Chapter 113: CareFour's Weakness

Under the chairmanship of Sun Zhaolun, a new round of negotiations between Carrefour Supermarket and Carefour Group is also going on quietly.

Frank sent the results of his inspection in Fengyuan back to the French headquarters, and within two days, President Nicholas personally called and had a long conversation with him, and then the Carefour Group began to use its influence in Europe to try to put pressure on Carrefour supermarkets through the staff of European embassies in China. The French Embassy in China even sent a long-time embassy staff member to help them prepare for the negotiations. At the same time, the headquarters of the Carefour Group also sent a six-member negotiation team to assist Frank and Thierry in negotiating with Carrefour Supermarket.

Sun Zhaolun discussed with Fang Mingyuan about the countermeasures of Haode, and talked with Frank and them "slowly", and discussed each article and paragraph of the acquisition offer put forward by Frank and them in a serious and detailed manner, and even raised sharp objections to certain conditions, and sometimes even threatened to break down the negotiation judgment. His move reassured Frank that only the salesman would take the trouble to emphasize the merits of his goods.

But there is no impermeable wall in this world, and paper can't contain fire, not to mention that Sun Zhaolun is still secretly venturing to the outside world. In Fengyuan City, rumors soon spread that the Carrefour supermarket was going to be bought by a foreign company. At that time, Carrefour will be transformed from a joint venture into a wholly foreign-owned enterprise, and all Carrefour employees may face dismissal.

The rumors soon spread, and the employees of Carrefour couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. Of course, they themselves understand that they can get the position of Carrefour supermarket because Carrefour supermarket intends to take care of their own people, otherwise, according to the salary and benefits offered by Carrefour supermarket, they can fully recruit young people. Although this rumor did not make these people panic all day long, it hung a heavy "stone" in people's hearts.

On this day, Su Aijun, who has been busy with the research of railway reform, suddenly came to the headquarters of Carrefour supermarket, and the first thing he said after seeing Sun Zhaolun was, "Manager Sun, how did I hear that Carrefour supermarket is going to be sold to foreigners?" ”

Sun Zhaolun hurriedly got up and let Su Aijun on the sofa, this one, it has been difficult to find recently, but he didn't expect to appear in front of him today.

The secretary brought the tea, retreated again, and after closing the door, Su Aijun couldn't wait to ask again.

"Well, yes, the French Carefour group is in talks with us about acquiring Carrefour supermarkets." Sun Zhaolun nodded and said.

"The CareFour Group?" Su Aijun frowned, he seemed to have a sense of déjà vu with the name, "Is it the big European retail chain?" ”

Sun Zhaolun was stunned, and he didn't expect Su Aijun to know the name of the CareFour Group.

"There are a few foreign teachers from Europe in our school, and I think I've heard them talk about them." Su Aijun remembered who he had heard about it from. But this is also heavier. Although what those foreign teachers said is unknown, he also knows that CareFour Group is also a giant in the retail industry in Europe, with an annual turnover of tens of billions in US dollars, and it can be said that the retail head is higher than the total assets of Carrefour Supermarket.

"How's it going?" Su Aijun hurriedly asked.

"The other party is a bit of an inevitable momentum, and the purchase price is already 150 percent of the total assets of Carrefour Supermarket, that is to say, now we only need to sell Carrefour Supermarket, we can obtain 50% of the spillover profit of the investment amount." Sun Zhaolun did not hide it.

"What does Mingyuan mean?" Su Aijun pondered for a moment and asked bluntly.

"Drag!" Sun Zhaolun said without hesitation.

"Take off? What to take off? Su Aijun was confused, what did this mean.

"Drag, delay!" Sun Zhaolun whispered in Su Aijun's ear, "He doesn't plan to sell it at all!" This group of foreign devils is fine, he guesses that these people are coming for the logo of Carrefour supermarket. At the beginning, he said that this trademark is the Chinese transliteration of Carefour Group, this time, Carefour Group intends to enter China, it is estimated that it is because of our signboard, and I am afraid that we will not transfer it, or the lion will open his mouth, and even our supermarket will be bought. ”

Su Aijun couldn't help but open his mouth in surprise, there is such a thing! However, after the surprise, Su Aijun couldn't help but feel worried about Fang Mingyuan, with such an opponent, I am afraid that even large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises will have a headache for it, this is simply bullying people. "Mingyuan, what countermeasures does he have? What is the use of light dragging time? ”

"Teacher Su, you don't have to worry." Sun Zhaolun handed the teacup to him and said with a smile, "How do you say that our country allows foreign capital to independently establish retail enterprises, otherwise, we don't have to bother with this brain." In fact, for the acquisition of Carefour Group, Fang Shao and I have a headache because according to reliable sources, CareFour Group and Warmar Group of the United States may enter the Chinese market in the next one or two years, which are two giants in the retail industry. It was in order to gain time and paralyze the top management of the CareFour Group that we decided to drag on with them. But for now, only I know, you know, Fang Shaozhi, Miss Aso know, and the rest of the Fang family knows, don't say anything outside when the time comes. ”

Su Aijun was a little relieved at this time, it seems that Fang Mingyuan and Sun Zhaolun already have a way to deal with it, so it's fine.

