Brilliant Years 1991

Chapter 108 was actually a huge hit!
The advertisement was broadcast on June 6. By the next afternoon, when Cao Yukun went out to check the market, he could already see that many shops on the street had people actively looking for “that sweet and sour plum” to buy.

All I can say is that although TV advertising costs are expensive in this era, the traffic is indeed huge.

The next day passed and Zhou Aimin was forced by the company to go back to work. At noon, she called again secretly and said that everyone asked her if the sour and sweet plum was really delicious. A colleague answered for her and said it was delicious, which meant that some people were already buying it.

This is undoubtedly a good phenomenon.

When selecting items from the beverage factory's product library and recipe list, Cao Yukun tasted all the items that the beverage factory could produce at the time, one by one, and more than once. In the end, he chose sour plum juice as the first item to be launched on Hongkong - in fact, northerners, especially those in the capital, seem to prefer sour plum juice and sour plum soup, but this is not the case.

Regardless of north or south, or even regardless of race, nationality, region or country, what everyone loves to drink is just that sweet taste, which is the inevitable fate of carbon-based organisms.

In the era of commercialization, everything that people can buy on the market that can be called a beverage is, in the final analysis, just sugar water with some various flavors added.

The original factory recipe made the sour plum juice sweet. Now we just need to lower the acidity a little bit and the sour plum juice will become completely sweet and delicious. Only a slight sour taste will remain in the throat and tip of the tongue when you savor it. It is not annoying but rather very tempting.

Speaking simply of the product itself, Cao Yukun feels that it will be a very successful business.

So after officially deciding to come to Hongkong to develop the market, he didn't spend much time on the products of his own factory. Instead, he focused all his attention on advertising and promotional methods.

So far, the feedback seems to be acceptable.

However, what he had not expected was that the pace of developments would soon exceed his expectations.

It's hard to say whether it's because King Liu and Zhou Aimin are too appealing as the spokesperson combination, or because the slogan "A bite of sour and sweet plums" is catchy and memorable, or because as more people started buying and drinking it, the random prize of the "another bottle" activity made everyone interested, thinking it was novel and a good deal, or else... it could simply be that the sour plum juice hit the taste of the people living in Hongkong at that time.

In short, the market suddenly became hot.

Cao Yukun's initial planned release is 1000 tons, 500 tons each in bottles and cans, and he initially expects to sell them all within a month. The factory has apparently also arranged its production plan based on this goal.

The first batch of 6 tons arrived on June 9, the second batch of 200 tons arrived on June 6, and the planned third batch will arrive around June 14. As for the fourth and fifth batches, there is no rush, as the exact delivery time was not set at the beginning because we have to consider the actual sales feedback here at that time.

The storage in Hongkong is very expensive. It is better to pile it in Fuping than to transport it here.

As a result, on June 6, Cao Yukun suddenly received a call from Huagang Trading urging him to deliver the goods!

They said that many stores, shopping malls and supermarkets were urging them to deliver goods, but there were only about 100 tons of inventory left in their warehouses. If they continued with this round of delivery, they would probably be out of stock!
After hanging up the phone, Cao Yukun was stunned for half a second before he raised his fist fiercely.

The effect was so good that it exceeded his highest expectations in just a few days!
I immediately called Fuping and arranged for the factory to adjust the raw material reserves, production schedule, shipping and other plans, and strive to increase the production capacity to 4000 tons per month as soon as possible.

Fortunately, the third batch of 6 tons arrived on time on June 20. However, this batch of goods was completely emptied and laid out on the day it was transported to the Huagang Commercial Warehouse.

At the same time, Sun Shangbin, who had not been in contact with Cao Yukun before, suddenly made an appointment to have afternoon tea with Cao Yukun. While offering praise, he also actively settled the payment for the first batch of 200 tons of goods.

The first return of money!

156 million Hong Kong dollars!
To be honest, it has been nearly two months since I came to Hongkong, and I have only been here here. Not counting my food, clothing, housing and transportation, Cao Yukun has already spent nearly two million Hong Kong dollars on company registration, packaging design, advertising shooting, endorsement fees, advertising placement, logistics and transportation, tax declaration and customs clearance, etc.

The TVB advertising alone costs up to HK$42 per month for three consecutive commercials broadcast eight times in four time periods every day - but then the annual fee can be negotiated, and it will be cheaper.

The return on investment has begun!

At this sales pace, you can make a lot of money soon.

