Chapter 1286: Chow Tai Fook's Black Hand

At this time, although the precious metals industry was well developed in Hong Kong, there was no gold products law yet.

Last year, in order to regulate the gold market in Hong Kong, the Legislative Council had begun to formulate a complete set of gold products laws, and it had even commissioned the largest standard law firm in Hong Kong to assist in order to speed up the process.

Now, this gold products law is nearing completion.

However, judging from Xia Yu's control over the Legislative Council,

it would be a simple matter for him to make Eternal Gold's 999.9 standard the legal gold standard in Hong Kong if he wanted it to be.

In this regard, Zheng Yutong is no match for Xia Yu.

There is no way the gold products law can be implemented during the peak Spring Festival season.

But it was easy to change the copy for the promotion of 'Diamonds are forever, and one stone lasts forever' and replace the jewellery signs in all the stores.

Just as Eternity Jewellery was gathering strength and preparing to explode.

The headquarters of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery.

Chairman and President Zheng Yutong is handling business in his office.

Although for him, New World Development Group is much larger than Chow Tai Fook Jewellery, he has not stepped down as Chairman and President of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery and is still personally involved.

Apart from the fact that the prospects of the property industry have declined due to the pressure from Xia Yu and others, there is also a reason for the reduced growth rate of New World Development Group.

There is a more important reason, and that is that Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Company is the foundation on which he built his fortune, and it was also passed down to him by his father-in-law.

Without Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Company, there would be no him as he is today.

Therefore, it has been his lifelong wish to develop and grow Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Company into the world's top jewellery company.

Chow Tai Fook Jewellery has always been the market leader, and even though its second-place competitor, Chow Sang Sang, has always been climbing up the ranks, it has never been able to shake Chow Tai Fook Jewellery's position.

But that changed two years ago!

Eternity Jewellery burst onto the scene!

And since its appearance, it has been developing at a breakneck pace, frantically catching up to Chow Tai Fook Jewellery.

Eternity Jewellery is also different from Chow Sang Sang Jewellery in that it has a stronger capital background than him, so he can only fight back with all his strength.

But after fighting for two years, he discovered that Eternity Jewellery had expanded too quickly, and in the second half of last year, it had relied on the resources of the Jiuding Group to develop by leaps and bounds, surpassing Chow Tai Fook Jewellery.

Yes, it had surpassed it!

Although Eternity Jewellery's announced turnover last year was 20 million Hong Kong dollars lower than Chow Tai Fook Jewellery's, that was the annual turnover.

In March and December 1983, the difference in monthly turnover between Eternity Jewellery and Chow Tai Fook Jewellery was completely different.

The difference in March was much greater.

In December, Eternity Jewellery's announced financial report showed a turnover of HK$238 million.

Chow Tai Fook Jewellery did not announce a monthly turnover, but in fact the hidden data was HK$227 million.

Eternity Jewellery's was HK$11 million higher.

This means that in 1984, if Chow Tai Fook Jewellery's growth rate could not exceed that of Eternal Jewellery, then it would lose the position of industry leader it had held for decades.

Business is like war!

Facing this situation, Zheng Yutong was determined to seize the opportunity to deal a heavy blow to Eternal Jewellery.

He could not control the political situation in Burma, but he seized the opportunity to block Eternal Jewellery's access to jade.

He took the initiative to fight for De Beers' share of the rough diamond market, and to his surprise, De Beers agreed easily.

The only thing he could do was nothing about gold, after all, it was too abundant and could be bought with money.

However, in his opinion, the interruption of the supply of diamonds and jadeite was enough to cripple Eternal Jewellery.

So during the peak Chinese New Year jewellery season, Chow Tai Fook Jewellery launched a comprehensive marketing campaign to try to further seize the market.

If Eternal Jewellery follows suit, then there is a risk of running out of stock.

If they don't, then they will lose market share.

And in the current situation, Eternal Jewellery has also increased its marketing efforts during the Spring Festival.

Just then, there was a sudden knock on the door.

'Knock, knock!'

'Come in!'

Zheng Yutong paused in his writing, said in a deep voice, stretched, and looked up at the door.

