53: Chapter 53 Control

The July rain fell incessantly. Chairman Wang Shunyi stood at the entrance of the Jins Foods headquarters building, closed his umbrella, shook off the water, and looked up at the sign that had been hanging for thirty-two years—"Jins Foods." The lettering had faded, turning from gold to yellow, but it was still there. He remembered the first time he came to this entrance; it was last autumn, and Kim Dong-hyun wouldn't even see him, having a secretary turn him away. Now, the entire building belonged to him.

The elevator went up to the twelfth floor, where one of the lights in the corridor was broken, flickering. The secretary stood at the meeting room door holding a potted plant with leaves that were mostly yellow. "President Wang, Kim Dong-hyun is inside." She stepped aside and walked away with the plant, the click-clack of her high heels quickly disappearing around the corner.

Chairman Wang Shunyi was a bit puzzled—had Kim Dong-hyun come to the company again? Thinking this, he pushed open the half-closed office door.

Only Kim Dong-hyun was in the meeting room. He sat in the main seat with an untouched cup of coffee in front of him that had already gone cold. Seeing Chairman Wang Shunyi enter, he stood up and then sat back down, as if unsure how to face this young man.

"Aigoo! Chairman Kim, why are you here?" Chairman Wang Shunyi asked in surprise. "The equity transfer is complete; you only need to show up for important occasions."

"Sigh! President Wang! I'm still a bit reluctant! I came to take a look at these old things."

Chairman Wang Shunyi also let out a sigh. If he hadn't been able to withstand the pressure back then, he would be in a much worse state than Kim Dong-hyun is now.

"Chairman Kim, I'll see you off." Chairman Wang Shunyi sat down opposite him and leaned his umbrella against the wall.

Kim Dong-hyun didn't look at him. His gaze fell on the "Jins Foods" plaque on the wall, which was custom-made when the company was founded; it was solid wood with carved patterns on the frame, though the lacquer was now somewhat mottled. "President Wang, the Kims employees..." he began, his voice raspy.

"Not a single one will be laid off," Chairman Wang Shunyi cut in. "Production lines will be integrated, but no one will be fired. Those who aren't a fit will be reassigned; if that doesn't work, they'll be trained; if training still doesn't work, they'll be encouraged to resign. I keep my word."

Kim Dong-hyun was silent for a long time. The rain outside was loud, hitting the glass like someone scattering beans. He finally turned his head to look at Chairman Wang Shunyi. His eyes were much cloudier, but the light in them hadn't completely gone out. "President Wang, after competing with you for so long, I have to say one thing. You are more ruthless than me, but also more benevolent. Kims will live longer in your hands than it did in mine."

He pulled a key from his inner suit pocket, placed it on the table, and pushed it toward Chairman Wang Shunyi. It was the key to the Chairman's office, made of brass, with a small gold tag engraved with the name "Kim Dong-hyun."

"I'm leaving."

He stood up, picked up his umbrella—a black long-handled one with a worn-down tip—and turned to walk out. This time, he didn't look back. The sound of footsteps echoed in the corridor a few times before being drowned out by the ding of the elevator.

Chairman Wang Shunyi picked up the key and gripped it in his palm; it was cold.

The new era of Jins Foods began on this day.

Lee Jae-hoon's appointment was announced three days later. A veteran from Ottogi, fifty-five years old, his hair was mostly white, but his back was ramrod straight. On his first day, he didn't go to the office but went straight to the workshop. When the old-timers at the Kims factory saw him in overalls, squatting by the production line and feeling the edge of the conveyor belt with his hand, someone muttered, "Is this the CEO or a maintenance worker?"

Choi Seong-sik was an old production manager at Kims who had been with the company for twenty-two years, joining just a year after Kim Dong-hyun. He stood nearby watching for a long while before he couldn't help but say, "President Lee, this line has been in use for eight years; it's time to replace it."

"It's not time to replace it, it's time to throw it away." Lee Jae-hoon stood up and brushed the dust off his knees. "Starting tomorrow, three of the five Kims lines will stop. All orders will be transferred to Sunyi's factories, and this plant will be converted into a logistics center."

Choi Seong-sik's expression changed. "What about the workers?"

"Those willing to go to Sunyi can go; those who aren't will stay here for warehousing and logistics. Salaries remain the same; only the positions change." Lee Jae-hoon looked at him. "Manager Choi, you've followed me for three days. If you have something to say, speak plainly."

