Chapter 3239 The best choice

In order to acquire a suitable food processing company as soon as possible, Li Yalin asked Ai to analyze the list of all regular food processing companies in Morocco, and then analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each food processing company based on their registered addresses and combined with satellite images of the skyline.

One of Ai's biggest advantages is that it can think, so Li Yalin does not need to guide it step by step. Instead, he directly tells it his needs and asks it to find a food company from these companies that is not doing well but has enough land and buildings to hide thousands of people and is located far away from densely populated areas.

So, Ai immediately selected five companies that met his needs.

These five companies are all located in relatively remote areas of Morocco. One of them is not far from Duke Mining, only about 100 kilometers away. What's more perfect is that this company is less than 50 kilometers away from the coastline. If people are to be placed here and wait for transfer abroad, then this is the best choice.

So, Li Yalin temporarily separated from Ye Chen early the next morning and went to the company alone to find out what was going on.

Ye Chen, on the other hand, stayed in the hotel room and sat on the floor, continuing to review the set of hand seals while slowly accumulating the spiritual energy in his body.

Ye Chen is now obsessed with this set of hand seals, just like a wool-pulling party addicted to taking advantage of others. Whenever he has time, he will practice with it, and by constantly repeating the set of hand seals, he can gain extra spiritual energy for himself.

After a three-hour drive, Li Yalin finally arrived at the small town where the food processing company was located.

This company is located on the outskirts of a small town. Most of its more than 300 employees come from this town. The town is about 30 kilometers away from a fishing port on the northeast coast of Morocco. Because it is not directly on the coast, the people in this town have no chance to become fishermen.

When the fishermen along the coast improved their living conditions by fishing, the villagers of this small village could only go to work in the surrounding seafood processing companies. The company chosen by Li Yalin was a private enterprise specializing in the production of processed seafood foods, especially canned sardines.

Morocco is the country that exports the most sardines in the world. There are at least hundreds or even thousands of companies in the country that survive by producing canned sardines and other seafood products. Although Morocco's GDP has increased because of sardines, most of these canned sardine companies are not having an easy time.

Since it is only the most basic food processing, their threshold is relatively low, and because of the low threshold, the competition among peers is also very fierce. If new companies want to gain a foothold, they often rely on price wars to obtain orders. Over time, everyone lowers prices from each other, resulting in a continuous decline in the profit margins of the entire industry. Nowadays, many companies are struggling on the edge of the survival line.

This is the company that Li Yalin chose.

It was funded and established by a former local municipal government official. After more than ten years of continuous development, its scale has indeed grown. However, due to backward production technology and low efficiency, the business conditions here have gradually declined. The boss of the company is getting older and has gradually lost his ambition. He only wants to continue to rely on this company to create meager profits. It is precisely because of this idea that he has not invested funds in the company for upgrading and expansion in recent years, so that the company's competitiveness is getting worse and worse.

More importantly, it is very difficult to sell such old enterprises. The industry's profits are not high to begin with, and the cost of upgrading and renovating them is a huge expense. If you are not careful, you may suffer losses. No one wants to take this risk.

Li Yalin also took a fancy to another natural advantage of seafood processing companies, that is, they must have vehicles transporting raw materials constantly shuttling between the factory and the dock. Once Ye Chen wanted to transport those assassins away quietly, the sea route would be the only reliable option. Then, through the disguise of a seafood processing plant, he could use the vehicles going to and from the fishing port to continuously send people away.

So all in all, this company is the best choice.

When Li Yalin arrived at the door of this food processing company, he found that the company did not even have a security guard. The dilapidated gate was always open. From the outside, the factory building was large, but it was indeed a bit old and looked rather dilapidated overall.

The first area to enter is an open space of about three to four thousand square meters, where a dilapidated Fiat sedan, various bicycles, and a small number of simple motorcycles that have been modified beyond recognition are parked.

