Chapter 063 Matchmaking
Controlling Prawit means controlling part of the white and black worlds in Chiang Mai Province.
Although Siam and Luzon are both bad boys, they are a little better than Luzon. At least there are not too many blatant local separatist families.
Although the royal family of Siam is as arrogant and domineering as the big families, they still have a little dignity and their internal control is relatively good.
This ensures that the power of the prefect, Bawei, will not be severely restricted. Of course, there is a medium-sized family behind Bawei that supports him and secretly controls the Ring Snake Gang.
Through Bavi's connections, Domino quietly captured the top leaders of the Krait Gang and took down this small gang with 1,367 members.
Domino also arranged a Spider Web Manager in Chiang Mai through Yang Mengjiao's Hongsawadi branch to serve as the behind-the-scenes controller of the Krait Gang, and at the same time asked Bawi to cooperate.
After arranging all this, Domino changed back into an oriental man and temporarily lived in Chiang Mai under the name Mu Qing.
After all, her mission was to cooperate with Yang Mengjiao and completely infiltrate the Golden Triangle area. Yang Mengjiao was making efforts in Hongsawadi, while she was coordinating and cooperating in Chiang Mai.
Chen Jianxiong naturally didn't have time to come and do this kind of task in person. After all, he was getting busier and busier, and he had to deal with all kinds of matters in the Security Department. It was impossible for him to stay in Bangkok for a long time.
Therefore, it is highly likely that the Siam Intelligence Station and the Golden Triangle strategy will be taken over by Domino.
June 16th.
Bawi accompanied Liu Zhifan to meet at the White Orchid Restaurant in Chiang Mai Province, and the two sides held talks on investment in factory construction.
"On behalf of the Chiang Mai Province, I welcome your company's willingness to invest in building a factory. At the same time, I can also provide your company with some help within my capacity." Bawit said with a wry smile.
Liu Zhifan also smiled: "Thank you for your strong support, and I wish us a pleasant cooperation."
The two sides clinked their glasses lightly.
The other members of the Bawi family present were also very happy at this time, because this beverage and canning factory would be operated as a joint venture, in which the Aoba Group would hold 67% of the shares and the Bawi family would hold 33%, and would be responsible for all document processing and factory land purchase.
In addition, the sales of canned food and beverage products in Siam were also contracted by the Prawit family.
Liu Zhifan wanted to march into Bangkok, Siam, but the problem was that there were too many big families there. Just the royal power group controlled by the Siamese royal family was not a force that was easy to talk to.
So he used Domino's connections to focus on Chiang Mai, Siam's second largest city.
The technology to run a canned food and beverage factory is not difficult, and Chiang Mai has a tropical monsoon climate, so the local fruit production is quite high.
In particular, the Bawi family, one of the local tyrants, is also a large landowner in the local area. They can purchase local fruits to make canned goods and juices, and then import glass bottles from the glass factory in Hongsavadi.
In fact, packaging cost is the highest among the costs of a bottle of beverage, which can account for 40-60% of the total cost, while the beverage itself only accounts for about 30-40%.
It seems like a very stupid thing to import glass bottles from Hongsawadi.
In fact, at the Aoba Group's glass factory in Hongsavadi, taking a 500ml glass bottle as an example, the cost after adding the bottle cap is only US$0.012.
The retail price of a 450ml bottle of Coca-Cola in Siam is 15 Thai baht, equivalent to about 0.45 US dollars, but its production cost is only about 0.045 US dollars, of which the packaging cost is about 0.032 US dollars.
Can you see the difference?
Even though the cost of glass bottles will increase by about US$0.01 during transportation, Aoba Group's glass bottles are still highly competitive.
What’s more, glass bottles have another advantage, which is that they can be recycled and reused in the long run, which can further offset the transportation costs.
Therefore, Aoba Group can crush other manufacturers by engaging in price wars.
Don’t underestimate the cost difference of just a few cents. Sometimes business competition is so cruel that a cost difference of a few cents means a difference in the two parties’ ability to withstand pressure.
Liu Zhifan does not intend to only produce fruit juice and canned food. Carbonated drinks, tea drinks and functional drinks will also be involved in the future.
At that time, Chiang Mai Soda’s 450ml Coke will be sold directly for 10 baht a bottle, which will directly destroy the entire market. As long as they do not lose money, they will sell it at the floor price.
Both Bawi and Liu Zhifan were very satisfied with this cooperation.
Especially for Bawi, although this cooperation was ordered by Domino, the Bawi family could gain a lot of benefits from it, which reduced his resistance to joining the organization a lot.
But he didn't know that the biological chip in his brain was subtly correcting his thoughts.
After the two parties reached a cooperation agreement, Liu Zhifan asked an employee who was a former spider web manager to be in charge of the work of the Chiang Mai branch.
He quickly returned to Hongsavadi.
At this time, the sphere of influence of the Hongsawady branch had expanded northward from the previous Taninthayi Province to Mon State, Karen State, Kayah State and a small part of Shan State.
The nearest stronghold is less than a hundred kilometers away from the Golden Triangle.
To the north of Chiang Mai is the Golden Triangle region, and to the west are Karen State and Mon State, which are connected together.
Glass products from Dawei Port can be transported by sea to Mawlamyine Port, the capital of Mon State, and then northward through the Salween River (Nujiang River) to Mae Sariang in Siam, and then transported to Chiang Mai by road.
This route is only about 800 kilometers in total.
What's more, Qingye Group has already planned to prepare a second glass factory near Mawlamyine Port in Mon State. When the time comes, the distance from the second glass factory to Chiang Mai will be further shortened to about 450 kilometers.
Therefore, Liu Zhifan stayed in Chiang Mai for two days and then hurried back to the headquarters in Dawei to begin preparing for the second glass factory in Mawlamyine Port.
He then passed a board resolution to invest US$10 million to dredge the lower reaches of the Salween River, increasing the navigable length of the Salween River from the previous 90 kilometers to about 300 kilometers.
Of course, these 300 kilometers include some tributary waterways, and only ships of 500 tons can navigate.
If we want to further improve the navigation capacity, we must build a dam to reduce the drop in the river channel, make the water surface smoother, and increase the depth of the river.
However, investing in the construction of a dam is not something that the Aoba Group can afford at this stage. Even if it secretly controls the finances of the three states, it still cannot sustain such a huge project.
However, this time the dredging will at least allow 500-ton transport ships to reach Siam, which will greatly promote the economic development of the two places.
the other side.
Aoba Group's glass products and beverages also quickly spread throughout the coastal areas of Hongsavadi.
The cheap and high-quality purified water, juice and glass products have brought a huge impact to the Hongsavadi market, which already has a fragile industry.
The locals, whose income is already pitifully low, don't care about sentiments or brands. In addition, the prices in Hongshawadi are very high, so the Qingye Group's products, which are cheap and good quality, are in short supply as soon as they are launched on the market.
Especially within the area controlled by the Aoba Group, once the products of other beverage factories overlap with those of Aoba Beverages, there is basically no room for resistance.
Relying on this price war, Aoba Group used the profits for expansion and mergers and acquisitions. In June alone, it acquired three local small beverage factories.
In addition, through the connections in both the black and white worlds, Qingye Beverage Company has formed joint ventures and mergers, and now has 12 beverage processing plants under its umbrella.
This snowball-like expansion further consolidated the Aoba Group's influence in the local area.
After all, processing plants need employees, and fruits also provide channels for local plantations and farmers. Once this system takes root, it will be difficult for external forces to compete with the Aoba Group.
