In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

After handing over the acquisition of Rosen to Citibank, Lin Haoran breathed a sigh of relief.

With the strength of Citibank, it should not be difficult to persuade the owner of Consolidati Foods to sell the company. All we have to do is wait for good news from the other party.

The background of Consolidati Foods is not strong.

Even worse than Southern Company.

Even later, Consolidated Foods, like Southern Company, fell into an economic crisis and had to sell Lawson convenience stores to Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation. Eventually, the Lawson convenience store brand, like 711-Eleven convenience stores, also changed from an American brand to a Japanese brand.

However, in this world, no matter whether it is a 711- convenience store or a Lawson convenience store, once Lin Haoran has set his sights on it, it is basically impossible for them to be acquired by a Japanese company.

Three days passed quickly and it was May 5rd.

On this day, not long after Lin Haoran finished breakfast, he received a call from Huo Jianning.

On the phone, Huo Jianning told him that Citibank was looking for him.

After hearing this, Lin Haoran guessed that Citibank should have already secured the Lawson convenience store matter for him. Even if it hadn't, there should have been some important progress.

So he called Walter Reston directly at home.

As expected, Lin Haoran learned from Walter Reston that after Citibank's negotiation team bombarded the owner of Consolidati Foods for three days, the other party finally gave in and was willing to have in-depth discussions on the sale of the company.

After negotiations, Consolidated Foods was temporarily willing to sell everything in the Lawson convenience store brand for US$60 million, but the other party was not willing to sell Consolidated Foods.

The reason Walter Reston called this time was to ask Lin Haoran whether he accepted the other party's condition.

Lin Haoran naturally agreed to this.

He was attracted by the Lawson convenience store brand and its chain stores, which now have more than 2,000 stores.

As for Consolidated Foods?
What is he going to do?
This is just an ordinary food company.

If it weren't for his good luck in founding the Lawson convenience store brand and successfully imitating the 711- convenience store, Lin Haoran would not have cared about it at all.

After obtaining Lin Haoran's consent, Citibank's negotiation team continued to negotiate with Consolidati Foods Company.

Finally, a few hours later, Lin Haoran received the latest news again.

After negotiations, Consolidati Foods finally agreed to the deal for US$55 million.

At fifty-five million dollars, the deal wasn't outrageous.

It just so happened that Anton Ellison, the president of Southern Company, was still in the United States handling the company's affairs in North America, so Lin Haoran contacted Anton Ellison directly and asked him to hand over to Consolidati Food Company and have Southern Company merge with Lawson Convenience Store.

As for the transaction funds, Anton Allison naturally doesn't have to worry about it. Lin Haoran's finance department will coordinate with Citibank to take care of it.

Even Anton Allison was shocked to learn that his boss had once again quietly taken down Lawson, a competitor of 711-Eleven convenience stores.

This reminded Anton Allison of the fact that his boss had acquired the Southern Company without any notice. As the general manager of the company, he only found out about it after Lin Haoran successfully acquired it.

Anton Allison couldn't help but sigh that this young Chinese boss was so strong and powerful!

At this moment, he didn't know that he was about to give up his position as the head of the Southern Company.

After it was finally confirmed, the number of convenience stores actually controlled by Lin Haoran had reached more than 7,000.

Among them, as of early May, the number of 711-Eleven convenience stores worldwide has reached more than , heading straight for .

The number of Lawson convenience stores around the world has exceeded 3,000.

The two combined have already reached 8,000 households.

From this perspective, Lin Haoran’s previous goal of reaching 10,000 stores within this year is not far away.

Of course, 10,000 chain stores are far from Lin Haoran’s ultimate goal.

After all, the global market is too large, and the convenience store industry is still in its early stages of development with huge potential for growth.

"Mr. Suzuki, when Anton Allison returns to Japan, I will let him be the general manager of the Lawson brand, and you will become the president of the Southern Company, in charge of the two major convenience store brands, 711-Eleven and Lawson!" Lin Haoran said to Toshifumi Suzuki with a smile in his office.

Although Suzuki Toshifumi had already expected this, he was still very excited when he heard Lin Haoran say this.

After all, every worker wants to get promoted and get a raise!
After acquiring the Lawson convenience store brand, although the overall strength of Southern Company did not double, it achieved a qualitative leap.

It can be said that among the global convenience store brands today, no brand can compete with Southern Company in this industry.