The right side looked like an unloading and storage area, because there was not only a cargo platform for unloading, but also a well-sealed single building. Li Yalin guessed that it should be a cold storage for storing raw materials. There happened to be a truck parked in front of the cargo platform, and several loaders were carrying fresh seafood covered with ice from it and moving it to the cold storage at the back;

The back of the cold storage is connected to the largest single factory building, which should be the processing production line. There is also a similar cargo platform on the left hand side. There is also a closed building behind this cargo platform. Li Yalin speculated that this should be the storage and loading area for finished products.

When Li Yalin arrived at the door of the largest factory building in the middle, the roar inside was already deafening. Because the cans need to be heated for production and sterilization, humid heat waves were rolling out from the huge doorway.

It was not until Li Yalin walked into the factory that someone finally noticed this strange face. Someone stepped forward and questioned him cautiously in the local language. Li Yalin saw that he looked like an ordinary worker, so he took out a ten-dollar bill and handed it to him, saying in English: "Where is your boss? I want to see him."

The other party did not understand English or French, but he had heard the word "Boss" and he immediately realized that Li Yalin wanted to meet his boss. Besides, the other party was quite generous and ten dollars was more than his daily salary. So he immediately made flattering gestures to Li Yalin and enthusiastically took him to his boss's office.

The boss's office is located in a two-story building supported by a steel structure on the side of the factory. It is surrounded by glass on all four sides, so one can have a clear view of the entire factory.

The boss was a little surprised to see his employee bringing a stranger, so he began to look at Li Yalin from a distance.

Although Li Yalin's true face cannot be seen in disguise, it is still an Asian face. This factory and its upstream and downstream are almost all Moroccans, so it is indeed very rare to see Asians here.

Before coming, Li Yalin investigated the boss's background. He is 61 years old this year. He was originally a local civil servant who went out to work in the next level of city government department. Later, because he felt that the seafood processing industry had prospects, he resigned and went into business, and opened a cannery near his hometown.

Since he was a local and had accumulated many connections as a civil servant in the city, he received many favorable policies when he came back to build a factory. Not only was he given a large piece of land, he also received a lot of low-interest loans, and the scale of his factory continued to grow.

However, since he started from scratch, his actual income was not high in the first many years of his business. The money he earned was either used to repay loans or to manage relationships.

In the seven or eight years after all the loans were paid off, his income level should have been pretty good, with annual profits of around $200,000, which was considered a lot locally.

But the situation has deteriorated significantly in recent years, and his annual profit has now shrunk to only thirty to fifty thousand US dollars.

Because he knew that the other party had a background as a civil servant, Li Yalin was certain that he understood French and there would be no problem in communication.

The employee led him to the door and said something in the local language, and the boss inside waved to the two of them directly through the glass.

The employee pushed the door open and told his boss Li Yalin that he wanted to see him. Li Yalin didn't hesitate and asked him directly in French: "Are you the boss here? I want to buy your factory."

When the boss heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up.

He knew that Asians were rich, especially businessmen from Asia who came out to do business, who were generally wealthy. He had wanted to sell the factory for a long time, but no one had shown interest in it for several years. Now, an Asian businessman took the initiative to come to his door. He immediately had the dream of cashing out and enjoying his retirement life, so he quickly stood up and said to Li Yalin, "Welcome! Please take a seat, please take a seat!"

As he said this, he quickly sent his employees out, took out a bottle of mineral water and handed it to Li Yalin, saying with a smile: "We are thinking of selling here. As long as the price is right, everything here can be sold."

Li Yalin didn't want to appear too eager to buy, but smiled and said, "Canned sardines have become popular in our country recently, so I have the idea of ​​setting up a factory in Morocco, and then the canned sardines produced will be directly exported to our country point-to-point. I have also visited many factories along the way. Please give me a brief introduction of your situation and your advantages."

The boss quickly said, "We have a total of five production lines here, four of which are used to produce canned sardines, and one is used to produce other seafood products. The annual output is about 4,000 tons."

Li Yalin frowned and sighed, "Five production lines can only produce 4,000 tons a year. As far as I know, the daily output of large canning companies in Morocco starts at 100 to 200 tons."

The boss quickly said, "The main reason why our production line is old is that our production efficiency is low. However, we have a large area. If you are willing to invest in upgrading and renovating, we have the foundation to become a large enterprise."

