Chapter 228: Pei Yi: Boss, Something's Wrong! Acquiring Quanfeng, Plus

After Chen Dejun finished his "scolding," Liao Wei immediately wanted to step up and retaliate, but upon inadvertently catching Zheng Shengyu's gaze, he obediently sat back down.

Chen Yansen had originally had no intention of going on stage, but after Zheng Shengyu earnestly invited him, he thought it over, stopped being pretentious, adjusted his suit and tie, and strode onto the stage.

"Everyone here is a senior in the industry; Yunsu's construction in transport networks, warehousing facilities, and distribution systems still requires us to learn from you all."

Chen Yansen said modestly.

Zheng Shengyu was amused by him; Yunsu Express occupied sixty percent of the mid-to-low-end market, having snatched away more than half of the market share from the "Three Tongs and One Da."

The more humble Chen Yansen acted, the more annoyed Chen Dejun and the others became.

"Yunsu's current biggest trouble is that the pickup volume does not match the business volume; forty thousand employees work overtime every day but can only complete six million deliveries. Just now, I heard Mr. Chen in the audience say that Shentong Express couriers' incomes have shrunk significantly, causing unemployment. As a friendly competitor, I am willing to accept them all."

Chen Yansen said jokingly with a smile.

What was originally Chen Dejun's deliberate act of playing the victim was once again used by him for sarcasm.

The express delivery bosses in the audience couldn't help but laugh, secretly cursing that the kid was truly vicious, but most gave Chen Dejun some face and didn't dare to laugh too loudly.

Liao Wei, however, had no such reservations and burst into loud laughter.

Next, Chen Yansen returned to the main topic, speaking eloquently on issues regarding improving package safety, shortening delivery times, and improving customer service attitudes.

But he only spoke of what to do, remaining silent on how to do it.

"No wonder he could earn a fortune of over ten billion at the age of twenty; he's slippery, just like a fox."

Wang Wei narrowed his eyes and evaluated silently.

Although currently, Yunsu focuses on the lower-tier markets while SF Express monopolizes high-end delivery services, he vaguely felt that Yunsu might become SF Express's future formidable rival.

As far as he knew, the daily order volume of Pinya Shangcheng had already broken eight million, accounting for forty percent of the national express delivery business volume; although the unit price was low, the scale effect had already formed, which was also the reason why the "Three Tongs and One Da" tied together were no match for Yunsu.

Pinya could create five million pickup volumes for Yunsu every day, while the business of the "Three Tongs and One Da" mainly relied on Taobao and Tmall Shangcheng.

But in February 2012, Mama Ali had not yet started large-scale investment in the express delivery industry, having previously only invested a sum of money in Best Express.

In Ma Liyun's view, the asset-heavy operation model was too stupid and clumsy, and it didn't earn much money; it was better to dump the dirty and tiring work to third-party express delivery companies.

Of course, after Mama Ali went public and Ma Liyun held a fortune of a trillion, his thoughts would change accordingly.

Wang Wei looked at Chen Yansen; he felt that a young person's ambition was bound to be great, and after Yunsu finished devouring the market share of the Tongda system, it would absolutely launch an assault on the high-end express delivery market and compete with SF Express.

In the corner, Chen Feikang stared fixedly at Chen Yansen, regretting deeply in his heart why he hadn't found someone to run them over and kill both Chen Yansen and Liao Wei back then.

Since he took over Sufeng Express, the business volume had plummeted, and the franchise stations below were often having their signs torn down in the middle of the night or their delivery trucks' tires removed by someone.

The losses weren't big, but it was just disgusting!

With this kind of trouble, almost no one dared to franchise Sufeng Express, and those who had already paid the franchise fees were clamoring for refunds.

When he heard that Chen Yansen had the idea of acquiring other express delivery companies, he immediately had thoughts.

Rather than waiting to die, it was better to sell the company; at least he could cash out a sum of money.

But he also knew that the big brother who was still pedaling a sewing machine would most likely not agree.

However, Chen Feikang didn't care; he had already obtained the authorization agreement from the big brother.

The entire morning passed in the blink of an eye; the Postal Association had booked a lunch banquet at a nearby hotel, and everyone drove there.

Fifteen minutes later, just as Chen Yansen had sat down in the banquet hall, Chen Feikang came looking for him.

