Chapter 325: The Profitable Business of Bottled Water
No matter the industry, at this point Yang Wendong's involvement was mostly limited to providing strategic direction and occasional feedback—leaving his team of professional managers to carry out execution.
As a time traveler, the strategies he laid out were rarely wrong.
Only the cultural field might carry some unpredictability, but even that was minimal in this entertainment-starved era. Stories like Nezha or Erlang Shen might not become explosive hits, but they were guaranteed to achieve solid results.
February 18, Monday:
Yang Wendong arrived at North Point on Hong Kong Island, where a newly built large-scale factory awaited him.
"Mr. Yang, welcome to the Watsons North Point Factory," greeted Zhou Haoran with a warm smile.
Stepping out of the car and giving the building a once-over, Yang Wendong nodded. "Looks great—more impressive in person than in the photos."
Back in mid-1962, Watsons had placed an order with Germany's Krones for canning equipment, then purchased a piece of industrial land in North Point to build this factory according to the equipment's specifications.
Zhou Haoran explained, "This production line begins with a stamping system that needs to be installed directly at ground level, so we built it all on one floor. When I bought the land, I also considered future expansion and other beverage ventures, so we went with a bigger plot."
"No problem—the bigger the better," Yang Wendong said without a second thought.
When it came to industrial investments, Yang Wendong never pinched pennies on land. If his managers felt larger sites were better, he gave the green light. After all, in a few decades, even empty industrial land would skyrocket in value.
Zhou Haoran added, "The whole line is now installed and in testing. We've already completed a few sample batches."
"Oh? Let's take a look," Yang Wendong said with interest.
Soon, they arrived at the entrance of the beverage canning workshop.
Rumble—
The hum of machinery greeted them. A middle-aged man in a blue jumpsuit stood by the entrance.
Zhou Haoran introduced him. "Mr. Yang, this is Liu Zhisheng, the workshop supervisor."
"Mr. Yang, good to meet you," Liu greeted, then added, "Mr. Yang, Mr. Zhou, the shop floor is quite noisy and we have to follow safety protocols. Please wear helmets, earplugs, and change into safety shoes."
"Understood. Thank you," Yang Wendong nodded.
Once they were geared up, they stepped into the factory. The first thing Yang Wendong saw were several large steel coils mounted on wooden frames. One was already being fed into a machine.
The steel sheet was being pulled into a set of massive stamping machines.
Liu Zhisheng explained, "This is the initial stage of can production. We take thin steel sheets and use multiple rounds of stamping to form the can body.
There's also a hot stamping step, where the material is heated before shaping to improve precision and strength.
Once the cans are shaped, they go through washing, sterilization, filling, and sealing."
Yang Wendong and his team walked alongside the production line, getting a full view of the process.
At the end of the line, Zhou Haoran grabbed a few finished cans. "Mr. Yang, please try the product."
"Is it much different from what we made in the lab?" Yang Wendong asked as he took a can.
"There's some variation," Zhou replied. "Mass production involves different processes compared to lab batches. We've had to tweak the line a lot to match the original flavor."
"That's understandable," Yang Wendong nodded.
"It's mostly because we didn't have our own line before," Zhou added. "So this first batch had to wait until the equipment arrived. Once we're up and running, new drinks won't take nearly as long to launch."
"Makes sense," Yang Wendong said as he popped open the can and took a sip. "Tastes close enough to me."
Zhou Haoran laughed. "Right? Even people can barely tell the difference between Coca-Cola and Pepsi once they're in a glass.
Still, we have to fine-tune it. Flavor consistency is crucial. If it keeps changing, customers will complain."
"Agreed," Yang Wendong said. "Once you've locked down the flavor and QA process, we'll start the promotional campaign. The weather's still cool, so a slight delay in launching herbal tea drinks won't hurt."
"Exactly," Zhou nodded. "And we also need time to run quality and durability tests on the cans—make sure there are no issues during transport or long-term storage."
"Good, that's essential. Quality is the foundation," Yang Wendong said. "Once you're confident, we'll pour resources into marketing."
Promoting before everything is ready was risky. In his past life, some mainland companies had made that mistake—investing heavily in ads before confirming product quality. The result? The bigger the hype, the harder they fell.
"Don't worry, Mr. Yang," Zhou Haoran reassured him. "We're serious about quality. I even brought in two German engineers—one for the equipment, one for can production."
Changxing Group had grown large enough that foreign hires were no longer unusual. Subsidiary heads could hire as they saw fit, as long as there were no major policy violations.
"Excellent. Thank you all for the hard work," Yang Wendong said. "Once the cans are successfully launched, I'll give the whole factory a special bonus."
Incentives mattered—especially for new projects, technologies, and production lines. Motivated teams worked faster, and that saved the company money in the long run.
"Thank you, Mr. Yang!" Zhou Haoran and Liu Zhisheng replied, visibly pleased.
Yang Wendong asked, "What's being produced in the adjacent workshop? It's a pretty big space."
"That one's for bottled purified water," Zhou replied. "We started it as a Carrefour partnership, but it's grown rapidly."
