Chapter 157: Changxing Industrial's Daily Gold Rush
In Tsim Sha Tsui, at the factory complex of Changxing Industrial, long lines of cargo trucks queued up for loading and unloading.
It was already December, and Hong Kong's weather had turned noticeably cooler, yet the workers out front were still hustling with fervor, moving shipments in and out without pause.
"Mr. Yang." Wei Zetao walked over to the man observing the busy truck operations and greeted him.
"Old Wei!" Yang Wendong turned his head toward him with a smile. "Is the current production capacity of Post-it notes enough to meet demand in the U.S. market?"
Wei replied, "Still not quite there yet. We've already completed the planning for the second-phase factory. Construction will begin right after New Year's next month.
Phase two will have even more capacity than the current phase one. That should be enough to fully supply the U.S. market.
As for Europe and Japan, we've also sent out a few sample shipments over the past two months. We'll need to focus on those markets starting next year as well."
"Good." Yang nodded in approval. "What about equipment and technical staff? Are we keeping up?"
Wei responded, "Actually, most of our current planning revolves around equipment and personnel. If it were just a matter of building the second-phase facilities, all it would take is money.
We've already repaid a good portion of our earlier debts. Taking out new loans now is no longer a problem for us."
"Haha." Yang chuckled. "Finally, we're out of the stage where every loan application gets held up by the bank."
The profit potential of Post-it notes was astonishing. In the five months from July to December, even with production capacity still gradually increasing, they had already generated over two million HKD in net profits.
Although not all the previous debts had been paid off yet, the growing capacity would only bring in more and more revenue. Banks weren't foolish—when the risk is low, they're happy to lend.
Yang had also spent a lot of money recently on the newspaper, radio station, and the new headquarters building in Central. That everything went smoothly was largely thanks to the cash flow from the Post-it factory.
Wei nodded. "Right. If we weren't building phase two, we probably would've finished paying off all debts to 3M and the Hong Kong banks by March next year. But now, with expansion, we'll need more financing. Once the new facilities are up and running, we'll repay with profits again."
"Perfect. That's exactly the time to expand production—until the market demand is fully met," Yang said. "Keep looking for other equipment suppliers to accelerate delivery speeds.
As for workers, we need to train them steadily. Ideally, the people working on Post-it notes should at least be literate. We can offer better pay to ensure quality isn't compromised."
Having educated workers didn't guarantee better results, nor were they always more diligent. But when hiring thousands, no company could vet each person individually. Filtering by education was the simplest and most common approach.
When more workers are literate, overall productivity improves—something universally acknowledged by large businesses. It just depended on whether a company was willing to shoulder the extra cost and if their product quality warranted it.
Wei agreed, "No problem. But what about our current factory workers? Should we transfer them to the glue trap or adhesive hook assembly lines?"
"Don't rush that," Yang replied after thinking for a moment. "We still need to take care of our older employees. Let's offer them basic training so they can at least recognize a few hundred characters. That'll help with company management."
"Understood." Wei nodded. He was well aware of how Yang treated the early employees—always with a bit of extra consideration.
That was normal. Many companies did the same. And it helped send a message to new recruits: loyalty and hard work were rewarded.
Yang then asked, "Speaking of adhesive hooks, how's the market in Japan lately?"
The adhesive hook had launched in Hong Kong around August and quickly became a hit. It was later introduced in Taiwan, and then Japan—one market at a time, mainly due to limited early production capacity.
Wei responded, "Feedback from Japan is excellent—same with Taiwan.
There's just one issue: knockoffs are starting to pop up. We've seen copycat adhesive hooks in Japan, Taiwan, and even in Hong Kong. Mr. Zhao Chengguang has already filed lawsuits and shut down some small Hong Kong factories.
I've also hinted to our OEM partners from the Yi On Society to take care of things using less official means."
"Hmm. Combining legal and 'unofficial' channels—not bad," Yang nodded with a smile. "Has Yi On tried to make their own version?"
Wei laughed. "Even if they did it secretly, how big could they get? And without patents, they'd still have to operate legally, but they've got no distribution network. They'd just end up working for local traders anyway.
So it's better for them to stay our suppliers. It's completely legitimate, and they still make money."
"True." Yang nodded. Gangs often engaged in shady operations out of necessity. But if they had a clean, profitable way to earn, only an idiot would risk breaking the law—especially in modern Hong Kong.
