets are developing too fast. In addition, Galaxy Trading has gained a little reputation in the supermarket industry, which makes it easier to enter various supermarkets. At the same time, The skyrocketing land prices in Hong Kong have also inhibited the development of industry. Taken together, it is normal for Hong Kong to be unable to keep up with demand.
But trade has to be done, and if Hong Kong can't do it, we can only choose other places. This can be regarded as a negative brought about by the development of Hong Kong's real estate economy.
(End of chapter)
