2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 125 Battery Selection
"Dinner's ready, dinner's ready! Boss Tan, I bought you your favorite seafood, isn't that generous of me?"

After not seeing each other for a while, Li Jinglan was still as lively as ever, and the arrival of Tan Jincheng made the two sisters extremely happy.

After the Canton Fair, Boss Tan returned and gave some instructions, but then never came to the company again to attend to his new business.

If it weren't for the frequent complaints from Boss Zhang about how Boss Tan assigned him all the hard work and made him work like a dog at the new company, the two sisters would have already started imagining a dramatic scene of brothers breaking up over unequal distribution of spoils.

Unlike newly hired employees, Li Yanning and her sister witnessed the entire process of how Jinpeng Trading was built. Without Tan Jincheng, can Jinpeng Trading still be considered Jinpeng Trading? Can it maintain such a good situation as it has this year?

Almost all the orders from last year to this year, and even some of the orders for next year, were completed by Boss Tan single-handedly. With such a key figure involved, the losses to the company are bound to be enormous.

Although they have been working at Jinpeng Trading for less than a year, the two sisters have already genuinely come to like the company. The two bosses are of similar age and easy to talk to, the salaries are high, and the work atmosphere is good, without the oppressive feeling they had before.

If things continue to develop at this rate, they will indeed be able to earn over 10,000 yuan a month in just a few years. They genuinely hope that Jinpeng Trading will continue to develop smoothly.

But why did Boss Tan leave? It's such a pity. However, the fact that Boss Tan can come to visit occasionally shows that he hasn't completely given up on the company. If the company really encounters business problems in the future, I believe Boss Tan will lend a helping hand.

It's not that these two don't believe in Zhang Xupeng's abilities; it's just that the four of them have grown up together, and Tan Jincheng's aura completely overshadows what Zhang Xupeng has done. In fact, Zhang Xupeng has been doing very well recently.

The orders placed in May were shipped out smoothly, and the production plan for June is also progressing steadily. This is already a remarkable achievement for Zhang Xupeng, who is just starting out in charge of the company.

For more than a month, Tan Jincheng has provided no help whatsoever to Jinpeng Trading. Not only that, he has also taken advantage of Zhang Xupeng by asking him for help.

As for the new employees, they didn't seem to have much of a feeling about this legendary boss. He only came once a month, so he must be one of those shareholders who only received dividends from shares.

"What are you doing this afternoon?" Zhang Xupeng asked as he pushed the fish in front of Tan Jincheng.

"Nothing much this afternoon, I've had a bit of free time these past couple of days, but I'm getting ready for a business trip next week. What's up? Is there anything I can help you with?"

"That's perfect. You have a few documents to translate. You've come all this way, so you can't leave empty-handed."

"You really don't waste any opportunities. Alright, the tests over there aren't finished yet, so we might as well just sit here."

Sigh, even if I'm reborn, this kid might still have a more comfortable life than me in the future.

Zhang Xupeng is a man without much ambition. Apart from doing business normally, he has no interest in investing or anything like that. At most, he might buy a few houses. He was like that in his previous life. Sometimes, this kind of personality is actually the most comfortable way to live.

Unlike myself, who was busy my whole life, and then was reborn in a daze, even though I achieved more after being reborn, I still seem unable to escape the vicious cycle of being busy.

It seems that a person's character has already determined what kind of life they will lead, no matter how many times they start over.

Well then, since that's how it is, then I might as well try to do something bigger and leave my mark on this world. Since I can't fight against life, then I'll enjoy it.

In the following days, Tan Jincheng had relatively free time. He would occasionally go to the R&D department to check on the design progress and offer some suggestions for modification. When he passed by Chen Zewen's interviewees, he would also go in and interview them if he felt like it.

Another example is when a boss calls and invites you to their company for tea and a chat; these are all trivial matters related to life and work.

However, trivial matters are also part of life. Life is not always exciting; it is mostly filled with trivial matters.

The biggest change, besides that, is that Tan Jincheng and Gu Qingqing have been in closer contact recently. Although they can't meet often, their interactions on QQ and via text message have become much more frequent.

Besides work-related reasons, another reason is that Tan Jincheng is more proactive than before. In the past, when Gu Qingqing sent messages, Tan Jincheng would reply late, either because of work or other reasons.

Over time, the girl was reserved, so the interaction wasn't as frequent. But now it's different. Now that Tan Jincheng has more free time, and his affection for her has obviously increased, she's become more active on her phone.

"Xiao Tan, stop playing on your phone. I'm talking to you. By the way, are you in a relationship? Why are you laughing on your phone all the time?" Zhang Xupeng nudged Tan Jincheng and said.

