America 1919-Chapter 727 - : 250, A&P Civil Strife
Chapter 727: 250, A&P Civil Strife
After securing the partnership with Cereal Empire Foods, Donnie was free from worries about his back.
Such circumstances led to Apollo Chain once again intensifying its promotional activities.
And, inevitably, these promotions began to increase A&P’s losses.
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In such a situation, even though A&P was a publicly listed company, and even if John Hardford was ambitious, powerful, and capable, he still couldn’t withstand the pressure from A&P’s board of directors.
“Perhaps, we are witnessing the most thrilling retail war in American history!”
By this time, major American newspapers and media were focused on this matter, repeatedly reporting on the national retail war that had been going on for over a month.
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“This is never just a thrilling war; it’s a war of annihilation with capital as the crushing force!”
While some media called the war thrilling, others described it as a war of annihilation.
The reason was that in the war, Apollo Chain, under Donnie’s utter disregard for cost, launched a crazy promotional discount, from the initial 30% off, to 40% off, and then to 50% off.
Everyone knew that the retail business is about thin margins and high volume, and a profit margin of 15% would be quite impressive, but now Donnie’s Apollo Chain had cut prices in half.
That is to say, for every 100 US dollars Apollo Chain sold, it lost 35 US dollars.
Because Apollo Chain wasn’t a publicly traded company, it didn’t need to disclose its financial reports to the public, so outsiders did not know the specific sales figures of Apollo Chain.
But it was always possible to make an estimate.
Today, The Wall Street Journal provided a set of figures, believing that in the past month, Apollo Chain had at least 25 million US dollars in sales.
That means, in this little over a month, Apollo Chain had already lost 8.75 million US dollars!
Once this figure was disclosed, it once again stirred up a huge commotion on Wall Street.
Before this, everyone knew that the establishment of Apollo Chain had cost at least 15 million US dollars, and if you add the current loss of 8.75 million US dollars, Donnie Block had thrown a total of 23.75 million US dollars into Apollo Chain!
What was more critical was that there was no end in sight for this war.
This was the most terrifying part!
For those unrelated, the biggest question in their hearts was how much cash Donnie actually held in his hands.
But for Apollo Chain’s competitor A&P, their greatest concern was what exactly Donnie was thinking?
At the beginning of the war, Apollo Chain’s losses stood ahead of A&P’s, but as the battle waged on, A&P’s once-prided massive scale struck a lethal blow to itself; the larger the scale, the higher the cost expenditure.
Many media people had received news that A&P was contacting its suppliers to discuss the deferral of payment.
Not only that, but A&P’s board of directors, who initially reacted slowly to Apollo Chain’s promotional war, began to respond quickly after seeing the company’s losses.
However, their response was clearly misdirected!
“John, with the company in this state, you must take full responsibility!”
In the A&P board meeting, the other board members pointed the finger directly at John Hardford, blaming his misguided leadership for the company’s current predicament, while not mentioning their own responsibilities at all!
“Indeed, just as the company was dealing with Apollo Chain’s promotional campaign, you decided to invest in Kraft Foods. Knowing full well about Donnie’s relationship with Cereal Empire Foods, wasn’t this a provocation towards Donnie?”
“That’s right; at this time, what’s most important for us is to figure out a way to reach a settlement with Donnie Block. Only then can we survive this crisis!”
John Hardford sat at the head of the table, and even though he was inwardly strong, he was still infuriated by these directors’ remarks.
Initially, when A&P invested in Kraft Foods, everyone present praised this move as a success for a competent A&P leader.
But now, it had become a weapon for them to attack him?
“Gentlemen, the decision to invest in Kraft Foods was approved by all of you. Without your approval, A&P wouldn’t have made that investment!”
The dissatisfaction within prompted John Hardford to remind those present that although he had proposed the idea, it had also been agreed upon by all!
“John, you’re wrong to say that. You’re the president of the company and the helmsman of A&P. When you proposed investing in Kraft Foods, could we possibly have disagreed?”
Immediately, a director raised an objection, displaying utmost shamelessness!
John Hardford took a deep breath, knowing that now was not the time to get entangled in these matters, and spoke directly.
“Gentlemen, you called this board meeting, so now tell me your thoughts!”
At this point, all of John Hardford’s thoughts were on how to continue competing against Donnie Bruck’s Apollo Chain. He truly had no time to waste wrangling words with these people!
