Volume 3 Summer Rain Chapter 0303 Duosi and the Richest Man
Although an unrelated and cold-faced woman moved into the Izumi B&B, this did not affect the good mood of Nan Yi and Hagiwara Sayuri, nor did it have any impact on Nan Yi's treasure hunt.
No matter what he does, Nan Yi will predict in advance all the difficulties that may be encountered. If it can be prevented, he will do his best to prevent it. If it cannot be prevented, he will just accept it calmly after the bad things happen.
Nan Yi is a pessimist, who always thinks a lot. He has always been aware of being a leader, and always thinks of failure before victory. The appearance of the cold-faced woman was beyond Nan Yi's expectations, but also within his plan. His heart was calm and there was no ripple.
Nan Yi is destined to be a hard-working person. Although he is on vacation now, he has never put work aside in his mind.
He is currently thinking about how to establish a logistics company to supply goods to the 1,327 7-ELEVEn convenience stores across Japan. In his imagination, 7-ELEVEn is something he must have.
In the 1920s, household refrigerators had only been on the market for a few years and were still a novelty, so they naturally could not "enter the homes of ordinary people."
In 1927, the Southland Ice Company [Southern Company] of the United States established a store in Dallas, Texas that later changed the development of the industry. Its main business was to make and sell ice in line with market demand.
But naturally, as refrigerators gradually became a household necessity, sales continued to rise year by year. In addition, store operators discovered that customers who came to the store also had a need to buy other goods, so they expanded the food categories such as poultry, eggs, and milk.
A year later, a store erected a totem pole at the door. This strange combination caught the attention of passers-by and brought real profits to the store. Later, the top management decided to erect totem poles next to each of its stores, and the stores began to be called "totem stores."
In 1929, China suffered an economic crisis, but the economy began to recover a few years later. The national unemployment rate continued to decline, and indicators such as GDP continued to improve, and consumer demand was once again stimulated.
After the end of World War II, in order to attract more customers, Totem Store expanded its business hours to 7 am to 11 pm, seven days a week. This is also the origin of 7-ELEVEn.
At that time, many shops in China were open from 8 am to 7 pm and were closed all day on Sundays.
A simple calculation shows that 7-ELEVEn is open 112 hours a week, which is 70% more than its competitors' 66 hours. This strategy is simply overwhelming.
This adjustment makes the business hours basically cover all non-rest time periods. Convenience stores truly create convenience for customers not only in terms of product variety but also in business hours.
The adjustment of business hours made the store very popular. After tasting the sweetness, the store operators naturally would not stop there. As more and more stores were opened, in 1963, 7-ELEVEn experimented with 24-hour operation for the first time in Austin, Texas.
Later, Southern Company implemented a 24-hour business system in some stores in Dallas, Las Vegas and other places. At this time, the total number of 7-ELEVEn stores in various states in the United States had exceeded 1,000.
Immediately afterwards, Southern Company launched a "franchise operation" policy in order to further expand.
In May 1974, Japan's Ito-Yokado Company, which obtained the franchise rights, opened the first 7-ELEVEn in Japan in Koto Ward, Tokyo.
Simply put, the 7-ELEVEn brand owned by Ito-Yokado actually belongs to the Southern Company of China. They are just a franchisee, not the brand owner.
Ito-Yokado has made 7-ELEVEn's business flourish in Japan, but its parent company Southern Company is not doing so well. It can be said that it is getting worse and worse.
According to the information Nan Yi obtained, Southern Company will not be able to last for many more years and will have to face bankruptcy or reorganization.
Scarlett has been quietly contacting the shareholders of Southern Company, striving to first acquire or control a company that holds shares of Southern Company, using this as a springboard to become a shareholder of Southern Company, and then slowly absorb Southern Company's shares.
It is impossible for a retail business to expand slowly on its own. Acquisition and merger are the rapid expansion path that Nanyi wants to take.
7-ELEVEn does not have its own logistics distribution system in Japan, and cargo distribution is outsourced to Yamato Transport Company. This is an opportunity for Nan Yi to get involved in the daily operations of 7-ELEVEn in Japan.
But it is impossible for him to set up a logistics company just to supply goods to 7-ELEVEn and get involved in the personal express delivery business at the same time. This is also what the title implies.
At present, Japan's personal express delivery business is mainly dominated by Yamato Transport and Japan Post, which together account for more than 80% of the market share. The remaining market share is divided among more than a dozen different express delivery companies.
