Chapter 136 Media Attention
With the 3M matter settled, the New York International Toy Fair was also about to begin—one of the main reasons Yang Wendong had timed his trip.
However, if it hadn't been for the 3M business, he wouldn't have come to attend this fair at all.
On June 15th, the last day of the exhibition, Yang Wendong arrived at the venue.
One of the event organizers, Lin Youtin, reported, "Mr. Yang, Mr. Wei, during this exhibition we made contact with a total of 19 overseas clients. However, none of them are large-scale. Altogether, they took 1,200 Rubik's cubes from us.
Later, they'll place these cubes in their stores for promotion, and if there's progress, they'll contact us.
These clients are from the United States—"
"Mm, good. Taking this first step is already a nice achievement," Yang Wendong said after listening carefully to Lin Youtin's report, feeling fairly satisfied.
In the toy industry, there were indeed giants, but they were brand giants. At the retail end, there were virtually no dominant players. To promote one's own products, it was necessary to work with numerous middlemen and distributors.
For now, as long as he could avoid Hong Kong's trading firms, that was good enough for him.
Wei Zetao said with a smile, "Mr. Yang, I'm thinking of letting Xiao Lin stay here in New York—first, to maintain communication with 3M, and second, to expand the markets for both the mouse glue boards and Rubik's cubes. What do you think?"
"That's fine," Yang Wendong agreed without hesitation.
At this stage of business, even if overseas operations still relied on various distributors abroad, in the largest customer markets they needed to have their own people. If they could later expand in Japan or Europe, the same principle would apply.
Wei Zetao nodded. "Alright, I'll prepare a separate budget report for you."
"Good." Yang Wendong glanced at Lin Youtin and said, "You're older than me, so I can't call you Xiao Lin like Old Wei does."
"Mr. Yang, just call me by my name," Lin Youtin said with a smile.
Yang Wendong nodded. "Alright. I'll have you handle one extra task here in the U.S."
"Please go ahead," Lin Youtin replied.
"In the U.S., a new type of business called the supermarket has been emerging recently. Unlike traditional department stores, they don't rent out space to small businesses or companies. Instead, they purchase everything centrally and sell it themselves—basically large-scale grocery stores. I want you to compile a list of well-known brands and the names of their founders."
"Supermarkets? Okay." Lin Youtin didn't ask further questions. Unless there was something he didn't understand, he would simply follow the boss's instructions.
"Alright, that's settled." Yang Wendong then turned to Wei Zetao. "Let's go back and rest. We're heading back tomorrow morning."
He wanted Lin Youtin to keep an eye on the supermarket industry because of the soon-to-emerge Walmart. The problem was, Yang Wendong didn't know where Walmart was at the moment.
He only knew the founder's name—Sam Walton—and that before starting Walmart, he had already been running grocery stores for many years.
With so little information, it would be difficult to track him down precisely. But if they monitored the whole industry, once Walton's business grew, they would likely discover him.
From what Yang Wendong knew, Walton had been heavily in debt in his early entrepreneurial days, and even later on he was forced to take Walmart public due to debt. That might give Yang a chance to take a stake.
Although Walmart would become a retail giant in the U.S. in the future, the current retail industry didn't take supermarkets seriously. After some time, when his own funds weren't so tight, investing a little in Walmart would be a huge win.
It could even be more profitable than investing in Hong Kong real estate, even in prime Central locations with leverage.
On June 18th, Yang Wendong and his group returned to Hong Kong.
The next morning, they went straight to the factory.
Hong Xuefei came to report on recent progress: "Mr. Yang, Mr. Wei, the hook tests are nearly complete. At present, a tensile strength of 5 kg is no problem at all.
The only condition is that the surface must be smooth and not a plastered wall. Otherwise, it won't hold."
Yang Wendong said, "That's fine. We can't change the physical properties, so we'll just specify on the packaging or on a sticker which surfaces it's suitable for."
"Understood." After agreeing, Hong Xuefei continued, "We've also developed the structure for the spin mop, but the spinning effect isn't great—probably due to the bearings. I've already sent people to purchase bearings from Germany, the U.S., or Japan to see which ones are suitable. Once that's determined, we can proceed with further testing."
"Bearings? Yes, those can only be imported," Yang Wendong nodded. "How long will the testing cycle for the spin mop take?"
"It may take two to three months. First, we need to test the bearings, and second, we need to see if our structure holds up over time. Once that's confirmed, we'll still need to develop additional molds before production. Based on our internal estimates, it will take much longer than the hooks."
"That's fine. We'll launch the hooks first," Yang Wendong said.
A long-term household product had to be launched cautiously, only after proper verification—especially for something people used frequently. Given Changxing Industrial's current resources, it was better to launch one new product at a time. Compared to 3M, which could manage thousands of products, they were still far behind.
In the editor-in-chief's office of the Hong Kong Star Daily—
Editor-in-chief Li Rongshan looked over a document, then raised his head to the young man before him, asking in surprise, "Is all this true? Sticky notes were invented by a Hong Konger? And the factory is still in Hong Kong?"
"Chief Editor Li, I spent over a week gathering this information," the young man, Ah Jun, said with a smile. "It started about ten days ago when a friend from Tsim Sha Tsui came to visit me, and I treated him well.
While chatting, he told me he wanted to work at a company called Changxing Industrial. Their benefits are great, and their new factory is huge, still under construction, and already recruiting. Do you know how many people they're planning to hire?"
"How many? A lot?" Li asked reflexively.
Ah Jun held up two fingers. "Two thousand."
"Two thousand?" Li was startled.
Ah Jun continued, "I was shocked too. Hong Kong doesn't have that many people, and most live on Hong Kong Island. In the Tsim Sha Tsui area, there are maybe a hundred thousand people at most. Hiring 2,000 could impact a lot of locals. Plus, the boss is very different from others—he treats his employees really well. Their meals are better than—"
"Better than what?" Li saw that Ah Jun seemed hesitant and quickly pressed him.
Ah Jun paused, then said, "Better than what many office buildings in Hong Kong provide. And not worse than what dockworkers get. It's said the meals are filling, the portions are generous, and waste is not allowed. Other than that, the rules are quite relaxed."
"You seem to know a lot," Li remarked.
Ah Jun chuckled. "After my friend told me this, I went to Tsim Sha Tsui to investigate. Changxing Industrial really is a company that treats its workers well. But because it's in Tsim Sha Tsui, and there's no newspaper office there, only locals really know about it."
"Interesting." Li nodded. "Did you find out who the boss is?"
"I only found out his surname is Yang. He's quite young. I couldn't find more. These past few days, I've basically been hanging around the factory's vicinity, so my information is limited."
"Fair enough." Li thought for a moment. "Alright, I'm officially giving you this assignment—go to Customs and check Changxing Industrial's export records. Then go to the Hong Kong government offices and look up related information. A factory that can create 2,000 jobs is worth making the news."
(END CHAPTER)
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