Chapter 396: Selling Nutrient Supply
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rundi
In Bentonville, Arkansas, the office of Walmart.
Sitting behind the desk, Florance, the purchasing manager, looked at his a.s.sistant who had just walked in and asked in a deep voice.
“Is the a.n.a.lysis result out?”
The a.s.sistant nodded and put the doc.u.ment on the boss’ table.
“It’s out; our research found several interesting plant protein in this thing called nutrient supply. Although we don’t know the source of it, the safety of the food is absolutely fine.”
“With FDA standard?” Florence confirmed again.
“Yes.” The a.s.sistant nodded with certainty.
After the scandal in 2015, Walmart became more cautious toward supplement suppliers.
The Ginkgo biloba leaf pills sold by Walmart stated that it could increase memory, but after examination, it only contained carrot powder and wheat powder, while on the ingredients list, it didn’t list wheat powder.
The event caused a huge uproar at Walmart, and four other large department store chains were all put under the scrutiny of the media and public. Even one year after the event where the memory was gradually fading away from the public, Walmart’s supplier selection in supplement and food were still two times more rigorous than before.
Three days ago, he received a package from Future Biology. Inside the package contained the sample along with an invitation.
To be frank, if it was not for Future Group’s reputation, Florence might not even look at it before he pa.s.sed on the product with labels like “liquid food” “weight loss without dieting”.
When Florence scanned through the results, the more he read, the more he eyes turned stern. Especially when he read the two sections, clinical response and effect estimation, his eyes were almost glued to the paper.
“Bam!” He smashed the doc.u.ment on the table as he immediately ordered his a.s.sistant.
“Send sales to Xin immediately; we have to get this deal… No, get Jim to go personally go,” Florence said briskly.
“But boss, Jim has a negotiation with a representative from Pirus Biology-”
“Get his a.s.sistant to do it,” Florence ordered, “Put this report in front of him, he will know how important it is to us. I don’t care how he does it; I want to see an agreement on my table in three days.”
The a.s.sistant nodded and left.
Sinking into his chair, Florence took a deep breath before an ecstatic expression appeared on his face.
The obese people of America, oh no, the brand of Walmart supplements can be saved!
…
The same reaction appeared in different places as the major retailers began to investigate Future biology. No one knew why would Future International suddenly enter the supplement and food market, but who cares? When they discovered the magical nature of the nutrient supply, almost all the retailers extended their olive branch to the newly formed company.
“We sent out 15 invitations, 13 retailers responded to us extending their willingness to cooperate with us on this product.” In the conference room, a man was reporting to the sole shareholder Jiang Chen.
Tao Ming, New Zealand Han, male, 31, previous Prius Supplement manager. He possesses a wealth of product development and marketing experience, currently the director of Future Biology. A talent Jiang Chen obtained through an international headhunter company with a high salary of twenty thousand USD per month.
If there were not enough talent, he would get it with money, since Jiang Chen, with a research and development cost of almost zero, didn’t need to consider breaking even at all.
“Also, the online stores we are preparing to launch on, Amazon, Taobao and other e-commerce platforms, are in their last phase. The s.h.i.+pment will be sent from Ange Island to Darwin port in Australia as that will be the platform for international distribution.
Although it was somewhat specific, he used terms that Jiang Chen could easily understand. Tao Ming was smart enough to know that Jiang Chen wouldn’t understand industry jargon.
“Perfect, how much of the product do we need per month?” Jiang Chen nodded.
“The retailers would need one hundred thousand boxes per month. The variation on the backup platform differs, based on the marketing budget, it could range from ten thousand to one million boxes.”
A box had a profit of 500 USD, a million box would be 500 million, the profit was shocking.
Seeing Tao Ming had stopped talking and was looking at him with words in his mouth, Jiang Chen laughed.
“Just tell me what you want to say.”
“If we could use Future 1.0 as an advertising platform for nutrient supply, it would help to push the brand.” Tao Ming proposed.
“No problem, I will make the arrangement. Also, do we not need to sponsor a celebrity or something?” Jiang Chen asked.
Tao Ming nodded,
“That would be best. Based on the discussion results from the marketing department, I recommend sponsoring Emma Watson or other Hollywood celebrities to pave the way to establish the international brand-”
“Wait, why does the name Emma Watson sound so familiar?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows as he tried to recall where he heard this name.
With the puzzled expression on the boss’ face, Tao Ming smiled lightheartedly.
“Have you heard of Harry Potter?”
“The books?”
“The movies, Emma played Hermione.”
“Oh! I remember now. But rather than her I think it is better to sponsor Harry, look how fat he became in the later movies.” Jiang Chen glanced at him and said unscrupulously
“Boss, it is better to drop the movie plot when we discuss the product.” Tao Ming coughed and attempted to correct Jiang Chen in awkwardness.
“Haha, sorry, off track. Mhmm… So you recommend which celebrity?” Jiang Chen asked.
“The first choice is Emma Watson. Of course, there are a lot of other backup options.”
“What’s the estimated sponsors.h.i.+p fee?” Jiang Chen asked.
“Approximately one million to one and a half million USD, it would differ based on the conditions and requirements set,” Yao Ming answered.
It was not too expensive. Robert was a film director in Los Angeles; he would be a good connection.
“Okay, then I’ll leave this to you,” Jiang Chen said.
Yao Ming nodded.
“I have a meeting with a Walmart representative this afternoon; we’ll be talking about supplying this product. If all goes smoothly, I’ll be singing a contract with a monthly supply of fifty thousand boxes. Could we meet the demand for production?”
“No problem. I’ll take care of ramping up production; you take care of sales and marketing for me,” Jiang Chen said.
Worst case, he would only need to return to the apocalypse and obtain some inducers to expand the growth area of the DH seaweed and bring back more organic converters to produce “juice.” If done successfully, the nutrient supply business would bring him 100 – 200 million USD in profits. Based on the stability and consistent demand of the market, the future of Future Biology would be no-less bright than Future Technology.
The door was knocked on gently.
Tao Ming looked over, it was his a.s.sistant.
“The Walmart representative is here.”
“Already here? That’s fast.” Yao Ming was a bit caught off guard. “Get him to wait for a bit, I’m in a board meeting-”
“No need, you can go.” Jiang Chen stood up. “I know everything I needed to know. I need to pick up someone from the airport, that’s all from me.”
“But I haven’t shown you the marketing plan yet. It is a major decision to the company’s development; it is better for the president to view it to make a decision,” Tao Ming said hesitantly.
“No need, I trust your ability.” Jiang Chen walked beside Yao Ming, patted him on the shoulder, and encouraged him, “I trust you, I will give you enough freedom to prove your ability.”
Yao Ming looked sincerely at Jiang Chen.
To be honest, the reason why he jumped s.h.i.+p to come here was only partly due to the high salary offered by Future Biology, but what attracted him more was Jiang Chen’s promise of autonomy. When he was working at Prius, a lot of excellent proposals didn’t pa.s.s because of the differing opinions among the board members or the lack of funding, and they would have the bear the consequence during the yearly performance review.
The soldier was willing to die for someone that understood him, just with this trust, he swore that he would not disappoint Jiang Chen.