15.3.06

不如賭博

昨天談過利錢豐厚的獨市生意港交所(388),今天講利錢淡薄的打崩頭生意。

  利亞(8052)經營的Circle K,做二十億生意,利錢只有七千幾萬,三厘幾回報,任何一時大意,可以即時將所有心血抹掉,是刀鋒邊上舔血的小生意。

  二百七十間小生意加起來,就可以變成二十億生意的大公司;二百三十間香港、四十間廣州。香港平均每間每小時做千零港紙生意。想起一串魚蛋、一份報紙幾錢,可想而知,利亞的夥計是收錢收到手軟。

  利錢薄得淒涼,租金當然是罪魁禍首。利亞說租金已於去年第四季見頂,你信不信?租金持續上升,三厘幾的回報,仍然凍過水。

   便利店生意,只有一樣東西可以鬥:鬥近。便利店無品牌可言,間間買報紙買汽水都一樣,邊間近買邊間。我住的地方,有三間七仔,但Circle K一間都冇,是特許經營跟自營的分別。要睇緊旗下二百幾間舖,還要留意哪處有空間再開新舖,自然辛苦得多。先進的POS只可以知道邊間好賺邊種貨好賣,但 每一間究竟有什麽頭暈身㷫,是數字以外的事情。

  這盤只有靠scale才可以有增長的生意,有多大前途?不要忘記利亞背後的老細是利豐(494)。飽讀西方經營之道兼夾有腦之人,不可以小覷將現代士多做成利錢豐厚生意之能力。要了解利亞由冇到有的歷史,可以參考那本「白雪雪」的新書。

  一連幾日,看過銀行、看過電訊公司、看過獨市的交易所,加上現代化士多,到底有什麽啟示?生意愈來愈難做,任你是富豪商人、跨國企業、哈佛博士,現在是講求規模的微利世界。有閒錢的話,不要花腦筋考究有什麽生意可以搞,應該打開報紙,睇睇有什麽股票可以炒。

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Fong,
You seemed to be alarmed by a profit of 70M for 2 billions of business.
It is always my humble opinion that those so call high-flyers in the investment banking sector is in fact not that high. They may be flying high but they could not see very far let alone clearly. If you care to open the books of the construction industry you will find China State Construction Engineering Corporation, probably the leading contractor in Hong Kong, barely made 80M of profit in his 8 billions of turnover last year. I can assure you he is not alone. Futhermore, if you dare to look into his pile of construction contract documents, as a participant of the financial sector, you would feel deep down how lucky you were and how much you have been over-paid in the past years. Perhaps, it's about time you should start scratching your head, instead of your toes, to make your cliens' fee worthwhile.