ABT Chapter 0113: Still Need to Strive
In Tiancheng City, there were no automobile supporting factories, but when it came to motorcycle manufacturing plants, Tiancheng could boast a rich history. The first motorcycle factory after the reform and opening up was located here, and the once-famous Xingfu brand, which had spread across the country over a decade ago, had almost become the city's calling card at that time.
However, times had changed. With the popularity of cars and the rise of electric motorcycles, many old-school manufacturers had failed to keep up with the times. In recent years, Tiancheng's motorcycle industry had been gradually declining.
This was a desolate motorcycle factory. If you added up all the employees, they wouldn't exceed the number you could count on one hand. The factory was located by the sea, in a relatively remote area, which was why it was still struggling to survive.
There was no way out. The land wasn’t valuable enough to sell, and even if they did, they couldn’t get much for it. But the factory still had a complete set of production equipment, so there was only a manager and three or four security guards left.
Sun Guoyi was one of the earliest managers of this motorcycle factory. He had served as workshop director, production manager, deputy factory manager, and now the captain of the security team. He had worked his way up from the grassroots level, only to return to it in the end.
His rise and fall had also witnessed the rise and fall of this factory.
At this moment, he was awkwardly looking at the man and woman sitting opposite him. On the originally honest face, he was trying hard to put on a pleasing expression.
The reason he felt so awkward was that these two were here to inspect the factory. After the boss learned about this, he specifically instructed over the phone: take good care of them, keep them here, and he would come later.
But how could he take good care of them? There weren’t even a few teacups in the factory, let alone any available. Buy some? The nearest convenience store was over thirty minutes away on foot. By the time he returned, they might have already left.
Keep them here? How? He was as tongue-tied as if he had a piece of cold fat stuck in his mouth. Should he just stare at them with his eyes?
In short, the honest man Sun Guoyi was very distressed.
However, these two didn’t pay attention to these details, instead, they were curiously looking around the office.
Yes, the two were Li Fanyu and Anning.
Li Fanyu sat on the worn-out sofa, looking at the uneasy Sun Guoyi in front of him, and said, "Brother, since your boss won't arrive for a while, why don't we go to the workshop first?"
Sun Guoyi felt as if he had been granted amnesty and got up abruptly, "Ah! Okay!" He said as he stood up and took the keys, leading the two towards the workshop.
Opposite the office was a row of workshops. As Li Fanyu walked along, he found that the workshops were still in decent condition, appearing to have been built in recent years. They just lacked maintenance, making them look a bit shabby from the outside.
Sun Guoyi picked up a long string of keys and, after unlocking several locks, opened the door with a clatter.
He waved away the dust beside him and hesitated, "Li... boss, please."
Li Fanyu sneezed from the dust, sneezing twice in a row, looking somewhat surprised.
The interior of the workshop looked much larger than the outside. Rows of equipment were neatly arranged in two lines and covered with tarpaulins. The entire workshop still seemed to be regularly maintained, with the floor cleaned very neatly.
He quietly walked to a piece of equipment and lifted the tarpaulin. He saw a new type of milling machine. Although it had not been used for a long time, the machine was polished and shiny, in excellent condition.
"Is there still someone maintaining the factory?" Li Fanyu wondered.
Sun Guoyi nodded and sighed, "Ah, even though there are no production tasks now, these machines are idle. But they can't just be left to rot. I used to manage production, but now that I don’t have much to do every day, I tidy up here and there every now and then. These machines, they're not afraid of being used, they're afraid of being idle. If they're idle for too long, even if they’re well maintained, the internal circuits will deteriorate."
As they started discussing these matters, Sun Guoyi, who had previously been reserved, became talkative and began introducing everything to Li Fanyu.
There were many types of equipment in the factory, ranging from casting to heat treatment to drilling and grinding. Although the level of automation wasn’t high, it was sufficient for small-scale production of car engines.
Originally, the equipment in the factory wasn’t so advanced and complete. It was gradually acquired because the factory decided to move towards producing high-end motorcycles. Many of the equipment pieces had reportedly not been used for two months.
After hearing his explanation, Li Fanyu couldn't help but sigh inwardly. It was said that timing was everything, and this motorcycle factory could completely be described as unlucky.
The factory was established in 2009, and initially, the benefits were good. The factory owner spent a lot of money on equipment, all of which was imported from Russia. So the motorcycle engines produced were of excellent quality and won high praise in the market.
However, by 2012, with the booming automobile market and the development of electric motorcycles, the entire motorcycle market began to decline, and consequently, the profitability of the factory also gradually declined.
The boss and a group of management personnel were unwilling to be eliminated by the market, so they began to seek a way out. However, several wrong directions consumed enormous resources. Finally, in 2014, the factory's funding chain broke, and after the boss sold off his property to clear the bank debt, he declared bankruptcy.
Because the motorcycle market had reached a dead end, the entire set of equipment couldn’t be sold, and since the factory was located in a remote area, several acquisition intentions fell through due to low offers and could not be reached a consensus, so it remained abandoned until now.
After chatting for a while, the boss of the factory finally arrived. He was not yet fifty years old, but he looked at least sixty. His head full of white hair made him look extremely old, even making Li Fanyu feel a bit frightened.
However, this person was straightforward. He said that the land was now mortgaged to the bank. As long as the bank loan was repaid, the factory could be sold.
Li Fanyu tentatively asked, and only then did he realize why the man's hair had turned white. This middle-aged man owed the bank 150 million!
Ah, these were all predecessors. In the business world, especially in industry, a large investment could easily lead to such an outcome. If it weren’t for the backing of Xapp in his mind, he really wouldn’t dare to invest so much in building production facilities.
After chatting for a while, the other party stuck to their conditions very firmly. It was clear that there was no room for negotiation, and the conditions had already been lowered to the lowest.
Li Fanyu sighed inwardly; no wonder you can't sell it at this price. Others definitely wouldn’t pay a high price for the land, and if they didn’t need the equipment for a related industry, it would be useless.
But if you counted the land, factory buildings, and equipment together, saying 150 million was really not expensive.
Anning had been silent since entering the factory, feeling a bit worried. Actually, according to her thoughts, they should outsource the engine manufacturing process first to reduce risks. However, after analyzing the current situation, Li Fanyu stubbornly insisted on establishing their own factory. Some parts could be outsourced, but the main engine had to be produced in-house.
Why insist on this?
Outsourcing a part would incur a modeling fee, and then each part would need to be inspected by the subcontractor. This would increase the cost of the entire machine by at least twenty percent!
But in his view, the risk was still too great.
To her concern, Li Fanyu held the opposite attitude; in the Chinese market, if you couldn’t control the cost, what use was a product even if it was of top quality?
If the price of the engine produced was too high to sell, then the real risk was that the business wouldn’t even get off the ground!
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