Chapter 271 Beverage and Cosmetics Industry

"Beverage is one of the foundation industries of the Swire Group. I am not sure about facing such an opponent." Yang Wendong said with a smile.

Swire Pacific, one of the four major foreign banks in the previous life, was a very stubborn one among the large British-funded conglomerates. In fact, its overall strength was not much worse than that of Jardine Matheson. The main industries involved included beverages, sugar, and maritime. Shipping, aviation, ports, trade, etc...

It is just a piece of land owned by Jardine Matheson. In the 1970s/80s when Hong Kong real estate was soaring, it overshadowed all other businesses...

Sanders He said with a smile: "Everyone has their own market. There are too many varieties of beverages. Coca-Cola can only monopolize carbonated beverages in Europe and the United States. There are many other beverage brands.

Yang Sheng, there are not many opportunities like this. If you are interested, I can be a middleman, how about it? Price-wise, absolutely fair. "

Yang Wendong thought for a while and asked: "Then can I check Watson's financial and market information first? ”

If it is a hostile takeover in the stock market, you need to make relevant preparations in advance and check the information yourself. If the information is wrong, resulting in heavy losses after the acquisition, you will be responsible for it.

But for a good-faith acquisition, the acquirer needs to check the acquired party’s information first.

“Of course, that’s natural. "Sanders nodded and said: "But you need to sign a legal agreement:

If you read the information and do not purchase it, you have to keep it confidential, and they will provide correct information. Anyone who breaks the contract will bear legal responsibility. "

"Okay, no problem. "Yang Wendong agreed.

This is also a routine operation before an acquisition to protect the interests of both parties. Even if there is no middleman or a cross-border merger and acquisition is involved, a deposit must be paid. Once either party breaches the contract, in addition to legal liability , the money is gone too.

"Okay, I will prepare the relevant agreements. Sanders thought for a moment and said, "How about I arrange a meeting with both parties the day after tomorrow?" "

"The day after tomorrow? So fast? "Yang Wendong was a little surprised.

With such a fast speed, it seems that Watson's situation is not good.

Sanders said: "It's mainly because the major shareholder of Watsons came from the UK to handle this matter. It would be better if it could be done faster."

"That's okay, I have no problem. ." Yang Wendong nodded in agreement.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s earlier or later...

……

After Sanders left, Bai Yushan, who had been silent just now, could finally speak freely: "Brother Dong, I also know a little about Watsons. Their business has suffered a lot of losses.

Especially after Coca-Cola entered Hong Kong. , their soda business has become very poor, leaving only the distilled water business, which is somewhat profitable, mainly relying on the industrial market."

Yang Wendong asked curiously: "Why have you checked Watson's information?" 
Bai Yushan shook her head and said: "Didn't you suggest my dad to buy a street store before? He almost bought a Watsons pharmacy property. Before that, I checked their business situation." 
“I see.” Yang Wendong nodded: “Even the store is ready to be sold, so the medicine business is really dead?”

"Yes." Bai Yushan said: "There are more hospitals now, and the economy is getting better. Many people are sick and go to the hospital to get medicine. Watson's doctors and medicine are not good at it."
 "Times have changed." Yang Wendong nodded and asked: "Was Watson's store also engaged in cosmetics business?"

Watson's used to be one of the largest pharmacy chains in Hong Kong, but in this era , it won’t work.

Of course pharmacies will not disappear, but their scale may shrink. Especially in the early days of Watsons, there were too many stores and the market size shrank, which would lead to disaster.

"Yes, but their business is not doing well." Bai Yushan said: "I didn't study the specific reasons in depth."

Yang Wendong thought for a while and said: "I guess there are problems with pharmacies and cosmetics stores selling at the same time."

"It's possible." Bai Yushan added: "The beverages are not good either, they can't compete. Coca-Cola has no competition Swire's own drinks.

Because Taikoo is larger and even produces their own sugar, how can Watson compete?"

"Haha, the advantage of the entire industry chain is. No comparison." Yang Wendong nodded.

Some big capitalists are not fools. They will also pursue the entire industry chain to control costs, thereby increasing profits and scale in one field or even reaching the extreme. Swire Group is relatively smart.

Unlike Yihe next door, which invests indiscriminately overseas with its eyes closed. It has dabbled in gold mines, iron mines, farms, pastures, and sugar cane plantations, but there is no rhythm at all. If it were not for the early development in Hong Kong and its strong foundation, otherwise Already bankrupt.