The word "far ahead" is absolutely appropriate when applied to Southern Company.

After all, although there are many convenience store brands in the world today, there are only a few that are truly big and strong. 711 and Lawson are already the leaders in the convenience store industry.

Now that the two convenience store giants have merged, other brands are even less able to compete with them.

For example, FamilyMart, the third largest convenience store chain in Japan, has only a few hundred stores to date.

Whether it is Lawson or 711-Eleven convenience stores, FamilyMart still has a long way to go.

Now that the two companies have merged, the gap between FamilyMart and Southern Company has become even wider. The number of FamilyMart convenience stores is less than one-tenth of the convenience stores under Southern Company.

"Thank you, boss. Thank you for your cultivation. I will definitely not let you down!" At this moment, Suzuki Toshifumi seemed to have completely abandoned his loyalty to Ito-Yokado.

At the same time, Lin Haoran also discovered that Suzuki Toshifumi's original loyalty was 90, a very high number.

This loyalty is his loyalty to the Japanese branch of 711, not his loyalty to Lin Haoran.

But Lin Haoran himself doesn't care about this.

Being loyal to his business is enough.

But now, this number has actually risen again. Lin Haoran watched his loyalty rise from 90 to 95.
Based on this loyalty, Lin Haoran was confident enough to hand over the management of the Southern Company to him.

There is absolutely no problem for him to be in charge of Southern Company, 711-Eleven convenience stores and Lawson convenience stores. He will never do anything to let down Southern Company.

"Don't get excited too quickly, I do have a request!" Lin Haoran said with a smile.

"Boss, please tell me if you have any requests. I will do my best to do it if I can!" Suzuki Toshifumi promised solemnly.

"My request is very simple. Since Southern Company has merged with Lawson, Southern Company now controls nearly 8,000 convenience stores. I hope that by the end of July, without blindly expanding, the number of convenience stores controlled by Southern Company can reach 10,000. By the end of this year, the number of convenience stores controlled by Southern Company can reach 15,000. I wonder if you can do this?

As for the funding issue, you don't have to worry, you should know that I am not short of money now!" Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The key point is not to expand blindly.

It is not enough to just open a store. Newly added convenience store chains must ensure quality and be able to gain a foothold in the local market and achieve profitability.

Otherwise, if you open a bunch of stores that become unprofitable due to wrong location selection, what’s the point even if you have a large number of stores?

In fact, Lin Haoran’s request was not that outrageous.

Because he had previously requested that the number of 711-Eleven convenience stores worldwide should reach within this year.

And now, after taking over Lawson convenience stores, the goal is only to add 5,000 stores.

Lawson convenience stores already have more than 2,000 chain stores around the world. With more than half a year left, it is not difficult to add more than 2,000 stores.

Thinking of this, Suzuki Toshifumi said solemnly: "Boss, I am confident that I can complete this task. I will strictly control every link from market research, site selection evaluation to personnel training to ensure that we can ensure both quantity and quality!"

"Okay, now I feel relieved!" Lin Haoran laughed.

At this moment, neither Dayong Company nor Jardine Matheson is aware that the Lawson convenience store brand has changed hands.

Not long ago, Lin Haoran had a phone call with Anton Allison and said that he would return to Japan after the other party had completed the handover matters with Consolidati Food Company.

Then, the news of Southern Company’s acquisition of Lawson convenience store will be announced in Tokyo.

After chatting about work with Toshifumi Suzuki, Lin Haoran stopped bothering him.

Now, Southern Company has just acquired Lawson convenience store. Although the news has not been announced yet, Toshifumi Suzuki must have a lot of things to prepare in advance.

Back in his office again, Lin Haoran sat in the office, thinking that the convenience store he controlled had become a global giant.

When there are tens of thousands of convenience stores, the influence of his retail empire will radiate to every corner of the world.

While he was daydreaming, a phone call brought him back.

Lin Haoran picked up the phone and heard Dai Shi's voice.

"Boss, I have some bad news for you." Dai Shi said on the phone in a serious tone.

"Oh? What's the matter? Just tell me." Lin Haoran asked puzzledly.

"It's about the Bank of East Asia. You may need to come back to Hong Kong." Dai Shi continued.

Bank of East Asia is Lin Haoran’s acquisition target in Hong Kong.

Before going to the United States, he had already decided to acquire the Bank of East Asia. Now, more than half a year has passed. (End of this chapter)