Gu Biao returned to China this time, until September, and his schedule would be relatively idle, and he could handle a lot of personal affairs.

Therefore, since Mina also has a serious business to take care of, and plans to further invest in the expansion of Gatorade's production line on the basis of the Red Bull production base in Qiantang, Gu Biao does not mind accompanying the beauty to inspect and consult in detail.

Investing in the expansion of the factory is also a big deal for Mina, and it is always right to be cautious.

Gu Biao first entertained Mina to rest for a few days in the Concave Crystal Pavilion, and recited poems every day to Xiaoao Fengyue to relieve the pain of the girl's fatigue. At the same time, the intention of investment and inspection was sent to the relevant departments of the city, so that the local government could make preparations in advance.

As soon as they received the notice, they began to sort out the relevant information required for land acquisition, try to cooperate with foreign capital, and also prepared a lot of other reception activities to ensure that foreign businessmen eat and drink well and have fun.

After all, after two or three years of development, the "Red Bull" brand has been heard of by consumers in at least most countries in the world, and it is an internationally renowned brand.

Although the product is very niche, it is only an energy drink for sports-loving hipsters, and the global sales are only one-third of Coca-Cola's, but in the segment, no one can compete with Red Bull. For local governments, this volume is very worth striving for.

……

On the fourth day after Mina came to Qiantang, she hadn't even gone back to inspect the Red Bull factory once, but the city first invited Mina to watch a football game, and then held a banquet to entertain her, which was regarded as a reception.

That ball game is a match in the second phase of the qualifiers for next year's World Cup, and the home stadium of the Chinese team happens to be played at the Qiantang City Stadium - the home of today's qualifiers is not all played in the Beijing Gongti, but according to the original history, it will not be the turn of Wu Yue, a sports spicy chicken province (swimming is okay).

The reason why this life was moved over is nothing more than because the title sponsor of the national team, Red Bull, opened in Qiantang, and at the same time, Red Bull also donated some money to support sports in China after making money, and renovated the stadium facilities in Qiantang City at the doorstep, and the standard was greatly improved. In order to save face for the sponsors, the national team organization department moved over and kicked twice, and the newly built facilities here are indeed more comfortable than the facilities of the Gongti more than ten years ago.

Seeing this, you may have guessed that in this life, the tragic ball game on May 19 this year did not happen, at least the national team did not lose to the Xiangjiang people in the case of "playing the Xiangjiang people to qualify from the group".

This is not surprising, Gu Biao didn't do anything special, because football history has been greatly changed, and today's Chinese team, but it entered the World Cup three years ago, and it also entered the top 12 for the first time;

At the Asian Cup in December at the end of last year, he took advantage of the situation to win an unprecedented Asian Cup in history - it should have been the runner-up in history, and finally lost to Saudi Arabia in the final. However, because of the good news of the World Cup three years ago, the main force of the national team to fight Saudi Arabia in 82 years has been retained and has not been liquidated, and it is not unreasonable to make persistent efforts to win the Saudis again.

Nowadays, there is also the strong support of sponsors in foreign exchange, and there is no such trouble as "the head coach requests to watch the game of the Xiangjiang team, and is criticized by the competent authorities as a waste of foreign exchange and stopped". With money and strength, the first stage of the qualifiers is certainly risk-free.

(Again, the '82 World Cup was the round of 12, not the round of 16, and it was a 12-4 in the second group stage.) Some book lovers have been questioning that it is the top 16 before. ）

Therefore, Gu Biao and Mina can sit at the door of their homes to watch the second stage of the qualifiers at this moment. This year, there are still two groups and two qualifying places in Asia, and the first place in each group will go to Mexico next year. Gu Biao estimated that this was also the last time to pick up the leaks.

The peak state of the national team should be the wave of the 84 Asian Cup, and since then, the strongest people have retired, and the subsequent history has changed beyond recognition, and no one knows who can take over. But the external environment is very certain - by the time of the Asian Cup in '88, the Iran-Iraq war had ended, and Iran had re-emerged, and the Seoul Olympics would also make the southern baseball a strong team.

The era of "Saudi Arabia is only one enemy in Asia" is over, and it is time for the Chinese team to enter an N year of confusion due to historical inertia.

In this way, accompanied by the officials in charge of investment promotion and economic work in the city, Gu Biao and Mina watched a thrilling game at the city stadium in which the Chinese team defeated its rival Kuwait 3-1 at home, which was regarded as a good start to the second phase of the qualifiers.

The first stage of the qualifiers ended in late May and early June, and then the countries adjusted, rested, and avoided the hottest period of the summer, and the second stage of the qualifiers was reopened in mid-August.

In the second stage of the grouping, the Chinese team avoided Saudi Arabia as desired - after all, these two teams were the champions and runners-up of last year's Asian Cup, and it is completely normal for them to stagger as seeded teams.