"You mean you want to sell Sufeng to Yunsu?"

Chen Yansen looked at Chen Feikang with interest.

These two brothers were quite interesting!

Liao Wei, sitting beside him, grew anxious; he had almost lost his life over this, so of course he wanted to play Sufeng to death.

"Yes, Mr. Chen." Chen Feikang, in front of Chen Yansen, acted extremely humble and nodded upon hearing this.

"Sufeng Express's outlets nationwide have already run away by thirty percent; with no business volume and no delivery timeliness, what am I supposed to do with the remaining scrap metal?"

Chen Yansen pouted and teased mockingly.

"Mr. Chen, Sufeng still has nine major transfer warehouses in the North China, East China, South China, and Central China regions, as well as 1,300 transport trucks; once Yunsu swallows these resources, the delivery duration can be greatly shortened."

Chen Feikang spoke in a humble tone, listing Sufeng's core assets one by one for Chen Yansen to hear.

"Leave it to you to decide." Chen Yansen looked at Liao Wei and said.

Acquiring Sufeng could indeed accelerate Yunsu's expansion speed, but Old Liao's thoughts also had to be taken into account.

"Thank you, Boss." A wave of warmth surged in Liao Wei's heart, feeling the Boss's importance placed on him.

From a personal perspective, he definitely would not agree to the acquisition; from the perspective of company interests and the Boss, if he refused, it would appear that he didn't care about the overall situation.

For a moment, Liao Wei was also in a difficult position.

At this time, Chen Jiahai of Quanfeng Express, holding a wine glass with a face full of smiles, actively came over.

"Mr. Chen, I have long heard of your great name; today I finally get to see the True Person. I toast you; I'll finish mine, and you drink as you please."

Compared to the bosses of the "Three Tongs and One Da," Chen Jiahai, thirty-six years old this year, was much younger; wearing a set of indigo blue suit, he was not tall, but there was a sharpness between his eyebrows.

In this price war, although Quanfeng and Yunsu stood on the same front line due to the Penguin relationship, this kind of business that didn't make money still made Chen Jiahai conceive the idea of withdrawing.

He was originally a shareholder of Zhongtong Express; two years ago, when Zhongtong's Beijing branch merged into the headquarters, he cashed out 35 million yuan and left, subsequently founding Quanfeng Express.

"Mr. Chen, a pleasure to meet you!" Extending a hand does not strike a smiling person; plus the connection with Liu Zhiping, Chen Yansen gave Chen Jiahai a lot of face and downed the wine in one gulp.

Chen Jiahai glanced at Chen Feikang and asked in a low voice, "Mr. Chen, may I borrow a moment to speak privately?"

"Of course." Chen Yansen put down his wine glass and walked with Chen Jiahai to a private room outside the banquet hall.

Leaving Liao Wei and Chen Feikang behind, staring at each other with wide eyes.

On the other side.

After listening to Chen Jiahai's explanation, Chen Yansen asked with a surprised expression, "Mr. Chen wants to sell Quanfeng to me?"

"To be honest, last year Quanfeng received 50 million yuan in financing from Penguin; originally, the plan was to use Quanfeng to make up for PPT's logistics shortcomings, but the subsequent investment plan was halted by the group. Now, the competition in the express delivery industry is continuously deteriorating; I feel that handing Quanfeng over to Mr. Chen is the wisest choice."

Chen Jiahai sighed, speaking with a mix of flattery and boasting.

"The operation models of Yunsu and Quanfeng are not quite the same; acquisition is no problem, but I do not recognize the assets of the franchise outlets; only the assets of direct-operated outlets, transport equipment, warehousing, and manpower, etc., can be included in the scope of acquisition."

Chen Yansen got the unpleasant words out of the way first.

"No problem." Chen Jiahai breathed a sigh of relief and agreed with a smile.

After the two of them worked out the details, Chen Yansen pulled out his phone and called Gao Weilin, asking him to arrange people to take over the subsequent acquisition work.

Quanfeng Express, which should have shone brilliantly in 2016 and held steady in the number-one spot among second-tier courier companies, never got its moment in the sun—its founder Chen Jiahai had thrown in the towel.

No way around it: no big capital backing, and no order support from e-commerce platforms.

The price war between the Three Tongs and Yida and Yunsu had lasted less than half a year, and small courier companies like Quanfeng and Sufeng could no longer hold on.

