Chapter 511 Purchasing a Farm
As the scale of Pepsi's OEM business grows larger and larger, and Watson's own internal beverage industry is also developing, the demand for sugar is getting higher and higher;
In the early years, Watsons only built a jaggery processing plant in Hong Kong. It purchased jaggery from overseas and then refined it by itself, turning it into syrup and refined sugar. The former was used by the beverage industry for its own use, while the latter was used for normal sugar trading.
Whether it is the demand for beverages or the market's demand for sugar, the scale of sugar factories in Hong Kong is getting larger and larger. Once it reaches a certain level, you can consider moving to the front end;
Malaysia is the most suitable place for investment. It has a large area, the sugar industry has just started, there are many Chinese people, and it is not very far from Hong Kong, so there are plans to build a large-scale jaggery processing factory here.
Zhou Haoran replied: "We are still negotiating with the Malaysian government. There is no problem in building a rough sugar factory, but they want us to also produce refined sugar. This investment is relatively high, and the requirements for employees are very high, so I don’t really want to agree.”
"I don't agree with this either." Yang Wendong said: "Tell them that cooperation must be done step by step. We can't be expected to invest heavily immediately. Trust also develops gradually with each other."
< br>Sugar processing mainly involves two steps: The first step is to extract jaggery from plants with high sugar content such as sugar cane and beet. This step must be completed near the agricultural site, otherwise the transportation cost will be high, it can be said to be dirty and tiring, and the product will not be valuable;
The second part is the refined processing of jaggery. , this technology content is much higher, the equipment is also very expensive, and the requirements for technicians, quality inspectors, etc. are also very high;
In the early days, if it had not been for Swire to have this industry in Hong Kong, Watsons could directly poach People, otherwise it would be very difficult to do it.
"Okay." After receiving the boss's reply, Zhou Haoran naturally knew what to do.
Yang Wendong asked again: "Didn't you say before that Malaysia intends to sell the farm?"
"There is a piece of land with an area of 23,000 acres, in a small town below Perlis, Malaysia. Bordering Thailand," Zhou Hao Ran said: "But there is a problem. This land used to be a small forest and was a wasteland. If we get it, we still need to invest a lot of money in development?"
"Wasteland? This land? Is it suitable for growing sugar cane?" Yang Wendong asked.
23,000 acres is equivalent to approximately 15 square kilometers. This area would have been very large in the mainland in previous lives, but in some countries with few people and few people, farms of this size are more common;
For example, the largest farm in the United States in the previous life was 2,070 square kilometers, and there were even larger farms and ranches in Australia or South America.
Zhou Haoran replied: "Theoretically, it is possible. It is close to southern Thailand and the climate is similar to Thailand. I sent someone to analyze the soil and it is similar. Southern Thailand is the main place for growing sugar cane.
In addition, the locals have also planted sugar cane on this land, and the finished product is not bad, but it is not grown on a large scale, but in a small amount."
"That should not be a big problem. ," Yang Wendong nodded and asked: "How much do they quote for this wasteland? How much is the later development cost?"
Zhou Haoran said: "Their quote is 20,000 US dollars, which is not expensive, but I will think about it later. Turning all this land into sugar cane land will probably require an investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it can be done in batches, or you can rely on bank loans to invest, and then repay the debt after it becomes profitable.”
"Are you sure?" Yang Wendong asked with a smile.
Zhou Haoran replied: "I'm definitely not 100% sure, but we have demand ourselves, which means we don't have to worry about not being able to sell. This is the riskiest factor in large-scale agricultural planting;
The rest is the question of whether this land can be utilized to the maximum extent. I have also investigated this point. It requires a professional team to operate a large farm. There are also local Such people."
Yang Wendong thought for a while and asked: "Is it a permanent property?"
"Yes" Zhou Haoran replied: "Now the Malaysian government is also promoting it. The land transfer period is 999, but before that, a large amount of freehold land was in the hands of outsiders. No one paid attention to the 999 period offered by the government unless it was very cheap.
I still want it to be permanent. For us, the real investment is in subsequent renovations, not land costs. ”
Everyone knows that freehold property rights are better. When the outside world has a choice, whoever buys you for 999 years, although humans cannot live that long, the value can still be reflected.
This is also the case in Hong Kong. Any government that wants to promote this kind of thing will take a long, long time to succeed.
“Okay, let’s talk about the price. "Yang Wendong also agreed and said: "For loans, you can go to Hang Seng Bank or Standard Chartered Bank. They have business in Southeast Asia. ”
Doing business is naturally a little risky, and agricultural planting is indeed not what they are good at, but since they want the entire industry chain, they need to try it. It’s not that they want to save money, but Yang Wendong knows that, There will be many times in the future where the price of sugar will skyrocket and it will even be difficult to buy.
It is a trivial matter that his sugar industry cannot make money. If it affects the beverage industry, it will be over. Especially since he has signed a contract with PepsiCo. If he cannot buy sugar, they will not care about your reasons;
The extra thing is himself. To be Red Bull, you have to be prepared;
Your own farm does not need to be able to meet your own needs, but once you have one, the supply chain will be much safer.
"Okay." After Zhou Haoran agreed, he added: "Yang Sheng, such a large land is being developed piece by piece, so it is estimated that it will take three or four years to reach the maximum planting scale."
"It doesn't matter, just treat this farm as an experiment." Yang Wendong said: "If it succeeds, we will be able to establish a successful debt sugar industry in the future."
The sugar king in his previous life, Guo Henian, also began to invest heavily in the sugar industry after achieving success. If he wanted to make it big in this industry, he must have his own farms, processing plants, sales channels, etc.
The investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars is indeed not small, but such a large land will basically not depreciate in value in the future. Even if the sugar cultivation is not good, other things can be grown. "No problem, I will do my best here." Zhou Haoran asked again: "Yang Sheng, do you want to go and have a look?"
"Go to Malaysia?" Yang Wendong thought about it He thought, "Okay, I'll take some time to go there during this period and see how Kuala Lumpur is like."
As for a place that may become his new industrial base in the future, he naturally wants to take a look. , just like going to Singapore 3 years ago;
In three years, Changxing Industrial, Honor Electronics, and Watsons have all developed rapidly, and their industrial scale has also expanded rapidly. The production capacity in Hong Kong and Singapore is sufficient at present, but it is difficult to say what will happen in three years.
"Okay, I will negotiate the itinerary with Miss Aying." Zhou Haoran smiled.
Yang Wendong asked again: "How is the research on the Red Bull drink going?"
He has already registered the Red Bull brand, and his subordinates all know the name of the drink he is currently researching.
Zhou Haoran paused and said: "Yang Sheng, we have tested a few models that taste good, but we are not sure which one is suitable for the market. Why don't you go try it, Yang Sheng?" Try it? Let’s see which one is suitable.”
"Which one is suitable is not decided by me, it has to be decided by the market." Yang Wendong smiled and said: "Go and try it first before deciding."
"Okay, this way."
Zhou Haoran He took Yang Wendong to an experiment not far away;
Although there are many types of factories owned by Watsons, none of them are polluting industries. Except for chicken farms, The others were all put together to build an industrial park, although the scale is not as large as the Changxing Industrial Park in Kwun Tong, but it has become the most important economic core of Shatin Town;
The entire Shatin Town is because With Watson's investment, the economy has become more active. There are many more real estate, service industries and even official organizations. A large number of people nearby work in the industrial park.
In Watsons Beverage Laboratory:
Soon, several different light red drinks were brought up. Yang Wendong tasted them and said: "The taste is okay, and I really can't say which one is better. Each has a refreshing effect. How is it?”
The taste of these is a little different from the Red Bull in his previous life, but there are no two in the world. With the same leaves, it is obviously impossible to develop the same Red Bull in this life as in the previous life;
But this is not important. As long as the taste is good and the functions are similar, the next thing to do is to concentrate a lot of resources on marketing. That’s enough. Red Bull in the previous life also tasted great, and even Coca-Cola wasn’t the best tasting, but the publicity is enough.
Zhou Haoran replied: "The refreshing effects are similar. We have also sent a lot of drinks to the factories in the group for night shift workers to drink at night. They all have some effects and can help people recover mentally. Some.”
"In that case, we will study several flavors, and then send them to some supermarkets in Europe and the United States, and invite local people to drink them to see what flavors they like." Yang Wendong nodded and said: "The main market for our future Red Bull beverage will be Europe and the United States. . ”
Red Bull can only take the high-price route. It is a niche drink and few people will be bored. Buy Red Bull to drink; in addition, I will invest heavily in publicity in the future, and my goal is to make it a high-end beverage;
In the beverage era dominated by Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, only high-end differentiation will be more suitable for the market. This is also the reason why many local brand drinks in the mainland were more expensive than Coke in the previous life, and they couldn't beat them at the same price.
The profit is high, which can ensure the establishment of factories in Hong Kong and even Europe and the United States in the future. It can also alleviate the situation in which our own group only dumps in Europe and the United States but does not invest in factories in the future.
Zhou Haoran agreed: "Okay, now I will send these models to Europe and America first."
A week later, Yang Wendong, Zhou Haoran and their assistants chartered a flight to Malaysia. However, they did not go directly to Kuala Lumpur. Instead, they went to Perlis first and came directly to the farm they were about to buy.
"Yang Sheng, this is a farm of about 6*2.5km, but there are no roads inside, so we can only pass through these jeeps." Zhou Haoran said: "This car will be a bit difficult to ride. Uncomfortable."
"It's okay, I also like jeeps." Yang Wendong smiled.
When he was young in his previous life, that is, in the 1990s, Jeep could be said to be famous throughout the country.
A team of several vehicles welded with steel bars and several people carrying thermal weapons set off quickly and circled the entire farm.
After half a day, everyone started to make a bonfire. Yang Wendong said: "This place is not bad. There are many ponds, plenty of rain, and a small river inside. It is indeed a good potential farm."
"Yang Sheng, there are actually many places like this in Malaysia." Zhou Haoran smiled: "It's just that if you want to convert these places into agricultural land, it will cost a lot of money, and the return on investment is not very high, so there is not much capital. Willing to try."
" In fact, there are many such places in Australia and America. "Yang Wendong also said: "We don't want to invest in farms on a large scale, just serve the sugar industry."
In this era, environmental awareness is not very strong. , even if there are, many of them only target the discharge of polluted air and water, etc., that is, the kind of commercial activities that will directly harm the human body;
As for the conversion of forests into farming, almost no one objects, so many people You don't have enough to eat or even starve to death, but you still protect the forest?
"Yes." Zhou Haoran nodded and said.
Yang Wendong said again: "Then go back. After you negotiate the price here, you can sign a contract with the Malay government. We bought this land and then tried to plant sugar cane and build a jaggery processing factory next to it;
From now on, this place will be used as our experimental field. It was successful. Then consider purchasing other land.”
PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
I checked that the current price of large farms in the United States and Australia is tens to hundreds of dollars per acre, and about 100,000 per square kilometer. -$50, depending on location and infrastructure;
So compared to the Malaysian farm prices in the 1970s, the price of wasteland was a few hundred dollars, and the finished product was several thousand dollars per square kilometer
(End of this chapter)