Chapter 41: The Noisy October

In October, the Shanghai market broke out several news one after another that shocked the Shanghai market and even the retail industry of Huaxia supermarkets.

Carrefour Supermarket officially announced that Carrefour Supermarket and Hong Kong Kwok's Shipping Group Company have reached a mutual shareholding of 10%. This news caused the share price of the Kwok Shipping Group to rise by 7.62 percent on the Hong Kong stock market, the largest daily increase in nearly a year. And in the following half month, the stock of Kuok's Shipping Group Company slowly increased by nearly 18.34 percent. At the same time as this news, an unknown company in the United States took a stake in Carrefour supermarket and obtained a 3% stake. This indicates that Carrefour Supermarket has fully met the standards of a real Sino-foreign joint venture.

For this point, the comments of the domestic media are mixed, and there is naturally no shortage of sour words such as saying that Carrefour supermarkets are no longer pure Chinese enterprises. However, more media still believe that this approach of Carrefour supermarket should be to introduce more haode management system and foreign talents, in order to develop more haode in the future, and to deal with the future attempts made by the two major foreign supermarket chain giants to enter China. In any case, American companies only account for only 3 percent of the total shares, and there are still 108,000 miles away from the holdings. It would be ridiculous to accuse Carrefour of changing owners just because of this. Your state-owned enterprise is still introducing foreign capital, a private enterprise, but foreign capital occupies 3% of the shares, what is there to make a fuss!

The media has different opinions, but Carrefour supermarkets are noncommittal about this. Then came the second news, the quality inspection center of Carrefour supermarket was officially separated from the ranks of Carrefour supermarket department and re-registered in Hong Kong. There was no big reaction from the general public to this news, but those large and small supermarket chains were quite concerned about this matter.

Because no one understands better than them that the commodity quality inspection center of Carrefour supermarket is now in the minds of the majority of consumers, it is precisely because of the existence of the commodity quality inspection center that the possibility of counterfeit and shoddy goods in Carrefour supermarket has been suppressed to a very low level. Although it is said that in this way, the profit that can be earned is less, but it attracts a huge flow of customers!

Not only in Qinxi Province, but now in cities across the country, all supermarkets adjacent to Carrefour supermarkets are not optimistic, even if their goods are cheaper, many people would rather take a few more steps to Carrefour supermarkets to buy a peace of mind. Only those supermarkets that are more than three stops away from Carrefour will have a less pronounced impact on turnover. However, even so, many consumers who buy more things at a time will still choose to go to Carrefour supermarket.

These supermarkets have not thought about establishing their own quality inspection centers like Carrefour supermarkets, but first, this investment is not a small amount. Second, they don't have the confidence of Carrefour supermarkets.

You must know that just two years ago, Carrefour Supermarket exposed a ham manufacturer that was well-known in the country. The reason is that this ham manufacturer was lucky, and repackaged a batch of expired and spoiled ham to Carrefour supermarket, and after being cleared by the quality inspection center of Carrefour supermarket, it refused to return and exchange the goods, and was blacklisted by the Carrefour supermarket quality inspection center, and also reported to the national media!

For a time, the manufacturer's sales were declining, and many merchants asked for returns. In a fit of rage, the manufacturer took Carrefour to court, and also used its officialdom Liliang to put pressure on Carrefour Supermarket. But what they didn't expect was that Carrefour Supermarket responded to the lawsuit without hesitation, and finally won! The ham manufacturer had to return the payment of Carrefour Supermarket and compensate Carrefour Supermarket 5 million yuan! At the time, this was sensational news.

In fact, only a small number of people know that at that time, in court, the ham manufacturer took out the certificate of exemption from inspection from the provincial ministry, and arrogantly demanded that Carrefour Supermarket apologize to the manufacturer in a well-known national newspaper and compensate for all the losses.

Carrefour supermarket took out the inspection report signed by well-known quality inspection institutions and dozens of quality inspection experts in the United States, Japan and Britain, and the results of the inspection were slightly different from the test results announced by Carrefour supermarket before, although there were slight differences in some data, but the conclusion was completely consistent - the items submitted for inspection were spoiled and expired food. The ham sausage submitted for inspection also has a notarial certificate from the Ministry of National Authority of China, which proves that the item submitted for inspection is indeed produced by the ham manufacturer.