Among the dozen or so express delivery companies, Sagawa Express accounts for more than 60% of the remaining less than 20% .
Yamato Transport Co., Ltd. originally focused on international logistics and large-scale cargo transportation in Japan, and began to engage in personal express delivery business in 1973.
Japan Post is a state-run courier company with a public welfare nature. It has the common problems of state-owned companies such as inefficiency and bloated structure. After Yamato Transport Co., Ltd. entered the personal express delivery business, its market share dropped rapidly. Its current market share can only keep pace with Yamato Transport Co., Ltd.
Moreover, Nan Yi discovered that Japan's current express delivery business was not as primitive as he had imagined. As early as the 1970s, Yamato Transport Company began to learn from UPS and use barcodes for express packaging, which became popular in a short period of time.
Judging from the maturity of the current express delivery market in Japan, Nanyi only needs to set up a few directly-operated express delivery stores to enter the express delivery business, and the rest can be collected by 7-ELEVEn convenience stores. The widespread use of barcodes allows ordinary convenience store clerks to quickly receive and send express deliveries in a short time.
Then the daily operating costs of the company will be reduced a lot, and will be at a very low level compared to other express companies. In this way, this part of the cost can be selectively fed back to users, and the price of express delivery can be reduced to a level close to that of Japan Post.
Why is it that despite the low efficiency of Japan Post's express delivery service, many users still choose to use Japan Post? It is precisely because Japan Post's express delivery prices are cheap.
When a courier company emerges with prices comparable to Japan Post and a high level of efficiency, Nan Yi believes that potential users will abandon the original courier company and choose the new company.
This will make it easy to quickly seize a large market share and quickly compete with Yamato Transport and Japan Post.
After that, the profits earned from the personal express delivery business can be used to continuously expand into other logistics businesses. Nan Yi believes that a monopoly effect can be formed soon.
As for the fact that 7-ELEVEn does not belong to him now, Nan Yi chose to ignore it.
By cooperating with 7-ELEVEn and using their stores as express delivery outlets, Nan Yi naturally has to share the profits with 7-ELEVEn, but Nan Yi doesn't care too much about this expense.
His calculations are very long-term, and he has extended his thinking to the future "Internet +" era.
The problem with Nan Yi's plan is that 7-ELEVEn will ignore him and go directly to discuss cooperation with Yamato Transport Company. After all, Yamato is already a logistics company with a long history and a high market share. It cannot be compared with the company that Nan Yi has not even appeared on paper.
Therefore, the execution steps of the plan are critical. It is necessary to acquire most of the shares of Southern Company before implementing the personal express business plan in Japan.
At the beginning, logistics companies in Japan were not allowed to engage in personal express delivery business and could only develop distribution business first.
After thinking for a long time, Nan Yi figured out most of the problems. Now there is still one biggest problem facing him - where will the start-up capital come from?
The business of Nan Guo Bank has not been straightened out yet, and it is temporarily unable to provide him with loans. He has also decided long ago that not a single cent of Nan Guo’s controlled investment funds will enter Japan.
If Nan Yi wants to expand new business in Japan, the funding can only be obtained in Japan.
Funding is a huge problem for Nan Yi at present.
Nan Yi frowned in worry, and Hagiwara Sayuri leaned on his shoulder and asked with concern: "Nagao-kun, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, I want to start a new business and I'm worried about money."
"Lack of money?" Hagiwara Sayuri paused and said, "I have a deposit in the bank. If you need it, I can lend it to you first."
"Haha." Nan Yi stroked Sayuri Hagiwara's hair and said, "You have 5 billion yen?"
"Five billion?" Hagiwara Sayuri shouted, "How could I possibly have so much money? I only have a little over 20 million."
"Not bad, the izakaya is so profitable? It's amazing that there are so many savings."
Even though Japanese office workers now have an annual income of three to four million yen, it is still a mystery how much they can save at the end of the year. If they can save half of it, they are a family that knows how to manage money.
And 20 million yen is the savings of a family like this for ten years.
"I spend very little. I usually only buy food, daily necessities and cosmetics. I wear kimonos most of the time. Throughout the year, I rarely buy clothes."
"Our Lily-chan really knows how to live." Nan Yi touched Sayuri Hagiwara's face and said, "Okay, you don't have to worry about my affairs. Lack of money is not the same as not having money. Save your money well and keep your heart in your stomach. I will support you."
