Back to 1958: Creating a Century-Long Family Empire

Chapter 51 – Two Major Distributors

May 16th.

The factory of Changxing Industrial Ltd. officially opened its doors.

Crack! Crack-crack-crack!

The sound of firecrackers echoed as more than twenty people laughed and celebrated joyfully.

Besides the factory's employees, two special guests had been invited:

Zhao Chengguang and An Yongqiang—who, at least for the time being, would be the factory's only two distributors.

After the firecrackers were done, each factory worker received a 5-dollar red envelope, then entered cheerfully to begin work.

Wang Zhixian, holding a camera, walked over with a grin. "Mr. Yang, I'll get the film developed and bring you both the prints and the negatives."

"Great. I don't know anything about negatives, but if we lose the shots, we won't have any record of the opening," Yang Wendong said with a smile.

Digital cameras were still decades away. Everyone used film, which was expensive.

Yang couldn't afford one—and didn't need to. So he asked Wang to play the role of free photographer.

Zhao Chengguang chuckled, "Zhixian, make sure you keep those photos safe. Who knows? If Mr. Yang becomes a legend one day, these will be part of history."

"You flatter me, Mr. Zhao," Yang said modestly. "We've only just begun."

"Haha! In business, it's not about where you start, but where you're headed," Zhao replied with a knowing smile.

"Just a few years ago, I worked with Li Ka-shing, and now look—he's the plastic flower king."

Yang nodded. "He's truly talented."

Though opinions about Li Ka-shing were mixed in Yang's previous life, almost no one could deny his business acumen.

Even if he didn't start completely from scratch, being able to marry a wealthy and well-educated cousin from a top British university was still a kind of strategic advantage—just like how another "Brother Dong" from Yang's time landed a very powerful ex-girlfriend.

Zhao glanced at An Yongqiang and continued, "Li Ka-shing caught a golden opportunity with plastic flowers.

And while your glue boards may not have the same scale, we believe they'll shine just as bright."

Wang Zhixian chimed in, "Right now, most of Hong Kong—outside of rich areas like Central and Admiralty—is full of rats.

"Before, people only had poison or cages, but results were average at best.

The campaign at Kowloon Wharf proved how effective your glue boards are. We should expand quickly."

Even An Yongqiang, who had been quiet, added, "I agree.

The few hundred glue boards you gave me—some of them were distributed to crew members on ocean-going ships.

After a few days, they reported excellent results. Now that your factory is open, it's time to develop the market."

"Alright," Yang said. "Let's head inside and discuss things properly."

After all, their presence here was more than a courtesy—they had come to negotiate.

…

The four of them walked to the southeast corner of the factory.

There, Yang had set up a simple office and a meeting room.

"Apologies for the rough setup," he said. "Thanks for bearing with us."

An looked around and frowned slightly. He clearly wasn't fond of the modest environment.

But Zhao remained unfazed, and An held his tongue.

Soon, Su Yiyi brought in tea and sat beside Yang, ready to take notes.

Yang began the meeting. "Before we discuss pricing, I'd like to understand how you two plan to divide the market?"

Zhao smiled. "We've already agreed.

I'll handle all sales within Hong Kong, excluding the major ports.

Mr. An will manage the ports and all ocean-going vessels that pass through Hong Kong."

Yang turned to An, curious. "So, Mr. An, you're confident you can secure deals at Whampoa and Taikoo ports?"

"I can't guarantee it myself," An replied, "but I have contacts inside both.

The three big ports might compete at the top, but at the employee level, we're all just people—we have friends across companies.

"And even if someone's not a friend, who says no to making money?"

"I see," Yang nodded.

So An was developing his own secondary distributor network—a smart move.

Sharing profit was always better than trying to control everything.

Even if one day Yang gained full control over his channels, he'd still have to split revenue to build lasting partnerships.

Zhao added, "Mr. An has excellent connections in the shipping industry.

He'll do well selling glue boards to cargo ships."

An replied modestly, "That may be, but your customer base is far bigger.

There may be thousands of ships, but there are three million people on land."

Zhao shook his head. "Yes, but most of them don't have money.

They can barely afford to eat. You think they care about rats?

"The rich don't have rats in their houses, and the poor won't spend on traps.

That leaves the middle class—and there aren't many of them."

An chuckled. "Still, there must be hundreds of thousands."

Zhao smiled but said nothing more.

Yang saw the conversation had paused, so he asked, "Mr. Zhao, how do you plan to promote the glue boards?"

An's market was easy—fewer clients but higher value.

Zhao's was the opposite—many clients, but each with small demand. That made it harder.

In the pre-internet era, building distribution was hard.

Even if Yang could invent products no one had seen before, selling them widely was another story.

Even Coca-Cola, the world's top-selling product, needed powerful distribution to succeed.

Zhao replied confidently, "Don't worry, Mr. Yang. If I'm in, it means I'm confident.

"I know many local businesspeople who run wholesale trading companies.

They supply everything to mom-and-pop shops—snacks, electronics, cleaning products.

Glue boards are easy to add to the mix.

"As long as the price is fair and there's room for profit, your glue boards could spread across all of Hong Kong in no time."

"Impressive," Yang said with a straight face.

Inside, he was thrilled.

Distribution had always been his biggest headache.

There was no way he could knock on doors himself. And this kind of network was the hardest part of doing business.

Zhao continued, "So don't worry about channels. We've got that covered.

Now we just need to discuss price."

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