The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 587 - 586 Theft

Chapter 587: Chapter 586 Theft

Pei Wenping did not join the food factory as an employee but as a partner.

When the food factory acquired the land from Fushun Cake Factory, Pei Wenping had invested ten thousand yuan, and Shen Mingzhu allocated 6.6% of the shares to her.

This time, when Pei Wenping joined the food factory, Shen Mingzhu did not offer her a salary but gave her a 2% share in the company.

Don’t underestimate these 2%. The profit of the food factory has increased several times compared to last year, and just from dividends, those 2% could yield five to six thousand a year. As long as the food factory develops smoothly, the earnings will increase annually.

Besides, the 2% share itself is also quite valuable.

Pei Wenping still continued in her old trade, taking on the role of financial manager.

With a new official comes the first measures, and Pei Wenping’s first step was to form her small team and perfect the financial management system of the food factory.

With the addition of Pei Wenping, the burden on Shen Mingzhu’s shoulders was instantly lightened significantly.

Apart from planning the next steps for the food factory’s development, she also focused more energy on product research and development and company management.

Shen Mingzhu did not blindly opt to develop new products but focused instead on improving the taste and quality of existing products, striving to make the products refined and strong.

The first step was to switch to packaging materials of a higher environmental standard.

For instance, spicy strips and dried tofu would have different packaging designs and colors depending on their flavors, choose trendy advertising phrases, and upgrade from ordinary to vacuum packaging.

The advantage of vacuum packaging is that it can preserve the food’s original taste and flavor to the greatest extent possible, effectively isolating oxygen, moisture, and odors and extending the product’s shelf life.

The downside is the high cost.

In addition to needing to purchase specialized equipment, vacuum packaging materials are also more expensive than regular ones.

If vacuum packaging were adopted, the profit from spicy strips and dried tofu would be cut by two-thirds.

Therefore, when Shen Mingzhu proposed upgrading to vacuum packaging at the meeting, she met resistance and opposition from the majority of the management.

Although Shen Mingzhu had absolute authority in the factory, if she couldn’t get her staff fully on board, it would definitely be detrimental to the execution and progress of work.

"We all know who the main consumer group is for our spicy strips and dried tofu," she said.

"Children are the future of the country, the hope of the nation, and the treasures in the palm of each parent."

"Of course, I hope to make more money, but I hope even more to produce a safer and healthier food, so that while the children enjoy eating, the parents can be reassured."

"I hope that one day in the future, on the shelves full of various snacks, our quality and sense of responsibility will make our products the first choice for both children and parents."

"We might have lower profits for now, but quality will make our products more competitive, and we can certainly balance profits by increasing sales volume."

Through a persuasive mix of emotion and reason, management that originally opposed the idea was convinced, and they agreed to the upgrade to vacuum packaging.

After reforming the packaging of the spicy strips and dried tofu, Shen Mingzhu’s next target was potato chips.

Currently, the production of potato chips, from washing and peeling to slicing, frying, and packaging, relies entirely on manual labor.

Not to mention the low production capacity, the output rate, and quality were also not high.

Shen Mingzhu planned to introduce the most advanced potato chip production line, including washing, cutting, blanching, frying, deoiling, seasoning, and packaging, all mechanized.

Although the cost of introducing a production line was high, once it was set up, production capacity would increase tenfold, labor costs would decrease by two-thirds, and wastage would also be greatly reduced.

In the long run, introducing the production line would be more advantageous than not.

As for Shen Mingzhu’s idea to introduce a potato chip production line, opinions varied among the group.

Some people thought it was a good thing, modernizing and mechanizing production was the trend, and their factory also needed to keep up with the times.

However, others were worried that if the advanced production line replaced the workers’ productivity, then a large number of workers might be laid off and become unemployed.

After Shen Mingzhu assured that no worker would be dismissed due to the introduction of the production line, this resolution also received everyone’s approval.

While Shen Mingzhu was vigorously carrying out internal reforms, Pei Wenping was also busy.

After a week of adaptation and team-building, she presented her second major contribution since joining.

She split the entire company’s operations, establishing subsidiary companies to operate independently, with separate accounts and taxation.

Under the current tax policy, private enterprises are taxed at a rate of 35%, but local governments have introduced various support policies to encourage entrepreneurship.

One of such support policies is: local private enterprises will receive a tax reduction based on the actual amount of tax paid.

In short, the lower the profit, the higher the tax reduction.

Splitting the operations and setting up subsidiary companies to operate and account independently meant dividing the profits, thereby achieving legitimate tax avoidance.

This measure alone saved the food factory at least half of its taxes.

Instead of pocketing the saved tax money, Shen Mingzhu decided to use this portion of funds to purchase health insurance and accident insurance for all factory workers.

After careful discussion and decision-making, Mingzhu Restaurant and Ronghua mooncake brands were separated from the food factory, forming their own subsidiary companies.

...

It has to be said, Shen Mingzhu was quite visionary.

The day before Pei Yang’s birthday, their home was burglarized.

It was a rare sunny day, after breakfast Pei Ziheng took Guoguo and Zhao Yun to the court to play ball.

Aunt Yu, because of rheumatism flare-up, had taken leave and did not go to work, while Cui Lianying was scheduled to work at eleven.

The thief took advantage of the one hour between ten and eleven when the house was empty to rob everything, including the contents of Shen Mingzhu’s bedroom safe.

Fortunately, Shen Mingzhu had previously complained that the home safe was too small, and had stored most of her gold jewelry and important documents in a bank safety deposit box.

This theft resulted in only the loss of a little more than three thousand in cash, along with some jewelry and watches.

Probably because it was daytime, the thief did not dare to be too ostentatious, only daring to take small and easily carried items.

Ironically, the thief was foolish for not taking the Hermès bag that she kept in the glass cabinet in her bedroom.

The thief could probably never dream that this bag was the most valuable item in the entire house.

This was also thanks to Shen Mingzhu’s caution; she had only mentioned that the bag was a gift from a friend without disclosing its actual price to her family.

More than the financial loss, Shen Mingzhu was concerned about the safety issue.

That evening, she discussed with Pei Yang the possibility of moving to a different house.

Although living in a detached house was quiet and comfortable, it also came with security risks.

Imagine, if the two children had been at home today and encountered the thief face to face, the consequences would be unthinkable.

This time, Shen Mingzhu was determined to buy a house in the south of the city.

South City was an affluent area where security, traffic, medical care, and education were all the best.

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