After learning the cause and effect, Ferdinand immediately took action.
Although he looked down on those flour Capitalists, he still extended some goodwill, and Volvo added several more brands of flour.
At the same time, he also decided to teach Koteff Department Store a lesson and, by the way, establish his status in the industry.
Ferdinand conducted an in-depth investigation and discovered that although Koteff Department Store was a giant in the Austria-Hungary department store industry, its financial situation was not very good.
It still used traditional operating models and family-style management, which were increasingly failing to keep up with the times.
The current head is Robert Held, an Austrian less than 30 years old.
Robert has great ambitions, is dissatisfied with the traditional operating model of Koteff Department Store, is determined to forge ahead, and has a very tense relationship with the corporate management.
However, because it is a family business, most of the senior management of Koteff Department Store are relatives, including his two uncles and a younger brother, and they hold a large portion of the shares.
This entry into the supermarket sector was pushed by Robert alone in order to break free from the constraints of the management.
Of course, Ferdinand was not sure what role those flour Capitalists played in it.
After figuring out the opponent’s situation, Ferdinand handed this task over to Franz.
To be honest, Ferdinand did not think much of Robert; although he had good abilities, he was obviously grandiose.
Given the current situation of Koteff Department Store, it should not blindly open new projects and disperse limited energy; the most important thing is institutional reform.
Even if it wanted to enter, it should not have chosen this time to enter the market, and even if it entered now, it should not have chosen Vienna.
Now is the time when the retail industry in Vienna is most competitive, which will consume the limited ammunition of Koteff Department Store.
Robert not only entered the market now, but also focused on Vienna, opening ten supermarkets at once with great momentum.
Among them, two were reorganized from department stores, and their size and luxurious decoration could be called the best in Vienna.
Volvo has reached the present, and it is time to harvest.
With the massive entry of Koteff Department Store supermarkets into the market, the smell of gunpowder became stronger and stronger, and the first to be unable to bear it were actually the large supermarkets.
Their operating costs are high, and large customer traffic is usually a good thing; customers mean profit, but now the more they sell, the more they lose.
Retailers with weak economic strength were the first to exit.
On May 18, 1884, Qatar Department Store declared bankruptcy as it could not bear the long-term losses, sounding the horn of death.
In the following week, another department store named Philip declared bankruptcy.
Then it got out of control, and after that, supermarkets closed every few days.
By this time, no one in Vienna could stay out of it; all supermarkets had entered a state of negative profit, it was just a matter of how much they lost.
Volvo was no exception.
Even with its massive network to lower costs, its stores in Vienna had now entered a state of loss.
The five stores in Vienna had an average monthly loss of up to 300 pounds each, which, compared to peers, was considered a small loss.
Koteff Department Store supermarkets, which had just entered the market, were in big trouble; big moves meant big losses.
In addition, Koteff continued its grand style from when it was a department store; the stores were luxuriously decorated, the layout was unreasonable, wasting a lot of space, and increasing operating costs, which was now unbearable to look at.
Ferdinand admitted that Robert indeed had talent; the luxurious decoration attracted a large amount of customer traffic, including a large group of middle-class people, who could be called high-quality customers, and business was booming.
Unfortunately, it is 1884, not the 21st century; the number of middle-class people in Vienna is limited and cannot support a large department supermarket.
In order to seize the market, Koteff also had to follow suit and lower prices, or rather, it had been discounting since the day it opened, losing more money day by day, with no end in sight.
Franz was no pushover.
He first mobilized employees under the Shuanghui Food Group to go shopping at Koteff Department Store supermarkets.
Thousands of people swarmed out, instantly bringing super high popularity to Koteff.
Even the products purchased were predetermined, and then secretly transported to other cities in Vienna, sold through Volvo stores to earn the price difference, which for a time even yielded slight profits, making up for the losses of the Vienna stores.
Robert was in a very bad mood now; after one week, the vase in his office had been replaced three times. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Originally, he saw that the prospects for department supermarkets were good, and with the support of the Hungarian flour Capitalists, he rushed into the market, and then started the road of loss.
Losses were losses; anyway, Robert was mentally prepared in advance, considering it as gaining popularity in the early stage, but he didn’t expect the business to be so good, and then the losses to be so large.
The ten Koteff stores in Vienna, the one with the least loss last month, lost more than 800 pounds, and the largest flagship store set a record loss of 3,000 pounds.
It was just that Koteff had a large family business; if it were an ordinary person, they would have long been unable to bear it and exited the price war.
Now the goods in the department supermarkets are all discounted by 5% directly from the factory price.
This was started by Volvo first, and then capable merchants followed suit.
If operating costs are added, the loss amount basically reaches about 10% of sales.
Now, the more they sell, the more they lose.
Koteff Department Store supermarkets can now proudly announce that they are the giant of department supermarkets in Vienna, with the number one market share, far leaving behind the second-ranked Volvo.
Because of this, the atmosphere at Koteff Department Store is very wrong now.
Even though he holds more than half of the shares, Robert’s life is not easy; last month, the Koteff Department Store supermarkets lost as much as 15,000 pounds, and there are signs of an increase this month.
Even if the department store side is still profitable, it cannot fill this bottomless pit.
At this point, it is no longer possible to quit just because one wants to; back and forth, Koteff has already invested 80,000 pounds in this department supermarket project.
Robert decided to show his cards to the shareholders; anyway, things were like this, and he just broke the jar and smashed it.
Either give up the 80,000 pounds invested in the early stage, lose everything, and Koteff Department Store will be severely injured; or continue to invest, first squeeze out a group of competitors, then the market will return to normal, and earn back the lost money.
In the conference room of Koteff Department Store, the atmosphere was very dull; the more than ten people attending were smoking, and soon it was filled with smoke.
“Alright, everyone is here, so today’s meeting begins.”
Robert had lost his usual demeanor.