Entering were the company's vice presidents Wu Yuxiang and Sun Xingwei, his two most capable lieutenants.

Wu Yuxiang was in charge of sales, and Sun Xingwei was in charge of logistics and procurement.

'Chairman!'

The two walked up to Zheng Yutong and greeted him in unison.

'Sit.'

'Thank you, Chairman.'

'Xingwei, what's the situation?'

After asking the two to sit down, Zheng Yutong looked at Sun Xingwei and asked.

Over the past month, he had asked Sun Xingwei to pay close attention to changes in the raw materials market, focusing on the purchases of Eternal Jewellery.

'Chairman, so far, there has been no movement in the purchasing department of Eternal Jewellery. They are acting as if nothing is wrong, and I haven't seen them leave Xiangjiang to purchase diamonds and jadeite,'

Sun Xingwei reported with a somewhat unpleasant expression on his face.

Zheng Yutong frowned and muttered to himself, 'They haven't made any purchases yet. When things seem too good to be true, there's usually a catch!'

'Could it be that they have other stocks?'

Sun Xingwei volunteered, 'Chairman, I have investigated the purchases made by Eternal Jewellery over the past two years, and their inventory is definitely not large.'

'But our people really haven't found out where they go to make their purchases.'

'This is the most puzzling thing of all.'

There was no point in discussing this issue, and after pondering for a long time, Zheng Yutong chose to put it aside for the time being.

He looked at Wu Yuxiang and asked about the sales situation: 'Yuxiang, from January to the present, how effective have the campaigns been?'

As soon as this question was asked, Wu Yuxiang's face lost its smile, and he reported in a low voice, 'Chairman, so far, the sales of all our stores during the event have been 198 million Hong Kong dollars, and it is about to break 200 million Hong Kong dollars.'

'The highest single-day revenue was 8.42 million Hong Kong dollars.'

Upon hearing this result, Zheng Yutong's brows furrowed even deeper.

This figure was higher than the same period last year's marketing, but it was also limited.

During the Chinese New Year marketing period in January last year, the highest daily revenue was HK$8.36 million. This year, the event has been going on for 24 days, and it is almost over, and the revenue is only slightly higher.

If you factor in changes in prices and consumer spending power, it can be said that there has been no increase this year.

'What is the situation at the stores of Eternal Jewellery Company?'

After a long silence, Zheng Yutong asked somewhat dissatisfied:

'I had someone look into it, and the customer flow at Eternal Jewellery's stores is about the same as ours. I'm not sure about the specific turnover.'

Almost the same!

Zheng Yutong's heart sank, and the feeling of being on the receiving end of a sharp rebuke grew stronger.

He knew very well that Eternal Jewellery had more stores than Chow Tai Fook, but the turnover of each store was less than Chow Tai Fook's.

Now Wu Yuxiang even said that the customer flow of Eternal Jewellery's stores was almost the same as Chow Tai Fook's, that was outrageous!

After a long while, a determined look flashed in Zheng Yutong's eyes, and he decisively ordered,

'Yuxiang, the New Year is almost here, take out all of our top-quality diamond jewellery from stock, increase publicity efforts, and make sure consumers know that the best diamond jewellery in Hong Kong is in our Chow Tai Fook.'

'Also...'

'Also... bribe the media that are not affiliated with Jiuding Newspaper Group, release the news that Eternal Jewellery has lost its status as a De Beers buyer, and seize on the weakness of Eternal Jewellery's diamond quality for discussion.'

'Even if Jiuding Newspaper Group is the king of the media, I don't believe that black can be made white in the face of existing facts!'

Wu Yuxiang's heart trembled, and he subconsciously straightened his back and responded loudly, 'Yes!'

'There's one more thing. Speed up the expansion of new stores. Our pace of development is still a bit conservative,' Zheng Yutong added after a moment's thought.

'Understood. I'll have someone make a new plan right away.'

'Xingwei, you do a good job of the original layout and cooperate well with Yuxiang.'

'Yes, Chairman!'

...

After the two left, Zheng Yutong sat in his seat, lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and then exhaled a cloud of white mist.

A worried expression still hung on his face, shrouded in the white mist...