"And Taiwan and Japan?" Yang asked.
"Same strategy as Hong Kong—relying on exclusive distributors," Wei explained. "In Taiwan, I've found a distributor with some political connections. He's promised to clean up the unauthorized sales points, at least enough to prevent scale.
Japan's the same. We just haven't finalized which distributor to use yet."
"Alright, sounds good," Yang said. "Post-its will need the same treatment. We didn't worry about this much before since 3M dominated the Americas. But when we move into other countries, we need to be more careful. A strong distributor ensures mutual benefit."
It was unrealistic to think they could eliminate piracy completely. But as long as they suppressed most of it, that was enough.
If the local government wouldn't intervene, there was nothing you could do. All that remained was to compete on product quality and market efficiency.
Hence, distributors were key. Sometimes you had to share profits just to secure the ground.
"Understood." Wei smiled. "We're applying the same approach to the spin mop. Adhesive hooks and spin mops are in the same category, so we can leverage the existing channels."
Yang nodded. "Same logic. Spin mops are becoming a hot product in Hong Kong now. Are our suppliers keeping up with demand?"
Just a single product—Post-it notes—had kept Changxing Industrial busy for over a year, and they still couldn't meet demand.
Clearly, they couldn't afford to produce adhesive hooks and spin mops in-house as well. At most, they'd handle a portion. The rest had to be outsourced.
Outsourcing allowed them to tap into other factories' manpower, experience, technology, and quality control—all for the purpose of fulfilling market demand as quickly as possible. Their own role was simply to manage quality and handle the brand.
This was how they could dominate the market at lightning speed and maximize profits.
As for creating influence through local employment and land development, outsourcing wouldn't help much. But as long as the money came in fast, they could just go buy land and buildings in Central later.
Controlling a large number of local plastic factories indirectly was another form of influence anyway.
"Don't worry, Mr. Yang. Our current suppliers are all running at full capacity. With our high volume of orders, they clearly see the demand and have already agreed to expand their operations," Wei said with confidence.
"Good… What about assembly?" Yang asked. "We do that ourselves. Recruiting workers is easy, but how are we managing quality?"
The hooks themselves were manufactured externally, but the adhesive was applied in-house, along with the backing paper and packaging.
Just like with the adhesive hooks, all plastic components for the spin mop were produced externally. Even the mop heads came from outside suppliers. Only the final assembly was still done in-house.
This setup was intentional—it allowed the company to maintain strict quality control at the final stage. If any issues slipped through earlier manufacturing phases, the assembly process was the last chance to catch them. Outsourcing this step wasn't an option they felt comfortable with yet.
Wei Zetao said, "Mr. Yang, don't worry. I specifically recruited over 160 experienced quality inspectors from plastic factories on Hong Kong Island, along with several dozen quality engineers.
They're now assigned across four warehouse-based assembly centers. They handle quality checks for incoming materials, monitor the assembly process, and ensure quality at the shipment stage.
I even sent a few engineers over to Zhao's rodent glue board facility. Though now that it's winter in the Northern Hemisphere and things are slower there, half of them have already returned."
The adhesive hook and spin mop assembly operations were separate from the main Post-it note factory. Just like in the early days when the glue board line was set up in a rented warehouse, these too operated in similar spaces.
However, since the company now had better relationships with the banks, Changxing Industrial had directly purchased the warehouses for these newer operations. These were commercial properties—zoned for light industry—and the Hong Kong government typically didn't interfere with such uses.
"Good." Yang Wendong nodded. "So externally, we rely on exclusive distributors to secure our market share. Internally, we spend more on quality control.
As long as we stick to this model, Changxing Industrial won't face any serious problems."
"Yes. Based on my estimates, by next year, we'll be the largest industrial manufacturer in Hong Kong," Wei said with a proud smile.
Yang replied, "Makes sense. Hong Kong industry is still mainly OEM-based. The total scale might be large, but there aren't many major companies here yet."
In any economy still in the early stages of industrial development—like the mainland in the 1980s—there were very few large enterprises. Only after years of market competition would major players emerge.
Changxing Industrial had risen rapidly by leveraging Yang's unique product ideas and the Western system's strict recognition of patents.