"No, I just saw a funny joke. You already asked him to send a batch of goods to take a look. We settled on a price once it was about right. Why did you have to come to me for such a small thing?"

“Nonsense, you think it’s a small matter, but they might not think so. They handle nearly a million orders a year, is this a small matter?” Zhang Xupeng said speechlessly. “Alright, let him bring 10 first. Once they pass the test, let them sign contracts with the marketing department.” Tan Jincheng put away his phone and replied with a smile.

A charger manufacturer somehow found Zhang Xupeng and somehow persuaded him to act as an intermediary. If the quality is not a problem, Zhang Xupeng should be given face.

Another advantage is that their price is reasonable, at 35 yuan per charger. If you sign a one-year supply contract, you can get an even better discount.

"Hey, by the way, how did you make the charger?" Tan Jincheng asked with some curiosity.

“A couple of days ago, a boss introduced me to an order, and I thought I'd treat him to a trip to thank him. He brought a few friends with him, one of whom makes chargers. We had some drinks and started chatting, and the conversation turned to your electric vehicle factory. The person who introduced us asked me to help introduce you to them as well.”

Tan Jincheng nodded. This was quite normal. The business circle in Beicang was neither too big nor too small. Tan Jincheng couldn't reach the higher-level business owners yet, but he could find out about the smaller, medium-sized ones by contacting just two or three people.

In the era before the internet was developed, the advantage of the industrial chain lay in this: if you set up a company or factory in a city with a complete supply chain, you could find out what parts you wanted to purchase or what products you wanted to promote by asking around among your friends and acquaintances.

In a few years, when Taobao offers a complete range of products and online shopping is ubiquitous, ordinary people or small businesses will not feel this advantage very clearly, because whatever you want to buy, you can basically find something cheap and suitable by searching on Taobao.

However, in an era of huge information gaps, this advantage is really too obvious, which is why businesses like to cluster together, even if the competition is fierce after clustering together.

For example, when he first started a trading company with Zhang Xupeng, Tan Jincheng could have also registered the trading company in Yicheng. With the connections of Tan Lihua and Zhang Guolong, it wouldn't have been difficult to start the trading company.

But without a supply chain, setting up an empty shell company is useless. You still have to source from other places and ship goods from ports, and your operating costs will actually increase.

For example, the lead-acid batteries that Tan Jincheng is currently prioritizing for procurement are available in Ningbo, but there is no complete industrial chain, and the manufacturers are mostly small ones, so the quality cannot be guaranteed.

Then we need to find the largest industrial cluster of lead-acid batteries at that time.

In later generations, you could simply search and compare on Taobao, and do some market research to determine which product is of higher quality, more reliable, and has a better price-performance ratio.

"I'm going to Huzhou next week, do you want to come with me?"

What are you going to Huzhou for?

"Find suppliers to buy batteries. If you're not busy and are bored, you can go and have some fun. You can also check out the children's clothing market in Zhili, Huzhou. In the future, you can try to do children's clothing business to enrich your export categories."

Many people may not have heard of Zhili in Huzhou, but it is one of the largest children's clothing bases in China. There are many towns and small counties like this that are not well-known throughout the country but have very rich industrial clusters.

For example, there's the Hanfu from Caoxian 666, the QQ underwear from Lianyungang, and the snow boots produced in a certain town in Henan Province. Tan Jincheng can't remember the town's name. Last winter, a snow boot craze swept the country, and the ugly UGG boots sold quite well.

Some astute businessmen have already started producing these snow boots, and the place where these snow boots finally exploded was Taobao. In an era of rampant internet growth, whether they are genuine or not is not important at all.

"When are you going? I'll see if I have time to make arrangements. If I do, I can go with you."

"You can decide what to do next Monday."

Next Monday is the 20th, and this month is almost over. The parts testing of Flash Automotive has been completed, and the molds for the exterior parts are already in the production process. From design to finalization, and then to mold making, the R&D department has really lost a lot of hair in the past month.

The company we visited in Huzhou this time was Boneng Environmental Power Supply Co., Ltd., located in Changxin County, about 300 kilometers from Beicang. This company, formerly a battery manufacturing enterprise established in 1995, was reorganized in 2001 and focuses on the production and manufacturing of storage batteries.

Compared to other major battery brands in Huzhou, Boneng's Yazhen Battery, though not well-known at the time, showed excellent stability, range, and lifespan in this test.

After contacting the other party, they welcomed Tan Jincheng's request to visit, and both parties agreed to meet on June 20th for an on-site visit and to discuss the procurement contract.

Flash Automotive chose the Changxin County Economic and Technological Development Zone in Huzhou, a major domestic battery production base, as its first stop in establishing a complete supply chain.

(End of this chapter)