Bai Yushan asked again: "Since you know, are you still planning to acquire it?"

Yang Wendong said: "Watson's competitors are indeed very strong, but it also has a strong foundation. Yes, there are a lot of talents. Although the market is a bit weak, the channels are there
As long as the future direction is correct and some funds are invested, it is not difficult to live a better life. The difficulty is that it is very difficult to defeat opponents like Taigu.

But for the time being. There is no need to think so much, just survive.”

It is natural to be ambitious when building an industry, but unless it is a new creative product or a new market, it will be difficult to defeat the industry leader in a short period of time. Therefore, there is no need to set such a goal.

Watson's beverage business should survive normally first, and then consider other things later. The worst outcome is that it will still be inactive in the future, but when the mainland reopens and makes the first batch of soft drinks, that will be the same. You can achieve good results in this new market.

"You are right." Bai Yushan nodded: "I always feel that if you do a business, you must achieve a very high position."

"The goal can be this, but the process needs to be realistic and slow." Yang Wendong said with a smile.

“Hmm~”

Yang Wendong said again: "Go back, I also want someone to check Watsons' information again."

Although in theory, Watsons will submit their own information, generally the law prohibits the submission of false information. Or important information is not provided, etc. However, in actual operation, there are too many clauses that can be bypassed.

Therefore, even if it is a good-faith acquisition, the information provided by the other party is important, but one must also investigate clearly.

Bai Yushan suddenly said: "Then should we find a Watsons store to have a look?"

"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded.

When he traveled to Hong Kong, except for the initial illness, he never got sick again. The last time his son was born, he only went to the hospital once.

I have never been to the drugstore. Occasionally, if I need it, I will let my assistant go.

The two soon arrived at a Watsons store in Central.

As soon as he walked in, a woman came forward and said, "You two, are you here to buy medicine or cosmetics?"

"Let's take a look." Yang Wendong replied with a slight smile.

Afterwards, I took Bai Yushan around inside, and it turned out that medicines and cosmetics were mixed together.

With this business model, people who buy medicines are okay, but it is not right for people who buy cosmetics to come here. Are you feeling jealous?

And what’s even more outrageous is that there are a lot of daily necessities and even food inside, which is run as a grocery store!

At this time, the female saleswoman just now came over again and said: "You two, we have invited Lin Sheng, a famous Chinese medicine doctor in Hong Kong, today. Can you let him take a pulse?" 
“Take the pulse? OK.” Yang Wendong is also very interested in traditional Chinese medicine.

In his previous life, he once injured the meniscus of his knee due to long-term exercise. He went to the local First People's Hospital to get some Western medicine, but it didn't work for a month.

Later, I went to a traditional Chinese medicine hospital to give it a try. I originally wanted to use acupuncture to relieve the pain, but the doctor prescribed Chinese medicine for a week and I was fine after taking it for three days

"Two It's over here." The saleswoman pointed in the direction.

Yang Wendong and Bai Yushan also walked over. There was no one around, so he directly stretched out his hand to let the old Chinese doctor take his pulse.

“I am very masculine, very young, and in good health.” The old Chinese doctor felt the pulse for half a minute and said with a smile.

"Awesome!" Yang Wendong also smiled, his masculine power is indeed very strong.

Subsequently, Bai Yushan took her pulse and found that she had poor sleep and lack of exercise. Bai Yushan also called it a miracle.

Afterwards, the two came out, and Bai Yushan was still muttering: "How did the old man know?"

"Traditional Chinese medicine is so magical." Yang Wendong said: "It's a pity that people who know it Less and less.”

Bai Yushan said: “Because there is no systematic teaching method like Western medicine?”

"Smart." Yang Wendong nodded and added: "In the case of Watsons, you can see the problem in just one store. No wonder it's such a loss."

"Hmm~"

...

The next night, Yang Wendong stayed at Changxing Plaza.

At around 7 o'clock, there was a knock on the door, and Yang Wendong said: "Come in."

Qin Zhiye, Wei Zetao, and Zheng Zhijie walked in together, and first greeted: "Yang Sheng."

"Sit." Yang Wendong nodded, and the four of them sat together, while Bai Yushan gave each person a seat. Made a cup of hot tea. Yang Wendong first asked: "How bad is Watson's information?"