Choi Seong-sik hesitated for a moment. "President Lee, the Kims veterans are afraid of being phased out."

"It's not that they're afraid of being phased out, but rather they're afraid of not being needed." Lee Jae-hoon turned around to look at the workers who had stopped their tasks to listen. "Sunyi is short-handed, and they need experienced people. When Kims veterans go there, they aren't starting from scratch; they are bringing Kims' foundation with them. Without you, Sunyi's production capacity won't increase."

When the first batch of transfer notices was sent out, the Kims factory was in an uproar. Some were unwilling to go, saying, "Kims is Kims, what are we if we go to Sunyi?" Choi Seong-sik called those people into a meeting room, slammed the table, and said, "Kims is already surnamed Wang. What more do you want? Go to Sunyi and your salary increases by fifteen percent. Are you going or not?"

No one spoke. In the second week, the first batch of transferred workers took the company bus to the Sunyi factory. After returning, someone in the cafeteria said, "The cafeteria at Sunyi is better than ours," another said, "The machines are so new, way better than the Kims antiques," and another said, "The section chief over there is quite easy to talk to." Choi Seong-sik listened and said nothing, but the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

On the day the pay stubs were issued, the Kims veterans discovered for the first time that there were several hundred thousand won extra in their bank accounts. Someone ran to the finance department to ask if there was a mistake, and finance replied, "No mistake, this will be the amount from now on." The person didn't say a word, folded the pay stub twice, tucked it into their pocket, and left.

Park Min-ji was pushing the brand integration. Two-thirds of the original Kims product line was cut, leaving only a few items with stable sales, unified under the "kims classic" series. The packaging was changed to a white background with red text—simple and plain—with the product name on the front and a line of small text on the back: "Jins Foods, since 1998." This was Park Min-ji's idea; she said, "Old brands need to play the sentimentality card to let consumers know that Kims is still here and still alive."

On the day the products were restocked, Chairman Wang Shunyi went to a CU. On the shelves, kims classic was placed on the middle tier, next to Nongshim's low-end noodles. A man in his fifties stood before the shelf, holding a bag of Nongshim noodles, hesitating to put it in his basket. Chairman Wang Shunyi picked up a bag of Kims spicy noodles and handed it to him.

"Ahjussi, this is two hundred won cheaper than Nongshim and tastes about the same. Give it a try."

The man looked at him, took the noodles, turned them over to inspect them, and then put them in his basket.

In mid-August, the first-half financial report was released. Park Min-ji projected the data onto the whiteboard—Sunyi plus Kims, total revenue of 280 billion, net profit of 16 billion, and market share jumped from twelfth to eighth place. The meeting room went quiet for a moment, and then Zhang Junhao was the first to start clapping, the applause growing from a few people to the whole room.

"Eighth place." Chairman Wang Shunyi stood up, looking at the numbers on the whiteboard. "At this time last year, we were sixteenth. In one year, we've overtaken eight competitors. By this time next year, we want to be in the top five."

No one thought he was bragging. It wasn't just because he was right, but because everything he said he would do, he eventually accomplished.

Kims' losses were halted in the third quarter. When Lee Jae-hoon delivered the report to Chairman Wang Shunyi's office, his expression was calm, but there was a light in his eyes. "President, Kims broke even this quarter. Although we didn't make a profit, we're no longer losing money. This is the first time since the food safety incident."

Chairman Wang Shunyi flipped through the report, looked at the numbers on the last page again, then set it down and walked to the window. The rain had stopped, and although the sky was still gray, the clouds had cracked open, letting sunlight leak through and hit the glass curtain wall of the office building opposite, creating a dazzling glare.

"President Lee, thank you for your hard work. If Kims can turn a profit by the end of the year, ten percent of that profit will be distributed to the employees as a bonus."

Lee Jae-hoon was stunned. "President, this..."

"It's not my money; they earned it themselves. Kims being able to survive isn't because of me, Chairman Wang Shunyi, but because of the workers on the production lines, the delivery drivers, and the sales staff at the counters. They deserve every penny."

In September, Nongshim made a new move. Park Jung-chul announced at a press conference that Nongshim would invest 30 billion won to build a plant-based instant noodle production line, with products expected to launch in the first quarter of next year. A reporter asked if he was following Shunyi Foods' lead, and he smiled and said, "Nongshim has always been an industry leader; there is no such thing as following a trend."

