The development process of a normal manufacturing company is to first gain a foothold in the local market, use the local market to develop, obtain technological progress, gain quality experience, etc., and then, when there is a certain certainty, it will develop overseas.

Haier is a good example of a company that first developed domestically and then began to expand overseas after reaching a certain scale.

The larger the domestic market, the larger the scale of the company's achievements, and the more certain it is that it will be able to succeed in overseas markets and become an international large company.

Hong Kong's manufacturing companies obviously do not have this condition, the local market is so small that there are basically no local brands, basically for foreign OEM, to the future of the 21st century, except for those manufacturing companies that seize the opportunities in the mainland market, the others will not survive.

Midea will naturally rely on the mainland in the future, but if it wants to enter the mainland market, it will be at least after the 90s, almost 20 years from now, so it must rely on the European and American markets that have matured the market.

It's just that the more high-end the product, the more difficult it is to break into the already mature market, such as automobiles, after the European and American markets are stabilized, basically two or three new players will appear in 50 years.

In the 70s, large electrical appliances such as air conditioners and refrigerators are still a popular industry, RB, the United States, and Europe have a large number of well-known brands, and an unknown Hong Kong brand is difficult to enter this market, which is different from Red Bull, Red Bull This thing, itself is an energy drink market that has not yet been developed, and belongs to the originator of this industry. Users basically only look at the brand, and the miscellaneous brands are prone to quality problems, which will cause trouble to the supermarket.

Even Samsung, it took a small decade to lay its own household appliance channels in the United States, the most difficult of which is to enter a supermarket with a certain scale, a certain market plus a certain amount of time, you can get market recognition, plus a certain special advantage, such as price, you can smoothly enter other supermarkets, so as to slowly gain a foothold in the foreign market.

So the first time you get in is the hardest, and the rest is much easier.

Under normal circumstances, it is impossible for Midea's air conditioners and refrigerators to enter a supermarket of a certain size in the United States, and a simple electric fan is a bit of a chance, but if Chen Zhiwen has his own supermarket, the problem will be perfectly solved.

But for a U.S. supermarket of a certain size, Chen Zhiwen's assets can't afford to multiply tenfold, but if it's a retail supermarket that can take off soon, it's different.

After a day and a night of flying, Chen Zhiwen came to Los Angeles again, and after months of negotiations, Citibank, Skadden Law Firm, Saul. Pierce and Chen Zhiwen in Hong Kong, the price of Fedmart retail supermarket has finally been negotiated, the price is $23 million.

History has changed because of his appearance, and without the experience of the European company that kicked Fedmart out of the company after buying it, these people would not have given up on Fedmart, even though Fedmart has been losing money for three years.

In the past few months, Chen Zhiwen also learned about the situation of fedmart, the style of this supermarket is actually similar to that of Costco in later generations, the warehouse supermarket is mainly simple, the business model is basically the same, the number of users, the average consumption capacity of users, supply chain procurement costs and so on.

Fedmart currently has a total of 13 directly operated supermarkets, 8 franchised supermarkets, last year 13 direct supermarkets turnover of 180 million US dollars, the average turnover of a single store is about 15 million US dollars, far more than Wal-Mart at this time 6 million US dollars single store, this is also the characteristics of warehouse supermarket chains, single store turnover is particularly high, of course, the area of warehouse supermarkets is far more than ordinary supermarkets.

Last year, Fedmart's loss was about 2.5 million US dollars, the most fundamental reason is that the American retail giant Kmart Supermarket began to open stores near Fedmart, snatching away a lot of customers, Pierce's team is inexperienced, in order to win back customers, carried out many advertising placements, but the effect is not good, but it increases the cost, in order to stop loss, and let go of the franchise, but the results generally caused conflicts with franchised customers, and also fell into legal lawsuits.

But for Chen Zhiwen, these are not big problems, as long as he starts to purchase related goods from Asia, the cost saved is enough to cover the loss of 2 million to 3 million US dollars per year, and he can also make a profit by operating in Asia.

The contradiction with the franchisee can be solved by spending money, and the competition with Kmart, as long as the procurement cost of Fedmart is reduced, it will not lose if it cannot win.

And now, for $23 million, you can buy a supermarket with a turnover of $180 million, which can be said to be blood, and of course, the most important thing is Pierce's team.

In the presidential suite of the Sheraton Los Angeles Hotel, after representatives from Citibank and Skadden Law Firm left, Chen Zhiwen said, "Mr. Pierce, this is my promise to you. ”

Looking at a document that Chen Zhiwen received, Chen Zhiwen opened it and looked at it for a while, then asked: "Is Mr. Chen's requirement a bit too high, to reach the turnover of the entire company to 3 billion US dollars within ten years?" Annual profit of more than $200 million? ”

"Of course, there is difficulty, otherwise, 20% of the company's shares would not be so easy to obtain." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said: "According to the requirements in the document, Mr. Pierce's team will get a certain amount of shares every two years, as for the number of shares, the document also has a ladder calculation according to the requirements, you can take it back and study it, which also defines the amount of money I need to invest every year, if you have any ideas, you can also discuss with me." ”

If you want the horse to run fast, you naturally have to give enough grass, for a person like Pierce who has been a business all his life, he can't keep it by relying on his salary, after all, people can also get millions of dollars in cash in this transaction, and what can make him feel at ease is the company's stock.

Without the company's stocks, even if Chen Zhiwen gives more money, it may not have any effect, if it weren't for Pierce who is almost 60 years old, his ambition has disappeared with age, and now nine out of ten will take the money and start a new business.

Besides, it is not a problem for a Chinese to open a supermarket in the United States, but if it is particularly large, it will become a problem, let a white man stand in the way, and wait until ten years later to have results, and then change hands and go public.

What Chen Zhiwen cares about is the huge purchase volume that a large supermarket can bring to him, which will qualitatively improve his influence in Asia.

And the first help for him is to let his Midea electrical appliances enter the American market, although this first step, at least a small market in one state.