Chapter 354: Invitation From the Nobles

Shu Yu knew that Gu Zheng was a good cook. He knew it from when he was studying.

Later, Gu Zheng made omelettes, and she had eaten Gu Zheng's omelettes and knew the taste. Later, Gu Zheng participated in the Hangzhou Food Competition, and Gu Zheng won the championship.

At that time, in her opinion, Gu Zheng's cooking skills were very good and definitely reached the master level, but it was just that. She never expected that Gu Zheng would later win the championship in the National Food Competition.

And it is said that he is the most powerful champion and the champion with the highest gold content.

The first place in the country has a completely different meaning from the previous first place in the Hangzhou Competition. Moreover, the National Food Competition is the most recognized competition in the country. Gu Gu's competition for the first place is equivalent to making him the most famous person in the food world.

"I haven't hidden it. Haven't I always shown off my cooking skills before?"

Gu Zheng said with a smile, and Shu Yu was slightly startled. Gu Zheng was right. He had indeed not concealed his cooking skills and had even cooked for them before.

They didn't expect that Gu Zheng had such good cooking skills.

"How's your business going?"

Gu Zheng changed the subject. He had shown off his cooking skills before, but at that time he had not received the inheritance from Tiexian. Compared with his current cooking skills, there was a huge difference. Shu Yu would not know this, let alone will come to mind.

"I have opened 150 direct-operated stores in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Sioux City, 70% of which are profitable, 20% of which are flat, and only 10% of which are at a loss, but all of them are profitable. It’s a new store and it hasn’t become famous yet. I believe it will be profitable soon!”

When talking about his business, Shu Yu became more interested. This time it was Gu Zheng's turn to be surprised. Shu Yu's store had only been open for more than a year. He didn't expect that it had already opened so many stores. The most important ones were It is a directly operated store.

A direct-operated store requires your own investment to open it, while a chain franchise allows you to collect money from others and let others open it in your own name. The meaning is completely different. Direct-operated stores require your own investment, while franchising means making money.

In more than a year, one hundred and fifty direct-operated stores were opened. Although the investment for such a small store is not large, it still costs at least two to three hundred thousand. If the store is larger, it will be even higher. This is equivalent to more than a year. , Shu Yu has invested tens of millions.

Although Gu Zheng also made a lot of money, he was really different from Shu Yu. First, he got the old soup from the Sun family and made a better-tasting chicken blood soup. Later, he found several of the most delicious ones. food.

Secondly, he also has the Chang family as a partner, which allows him to have no worries. Shu Yu makes small fast food, very cheap wontons. Lin Run is not as expensive as his chicken blood soup, and it is a small shop. , it is really not easy to open so many directly operated stores under such circumstances.

Another point is that Shu Yu definitely did not rely on her parents. Gu Zheng knew this very well. If she had to rely on her parents, she would not have opened such a small shop by herself.

Shu Yu was definitely the first among their classmates to be able to do this by himself.

As for him, although he earned more than Shu Yu, he didn't rely on himself. He had the cheating device of the Tiexian Ling and the Chang family partners, and he finally earned so much. The two of them were different in nature.

"That's great, congratulations!"

Gu Zheng extended his thumb. His old classmate started his own career. He was also very happy, happy for Shu Yu.

"But I still can't compare with you. Guji Chicken Blood Soup has become a benchmark in the fast food industry, a benchmark that cannot be copied!"

Shu Yu was right this time. Many people want to make money like Guji Chicken Blood Soup. Unfortunately, they don't have the taste of Guji. Without that taste, they won't be able to attract customers.

The existence of Gu Ji once again proves the principle of winning by taste. Real food must be the best tasting.

"Let's go inside and talk!"

Gu Zheng pointed to the coffee shop next to them. They had been talking on the road, and many people had turned to look at them. This was indeed not the place to talk.

"good!"

Shu Yu readily agreed. In the coffee house, Gu Zheng also learned about Shu Yu's entrepreneurial journey over the past year.

Her current development is indeed good, but it is also very difficult. Shortly after Gu Zheng left, she began to prepare for a branch. Opening a branch requires money. She didn't have much money on hand, so she was thinking about financing.

She only had a small store, and it was not easy to get financing. Many people were unwilling to invest in her. Finally, a venture capital firm took a fancy to her business, but it only invested 500,000 yuan.

