The Birth of the Hong Kong Island Family.

Chapter 45 [Signing a Big Order] (Please follow up!)

At the beginning of a new week, Lin Zhichao summoned the management of Changjiang Properties and began to arrange work.

"Next, we will launch the 'Old Gas Works Site' project on Ferry Street in Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon. The 20 tenement buildings (5 floors) of this project will be subcontracted to two contractors, and the engineering department of Cheung Kong Properties will manage and dispatch them in a unified manner. Huang Manager, is there any problem in your engineering department?"

The engineering department of Cheung Kong Properties is the department with the largest number of employees, and it is also a department with strong professional skills, with a total of six employees. At the same time, Lin Zhichao is also a member of this department, and he usually likes the work of this department.

Huang Changhong said confidently: "No problem! The projects of Shanlin Road, Modu Street, and Happy Valley are all on the right track. Our department can guarantee that the four projects will start at the same time. Even Boss Tang's factory construction will not be affected."

It's a very normal thing. After all, although there are many projects, the contractor is still supervising and organizing the construction. The engineering department of Changjiang Properties is more of a supervisor and assistant.

Lin Zhichao said with a smile: "I may also build a factory here, you have no problem, right?"

Huang Changhong said: "No problem, there are many contractors who want to cooperate with us, and we have enough manpower."

Although Lin Zhichao intends to support Sun Jian as a contractor, he will not entrust all the projects to him. Changjiang Real Estate must keep multiple contractors available under his hands.

Lin Zhichao nodded and said, "Okay, it's probably a matter of one or two months."

Next, everyone discussed the arrangements for the 'Ferry Street Gas Works Former Site Project', which is also a private housing estate, consisting of 20 tenement buildings (5 storeys high) with a total of 100 floors.

The preliminary work has been completed. It was originally planned to start construction in December, but it has been waiting for sufficient funds, so it is expected to start in early February and be completed in the first half of 12.

As for sales, it must be placed in the second half of this year (1948), when the purchasing power of the market will be stronger.At that time, there will be many wealthy people and descendants of warlords coming to Hong Kong, and they will all be high-quality customers.

Therefore, for this project, Lin Zhichao feels that it is no problem to earn 100 million Hong Kong dollars, and there is no need to share it with others.

In this way, the net asset value of Changjiang Properties will reach 280 to 300 million in the second half of this year.However, Lin Zhichao only invested 76 Hong Kong dollars, and the value rose to four times in two years.

Of course, Lin Zhichao will definitely invest the money, it is impossible to keep it idle in the account, he has too many investment directions.

When Lin Zhichao came to the production plant of Cheung Kong Industrial, he observed the production area very carefully, stopping from time to time to think about how to improve the machine?What is the direction of improvement?
Although he is not a professional mechanical engineer, many machines are actually improved by the production boss instructing the mechanical engineer according to the actual situation.After all, mechanical engineers only know about mechanical production and research and development, but not necessarily the direction of improvement.

"Boss, this Mr. Smith took our name card and said he wanted to inspect our factory!" Wang Liang, the manager of the production department, walked in with a tall foreigner and said.

Lin Zhichao greeted him with a smile, and said in English: "Mr. Smith, hello, I am the boss here, you can call me 'Lin'."

It is impossible for a foreigner to inspect the factory for no reason, let alone hold a name card of his own company. It is very likely that it is a zipper businessman that Li Gaofu met in RB last time.

Smith looked at the small Changjiang Industrial factory and said, "Boss Lin, your factory seems a little small."

Lin Zhichao was not in a hurry, and said: "The new factory is still under construction, and there will be dozens of them here."

Smith did not continue the topic, but said: "Mind if I take a tour?"

"Of course! I'll take you!"

Next, Smith's impression changed quickly, and he said: "Although your factory is small, it is well-organized and very clean, which makes my eyes shine."

Lin Zhichao introduced confidently: "Our factory implements 4S management, sorting (Seiri), rectifying (Seiton), cleaning (Seiso), and cleaning (Seiketsu)."

Smith was immediately interested and started to visit in more detail.

"What about your process of making sliders? Is it outsourced?"

"Of course not! Because the place is too small, we rented a nearby factory building, and I can show you around."

He was sure that this foreigner might bring some changes to the company, so he introduced him enthusiastically.

An hour later, Lin Zhichao took Smith back to the office in the office building.

