Chapter 453 - 207: Year-End Summary

Chapter 453: Chapter 207: Year-End Summary

Time passed without notice, and soon it was the end of 2026.

The various departments and business divisions of Hailufeng Company began their annual review work. The heads of the various branches located elsewhere also started arriving at headquarters one after another.

The Planting Division, Aquaculture Division, Feed Division, Sales Division, E-commerce Division, Brick-and-Mortar Division, Technology Division, Agricultural Cooperation Division, Biofuel Division, and Logistics Division.

Ten divisions in total.

Regardless of whether they were from an established division or a newly formed one, all the division heads were relatively relaxed, mainly because the company’s profits this year had been excellent.

Inside the headquarters conference room.

Jiang Miao listened to the heads of each division report on their performance for the year while looking over the relevant documents.

The first division to present its report was, naturally, Hailufeng Company’s very first division: the Aquaculture Division.

His brother-in-law, Zhang Xincheng, stepped up to the small lectern. Behind him was a projection screen modified from a large television. As he took the stage, the content of the Aquaculture Division’s annual report appeared on the screen.

"This year, our Aquaculture Division achieved 4.968 billion yuan in revenue from the eel fry industry. In the special Egyptian Fish farming industry, we produced 120,000 tons of various Egyptian Fish and their related fish products, generating 2.832 billion yuan in revenue. Our total revenue is 7.8 billion yuan."

"As for our expenditures this year, fixed costs were 732 million yuan. New investment costs amounted to 3.455 billion yuan, with new projects including multiple salmon farming bases, a large-scale integrated aquaculture base, and supporting photovoltaic projects. Our total expenditure was 4.187 billion yuan."

Zhang Xincheng pointed to the large screen and concluded, "Our Aquaculture Division achieved a gross profit of 3.613 billion yuan this year."

CLAP CLAP CLAP...

The executives from the other departments also applauded with broad smiles.

In fact, the eel fry breeding technology had seen further improvements this year. By regulating the entire life cycle of the female eels, Jiang Miao had managed to increase their egg production to natural breeding levels. A single female eel could now lay 7 to 12 million eggs, with a successful hatching rate of 95%.

This technological breakthrough meant that the cost of eel fry dropped once again. Producing 180 million eel fry per month now required only a few dozen female eels, reducing costs by over 99%.

Zhang Xincheng didn’t drag things out. As soon as he finished, he briskly stepped down.

The second division head to take the stage was Fang Yi, head of the Feed Division.

Seeing his department’s annual summary already on the screen, he immediately began, "Our division purchased a total of 670,000 tons of Egyptian Catfish this year. We produced 200,000 tons of special eel feed, generating 3.267 billion yuan in revenue from the feed and 268 million yuan from fish oil. Our total revenue is 3.535 billion yuan."

"In terms of expenditures, the largest portion was for purchasing Egyptian Catfish as raw material, which cost 1.675 billion yuan. All other expenses combined totaled 1.922 billion yuan."

"Our Feed Division achieved a gross profit of 1.613 billion yuan this year. That concludes my report. Thank you."

CLAP CLAP CLAP...

Everyone applauded once again.

Next up was the Planting Division’s report.

The manager of the Planting Division, Du Liheng, was the former deputy manager who had replaced Lü Weibin. He hurried onto the stage, a hint of nervousness on his face.

"Boss, and all my fellow colleagues, I am here on behalf of the Planting Division to report on this year’s business operations."

He took a deep breath and continued, "Our department’s revenue this year was mainly concentrated on Vanilla Strawberries. Starting from June, we produced an average of 100 tons of Vanilla Spice per month, for a total revenue of 2.275 billion yuan."

Priced as high as 3.5 million yuan per ton, the Vanilla Spice was highly sought after in the international market, as natural vanilla bean production in Madagascar had once again been reduced due to extreme weather.

Many domestic companies acted as middlemen, reselling the Vanilla Spice to foreign enterprises and making a hefty profit.

"In our traditional planting business, our strawberries, Ginseng Fruit, and Tomatoes generated a total revenue of 12.47 million yuan..."

In reality, the traditional planting industry wasn’t very profitable. However, starting in September of this year, the Planting Division began opening new cultivation sites in various regions, and its scale would soon increase.

"The White Truffle industry produced a total of 1,608 tons this year, generating 4.02 billion yuan in revenue. The Morchella industry brought in 630 million yuan. Freeze-dried fruits and vegetables accounted for 2.58 million yuan in revenue, local forage grass for 280 million yuan, and local honey and by-products for 77.58 million yuan."

The reason for terms like "local forage grass" and "local honey" was because the planting operations of other branches were not managed by the Planting Division but operated as independent systems.

"In total, our Planting Division generated 7.281 billion yuan in revenue this year."

Du Liheng then continued to the topic of expenditures. "Our division’s expenses mainly consist of land lease fees, labor, pesticides and fertilizers, greenhouse and equipment depreciation, and so on. This year, our total expenditure was 647 million yuan."

"The gross profit for our Planting Division this year is 6.634 billion yuan."

Looking at the revenue breakdown for the Planting Division, the core industries were still White Truffle, Vanilla Strawberry Powder, Morchella, and forage grass. The other industries were just small fry.

CLAP CLAP CLAP...

The heads of the divisions that had yet to turn a profit were green with envy over the Planting Division’s gross profit margin.

And this was without even factoring in the Gannan, Qiongzhou, and Monan branches. Otherwise, the Planting Division’s revenue would be even more massive.

