Reborn, back to a small county town to become a wealthy family

Chapter 713 looks very anxious
"Mr. An, you're aiming for tens of thousands of stores throughout the year."

Although the meeting was still ongoing and Luo Yang hadn't spoken yet, He Maosong couldn't help but exclaim, "Based on the current data, including the stores that will be renovated in the third quarter, there are 3984 stores that will be opened by the agents alone. Adding our own nearly 2000 directly operated stores, the total number is approaching 7000!"

"Most of the stores opened by the agents were concentrated in the second and third quarters. In fact, there won't be many new stores in the fourth quarter."

After glancing at Luo Yang, An Ying replied to He Maosong, "As for our directly operated stores, we expect to see a significant increase in the number of new stores in the third and fourth quarters."

Although Sequoia Capital provided 4.4 million yuan in funding, she and Luo Yang had already planned to use most of the funds for distribution channels, raw material production bases, and logistics.

Even if He Maosong and others are company directors, this plan cannot be told to them.

After all, the distribution channels and logistics are also for the future full-category food company, and they have also benefited from Sequoia Capital, so it is not appropriate to disclose them.

"That's true."

After listening to An Ying's explanation, He Maosong nodded and said, "If I were the agent, I would also open the store as soon as possible and start business as soon as possible. So, there will basically be no new data from the agents in the fourth quarter."

After he finished speaking, his gaze turned to the financial director, Xu Zhenzhen.

"Excuse me, Director Xu, please continue."

Xu Zhenzhen smiled slightly, indicating that she didn't mind.

"By the end of the second quarter, the agents had released a total of 4000 store slots."

After the discussion concluded, she continued her report: "The total agency fees collected amounted to 1.13 million yuan (of which the agency fee for stores in first-tier cities was 3.5 yuan per store; the agency fee for stores in first-tier cities was 3 yuan per store; the agency fee for stores in second-tier cities was 2.5 yuan per store; the agency fee for stores in third-tier cities was 2 yuan per store; and the agency fee for stores in fourth- and fifth-tier cities was 1.5 yuan per store), brand franchise fees were 6000 million yuan, and store decoration fees were 1.33 million yuan."

Although the agency fees and franchise fees are one-time expenses, this wave of revenue, which is included in the second quarter's performance, reached 1.73 million yuan, and it is all net income.

As for the 1.33 million yuan in store renovation costs
Several people, including He Maosong, knew that Luoshengtang was just a change of hands. The project was undertaken by a decoration company established by Cai Fujun and Luo Yang. This kind of standardized shop decoration had a profit margin of over 50%.

"Another expense is the raw material delivery fee. We charge our distributors' stores monthly. In the second quarter, 1033 stores started operating, and we collected a total of 7638.52 million yuan. After deducting the cost of raw materials, production costs, and delivery costs, the profit reached 2817.33 million yuan."

Luo Yang was not surprised at all by this profit figure.

He knew that once a branded chain milk tea shop achieved self-production and self-sales of raw materials, its overall profit would be much higher.

Especially for brands like Lemon CC, the more stores they have, the higher their profit margin.

When the time came to 10:45, Xu Zhenzhen's report came to an end.

The meeting then entered a 15-minute break.

Luo Yang got up and walked out of the conference room, followed by He Maosong and the others.

After everyone gathered in the chairman's office, Liu Haishan, with a broad smile, offered cigarettes to each of them and politely lit them for them.

How could we not be happy? Nayuki's sales exceeded 16 billion yuan, with a gross profit of approximately 6.35 million yuan. Lemon CC's sales reached 20.8 billion yuan, with a gross profit exceeding 7 million yuan. In addition, the net income of 1.73 million yuan received from the distributors brought the total revenue for the second quarter to 15 billion yuan.

Liu Haishan owns 15% of the shares, so no matter how you calculate it, his net profit should exceed 1 million yuan.

"Old Liu, I'm counting on Luoshengtang to support me for the rest of my life."

After offering cigarettes, Old Liu sat down on the sofa with a cheerful smile: "It's just that I'm a little reluctant to see Lemon CC go."

"What's there to be reluctant about?"

Cai Fujun scoffed, "Brother Luo has done his best to maximize the value of Lemon CC and then sold it to the next buyer. We can all get over a billion yuan in cash. What more could we ask for?"

"Old Cai, you don't understand. Lemon CC is a golden goose that lays eggs."

Liu Haishan retorted, "Even under the current circumstances, our annual dividends are around 4 to 5 million yuan. A billion yuan is just a few years away. To sell it now like this is a bit like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs."