Therefore, in the second stage, the Chinese team only needs to win the points against the three Middle Eastern teams of Kuwait, Iraq and Qatar to qualify. The southern base, which is not very strong now, and Iran, which is still in the midst of the war, will have to resist the Saudis.

Compared with the game, when Gu Biao watched the game, he was more interested in the Red Bull cheering banners posted everywhere in the stadium and the neat fan T-shirts.

As a sponsor of the national team, Red Bull donated at least 20,000 or 30,000 sets of pure red synthetic fiber T-shirts for each home game, and even more with Red Bull advertising. When fans enter the stadium with a ticket, they can get one when they cut the ticket.

However, the price of the clothes was not spread into the ticket price, and the price of the ticket did not increase, so it was a gift. With the scarcity of materials in 85 years, I believe that after the fans receive the clothes, they will definitely continue to wash and wear them when they go back, and they will not feel that wearing advertising shirts is a sign of poverty and shame like later generations.

Just like even after more than 30 years, when you go to most African countries, you can still see many black people wearing advertising shirts thrown away by Chinese, and they don't feel ashamed to print advertisements on their clothes, and even think that this is very foreign.

No matter how well the ball is played, the Red Bull business is really deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Even if football declines from next year, Gu Biao and Mina have nothing to lose - they can enter the top 12 in 82, win the Asian Cup in 84, and at least qualify for 86......

The results of 82 and 84 are because only the Chinese team is drinking Red Bull, so the Chinese team has a unique endurance advantage. The reason why the latter is weak is because foreigners have also begun to drink Red Bull, and the unique BUFF has become a universal BUFF for the whole field.

The Chinese team's strengthening at the beginning and the return to its original shape later are all good for Gu Biao.

……

"Great game, great fans, great sponsors. ”

With the end of the competition, the leaders of the city's foreign investment departments blew with Mina Business with a warm face.

Well, to paraphrase a digression, Mina is of course a Chinese national now, but she is also a major shareholder of a "Thai-funded multinational group". Therefore, when dealing with Red Bull's related affairs, there is no doubt that it enjoys foreign treatment.

Specifically, Gu Biao still gave up the title of chairman of Red Bull's group company to the brand founder and Thai Xu Shubiao.

However, the chairman did not interfere with the specific operation of some of the following companies, and the chairman's shareholding in the group was far less than that of Mina, the major shareholder, but only made a foreigner to take the nominal number one position, which was more convenient for returning to China in the 80s to start working.

When Mina herself transferred funds from the family wine company to acquire Gatorade and get Red Bull to merge the operation, it was also a normal capital increase procedure, which would dilute the proportion of Thai shares, and she would not suffer a loss anyway.

As for Gu Biao, of course, he attended these occasions as Mina's old classmate, just to show off the friendship of the landlord. Publicly, he doesn't have much to do with Mina.

"Vice Mayor Qiu is so polite, thank you very much for inviting me to watch such a wonderful game. We want to be more efficient, so let's go to the factory and the land first, and then use the dinner. At the end of the courtesy, Mina suggested.

"Of course, this is no problem, foreign business is efficiency. Qiu Qing personally agreed, and the staff at the lower level could only adjust the itinerary immediately.

A convoy quickly drove out of the stadium slowly, and under the watchful eyes of 20,000 or 30,000 fans, the group of VIPs who had just occupied the table were sent along the stadium road to the east of the city. (The stadium in Qiantang is small, it can only seat 20,000 people, and in the 80s, only Gongti and Hujiang could seat 70,000 or 80,000.) ）

There is no shortage of knowledgeable fans who understand the gossip of the business world, watching the heroic team leave, and they have begun to say:

"I heard that the boss of Red Bull personally came to inspect the competition! I have relatives who work in the Red Bull factory, and I heard Mr. Zong say that the company is going to expand production and carry out construction recently, and has added a big brand drink bought from the United States, which is very foreign. ”

"How foreign is the American drink? Is it the same as the Coca-Cola factory in Beijing?"

Coca-Cola's localization in China was 82 years old. At that time, the first mainland cola factory was built in Beijing at the end of 81 and put into operation at the beginning of 82.

Therefore, after two or three years of brand domestication and diffusion, in the second half of 85, the citizens of first- and second-tier developed cities have already heard a little about "Chinese produce American brand drinks", and they will not be too surprised.

"It's really rich, sponsoring the national team's games, you have to give away 20,000 or 30,000 pieces of clothes for a home game, if it's the home stadium in the capital, then you can't give away 80,000 pieces?

"Who knows, but we have relatives at home who work at Red Bull, so this time we have to find a way to trust the relationship anyway. They will definitely recruit another person when they expand their production, and they must get a chance to enter the factory. ”