After settling the deal for "Super Girl," they returned to Yanjing on the same day. After Li Mu sent Chen Wan to her apartment, the first thing he did was to meet up with Su Yingxue. Not long after Cai Zhi's incident, he went to Xiangdu for two days. Li Mu knew that it would be difficult for her to walk out of the shadow in a short period of time, so after he returned, he tried to find as much time as possible to spend with her.
Wang Xinran's college entrance exam was just around the corner. Even if Su Yingxue really wanted to spend more time with Li Mu, because it was a crucial period for her sister's college entrance exam, she still had to place her focus on Wang Xinran.
Su Yingxue didn't have much time for Li Mu, and Li Mu himself was also busy with one thing after another.
On the second day after he returned, under the bombardment of countless calls from Liu Shixiong, Li Mu set off to Taobao to meet up with him.
Liu Xiaodong had been running around a lot recently and met a lot of people. Almost all of them were senior managers, regional managers, and local agents of various large logistics companies.
According to Li Mu's plan, Liu Xiaodong wanted to weave a large logistics network that covered the entire country for Taobao. Right now, he had already run through a few basic routes, and he was waiting for Li Mu to weave them together.
Li Mu left early in the morning at eight in the morning and arrived at Taobao before nine. Liu Shixiong had already been waiting for him in the office for half an hour. When they met, the first thing Liu Shixiong talked about was Li Mu's "feat" that everyone in the industry knew about.
Liu Shixiong first teased Li Mu, but then said very seriously, "Xiao Jing told me about this. She told me to tell you that the Huang family is famous for being sinister in Beijing. Huang Jinxiao was a gangster boss in some place back then, and I don't know what methods he used, but he was very close to the local municipal party secretary. Later on, the municipal party secretary rose up the ranks and finally entered Beijing. He pointed out a way for Huang Jinxiao to clear his name, and that's why he moved to Beijing to develop, and he developed quite well. This kind of person is not only ruthless, but also vengeful. This time, you made them suffer such a big loss, so Xiao Jing and I are both afraid that he will find trouble with you in the future."
Li Mu nodded and said, "I know what I'm doing. Let's not talk about this. Let's talk about what you've been busy with recently. How is it going? Did you get anything out of it?"
Liu Shixiong said, "These days, I've mainly been working on two aspects. First is what you said, we need to quickly build our own fleet. After the brand day, once we start large-scale centralized shipping, our self-built fleet can deliver express packages to all the provincial capitals. So this time, I found a few traditional logistics companies. There's a logistics company in Tong County that I feel is very good. They have a fleet of 23 cars, and the cars are all in good condition. But in the recent year, their overall performance has been rather poor. The company still owes the bank a loan of more than five million yuan. If we're willing to buy it, they won't ask for any premium. We'll take on the loan and pay them another seven million yuan. They're willing to give us the whole package, including the people, the cars, the route, and a base of twenty acres on the highway."
‘
Li Mu said, "Twenty acres of land in Tong County probably isn't worth much. To them, it's just a parking lot, right?"
Liu Shixiong nodded and said, "The place is indeed very remote. There's no village or shop in front or behind. We're almost at Langfang City, but it's close to the highway. I think we can use it to expand and make a logistics distribution base. It'll be more convenient for our land fleet in the future."
Li Mu waved his hand and said, "Forget it. Our own logistics distribution base must be near the airport first. We won't consider other places. If there's no airport, or if it's really not close to the airport, we'll choose the location based on the convenience of the highway and railway. In the future, when we build our own logistics system, everything has to give way to efficiency. "
Senior Fellow Apprentice Liu thought for a while and found that Li Mu was right. The speed of a car was much slower than that of an airplane. In general, the time requirement for the goods to be transported by land was not too high. Even if the location was near the airport, it would only take tens of minutes to an hour more, which was not a big deal. But for air express, if the distribution base was near the airport, the whole turnover efficiency would be much faster.
Li Mu continued, "If we take over this company, the main thing we need is their ready-made cars and drivers. Everything else doesn't matter. So you must make sure to tie up their people. Don't let them leave their cars and base to us after we pay them."
Liu Shixiong smiled and said, "Don't worry about that. I've talked to their current boss. If we decide to acquire them, I will only pay him 70% of the purchase price and let him sign an agreement for the remaining 30%. In the first year after the acquisition, that 30% of the purchase price will be equivalent to investing 30% of the company's shares. He will become a small shareholder of this team and continue to work here. As long as he maintains the operation of this team, after a year, I will use this 30% as the foundation and give him a 10% premium to take back his shares. In this way, if he wants to get the follow-up money smoothly, he must maintain his team well."
