freenovelworld #241 - If you follow Mr. Lu, you will definitely get something to eat (2 in 1, please order)
#241 - If you follow Mr. Lu, you will definitely get something to eat (2 in 1, please order)
CEO Cao sighed inwardly, a wave of emotion washing over him. He hadn't expected such a significant change in Cat's Tea in just a few days, making him feel that his previous judgment had been too hasty.
He silently admired CEO Lu's skills in his heart.
It seemed that the decline of Cat's Tea that he had seen before was only a facade.
And the series of game collaborations and store visits must have been arranged by CEO Lu in advance.
He deliberately showed his vulnerable side to the surrounding Liu Group stores, making them lower their guard and not carry out any blockade during the crucial collaboration period,
Then he struck unexpectedly, delivering a fatal blow!
Now, even if other stores react and want to implement blockade strategies, it is already too late.
With the roads as congested as they are now, it would be difficult for them to even go out.
CEO Cao rubbed his weathered face and sighed deeply.
His previous intelligence gathering was too superficial; he didn't deeply understand the potential of Cat's Tea, nor did he perceive CEO Lu's true strategy.
Just then, a message came from the [China Investors Club] chat group, and someone @ mentioned him in the group again.
Tianyou Capital - CEO Zhao: "CEO Cao, why haven't you been popping up lately? Have you discovered any new investment opportunities and are making a fortune quietly?"
Yingchuang Fund - CEO Zhang: "That's not right of you."
Win-Win Times - CEO Qian: "CEO Cao, are you upset that we've been winning more red envelopes than you lately? Just say so; I'll send you a few more designated ones next time, hahaha."
CEO Cao did not respond to the CEOs' jokes but replied quite seriously in the group:
"Everyone, what do you think about the prospects of offline physical cat cafes now?"
Tianyou Capital - CEO Zhao: "CEO Cao, why are you thinking so negatively?"
Qizhi Investment - CEO Liu:
"In the current environment, there is a general tendency towards online consumption, and physical catering is on the decline. Cat cafes, as a variant of coffee shops, cater to an even narrower consumer group.
They have extremely high requirements for store location, nearby business districts, and product selection design.
None of us old foxes in the group dare to say that investing in physical catering is sure to succeed now.
Old Cao, you don't really want to open a physical store, do you?"
CEO Cao:
"I'm asking you CEOs, if, and I mean if, there is such a coffee shop, it is themed around playing with cats,
The location is in a university town business district with weak spending power, and what's worse, this store is already surrounded by Liu Group's commercial plaza."
"Liu Group?"
Hearing this name, the CEOs in the investment group changed their expressions.
CEO Zhao: "Then it's over; it's definitely dead."
CEO Liu: "Definitely a goner."
CEO Cao silently took a picture of the crowded scene in front of Cat's Tea and sent it to the group.
The group was silent for a full five minutes, and then various messages began to flood the screen.
"!!!!!!!"
"?????????"
Some CEOs forgot their status and couldn't help but swear: "Damn? This traffic is outrageous! What kind of amazing business district is this?"
CEO Zhang: "Goodness, so CEO Cao really went to make a fortune quietly. What amazing gold mine did you find? Bring your brothers along."
CEO Cao replied with a wry smile: "This store is not mine; it was taken over by CEO Lu of Peach Blossom Village."
CEO Li was stunned: "CEO Lu? Is that the sucker who bought your Dark Horse Animation before?"
CEO Cao: "Hey, hey, hey, don't call him a sucker. Are you trying to bury me? Gong Qijun and the others are now earning tens of millions of copyright fees every month. Why are you bringing up the past? My heart is bleeding."
CEO Zhao: "CEO Lu? Oh... right, right, right, I remember. He's a popular figure on TV shows now, and the guests are raving about him, saying he's a leader among the new generation of entrepreneurs, a master strategist, and a decisive winner. I watched that episode; they praised him to the skies!"
CEO Cao then shared the recent situation of tracking Cat's Tea in detail in the group.
