Chapter 829 – Beverage industry association

In the end, under the “brilliant leadership” of Li Jingwei, the few foreign businessmen agreed to Sanshui City’s conditions. Jianlibao will use all its shares to invest in this new joint venture and will own 51% shares. The foreign businessmen will invest a total of 70 million USD for 49% shares.

After signing the contract and the money credited, the Sanshui City Government’s leaders were overjoyed. They felt Jianlibao’s woes is over and had successfully attracted foreign investment. They were in a rush to claim credit from their higher-ups.

On the other hand, Li Jingwei is with Feng Yu and Zhong Qingxian. They contacted Le Bashi’s He Boquan, Hui Yuan Company’s Zhu Xinli, Coconut Tree’s Wang Guangxing, and the head of the Chinese beverage industry association to form the beverage alliance.

The aim of this beverage alliance is to promote Chinese beverages to the world, unite the different brands, increase competitiveness, and share the risk.

This alliance does not only include these few companies. They also invited Taiwanese brands, Tong Yi and Kang Shifu. These two companies were instant noodles manufacturer which entered the beverage industry this year.

The companies like Rising Sun, Zhen Zhen, etc. were invited to join the alliance. These were all big brands, but many people were surprised to see a company being invited.

This company is an herbal tea manufacturer. Why is this company allowed to enter this alliance? This scale of this company is too small, and it is an unknown brand. The drinks they produced is limited to a specific region, and no one knows this brand outside of Guangdong! Let alone the western countries.

This herbal tea drink brand is called Wang Laoji and the company, JDB group, still has to rent the brand from someone else. How can this company survive if it even got to rent its brand from others?

Everyone sat down and tasted each other products. Most of them had tasted the products of the major brands, but there are still some brands which they heard before and never tasted. For instance, Wang Laoji. Most of the people there have not even heard of it.

Some people do not even want to try, but Zhong Qingxian opens a can of Wang Laoji and took a sip. He immediately frowns as the drink taste like the herbal tea, he had in Guangdong streets. This is a popular drink in Guangdong and maybe it can be sold in Southeast Asia. But who in the western countries will want to drink this? They will find it weird!

But Zhong Qingxian knew JDB Group is specially invited by Feng Yu. Feng Yu thinks this herbal tea will be popular?

The Americans might think this drink is medicine. Why would they drink this? This drink is supposed to be ‘cooling’ and will induce diarrhea after two cans. Can this drink even pass the US FDA?

“Secretary Lu, what is the purpose of asking all of us here?” He Boquan asked.

While asking, He Boquan looked around. These were all familiar faces and only one young man stood out. He noticed that young man is chatting with Zhong Qingxian and Li Jingwei. That young man is also the boss of a beverage company? Maybe he is the son of some big bosses.

“I had gathered all of you here to discuss the setting up of a beverage alliance.”

“What? Beverage alliance?” Zhu Xinli frowned. Is the government going to force them to merge?

But among the companies, there are private companies, state-owned enterprises, joint ventures, etc. It is not practical to merge these companies.

“Let Manager Feng explain this alliance to you all. Manager Feng.” Secretary Lu nodded to Feng Yu.

Two days ago, Feng Yu managed to meet Secretary Lu over dinner through Zhang Han’s father’s introduction. He explained to Secretary Lu and told him the benefits of forming the alliance.

If this alliance is formed and really entered the overseas market, the brands will be more competitive. Secretary Lu will get the credit and might even get a promotion over this.

This beverage industry association does not have much authority, and it is considered a semi-government organization. Other than the association’s secretary is assigned by the government, the rest of the committee members are voted among the members.

For example, Li Jingwei and Zhong Qingxian are the deputy heads of the association. They are voted by the rest of the members. He Boquan, Wang Guangxing, Zhu Xinli, etc. are also members of the association committee. The rest of the members are all in the beverage industry.

This is a semi-government association and has the backing of the government. Which beverage company dares to not register in it? The companies that did not join this association are the small companies in rural areas lower than counties.

For a company to join this association, the company must be recommended by a committee member.

Secretary Lu is also the deputy director of the Central State Administration for Industry and Commerce. He feels that the director is old and should retire. This is an excellent opportunity for him to replace him.

“Everyone here should not know me, right? Let me introduce myself. I am Feng Yu, a shareholder of Lehaha Group and Jianlibao enterprise. I am also one of the committee members of the Beverage Industry Association. I am the one who suggested forming this alliance. When I am in the US, there is not even one Chinese beverage in the supermarket chains there. But in China’s supermarkets, there are all sorts of oversea brands. This really upset me.”

“Manager Feng, why don’t you go and tell Tai Hua Supermarket to stop selling overseas drinks? Ask them to sell only Chinese brands.” Someone shouted.

“Err… I forgot to mention that I am also the shareholder of Tai Hua Supermarket.” Feng Yu said.

Everyone in the room stirred. This is like when they are studying and their teacher telling them there is a scholar in their school who scored full marks in every subject. They felt shocked, surprised, jealous, etc.

This Feng Yu is not only Jianlibao and Lehaha’s shareholder, but he is also even Tai Hua Supermarket shareholder. His business is too big.

Many people start to wonder who Feng Yu’s father is.

“The question asked is very interesting. Let Tai Hua Supermarkets stop selling overseas brands of drinks and only sell Chinese brands. Let me ask you all, how is this different from having a closed-door policy? The correct way of doing this is to let our Chinese beverages step out of China and enter the overseas markets. We will sell our drinks to the US, Europe and all other developed countries. The markets in those countries are 10 times or even 100 times bigger than China, based on their consumers’ habits!”

After Feng Yu said this, the rest start to discuss among themselves.

These people own their beverage manufacturing business and are very independent. Chinese Beverage Industry Association is also a non-compulsory association, and they were used to discuss among themselves during meetings.

“Please quiet down and let Manager Feng finish.” Secretary Lu knocked on the microphone.

Feng Yu got to say something shocking to get them to listen to him.

“I have a way to let our beverages enter the overseas supermarket chain and will increase the sales of our products!”

Everyone immediately shut up and looked at Feng yu.

Translator’s notes:

Wang Laoji

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