Chapter 209: Price Competition

A short, stout middle-aged man walked onto the stage. This was Wang Ping, the shipping company's general manager, and also the host of today's bidding meeting. As he took the stage, there was a round of warm applause from the audience.

Wang Ping raised his hand to indicate silence before saying, 'Welcome to the bidding meeting of the Binjiang Province Shipping Company. I am Wang Ping, the general manager of the shipping company. As the country's reform and opening up process continues to deepen, our shipping company also needs to constantly change and strive to improve. That is why we have organised this bidding activity, so that we can better adapt to this market-oriented process.'

After this opening speech, the audience applauded once again, and then Wang Ping announced the start of the bidding process. Wang Ping first introduced each of the five companies, and then the staff on site brought out five kraft paper bags.

'The bids from the five companies are all here. In the interest of fairness, the bids have all been placed in exactly the same envelopes, without names, so as to ensure the fairness of the bid review to the greatest extent possible.'

Wang Ping continued, 'This bidding is based on a comprehensive scoring system. He will score each company based on a comprehensive analysis of the parameters in the product list submitted with the bid. Finally, the price will be reported on site for calculation of the price score. The bidding is based on the sum of the scores for the final determination, and the scoring calculation method has already been written in the bidding announcement, so it will not be repeated on site to save time.'

Wang Ping paused here, and the staff member next to him, knowing what to do, handed him a brown paper bag. Wang Ping took the bag and said, 'Now that I have each company's tender and the corresponding scores, I will read out each company's score.'

Wang Ping opened the first kraft paper bag while he was talking: 'This is the bid from the Eight Treasures Congee Company, and the total score for all its parameters is 76 points. Then this is the bid from Hangzhou City Supply and Marketing Cooperative, and the total score for all its parameters is 80 points. Then there is the bid from West Lake Food Company, and the total score for all their parameters is 72 points. This is White Rabbit Food Company...'

As the general manager of the shipping company, Wang Ping simply read out the bidding companies and their corresponding scores, without adding any embellishments like the other hosts.

In the audience, the area of the supply and marketing cooperative was next to that of the company selling the eight-treasure porridge. After listening to Wang Ping's announcement of the scores, Liu Feng, the general manager of the supply and marketing cooperative, turned to him and said, 'Manager Li, you concede. It seems that although your company does a very good job in the eight-treasure porridge business, it still lacks a lot in other areas!'

Li Qingyuan was surprised: 'Liu, isn't it a bit early to say that? The bidding has only just started, hasn't it?'

Liu Feng laughed: 'Just started? Manager Li, are you still asleep? Even the scores have been announced, and you're still saying it's just started. I really don't understand where you get the courage and confidence from, or whether you're still harbouring some kind of unrealistic fantasy.'

Li Qingyuan shrugged and said, 'The price score hasn't come out yet, has it? This bidding is based on the sum of the scores for each parameter plus the price score of the on-site quotation. How could I not have a chance?'

'It seems that Manager Li has prepared a very low price, but it's useless,' Liu Feng said regretfully. 'I don't think Manager Li has read the latest bidding rules, has he? This bidding is indeed based on the score for each parameter of the tender plus the price score of the on-site quotation, but do you know how this price score is calculated? It's not that your low price will necessarily get you a high score, but rather that the scores are calculated based on a comprehensive analysis of the prices quoted by other companies.'

'Put simply, even if Manager Li has prepared a lower price than mine, but the prices of other companies are also very low, your price will not be able to show an advantage, so the score will not be very high, unless Manager Li is prepared to sell at a loss for this project. However, if that were really the case, I don't think even if Manager Li were to fight for survival, the big boss of your company wouldn't agree, would he?' Liu Feng said.

'That's not good. You never know, there might be a pleasant surprise,' said Li Qingyuan.

Liu Feng's heart jumped, and he looked at Li Qingyuan hesitantly, waiting for him to continue, but Li Qingyuan had no intention of continuing.

Liu Feng was seething with anger, but there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't help but wonder in his heart if Li Qingyuan had really prepared an outrageous price. But that was impossible. If the eight-treasure porridge was a state-owned enterprise, it would be understandable, since it was losing public money anyway. But the eight-treasure porridge was a private enterprise, and it would be shot for doing such a job. I heard that someone did it, but no one would do a job at a loss!

Suddenly, Liu Feng thought of a possibility: since the price points were calculated using a comprehensive algorithm, if everyone's scores were relatively even, then naturally there would be no accidents. But what if some companies artificially widened the price range to create a price advantage for the company making the eight-treasure porridge?

This idea made Liu Feng's heart tremble, but then he shook his head and dismissed the idea from his mind, because how could this be possible? He, Li Qingyuan, was not the protagonist of the story, so how could he possibly have this kind of power?

