Chapter 43: Astronomical Barrier

Twenty thousand Hong Kong dollars, no interference with the creative process, and the only requirement is to naturally incorporate elements of Chen's Dessert into the film?

These terms were so favorable that Ng See-yut found them almost unbelievable, and even felt a vague sense of unease.

"Ah Keung," he whispered to the assistant behind him, "go and look up this Chen Bingwen and his Chen's Dessert shop.

As quickly as possible, and as detailed as possible."

"Understood, Mr. Ng." Assistant Ah Keung immediately acknowledged the order, turned around, and hurried out of the teahouse.

Ng See-yut picked up his teacup, his mind churning.

The film industry was deep water, and pies falling from the sky usually came with invisible hooks.

Was this young man simply a newborn calf not afraid of tigers, or was there some deeper meaning hidden behind it?

He had to find out.

On the other side, as soon as Chen Bingwen returned to the Kwun Tong factory, he was informed that Professor Zhou had asked him to visit the R&D center.

"Mr. Chen, the international manufacturers capable of producing aseptic filling equipment have sent in their quotes one after another... The faxes are back."

Professor Zhou's expression was not very good. As soon as he saw Chen Bingwen, he took out several thick faxed documents and handed them over.

Seeing this, Chen Bingwen had a bad premonition in his heart.

He took the documents, his gaze sweeping rapidly across the equipment performance and parameter description sections, and finally landing on the quotes.

Aseptic filling production line, including high-speed filling machine, aseptic processing unit, capping machine, labeling machine, and supporting control system. Quote: 1.2 million US dollars.

One million two hundred thousand US dollars!

Chen Bingwen cursed inwardly in his mind.

This was simply an exorbitant price.

In his past life, domestic aseptic filling production lines ranged in price from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands or millions, capable of meeting various production needs.

He had anticipated that importing advanced equipment would be expensive, but he had never expected it to be ridiculously expensive to this extent.

In 1978, the US dollar to Hong Kong dollar exchange rate operated on a floating system, at approximately 1:5.

This meant that the price of this set of aseptic filling equipment amounted to a staggering six million Hong Kong dollars!

Chen Bingwen calculated rapidly in his mind: Chen's Food's current net assets (including the Cheung Sha Wan and Kwun Tong factories and equipment), evaluated by Tak Shun, were approximately 1.83 million Hong Kong dollars;

Although the monthly net profit was around 300,000, it was necessary to maintain operations and pay R&D expenses.

Although the Thai Golden Elephant had already taken a controlling stake, it was still in its recovery phase and was mainly used for raw material supply, unable to provide massive cash support in the short term. Besides, there was still a four-million-dollar bridge loan to repay.

The two-plus million earned from speculating on Kowloon Wharf, minus the 1.16 million used to purchase Kam Doo Garden and the factories in Cheung Sha Wan and Kwun Tong, and another 300,000 repaid on the loan, left only 1.02 million.

Plus the 1.6-plus million in the Sweetheart Capital account.

He could currently scrape together at most 2.7 million.

Facing such a quote, Professor Zhou was equally helpless. "Mr. Chen, Germany's Krones is the world's top manufacturer. Their technology is mature and stable, making them the preferred choice for giants like Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

But the price... is indeed prohibitive."

He paused and pointed to another quote. "This one is from Italy's Sacmi. Its performance is slightly inferior to Krones, but it can also meet our basic needs.

However, compared to Krones, its stability and long-term maintenance costs might pose hidden risks. Its quote is... 800,000 US dollars."

"Sweden's Tetra Pak quotes 750,000 US dollars for its carton filling line, but their technological route differs from our envisioned glass bottles, and our current product form and brand positioning may not be very suitable for carton packaging."

Professor Zhou added, clearly also taking brand image issues into consideration.

Chen Bingwen listened to Professor Zhou's introduction, analyzing the pros and cons behind each option in his mind.

Krones?

Top-tier technology, but the price was astronomical.

Six million Hong Kong dollars!

This was almost all the cash he could currently mobilize plus his loan limit!

Go all in for the bottled dessert project?

The risk was too high; once market response fell short of expectations, Chen's would instantly plunge into the desperate abyss of a capital chain rupture.