With half a million, he could only open two stores at most, which was not at all what Shu Yu expected.

However, it is better to be able to open two than not to be able to open two. Relying on these 500,000 yuan and these three stores, the reputation of the three stores is very good, and the benefits are generated quickly, which makes the venture capital very satisfied. An additional investment of five million was made.

Relying on these 5 million, and later borrowing money from the bank, Shu Yu completely developed her Yushan Wonton business to the size of 150 stores today. Because she grew so fast, she still has negative equity. I owe a lot of money to the bank.

However, the overall profitability of all her stores is very good. Catering is a profitable business. 70% of her stores are now profitable, and more than 50% of them can fully recover their costs within a year. The rest are based on the current development, the investment will be repaid within two years at the latest.

Of the 30% that are unprofitable, most of them are newly opened and have not yet reached profitability. Only three of them have been in a state of loss due to wrong location selection. However, the losses are not much, and Shu Yu can fully sustain it.

Because the venture capital invested earlier, after several capital increases, the venture capital still holds 30% of the shares, so Shu Yu only has 70% of the shares, and the company is no longer hers alone.

The venture capital wanted to continue to invest and increase its shareholding, but was rejected by Shu Yu. Now that it has expanded, it cannot eat fat in one go. It must first digest all the current ones, live steadily, and then expand later.

"Why don't you do chain franchising, so that you can be much more relaxed and make more money!"

Gu Zheng asked casually. Direct operation requires investment, while chain franchising not only does not require money, but also can charge franchise fees, and then provide sources of goods to make a profit. No matter how you look at it, the franchise model is more cost-effective.

Shu Yu shook her head: "Many people want to join, but I refused. I don't plan to adopt the franchise model in the future. I will sell all directly. Franchise is more profitable, but bad birds are easy to appear in a big forest. One or two franchise stores can destroy my brand. The most valuable thing now is the brand, which must be protected!"

"In addition, the really good and top companies do not adopt the franchise model. They are all directly operated by themselves, which is easier to control!"

Shu Yu considered the franchise model at first, but she was not famous at that time and no one was willing to join. Now that she has a reputation, she feels the benefits of direct operation and no longer considers the franchise.

It is better to develop slowly and maintain your own brand. Gu Zheng agrees with this. Many people want to join his Gu Ji Chicken Blood Soup, but he has never agreed.

It is a happy thing to meet old friends in a foreign land, not to mention meeting old classmates in a foreign country.

Gu Zheng and Shu Yu had dinner together before leaving. They agreed to go to the food festival together. Gu Zheng is a special guest of the food festival and will cook food at that time. Shu Yu also said that she must go to taste it.

When he got home, Gu Ming hadn't finished get off work yet, so Gu Zheng simply took out the ingredients from the prehistoric space and prepared to make a more delicious dinner.

He cooked the meal yesterday, but all the ingredients here were used. The ingredients Gu Ming used were not bad, but they were just above the low-grade, and there were not many inferior ones, and there were no ordinary ones at all.

The ingredients Gu Zheng took out were all above the ordinary, and the taste and flavor would be better.

When Gu Ming came back, Gu Zheng had just finished. Gu Zheng made four dishes, and Gu Ming ate them all. This meal finally made Gu Ming understand why those people said that Gu Zheng's first place this time was the most valuable.

The food made by changing the ingredients was really extraordinary.

He could never make such a delicacy himself. Gu Ming praised Gu Zheng very much, which made Gu Zheng very proud. Unfortunately, it was not good to be too proud. After praising, Gu Ming changed the subject and asked Gu Zheng to provide him with a portion of these better ingredients.

Fortunately, Gu Ming didn't ask for much. If he asked for more, Gu Zheng would have no choice. These good ingredients were all saved by Gu Zheng with great effort, and he didn't have much himself.

Fortunately, Gu Ming wanted common ingredients, some of which were ingredients that Gu Zheng could improve, and he could provide a lot of such ingredients.

Even if Gu Ming didn't want them, Gu Zheng would leave some for him. After all, this was his father, the person closest to him at present.

At the same time, in a small town in the UK, the leader of the five Indians was kneeling on the ground, looking at a mirror in front of him.

A vortex appeared in the mirror, and the leading Indian didn't dare to raise his head in the face of this vortex.

"Can he really absorb your power?"

A dull voice came from the mirror, and the leading Indian nodded hurriedly: "Yes, Master, Titak's power was once absorbed by him, but then he returned it!"

