Chapter 717: Jianlibao is sold at a low price
In Lu Yiming's villa, Lu Yiming and Shi Jinhua were having dinner on the balcony with a view of the sea. The food they ate was cooked by the chef Lu Yiming had asked to come to his house.
This actually reminded Lu Yiming of something, that is, as the richest man in Asia, it was really outrageous that he did not have his own chef team.
But there is nothing that can be done about it. After all, he is studying at a university and traveling everywhere. It is impossible for him to ask a team of chefs to cook in the school.
That's too outrageous.
However, now that I have graduated from university, I can consider this issue.
Like today, when inviting Shi Jinhua to dinner, it is not appropriate to go to a hotel in public, so you can invite him to your home and let the chef cook.
In fact, many wealthy people do this.
Facing the relaxed Lu Yiming, Shi Jinhua smiled bitterly and said, "Boss Lu, it's always good to forgive others when you can. It's just a small conflict, why do you have to make such a big fuss?"
Although Lu Yiming is the richest man in Asia, and the value he has brought to Baiyun City, Guangdong Province, and even the entire country is immeasurable. But Wujixian is also a major taxpayer. For the government, this palm and back of the hand are flesh and blood. Isn't it good for everyone to work together in harmony to make money and pay more taxes?
Lu Yiming poured a glass of red wine for Shi Jinhua and argued, "Director Shi, you are not being realistic. You said that I made a big fuss about this matter? Didn't that brat write about it in the gossip newspapers and included the whole family in it?"
Shi Jinhua was secretly dissatisfied with Lu Yiming's statement. If Lu Yiming hadn't insisted on slapping people in public, none of these things would have happened, right?
Lu Yiming's investment in Guangdong Province has exceeded 30 billion, especially the Future Capital Headquarters Building which is under construction. It is the tallest building in Baiyun City and a future landmark building.
Shi Jinhua didn't dare to offend such a rich sponsor and could only grumble a few words in his heart.
But Shi Jinhua couldn't help but say, "Boss Lu, it's only Liu Fanhui who has offended you. There are thousands of employees in the Infinity Group, and they haven't offended you. There's no need to destroy their jobs as well, right? If something goes wrong, many people will die."
Unemployment is an unbearable burden for many ordinary working families.
Perhaps a salary of a few hundred yuan is the lifeline for their family.
Once this lifeline is lost, many families may suffer irreparable tragedy.
Lu Yiming said calmly, "Director Shi, you know whether the so-called health products sold by the Infinity Group are useful or not. I have no guilt for ruining such a company. As for the employees who lost their jobs because of this, it has nothing to do with me to be honest."
Shi Jinhua couldn't help but frown when he heard this. Just as he was about to speak, Lu Yiming continued, "However, I am a kind-hearted person. After the bankruptcy of the Infinity Group, I can promise to help clean up the mess left by Liu Zongguang. As long as the original employees obey the management, I will not fire them."
At this point, Shi Jinhua had no idea what Lu Yiming was going to do. But since Lu Yiming said that these employees could be retained, Shi Jinhua breathed a sigh of relief and confirmed, "Are you telling the truth?"
Lu Yiming said frankly: "I can't take back my words once they've been spoken."
After Lu Yiming's repeated confirmation, Shi Jinhua's psychological burden was gone. After all, the livelihoods of thousands of employees were no small matter. If there was a slight mistake, it would be a huge disaster.
However, Shi Jinhua immediately remembered something and asked in confusion, "Boss Lu, excuse me for being so presumptuous, but you are doing this without limits, and you also said that you will retain all employees after bankruptcy. Do you also want to sell health products?"
If that's the case, then it all makes sense.
Why did Lu Yiming make such a fuss for no reason? The root cause was that he had set his sights on Infinity and wanted to bring it down in this way and take over the company at the lowest price.
However, there are also bugs here. Now that this has happened, the brand of Infinity has been ruined. What’s the point of Lu Yiming taking over?