CEO Qian: "I just switched over to check Weibo and some reports. The popularity is indeed high. Judging from the popularity of this Cat's Tea, the TV show guests were indeed not exaggerating."
For these investors who have been working in the physical industry for many years, it is almost an impossible miracle to bring a cat cafe surrounded by the Liu Group to such a level of traffic!
CEO Cao quickly interrupted everyone's heated discussion:
"Enough said, brothers, the opportunity to make a fortune has arrived.
I'll be honest with you all. I've been investigating CEO Lu's Peach Blossom Village recently and want to seek the opportunity to invest in this company.
However, CEO Lu has 100% ownership of Peach Blossom Village and enjoys absolute control, and the company's revenue and cash flow are quite healthy, so investing in it is basically impossible.
But!
We can use our professional advantages to learn and replicate CEO Lu's business model!"
The big shots in the group instantly perked up!
CEO Zhao:
"Old Cao is right. First of all, regarding the business district and location, there must be a reason why CEO Lu chose this place.
Although, with my shallow vision, I still can't understand the uniqueness of CEO Lu's vision, and he certainly won't share his methodology with us,
But!
We can follow suit.
Wherever CEO Lu opens a store, we will open a store there too. We must follow up!"
CEO Qian:
"The success of Cat's Tea depends in part on its collaboration with game products. Although we don't have good game companies on hand, there are still many film and television companies and cultural companies with good IPs.
We can completely collaborate with film and television companies and start with other catering projects, such as barbecue restaurants, milk tea shops, cake shops, and mala tang shops."
CEO Liu:
"CEOs, I think the business model is secondary.
CEO Lu of Peach Blossom Village personally used his store to tell us a truth:
The Liu Group is a behemoth, but it is not invincible!
Everyone, think back. When we just mentioned the Liu Group, our subconscious reaction was to avoid its edge, because in the commercial district competition in many cities over the years, we have been beaten by the Liu Group into PTSD.
This is not good!
And CEO Lu, he broke the invincible commercial myth of the Liu Group."
Seeing that everyone was determined, CEO Cao directly made a summary:
"To put it bluntly, even if our own collaboration is not successful, as long as we open near CEO Lu's store, we can eat our fill from his store's traffic. Following CEO Lu, it looks like we'll definitely have meat to eat!"
...
In the following days, many new and unfamiliar faces began to appear in the outer business district of University Town Commercial Street.
They wandered around various shops that were on the verge of closing down and being transferred due to the pressure of the Liu Group, and bought them blindly.
Soon, many nearby catering shops were re-integrated and operated on a large scale.
Many catering shops also announced their catering brands and various collaborations with movies, TV series, and novels!
For example, the Brilliant Barbecue Catering Group under the Brilliant Investment Fund will collaborate with the famous director's documentary "A Bite of China."
Shunfeng Chain Hotpot under the Shunwei Investment Fund will collaborate with the famous art film "Hot Pot."
Tiantian Orchard Chain Salad Fast Food under Tianyou Capital will collaborate with the recently popular web drama "The Story of the Fruit Shop."
And, most importantly,
The flagship stores of these collaboration activities are all located in the Jianghai University Town business district, surrounding the Liu Group Commercial Plaza in an encircling manner!
...
Liu Group Commercial Company office, Manager Sun's office.
Manager Sun sat behind his large desk, looking at the messy traffic reports on the table, feeling extremely heavy.
He did not expect the counterattack of Cat's Tea to come so quickly,
The wall-mounted TV in the office was playing various VLOGs of cute pets and food bloggers visiting the store.
After a while, he rubbed his forehead and sighed deeply.
Recently, much of the traffic attracted by the Liu Group Commercial Plaza has run to Cat's Tea,
He had worked hard for the commercial plaza for more than half a month, but it was all taken by CEO Lu of Peach Blossom Village and used to benefit him!
What's even more outrageous is that this business district with insufficient spending power was not considered a good place in the eyes of many investors.
The Liu Group also wanted to take it over, slowly cultivate it, and think about recovering the costs after five years.