"Mr. Smith, do you need a zipper?"

Smith said with a smile: "More than a month ago, a gentleman named 'Li' from your company happened to be promoting your zippers, and I met him. I saw that your zippers are produced by automatic zipper machines, so I became interested. , so leave the contact information.”

Lin Zhichao pretended to be enlightened, and said, "I heard Manager Li talking about you, but I didn't expect you to come to our company. It's really gratifying!"

Smith took out a zipper from his bag. It was a Cheung Kong product.

After trying several times, he said: "I asked the staff to pull this zipper thousands of times, and I was sure that it was of the same quality as the zippers produced in the United States. I was relieved to come to your factory for inspection. I was also very satisfied with the inspection just now. I think Mr. Lin, you are a boss who is good at management, so the products you produce must be right."

"Thank you"

Lin Zhichao was also a little surprised that this American zipper manufacturer actually asked his staff to pull zippers for more than a month before he came to investigate.

Of course, his heart quickly became excited, which meant that Smith would hand over a big order to Cheung Kong.

Smith went on to say: "I visited the RB zipper factory last year, and found that they were all handmade, with high prices and poor quality. I was very disappointed. I didn't expect that soon, you in Hong Kong would use automatic zipper machines, and the products met my requirements. Mr. Lin, you are very smart and know that once you adopt automatic zipper machines, you will soon occupy the Asian market."

Lin Zhichao replied: "I also learned from a magazine that automatic zipper machines are used to produce zippers in Europe and the United States. So I was thinking that the products produced by machines must be cheaper and of better quality."

The two chatted enthusiastically. When he learned that Lin Zhichao intended to improve the automatic zipper machine, and even developed an 'automatic slider punching machine', Smith admired Lin Zhichao's ambition even more.

Finally, Smith finally got back to the topic: "I need 1.2 meters of copper zippers. At what price are you going to wholesale them to me?"

Lin Zhichao suppressed the ecstasy in his heart, and quickly calculated in his mind.

A 1-meter zipper is considered to be 5 trouser chains, while copper zippers are basically used in the army, jeans, bags, and aluminum alloy zippers are generally used in trouser chains, of course not absolutely.

The cost of 1 meter of copper zipper is about 3.2 Hong Kong dollars, which is already a reduced cost; at the same time, the cost of 1 meter of aluminum alloy zipper has been reduced to less than 2.5, that is, less than 5 cents a piece.

The cost can be reduced a lot, but Cheung Kong cannot do it right now.

"US$1.1 per meter (HK$4.4)"

Smith was naturally ecstatic in his heart, the price was 25% cheaper than what he imported from the United States.

However, he still continued to counter-offer.

Lin Zhichao did not let go, he was sure that Smith had already taken advantage of it.

At the same time, Cheung Kong is currently not short of orders. Last month (1947.12), it completed 18 orders (3.6 meters).

"Okay, let's cooperate at this price first. I need you to deliver within 20 days. Do you have enough raw materials?"

"Yes, we purchase raw materials in large quantities, so they are relatively sufficient."

Smith nodded. He also saw that Cheung Kong was busy with orders, so he didn't continue to bargain.He understood that the young man had found a way to make a fortune.

Seeing that the order has been negotiated, Lin Zhichao hopes to continue to cooperate in the future, so he said: "At present, we are building a new factory, and the cost price will definitely be reduced in the later period. At that time, while ensuring better quality, we will also sell to Your price is reduced."

Smith smiled and said, "OK, don't worry, we will cooperate for a long time."

In this way, Cheung Kong acquired a big customer.

Although Smith did not say the purpose of these zippers, Lin Zhichao guessed that it should be an order for the US military stationed in Japan, otherwise copper zippers would not be used.

As for the long-term cooperation, Lin Zhichao feels that it is a little daunting, because once the local zipper manufacturer in RB changes to automatic zipper machine production, then the government of R will support the domestic enterprises.

At that time, it would be good for Cheung Kong to get a share of the RB civilian market; if not, the RB market will be very difficult.You must know that the wages of RB workers in this era are not high. After World War II, RB's homeland is even more dilapidated than Hong Kong.

So, when you can earn it, hurry up and earn it.There is no RB market, and there are markets in Europe, America, and Southeast Asia. If you can’t compete with YKK, you must at least open up the low-end market.

In short, making money is no problem.

(End of this chapter)