"To be honest, before in Shanghai, if even I felt that Mr. Kun's purchase of 30,000 subscription certificates was a bit of a stroke of luck, then this time, I have to admit that you really understand business! The commercials are well shot, and your method of ordering another bottle is especially good! It's the only one of its kind in Hong Kong! I've seen the sales situation in the market and listened to the feedback from people below, and everyone recognizes your approach!" "Hahaha, Mr. Sun, you're too kind! As for business, I actually don't have much experience and I'm too young, but I'm just more courageous. If I think of doing it, I dare to give it a try!"

It is very likely that Sun Shangbin does not believe this.

However, this meeting allowed Cao Yukun to quickly realize something. On the way back to his home in the taxi, he couldn't wait to make an international call back to Fuping County.

The fact that Sun Shangbin took the initiative to settle the payment for the first batch of goods showed that he had even stronger expectations for the subsequent huge sales of beverages than himself - he was the one closer to the market!
Then let’s open the third assembly line as well!
Next, the production plan will be arranged according to 6000 tons per month.

In fact, Shimen Beverage Factory has a total of four high-speed filling lines. According to the data reported by the production side, if all four lines are fully operational and produce ten hours a day, the monthly output can reach about 12000 tons.

Of course, at critical times, the machine can be turned on 24 hours a day, workers can take turns on the job, and machines can be taken off for maintenance, so the production capacity can be directly increased to 25000 tons per month - to be more extreme, run it at double the speed!

When the factory was first established, these data were tested. Under normal circumstances, workers can tolerate 1.5 times the speed, but 1.8 times the speed is close to the limit. In other words, if a worker works on the production line for ten hours, he will feel too tired to stand once he stops. Over time, the number of workers being lazy and distracted on the production line will increase.

It is easy to go wrong or even cause accidents.

However, there will definitely be no problem if the machine is run at 1.2 times the speed. The machine is faster and can produce more work, so the workers can be given bonuses. In fact, these days, let alone running at 1.2 times the speed, even if you run at 1.5 times the speed, everyone will be a little tired, but no worker will complain.

In short, the full-level production speed can even reach more than 30,000 tons per month. Cao Yukun has no worries about the production capacity on the production side.

If all of them are converted into bottled form, 6000 tons would be 4000 million bottles. To be honest, Cao Yukun even doubted whether the total monthly beverage sales of Hongkong were that high - there was probably an excess for half a year, but for the other half, it was estimated that the monthly sales were only 5000 to million bottles.

The two types of colas should account for at least half!
Cao Yukun's original plan, or ambition, was to get 5% of the market share and sales of Hongkong beverages, which would have made him very satisfied. Now, with the adjustment of expectations, he hopes to strive to get 20% - however, even if this goal is successfully achieved, it will only require a monthly production capacity of about five to six thousand tons.

When the factory was first built, my brother-in-law actually increased the reserve production capacity to 30,000 tons per month. It can be seen that when he founded this beverage factory, his ambition was really big!

It’s just that I don’t have the ability to support it!

Of course, in the past one or two years, the factory has only produced one type of orange soda, and even one production line could not be fully utilized. The number of workers had been reduced to only about a hundred at one point. It was only a small-scale increase in production, and the existing workers could sustain it. But if the production capacity was to be suddenly increased to 6000 tons per month, the workers would be a big problem.

Previously, Cao Yukun asked the Human Resources Department to make a contingency plan and compiled the exact contact addresses of all employees who had been dismissed by the factory - just in case the company was selling well.

Now it’s actually sold out!
On June 6, the fourth batch of 24 tons of goods arrived ahead of schedule. However, on the 200nd, before the arrival and distribution of the goods, the sour plum juice was already out of stock in many stores on the market.

Fortunately, on June 6, the fifth batch of goods arrived ahead of schedule!
In fact, on June 6, the day after having afternoon tea with Sun Shangbin, Cao Yukun flew directly back to Shanghai and signed a second export contract for 21 tons of beverages with Jin Zhiqiang.

By the last day of June, June 6, the first batch of 6 tons of the second order had arrived at the port smoothly - just in time to catch up with the market just as it was about to run out of stock.

Moreover, at this time, Sun Shangbin once again took the initiative to call and ask for a meeting.

But this time, Cao Yukun could meet him in his newly rented office.

The area was less than 300 square meters. It was Cao Yukun who took lawyer Ah Hao with him to look at the place and make the decision. They quickly hired eight people and set up a normal small company with all the necessary facilities.

This time, Sun Shangbin came directly with 400 tons of goods to settle the bill.

Therefore, when the 120 million rice knives that Cao Yukun had exchanged had been completely used up, and in fact he could only pay half of the payment for the first batch of the second order to Jin Zhiqiang, he finally received a timely replenishment.

(End of this chapter)