Extraordinary Genius
Chapter 829 - Beverage industry a.s.sociation
In the end, under the "brilliantleadership" of Li Jingwei, the few foreign businessmen agreed to Sanshui City"sconditions. Jianlibao will use all its shares to invest in this new jointventure and will own 51% shares. The foreign businessmen will invest a total of70 million USD for 49% shares.
After signing the contract and the moneycredited, the Sanshui City Government"s leaders were overjoyed. They feltJianlibao"s woes is over and had successfully attracted foreign investment.They were in a rush to claim credit from their higher-ups.
On the other hand, Li Jingwei is with FengYu and Zhong Qingxian. They contacted Le Bashi"s He Boquan, Hui Yuan Company"sZhu Xinli, Coconut Tree"s w.a.n.g Guangxing, and the head of the Chinese beverageindustry a.s.sociation to form the beverage alliance.
The aim of this beverage alliance is topromote Chinese beverages to the world, unite the different brands, increasecompet.i.tiveness, and share the risk.
This alliance does not only include thesefew companies. They also invited Taiwanese brands, Tong Yi and Kang Shifu.These two companies were instant noodles manufacturer which entered thebeverage industry this year.
The companies like Rising Sun, Zhen Zhen,etc. were invited to join the alliance. These were all big brands, but manypeople were surprised to see a company being invited.
This company is an herbal tea manufacturer.Why is this company allowed to enter this alliance? This scale of this companyis too small, and it is an unknown brand. The drinks they produced is limitedto a specific region, and no one knows this brand outside of Guangdong! Letalone the western countries.
This herbal tea drink brand is called w.a.n.gLaoji and the company, JDB group, still has to rent the brand from someoneelse. How can this company survive if it even got to rent its brand fromothers?
Everyone sat down and tasted each otherproducts. Most of them had tasted the products of the major brands, but thereare still some brands which they heard before and never tasted. For instance,w.a.n.g Laoji. Most of the people there have not even heard of it.
Some people do not even want to try, butZhong Qingxian opens a can of w.a.n.g Laoji and took a sip. He immediately frownsas the drink taste like the herbal tea, he had in Guangdong streets. This is apopular drink in Guangdong and maybe it can be sold in Southeast Asia. But whoin the western countries will want to drink this? They will find it weird!
But Zhong Qingxian knew JDB Group isspecially invited by Feng Yu. Feng Yu thinks this herbal tea will be popular?
The Americans might think this drink ismedicine. Why would they drink this? This drink is supposed to be "cooling" andwill induce diarrhea after two cans. Can this drink even pa.s.s the US FDA?
"Secretary Lu, what is the purpose ofasking all of us here?" He Boquan asked.
While asking, He Boquan looked around.These were all familiar faces and only one young man stood out. He noticed thatyoung man is chatting with Zhong Qingxian and Li Jingwei. That young man isalso the boss of a beverage company? Maybe he is the son of some big bosses.
"I had gathered all of you here to discussthe setting up of a beverage alliance."
"What? Beverage alliance?" Zhu Xinlifrowned. Is the government going to force them to merge?
But among the companies, there are privatecompanies, state-owned enterprises, joint ventures, etc. It is not practical tomerge these companies.
"Let Manager Feng explain this alliance toyou all. Manager Feng." Secretary Lu nodded to Feng Yu.
Two days ago, Feng Yu managed to meetSecretary Lu over dinner through Zhang Han"s father’s introduction. Heexplained to Secretary Lu and told him the benefits of forming the alliance.
If this alliance is formed and reallyentered the overseas market, the brands will be more compet.i.tive. Secretary Luwill get the credit and might even get a promotion over this.
This beverage industry a.s.sociation does nothave much authority, and it is considered a semi-government organization. Otherthan the a.s.sociation"s secretary is a.s.signed by the government, the rest of thecommittee members are voted among the members.
For example, Li Jingwei and Zhong Qingxianare the deputy heads of the a.s.sociation. They are voted by the rest of themembers. He Boquan, w.a.n.g Guangxing, Zhu Xinli, etc. are also members of the a.s.sociation committee. The rest of themembers are all in the beverage industry.
This is a semi-government a.s.sociation andhas the backing of the government. Which beverage company dares to not registerin it? The companies that did not join this a.s.sociation are the small companiesin rural areas lower than counties.
For a company to join this a.s.sociation, thecompany must be recommended by a committee member.
Secretary Lu is also the deputy director ofthe Central State Administration for Industry and Commerce. He feels that thedirector is old and should retire. This is an excellent opportunity for him toreplace him.
"Everyone here should not know me, right?Let me introduce myself. I am Feng Yu, a shareholder of Lehaha Group andJianlibao enterprise. I am also one of the committee members of the BeverageIndustry a.s.sociation. I am the one who suggested forming this alliance. When Iam in the US, there is not even one Chinese beverage in the supermarket chainsthere. But in China"s supermarkets, there are all sorts of oversea brands. Thisreally upset me."
"Manager Feng, why don"t you go and tellTai Hua Supermarket to stop selling overseas drinks? Ask them to sell onlyChinese brands." Someone shouted.
"Err… I forgot to mention that I am alsothe shareholder of Tai Hua Supermarket." Feng Yu said.
Everyone in the room stirred. This is likewhen they are studying and their teacher telling them there is a scholar intheir school who scored full marks in every subject. They felt shocked,surprised, jealous, etc.
This Feng Yu is not only Jianlibao andLehaha"s shareholder, but he is also even Tai Hua Supermarket shareholder. Hisbusiness is too big.
Many people start to wonder who Feng Yu"sfather is.
"The question asked is very interesting.Let Tai Hua Supermarkets stop selling overseas brands of drinks and only sellChinese brands. Let me ask you all, how is this different from having aclosed-door policy? The correct way of doing this is to let our Chinesebeverages step out of China and enter the overseas markets. We will sell our drinksto the US, Europe and all other developed countries. The markets in thosecountries are 10 times or even 100 times bigger than China, based on theirconsumers" habits!"
After Feng Yu said this, the rest start todiscuss among themselves.
These people own their beveragemanufacturing business and are very independent. Chinese Beverage Industrya.s.sociation is also a non-compulsory a.s.sociation, and they were used to discussamong themselves during meetings.
"Please quiet down and let Manager Feng finish."Secretary Lu knocked on the microphone.
Feng Yu got to say something shocking toget them to listen to him.
"I have a way to let our beverages enterthe overseas supermarket chain and will increase the sales of our products!"
Everyone immediately shut up and looked atFeng yu.
Translator"s notes:
w.a.n.g Laoji
Group