Qin Zhiye replied: "Yang Sheng, I have found a person here who specializes in studying many companies in Hong Kong. Media man, he told us, Watsons Last year’s loss was about HK$1.1 million;

The two core businesses of soda and pharmacy have fallen into losses, and now they rely entirely on previous profits and the sale of some former properties to obtain funds.”

"They have quite a lot of properties?" Yang Wendong smiled.

Most companies in Hong Kong cannot bear the loss of more than one million Hong Kong dollars a year. If a company has no foundation, it will not be able to sustain it in the first year;

However, British capital Companies are an exception. Companies that were established early may have bought properties on Hong Kong Island a hundred years ago or decades ago, but today they are worth more than one million Hong Kong dollars.

Qin Zhiye said: "There are many, at least there are three large factories on Hong Kong Island, which produce distilled water and soda, as well as some other store properties.

The time is too short, I haven’t gotten the detailed data yet.”

"Well, don't worry, just know a little bit about it first." Yang Wendong nodded and asked: "I went to Watson's store the day before yesterday. They sell more groceries than grocery stores. Do you know what's going on?"

Qin Zhiye replied: "I heard that it was because business began to deteriorate ten years ago, so they mixed pharmacies with cosmetics stores. Together, I wanted to save money, and later added other daily necessities, food, etc. for the same reason.

But the overall business became worse and worse. In the end, I couldn't change it even if I wanted to, so I had no choice but to do it. I keep losing money like this.”

“You want to make any money, what a pig!” Yang Wendong said helplessly.

Street business, whether it is a large shop, a small shop or even a hawker, must have its own "track", that is, choose a direction to operate.

What you eat is what you eat, what you wear is what you wear, what you play with is what you play with, it must be clear and distinct.

Even a grocery store is essentially a daily necessities.

In this way, people who enter the store know their purpose.

But if you want to sell everything and make money, it will only lead to customers not coming in, because any customer who enters a store has a purpose, and generally they will only choose to specialize in shop for this business.

Even supermarkets with tens of thousands of products cannot be said to be 100% free from this restriction.

Wei Zetao said: "Yang Sheng, Watson's distilled water business is still good. We at Changxing Industrial used to buy water from them regularly. Later, when the industrial park had its own distilled water production equipment, we stopped cooperation. 
But most small factories in Hong Kong do not have this capability. Anyone who needs distilled water will buy it from Watsons. The market is still huge.”

“There should be a lot of competition in this business, right? Yang Wendong asked.

"Yes, there are a lot. Distilled water has no technical content." Wei Zetao replied: "But because Watsons was the first to make it, the production scale of distilled water is also the largest, and the stores are also the most comprehensive and have a lot of distribution. "Sending along the way, so the cost can be reduced to an extremely low level, and others cannot compete."

"This is a good way to monopolize." Yang Wendong smiled.

Through scale and a large number of early customers, and lowering prices, outsiders really have no chance.

Wei Zetao added: "Watson's is the only profitable business left. The soda business is very poor. Not to mention the Swire Group, even Lee's United Soda is far behind." 
"The soda business is more complicated, so we won't discuss it for now." Yang Wendong paused and said, "If the price is right, I will acquire Watsons. You can first discuss how much your business can help Watsons."

Qin Zhiye said: "You can leave it to me for publicity, whether it's soda, cosmetics or even pharmacies."

Zheng Zhijie said: "You can leave it to me for the property aspect, I still have some There are many street shops, or you can open stores in various shopping malls in the future.”

Wei Zetao thought for a while and said: "There is nothing that Changxing Industrial can do to help, unless you authorize us to buy soda for employees."

"Then there is no need, this is meaningless." Yang Wendong smiled. He smiled and said, "It would be nice to have some help, but Watsons still have to run the business normally;

Let's talk about it tomorrow after I meet with people from HSBC and Watsons for the first time."

The next day, Yang Wendong brought several senior executives from the headquarters office responsible for finance, legal affairs, and finance to the headquarters of HSBC Bank.

Sanders introduced in English: "Eric, this is Mr. Walter, he is now the person in charge of Watsons.

Mr. Walter, this is Eric Yang, the most famous Chinese tycoon in Hong Kong. "

"Hello, Mr. Walter. "Yang Wendong also said in English.

