A century-old wealthy family that rose from Shanghai

at the same time.

Chen Guangliang was inspecting the businesses of the Yangtze River Industrial Group, a complex enterprise with numerous subsidiaries. He was also considering a gradual transformation for the group, otherwise it would inevitably be left behind by the times.

this day.

Chan Kwong-leung, accompanied by his son Chan Man-kai, visited a Uniqlo store in Star House, Tsim Sha Tsui. The two kept a low profile, bringing only plainclothes bodyguards and no management personnel with them.

This is a two-story clothing store of 2,000 square feet, which is also a characteristic of Uniqlo—it must be at least 1000 square feet in size and located in a downtown area or shopping mall area.

So, after two years of development, Uniqlo now has three stores: one on the first floor of Poly Plaza in Central (connected to Cheung Kong Plaza), one in Causeway Bay Shopping Centre in Paterson Street, and one on the first and second floors of Star House in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Although there are only three stores, when Chen Guangliang and Chen Wenkai walked into the Uniqlo store in Xingguangxing, they immediately felt the bustling atmosphere – locals and tourists filled the space.

"Welcome to Uniqlo! Feel free to try anything you like!" The sales assistant greeted the customer warmly as they entered.

Most customers would feel a little relieved after hearing this, since they were afraid of trying on clothes but not buying them and getting a dirty look from the salesperson.

Afterwards, Chen Guangliang and Chen Wenkai casually browsed the store, and no one recognized them. They also felt a sense of ease while shopping; they weren't pressured by the sales staff and could freely browse and try on clothes.

The store is divided into men's, women's, and children's clothing sections, and provides shopping baskets, which is popular with families as it allows them to buy clothes for the whole family in one go.

The clothes are all folded and placed in the display cases, and they are mostly neatly arranged. Some are messy because customers have just tried them on, but this makes people feel less guilty and they can pick them up and compare them.

Of course, you can also see the shop assistants smiling and quickly folding the clothes, their movements skillful and not affecting the customers' shopping experience at all.

"Miss" Chen Wenkai pretends to be a customer and waves to the shop assistant.

Hello, how can I help you?

Chen Wenkai deliberately said, "I don't know what size to wear!"

The saleswoman immediately smiled and pointed to the size label on the clothes, saying, "Sir, this has our clothing size chart, and there's also a chart here. You can choose the size based on your height and weight. If it doesn't fit, you can choose a size up or down."

Chen Wenkai suddenly realized and said, "Okay, I understand!"

"Just call me if you need anything," the clerk said, and immediately left the scene.

This style makes browsing very relaxing.

At this time, Uniqlo was actually quite similar to the Uniqlo of later generations, except that the term "Fast Retailing" didn't exist yet. The clothing styles in this store were all taken from European and American magazines or fashion shows and then redesigned. Of course, the key design concept was simplicity and comfort, which is the core philosophy of Uniqlo clothing.

Later, Chen Guangliang and Chen Wenkai didn't try on the clothes, but stood at the cashier for a while before leaving the store. The entire shopping experience was positive, which satisfied Chen Guangliang, and he considered himself to have successfully launched the brand.

The busy scene at the cash registers has made Uniqlo a best-selling brand in Hong Kong.

"Wen Kai, what are your thoughts?"

Chen Wenkai immediately said, "Uniqlo is a successful brand. I think we should continue to maintain three stores and not expand, since it has only been established for a little over two years. In terms of details, we should continue to maintain the existing service, provide regular training for employees, and improve their sense of responsibility. After we have done these things well, we can then consider opening a fourth store or opening stores overseas."

Chen Guangliang nodded and said, "Expansion really can't be rushed. Let's wait until the mid-1970s to expand overseas. Come on, let's go to Xinfeng Textile Group."

"Okay, Dad!"

Today, in the apparel industry, Hsin Feng Textile Group has established three brands: Lacoste, Uniqlo, and Travelpro luggage.

Among them, Lacoste has already developed in Asia, Travelpro luggage is world-renowned and continues to collect patent fees, while Uniqlo is the future.

Upon arriving at Xinfeng Textile Group, General Manager Lin Jianyun had already gathered some textile fabric engineers in an office.

Chen Guangliang said, "The reason I've gathered everyone here is to establish a 'fabric research and development team.' I think everyone understands that there are very few wool textile companies in Hong Kong, because of the high cost of materials such as wool and the limitations of distribution channels. So I want to develop a product that can replace expensive wool sweater fabrics, allowing people in cold places around the world to feel warmth and softness."

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.

One engineer said, "Mr. Chen, we don't do wool spinning ourselves, so we're not very good at it."