"Hehehe, I haven't agreed to let you support me yet." Hagiwara Sayuri said with a smile.
"Hehe." Nan Yi's hand changed from touching to patting, and he patted Hagiwara Sayuri on the cheek, "Go make me a pot of barley tea."
"Hai, Master."
Sayuri Hagiwara bowed obediently and took small steps to make tea for Nan Yi.
…
At this time, in a teahouse in Xiangkeng, Fang Mengyin was sitting in a side room with someone else.
"Mr. Wu, in which year did your ancestors go to London?" Fang Mengyin leaned forward slightly and asked.
"My ancestors went to the Eagle Country in 1833," Wu Zaisheng said, with a very emotional tone in his voice.
"It is now 1983, exactly 150 years since 1833." He quickly calculated the result in his mind. Not only was Fang Mengyin surprised, but even Xiang He who was standing next to him looked at Wu Zaisheng in surprise.
"It's been so long. Your family left during the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty."
"Yes, that's what is recorded in the family tree." Wu Zaisheng said calmly, as if he was used to other people's surprise.
Suddenly, Fang Mengyin's heart moved, and she thought of something, "Why did Wu Zaisheng's ancestors go from the Qing Dynasty to the Eagle Country and have settled there until now? Being able to exist in the Eagle Country for 150 years without disappearing is a skill, but considering that era, going abroad to fight is not easy.
Wu family?
"Surname Wu?"
Fang Mengyin's mind was spinning frantically. Soon, her eyes lit up and she thought of a possibility. She looked straight at Wu Zaisheng and asked, "Are you the Wu family from the Thirteenth Bank of Guangdong Province ?"
Wu Zaisheng looked at Fang Mengyin with surprise. He didn't expect that Ms. Fang Mengyin's mind was so sharp that she could guess it so quickly.
But this is not something shameful. Many Chinese people in the entire Eagle Country know about this. It can be said to be an open secret and there is no need to hide it. Fang Mengyin will also know about it in the future.
So he nodded and said with a smile: "Yes, it is the Wu family. Our lineage originated from the third son of Duke Dunyuan."
After hearing Wu Zaisheng's admission, Fang Mengyin's face became serious and she said, "I've heard a lot about you. Your ancestor was also the richest man in the world at that time."
Seeing Fang Mengyin become so serious, Wu Zaisheng smiled bitterly and shook his head: "That is the glory of our ancestors. We are incompetent descendants, which has led to the decline of the family."
"No, the fact that it can be passed down in Eagle Country is a manifestation of strength." Fang Mengyin immediately shook her head.
Xianghe, who was next to Fang Mengyin, was shocked by the name of Shisanhang.
The original owner of Xianghe was a wealthy family with a long history. Xiangkeng is separated from Guangdong Province by a sea. The legend of the Thirteen Hongs in Guangdong Province has been circulating, "Foreign ships are officials and merchants, and the Cross Gate opens to the two oceans. Five-thread and eight-thread Guangdong satin is good, and silver and money are piled up in the Thirteen Hongs."
She had heard from her old employer that the customs duties paid by the Thirteen Hongs in Guangdong Province to the Qing government accounted for 40% of the country's tax revenue at the time.
According to records, in 1822, a fire broke out in Shisanhang Street. The fire was fierce and spread for several days. A large amount of property and 40 million taels of silver stored in it were destroyed. After the fire, a strange phenomenon appeared. In the street where Shisanhang was located, "foreign silver melted into the ditch, stretching for one or two miles."
She also knew that the Thirteen Hongs at that time was just a general term, not thirteen families. There could be dozens of families at most, and only four at least. A group of wealthy people emerged from them, such as Pan Zhencheng, Pan Youdu, Lu Wenjin, Wu Bingjian, Ye Shanglin, etc.
What Xianghe didn’t know was that Wu Bingjian was actually the richest man in the world at that time.
In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that Wu Bingjian was the richest man in the world at that time. In 1834, the Wu family counted their assets and it turned out to be 26 million silver dollars. At that time, the assets of the richest man in the country were only 8 million silver dollars, less than one-third of Wu Bingjian's.
The business genius Wu Bingjian really created a large conglomerate. At that time, Wu Bingjian was the "banker" and the largest creditor of the East India Company of Eagle Country...