Although he wanted to, as soon as this thought came to him, it made Liu Feng feel increasingly worried.

'Next is the scoring stage of the on-site price. In order to ensure the fairness and confidentiality of the price, representatives of each company participating in the bidding are asked to write down your respective prices and put them in the anonymous envelopes marked with your respective codes in front of you, and hand them to our staff on site. Finally, our company's evaluation team will conduct on-site scoring.'

Wang Ping was explaining the process above, and below, representatives of each company, including Li Qingyuan and Liu Feng, followed the requirements and wrote down their prices and submitted them in envelopes.

After some intense judging, Wang Ping got the results: 'First is Hangzhou City Supply and Marketing Cooperative, with a price score of ten and a score of 80 for the previous parameters, for a total score of 90.'

This result caused an uproar in the audience, because although such a score was not perfect, according to the bidding rules and the scoring habits of the scoring team, even the perfect proposal and price would probably only score around 100 points.

There was a burst of flashing lights, and all the cameras were trained on the area where the supply and marketing cooperative was located. Liu Feng himself was also enjoying the attention with a sense of satisfaction. To everyone present, Hangzhou City Supply and Marketing Cooperative was truly the largest and most comprehensive comprehensive supply company in Binjiang Province, and it was also an old partner of the shipping company. It seemed that this order was going to be awarded to him.

But even though the media on site, Liu Feng himself, and even the shipping company's general manager Wang Ping all thought so, the situation immediately changed afterwards.

Wang Ping then opened the second envelope: 'This is the West Lake Food Company, and his score is...three points, plus the previous scores of 72 points for each parameter, for a total of 75 points.'

If the score of the supply and marketing cooperative just now caused an uproar in the audience, then the score of Xihu Food Company at this time left everyone in the audience stunned, and even Wang Ping paused for a moment when reading it out.

Of course, it's not that the score of Xihu Company is very good, quite the opposite, but that the score of Xihu Company is very poor, especially in terms of the price score. The supply and marketing cooperative was a very high score, and now Xihu Company only has a score of three, which, according to the scoring criteria for this bidding meeting, means that he has quoted a very high price.

But how could this be? Westlake Company's original scores in various parameters were not high. Logically, they should have tried to compete for an advantage in the price score, but now they had actually reported a very high price score, which had unnecessarily lowered their score. What was the point of this?

While everyone was confused by Westlake Company's score, Liu Feng, the general manager of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, suddenly widened his eyes, because as Westlake Company's score came out, his worries grew stronger and stronger.

Wang Ping then successively opened two more envelopes, which belonged to New Wave Foods and White Rabbit Foods. Their price scores were the same as Xihu Company's, both three points, and even White Rabbit's price was as low as two points. This result meant that they had also quoted a very high price. This result stunned everyone at the scene, but they also sensed something.

The last envelope to be opened undoubtedly left only the company Congee Company. Wang Ping read out, 'The Congee Company's price score is 15 points, plus 76 points for various parameters, for a total score of 91 points.'

This result instantly detonated the atmosphere of the scene, and everyone in the audience exclaimed in surprise, because the result meant that Congee Company had won, even though it only led the Supply and Marketing Cooperative by one point. But a lead is a lead. According to the bidding process, this order would go to Congee Company!

'Cheating, this is cheating! The Eight Treasures Congee Company used very despicable means!'

Liu Feng stood up and pointed at Li Qingyuan to loudly protest. In fact, everyone knew what Liu Feng was talking about. How did the Eight Treasures Congee Company win this bidding meeting? It was just that they reached some kind of agreement with other companies, asking them to report very outrageous prices, which artificially raised the price range and made the low price of the Eight Treasures Congee Company very advantageous, thus gaining the highest price score.

To some extent, what the company did was indeed disgraceful and underhand, but in a battle like this, what does a little trickery count for if it means victory? As long as it's not illegal.

Facing Liu Feng's accusations, Li Qingyuan calmly looked up and said, 'Mr Liu, you need evidence to back up your words. How can you prove that I used any despicable tricks?'

Li Qingyuan's words left everyone stunned. Indeed, it is feared that today's matter was merely decided privately by the heads of several companies. Who would admit to this? Even if they did, what would be the point? It is only natural to give up benefits for certain reasons in the business world, but this natural thing was to besiege the supply and marketing cooperative. But there was nothing they could do about it, as you were not vigilant enough.

However, no matter how Liu Feng and Li Qingyuan argued, the final decision rested with the shipping company. Wang Ping announced, 'I declare the winner of this bidding meeting to be the company Baobao Zhi!'

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