Li Mu nodded in appreciation. Liu Shixiong's method was also very practical. It was a common method in the capital market. Most companies, when acquiring another company, did not just want to buy the hardware. Instead, they wanted to keep the other party's products, team, and hardware. At the very least, they wanted to keep the other party's products, team, and hardware for a period of time, and then slowly replace them. Therefore, when acquiring a company, they would sign a similar agreement with everyone in the company, using money to tie them and their team together. However, for the physical industry, many people found it difficult to accept this kind of cooperation model. They thought that acquisition was a one-off deal where you pay and I deliver. To attract the other party, Liu Shixiong offered a 10% premium. This was a very good method, and in reality, it did not require much expenditure.
Therefore, Li Mu said, "Liu Shixiong, if you think this fleet is okay, take it and break it up first. First, we'll use it to meet the demands of our Taobao brand. When our own logistics company starts up, we'll merge them all in."
Liu Shixiong said, "Then I'll do it as soon as possible. I'll try to sign the contract with him within these two days."
Li Mu said, "After the contract is signed, first send more than half of the fleet to Shenzhen and Shanghai. These two places are our main bases."
At present, most of the companies participating in Taobao's Summer Brand Day were concentrated in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, and the surrounding areas of Shanghai. At that time, most of the products would be sent from these two places to all parts of the country. Therefore, when the time came, Taobao's own fleet would be responsible for sorting the express mail and sending it to the provincial capitals all over the country. Then, the local EMS would be responsible for the next level of transportation and delivery.
After Liu Shixiong finished talking about the fleet, he said to Li Mu, "Next, I'll report to you about the logistics company. This time, I met with the senior management of Home Express, Shentong, and SF Express, and found people who are willing to cooperate with us in these three companies. Moreover, they all said that if the conditions we offer are suitable, they will bring out their key personnel. According to what you said at the beginning, we'll poach people, and then directly invest money to quickly establish our network on their original foundation. However, there's one thing that's a bit troublesome. Their asking prices are very high. Not only do they ask for at least a 50% increase on the current base, but they also ask for shares."
Li Mu thought for a moment and asked him, "Where are the resources in these people's hands concentrated?"
Liu Shixiong smiled slightly and said, "Very interesting. Home Express's people are rich in resources in the northern region, and Shentong's people are rich in resources in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. As for SF Express, it's in Guangdong Province, Hong Kong, and Macao."
Li Mu was overjoyed and blurted out, "In this way, we can cover northern, eastern, and southern China. As long as we cover these three major areas, we can cover 80% of the country's logistics needs!"
Liu Shixiong said, "It won't cost much to take them down. The main problem is the investment. After we've formed this team, the first problem we'll face is how to solve the problem of money and network. Most of the outlets of these three companies are in the franchise model, which means that although they can bring out all their employees, we still need to carry out large-scale investment to establish a complete network in the future. Right now, the logistics industry as a whole is not very good. It's difficult for several express delivery companies to establish franchise channels. If we set up a new company, it'll be even more difficult to establish franchise channels."
Li Mu slapped his thigh and said straightforwardly, "It doesn't matter. If we can't open franchise channels, we'll do it ourselves!"
"Do it ourselves?" Liu Shixiong shuddered and said, "The cost of building our own channels is too high. It requires a lot of investment in hardware and software, and it's very difficult to manage the team. I'm afraid it'll be difficult to make progress in a short time."
Li Mu asked him, "Liu Shixiong, are you worried that it'll be difficult to manage the team, or are you worried that the investment will be too high?"
Liu Shixiong hurriedly said, "Of course it's the latter. Management is a kung fu job. It can be solved by putting in some effort. It's hard to say about the capital …"
At this time, Li Mu stood up and wrote six big words on the whiteboard: "Northern, Eastern, and Southern China." Then, he wrote "county-level administrative regions." He pointed at the three words "county-level administrative regions" and asked Liu Shixiong, "If I want our network to cover the county-level administrative regions in Northern, Eastern, and Southern China, how much investment do you think we'll need?"
Liu Shixiong was speechless and said, "Including the coverage of municipalities, provincial capitals, prefecture-level cities, and all county-level administrative regions, I think we'll need at least more than a thousand networks …"
Li Mu asked him, "How much investment do you think we'll need to invest in more than a thousand networks?"
Liu Shixiong said, "I haven't done the specific calculations, but we can't just calculate the investment in the network. We also have to include the investment in the distribution base, sorting center, and fleet. So, I estimate that it'll be at least three to five hundred million, right?"
Li Mu clapped his hands. "Okay, let's make a plan based on a maximum of five hundred million."
Liu Shixiong said in surprise, "We have so much money …"
Li Mu smiled and said, "We don't have it now, but we'll have it soon."
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