As a result, recently, the big shots in the investment group and the catering circle, for some reason, squeezed here like crazy, directly sandwiching the Liu Group Commercial Plaza in the middle and taking it all!
In other words, those who came to pick peaches were not only CEO Lu's Cat's Tea, but also the new stores of these big shots in the investment circle.
"What's wrong with you guys..."
Manager Sun felt a splitting headache and was about to pick up the remote control to turn off the TV when suddenly, the "Jianghai Finance and Economics Observation" program on TV began to play.
"Dear viewers, I am field reporter Li Wen. Today, we bring you a commercial miracle, yes, it is Cat's Tea, which has recently caused a sensation in Jianghai University Town."
The screen showed the scene of Cat's Tea, the bustling commercial plaza, the crowds, the cat girl COS photos, making it a dream destination for young people.
Li Wen: "How did Cat's Tea do it? We specially interviewed Lin Ming, the operations manager of Cat's Tea."
Ms. Lin Ming was still a little nervous in front of the camera. It could be seen that she was reading the prepared lines:
"Um, we, we hope to create a unique entertainment space. Through the combination of games and catering, customers can not only taste delicious food here, but also experience the unique cat culture... and emotional resonance."
Li Wen: "Were these strategies all formulated by you?"
Lin Ming quickly waved her hand:
"No, no, no, no, I am just an executor. I'm not afraid to make you laugh. Our store was facing a crisis of closure not long ago. CEO Lu of Peach Blossom Village was willing to take over and dispatched professional game production staff to carry out this collaboration with us."
Perhaps seeing that Lin Ming was a little nervous, the reporter did not embarrass her any further and quickly ended the conversation.
Li Wen: "In fact, this unique collaboration has also attracted many investors, who have turned their attention to this commercial plaza.
As you can see, recently not only Peach Blossom Village's Cat's Tea, but also catering brands under Brilliant Investment Fund, Shunwei Investment Fund, and Tianyou Capital have successively entered."
The screen switched to the outside of the commercial plaza, where posters of various collaboration activities were competing to appear, and people were constantly walking in.
Li Wen: "The popularity of the scene is evident. Why do so many investors choose here?"
Then, the screen played interview clips of the big shots' phone interviews.
President of Qizhi Investment Fund:
"We have seen the successful business model of Cat's Tea, coupled with the mature business district of University Town Commercial Plaza, we believe that this will be an excellent location for our business expansion."
General Manager of Shunwei Investment Fund:
"Through collaboration with well-known film and television works, we hope to provide customers with a more diversified experience and upgrade catering to a kind of cultural communication."
Chairman of Brilliant Fund, CEO Cao:
"Only after understanding CEO Lu of Peach Blossom Village did I realize that as investors, our skills are still relatively lacking. CEO Lu's business model is likely to bring about a commercial transformation in the catering industry."
...
After watching this program, Manager Sun slumped in his boss's chair, feeling a chill down his spine.
The case is solved!
In his mind, he began to recall the various details before.
First of all, when he reported to Liu Lan on the phone, he inadvertently noticed that the Liu Group seemed to have had one or two rounds of competition with CEO Lu of Peach Blossom Village in other fields in the past, and the group did not get any advantage.
Secondly, when the University Town Commercial Plaza plan was being promoted, Peach Blossom Village did not have any major actions. CEO Lu just let the Liu Group invest a lot of financial and human resources to attract customers,
But when only Cat's Tea and a few last nail households were left, CEO Lu suddenly acquired Cat's Tea with an act that violated common sense.
After that, although Cat's Tea was being forced by the stores in the commercial plaza, CEO Lu still remained calm and continued to let the Liu Group engage in various commercial promotions to attract customers.
And finally, when the supporting traffic of the Liu Group Plaza gradually matured,
CEO Lu suddenly released the ultimate move of game collaboration and ruthlessly harvested a wave of traffic!
String it together, everything is strung together!
It turned out that from the beginning, CEO Lu of Peach Blossom Village had formulated all of this!
He and the Liu Group Commercial Plaza were already the prey in the other party's eyes.
He can even persuade most of the big shots in the Chinese investment circle to come down and pick peaches together!