In this way, the local court immediately made it difficult. They do want to favor the manufacturer, and the two sides are in harmony with the mud, but they are not stupid, the test reports taken out by the Carrefour supermarket are issued by well-known foreign quality inspection institutions, if they do not recognize these test reports with a clear conscience, I am afraid that it will cause more trouble in the future. They don't think that in the face of the anger of foreigners, the leaders above will stand firm to protect themselves. Moreover, if you want to overturn the inspection documents of those well-known foreign quality inspection institutions, it will involve the ministry that issued the notarial certificate, which is even more troublesome.

What's more, they themselves know in their hearts what kind of bullshit is the provincial exemption certificate from the ham manufacturer! As long as you are willing to pay tribute to the ministry, as long as someone believes it, not to mention the provincial exemption certificate, it is the certificate that the whole galaxy is exempt from inspection, and those people dare to issue it!

However, the development of events soon relieved them of this annoyance. The representative of the ham manufacturer, after taking out this series of test reports in Carrefour supermarket, looked at the well-known quality inspection institutions on the report, and then looked at the names signed below, he couldn't bear it first. I took the initiative to propose a settlement.

They themselves know very well that if the trial continues, as more and more media pay attention to the matter, then these test reports will inevitably spread all over the country. And at that time, it is not self-evident whether the people believe in their so-called provincial exemption from inspection, or believe in the test report that Zhang Carrefour supermarket mentions? Isn't this a few more slaps on his old face that has already been slapped a few times?

If it really comes to that point, even if the court rules that it wins, what is the use? Winning the lawsuit, but completely losing the market, for a company, what is the use of winning the lawsuit?

After the strong intervention of the relevant ministries of the government, there was no way, who let the ham manufacturer be a state-owned enterprise, and Carrefour Supermarket could only accept this result in the end. Then the media were asked to keep silent on the matter, and even the matter of Carrefour supermarket winning the lawsuit was only mentioned lightly in the third or fourth edition, the size of a small tofu block. This is also the result of the strong demand of Carrefour supermarkets. Otherwise, there is not even this treatment.

But even so, the products of this ham manufacturer have never entered the shelves of Carrefour supermarkets again. And business is also getting worse, two years ago, the country's well-known ham brand has now been reduced to a local brand, and the products can only be seen in third-tier cities or towns in addition to the province.

After this incident, anyone who knows the inside story understands that the quality inspection center of Carrefour supermarket dares to do this, it does not mean that other companies can do the same!

Now that the Carrefour Supermarket Commodity Quality Inspection Center has become independent and re-established in Hong Kong, does it mean that it will no longer be the royal quality inspection center of Carrefour Supermarket, but will also be open to other companies?

Without waiting for these people to figure out this problem, on October 16, Sun Zhaolun, general manager of Carrefour Supermarket, officially announced that Carrefour Supermarket is currently preparing for listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and it is expected that if everything goes well, Carrefour Supermarket will officially land on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in the first half of 95.

As soon as this remark came out, it immediately caused a stir in China, and this time, not only the supermarket chain retail industry, but also companies in other industries were also red-eyed. You know, in the ninety-four years, the two cities are basically state-owned and collective enterprises occupy the absolute country, in the chain supermarket industry, Carrefour supermarket is the first worthy of the name!

Those companies who have been waiting for several years and still have not been able to determine when to go public, naturally disgruntled, have protested to the Shanghai Securities Jiā Exchange against the listing of Carrefour supermarket. But he only said one sentence to the Shanghai Securities Jiā Yi Law Firm - "This is the decision of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government!" He shut them all up.

Maybe if they want to support a company to go public, they still need to spend some effort and discuss with the Shanghai Securities Exchange, but if they want to suppress a company to go public, it will be much simpler. In any case, Shanghai is also the most economically developed city in China, and the Shanghai Securities Exchange is still on other people's territory.

And more shareholders are overjoyed. To know the development of Carrefour supermarket, it is really felt around them. Especially in first-tier cities, with the opening of branches and the crowded passenger flow, it all means that Carrefour supermarkets are developing well. It is better for a private enterprise with real income to go public than to make money from the listing of state-owned enterprises that are losing money!

Amid the noise of the media, people did not notice that on October 17, in Shanghai, a local industry association was officially established!