Chapter 306: Death Together
After attending the school's graduation ceremony, Shirakawa Holdings' financial closing was basically coming to an end.
Unlike the negligible tax amount last year, the total tax paid by all companies under Shirakawa Holdings today is approaching 10 billion yen.
The domestic market of Shirakawa Electric alone contributed about 6 billion in taxes, and Shirakawa Electric paid the full amount without a penny less.
It’s not that Baichuan Feng was willing to pay the money, but he had to pay it.
As the mainstay of Japan's taxation, corporate tax is a top priority for the Taxation Bureau.
Especially those civil servants in the Taxation Bureau, their behavior style can be described as abnormal.
It is said that in order to find out the business situation of a izakaya, civil servants from the Taxation Bureau changed into plain clothes and took turns squatting in front of the door of the izakaya for a month.
What? Picking up trash!
That's right, those civil servants stand in front of the trash cans of the pub every day and count the total number of bottles of wine consumed in the pub that day.
Then, based on the number of bottles, we can infer whether the izakaya's operating conditions are consistent with its reported revenue data.
With such a perverted civil servant around, Baichuan Feng wouldn't dare to cheat.
Who knows if they will go to major electrical appliance stores to count the shipment volume of Shirakawa Electric. If they are caught in the act, it will be a lot of fun.
Not to mention anything else, the plan to go public this year alone is likely to fail.
A tax scandal before going public is definitely a fatal blow to a company.
Therefore, in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, all the companies under Shirakawa Holdings behaved honestly and paid all taxes.
Because of the huge tax payment in fiscal 1982, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry also awarded Shirakawa Denki the "Certificate of Export Contribution Enterprise in 1982".
The value of this certificate is similar to that of picking up a piece of gold nugget and handing it over to the country, and getting a bonus of 500 yuan and a banner.
It's better than nothing, at least it's officially certified. Put it on the corporate display wall in the lobby on the first floor, and it's considered a face.
Baichuan Feng was even thinking about whether to print the certificate page on the product's outer packaging and take the opportunity to promote it.
But after thinking about it, he gave up the idea because it was too low.
It seems that it is not popular to do this in daily life, so forget it.
Throwing the certificate on the table, Baichuan Feng began to care about another major event in the company.
“Is this the LCD display we produced ourselves?”
"Hai" Akagi, who was standing in front of the desk, quickly handed him the handheld game console.
Baichuan Feng took it and looked at it carefully. It seemed no different from before. He turned on the power of the handheld and tried it. It was OK. There was indeed no difference from before.
After all, it is the first batch of products to come off the production line. Compared with the previous LCD screen of Xuyu Seiko, there is no difference and it is considered a success.
“What is the yield rate of our products?”
"With the help of Stanley and Nitto Electric, we can now reach more than 80%."
80%? Not bad, Baichuan Feng nodded with satisfaction.
As far as he knows, the yield rate of Suwa Seiko and Sharp is basically maintained between 85% and 94%.
The first batch of products from the Shirakawa LCD factory rolled off the production line, and it is already very good to achieve a yield rate of 80%.
The production technology of TN-LCD is now very mature, and there are no additional difficult steps in the production process.
Therefore, with the help of two professional companies, Shirakawa, a beginner, can achieve a yield rate of over 80%.
Of course, this is because the LCD screens cut nowadays are generally small-sized products. If they are replaced with large screens of more than ten inches, it would be good if it could exceed half.
Moreover, this is only the first batch of products to roll off the production line. As each production link becomes more proficient, there is still room for improvement in the yield rate.
After fiddling with the handheld game console for a while and making sure it had no obvious flaws, Baichuan Feng finally felt relieved.
"So based on today's yield rate, how much does it cost for one LCD screen?"
In addition to the yield rate, another issue that Baichuan Feng is concerned about is cost.
These two factors determine whether LCD factories can survive independently in the future.
Besides, the reason why Shirakawa Kaede chose to make the LCD himself was because of the cost .
When this question was mentioned, Akagi's face became a little excited, "President, now the cost of our own LCD is less than 100 yen per piece."
"So cheap?" Baichuan Feng looked at him in surprise.
"Hui," Akagi nodded affirmatively, "Stanley and Nitto Electric gave us some discounts on the raw materials, plus the yield rate is good, so the cost is so low."
"Are the costs of Suwa Seiko and Sharp also in this range?" Shirakawa Feng changed the subject and began to care about another issue.
"About the same," Akagi gave an affirmative answer.
Damn, the price is so low, but they dared to charge me 500 yen per piece.
It’s black, so damn black!
Now that I have my own production line, don't even think about making a penny from me.
"How much of the handheld game console shipment volume can be met with our current production capacity?"
"Because there is only one production line, we can only meet about 25% to 30% of the demand now."
“Add four more production lines, and keep an eye on the factory in Kawasaki and speed up its expansion.
The sooner we complete the construction of the LCD factory, the more profitable our handheld game consoles will be."
"Yeah!" Akagi nodded in agreement.