He then quickly introduced: "The cost of workers around here is very low. Most workers earn less than 2,000 dirhams a month, not more than 200 US dollars, and they are willing to work hard. I have 300 workers here now. If you need them in the future, you can always recruit 500 skilled workers from nearby towns."

Li Yalin smiled and said, "All companies have room for upgrading, but everything comes down to cost. Let me give you a price and I'll consider it."

The man thought about it again and again, and then said, "Five million dirhams, or five hundred thousand US dollars."

Although the factory still has a profit of 30,000 US dollars a year, the profit has begun to decline. The boss knows very well that he can only hold on for another ten years at most. It would be good if he could make a profit of 200,000 US dollars in the next ten years.

As for his own factory, the equipment is very old and has passed the elimination cycle even in a country like Morocco. It is in a state of struggling. If it is really sold, it is estimated that it will be only slightly more expensive than scrap metal.

The price of the factory building is also difficult to raise because it is old. After all, it is located on the edge of a remote town and even the land is not valuable.

So, let alone half a million U.S. dollars, even if it was three hundred thousand U.S. dollars, he would sell it without hesitation.

Li Yalin was not in a hurry to discuss the price with him, but asked him many detailed questions and asked him to take him around for a tour. Behind the factory, there was an employee cafeteria and several warehouses. Although the factory only had more than 300 workers, it was very easy to hide thousands of people here.

In addition, there are about 15 tons of canned products in the finished product warehouse waiting to be shipped, which, according to market prices, is around 40,000 US dollars.

After taking a look at the whole thing, Li Yalin said to the boss, "Well, I've also seen the situation here. To be honest, it's indeed older than I thought. The cost of renovating and rebuilding it will be at least several million dollars. I don't like to dilly-dally when doing business, so I'll give you two quotations and two options. No matter which one you can accept, we can reach a cooperation. If you can't accept either, then I'll look at other options."

The boss said quickly: "Please speak."

Li Yalin said: "The first offer is to pay you $250,000 in one lump sum to buy out all the visible and tangible facilities here, including the land, factory buildings, production lines and other equipment. Oh, and all the raw materials and finished product inventory in your warehouse;"

When the boss heard this, he said helplessly, "To be honest, our raw materials and finished product inventory are worth at least 50,000 US dollars."

Li Yalin smiled and said, "The second offer is $300,000, but I can only pay you $200,000 first. The remaining $100,000 will be paid to you after I start production. The other condition is that you help me maintain these workers. It may take me two to three months to upgrade the equipment here. During this time, you have to make sure these workers don't defend their rights, make trouble, or cause me any trouble. At the same time, they must wait at home honestly. When I start work, they will come back to work."

The boss said awkwardly: "I really can't guarantee this. They have to support their families. In the next two or three months, if they have no income, their families may not be able to eat. In that case, they will definitely look for other jobs."

Li Yalin said: "During this period, their wages will be paid as usual, half of which will be paid every month, and the remaining half will be paid in one lump sum on the day they start work."

When the boss heard this, he was relieved and said quickly: "That's no problem. They will definitely agree if they don't work and still get paid."

Li Yalin reminded: "In order to ensure that they do not disclose my situation here or my business secrets, you must do these things in person. Make them think that it is you who wants to upgrade here, not someone else. Then tell them not to tell anyone about the situation here after they go home. Once business secrets are leaked, their salary will be stopped and the remaining half will be directly invalidated."

The boss said without thinking: "These are all fine. I can still do it with my prestige."

At this point, he rubbed his hands and smiled awkwardly, "It's just that this price... is still a little low for me. It's only 300,000 in total, and there are goods worth 50,000 dollars. It should be at least 450,000 US dollars to be reasonable..."

Li Yalin said, "How about this. As long as you do what I ask you to do, so that I can fully promote the upgrade and renovation, I will pay you another 200,000 US dollars after the upgrade is completed and the construction starts smoothly. The total bid will be 400,000 US dollars."

When the boss heard this, he smiled happily and said without hesitation: "Deal!"