Being acquired was already lucky; plenty more courier companies didn't even qualify to attend the industry exchange conference.

Because they'd been squeezed to death by Yunsu last year!

By the time Chen Yansen returned to the banquet hall, Chen Feikang was still pestering Liao Wei, begging him to buy out Sufeng.

"Old Liao, come here for a sec. I've talked it over with President Chen. Later on, you organize the manpower and take over Quanfeng's transfer centers, storefronts, and transport vehicles in full."

Chen Yansen instructed Liao Wei.

The implication was that he had already decided to acquire Quanfeng Express outright.

"Got it, boss. Then what about Sufeng?" Liao Wei chuckled and hurriedly pressed.

Chen Yansen looked at the anxious Chen Feikang, smiled, and said: "Tentatively."

Hearing this, Chen Feikang's heart sank to the bottom; he understood perfectly well that "tentatively" was just a polite no—the other party had openly turned him down.

He glared resentfully at Chen Jiahai. If Quanfeng hadn't jumped in to stir things up, even if Liao Wei was unhappy with him and Sufeng, to avoid causing trouble for his own boss, he would have gritted his teeth and agreed.

The luncheon ended; after a short rest, the afternoon seminar began.

Zheng Shengyu's demands were: however you fight among yourselves, first, the minimum single-ticket price is 1.5 yuan; second, the Tongda group must take charge of rectifying franchise outlets and standardizing service procedures; finally, Shentong and Yuantong each got another 10 million yuan fine.

In President Zheng's own words: "The postal headquarters received a total of 83,000 lost-package complaints. This time it's a fine; next time, operating license will be revoked outright."

If Chen Dejun and Yu Weijiao wanted to keep waging their price war, they'd have to cut flesh and bleed; if they dared slack off, dared cause trouble for the association, then they'd be crushed completely.

The two exchanged a glance, both feeling Zheng Shengyu's ruling was biased—clearly Yunsu had started it!

But no one cared at this point!

Before leaving, Wang Wei took a long, deep look at Chen Yansen, then turned and left with his assistant and bodyguards.

Zheng Shengyu, meanwhile, pulled Chen Yansen aside for another chat. Handing over his personal phone number, he said bluntly: "Yunsu is rather short on route resources for rail and air transport. If you want to grow your air-express business, I can introduce you to Air China's second-hand aircraft resources."

Right now in the courier industry, apart from Shunfeng, everyone else was scrabbling in the mid-to-low-end market. He really wanted to see Yunsu and Shunfeng go at it, to liven up the industry.

"Thank you, President Zheng. Yunsu does have plans in that direction, but the funding…"

Chen Yansen paused deliberately mid-sentence.

"Given Yunsu's market position and growth rate, would you still worry about not getting a loan?"

Zheng Shengyu said with a teasing smile.

For him, helping Yunsu line up a loan was nothing more than a word dropped in passing.

But he didn't spell it out either, only having Liao Wei take down his assistant's number.

After Zheng Shengyu finished his instructions, he also left with his people.

"Boss, are we really buying cargo planes?" Liao Wei asked in surprise.

"Don't you think three days for in-province delivery and five to seven days for cross-province is too slow?"

Chen Yansen countered.

Having lived through the e-commerce golden age more than a decade later, he knew perfectly well that users' demands for timeliness would only grow higher in the future.

Same-day delivery within the province, generally two days cross-province, three at most.

Anything beyond that window would be lumped in with the junk couriers by users.

"Got it." Liao Wei nodded, but he didn't actually feel Yunsu was slow—after all, everyone had roughly the same delivery efficiency.

Still, he knew that boosting speed would let them roll out corresponding premium courier services, and turn a profit one day sooner.

Otherwise, at the current pace of development, with Yunsu constantly setting up transfer warehouses and logistics points and buying transport vehicles in bulk, they'd lose at least a billion yuan by year-end.

The boss might not care, but he couldn't afford to!

If Yunsu kept failing to turn a profit, who knew when the boss might be in a bad mood and kick him to the curb.

After all, in Liao Wei's value system, a manager who couldn't make money was just a waste of rice to keep around.

After Chen Yansen finished speaking, he got in the car with Song Yuncheng and headed toward the villa district in Pudong.

(End of chapter)