Wei added, "Mr. Yang, the finance department has finished compiling the monthly profit and sales figures. Would you like to take a look?"
"Sure." Yang nodded. While he already had a general understanding of the company's financials, detailed figures were typically summarized at the end of each quarter or year.
This was standard for many companies—even publicly listed ones.
…
The two of them soon arrived at the finance department's office, which had a staff of 42 people. With over 2,000 workers now employed across seven factories and four major product lines—and without computers—the finance department needed more manpower to handle everything manually.
"Brother Dong," a smiling Su Yiyi greeted him.
Yang returned the smile. "Yiyi, how's your training under Sister Wang going this year?"
Su Yiyi said cheerfully, "I still can't manage most of the work on my own. I'm mainly just helping Sister Wang with tasks."
"Take it slow. Learn what you can." Yang wasn't expecting her to become a financial expert. Her presence served more as a supervisory role—an embedded representative of the boss within the department.
At that moment, Sister Wang—Wang Fengzhi—walked over. "Mr. Yang, the documents are already in the meeting room."
"Alright." Yang nodded. They all headed toward the department's internal conference room.
The factory was massive, and each department had plenty of office space, including break rooms, meeting rooms, and private offices for managers.
Over the past few years, Yang had taught himself to read financial reports. It was a necessary skill for any business owner. As Wang explained the reports line by line, Yang gradually made sense of the data.
"So, last month, after deducting fixed asset depreciation—but not including interest or principal repayments to the bank—our net profit was 650,000 HKD?" Yang asked, eyes fixed on the bottom line.
Wang nodded. "That's right. Of that, 580,000 came from Post-it notes. The rest came from the glue boards, adhesive hooks, and the newly launched spin mops."
Yang smiled. "That's quite impressive. It's just that the debt's still heavy—otherwise the numbers would look even better."
In modern times, 580,000 HKD might not seem like much—equivalent to a modest annual salary on platforms like Douyin. But in this era, it was a massive amount of money.
Throughout Hong Kong, there were probably fewer than ten companies—mostly British banks or trading houses—that could claim assets in the billions. Among the Chinese-owned businesses, likely none.
Earning 650,000 HKD a month meant the company was on track for around 8 million annually. "Raking in gold daily" was no exaggeration.
Wang smiled and said, "Mr. Yang, based on this data and our continuing production expansion, we'll be able to repay nearly five million in loans within just over half a year.
Those loans covered several major factories, land purchases, and all our Post-it manufacturing equipment.
Even the big shipping companies can't match that kind of investment return speed."
"We're not quite on par with shipping, but we're definitely more stable." Yang chuckled. "Sister Wang, Old Wei—the year's almost over. I want you to prepare a company-wide bonus plan.
This isn't just cash bonuses—include material rewards too. Things like rice, flour, cooking oil, or salted meats—non-perishable goods. If we only give out cash, the workers might hoard it instead of spending."
"Got it. Thank you on behalf of all the employees." Wei nodded. Then he added, "Mr. Yang, there's another matter. It's a bit tricky, so I wanted to get your input."
"What is it?" Yang asked.
"It's about our company meals," Wei explained. "Because of your policy, we've been serving pretty generous meals—plenty of meat and no limit on rice.
That's led to some issues. People are sneaking food home, and there's also been quite a bit of food waste."
"Food waste?" Yang frowned slightly. "Anyone wasting food should be penalized. Set the punishment internally. If they don't change after repeated warnings, fire them—even if they're managers.
As for taking food home, limit it to rice—no rice goes out. But the side dishes belong to the workers. They can take their share home if they want. That's their business, not ours."
"Understood," Wei said. But he hesitated, then added, "Mr. Yang, even though the dishes are technically theirs, if they're all taking them home and not eating during lunch, it's bound to affect their energy levels. That could impact work quality."
"They're bringing the food home for their families, right?" Yang asked.
"Yes," Wei replied. "No one's reselling it. I checked. It's mostly for their kids.
Even though our salaries are decent, most families still have to pinch pennies."
"Alright," Yang said after a moment of thought. "Have the kitchen make extra steamed buns—two per employee per day, one with meat, one vegetarian. But strictly no taking dishes out anymore. Let them take the buns instead.
Consider it a bonus—a benefit of the company's success."
"Thank you, Mr. Yang," Wei said with a big smile.
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