To be able to expand the circle of contacts to this point, what is the background of this CEO Lu?
How much energy is behind him?
Manager Sun further thought of the rumors he had heard recently from internal staff of the group about the affair between CEO Lu and Miss Liu Mengyuan, the daughter of the Liu Group, and became more and more afraid, feeling as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
That's right, if he didn't have some background and strength, which man would dare to pursue the daughter of the Liu Group?
He has both background and power, and he has the mind and means to strike quickly and accurately!
Fortunately, I didn't have any direct conflicts or grudges with this CEO Lu...
...
He was still thinking with lingering fear when several managers from the acquisition department walked in to report on their work.
These people, who usually acted all high and mighty when acquiring other people's shops, carried a certain air of hooliganism about them.
After entering, they found places to sit on their own and brazenly twisted open the mineral water bottles on the table to drink.
After all, they were his own dogs, and still useful, so Manager Sun let them be.
The acquisition manager glanced at the TV and casually complained:
"That President Lu from Peach Blossom Village? Heh, we ran into him at Cat's Meow not long ago."
"Oh?" Manager Sun raised his eyebrows. "What happened?"
"Oh, nothing big. It's just that at the time, we wanted to scare the little girl running Cat's Meow a bit more. Originally, she was already wavering, but unexpectedly, this President Lu from Peach Blossom Village suddenly stepped in and overpaid to acquire Cat's Meow.
We brothers didn't give him a good look at the time, and sternly warned him to watch out. When we left, we even lined up our Audi A6s and honked to scare the customers in the store. The look of fear on that little girl's face, don't even mention how amusing it was."
As he said this, the several deputies under him also snickered shamelessly.
At this moment, Manager Sun's face had already turned liver-colored.
He picked up the teacup on the table and splashed it on the other party's head, directly drenching him into a drowned chicken.
The other party was dumbfounded: "Manager Sun... what are you doing?"
Manager Sun was still not relieved, picked up the folder on the table and greeted the other party's head.
"You!"
Smack!
"You've grown, haven't you?"
Smack!
"You've become capable, haven't you?"
Smack!
The purchasing manager was directly slapped into a daze, the small eyes under his bald Wu Ke's big head, full of grievance:
"Manager Sun, what did we do wrong?"
Manager Sun was so angry that he laughed instead:
"Do you know what kind of background that President Lu from Peach Blossom Village has? And you dare to offend him like that?
Let me tell you, he doesn't flinch at all when facing the Liu Group and our Chairman Liu,
And facing the old monsters of the Liu family, he dares to sleep with the Liu family's precious granddaughter.
What's more, he knows half of the investment circle in China!
Those big shots, which one of them isn't a local tyrant with several small goals in assets, what kind of expressions did they have when they were talking about President Lu on the TV program just now, do you know?
Admiration!
Unparalleled admiration!
And you dare to drive your broken A6 to cause trouble for him,
You won't even know how you died when the time comes!"
The purchasing manager then realized that he had stirred up trouble, offended an existence he couldn't afford to offend, and he said with a crying voice:
"But, why would a big shot of this level be so persistent in opening a small cat cafe?"
Manager Sun rolled his eyes: "He's just here to experience life, is it your business to interfere?"
The purchasing manager then suddenly realized, no wonder this President Lu was willing to overpay by one time to snatch Cat's Meow, he wasn't a fool, he simply didn't care about that little money!
"Manager Sun, then, then, then what do I do?"
"What else can you do? Go to Cat's Meow and apologize to that little girl!"
After Manager Sun finished scolding, he watched the group of idiots leave, then sat back in his chair to calm down.
Although he was an employee of the Liu Group, he no longer wanted to easily make decisions about competing with Cat's Meow.
To put it bluntly, maybe the other party will have a harmonious relationship between mother-in-law and son-in-law, and if he foolishly charges into battle, wouldn't he become a pure clown?
It's just a job, why risk his life?
Thinking of this, he no longer hesitated and prepared to send an email to Liu Lan to report, sending this hot potato to headquarters.