Titak was the unlucky guy whose power was absorbed by Gu Zheng before.

"He also said that he came from Emei, let us tell you!"

The leading Indian continued to kneel and spoke softly, and the vortex in the mirror kept shaking, but no sound came out.

"The plan is cancelled, you guys should come back first!"

After a long time, the voice in the mirror said something, and the leading Indian immediately kowtowed and left the room. After he left, a sigh came faintly from the mirror.

"Emei, I haven't been back for a long time!"

The next day, Gu Zheng got up early in the morning. The Lyon Food Festival held its opening ceremony today. As a special guest, he was going to attend today. The distance from Paris to Lyon is not close, and the high-speed rail takes more than an hour, so he needs to leave early.

Chang Le once said that he would pick him up with a private plane, but was rejected by Gu Zheng. He just came to participate in an event and didn't want to be so high-profile.

When he arrived in Lyon, Gu Zheng realized that he had thought wrong before. Even if Chang Le sent him with a private plane, he would not be high-profile. There are too many private planes here.

The Lyon Food Festival has become a place for European nobles to play a few years ago. Now it has become more serious. Not only European nobles, but also nobles and rich people from many other places have begun to participate.

The most typical example is the Arabs and the UAE. Several princes attended the food festival. They not only had private jets, but also brought their pets. Some brought eagles, some brought pythons, and some brought leopards and lions.

However, these pets were required to be locked in cages and were absolutely not allowed to be released. There were also police watching them.

Even so, they were very high-profile. One prince had to walk on the carpet as soon as he got off the car. The places he walked on had to be covered with carpets. He would never walk on the carpets he had walked on once, and they had to be high-end carpets.

In this way, he would walk thousands of meters of carpets a day.

Middle Eastern nobles have many tricks, and these ancient European nobles also have many tricks. Some people use cars to pull a house directly here. This is a real RV. There are also people who come with a cavalry of 200 people, but his army is dressed as medieval knights, not a modern army.

Modern army, even if they are nobles, can't be brought out so swaggeringly.

In short, there are all kinds of things here, only what you can't think of, nothing you can't see, which makes Gu Zheng sigh that it is an eye-opener. He never thought that people can play so many tricks.

"Hello, Mr. Gu, my name is Hao Sen, and I also have a French name La Langpu. This time I will serve you all the way!"

After Gu Zheng arrived at the food festival venue, someone came to pick him up soon. The one who came to pick him up was an oriental face, but he had already joined French nationality and was a French Chinese.

"Hello!"

Gu Zheng stretched out his hand and shook it with him politely. Hao Sen was about 25 or 26 years old, not tall, just over 1.7 meters, but he looked very energetic.

Gu Zheng had a good impression of him for a very simple reason. When he introduced himself, he first introduced his Chinese name. Regardless of whether it was because Gu Zheng was from China, Gu Zheng was very satisfied that he could introduce himself in this way.

This was different from the young man he met before, who was a scum who forgot his ancestors.

"On behalf of Sir Brown, thank you for coming to this event!"

Haosen took all of Gu Zheng's things and said something else. Gu Zheng turned his head in surprise: "Sir Brown, what's the matter? Wasn't I directly invited by your organizing committee?"

"Sir Brown is one of the members of the organizing committee this time. He proposed to invite you to participate, so you are both invited by the organizing committee and a distinguished guest of Sir Brown!"

Haosen explained slowly, and Gu Zheng widened his eyes and was quite speechless.

His invitation letter only had the name of the organizing committee, and never mentioned Sir Brown, but he didn't expect that such a person would appear here.

And from what Haosen said, it seemed that he was invited by Sir Brown. It was originally a public invitation, but suddenly became a private guest, which made Gu Zheng a little uncomfortable to accept.

In fact, Gu Ming had known this for a long time. The so-called organizing committee invitations were all from the nobles themselves. Although he didn't know which noble invited him, he knew that there must be a noble behind Gu Zheng.

The reason why Gu Ming didn't say it was that he wanted Gu Zheng to experience it himself, so that he would be more disgusted and would not participate in such activities in the future.

This Sir Brown is a Spanish noble, but he has been staying in France for many years. He is not very old, in his early thirties, and he inherited the title. His ancestors have been European nobles for hundreds of years.

The first update, to make up for yesterday's update, and there will be more to come