Walter can't speak Chinese, so it's not surprising that Watsons has become what it is today. The big boss doesn't even know the language of the most important local market.

"Hello, Eric. "Water also said politely.

Sanders said again: "Both of you, please sit down, Eric. Water's people have brought the latest information on Watsons. Your people can take a look first. look. ”

"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded and then ordered.

After that, the subordinates of both sides were checking the information, while Yang Wendong, Sanders, and Walter were chatting casually.

As for Watson's business, Yang Wendong has little to communicate with the Watson boss in front of him, and it is impossible for him to learn anything from a wealthy generation who has failed like this.

As long as there are no problems with the information provided by the other party and it does not jeopardize future acquisitions, that's fine.

How the Watsons go in the future still depends on themselves.

After more than an hour, the information was finally verified.

Lan Jun, who was in charge of legal affairs this time, came to Yang Wendong and said softly: "Yang Sheng, if you have any questions about the content of the other party's information, you have asked and confirmed it, but you still need to follow up to verify whether there are any problems with the information. Or omitted."

"Well, good work." Yang Wendong nodded.

Only when the other party provides some information, can you check the information based on the information, or search for problems that may have been "missed".

Sanders asked: "Yang Sheng, what do you think?"

"I need to check all the information first." Yang Wendong replied.

Sanders took out an envelope and said: "Okay, this is Mr. Walter's quotation."

Yang Wendong took the envelope and opened it. There was a 6 inside, followed by There are 6 0.

Sanders smiled and asked: "What do Yang Sheng think of the price?"

Yang Wendong replied: "Mr. Sanders, Watsons lost one million Hong Kong dollars last year. , this price is too expensive, right?”

"A loss is a loss. If there was no loss, they wouldn't sell it." Sanders said calmly: "But Watsons still has some good properties. According to the market price, they are almost 20 million Hong Kong dollars. The value is almost ten million even if the loan is removed.

If it were not for poor management, it would be impossible to buy it even if the price doubled. ”

Yang Wendong. After thinking for a while, he said: "I will reply after I confirm the information."

"Of course." Sanders said calmly.

In the following days, Lan Jun and a team under him also conducted a detailed investigation based on the information provided by Watsons.

A week later, Lan Jun reported: "Yang Sheng, on the surface, there is no big problem with the information provided by Watsons. The properties and debt amounts are correct;

But it conceals the future of the soda industry and the flow of people in the shops. Development trends, especially for shops, rents will rise in the next few years. The loss will be even more serious.”

“There is really no obligation to write this kind of future trend in this kind of report.” Yang Wendong shook his head and said, “We are all smart people, and this kind of data is. I will write when necessary."

"Yes," Lan Jun said.

Yang Wendong said again: "Then lower the price a little more, and the deal is almost done."

What he values is Watson's business team and channels. Even if these are a little worse, it will save several years and a lot of energy than letting him start alone.

As for the current performance, the difference is certain, otherwise he would not have been able to acquire it at a low price.

As for Watsons itself, its assets are pretty good. There are three factories on Hong Kong Island. Although it is industrial land, the total area is close to 100,000 square feet. Even if the factory is lost in the future, this land will be converted from industrial land to commercial building. Buildings were worth billions in the 1980s.

In addition to factories, Watsons also has more than 100 stores on Hong Kong Island, 46 of which are self-owned and in good locations. After all, they were properties in the early years. I bought them with my eyes closed at that time. Today they are in the city center. .

Of course, these fixed properties are mortgaged.

"Okay." Lan Jun promised: "I will discuss with Walter tomorrow."

"Well, also inform the personnel and ask them to look for talents who are proficient in beverage promotion and cosmetics business in Hong Kong. Yang Wendong added: "After acquiring Watsons, These two areas will be the focus of development. "

Cosmetics and beverages, these two large markets can be said to be worth trillions. Naturally, they need to be promoted, which is also the purpose of his acquisition of Watsons. Otherwise, There are many properties, so there is no need to acquire such companies.

As for medicines or traditional Chinese medicine, this is more complicated. He is still willing to promote it, but it also needs to be considered in the long term, and it is unlikely to achieve results in the short term.

PS: Please give me monthly tickets

This is not a boast of traditional Chinese medicine. The author’s experience in treating meniscus with traditional Chinese medicine in the article is personal. I find it miraculous.

(End of this chapter)