"Purified water? Let's take a look," Yang Wendong said, his curiosity piqued.
The drought was still ongoing in Hong Kong. Winter had eased the immediate burden, but overall water scarcity remained a serious issue.
At Carrefour, bottled water had become a runaway success—batches would sell out almost immediately.
"This way, please," said Liu Zhisheng, quickly guiding the group toward an internal path.
Soon, they arrived at the adjacent purified water workshop, where rows upon rows of white plastic barrels were stacked on five-tiered wheeled racks, towering above the workers.
The equipment setup was very simple—completely manual. Workers filled the barrels from a faucet and sealed them by hand. That was it.
Picking up a 5-liter barrel, Yang Wendong asked, "Is the water inside safe to drink directly?"
"It is," Liu Zhisheng replied. "We process tap water with a full sterilization routine before bottling it.
That said, the sealing quality isn't quite up to the standard of formal beverage production lines, so we advise that it be used within two weeks."
Zhou Haoran added, "Mr. Yang, it's not that we're cutting corners. This kind of barrel-packaged purified water might actually be the first of its kind globally. There's no specialized equipment for it yet.
We've included this note on the back of every barrel. Please, take a look."
He turned the barrel around, showing a simple sticker with the production date on it.
In this era, laser printing for expiration dates didn't exist yet.
"Fair enough," Yang Wendong nodded. "Given the current water shortage, people probably won't be keeping it that long anyway."
Exiting the workshop, he noticed a flurry of loading and unloading activity near the gates. Workers were moving full barrels out and bringing back empty ones.
"These aren't Carrefour's people, are they?" he asked.
Zhou Haoran explained, "No, they're independent local distributors. They buy water from us in bulk and handle delivery in their own regions.
As you know, Carrefour only covers part of Hong Kong. In other areas, local vendors came to us, and we couldn't turn them down. Some of their order volumes even surpass Carrefour's."
"When did this start? I don't remember seeing anything about this in last quarter's financial report," Yang Wendong asked.
Zhou Haoran replied, "It actually began last quarter, but on a small scale. So I just lumped it into the 'other income' category.
But starting this year, business exploded. These vendors handle their own last-mile logistics. The market scaled up fast.
Even Carrefour is doing it now—offering home water delivery. If Watsons had the retail manpower, we'd probably be doing it too. The profit margins are high."
"Of course," Yang Wendong laughed. "Right now, water delivery is gold."
When food runs out, prices can increase tenfold, even a hundredfold—that's just market behavior.
But water? It's even more essential than food.
Zhou Haoran waved off the surrounding workers and said, "Yes. Just in the past two months, we've tripled our water prices. Of course, Carrefour still gets the original rate. I didn't raise prices for our sister company."
"Well, that's expected," Yang Wendong nodded. "But supply and demand are what they are. Even if you don't raise prices, the middlemen will."
Water supplied to squatter settlements and the poor was considered a basic necessity. Yang Wendong was even willing to subsidize it as charity.
But purified water, especially with home delivery, was a service, not a necessity. Charging more was fair—what customers really paid for was the convenience.
"Shall we go upstairs and review the financials and market data?" Zhou Haoran asked.
"Sure," Yang Wendong replied.
They proceeded to the third floor of the administrative building, where Watsons' finance team had already prepared the documents.
Each line of profit and loss data was presented clearly for Yang Wendong to review.
"Watsons made HK$460,000 in profit this January?" Yang Wendong said, eyes widening as he scanned the sheet.
Just last month—also January—when reviewing the group's financials with Wang Fengzhi, Watsons had only made HK$500,000 for the entire previous year.
Now, one month's profit was almost equal to all of 1962.
Zhou Haoran explained, "Mr. Yang, our core business lines are doing slightly better than before you acquired us, but there hasn't been a fundamental change.
This spike is purely from bottled water sales. And this month, we'll likely set a new record. With summer approaching and the drought persisting, I honestly can't predict how high it will go."
Yang Wendong chuckled. "At this rate, your profits might outpace Changxing Real Estate's residential development division."
"I didn't expect this either," Zhou admitted. "I'm planning to expand the water production line. It's relatively easy—it's all manual labor.
We also need to order more plastic barrels. Although we have a return system in place, some barrels get damaged or lost. Others are kept by customers—they find them useful and cheap, so they don't return them."
"Alright, do as you see fit," Yang Wendong said. "As for the water supply, Changxing Shipping will guarantee it. What about the local tap water supply—any issues?"
"No issues there," Zhou Haoran said. "I've already coordinated with the city's water department. They won't restrict our usage. Plus, the new factory has a buffer reservoir with over 200 cubic meters of capacity."
"Good. Keep everything running smoothly. This is a short-term opportunity, but if we make enough during this period, it'll fund Watsons' expansion into other sectors later."
This was the classic definition of a "tailwind market"—not the most glamorous perhaps, but highly profitable while it lasted.
Done right, they could even use these profits to cover the cost of charity programs, such as the free water distributed in the squatter areas.
"I'll draft a full expansion plan for your review," Zhou Haoran promised.
"Good," Yang Wendong said with satisfaction.
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