"Old Liu!"

He Maosong glared at Liu Haishan, then glanced at Luo Yang's expression.

"If you can think of this situation, surely Brother Luo could have thought of it too?"

Seeing that Luo Yang did not show any displeasure, he then said, "Besides, it was agreed when we invested that we would not interfere with the affairs of Luo Shengtang and would leave everything to Brother Luo to handle."

"Everyone has seen the profits in the milk tea industry."

Luo Yang waited until He Maosong finished speaking before speaking, "We can see it, and others can see it too. Before long, milk tea brands will spring up like mushrooms after rain. Moreover, as we all know, there is no technical barrier in the milk tea industry. Even if we release a new drink, others can imitate it in no time. Therefore, the situation of fierce competition and constant rise and fall in this industry is about to begin."

“Brother Luo is right.”

Cai Fujun immediately chimed in, "Several of Nayuki's most popular products have been imitated by other milk tea brands. They're all eyeing us, and there's definitely more than one company that wants to dethrone Nayuki from being the number one milk tea brand in the industry."

"Is Nayuki really that amazing?"

Unbeknownst to many, Nayuki has become the number one brand in China's milk tea industry.

Luo Yang was still unaware.

"Haha, Brother Luo, your mind is entirely on Kunpeng Technology, isn't it?"

He Maosong responded with a smile: "Now, some investment institutions have even conducted an evaluation of Nayuki, and the valuation they gave has reached about 80 billion yuan."

"As long as a company doesn't go public, its valuation is meaningless."

Luo Yang shook his head and said, "Only the benefits you hold in your hands are real."

That's true.

He Maosong picked up the conversation and smoothly transitioned to another topic: "Is the US crude oil futures market about to start?"

The three of them each subscribed to 500 million US dollars.

The key point is that, with their endorsement, many business owners in eastern Zhejiang also participated, subscribing to an additional 3500 million yuan worth of shares.

This involves the investments of many friends, and the total amount is not small, so how could we not care?

"I started watching the market last night."

Luo Yang smiled easily: "The entire team is currently in closed-loop management and will not disband until the operation is completed."

Since last night, Gray Rhino has sealed off its entire office area. Traders involved in this futures transaction will remain at the company until the end of this trading session, including eating and sleeping. Apart from Luo Yang and his team, plus Zhao Pengcheng, no one else is allowed to leave.

These words sounded like they were talking about safety, but in reality, they were telling He Maosong and Cai Fujun that they couldn't take them to the site for observation.

As for bringing Cai Fujun along last time, wasn't that for fishing?

"So you've been staying up late a lot lately?"

Liu Haishan clicked his tongue and said, "I was planning to treat everyone to celebrate tonight, but it looks like I'll have to postpone it."

"Old Liu, how dare you say that?"

Cai Fujun joked, "What did you promise when I went to Kunshan last time? Then nothing happened. I was looking forward to it for months, and I was always feeling uneasy." "They closed down!"

Liu Haishan almost jumped up: "How can you blame me for this?"

Before Cai Fujun could respond, there was a knock on Luo Yang's office door.

"Let's go, the second half of the meeting is about to begin."

Luo Yang stubbed out his cigarette, stood up, and walked out. The other three immediately stopped arguing and quickly followed him.

Luo Shengtang's second-quarter financial report meeting was divided into two parts.

The first half was a financial report, and the second half was a speech by An Ying.

"Today's meeting was originally only supposed to last two hours, but because Lemon CC's expansion speed has exceeded the estimates at the beginning of the year and in the first quarter, we need to re-discuss it here to lay the groundwork for the rapid development in the third and fourth quarters."

Originally, both funding and human resources were allocated according to the plan set at the beginning of the year.

Even after the first quarter ended, the deviation was not too excessive.

But no one expected that sales would grow so much in the second quarter.

Moreover, even An Ying herself did not expect that the enthusiasm of the agents would be so high after the agent system was relaxed, and so many stores were opened in a short period of time.

Whether it's the allocation of management personnel or the supply of raw materials, the entire Luoshengtang seems to be lagging behind.

This is no small matter.

If things get out of control, not only will Lemon CC's brand be affected, but its second round of financing will also become difficult. Even if it is managed to be achieved, the overall valuation will be lower than expected. Neither Luo Yang nor An Ying wants to see this scenario occur.

"Chairman, Chairman He, Chairman Liu, Chairman Cai, colleagues, after listening to the excellent results of the finance department, I would like to talk about some of the difficulties we will encounter soon."

