126: Chapter 126 The Bottleneck of a Hot Pot Restaurant! A Surprise for Everyone!

Chapter 126: The Hotpot Restaurant's Bottleneck! A Surprise for Everyone!

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Since Su Yang hadn't given a definitive answer, no one in the four companies had any expectations regarding year-end bonuses anymore.

Even Yu Siying and Yi Jiangang's probing attempts were brushed off by Su Yang.

They could all understand why no year-end bonus would be given.

After all, the boss had been constantly investing massive amounts of money.

Moreover, no one had actually worked for a full year yet.

They had only asked Su Yang because they felt the boss had always been generous.

Perhaps he would give a small token of appreciation, and they wanted to be prepared in advance!

As for Tan Yanghong, he didn't even ask. Jiuxiang Food had been established for the shortest amount of time, so he assumed there wouldn't be any!

In the following period, Jiuxiang Food continued its recruitment drive.

The recipes Su Yang provided also passed official review and were ready for production.

Under Tan Yanghong's management, the two new factories began producing new products.

He also communicated with cooperating distributors, supermarkets, and snack chains.

Thanks to the great start made by Jiuxiang Beef Snacks, they were all willing to try the new products!

Naturally, the new products also appeared on Jiuxiang Food's e-commerce store.

In recent days, thanks to the vigorous promotion by Spark Media and the delicious taste of the Jiuxiang Beef Snacks, they had gained many repeat customers, and business was visibly booming!

Staff from Jiuxiang Food also communicated with these customers, occasionally sending them coupons.

Seeing that Jiuxiang Food had released new snacks—dried fruits and preserves that catered to popular tastes—these customers were willing to conveniently buy a few more varieties to try the flavors.

Su Yang also tasted the melon seeds, peanuts, and pine nuts produced by Jiuxiang Food, as well as various dried sweet potatoes, dried mangoes, dried kiwis, and other preserves. The taste was really nice!

He sent several boxes to Tao Xue, and she was very happy!

For someone like her who focused on physique management, most of these snacks were very friendly!

Regarding the beef snacks, Tan Yanghong had also released new products.

These were the low-oil, low-salt, and low-chili flavors that Spark Fitness wanted.

They were mainly divided into two types: regular beef snacks and beef jerky snacks!

Su Yang also tasted a few bags, and the flavor was actually quite good.

Although the taste wasn't as intense as before, the aroma of the beef was richer!

The two types of beef snacks, marketed as the "Healthy Version," also sold quite well on e-commerce platforms, with very ideal data feedback.

It seemed that everyone cared quite a bit about health issues!

On the Jiuxiang Catering side, Ji Guoxiong had also completed the formalities, rented a kitchen, and opened a subsidiary.

The company name was Jiuxiang Healthy Catering Management!

To Su Yang's delight, as long as Jiuxiang Healthy Catering was under the umbrella of Jiuxiang Catering, it could share the special buffs of +50% taste enhancement and -30% physical harm with Jiuxiang Catering.

Of course, Su Yang could also let the buffs for Jiuxiang Healthy Catering be independent.

If independent, the buff levels would naturally have to start from scratch.

He naturally chose to share them!

The foods launched by Jiuxiang Healthy Catering mainly included weight loss sets, muscle-building sets, and nutritionally balanced sets.

According to feedback from Spark Fitness, the nutritional meals produced by Jiuxiang Healthy Catering received great acclaim.

The fitness customers loved them, saying the taste had improved significantly.

They even said they would only order delivery from Jiuxiang Healthy Catering from now on!

Additionally, sales of the healthy version of Jiuxiang Beef Snacks were also good.

Many male customers who came to the gym to exercise liked to eat them.

Before he knew it, it was January 7th again, Su Yang's favorite day!

[Ding~ You have received 1.93 million in salary and welfare returns for Spark Fitness employees for December.]

[Ding~ You have received 4.68 million in salary and welfare returns for Jiuxiang Catering employees for December.]

[Ding~ You have received 1.57 million in salary and welfare returns for Spark Media employees for December.]

[Ding~ You have received 1.06 million in salary and welfare returns for Jiuxiang Food employees for December.]

[Ding~ The loyalty of employees such as Le Shaoliang, Liu Zhenfang, and Gong Wenyong from Spark Fitness, Spark Media, Jiuxiang Catering, and Jiuxiang Food has increased to 90. You have received 310,000 in cash rewards and 1 agility point.]

Thus, another 9.55 million was deposited into Su Yang's bank account.

He wasn't far from the ten-million mark; it would likely be reached next month!

