Reborn since 1993

Chapter 377: Power works miracles

"The daily production capacity must be increased to more than 4 million units, otherwise we will not be able to complete our orders this year!"

When Li Dongling went to Zhang Xiaocheng's office, he had just finished a meeting and was giving instructions to a group of Torch Group executives.

Seeing Li Dongling coming, Zhang Xiaocheng asked the others to leave and stood up to make a cup of tea for Li Dongling.

"It is expected that by the end of the month, Torch Group will be able to achieve the record of producing the 100 millionth lighter!"

Zhang Xiaocheng smiled and said to Li Dongling that the development speed of Torch Group was much faster than everyone had imagined.

The domestic lighter market, which countless lighter manufacturers had not paid much attention to before, is now being activated by the Torch Group. Even though it has not yet officially launched overseas, the domestic order demand has already made Torch Group's lighters in short supply.

Zhang Xiaocheng now breathed a sigh of relief. To be honest, he has not slept well for a single day since the establishment of the Torch Group project. After all, when he thought about the investment in this project, which reached nearly 1 billion yuan and affected the jobs of tens of thousands of people, who could sleep well?
Now Torch Group has finally gained a firm foothold. Zhang Xiaocheng knows how difficult this is. Many media reports are praising Zhang Xiaocheng, but he knows best that without Li Dongling's operation, Torch Group would never have come this far. When establishing the project alone, the huge amount of funds would probably have taken several years to wrangle...

Li Dongling nodded. With Torch Group's current sales volume, the first step was considered to be a preliminary success. Looking at the tired look on Zhang Xiaocheng's face and the extra white hair on his head, one could tell how much pressure he had been under during this period.

"As long as the domestic lighter market can be developed, Torch Group will have no problem surviving!" said Li Dongling.

Li Dongling's words were very clear. He wanted to activate the huge domestic lighter market. In the future, the country will consume more than 7 billion lighters of various types every year. With the support of the huge domestic lighter market, Torch Group will have no problem surviving.

But, it's just to survive. A mass-consumer lighter that costs one dollar can provide jobs, but it's too much to expect Torch Group to make money.

Zhang Xiaocheng couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard this. He had already felt it. "The profit of the lighters produced by Torch Group is too low. If it weren't for the lighter advertising business proposed by you, Dong Ling, Torch Group might even be losing money now!"

Torch Group seems to be in full swing now, but after deducting the cost of materials, freight, and commissions to sales channels and retailers, the profit of a lighter that finally goes to Torch Group is less than 19%.

This is actually quite high, but the Torch Group now relies entirely on large-scale manual production and assembly of lighters. With the current staff size of about 350, even the Torch Group now provides ordinary employees with a salary level of around yuan. Among them, Zhou Wenyan's technical department and management personnel are of course paid much higher.

The Torch Group has to pay out more than 9 million yuan in salaries every month. Even if it sells 100 million lighters, after deducting all costs, the profit that can be left in the Torch Group's account just from selling lighters will be less than a few million yuan!

But these several million yuan cannot be spent casually. New production lines and new equipment are also needed. Zhou Wenyan's technical department needs funds to develop new technologies, and there is also a lighter laboratory, which is also a money-eating beast. Even if these several million yuan are put in, the accounts cannot be balanced.

In the future, as domestic salary levels rise, Torch Group will certainly have to raise its employees' salaries. By then, Torch Group's profits from selling lighters alone will surely drop significantly.

This is also a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of Zhang Xiaocheng and Torch Group, and at that time, Torch Group will only have two options.

The first way is to introduce modern automated mechanical production technology, which means reducing staff and thereby increasing profits.

The second way is to complete the transformation and launch high-profit products, otherwise it will not be able to support tens of thousands of employees.

Zhang Xiaocheng placed a document sent by the Finance Department and the Marketing Department of Torch Group in front of Li Dongling, "Now I understand why you, Dongling, wanted to transform Torch Group before. Now the biggest profit of Torch Group does not come from selling lighters, but from the advertisements on lighters!
The profit from selling 100 million lighters is less than a quarter of what the lighter advertising department earns!"

Thanks to the fact that tobacco, small and medium-sized wine factories, health products, local restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and various small companies competed to print their advertisements on lighters, the unit price of each lighter advertisement soared to about 40 cents. With 100 million lighters, Torch Group earned 40 million yuan in advertising fees, which is much more profitable than selling lighters itself. Who can they complain to?

Li Dongling glanced at the document for a few seconds, then put it aside, raised his head and said to Zhang Xiaocheng, "The mass consumer lighter market can provide jobs and allow Torch Group to survive, but if we want to live well, Torch Group still needs to enter the high-end metal lighter market as soon as possible!

After Torch Group finally establishes itself in the high-end lighter market, it will need to transform into the e-cigarette, gas stove, gas cylinder and other markets. The transformation must start as soon as possible in the next few years. Otherwise, the longer it is delayed, the higher the cost will be in the future! "

Zhang Xiaocheng nodded when he heard this. After seeing the profits in the mass lighter market, he had no hesitation in entering the high-end lighter market. If he did not transform, he would not be able to support so many employees in Torch Group in the future.

"correct!"

"A law professor at a university in Shanghai called and said he was willing to join the anti-dumping lawsuit against Europe and provide legal support for Torch Group. This is the information he sent!" Zhang Xiaocheng mentioned Gu Dayang's matter. He had just established the National Lighter Import and Export Association and was about to respond to the anti-dumping case against Europe. To be honest, Zhang Xiaocheng was not sure.