Facing Shi Jinhua's slightly strange look, Lu Yiming quickly clarified, "No , no, no , I don't sell health products. I will never do such things as cheating grandpa and grandma out of their retirement money or life-saving money. There are no outsiders present today, so I will tell you. I plan to sell functional drinks."
"Energy drink? What's that?"
Shi Jinhua could understand the word "function" and knew the word "drink", but he was really confused about what this functional drink was.
Lu Yiming made up a story: "Traditional beverages are mainly delicious. For example, Coca-Cola, which is sold all over the world, is a popular carbonated beverage. But this kind of beverage is not healthy. It is like fried junk food. Drinking too much will cause problems for your body."
"Functional drinks are different. They are positioned as healthy. By adjusting the composition and content ratio of nutrients in the drinks, they can regulate human functions to a certain extent. For example, Red Bull, the company's product is an energy drink, which is said to help people resist fatigue and replenish physical strength."
Shi Jinhua had certainly heard of the Red Bull Group. With annual sales of 22.815 billion yuan in 2020, the Red Bull Group was just an ordinary beverage company in Pengcheng at that time. Among a bunch of bigwigs in the beverage industry, it was inconspicuous and looked like a minion.
The only thing that left a slight impression on people was that the founder of Red Bull borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on publicity.
This time, Lu Yiming was obviously well prepared for the acquisition of the Infinity Group: the production line of the Infinity Group was originally used for the production of beverages, and with a slight adjustment of the production line, it can be used to produce new products at any time.
Shi Jinhua asked Lu Yiming excitedly: "Are you going to turn the Infinity Group into another Jianlibao?"
Jianlibao was born in 1984 and became popular after the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. It was known as the "magic water of the Xia country". As the first beverage in Xia country to add alkaline electrolytes, Jianlibao took the lead in introducing the concept of sports drinks. In 1997, sales reached 5.4 billion, becoming the first in the beverage industry.
Facing Shi Jinhua's comparison with Jianlibao, Lu Yiming was not polite and said calmly: "This can be regarded as a small goal in the first stage."
Wow, this is just a small goal in the first stage?
That's Jianlibao, not some random company like that.
But no matter how arrogant Lu Yiming's words were, Shi Jinhua did not doubt whether he could really do it. After all, the person who said these words was the youngest richest man in Asia in history.
"Okay, I'll report to the higher-ups for you in a moment!"
Originally, when Lu Yiming wanted to destroy the Infinity Group, there must have been many people who were unhappy. Not to mention the little bit of affection left by the Liu family's ancestors, just for a large group like this with 70,000 to 80,000 employees, no one wanted to see it go bankrupt.
Seventy to eighty thousand people are unemployed. This is no small matter.
Therefore, no matter how much effort Lu Yiming puts in, at most he can give the Liu family a small punishment. It is basically impossible to "destroy" the Liu family.
However, now, the situation is very different with the functional beverage project launched by Lu Yiming .
Become the second Jianlibao!
Obviously, Lu Yiming's proposal was too tempting.
After dinner, Lu Yiming had just sent Shi Jinhua away when Li Yiwen appeared in Lu Yiming's villa in a hurry.
"Have you heard about the Jianlibao incident?"
Lu Yiming couldn't help but widen his eyes.
I've never heard of cousins being able to understand each other's minds.
"What happened to Jianlibao?"
In 1984, Li Jingwei, the director of Sanshui Distillery in Sanshui County, obtained a new sports drink formula and launched the "Jianlibao" beverage brand. Jianlibao became the first choice of the Olympic delegation and was praised by the Japanese media as "China's magic water".
In 1987, Guangdong Jianlibao Co., Ltd. was established. Jianlibao became the largest sponsor of the National Games that year and became famous.
In 1991, Jianlibao established a branch in the United States to promote Jianlibao drinks throughout the country, and used a huge amount of money to purchase an entire floor of the Empire State Building in New York.
