Chapter 383: Great Effort Creates Miracles

"The daily production capacity must be increased to over four million units, otherwise we won't be able to complete this year's orders at all!"

When Li Dongling went to Zhang Xiaocheng's office, he had just finished a meeting and was giving instructions to a group of senior executives from the Torch Group.

Seeing Li Dongling arrive, Zhang Xiaocheng let the others leave and stood up to brew a cup of tea for him.

"It is estimated that by the end of the month, the Torch Group will be able to reach the record of the first 100 million lighters rolling off the line!"

Zhang Xiaocheng said to Li Dongling with a smile; the speed of the Torch Group's development was much more rapid than everyone had imagined.

The domestic lighter market, which countless lighter manufacturers had not paid much attention to in the past, was being activated by the Torch Group. Even though they hadn't officially gone overseas yet, the domestic order demand had already made the Torch Group's lighters in short supply.

Zhang Xiaocheng also let out a long sigh of relief now. Honestly, since the Torch Group project was established, he hadn't slept a single peaceful night. After all, when he thought about how the investment in this project reached nearly one billion yuan and concerned the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people, who could sleep peacefully?

Now that the Torch Group had finally gained a firm foothold, Zhang Xiaocheng knew how difficult this was. Currently, many reports in the media were praising Zhang Xiaocheng, but he knew best that without Li Dongling at the helm, the Torch Group would never have reached today. Just the large sum of capital when establishing the project would likely have been tangled in disputes for years...

Li Dongling nodded. With the Torch Group's current sales volume, the first step could be considered initially successful. Looking at the weary expression on Zhang Xiaocheng's face and the extra gray hair on his head, he knew how much pressure he had been under during this period.

"As long as the domestic lighter market can be developed, it won't be a problem for the Torch Group to survive!" Li Dongling said.

The meaning of Li Dongling's words was very clear: by activating the massive domestic lighter market, where over 7 billion lighters of various types would be consumed annually in the future, the Torch Group would have no problem surviving by relying on this massive domestic market.

However, that would just be surviving. A mass-consumer lighter costing one yuan could provide jobs, but if one wanted to make the Torch Group profitable, that was thinking too much.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Xiaocheng couldn't help but smile bitterly. He already felt it now: "The profit from the lighters currently produced by the Torch Group is really too low. If it weren't for the lighter advertising business you proposed, Dongling, the Torch Group might still be losing money!"

The Torch Group looked like it was in full swing now, but after deducting material costs, shipping fees, and commissions for sales channels and retailers, the final profit from a lighter that fell to the Torch Group was less than 19%.

In reality, this was already quite high, but the Torch Group was currently relying entirely on a large amount of manual labor to produce and assemble lighters. With the current staff scale of around 25,000 people, even though the Torch Group provided an average salary level of around 350 yuan to ordinary staff, the salaries of Zhou Wenyuan's technical department and management personnel were naturally much higher.

Just in salaries, the Torch Group had to pay out over 9 million yuan every month. Even if they sold 100 million lighters, after deducting all costs, the profit that could fall into the Torch Group's account by relying solely on selling lighters was less than a few million!

But these few million yuan couldn't be spent casually either. They still had to purchase new production lines and equipment. Zhou Wenyuan's technical department needed funds to research new technologies, and the lighter laboratory was also a money-guzzling beast. Filling these few million in, the accounts wouldn't even balance.

In the future, as domestic salary levels increased, the Torch Group would definitely have to raise wages for its staff. By then, relying solely on selling lighters, the Torch Group's profit would definitely drop significantly.

For Zhang Xiaocheng and the Torch Group, this was also a Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. And by then, the Torch Group would only have two paths to take.

The first path was to introduce modern automated mechanical production processes, thereby reducing personnel to increase profit.

The second path was to complete a transformation and be able to launch high-profit products; otherwise, they would never be able to support these tens of thousands of staff members.

Zhang Xiaocheng placed a document sent up by the Torch Group's finance and marketing departments in front of Li Dongling. "I understand now why you, Dongling, were thinking about letting the Torch Group transform earlier. The biggest profit for the Torch Group now is not selling lighters, but the advertising on the lighters!

The profit from selling 100 million lighters is not even one-quarter of what the lighter advertising department earns!"

Thanks to tobacco companies, small and medium-sized liquor factories, health supplement companies, as well as local restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, and various small companies scrambling to print their advertisements on the lighters, the unit price for each lighter advertisement soared to around 0.4 yuan. 100 million lighters earned the Torch Group 40 million yuan in advertising fees, which was much more profitable than selling the lighters themselves. Who could one reason with about this...

Li Dongling glanced at the document a few times, set it aside, looked up at Zhang Xiaocheng, and said, "The mass-consumer lighter market can provide jobs and allow the Torch Group to survive, but if we want to live well, we still need the Torch Group to enter the high-end metal lighter market as soon as possible!

Once the Torch Group finally gains a foothold in the high-end lighter market, we will need to transform into markets like electronic cigarettes, gas stoves, and gas tanks. The transformation must begin as soon as possible within the next few years; otherwise, the longer it is delayed, the higher the costs will be in the future!"

Zhang Xiaocheng nodded upon hearing this. After seeing the profit of the mass lighter market, he had no hesitation about entering the high-end lighter market. If they didn't transform, they wouldn't be able to support so many staff members of the Torch Group in the future.

"By the way!"

"A law professor from a university in Shanghai called, saying he is willing to join the anti-dumping lawsuit against Old Europe and provide legal support for the Torch Group. This is the information he sent over!"