If it weren't for this incident, which was strongly advocated by Li Dongling, Zhang Xiaocheng would not have dared to take on this porcelain job.

"Gu Dayang?"

Li Dongling took the document and looked at it for a few seconds, then he slowly sat up straight. It was Li Dongling who initiated the antitrust and dumping investigation against old Europe, and Torch Group had to fight this battle.

Torch Group has not yet gone overseas, but it is only a matter of time. After all, with the soaring production capacity of Torch Group, the domestic market is still being cultivated, and it is impossible to become fat in one go. The annual consumption of 7 billion lighters in the country in the past life was the result of more than ten or twenty years of cultivation.

Take Torch Group's annual production capacity of lighters, which is expected to soar to 3.5 billion in the next few years. The domestic market simply cannot meet this demand and will have to export.

Moreover, exports overseas bring higher profits and foreign exchange earnings, making Torch Group more valued and influential in China.

A domestic lighter costs one yuan, and when exported overseas, it also costs one yuan, but the calculation unit is US dollars, pounds, marks, etc. Especially after using the Lighter Import and Export Association to limit the price of domestic exported lighters to a minimum export price, there will be no malicious internal competition, and the profit can be increased a lot.

Filing this anti-dumping lawsuit for the domestic lighter industry is actually for the Torch Group itself. If it does not file the lawsuit, the lighters exported by the Torch Group to various European countries will be subject to an anti-dumping duty of 150%!
You know, it's not just old Europe that's behind this. In America, domestic lighters have been subject to anti-dumping duties and have been completely driven out of the American market.

There are also rumors that neighboring countries such as South Korea, Japan, and Australia are preparing to impose anti-dumping duties on domestically produced lighters.

If this lawsuit is not filed, believe it or not, it will not be long before domestic lighters will be almost wiped out overseas.

In the domestic lighter industry, because of the inability to sell overseas, many lighter manufacturers will have to become OEM factories for foreign lighter brands in the future. For a little OEM fee, they will engage in crazy internal competition and lower prices, and in the end, Zippo, Colob, Dupont, Bic, as well as Nippon Benz and Korean lighter manufacturers will be at a disadvantage.

One punch is enough to prevent a hundred punches. If we don’t strike first, we will be surrounded and beaten up by foreign lighter manufacturers. Torch Group must strike first!
In addition, it is true that Torch Group has established the National Lighter Import and Export Association. The entire industry also knows that the Economic and Trade Commission, the Foreign Exchange Bureau, the Industry and Commerce Bureau and other departments support Torch Group.

But we want the entire domestic lighter industry to trust Torch Group and obey its orders.

Then the Torch Group must set an example and must have absolute prestige to make companies and practitioners in the entire lighter industry believe that the Torch Group is doing this for the entire lighter industry rather than for its own selfish desires. What could be more effective than fighting an anti-dumping battle with Europe and others?
Li Dongling looked at the information about the anti-dumping lawsuit sent by Gu Dayang from Shanghai, which also included his personal opinions. Even though Li Dongling was a layman in law, he felt suddenly enlightened after reading it.

Gu Dayang's information gave Li Dongling hope of winning the lawsuit from a legal perspective, although this was somewhat different from Li Dongling's previous idea of ​​pursuing this lawsuit.

Li Dongling dared to push Torch Group to fight this lawsuit, and he was prepared to make miracles happen with great efforts!

If he really hoped to win the lawsuit, Li Dongling had never planned to win. Instead, he planned to drag it out at all costs, and then frantically grab the overseas market!
First occupy the Asian market, and then go to Europe to start a war with lighter manufacturers such as Bic and Dupont. Even if it means losing money, we must kill them.

By the time European lighter manufacturers such as Bic and Dupont were all wiped out, there were no victims left, the plaintiffs went bankrupt, or were even acquired by Torch Group, what was the point of filing a lawsuit?
As for anti-dumping duties, just add them. Anyway, once all the local lighter manufacturers in Europe have been eliminated, all that will be circulating in Europe will be the products of Torch Group. No matter how much taxes are added, Torch Group will add the principal and profit and sell them to European users!

I would like to express my "deep apologies" again and tell the truth to the old European lighter users. It is not the Torch Group that wants to raise the price, but certain people in old Europe who deliberately impose high taxes and do not want old Europeans to use high-quality and low-priced lighters. Let's see who can't stand it when the time comes.

This method requires great force to throw the brick, that is, to rush forward recklessly and require great force to create miracles. The final result may well be that the old European lighter manufacturers such as BIC and Dupont will not be able to bear it and will seek to negotiate with the Torch Group to reach a settlement agreement acceptable to both sides and end this war.

But the information sent by Gu Dayang gave Li Dongling hope of winning the lawsuit from a legal perspective.

One of the most important grounds is that domestic lighters are disposable lighters, while the old European lighter standard is rechargeable lighters. For ordinary people, they may not feel any difference between the two, but for laws that are fussy about the wording, these are two completely different products!

Just like round steamed buns and square steamed buns, ordinary people feel that they are the same, right?
But legally, they are two completely different things. So why do the old European lighter manufacturers say that domestic lighters are dumped? The products sold by both sides are completely different!

(End of this chapter)