"But fortunately, it was the Carefour Group that came to buy us, not the Woerma Group, otherwise Fang Shao and I would have more headaches." Sun Zhaolun saw that Su Aijun was still a little worried, and explained, "Carefour Group claims to have established a global procurement network, purchasing market-competitive goods from suppliers in different countries and regions, and providing consumers with all kinds of consumer goods needed for daily life with low prices, excellent customer service and comfortable shopping environment." Strive to become the most haode shopping place in the local community through its own efforts, bringing more benefits and convenience to consumers. However, this does not change the profitability characteristics of Carrefour, which mainly relies on channel fees and cost savings. It can be said that its profit channels are narrow. ”

"And that kind of thing?" Su Aijun said in surprise. But this one really dares to open his mouth, CareFour Group is a well-known retail company in Europe and even on Shijie, and in his opinion, there are still so many shortcomings.

"It's not what I said, it was Fang Shao who said it, but these days, through the news from Hong Kong and Japan, it has basically confirmed Fang Shao's point of view." Sun Zhaolun said.

In Fang Mingyuan's previous life, CareFour Group entered China with a series of slogans such as "actively participating in various community public welfare activities, attracting foreign manufacturers to invest in China, localizing business strategies, and purchasing local products from China as much as possible and exporting them to its global branches", which attracted the attention of many city leaders at that time.

But these leaders and the vast majority of the people only know that the Carefour Group and the Wolmar Group are the largest retail companies in the United States and the largest in Europe, occupying the top two spots in the Shijie retail industry and entering the top 20 of the Shijie 500...... This large pile of aura that feels dazzling when you look at it. But they didn't know that the business strategies of the two companies were very different.

Vorma Group adopts the strategy of low-price purchase and low-price sales, which can be said to be a cost-leading competitor. Its cost advantage is derived from the high efficiency created by advanced information systems and the effective use of economies of scale in the retail industry.

Although most stores in many countries on Shijie also have some entry fees, CareFour Group has the most projects and the highest price. From the perspective of profit structure, even the management of CareFour Group has to admit that a considerable proportion of the revenue of CareFour Group's single store comes from fees. Under this charging model, CareFour Group does not lower the purchase price, but only asks for a high fee.

Sun Zhaolun took out a stack of information from the table, handed it to Su Aijun and said: "You look at this, you will understand, weishenme I said that the profit of carefour group supermarkets mainly depends on channel charges and cost savings." Hey, there's nothing wrong with saving costs, but it's been an eye-opener for me. ”

From the data, Su Aijun noticed that the profit method of the Carefour Group is not as common people think, only earning the benefits of the difference in the sales of goods. Rather, it is made up of several parts.

"If you look at this, the first item is the store entry fee: any brand that wants to enter the CareFour Group must pay a certain entry fee to the CareFour Group according to its brand awareness and the number of products introduced. That is, the so-called threshold wants to come here to sell things, no problem, take the money. According to the information we have collected, the access fee of Vorma Group supermarkets is about 8%, while the entrance fee of Carefour Group supermarkets is as high as 25%, as the main source of profit, Carefour Group Group pays considerable attention to the price of goods and the cost of entering the market when purchasing goods. Sun Zhaolun pointed to the data on the data and said, "It's really not ordinary black!" ”

"The second item is the price difference. That is, it is generally believed that the sales profit, the goods purchased at a low price are sold to customers at a higher price. But you see, the CareFour Group does not regard commodity suppliers as its own partners at all, but as competitors. They even drag those suppliers into hard negotiations, - forced - to the foot of the wall, the general inexperienced salesmen often raise their hands and surrender in a few clicks, and those experienced salesmen, the procurement staff of the Carefour Group Group will drag you to death, let your patience - wear out, and then slowly clean you up! Only a very small number of business and negotiators can be in an equal bargaining position with them. The information mentions that the procurement staff of the CareFour Group Group often hold a lot of information when negotiating, and the detailed information is scared of you, through these - operations, the Carefour Group can always have a very superior procurement environment, and there are always so many activities weishenme, in fact, that is the price of the failure of the manufacturer's negotiation. "Their management even said something like this: 'Negotiation and bargaining pervade our daily lives.'" That's the motivation. The competition is actually between suppliers and retailers. You have to fight every day to be the most haode retailer. That's life, if there is no negotiation, there is no - forced - into a corner. We can't make progress,' I wondered, they didn't think about whether this would make all of those suppliers - their enemies? ”

Carefour Group is good at "borrowing chickens and eggs" from suppliers in terms of purchases, and the payment terms of the contracts it signs with suppliers are often settled only once every few months, so as to devour the working capital of suppliers and use the capital turnover of suppliers, so as to greatly save the cost of possession of free flow of funds.

"And this promotion fee, pile fee, festival fee, etc., etc., all of which cost money! Moreover, their so-called daily low price is actually a combination of high and low price strategy, customers often buy, often compare the price of goods is very low, and the normal price of the rest of the goods is likely to be higher than other supermarkets! ……… This reality also reflects the inherent weakness of the CareFour Group model, with marketing as the main competitiveness, it is inevitable to rely too much on human resources, and the flow of personnel can easily lower the threshold for competitors to imitate. So it's not scary! When Sun Zhaolun concluded with this, two and a half hours had passed since Su Aijun came in.

But all this is effective, and when Su Aijun walked out of the gate of Carrefour supermarket headquarters, there was no longer any panic in his heart.