In 1997, the 38-story Jianlibao Building was completed and Jianlibao's headquarters moved to Baiyun City. Product sales exceeded the 5 billion yuan mark. In April, Jianlibao was rated as the first batch of "national well-known trademarks" by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. In August, the National Beverage Association released industry data, and Jianlibao ranked first in four items: output, total output value, sales revenue and tax and profit.
In the autumn of 1997, Jianlibao's plan to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was about to be approved. However, the Sanshui government refused to approve the management team to purchase shares on the grounds that "without a Hong Kong temporary residence permit, they are not allowed to purchase original H-shares." In anger, Li Jingwei gave up the listing.
In 1999, Li Jingwei proposed a plan to implement an employee shareholding cooperative system within the company, with the management raising 450 million yuan to buy out the shares held by the government. However, the plan was rejected by the government.
In 2001, Jianlibao's operating performance dropped to 3.1 billion yuan, and the profits and taxes paid to the government also dropped from 100 million yuan to about 20 million yuan. In July, the Sanshui government held a joint meeting on Jianlibao's transformation, and 90% of the officials attending the meeting advocated selling Jianlibao, but not to Li Jingwei's team.
On January 15, 2002, the Sanshui government transferred 75% of Jianlibao's shares to Zhejiang State-owned Investment Corporation for 338 million yuan, and the 28-year-old Zhang Hai became the chairman of the group.
When he was a child, Lu Yiming grew up drinking Jianlibao, but after entering the 21st century, Jianlibao seemed to have disappeared from the shelves.
It has to be said that the fate of Jianlibao is regrettable.
Li Yiwen said: "Those people who keep selling Jianlibao are totally clueless. This is clearly going to ruin Jianlibao!"
He also grew up drinking Jianlibao and has a deep affection for it.
As the magic water of the East, Jianlibao is far more than just a beverage in the Xia country of this era. It also represents the "dream of a great power" in the hearts of many Xia people.
This is a drink native to the Xia country and is no worse than any foreign drink!
But such a company, which carried the dreams of countless Xia people, collapsed at its most glorious moment.
Now it is being openly sold at a low price!
What made Li Yiwen even more angry was another reason.
"Do you know what Zhang Hai is?"
Lu Yiming shook his head slightly.
Although he drinks Jianlibao, he doesn't seem to pay much attention to these things.
Li Yiwen said in a very exaggerated tone: "He is a qigong master! "
Lu Yiming: “…”
Lu Yiming didn't know what to say about finding a qigong master to run Jianlibao. No wonder the great Oriental Magic Water disappeared completely in the future. It can only be said that he was asking for trouble.
Seeing that Li Yiwen was still indignant about this matter, Lu Yiming persuaded him: "Don't get angry, Jianlibao is gone, so let's make one that's even better than Jianlibao. To be honest, I was thinking of making an awesome sports drink."
Li Yiwen frowned, his eyes revealing deep doubt: "You? Making sports drinks? Is it reliable?"
Lu Yiming said confidently: "The market size of functional beverages is still considerable. If we do well, annual sales of 20 billion will be no problem. The key is that this market is still a blank area in China and there are not many competitors."
"Are you sure?"
Li Yiwen was skeptical about this. After all, beverages were a completely new and unfamiliar field for him. He had no idea about the specific details and was naturally unsure.
Lu Yiming asked, "Have you heard of Red Bull?"
Li Yiwen shook his head and said, "I haven't heard of it. Is it famous?"
Lu Yiming said: "It's not well-known now, but we have been working hard on marketing recently. I'm afraid it will become a household name in the future. And our functional beverage is to compete with Red Bull."
No Limits, Inc.
Liu Zongguang frantically called for help, but those people who had called him brothers before were now vague and perfunctory in their responses.
Liu Zongguang knew very well that none of these people could be relied upon. Those who said they would wait would definitely not hear anything from Ma Yue later.
Liu Zongguang really didn't expect that the Infinity Group, with annual sales of at least more than 3 billion, would be in such a mess because of a lawsuit.
Newspapers, television and other media are all competing to report on this incident, and the negative impact is continuing to expand.
