Chapter 143: Dark Clouds Over the City

Returning to Beilin City, it was already past midnight.

Although the house Zhou Yong was supposed to tidy up wasn't completely organized, the bed and cups had been bought. The house had been kept warm all winter, so it wasn't cold. In a room with furniture and chairs scattered haphazardly, Li Xian made do for the night.

The next day, as soon as Li Xian arrived at the company, Chen Shulin pulled him into the business department office.

Seeing Chen's sneaky look, Li Xian couldn't help but smile, "Old Chen, what's going on?"

"Factory Director, we've got the finished paper from Huihuang Paper Industry!"

At this, Li Xian's smile disappeared, and he quickly asked, "Where's the paper?"

Chen Shulin took out a stack of unpackaged white paper from his drawer and placed it on the table. Li Xian picked up one of the sheets, examined its color carefully, and then rubbed it back and forth to check its toughness and thickness.

"What about the price? Did you get the price?" After assessing the paper's quality, Li Xian pondered briefly before asking immediately.

Chen Shulin shook his head, "No, not yet."

Li Xian was a bit disappointed and examined the paper again.

To be honest, the paper was well-made. From the texture, it seemed to be a blend of cotton pulp and wood pulp with a small amount of straw pulp. It wasn't as dense as Xinao's premium paper made entirely from wood pulp, but it used a lot of fluorescent agents and bleach.

The paper was so white that it looked unreal. Li Xian used a UV flashlight from Chen Shulin's desk to check it, and the paper emitted a fine blue glow.

Judging by that, the amount of fluorescent agents used likely exceeded that of Xinao's premium paper by more than twice.

Comparing the samples prepared by Old Chen with this paper, the color difference was noticeable. One was extremely white with a bluish tint, while the other had a slightly warm, milky white tone.

In these times, there were no established standards for tissue paper. Previously, Xinao's advertising highlighted white, fine, and soft as the key selling points for its premium paper.

Now, facing a competing product clearly aimed at them, Li Xian fell into deep thought.

The trend in tissue paper development is clearly toward healthier and more sanitary options. In the next twenty years, as people become more aware of the dangers of fluorescent agents and bleach, pure wood pulp tissue paper will become mainstream, and even products with zero fluorescent agents and bleach will be welcomed by the market.

But in the current era of unregulated product development, pushing for such advanced standards would be too ahead of its time. This is partly due to technological limitations and cost factors.

Looking at the tissue paper with a noticeable color difference from Xinao's premium, Li Xian cursed the merchant.

While whiter tissue paper is better, there is a limit. In the production process, once bleach reaches a certain level, it no longer improves the whiteness. Just like makeup, one layer of foundation is enough; applying more won't make the face whiter.

So to achieve a whiter appearance, fluorescent agents are used.

But this is a problem. Through skin absorption, fluorescent agents can affect the human circulatory system, immune system, reproductive system, and metabolic functions. Long-term exposure to excessive fluorescent agents can lead to low sperm quality, miscarriage in pregnant women, and fetal deformities.

However, in this era, people are not yet aware of these issues.

Seeing such an extreme product, Li Xian took several deep breaths, barely restraining himself from writing an article for the provincial newspaper or even the People's Daily to raise awareness about the dangers of excessive fluorescent agents in tissue paper.

While exposing the issue could hurt Huihuang, Xinao's premium paper also uses bleach and a small amount of fluorescent agents, albeit according to future safety standards. After seeing how his own efforts to publicize carcinogenic foods and habits led to nearly wiping out the oil cake vendors in the forestry bureau, he decided to hold back.

There's no way around it; people are currently very extreme about product safety issues, viewing things in black and white.

Causing harm to the enemy while damaging oneself isn't worth it.

For the current tissue paper products, it is not feasible to completely avoid using bleach and fluorescent agents. Elevating sandpaper-like tissue paper to the level of Xinao's premium paper is already a significant leap.

Trying to be twenty years ahead with a focus on health and green standards would be a dead end.

Often, times have their own limitations.

For instance, smartwatches started gaining popularity around 2016. In fact, Microsoft had launched MSN Direct smartwatches as early as 2003, which could display weather, news, and travel guides. Bill Gates had high hopes for it and demonstrated it at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show, three years before the first iPhone came out.

