Hong Kong Island's New Rich Era

Chapter 4 Factory
On September 9, senior management of the Xiangjiang Orange Electronics Factory was notified to attend a meeting in the conference room.

Liu Zhicheng, accompanied by Su Kui, the financial director designated by his mother Yin Huifen, and lawyer Wang Fengyun, came to the Xiangjiang Orange Electronics Factory.

Liu Zhicheng was a little surprised when he learned about this from the factory briefing. He didn't expect that this was an OEM factory for electronic game consoles.

Originally, this was an electronics factory that supplied pirated arcade machines to South Asia, but due to its low prices, it took away a lot of the genuine market and infringed on the patents of the genuine factory.

Then they were sued by European and American arcade manufacturers as an example to others. After all, arcade piracy in Hong Kong was rampant during this period.

In order to settle the matter peacefully, the factory owner had to pay compensation to settle the lawsuit. However, he did not dare to reopen the factory, so he transferred it, which led to the orange factory that Liu Zhicheng owns today.

The assembly of a claw machine is simpler than that of an arcade machine. With just a slight modification, the claw machine can be produced immediately, but a prototype must be developed first.

This factory is located in Kwun Tong, Kowloon. It is not very large, with a five-story industrial building and nearly a hundred workers.

Although it has five floors, the floor space is relatively small, with each floor only about 5000 square feet, and there are few parking spaces.

Standing in the factory area, Liu Zhicheng could see the factory buildings and facilities at a glance.

He felt somewhat disappointed, thinking that the factory was too small and lacked sufficient technological accumulation, which was somewhat different from his ideal acquisition target.

But he only looked at the appearance and had not had time to gain a deeper understanding of the current situation of Hong Kong's manufacturing industry.

Hong Kong is a port city with a large population and limited land.

The Hong Kong government allocates limited industrial land each year, resulting in soaring industrial land prices. This also causes companies to try their best to reduce land costs when opening factories.

Industrial parks like those in the mainland of the previous life, which often cover hundreds or thousands of acres, would never appear in Hong Kong.

Almost all manufacturers in Hong Kong are concentrated in industrial buildings. Some industrial buildings are more than ten stories high and often house dozens of small factories.

Therefore, many factories in Hong Kong do not have dormitories and restaurants, but only workshops and offices.

The Orange Electronics Factory is able to occupy an industrial building on its own and is already a large electronics manufacturer in Hong Kong.

But in Kwun Tong, Kowloon, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of electronics assembly factories like this one.

The original production line of the Orange Factory was quite backward, and there was no concept of assembly line production at all. It could only assemble and produce about 40 arcade machines a day, with a production capacity of more than 1,000 machines per month.

Some people in the factory have been feeling uneasy during this period. Not only are the employees feeling a little nervous, but the management is also feeling uneasy.

Because everyone knows that their own factory infringed the patent of the genuine factory and was sued by European and American companies. Not only did they have to pay compensation, but the factory may not be able to continue operating in the future.

Although the financial crisis in Hong Kong has passed, no one dares to be unemployed in Hong Kong, otherwise they will not be able to pay the rent and the whole family will have to face the fate of living on the streets.

This is the current living condition of ordinary workers in Hong Kong, with ill fortunes and a life of hard work.

The first purpose of Liu Zhicheng's coming here today is to stabilize people's hearts. He must brag and cheer them up.

Sitting in the chief seat in the conference room, he said to everyone, "Today is the first meeting since I acquired the Orange Electronics Factory. I know everyone is a little nervous recently, but I will give you a reassurance today. Since I have taken over the factory, as long as everyone works hard, I will not make you unemployed."

Liu Zhicheng paused for a moment and glanced at everyone, giving them time to digest the information he had revealed. To his delight, they no longer had the sad expressions they had before the meeting, and some even smiled a little.

Because they see the hope of work and survival. From Liu Zhicheng's speech just now, we can hear two simple meanings.

First, Liu Zhicheng took over the electronics factory and the factory could continue to operate.

Second, the factory will not fire anyone just because the boss changes.

"But the assessment has already begun, and I believe everyone can pass the factory's assessment."

Liu Zhicheng had to put pressure on them because pressure gave them motivation.

"I won't say much about the assessment beforehand. After all, everyone knows what the assessment is all about."

"This meeting has only one main purpose, which is to develop a new product that will allow the factory to continue operating, and even expand its scale and move to a higher level," Liu Zhicheng continued.

After Liu Zhicheng finished speaking, he signaled Su Kui to distribute the claw machine files that had been prepared during this period to everyone.

Liu Zhicheng said: "Everyone can take a look at the information in your hands first. This will be a new product we are about to develop."

"As you can see, our new product is similar to an arcade machine, but a little taller than an arcade machine. It's about the height of a person, and three sides are transparent."

"Then some dolls are placed at the bottom of the box. There is a movable claw on the top, and there are several buttons on the outside that can control the movement of the claw to grab the dolls in the box."

Having said that, Liu Zhicheng waited for a moment to give everyone some time to digest the information and what he had just said.

In order to encourage everyone to speak up, Liu Zhicheng felt that as a young boss, he should be more generous.

He said: "Everyone can speak freely. If you have good suggestions that can help the product go into production as soon as possible, I will give you rewards.

When everyone heard the new boss say that rewards would be distributed, they were eager to try and prepared to put forward reasonable suggestions.

One of the middle-aged men in his 30s was the first to speak and ask, "Mr. Liu, what is the name of this machine?"

Liu Zhicheng thought about it and said, "Since there are some stuffed dolls in it for grabbing, let's call it a claw machine."

The middle-aged man is named Huo Haiqing. He graduated from a mechanical university in Europe and the United States. He is a mechanical design engineer in the Orange Factory, responsible for the factory's product design. He is also considered a high-paid employee in Hong Kong.

In order to produce pirated arcade machines, the Orange Factory traveled to various countries such as RB and North America to investigate the market.

Huo Haiqing continued, "Mr. Liu, I have seen finished machines similar to this one in RB before, and they are everywhere in their markets."

Liu Zhicheng smiled and said, "Yes, this is indeed not my original invention. This product has existed for more than 50 years, but they only used it as a gambling tool. I just developed it and produced a popular toy, a gaming and entertainment machine that can be operated by both adults and children."

Huo Haiqing suggested again: "Mr. Liu, since RB has similar products, can we send someone to RB to buy a device for research?"

(End of this chapter)