Zhang Xiaocheng brought up the matter of Gu Dayang. To be honest, Zhang Xiaocheng had no confidence in responding to the anti-dumping lawsuit from Old Europe as soon as the National Lighter Import and Export Association was formed.

If it weren't for the fact that this matter was strongly pushed by Li Dongling, Zhang Xiaocheng wouldn't have dared to take on this difficult task.

"Gu Dayang?"

Li Dongling took the document and looked at it for a few moments, his body slowly straightening up. Responding to Old Europe's anti-monopoly and anti-dumping investigation was pushed by Li Dongling. The Torch Group had to fight this battle.

Currently, the Torch Group hadn't gone overseas yet, but going overseas was only a matter of time. After all, with the Torch Group's soaring production capacity, the domestic market was still being cultivated and it was impossible to become a fat man in one breath. The annual consumption of 7 billion lighters in the country in his previous life was cultivated over ten or twenty years.

Just based on the Torch Group's annual lighter production capacity soaring to 3.5 billion units in the next few years, the domestic market wouldn't be able to consume it in these few years; it must be exported.

Moreover, exporting overseas was more profitable and earned foreign exchange, making the Torch Group more valued domestically and having greater influence.

If a domestic lighter cost one RMB, and it was the same one RMB when exported overseas, the unit of calculation would be US dollars, pounds, marks, etc. Especially after using the Lighter Import and Export Association to limit the minimum export price of domestic lighters, without malicious internal competition, the profit could be increased by a significant margin.

Fighting this anti-dumping lawsuit for the domestic lighter industry was actually for the Torch Group itself. If they didn't fight, the lighters exported by the Torch Group to various Old European countries in the future would be subject to a 150% anti-dumping tax!

One must know that this was not just Old Europe playing dirty. In America, domestic lighters had already been levied with anti-dumping taxes and were completely driven out of the American market.

And in neighboring places like the Bangzi, Japan, and Australia, there were also rumors that they were preparing to levy anti-dumping taxes on domestic lighters.

If they didn't fight this lawsuit, believe it or not, it wouldn't be long before domestic lighters overseas would almost be wiped out.

Because the domestic lighter industry couldn't sell overseas, numerous lighter manufacturers would only be reduced to OEM factories for foreign lighter brands in the future, frantically competing internally and suppressing prices for a little OEM fee. In the end, it all benefited Zippo, Colibri, S. T. Dupont, Bic, and lighter manufacturers from Japan and the Bangzi.

Strike one punch to avoid a hundred punches. If this punch wasn't thrown, they would be surrounded and beaten by foreign lighter manufacturers. The Torch Group must throw a punch!

In addition, there was another point. It was true that the Torch Group had formed the National Lighter Import and Export Association, and the entire industry also knew that departments like the State Economic and Trade Commission, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce supported the Torch Group.

But if they wanted the entire domestic lighter industry to be convinced by the Torch Group and follow the Torch Group's orders,

then the Torch Group must set an example. They must have absolute prestige so that companies and practitioners in the entire lighter industry would believe that the Torch Group was doing this for the entire lighter industry, not for selfish desires. And what could be more immediate in effect than fighting this anti-dumping lawsuit against Old Europe and others?

Li Dongling looked at the information Gu Dayang sent from Shanghai regarding this anti-dumping lawsuit, which also included his personal insights. Even Li Dongling, a layman in law, felt enlightened after reading it.

Gu Dayang's information allowed Li Dongling to see the hope of winning this lawsuit legally, although this was somewhat different from Li Dongling's previous idea of pushing for this lawsuit.

Li Dongling dared to push the Torch Group to fight this lawsuit because what he was prepared to do was to use great effort to create miracles!

If he really relied on the lawsuit, Li Dongling hadn't prepared to win at all before; instead, he was prepared to drag it out, drag it out at all costs, and then frantically snatch the overseas market!

Occupy the Asian market first, then go to Europe to start a war with lighter manufacturers like Bic and S. T. Dupont. Even if they lost money, they had to kill them.

By the time European lighter manufacturers like Bic and S. T. Dupont were all exhausted, the victims would be gone, the plaintiffs would be bankrupt, or even acquired by the Torch Group. What lawsuit would there be to fight?

As for the anti-dumping tax, add it if they want. Anyway, once the local Old European lighter manufacturers were all finished off, what would be circulating in Old Europe would all be Torch Group products. By then, the Torch Group would add the tax with interest and sell it to European users!

Then, "deeply apologize" and tell the Old European lighter users the truth: it wasn't that the Torch Group wanted to raise prices, but that certain people in Old Europe deliberately levied high taxes because they didn't want Old Europeans to use affordable and high-quality lighters. Let's see who couldn't stand it then.

This method focused on throwing a brick to attract jade, which was to charge forward all the way, focusing on great effort creating miracles. The final result would very likely be that Old European lighter manufacturers like Bic and S. T. Dupont couldn't withstand it and would seek to negotiate with the Torch Group to reach a settlement agreement acceptable to both sides, ending this war.

But the information Gu Dayang sent allowed Li Dongling to see the hope of winning this lawsuit legally.

One of the most important bases was that domestic lighters were disposable lighters, while Old Europe's lighter standard was for refillable lighters. For ordinary people, the two might not really feel any difference, but for the law that nitpicked, these were two completely different products!

Just like round steamed buns and square steamed buns, don't ordinary people feel that these things are the same?

But legally, they were completely different things. So on what basis did Old European lighter manufacturers say domestic lighters were dumping? The products sold on both sides were completely different, okay!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 384 =====