Chairman Wang Shunyi watched the live news broadcast. Park Jung-chul stood on the stage with a giant Nongshim logo behind him, the lights so bright they made him look like a president. He smiled and answered every question flawlessly.

Zhang Junhao stood nearby, watching on his phone as well. "30 billion, they're really willing to spend."

"It's not that they're willing, they're being forced to," Chairman Wang Shunyi said, turning off the broadcast. "We were the first to enter the plant-based category. If they don't follow, they're essentially handing this market to us. But so what if they follow? They won't ship until the first quarter of next year. We have a time window of more than half a year, which is enough to fully penetrate the plant-based category."

"How will we do that?"

"By releasing new flavors. Chicken, beef, and seafood—all three released at once. Let consumers know that Sunyi's plant-based noodles aren't just a single product, but a series. If Nongshim releases one, we release three; if they release three, we release five. We'll keep them running behind us forever."

Lee Chang-ho was debugging a new formula when he received the task. For the plant-based chicken flavor, he used pea protein and konjac powder to simulate the texture of chicken breast, but it took over a dozen versions to get it right; it was either too dry or too mushy. Later, he added a bit of vegetable oil and yeast extract, and the texture finally approached real chicken. The plant-based beef flavor was the hardest; the fibrous feel of beef is difficult to simulate with plant protein. He tried four different processes before deciding on textured vegetable protein, which pulled apart in strands like real shredded beef. The plant-based seafood flavor was the simplest, using seaweed powder and shrimp powder for umami without adding any animal ingredients, yet the savory flavor was not lacking at all.

The three products were priced between 3,000 and 3,500 won, more expensive than regular noodles but cheaper than the high-end series. The packaging was unified in green with "Plant-Based" printed on it, looking very fresh. On the launch day, Chairman Wang Shunyi didn't hold a press conference but simply posted on social media: "New members of the plant-based family. Chicken, beef, and seafood—there's always one for you." Below were three product images lined up like an inspection parade.

The comment section exploded. Someone said, "Releasing three at once, that's intense," another said, "The chicken flavor is delicious, tastes like real chicken," and another remarked, "Nongshim hasn't even launched yet, and Sunyi is already on its fourth flavor." The best part was a review video from a vegan blogger who put all three noodles together, took a bite of each, and evaluated: "Chicken flavor is most like meat, beef flavor is the chewiest, and seafood flavor is the freshest. Nongshim doesn't even need to release theirs; the market already belongs to Sunyi."

The video views exceeded one million that day. Monthly sales of Sunyi's plant-based series jumped from 20,000 to 50,000 bags, firmly securing the number one market share for plant-based instant noodles. Before Nongshim's products even hit the market, they had already been labeled as "trend followers" by consumers.

In December, the snow fell heavily. Chairman Wang Shunyi stood by his office window, watching the world outside turn white. Park Min-ji pushed open the door, holding a hot Americano, and placed it on his desk.

"President, this year's report card is out. Sunyi plus Kims, total revenue of 380 billion, net profit of 22 billion. Market share is in seventh place. Kims made a profit of one billion in the fourth quarter; it's not much, but it's the first quarterly profit for Kims in three years."

Chairman Wang Shunyi took a sip of the Americano; it was hot and bitter, as he hadn't added sugar. "Next year, Sunyi will go public independently. Kims will continue to target the mid-range market; the two brands will follow separate paths."

"If we go public, our valuation will be at least 500 billion."

"Not enough." Chairman Wang Shunyi set down his cup. "I want one trillion."

Park Min-ji looked at him; she didn't say it was impossible, but simply smiled. "Then I'll go prepare the materials."

She left. Chairman Wang Shunyi was the only one left in the office. The snow continued to fall, and the Namsan Tower was faintly visible through the mist. He picked up his phone and scrolled to Kim Dong-hyun's number, hesitated for a moment, and didn't dial. He remembered the last thing that man said after signing the papers: "I'll leave Kims in your care."

He put the phone down and picked up the financial report on the desk, flipping to the last page and looking at the number—seventh place. Two years ago, in a semi-basement, he couldn't even rank seven-hundredth. Now, he stood here with a whole building beneath his feet and an entire group in his hands!