Chapter 71 Durex

After returning to America, it was already 1932 after the New Year. Zhang Feng first paid to arrange for more than a dozen students to study in several high schools across the United States. With Zhang Feng's current strength, it was easy to pay to find schools for Chinese students. After all, international students come to spend money, not to steal jobs from white people.

Wang Tianfeng is also among this group of international students. He mainly studies physical chemistry.

Another thing Zhang Feng has to do now is to find a good school for his four 4-year-old eldest sons, preferably an aristocratic elementary school. Of course, there are no aristocrats in America. In fact, these are private schools for children of rich people, and this is not something Zhang Feng can do.

However, he still sought help from Howard Hughes' connections and spent a lot of sponsorship fees, and only then did he successfully obtain four admission places. He hoped that the children could make friends with the descendants of some conglomerate families or political families, laying the foundation for the future integration of these American branches into the United States.

Of course, it would be best if it succeeds, but it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t. After all, things cannot be completely controlled. Zhang Feng has also reserved many escape routes, as the saying goes, a cunning rabbit has three burrows.

Monchi Manor, in the study.

"Master, LRC has agreed to our acquisition and they want $50," Butler John reported.

"Well, promise them that we can't waste any more time. We will continue to keep the company over there and build production plants in the United Kingdom and the United States as soon as possible." Zhang Feng made the decision.

This LRC company is actually the parent company of Durex. It was founded in 1929 and was later acquired by SSL Group and then by Reckitt Benckiser Group in 2010.

The London Rubber Company (LRC) was first established in 1915, starting from a small room behind a tobacco merchant in London, England, importing sundry utensils for barbers from Germany.

In 1929, LRC first registered the DUREX trademark, which was derived from the combination of three English words: durability, reliability and excellence.

In 1932, the Durex condom factory was established in Hackney, England, focusing on the development of new latex technology. In 1941, due to the outbreak of World War II, the supply of condoms made in Germany was cut off. LRC then expanded the production of Durex condoms to meet the growing condom orders from the military. In 1950, the London Rubber Company (LRC) was registered as a public company. In 1951, LRC developed the first fully automatic production line in history, which increased the production speed of condoms.

Since the establishment of Shennong Bio-Pharmaceutical Company, Zhang Feng has never been involved in any new industry. After all, he had been warned last time, and he thought it would be better to keep a low profile for a while. Making money is important, but you have to live to spend it.

However, after Roosevelt defeated Hoover in the general election this year and was elected as the President of the United States, Zhang Feng's desire to make money was aroused again.

During these two years, Zhang Feng provided Franklin Roosevelt with a large amount of campaign funds. Especially at the beginning, many people were not optimistic about him because no one thought that a disabled person could become the President of the United States.

Of course, there were still people who supported him, but none of them supported him as strongly as Zhang Feng. Although as Franklin Roosevelt's approval rating increased, many financial groups also turned to invest in him.

But he was still very grateful to Zhang Feng for supporting him when he was at his weakest. Many people also knew that Zhang Feng was the biggest financial backer behind Roosevelt, so although Zhang Feng was a Chinese, he was also a wealthy Chinese. As long as what Zhang Feng did was not too excessive, no one should make things difficult for him in the future.

Because at that time, the power of the President of the United States was still relatively large. When there was not much benefit, no one wanted to offend a president. Of course, Zhang Feng would not go too far and become self-inflated. He would not involve himself in the main business of the major consortiums and would only make money that he could.

At the end of 1929, the United States, like other Western countries, suffered the most serious economic crisis in history. Roosevelt was appointed president at this critical moment.

After Roosevelt took office, he immediately asked Congress for authorization to deal with the crisis. In his inaugural address, he declared: "I will ask Congress to grant me the only weapon that is sufficient to deal with the current crisis, that is, to give me broad executive powers sufficient to deal with the emergency and wage a major war. This authorization should be as large as if we were invaded by the enemy." So now is the golden age of presidential power and the decline of congressional power.

Now that Zhang Feng had a backer, his desires naturally expanded, but he still knew his limitations and only worked in industries that seemed inconspicuous.

So Zhang Feng set his sights on Durex. Since October 1929, the entire American financial market collapsed and stocks plummeted. As a result, more than % of banks declared bankruptcy, the wealth of millions of investors was wiped out, companies went bankrupt, stores closed, wages plummeted, and one in four industrial workers was unemployed. The overall number of unemployed people exceeded eight million, and the queues of poor people for relief food stretched for several blocks. Among these people were many once successful businessmen and bankers.

At that time, there were two industries that were still relatively profitable. One was the film industry. He had already acquired Paramount. Later, he found that the hot money from Wall Street had also poured into Hollywood. There were just too many smart people.

Zhang Feng doesn't want to confront these big forces, so he hasn't invested too much in Paramount at the moment. It's enough for him to earn his share.

Another industry is condoms. In today's financial crisis and economic depression, ordinary people can't even get enough food to eat. How dare they have children? They can't afford to raise them even if they are born!
Without a job, life is stressful, but with plenty of free time. Moreover, the more free time they have, the more they need to vent. If they don’t work at night, what else can they do?

But how can we ensure that we don't have children? Of course, we need condoms which cost less than raising a child.

At this time, Zhang Feng thought of the famous Durex, which seemed to be founded around this time, so he asked his housekeeper to arrange someone to investigate. He found that although Durex was registered in 1929, it was only developed and prepared for production this year.

Zhang Feng did not hesitate to spend a high price to acquire both the company and the people, and planned to produce and sell them in Britain and the United States at the same time.

Sometimes Zhang Feng couldn't understand why he was never satisfied when his family could spend all the money that an ordinary person could not earn in their entire life by working like a slave. Well, if he couldn't figure it out, he would just stop thinking about it.

"I heard that there is a company that sells infant formula powder in America. Send someone to investigate and see if it can be acquired." At this time, Zhang Feng instructed the butler John.

After acquiring Durex, Zhang Feng remembered the slogan when Durex acquired Mead Johnson in the previous life: We will raise those children who are not blocked by us.

Because this acquisition was quite funny, Zhang Feng remembered it quite clearly. Most companies acquire companies in the same industry to eliminate competitors and strengthen themselves, but Durex acquired companies in opposing industries and took advantage of both ends.

The beloved eldest son of Edward Mead Johnson, the founder of Mead Johnson, Ted, suffered from congenital heart disease, which seriously affected his eating and once put him on the verge of death. Edward was extremely anxious about Ted's condition and looked everywhere for a way to save his son.

Thanks to the baby food recipe prepared by Dr. Jacob, the "Father of American Pediatrics", little Ted was saved. Later in 1905, the infant nutrition brand Mead Johnson was born.

"Yes, sir, I'll go down and arrange it right away." Butler John responded immediately.

As for whether he can acquire Mead Johnson, Zhang Feng actually doesn't take it to heart, because it is still early. As long as there is money, nothing is impossible. If this one doesn't work, there are others.

(End of this chapter)