549: Chapter 549 Chizhu Winery's Million-Dollar Reward! A Relentless Fight Against Counterfeits!

Su Yang checked in on the production status of Chizhu Wine Industry again.

August was already the season for harvesting and fermenting grapes.

After getting a general idea, Su Yang hung up the phone!

The next day, he selected Li Heyang from over forty resumes, effectively finalizing the choice for the general manager of Sihua Clothing.

Li Heyang was forty-three years old and had worked in the clothing industry for twenty years.

He had previously held a management position in the China region for a Japanese menswear company, then jumped ship to a relatively well-known domestic clothing brand. Four years ago, he resigned to start his own business, but his company went bankrupt about half a year ago.

The company's bankruptcy was a huge blow to Li Heyang, almost costing him his family. He had spent the last half-year in a daze and had only recently started to pull himself together.

Li Heyang's abilities were quite outstanding; he had the capacity to build a clothing brand!

Putting him in Sihua, even without any special buffs, would be enough for him to turn Sihua's business around.

Among the forty-plus applicants, his comprehensive ability ranked in the top three.

As for why he didn't choose the other two, besides Li Heyang's brand-building ability, it was because his moral standards were up to par!

The quality of a professional manager was still very important!

Even if no problems arose during the Business Deduction period, once they were familiar with the company's operations, had established a foothold, and had a group of trusted subordinates, it was hard to guarantee that problems wouldn't arise.

At that point, it would require personal moral integrity to sustain things!

Su Yang didn't want to frequently change company executives, as that would be detrimental to the company's development!

After confirming the start date with Li Heyang, Su Yang briefly inquired about the acquisition progress of Shenmiao Pet Hospital and Spark Fitness.

Li Yuping told Su Yang that those two private pet hospitals were already willing to sell. It would likely cost over four million, and the contract could be signed around early September.

Because the business of these two private pet hospitals was quite good, acquiring them would require paying a certain price.

The two major shareholders within the Aiyou Pet chain of pet hospitals had a falling out. One major shareholder wanted to withdraw capital, and the other also didn't want to continue, having thoughts of leaving as well.

Shenmiao could afford the price, so the negotiations were going quite smoothly.

With the Mergers and Acquisitions Department cooperating, they should be able to reach an acquisition agreement in September.

Aiyou Pet chain of pet hospitals had eight locations in Rongcheng and Shancheng, with a large pet hospital in each city. Some of the pet hospitals were still operating at a loss, while others were profitable.

They could generate an annual profit of about two million.

To acquire Aiyou Pet, they would likely need forty million in capital!

After all, medical equipment for pet hospitals was quite expensive, and the high-end ones were all imported!

After encouraging Li Yuping, Su Yang checked on the situation at Spark Fitness.

Yi Jiangang was currently in the capital, and he briefly updated Su Yang on the situation at Auckland in the capital.

The overall situation at Auckland was not bad. Even with operational difficulties, they hadn't been recklessly issuing three-year or five-year memberships; at most, they were selling annual memberships at a discount.

The owner hadn't thought about taking the money and running, and was quite enthusiastic toward the Spark Fitness acquisition team.

Su Yang smiled, not feeling very surprised!

In that place, unless it was an absolute last resort, one couldn't just run!

Auckland had twelve stores spread across the capital and several nearby important cities.

Who knew who had purchased their gym memberships?

Su Yang then inspected Sihua, not only to check the quality of the clothing they produced but also to look at a batch of work uniforms customized for his subsidiaries.

These work uniforms included those for the employees of Nine Fragrance Hotpot and Weimeijia under Jiuxiang Catering, as well as those for Meijia Housekeeping and Jiuxiang Food.

As long as they weren't worse than work uniforms customized elsewhere, the business would belong to Sihua.

They might not earn much, but it was still a source of income, and its strength lay in its stability!

At the same time, Jufan Holdings could use its corporate connections to help Sihua attract more clients.

At the end of August, the news of Chizhu Wine Industry's million-yuan bounty for anti-counterfeiting hit the trending searches.

There was no helping it; a "million-yuan" bounty was very eye-catching.

Coupled with the fact that Chizhu Wine Industry had recently been trending, had shareholders like Jiuxiang Food and Longjiu Group, had won major international awards, possessed luxury attributes, and now had the million-yuan bounty news, it quickly attracted the attention of many netizens!

"So, does anyone actually buy this red wine that costs 2888 a bottle?"

"Chizhu Wine Industry's mid-range wine is actually quite good; it has a very rich fruity aroma!"

"Isn't that obvious? If it didn't sell, why would those unscrupulous merchants counterfeit it?"

"A million-yuan bounty, this prize is so tempting!"

"I feel like if I got that million, I could just lie flat!"

"What can you do with a million? You can't even buy a house!"

"It would take me ten years to earn a million... wuwuwu!"

"These merchants who manufacture and sell fakes should be hit hard!"

"Where are the counterfeiters! I want to report them! Where are you guys? Come out quickly!"

"I need to keep this news in mind. I happen to deliver food every day, maybe one day I'll find one!"

"..."

In reality, no matter how much money it cost, Su Yang would have pushed this matter onto the trending searches!

After all, this matter involved the long-term development of chizhu.

He was definitely going all out on the anti-counterfeiting efforts!

He wanted more people to know that reporting this was profitable and welcomed everyone to provide leads to Chizhu Wine Industry!

"Xiao Liu, you wouldn't report me, would you?"

Inside a dark factory, the boss looked at the trending search on his phone and couldn't help but ask the employee next to him.

"Boss, how could that be?" Xiao Liu said with a smile while pouring barreled wine into bottles, "I've been with you for two years; don't you know my character?"

"We have made some money recently, how about this..." the boss thought for a moment and said, "I'll give you a one-thousand raise, increasing your salary from three thousand to four thousand!"

Xiao Liu looked grateful and said, "Thank you, boss!"

"The same goes for everyone else!"

"Thank you, boss!"

Listening to the thanks from the other two employees, this boss who sold fake wine still felt very uneasy!

Would these employees sell him out for that hundred-thousand or several-hundred-thousand bounty?

Surely not, right?

No way, right?

He suddenly felt a bit of regret!

He regretted not being gentler and more caring toward them in the past...

But just at this moment, his son ran in and whispered, "Dad, the bottle factory said they won't help us produce the special bottles for Chizhu Winery anymore!"

"What?"

His son said with some worry, "Uncle Zhang said to be careful. He can't guarantee his employees won't say anything; after all, the bounty is a large amount... What do you think we should do about this?"

Only two days after Chizhu Wine Industry's bounty was announced, two not-so-hidden, small-scale counterfeit manufacturing dens were reported, and both were reported by internal employees.

Chizhu Wine Industry and Jiuxiang Food also used their official channels to announce this matter and posted photos of the whistleblowers—with their faces blurred—receiving bonuses of two hundred thousand and three hundred thousand, respectively.

They also took the opportunity to highly praise the local authorities' anti-counterfeiting work!

At the same time, Jiuxiang Food brought in lawyers from Hongyu Law Firm and began to relentlessly pursue these people!

A sales amount of over fifty thousand yuan is enough for a prison sentence, and a fine of fifty percent to two hundred percent of the sales amount must also be imposed. Naturally, Chizhu Wine Industry wanted to recoup their money.

As for legal fees... the companies under Su Yang were not particularly afraid of lawsuits!

And Chizhu Wine Industry also took advantage of this wave of popularity to educate the public on the company's anti-counterfeiting measures for high-end wine, promoted several of its mass-market brands, and drew dozens of lucky netizens to give away red wine...

Just consider it advertising!