It was another weekend, and Zhou Chen drove to a small town in a county east of Yanjing early in the morning.
Although this town is close to the capital, it is not prosperous and is just an ordinary town. Zhou Chen's goal is a mask processing factory in this town.
This factory was originally the farthest and most remote of the target factories listed by Zhou Chen, and it was also Zhou Chen's last choice.
Now that other factory leaders have clearly rejected him, Zhou Chen has no choice but to try this factory. If it doesn't work, he will go further away or find a way to open one by himself.
factory.
But in that case, it will be more time-consuming and labor-intensive, the investment may be greater, and the cycle to get on track will be longer.
It took two hours of driving to reach the destination. Not long after entering the town, Zhou Chen stopped next to a bright black van in front of him.
"License plate N376, yes, that's the car."
Zhou Chen had already spoken to the other party on the phone before coming, and the other party said he would wait for him at this place. His license plate number was 376.
There were two people standing next to the van. When they saw Zhou Chen's car stopped, they didn't have time to sigh and immediately came over to greet it.
As soon as Zhou Chen's car window was rolled down, the two people immediately bowed down and asked, "Is this Mr. Zhou Chen Zhou?"
Zhou Chen looked at the two people, a man who looked a little old, and a young man in his twenties. They looked very similar. If they were not father and son, they must be relatives.
"Yes, I am Zhou Chen, and you are the director Xie of Guanbing Mask Processing Factory?"
The middle-aged man nodded immediately and said: "Yes, I am Xie Guanbing from Guanbing Mask Processing Factory."
So Zhou Chen got out of the car, shook hands with the middle-aged man, and said, "Director Xie, hello, I'm Zhou Chen."
Zhou Chen was wearing casual clothes today. Although he still looked young, Xie Guanbing and the other two were not surprised because they already knew what kind of person the boss who was coming this time was.
"Hello, Mr. Zhou, welcome to our Liji Town."
Xie Guanbing happily shook hands with Zhou Chen. Looking at the sports car that Zhou Chen drove over, he knew that Zhou Chen was definitely a rich second generation. For such a person, even if it was a casual investment, it would be a life-saving straw for a small factory like them.
.
"Director Xie, just call me by my name. No need to be so polite."
"Then I'll call you Mr. Zhou. Mr. Zhou, the roads in our Liji Town are not very good. I'm afraid it will be difficult for a sports car like yours to drive to our factory."
Liji Town is just a small town, and their factory is located in a relatively remote place. The roads in the countryside will inevitably have potholes. If the sports car drives past without hesitation, it may be seriously damaged.
Zhou Chen understood: "Do you have a good parking place here?"
Xie Guanbing immediately replied: "Yes, we can drive to the town government first. There is a parking place there, which is convenient and safe."
"Okay, then you lead the way, and I will follow you behind."
The town government was not far from here, and they arrived quickly. Xie Guanbing seemed to be very familiar with the guard here. After Zhou Chen parked the car, he even gave the guard a special instruction.
Zhou Chen got into the van and shook hands with the young man first. After the introduction, he learned that this young man was Xie Guanbing's son, named Xie Jialin, and now managed the family's factory with his father.
While in the car, Xie Jialin was responsible for driving, while Xie Guanbing introduced the situation of their factory to Zhou Chen.
Guanbing Mask Factory was founded by Xie Guanbing for more than ten years. Judging from the name of the factory, you can tell how deeply he feels about it.
Guanbing Mask Factory is the only factory in Liji Town with more than 300 workers. Xie Guanbing was able to develop a small factory with just a few people into a large factory with more than 300 people now. Needless to say, his ability.
It's just that in today's society, it doesn't mean that you can accomplish something if you have the ability.
Over the years, the factory has continued to expand, from one production line to now three production lines, including workers, managers, dormitories, canteens, etc.
Prices are constantly rising, and workers' wages are also rising, but the factory's profits are not rising, and have been declining year by year in recent years.
In such a situation where they could not make ends meet, the Xie family and his son relied on their own property to support themselves. Even the town government gave them great preferential treatment in the hope that they could continue to operate the factory.
After all, it is a factory with more than 300 people, and 89% of the workers in the factory are from the town. There are also many people in the surrounding area who rely on this small factory to make a living.
If the factory closes down, it is likely that hundreds of people will be laid off and unemployed, which the town government is absolutely unwilling to see.
So in order to keep the factory open, the town government gave them various preferential treatment and even helped them with loans, making them struggling to support themselves.
However, no matter how hard the Xie family tried, it was difficult for them to improve their performance. The main reason was that there were too few sales channels, so that the factory had too much inventory that could not be discharged.