One engineer also said, "A substitute for wool? That's probably unlikely."

Seeing everyone's expressions, Chen Guangliang was not disappointed. After all, people with vision and courage are hard to find; otherwise, only a few people in this world could get rich.

He smiled and said, "What I want to say is that nothing is impossible. Using polyester fiber (PET) as the main material and recycled plastic bottles as some raw materials, we have developed a new type of fabric that is twice as warm as wool and four times as warm as cotton. It is soft, lightweight, quick-drying, easy to wash, and still warm when damp, twice as warm as merino wool. Similar to fleece, it looks like fluff, consisting of a layer of fleece and a base fabric. In short, this is a new type of fabric, and the group will provide long-term support for this project."

Lin Jianyun immediately said, "The development of new fabrics is always a bit clueless at the beginning, but at least we have some direction. Moreover, the group is willing to invest in research and development costs, so this project team will be established soon, and anyone who is interested can join."

Several engineers became interested upon hearing Chen Guangliang's words, mainly because their boss spoke as if the invention had already been completed, which immediately ignited their enthusiasm.

If such a material can be developed, it will be more profitable than selling clothes for several years, because the demand for this kind of fabric is huge, even the military needs it.

To be honest, only a large textile group like Sin Fung Textile, which has always had a mature R&D team, can truly invest in research and development; other textile companies in Hong Kong would certainly not do such a thankless task.

On the other hand, Xinfeng Textile Group is not busy with research and development. After all, Chen Guangliang provides direction and information, which saves a lot of time and research and development costs.

Of course, Chen Guangliang wasn't in a hurry; five years to develop it was acceptable.

As for why Chen Guangliang knew the approximate raw materials of fleece, it's simple: in his previous life, the Uniqlo fleece he bought always emitted electric shocks, so he specifically looked into this information. Moreover, textiles are all made of polyester, that is, polyester fiber; the key difference is in its form.

The reason why fleece has a lot of static electricity is mainly because it is made up of a layer of fleece and a layer of base fabric. When they rub against each other, they become conductive.

If the research and development is successful, the 20-year patent rights would be enough to generate hundreds of millions of US dollars in profit for a large textile group. This stuff is extremely valuable; even the US military would need to purchase this fabric due to its properties such as warmth and lightness. Xinfeng Textile Group, Rongchang Heavy Industry Group, Huatai Group, and Midea Group have already become subsidiaries of Yangtze River Industrial Group.

If these four groups were separated, each of them would be among the top five industrial companies in Hong Kong, which would likely constitute the four major industrial groups in Hong Kong.

The four industrial groups employ more than 5 people, while the number of registered workers in Hong Kong's manufacturing sector is 55, with Cheung Kong Industrial Group accounting for 10% of that number. More importantly, the total output value of these four industrial groups may account for about 15% of Hong Kong's total.

This proves that the added value of Cheung Kong Industrial Group is far higher than that of other companies in Hong Kong.

It's fair to say that if the Chen family stomped their feet, Hong Kong would be shaken.

Is Xinfeng Textile Group trying to steal market share from Hong Kong's textile industry in its previous life?
Yes, no.

In this life, Hong Kong's textile industry will certainly have a higher export share than in the previous life; however, due to the 'restrictions of the European and American markets,' the degree of increase will be limited.

Therefore, it still has an impact on some original textile tycoons, namely, their market share has decreased, such as the Lim Por-yen family, the Tan Teng Hua family, and so on.

Is Rongchang Heavy Industry Group trying to steal market share from Hong Kong's former heavy industry sector?
A small portion is yes, but the majority is no.

The "yes" part naturally includes steel smelting, a portion of the electrical machinery market, etc.; the "no" part is much more extensive. For example, Rongchang Yachts alone supports five or six thousand manufacturing workers, which was not the case in the previous life. There are also many other parts that Hong Kong did not have in the previous life, or whose share was not as large.

The main focus right now is, of course, the development of Huatai Toys. The global production of Barbie dolls and My Little Pony dolls was previously largely outsourced to Japanese toy factories. Furthermore, they also manufactured for other toy manufacturers in Europe and America.

More importantly, Huatai Toys owns its own 'brand', offering products such as Rubik's Cubes, claw machines, building blocks, and track toys, and now also includes transforming toys.

Furthermore, Huatai Toys also owns "Manke World Publishing House" and its own retail brand, Kidswant, forming a vertically integrated business model.

Huatai Group is now a major employer, with tens of thousands of workers, and indirectly employs thousands of women (who assemble at home).