After all, joint prosecutions are rare in Xia State these days.
For a time, Liu Zongguang and Liu Fanhui, father and son, who had once been in a prosperous position, were suddenly caught in a situation where they were besieged on all sides. Banks cut off loans, suppliers demanded payment for goods, and the situation was so dire that they couldn't even pay next month's wages.
These days, even Liu Fanhui has no mood to indulge in wine and women.
Seeing Liu Zongguang put down his phone, Liu Fanhui hurriedly asked, "Dad, what did they say over there?"
Liu Zongguang was relieved to see his son finally making some progress, but at the same time, he felt a little discouraged when he thought of the current incident. He shook his head and sighed, "Again, the loan will not be approved."
Liu Fanhui's eyes widened. "Can't get approval? How can this be? Didn't they beg us for a loan before? How about we give them gifts?"
Liu Zongguang said helplessly: "If giving gifts could solve the problem , I would have given them a long time ago. But the problem now is not here at all."
Liu Fanhui asked in confusion: "Where is that? Is someone targeting us?"
Liu Zongguang did not hide it and said directly: "The Li family took action, but the Li family should not be able to set up such a big plan. There must be someone else behind it."
"Li family? Li Zixian!?"
When he mentioned the name, he suddenly felt a little regretful. He regretted that he should not have harassed the other party on impulse, which led to the situation becoming unmanageable.
"How about I go and ask Li Zixian for help?"
Liu Zongguang was not as naive as Liu Fanhui. He shook his head bitterly: "When things get to this point, it's no longer a personal grudge. The other party has put so much effort into it, how could they stop just because of an apology from you?"
Liu Fanhui suddenly became at a loss.
It's not like he hadn't caused trouble for his family before. But every time his father took him to the house to apologize and admit his mistakes, the matter was settled.
It was not until this moment that he realized that there were some things in this world that even his father could not handle.
Liu Zongguang thought for a moment and said, "Let's see if we can settle it out of court. I'll contact the lawyer and bring all the family members of the deceased here."
Liu Fanhui didn't understand anything at all and said, "This is the only way."
The next day, Liu Zongguang contacted Li Qiu and said he was willing to settle out of court, with each company paying 500,000 yuan, but they had to sign a letter of confirmation stating that the Infinity product had nothing to do with the patient's death.
Liu Guangzong was certainly unwilling to sit and wait for death. He wanted to settle the lawsuit first and then find a way to deal with the problem of the bank's loan suspension.
Given the company's profitability, he is not afraid of not being able to borrow money. Even if the interest rate is high, it is worth it as long as it can help the company get through the difficulties.
When the families of the deceased heard that they could get 500,000 yuan, they were very tempted.
In this era, five hundred thousand is a huge sum of money!
What's more, this is unexpected wealth.
The dead cannot be resurrected, and the living still have to consider their future lives. Although human life is priceless, it is normal for ordinary people to compromise and give in when it comes to money.
In the conference room of Infinity Company, Liu Zongguang sat in the main seat, watching the families of the deceased whispering below, and they seemed very excited about the compensation of 500,000 yuan. He was also very happy.
Although this would require a huge sum of money, and he might even have to borrow from loan sharks to get the money, he was confident that he could make up for all the losses within a year as long as he could get through this crisis.
However, just when Liu Zongguang thought that the matter was about to end, Li Qiu stepped forward and stood in front of Liu Zongguang as a representative lawyer and said, "Mr. Liu, right and wrong are in the hearts of the people. You want to buy our justice by spending 500,000 yuan? If we win the lawsuit, we can ask the court for 1 million yuan in compensation for each household."
When the family members heard the word “one million”, they immediately felt that Liu Zongguang’s 500,000 was not attractive enough.
"That's right, you want us to confess under torture for half a million? No way!"
"I don't care about money, I just want justice!"
"I didn't win the lawsuit, and I didn't get an apology. If my father knew about this, he would probably die with regrets."
"That's right, we want one million, not five hundred thousand."