However, the money in his bank account had indeed surpassed ten million.

Compared to last month, the fastest-growing sectors this month were still Spark Media and Jiuxiang Catering.

Besides hiring a large number of employees, the income of Jiang Yan and other influencers at Spark Media was also rapidly increasing!

Jiuxiang Catering maintained high growth naturally because of the constant opening of new branches!

The number of branch stores had now reached 23!

However, Jiuxiang Catering had reached a bottleneck in its development.

Su Yang had discovered that high-quality storefronts suitable for opening hotpot restaurants were becoming increasingly scarce.

The fifty-plus employees of Jiuxiang Catering's Market Expansion Department had already combed through the entire Rongcheng.

Recently, with the approval of Su Yang and Ji Guoxiong, some employees had already set out for the surrounding suburban counties.

However, the spending power in those places wasn't as high as in Rongcheng, so storefronts suitable for Nine Fragrance Hotpot would surely be even scarcer.

It wasn't that Rongcheng could no longer accommodate Nine Fragrance Hotpot—the number of hotpot restaurants in Rongcheng was close to thirty thousand!

It was just that suitable storefronts for Nine Fragrance Hotpot were becoming fewer, and they also had to avoid competing with their own existing stores!

Opening the map on his phone and searching for "Nine Fragrance Hotpot," the entire Rongcheng was covered in twenty-three dense red markers, more than three times the number of the nationally famous Guodilao Hotpot chain.

Guodilao only had seven stores in the urban area of Rongcheng!

In other words, in just half a year of hard work, Su Yang had achieved remarkable results.

He had directly turned Jiuxiang Catering into a "giant" among Rongcheng's hotpot chains!

This was an incredibly exaggerated and crazy achievement!

However, the outside world didn't know much about Jiuxiang Catering; it had developed too quickly!

Perhaps some people in Rongcheng had noticed several Jiuxiang Hotpot Restaurants.

But because the restaurants were so scattered, they didn't know the exact extent to which Nine Fragrance Hotpot had developed.

Furthermore, Su Yang hadn't intentionally advertised before. It was only recently that he had done a bit of soft advertising, but even then, he hadn't publicized the number or scale of the branches!

He relied on the foot traffic of prime locations, the taste of the hotpot, and high-quality service to do business.

He wouldn't possibly do franchises, so he hadn't put too much thought into promotion!

Recently, Ji Guoxiong had also felt the pressure.

He was preparing to work on the supply chain and logistics.

If Jiuxiang Catering were to expand out of Rongcheng and start developing in surrounding suburban counties and cities,

these things would need to be prepared in advance.

Su Yang estimated that Jiuxiang Catering probably wouldn't be able to keep a low profile for much longer.

Looking at the 10.78 million in hand, Su Yang made a phone call to the general managers of the four companies.

While making the calls, Su Yang couldn't help but want a secretary!

It wasn't that he wanted to *do* a secretary, but rather he wanted to find a secretary who could actually do work.

Then, he transferred the 9.24 million he had just received back into the various company accounts according to the employee salaries.

When transferring to Jiuxiang Food Company, Su Yang even added an extra million!

This extra million-plus included money Su Yang had left over from last month,

as well as rewards obtained by increasing the loyalty of the employees of the four companies!

With the Lunar New Year approaching, he felt embarrassed not to give out year-end bonuses!

So he planned to give one month's salary as a gesture, plus some other small gifts.

Whether they were new or old employees,

as long as they had joined before New Year's Day on January 1st, everyone would get it!

After all, strictly speaking, no one in the four companies had worked for a full year, and not a single person was technically qualified to receive a year-end bonus!

As for those who had worked for less than a month... then they could just consider themselves lucky!

Su Yang believed this move would also increase their loyalty.

Anyway, he was just pull outing the system's wool!

When it came to next year's bonuses, new and old employees would have to be differentiated.

As for why he didn't wait a bit longer to give them out at the end of the month for the New Year,

it was because he felt like spending money as soon as he saw it; he couldn't hold back!

Letting him sit on ten million in funds without spending it felt worse than killing him!

Of course, those ten million-plus would certainly not all be spent, because the returned salaries also included sales commissions, bonuses, social security... but the unspent money could remain in the company accounts.

As for why Su Yang didn't inform them in advance... it was because he felt that since the bonuses were being given after the 7th anyway, it would be better to give the employees a surprise!

He kept quiet about the year-end bonus first, making the employees think there wouldn't be one.

And then... Hehe!

The reactions of those four general managers just now were quite interesting!