Everything just fell into place.
Although Yulia said "no" at first, this reserve did not last long for Barron, a "veteran" in learning knowledge. Just like him, he became addicted to learning...
In his exploration of knowledge, Barron could not help but admire the ingenuity of God's creation...
Until the next day, when Yulia woke up, she couldn't help feeling shy when she thought about what she had studied last night. She said that she still had work to do, and fled from Karan Castle.
In July, the team sent by Argos to China brought back feedback on the inspection of some manufacturing factories there. They all agreed that some of the factories there fully met the product manufacturing requirements under the Argos quality system. Therefore, they agreed to Barron's suggestion at the time and selected a number of products for the first batch. The Chinese factories selected by them will become the first batch of cooperative suppliers of Argos. Under the quality control of their supervisors, they will produce Argos-branded products and sell them in Argos stores.
If this batch of products is satisfactory enough, then they will carry out larger-scale authorized production in China.
After all, even with the shipping costs, the cost of these products produced in China is 40-60% lower than that of similar products currently produced at Argos!
Friends who have shopped in Tesco in China will find that in Tesco supermarkets, their own brands account for the vast majority of the goods, and these Tesco's own brand products are of good quality and priced lower than similar well-known brands. This is a private label cooperative authorized production model similar to Argos.
There are many advantages to this approach, including owning their own brand. Because they are deeply involved in the product and it complies with their quality system, they can be more assured of the quality.
At the same time, because private-label products will not be sold elsewhere, consumers will not compare prices. So, relatively speaking, because of direct involvement in production, the profits left for retailers will be higher.
Barron positioned Argos to become the most cost-effective retail chain in the UK. After Puma Electronics' attempt to produce set-top boxes in China, he has basically decided to use China's scale and cost advantages as the "world factory" to capture the market in the UK and even the whole of Europe.
Of course, in this process, the product quality of China's cooperative factories must be strictly controlled.
At this time, many Chinese products still have the inherent impression of "inferior quality" among consumers.
But as their products are used by consumers, in this process, as long as their quality is not much different from that of products originally produced in Britain or Europe, consumers will gradually accept Argos' "Made in China".
It should be noted that they accept the "Made in China" authorized by the Argos brand, which is enough. After all, Barron has no obligation to completely change other people's impression of Chinese products. These are natural changes after their overall quality and technical content are improved.
Just like the products of Japan at the beginning, they had the same "inferior" impression in Europe and the United States as the Chinese products at that time. It was only after their industrial upgrading, especially the improvement of the quality of electronic products and automobile products, that they began to become "high-quality products".
In addition, after Barron's acquired Argos, although Duke's Selection and Argos are both chain retail companies, their positioning is different. Duke's Selection's target customers are high-end wealthy people, while Argos is an affordable retail store for ordinary people. Therefore, the two companies were not merged into one group.
However, the two companies will not merge in the retail business, but they will both be needed in logistics, warehousing and user-facing distribution services.
Therefore, another change after the acquisition of Argos was that they divested the logistics warehousing and distribution business of Argos and Duke's Selection Supermarket and established a separate "Speedway" logistics and distribution company.
From now on, all the related businesses of Argos and Duke's Selection Supermarket will be outsourced to "Speedbit", allowing the company to focus all its energy on the logistics and distribution layout in the whole of Britain.
…
"This guy is really quick..."
Barron couldn't help but mutter to himself as he took the beautifully printed invitation from Laura.
The initiator of this invitation was beyond Barron's expectations, but also reasonable.
In early July, a Russian became a hot topic in British newspapers. Yes, Abramovich acquired Chelsea Football Club.
In this acquisition, Abramovich spent a total of 140 million pounds, of which 60 million pounds was used to acquire the team and 80 million pounds was used to repay Chelsea club's previous debts.
Of course, Barron knew that this Russian tycoon, currently ranked 15th richest in the world on the Forbes list, would invest more than that in Chelsea. It could be said that starting with Abramovich, he would bring the money-burning to the Premier League.
At this time, Barron pinched a corner of the invitation with one hand and gently tapped it with the other hand, making the invitation make a crisp sound.
Shortly after Abramovich acquired Chelsea, Barron received the invitation. The inviter was naturally Abramovich, who invited Barron to a mansion in London where Abramovich was going to host a banquet.
What Barron is thinking at this time is whether he should accept this invitation?
In fact, not only when Abramovich completed the acquisition of Chelsea, but even after he invested huge sums of money in this originally mediocre club and enabled it to achieve outstanding results in the Premier League, most British people, especially the British upper class, did not accept this "Russian oligarch."
Otherwise, after a war broke out, Abramovich's many assets, including Chelsea Club, would not have been frozen, and he would not have been forced to sell the club.
In the eyes of the British "gentlemen", Abramovich's purchase of many properties in London and his investment in Chelsea are nothing more than an attempt to seek refuge from the Russian strongman and avoid certain measures taken against him - just as he had done to other oligarchs before.
Therefore, even though Abramovich holds an EU passport, has made many investments here, purchased many assets, and has brought Chelsea to a position close to that of a "giant club", he is still not considered "one of our own" by British society.
It can be imagined that Abramovich's invitation will not be able to invite many people with certain influence in the UK.
As for Barron, he has no prejudice against Abramovich, but he will not let him gain his "friendship" too easily.
Of course, as a "multilateralist" in England and the owner of a Premier League club, Barron decided to go and observe.