The next person to take the stage was Zhang Chengdong, the acting manager of the Technology Division. He was speaking on behalf of Jiang Miao, as Jiang Miao himself was the manager of the Technology Division.

The Technology Division’s income was very simple: patent fees.

Among these, for the Egyptian Catfish Meal patent, various enterprises produced a total of 4.33 million tons of Egyptian Catfish Meal this year. At a patent fee of 800 yuan per ton, the division collected a total of 3.464 billion yuan.

Another patent fee was also related to Egyptian Catfish, but this one was for producing a special feed that allowed the catfish to tolerate high-salinity water, thus preventing large-scale production losses due to drought.

Although the patent fee for this salt-tolerant feed was only 500 yuan per ton, various feed companies produced a total of 6.47 million tons of it this year, resulting in 3.235 billion yuan in patent fees for the Technology Division.

Lastly, Guotai Food Factory paid the Technology Division 1.374 billion yuan in patent fees for purchasing special Egyptian Catfish as raw material.

The total patent fee income came to 8.073 billion yuan.

This placed the Technology Division at the top of this year’s revenue rankings.

In terms of expenditures, the Technology Division invested in many projects this year, including the expansion of the main research base, the Qiongzhou tropical crop research base, the Chongming Island research project, the Gannan dairy cow breeding base, the Ji Dong research base, and the Monan research base. Including personnel costs for researchers and the cost of various research consumables, total expenditures amounted to 3.125 billion yuan.

Therefore, the Technology Division’s gross profit for the year was 4.948 billion yuan, second only to the Planting Division.

But this was unavoidable. The Technology Division had to continuously invest funds into research projects and experiments.

The next division to present was the Brick-and-Mortar Division, known as the "money pit." Jiang Xia had no choice but to brace herself and go up.

The Brick-and-Mortar Division had suffered heavy losses this year, primarily an "investment loss" caused by massive expenditures on purchasing property.

It had burned through 4.1 billion yuan this year by purchasing a large number of commercial properties, residential units, and self-built properties in places like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Gan Province, and other Coastal Cities and Cities Along the Line, on top of store renovations. This amount was roughly equivalent to the entire gross profit of the Aquaculture Division.

However, this kind of investment was worthwhile.

It effectively reduced future operating costs, preventing them from being constantly gouged by landlords and sub-landlords, and also minimized losses from renovation costs associated with relocating stores.

Why do so many brick-and-mortar stores fail to get off the ground, or go under quickly even if they do?

It’s because some landlords and sub-landlords are bleeding them dry. The moment they see a store doing well, they relentlessly raise the rent or even push out the operator to take over the business themselves.

For a decent storefront, renovation costs alone can be hundreds of thousands, or even over a million yuan.

If you only rent for two or three years, you can’t even recoup the costs. As a result, many operators have no choice but to grit their teeth and endure the landlord’s extortionate rent hikes.

However, the Brick-and-Mortar Division’s revenue this year wasn’t as low as one might think.

Among them, the first batch of specialty stores in the Pearl River Delta, which opened in September, had a daily turnover of around 5,000 to 15,000 yuan per store, with an average of 11,938 yuan per store per day. The gross profit margin was about 30%.

The 50 specialty stores in the Pearl River Delta Region, having operated for about three and a half months, generated a total of 62.67 million yuan in revenue.

The 100 specialty stores in the Yangtze River Delta Region had a daily revenue of 10,743 yuan per store.

The 50 specialty stores in the Capital Region (including Jin City and other areas) had a daily revenue of 7,736 yuan per store.

The specialty stores in the Gan Province region had a daily revenue of 4,397 yuan per store.

Specialty stores in other regions averaged 6,842 yuan per store per day.

Currently, a total of 346 specialty stores have opened, with a cumulative revenue of 172 million yuan.

Judging from the current situation, the sales data was decent. If one-third of the 30% gross profit was allocated to offset the property investment costs, it would take about 44 years to recoup the principal investment.

If the entire 30% profit was used to offset the property investment costs, it would take about 15 years to recover the full investment in the properties (including the initial renovation costs).

Since the properties themselves held intrinsic value, this type of investment was essentially a sure win. After all, these stores were all located in cities. Even if circumstances changed in the future, they could quickly raise a large sum of money by selling off these fixed assets.

Therefore, Jiang Miao didn’t consider investing in property a losing proposition. He planned to have the Brick-and-Mortar Division continue purchasing properties in first- and second-tier cities next year.

Jiang Xia reported the Brick-and-Mortar Division’s operating results. After deducting revenue, the total loss was around 3.9 billion yuan.

Next was the E-commerce Division. Although this division ran many promotions and offered frequent discounts, its profitability was surprisingly decent, with a total profit of 47.28 million yuan.

In reality, the E-commerce Division was the real revenue leader, as it handled the products of other divisions. However, the vast majority of the profit from these products went to the production divisions, not the sales divisions. The sales divisions’ profit only accounted for about 5% to 10% of the total product profit.

Whether it was the Brick-and-Mortar Division, the E-commerce Division, or the Sales Division, their profits as sales departments were relatively low. The core profits were allocated to the production divisions. This was the distribution model the company had established from the very beginning.

Jiang Miao listened in silence for a long time.

The company’s various divisions had generated a total revenue of 27.3 billion yuan this year. After deducting all expenses, the combined gross profit was 13.1 billion yuan.

And this didn’t even include the revenue from Hailufeng Real Estate, Hero Dairy, United Mining Company, or Xinkangle Medicine.