Sacmi?

$800,000 US dollars, approximately 4 million Hong Kong dollars.

The price was still heavy, but quite a bit "friendlier" than Krones.

Performance could meet basic needs, but were "basic needs" enough?

Chen's goal was to build a stable bottled beverage brand. Spending four million Hong Kong dollars to buy a bare-bones version—what if the equipment's stability was insufficient, leading to frequent breakdowns, fluctuating product quality, or even safety issues? The blow to the brand would be devastating.

Tetra Pak?

Carton packaging... Chen Bingwen's mind conjured up the milk and juice cartons common in later generations.

The technology was mature and costs were relatively low, but the biggest problem was that it did not match the brand tone of Chen's Dessert!

Whether it was the freshly made desserts in the shop or future bottled beverages, one of the core selling points of Chen's Dessert was genuine ingredients and seeing is believing.

Transparent glass bottles allowed consumers to directly see the alluring red bean paste, sesame paste, or golden mango sago inside.

Swapping to opaque cartons would severely compromise that visual temptation and the comforting reassurance of seeing is believing.

"No." Chen Bingwen almost instinctively rejected the Tetra Pak option. "Carton packaging is not suitable for us.

What we want to make are bottled desserts that clearly display their contents, possess a transparent texture, and make people want to drink them at a single glance.

Glass bottles are the only choice."

Chen Bingwen looked at Professor Zhou. "Professor Zhou, besides these three, are there any other options?

What about Japanese manufacturers?

Or is it possible to purchase second-hand equipment?

Or perhaps we could import only the core aseptic processing unit and filling heads, while having other auxiliary equipment custom-made and assembled locally in Hong Kong?"

Professor Zhou pushed up his glasses and smiled bitterly. "Mr. Chen, the threshold for aseptic filling technology is extremely high. Globally, only a few giants can provide mature and reliable complete-line equipment.

Japanese manufacturers like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Toyo Seikan also have similar equipment, but the prices are not much cheaper than those in Europe and America, and delivery times may even be longer.

As for second-hand equipment..."

He sighed. "Aseptic filling lines have extremely stringent requirements for equipment condition, sealing, and control systems.

Second-hand equipment carries massive risks. Once you buy a refurbished machine or one with hidden flaws, subsequent maintenance costs and downtime losses will be a bottomless pit. It could even cause an entire batch of products to be scrapped due to equipment contamination. The risk is simply too high!

"As for importing only the core units—theoretically, this is feasible, but in practical operation, it requires exceptionally strong system integration capabilities and a high level of local precision machining support.

This means we would need to find suppliers capable of designing integrated solutions, precision-machining non-standard parts, and debugging complex systems.

However..."

Professor Zhou's voice lowered. "This is precisely the biggest weakness, or structural drawback, of Hong Kong's manufacturing industry at present."

He picked up the teacup on the table without drinking from it. "Mr. Chen, Hong Kong's manufacturing industry operates on a model of small factories, low costs, and OEM exports.

Thousands of small and medium-sized factories survive by taking on low-value-added orders from Europe, America, and Japan.

They excel at processing supplied samples and excel at cost control."

"This model," Professor Zhou emphasized, "created the superficial prosperity of Hong Kong's manufacturing industry, but it also deeply locked its upper limit.

It neither needs nor has the capacity to support high-end, cutting-edge R&D.

High-end fields like precision machining and CNC machine tools are practically a blank slate in Hong Kong."

Professor Zhou put down the teacup, looking exasperated. "This is why I say Hong Kong probably lacks such supporting capabilities right now.

This is not a disparagement; it is a fact.

Those engineers and veteran masters might be able to repair a sewing machine or optimize a toy assembly line, but asking them to understand and install an aseptic filling production line—

that goes far beyond the scope of their experience and technical reserves.

To forcefully cobble it together, finding a few small factories to each do a section, the inevitable result would be mismatched interfaces, substandard sealing... infinite hidden dangers. In the end, it might turn out even worse than buying a second-hand refurbished machine!"

The astronomical price of the aseptic filling production line instantly became the greatest obstacle standing in the path of Chen's bottled dessert dream!