"President Liu, I’m aware of the situation. Find Huang Guangyuan and tell him I sent you. I’ll call him if there are any issues."
Chen Xiao hung up the phone.
Liu Haoran had called to tell him that the acquisition of Sa Mo was now confirmed. Of course, Chen Xiao already knew this; Zhang Shijie had reported it to him the moment it happened.
This was to be expected. How could Sa Mo’s founding team refuse the temptation of a collaboration with Chanel?
What Liu Haoran was reporting was that after Sa Mo’s acquisition, the Yinuo Jiangzhou Branch, as the vanguard of this offensive, should naturally act as the spearhead.
The move to direct brand operation would certainly be rolled out in Hanjiang Province first.
As a preemptive measure, Liu Haoran believed that once Sa Mo pulled out of Ganglong International, there would be a problem. Even if Huang Guangyuan agreed to let them back in, they would have to wait until the contracts of the mall’s other brands expired. The mall couldn’t just kick other tenants out before their leases were up.
Before, they were just poaching a Four Seasons Clothing store, so whether Sa Mo lived or died was none of their concern. But now that it was being brought under direct operation, they had to start thinking about its future.
Chen Xiao agreed with him, but while Sa Mo could be saved, it couldn’t be done under the current circumstances.
As of now, the brand license for Sa Mo was still held by Four Seasons Clothing. If the store were to be withdrawn, Sa Mo would have the right to terminate the license for that location. Then, they could bring in another agent or operate it directly as a company.
If the current store wasn’t pulled, the license would remain with Four Seasons Clothing. Saving the store would be the same as saving it for Four Seasons Clothing!
Given the circumstances, Liu Haoran proposed that they had to let the Sa Mo brand pull out first. After the withdrawal, the company could terminate Four Seasons Clothing’s license for the Ganglong International location.
At the same time, they needed to negotiate with Ganglong International in advance to reserve a spot. As for which one, Liu Haoran already had a location in mind: the spot currently occupied by Ledi.
Ledi was another high-end brand represented by Four Seasons Clothing. In total, they operated three of their brands in Ganglong International.
Of course, Chen Xiao supported this idea. It was like killing a thousand enemies and then wounding another eight hundred for good measure.
He was already wondering if he could use the same trick to take over the Ledi license and then poach the location of Xia Bin’s last high-end brand, Erte.
’Sigh, am I being too petty? Taking revenge without even waiting for the sun to set... not even for a night!’
In his office, Peng Yu chain-smoked one cigarette after another.
He’d heard that Xu Jun, the general manager of Jiangzhou Wansheng Square, had already spent the last couple of days arranging for mass production of new promotional materials and preparing for the mall’s rebranding.
He’d even begun meeting with the current staff one-on-one. Decisions on who would stay and who would go had, for the most part, already been made.
It looked like after the interviews, Junxiao Capital had chosen Xu Jun after all.
He slammed his hand on the table in fury. ’What a complete and utter humiliation! To lose the position to my own subordinate!’
’It’s all because Junxiao Capital has no eye for talent. A company that knows nothing about commercial real estate buying Jiangzhou Wansheng... Just watch, I’ll see how they run such a great mall into the ground!’
This was a classic case of the "if I can’t have it, I’ll destroy it" mentality.
Now that he knew he had no shot at the General Manager position for the new Junxiao Square, he was practically hoping the mall would fail.
Things were very complicated now. The anchor brands in the other malls under his purview that wanted to pull out were already being extremely difficult, insisting on leaving no matter what.
The news that Jiangzhou Wansheng Square had been acquired and was being renamed Junxiao Square had already spread throughout the industry.
Without this flagship location, the influence of the Wansheng Group Hanjiang Region had plummeted.
He, the regional director, had gone from being the center of attention to being mired in endless problems.
In a short time, he had already received several calls from the general managers of the other malls. They couldn’t hold out any longer. A few of the anchor brands had stopped restocking their shelves entirely. They threatened that if the malls didn’t let them withdraw, they would simply shut down their stores by force, even if it meant paying the penalty for breaking their contracts.
But doing so would completely sour the relationship. Would these malls ever be able to get those brands to return in the future?
Peng Yu was out of options. At a time like this, he had to be tough. He couldn’t bear all the pressure himself; he had to pass it down the line.
"All malls are forbidden from having vacant shops! No late rent payments! Otherwise, year-end bonuses will be canceled, and in serious cases, you’ll be reassigned!"
If he failed to meet the collection quotas, the pressure on him would be even greater. The Wansheng Group wouldn’t listen to excuses.
It was just as his backer, Group CEO Wang Jun, always said: "The Group hired you to solve problems, not to listen to you explain them!"
The phone rang again. He picked it up and glanced at the screen. It was Xia Bin.
He ignored the call. ’He’s probably just calling to cause more trouble,’ he thought. He had promised Xia Bin the Yi Rui store in Jiangzhou Wansheng Square for his Sa Mo brand.
It looked like he wouldn’t be able to deliver on that promise now. The lease for Yi Rui was up in two months, and the decision to renew it was no longer under his control.
Even though Xu Jun was his old subordinate, he wouldn’t necessarily do him any favors in this situation.
That’s why he didn’t want to get involved.
The phone rang again. Xia Bin was clearly persistent. Peng Yu picked it up and answered.
"President Xia!"
"President Peng, I heard Jiangzhou Wansheng Square was acquired and is being renamed to Junxiao Square?"
Xia Bin sounded extremely anxious. He had already lost his Sa Mo store at Ganglong International and was being given a hard time by Jack. If the promised Jiangzhou Wansheng Store also fell through, he would have no way to answer to the Sa Mo brand company.
At that point, they would just find another agent to open stores in Ganglong International and Jiangzhou Wansheng Square, and he would be finished. He would essentially be forced to hand over the brand’s agency rights.
Peng Yu’s voice was a bit hoarse. "That’s right. It’s all happening in the next few days. They’ve already started the handover."
"Then what am I supposed to do about my Sa Mo store? I’ve already had the blueprints drawn up and made promises to the brand company! I even ordered an extra ten million worth of products at retail value for this location!"
Peng Yu was silent for a long moment, unsure of how to reply. He didn’t understand how things had suddenly gotten so out of hand either.
And Xia Bin... he used to be so confident and successful. How had he recently become such a magnet for bad luck? His Ganglong International store was gone, the Jiangzhou Wansheng Square store was a bust, he had nothing to tell the brand company, and this could even jeopardize their future partnership. The losses were staggering.
Misery loves company. They were two fallen souls adrift in the world; it didn’t matter if they’d been strangers before this.
’Could bad luck be contagious?’
It seemed Xia Bin’s string of misfortune had started right after he got involved with him. In some ways, Xia Bin was probably in an even worse state.
"President Peng, say something! I can’t face the brand company like this! And how am I supposed to move all this year’s inventory? You have to help me!"
"President Peng, Xu Jun is your old subordinate. He’ll definitely listen to you! Please, just talk to him for me. I heard he’s still the general manager of the mall, so he can make the final call!"
"President Xia, I can give you President Xu’s contact information. Other than that, I really can’t help you."