There was too much inventory that could not be sold, so naturally they had no money to turn back. However, the Xie family and his son were also considered to be real people. In order to ensure the wages of the workers, they did not stop work.
If such a vicious cycle continues, it is not easy for them to persist until now. They have been looking for investors everywhere, but those people did not dare to invest in shares after learning about the situation in their factories.
You can think about it, most of the workers in a factory are acquaintances. If they are really up to something, outsiders can't beat them.
Small capital was unwilling to invest, and big capital looked down on such a small factory, so Xie Guanbing and his son were as anxious as ants on a hot pot.
Seeing that they could no longer hold on, Zhou Chen suddenly appeared, so even though Zhou Chen was very young and seemed unreliable, they still contacted Zhou Chen with the most sincere attitude.
What if it succeeds?
However, Xie Guanbing did not fully disclose these things. Although he is a real person, he is also a businessman, so naturally it is impossible for him to explain all the problems of his factory.
But even if he didn't say it, Zhou Chen actually already knew it, because before he came, he had asked his uncle Song Yuan to investigate the situation of the Guanbing Mask Factory. He was very aware of the dilemma that the Xie family and his son were facing now.
We are in the car now, which is not the place for negotiation, and Zhou Chen wants to go to the factory to see the specific situation before making a conclusion.
Liji Town is not big, so we arrived at our destination in less than ten minutes by driving a van.
Zhou Chen got out of the car and took a look. Oh, what he saw in front of him was a relatively shabby-looking factory building. Although the highest one was only three floors, it covered a large area.
There are no residents around the factory, and there are empty lots everywhere. It cannot be said to be empty land. It should be said that it is fields that have been harvested. The crops to be planted have not yet been planted, so it looks like wasteland.
"Mr. Zhou, this is our factory. Even though our factory doesn't look like much on the outside, in fact our factory is very strong and the workers are also very diligent, even more diligent than those workers in the city."
Xie Jialin took the initiative to introduce Zhou Chen. When he talked about his factory, he seemed very proud.
Although the Xie family is not the richest man in Liji Town, because of the mask factory, they are definitely the biggest force in the town and are particularly respected and treated favorably.
It is partly for this reason that the father and son still firmly want to keep the factory open despite the difficult circumstances.
Xie Jialin's words made Zhou Chen smile. He didn't know why Xie Jialin had such an idea.
Are country people necessarily more diligent than city people?
This is completely a prejudice. Country people must be diligent and city people must be lazy?
Zhou Chen admitted that some country people were very diligent, but he could not say that they were all. On the contrary, he knew that many people in the city were no less diligent than those who farmed in the countryside, and even worked harder.
It can even be said that the pressure of rural people is far less than that of urban people.
For most rural people, their thinking is very simple. As long as they have a place to live, a piece of land to farm, and the ability to chat and play cards with their neighbors, their days will be over.
It may seem like hard work, but it’s actually not too stressful.
On the contrary, those who want to establish themselves in the city, or those who have already established themselves in the city, are under great pressure.
Job, house, medical care, insurance, children's schooling, etc. are all things that make people fearful just thinking about them.
Under such circumstances, can we not be under great pressure? Do we dare not to work diligently?
Xie Jialin on the side didn't know what Zhou Chen was thinking, so he continued to introduce.
"Our factory has a total of more than 300 and nearly 400 people from top to bottom. Because most of them are locals, there are few employee dormitories, but they have their own canteens, playgrounds, etc."
The countryside is vast, so a small factory like this also has its own playground. If it were placed in an urban area, ordinary factories would really not dare to plan it like that.
Zhou Chen didn't express any opinions and just followed the Xie family and his son around the factory.
First comes the peripheral, followed by the internal production line.
There were indeed a lot of workers, but Zhou Chen discovered many problems.
In a factory, the clothes are not uniform, there are all kinds of clothes, and they look very uncomfortable.
Zhou Chen was also very dissatisfied with the sanitary environment of the production line and so on.
You must know that this is a place where masks are produced. It is originally a hygienic place, but the production line turns out to be unhygienic. What kind of work attitude is this?
In addition to these two aspects, there are various other problems, more than Zhou Chen imagined.
But apart from the problems, there are still some advantages. For example, several production lines are indeed well-equipped, the site is really big, many workers are veterans, and the speed is relatively fast.
However, Zhou Chen didn't know whether this was because he was coming over, or if he was acting in a normal way.
After walking around, it was exactly noon. Xie Guanbing did not discuss investment with Zhou Chen immediately. Instead, he took Zhou Chen to a restaurant in the town.
"Mr. Zhou, this is a small place, so please don't mind."
"fine."
Of course Zhou Chen wouldn't care, it was just a meal.
To be continued...