Chen Wenkai arrived at the Huatai Toy Building. At that time, Huatai Group actually owned five industrial buildings alone, totaling 1 million square feet. Unlike Xinfeng Textile Group and Rongchang Heavy Industry Group, which both had industrial parks exceeding one million square feet, Huatai Group had even leased some of its factory buildings from Ping An Investment.

"Currently, we have implemented a three-shift system to produce transforming toys, as we have many urgent orders from Europe and America," Su Dongsheng explained in the workshop.

Chen Wenkai said, "If we work three shifts, we must also ensure quality. Transforming toys are one of our growth drivers for the next year. Although we have already reached a cooperation agreement with Mattel, we expect that 'DIAKRON' and 'MICROMAN' will still have a 1-2 year cycle."

Once Transformers are created, Huatai Toys will not only manufacture them but also handle sales in the Asian region; as for the intellectual property rights, they belong to Mattel.

In reality, in its previous life, the Japanese company TAKARA would have at most received an intellectual property fee and a manufacturing contract. But now, Huatai Company doesn't want the intellectual property fee; instead, it wants the toy sales agency rights for the Asian region.

In this way, it is actually a win-win situation, with Mattel focusing on the European and American markets.

"I know they're cracking down on these things very tightly!"

Later, the two arrived at an office.

Chen Wenkai took out a document and said, "This is a comic strip that someone submitted to me. Take it and have the comic book company organize a team to serialize it."

Su Dongsheng, being an experienced and shrewd man, naturally knew what to do. He took the manuscript without even glancing at it and said, "Hmm, no problem. Speaking of which, 'Comic World' weekly magazine is really selling very well right now. At 1.2 yuan a copy, it's the most expensive comic magazine, and its sales have already exceeded 10 copies. Even Chinatowns overseas have our 'Comic World'. The most popular one in it is naturally the serialization of Fist of the North Star."

Chen Wenkai nodded and said, "I occasionally take some time to read them too! Nowadays, Japan's share in Hong Kong's comic book industry is very small. We account for more than 70% of the remaining market share, while Wong Yuk-long's 'Little Rascal' and Shangguan Xiaobao's 'Bruce Lee' share the remaining 20%."

Su Dongsheng said with a smile, "Speaking of which, the comic works of these two people also rose to prominence under the influence of Bruce Lee's movies. But compared to our 'Fist of the North Star,' not to mention the huge difference in style and image quality, their influence is far inferior in all aspects, so they are not worth worrying about."

“Okay, Huatai Group will continue to invest in the comics business, regardless of whether it is profitable or not. The key is to cultivate the development of Hong Kong’s comics industry and our own IPs. Fist of the North Star is one, and City Hunter, which you have, is another. These are key IPs. These IPs may not be apparent now, but they will represent Hong Kong’s cultural industry and continue to influence comics lovers around the world in the future.”

"Yes, we have always provided substantial support to Comic World Publishing House."

The Comic World Publishing House, located on the ground floor of an office building in North Point, is quite impressive.

Attentive citizens may also notice that the lead artists at Comic World mostly drive to work, which puts them in the category of wealthy people in Hong Kong. It turns out that Wah Tai Group has always been generous in its support of Comic World, regardless of cost and without rushing for returns, so the salaries and benefits for lead comic artists are very high, generally reaching over HK$5000.

The magazine invests almost all of its annual profits in training and retaining talent, and all it gets in return are individual intellectual property (IPs).

After obtaining the manuscript of "City Hunter" from Su Dongsheng, the editor-in-chief Zhang Yuzhen immediately summoned three of his own trained writers.

"The three of you, for the time being, stop drawing your current manuscripts and hand them over to others. From now on, you must focus all your efforts on completing the 'City Hunter' manga series, which will become your main serialized work after 'Fist of the North Star'!"

The three were initially reluctant to take on the job, but after seeing the theme and outline of "City Hunter," they became very interested and immediately agreed.

Then, Zhang Yuzhen asked, "Have you read the 'Little Rascal' and 'Bruce Lee' comics?"

"Of course I've seen it."

Zhang Yuzhen then asked, "What are their flaws, or what is the biggest difference between them and us?"

He knew the answer in his heart, but he asked his colleagues.

"The comics about hooligans and Bruce Lee promote violence too much, and their quality and style are inferior to ours, so they are not worth worrying about."

Zhang Yuzhen nodded and said, "I understand."

After the three withdrew, Zhang Yuzhen said, "We could make a fuss about this and give these two companies a setback!"

Since they weren't in the same style, Zhang Yuzhen decided to suppress his peers. He believed that Hong Kong's comic book industry couldn't afford to have "black sheep" like Huang Yulang and Shangguan Xiaobao. At the very least, they should learn a thing or two before trying to make a living in this industry. (End of Chapter)