The expansion of the LCD factory is primarily aimed at meeting the demand for handheld game consoles. As for the remaining production capacity, Shirakawa Kaede plans to reserve it for Walkmans and later CD players.
This small screen size is very suitable for use in portable electronic products.
LCD screens are used in electronic watches, handheld game consoles, walkmans, CD players and other products.
For example, this year Shirakawa Electric's new generation of walkman products will be equipped with a display screen.
The size doesn't need to be too big, a thumb size is enough.
This screen can be used to display simple track information and simple song timings.
Of course, this information is displayed digitally, for example, the tracks are arranged in order of 01, 02, 03...
The song timing is similar to that of an electronic watch, flashing by the seconds.
Very simple, but also very practical.
It’s not that Shirakawa Kaede doesn’t want to add more complex functions, such as displaying characters to present the song title, or directly displaying the lyrics.
But that requires separate support from the chip, which is not worth the cost.
And Walkman tapes don't support this function, but CD players do support it, but that's another story.
However, with the addition of a screen, the level of the walkman is completely different.
It is definitely a high-end product. Isn't it more stylish than a product that is covered tightly in a casing?
When making consumer electronics products, the word "new" must be emphasized.
To be more specific, I have what others do not.
Look, the Walkman has a display screen, which is unique to Shirakawa Electric.
As long as you are always one step ahead of others, you don't have to worry about the market share of your own products.
Of course, at present, most of the production capacity of LCD factories is supplied to handheld game consoles.
After all, the screen of a handheld game console is much larger, equivalent to the size of several electronic watches.
The LCD factory's quote for the handheld game console is around 180 yen for the screen.
It does not mean that if the cost of an LCD is less than 100 yen, it can be sold to the handheld game console division at this cost price.
Because LCD factories also need to make profits, otherwise how can they maintain their own operations?
Workers' salaries and factory operating costs both require money.
And don't forget that Stanley and Nitto Electric also have shares in the LCD factory.
It’s okay for you to reduce your own costs, but you can’t sacrifice the interests of others. That’s not how business works.
Besides, 180 yen is already cheaper than the 200 yen I paid originally from Suwa Seiko.
With this offer, Shirakawa Electric's profit from handheld game consoles will immediately increase by 320 yen.
It’s a good deal. Very good deal.
As the yield rate increases, the production cost of LCD factories will continue to decline.
By that time, Shirakawa Kaede would no longer be satisfied with LCD's self-sufficiency.
He also wanted to grab orders from Suwa Seiko and Sharp.
I asked you to raise the price, but now not only will I not let you earn a penny, I will also take away your job!
Anyway, with its own LCD factory and the handheld game console division to back it up, it basically doesn't have to worry about orders and won't starve to death.
The external quotations can be very high. We will squeeze every one of the two companies, Suzuki Seiko and Sharp, to the death.
Baichuan Feng is such a vengeful person that as long as it is profitable, he doesn't mind making LCD's quotation take a big dive.
Anyway, Baichuan Holdings' core business is not here, so just treat it as a price war to practice.
In the DRAM chip business, Xiao Ri can crush its peers all over the world.
It’s not too much to say that Shirakawa’s LCD factory is a competitor of Juanjuan Neon.
Shirakawa Feng expressed his desire to learn this fine tradition.
There is also the STN-LCD being developed by SIC, which seems to be making good progress.
It is very likely that we will be able to see the finished product this year, and then we can give a little surprise to our two colleagues in the LCD industry.
Baichuan Feng likes making friends, whether they are old friends or new friends, he is happy to communicate with them.
With Sony and Aiwa in front and Nintendo in the back, he wouldn't mind adding Sharp, Suwa Seiko, etc.
Solving the screen problem of the handheld console has relieved me of a big worry.
After all, the handheld game console business is Shirakawa Electric's second largest core profit growth point, and he cannot help but pay attention to it.
After these matters were handled, it was officially April.
And this month there is also an extremely important matter that requires Baichuan Feng to take personal action.
This matter concerns his major future layout and is closely related to his future foundation.
In mid-April, Shirakawa Kaede appeared at Akita Airport again.
In addition to people from our own company, this trip also includes teams from two major offices, Keio Group and Tokyu Group.
"Shirakawa-san, Nagata-san, Ogawa-san, welcome!"
At the bottom of the airport gangway, a long red carpet reached directly to the feet of Shirakawa Kaede and the others.
And Kikuharu Sasaki was also waiting here from afar with a group of Akita managers.
Seeing them coming down, the Akita governor immediately stepped forward, shook the hands of several guests with both hands and shook them vigorously.
At this time, the local media in Akita who were gathered outside also raised their cameras and took pictures non-stop.
Click, click, click! Even in broad daylight the light of the flash cannot be blocked.
Apparently, Akita Prefectural Government has also made many arrangements for this welcoming ceremony.
When everyone met and exchanged greetings for a while, Kikuji Sasaki also extended his hand.
"Everyone, please. Everything is ready at the Akita Office. We are waiting for your arrival."
Nagata Masaru and Shirakawa Kaede nodded, then they got in the car and headed straight for the Akita Prefectural Office.