An Ying said with a serious expression, "Given Lemon CC's outstanding performance in the second quarter and its far better-than-expected results in the third quarter, the company now needs to allocate a large sum of money to recruit talent, build a raw material production base, and improve logistics and distribution."

She described the potentially serious consequences based on the actual situation.

"Mr. An, how much capital is needed to meet the company's requirements?"

He Maosong understood, so he asked directly.

He knew that Lemon CC was developing too fast, faster than the company had anticipated. Since there was no way to stop and reorganize, the only option was to increase investment and use even faster development to cover up the problems that had arisen.

"At least 3 million yuan should be allocated."

An Ying then gestured to Xi Yuwei, the director of the board office who was sitting at the end, and asked her to distribute the pre-prepared materials to each participant.

"This includes research reports on investing in and building raw material production bases in cities such as Wuhan, Chongqing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Chang'an, Tianjin, and Harbin. At the same time, we will find distribution partners in the corresponding regions, finalize the signing of agreements, and strive to complete 80% of the planned progress within two months."

"Mr. An, is two months enough time?"

Cai Fujun interjected, asking, "No matter what, building a new production base can't be done in a short time, unless..."

"Yes, Chairman Cai guessed correctly."

An Ying nodded and replied, "Only an acquisition can achieve the planned goals in such a short time."

"That's a good solution."

After agreeing, He Maosong asked, "But acquisitions also require finding the right target. Not every place has a bankrupt company or a suitable company to acquire. If we really can't acquire one, we can sign a contract production agreement. Although we give up some profits, we won't be without raw material supply."

"Mr. Luo reminded me about the acquisition at the end of last year."

An Ying looked at He Maosong: "Chairman He, as for the contract manufacturing, we've already started working on it; otherwise, the stores our distributors opened in the second quarter wouldn't be able to operate."

The questions asked by Cai Fujun and He Maosong just now touched on the company's operations and management.

According to the agreement, they are not allowed to interfere.

So An Ying used her pre-prepared reply to shut them down.

"That's good, that's good"

He Maosong also noticed this, and somewhat embarrassedly touched his nose, no longer asking questions.

"Regarding the issues of inspecting and managing stores opened by distributors, the company has decided to implement strict regulations from the outset. Therefore, we plan to separate the inspectors from the marketing department and establish a dedicated inspection department under the brand operations department, divided into a direct-sale store inspection team and a distributor-opened store inspection team."

"In response to the rapid expansion of the market nationwide, we plan to divide the national market into seven major regions: Northeast, North China, Northwest, Southwest, Central Plains, East China, and South China. Regional offices will be located in key cities where raw material production bases are situated."

"."

As An Ying listed out the plans one by one, Luo Yang's lips unconsciously curled up.

On the surface, this appears to be laying the groundwork for the nationwide expansion of Lemon CC and even Nayuki, but Luo Yang knows that it is also paving the way for a future full-category food company.

Those rented office spaces, those hired employees, those raw material production companies, those logistics...
Once the sales terminals are added, it will become a complete channel.

Of course, these are all offline channels.

Luo Yang had also made preparations for the online portion.

Pinduoduo, quietly continuing its efforts in Guangzhou, will eventually become the final piece of the puzzle.

Half an hour passed quickly.
"This is my supplementary plan for Lemon CC's development in the third and fourth quarters. I sent the electronic version to the chairman for review a week ago. If any colleagues have any other questions, please feel free to raise them for discussion now."

He Maosong and his group were rebuffed by An Ying before, so they are now too embarrassed to speak up.

As for the other departments, as I just mentioned, the chairman reviewed it a week ago and had no objections, so what objections could we possibly have?
In other words, the HR department raised a few trivial questions about recruitment.

Finally, a total of ten minutes were left for Luo Yang to give a concluding speech.

I have two things to say.

Luo's concluding remarks were concise: "It now appears that Lemon CC will be able to exceed its planned targets this year, so please ask President An to prepare for the second round of financing before the end of the fourth quarter and strive to complete the financing before the end of the year."

"Was Sequoia Capital the lead investor?"

She had heard that Sequoia Capital was asking to lead the second round of funding for the bike-sharing project, so she asked one more question.

"They won't be leading the investment this time."

Luo Yang replied, "Besides issuing an announcement, you can also try to find connections yourself."

He Maosong gave An Ying several meaningful glances during their conversation.

Looks very anxious.

(End of this chapter)