Such smart devices were indeed ahead of their time, but they failed miserably. Later, when Apple's smartwatches sold like hotcakes, Microsoft's product engineers bitterly remarked, "We've already done this."

However, if you think about it, Microsoft's failure was not surprising.

A great product should be one that most target users can accept at the right time and place, not necessarily one that is ahead of its time.

It's like trying to sell razors and condoms to people from Yuanmou; it's too advanced and you're likely to get beaten up.

It's a bit of an exaggeration, but the principle is the same.

Any business behavior that doesn't consider market and social perceptions is throwing money away, as countless arrogant companies have proven with bloody examples.

Li Xian certainly couldn't make this mistake.

Meanwhile, Chen Shulin saw Li Xian's silence and cursed, "Damn it, I guess Huihuang doesn't have nearby wood sources, so the wood pulp costs are high, which is why they're using a certain proportion of straw pulp as a substitute. But straw pulp makes the paper look dull, so they've added excessive bleach and fluorescent agents. This way, although the quality of the paper is worse than ours, the appearance is better."

Hearing Chen Shulin's analysis, Li Xian nodded.

From the current situation, Xinao's premium paper slightly leads in quality, while Huihuang's has an edge in appearance. Overall, they are about evenly matched.

In this case, who can stabilize the market will depend on the channel vendors and brand reputation!

Li Xian immediately called the provincial TV station to arrange for the golden time slot advertising to continue for a few more months.

However, when the call was answered, the response was like a bolt from the blue in his mind.

"Alright, we'll arrange it for you now. Wow, you guys in the tissue paper business are really extravagant. First, Huihuang booked six months of golden time slots, then the provincial newspaper's front page ads for six months, and now Xinao is renewing. It looks like tomorrow our provincial TV station will be known as the tissue paper seller."

Hearing this, Li Xian immediately slapped his forehead.

He had been too careless, truly too careless.

He had only been thinking about the commercial ads and forgot about the print ads!

As he was fuming about the newspaper ads being preempted, the office door was pushed open.

"Manager Chen, oh? General Li is here too. We've just received news that Huihuang's distributors have started stocking the paper."

Upon hearing this, Chen Shulin immediately asked, "How much?"

"Their packaging is the same as ours, 12 rolls per pack, but the weight is slightly lighter, 2000 grams per pack. The price is lower, 2 yuan per pack! It has just been launched, and the distributor policy is ten plus one free."

Hearing this, Li Xian was somewhat relieved.

Although the opponent was aggressive, with a clear intention to push Xinao's premium paper out of the market, the price had not been drastically reduced. A difference of 20 cents per pack, while unpleasant, was not crippling.

"Factory Director, should we lower our price?" Chen Shulin asked in a low voice, noticing Li Xian's gloomy mood.

Li Xian waved his hand, "Hold on, let's see if we can stabilize the situation first."

…

The fact is, the market of this era doesn't follow any grand principles.

In just five days, New North Paper's business department phone was bombarded with calls. Distributors from various places reported that their sales had dropped, urging the company to find a solution.

Given that even with preparations, the situation was still difficult, Li Xian had no choice but to lower the price of the tissue paper. He gave the suppliers a discount of 10 cents per pack, bringing the selling price down to 2 yuan.

Don't underestimate this 10 cents, the cumulative profit loss is significant. A distributor ordering a batch of 10,000 packs means a loss of 1,000 yuan in profit.

Even so, Xinao's premium paper's sales continued to decline over the next few days.

To avoid excess inventory, the factory produced only as many products as there were orders, so the drop in distributor sales resulted in a corresponding reduction in production tasks.

The newly increased production capacity immediately showed excess.

After a month of rapid growth, this sudden downturn shook New North Paper's internal confidence. Due to stockholding, employees feared that the company might be pushed out by Huihuang, and if that happened, their envisioned prosperous future might be in vain.

The Beilin government also sent someone to inquire, worried that New North Paper, which had become

 a pilot for reform, might collapse, putting them in a difficult position.

In just a few days, the wave of suspicion and pressure from all sides made Li Xian feel overwhelmed.

Although there was no immediate solution to the situation, he decided to take action and head to Harbin to find a solution.

But just as he was preparing to set out, an unexpected opportunity quietly arose.