Gideon, feeling frustrated, cursed, “In you young people's words, this year's Pu'er tea market is damn chaotic!”
Gideon paused for a moment before he continued, “Damn it! Not only are the major traditional tea companies desperately lowering prices to undercut the market, but those emerging brands are also using marketing and pricing tactics to continuously attack the market space of our traditional tea companies. You say your tea is good, they say that the price of the same tea next door is half our price. You ask them to taste both teas, they say there's no difference in the taste. How can we deal with them?!”
Wind was also extremely frustrated as he said, “More and more people are drinking tea now, but there aren't many who truly understand tea. They're all just following trends. They won’t be able to tell the difference between tea that costs a hundred dollars per kilogram or ten thousand dollars per kilogram.”
Gideon nodded in agreement and sighed as he said, “What's worse is that even the bottled beverage industry is aggressively entering the tea market now. In the past, everyone mainly focused on Oolong tea and green tea, which didn't affect us much, but now, they've set their sights on Pu'er tea as well. Pu'er tea is troublesome to brew, so they simply pre-brew it and bottle it. Consumers can twist open the bottle and drink, even getting it chilled. Our consumers can only brew tea with boiling water, and if the tea sits for too long and the temperature drops, the taste changes.”
“However, the bottled ones come straight from the production line with very strict quality control, so no matter where or how you drink it, it tastes the same. How can we compete with that?”
Wind sighed. He felt dejected.
He said, “Dad, to be honest, I've long felt that our industry isn’t easy to work in, and the competition is too fierce. You said we've been developing in Yorkshire Hill and our resources and connections are only here, but this area isn't industrially developed, and transportation isn't convenient. Even if we switch to making tea-based beverages here, we still can't outdo others. Godmother Chili next door is the best example. Before e-commerce took off, they were number one in producing chili sauces, but after e-commerce, they were quickly left behind…”
At this point, Wind finally gathered the courage to say to Gideon, “Dad, in my opinion, perhaps we should find a suitable buyer and sell the company. You've worked hard for most of your life. It's time for you to retire and enjoy life.”
Gideon chuckled and asked him, “Find a buyer? Do you think buyers are that easy to find? If you don't believe in this industry, why would others? Our group is in the most awkward position now. Even bigger groups are cutting expenses, so they won't spend money to acquire us. Those smaller emerging brands play the fast money-making game. They want to profit from their investments immediately, so they won't spend money to buy such a burden like us. Even if we offer OEM services, they look down on us. Why? Because our tea production costs are high! If the law doesn't intervene, they'd sell rotten leaves as tea. How could they possibly use our products?”


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