Volume 2 Chapter 157 Technological research of small companies
After inspecting Koror Village, Xu Yi directly took his horse carriage to the Ireland Chamber of Commerce at the Sandton industrial sector.
Compared to last year when the Frestech Chamber of Commerce announced their small company support plan, there were several more small factories producing components near the Sandton Manor. It had gone from over sixty to over a hundred companies.
This kind of growth in just a year, other than proving that the magic machine industry was being recognized, it also meant there was promise in this field.
Take the Ireland Chamber of Commerce that wanted to produce components in the beginning.
Last year when Freeman and the other villagers mentioned this idea with Xu Yi, when they founded the Ireland Chamber of Commerce, their total a.s.sets didn’t even add up to two hundred gold coins.
As for the three most important magic production machines in the beginning, it was something the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had given them on a loan.
To many people, this kind of company wasn’t even worth being called a company and could barely be considered a workshop.
However with this small workshop that couldn’t even be considered a company, Freeman’s group had earned over five thousand gold coins in less than half a year!
The current Ireland Chamber of Commerce not only paid off their debt for their magic machines, but they also bought several more magic machines, even building a brand new workshop. No matter how one looked, this was quite the normal company.
Moreover, because the Ireland Chamber of Commerce was the first company to enter the component producing business, they had the support of Xu Yi, and the hard work of Freeman and the others, the Ireland Chamber of Commerce was the leading component producing company in Banta City. Not only did they produce all the components for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, they had close relationships with many other companies in Banta City.
Last year the Ireland Chamber of Commerce earned over five thousand gold coins in half a month, that was already shocking.
Only two months had pa.s.sed this year and according to what Freeman said last time he met Xu Yi, they had already earned another five thousand!
So no matter where Freeman went, he would always have a smile and a satisfied look on his face.
“Ha, ha, chairman Xu, how could I not be happy? I just discussed a deal for a hundred thousand spinning needles with the Armani Chamber of Commerce yesterday.” Freeman laughed as he said to Xu Yi, “I won’t hide it from you, we’ve earned several hundred gold coins just from this order.”
“Then I really have to congratulate you.” Xu Yi nodded with a faint smile.
“Chairman Xu, don’t laugh at me. I know that the Armani Chamber of Commerce gave this order to us in the end because you mentioned our Ireland Chamber of Commerce to the Armani Chamber of Commerce chairman Vincent, right?” Freeman seriously asked this.
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “Who told you?”
Freeman scratched his head, “It was Kovac who told me. Last time he went to a banquet in the city, he saw you talking to the Armani Chamber of Commerce’s chairman. Then less than two days later, the Armani Chamber of Commerce took the initiative to send people to give us this order, so you must have recommended us to the Armani Chamber of Commerce. Otherwise, they definitely wouldn’t have chosen us.”
“Banquet?” Xu Yi thought for a bit. Freeman must be talking about the Lord City Lord traditional spring banquet that celebrated the pa.s.sing of winter from five days ago.
At that banquet, he had indeed talked to chairman Vincent, but the content was about bringing a large amount of goods to the Black Rice Wasteland. As for the Ireland Chamber of Commerce, chairman Vincent had asked him which component company was the best and he had mentioned them.
If it was said like this, the Ireland Chamber of Commerce receiving this order was mainly because of Xu Yi’s recommendation.
But Xu Yi wouldn’t take undeserved credit.
An order of less than ten thousand was a large order for the Ireland Chamber of Commerce, but he didn’t put it in his eyes at all.
So Xu Yi just patted Freeman’s shoulder and said with a laugh, “Don’t mind it. If it wasn’t because the quality of your components was good, I wouldn’t have recommended you to chairman Vincent, right?”
Seeing Freeman wanting to thank him still, Xu Yi quickly changed the topic. He looked around before asking, “Where is the thing I wanted?”
Freeman’s words of thanks were stopped by Xu Yi and after being surprised for a bit, he immediately brought Xu Yi to a magic production machine in the corner that had been working the entire time.
This magic production machine had created several hundred small round metal caps, which were the most important component in making the canned fruits.
Xu Yi picked one up to look over and found that this cap felt smooth, without a single defect on the surface. He used his finger to touch the inside and could feel the smooth threaded surface.
After taking a gla.s.s jar from Freeman, Xu Yi put on the bottle cap and gently twisted it. There was a click sound as the gla.s.s jar was capped and it didn’t reveal a single gap.
Xu Yi gave a satisfied nod and experimented with several other bottle caps. He found that all these bottle caps fit the gla.s.s jars perfectly.
“Very good, it seems like you’ve already found the right trick. These bottle caps are all useful.” Xu Yi revealed a smile of praise as he looked at Freeman.
Obtaining Xu Yi’s recognition, Freeman immediately revealed a happy smile.
When Xu Yi gave them the order for the canned fruit caps, he only gave them a few blueprints and some specific details, he didn’t give them anything else. He didn’t give them the support of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce technical staff like when he had them produce components, so they could only figure it out themselves.
In the beginning, in order to make a suitable cap, they had failed countless times and wasted countless materials.
Although they had made a batch of bottle caps that met the requirements, they had wasted over ten thousand bottle caps before making this batch.
But it was like Xu Yi had said to Freeman and Kovac, if a company wanted to become bigger, they had to have some things that they truly understood. Just by following the guidance that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce gave them, the Ireland Chamber of Commerce would never grow.
Freeman and Kovac understood this, so they didn’t oppose him at all, rather they chose to experiment to develop this themselves.
Although they had failed over ten thousand times, which created a loss of close to a thousand gold coins, they kept persisting.
The achievements of persisting were clear.
After this “technical research” called by Xu Yi, Freeman found that the Ireland Chamber of Commerce’s workers were much more skilled when it came to operating the magic production machines.
For example, the young fellow who was currently operating the magic production machine. He didn’t know a single thing about the magic production machine when he entered the Ireland Chamber of Commerce, but now he was a skilled worker at operating the magic production machine.
Xu Yi even gave him an appraisal of being at the same level of the dwarves in the magic machine workshop.
It had to be known that although the dwarves had short and thick hands, they were highly talented in this.
To be able to match a dwarf was already high praise.
Other than this, the most important thing during failing these experiments was that the Ireland Chamber of Commerce discovered many problems, so it gave them quite a bit of new understanding and knowledge when it came to producing components.
Freeman was very confident that if one had to choose one of the hundreds of components workshops in the Sandton industrial district as having the best technique, it would definitely be the Ireland Chamber of Commerce!
“Chairman Xu, since you are satisfied with the bottle cap we produced, can we start officially producing them? How many do you need for the first batch?” Seeing that Xu Yi had finished measuring the measurements of the bottle cap with the Vernier Scale that he described, so Freeman asked this.
“There’s no rush right now.” Xu Yi shook his head, “The canned fruits factory needs two months before it can go into production. When that time comes, I’ll be able to know the quant.i.ty and types of canned fruits being produced. You also have a big order from the Amrit Chamber of Commerce right now, so you might as well do your best during this time.”
“Un.” Freeman nodded as he quickly agreed.
After taking Xu Yi around the factory, Xu Yi decided to leave.
After sending Xu Yi out, Freeman suddenly revealed a bothered expression and he kept hesitantly opening his mouth, but he could never say anything.
Xu Yi couldn’t help laughing, “Just say it if you have something to say, you know that I don’t like beating around the bush.”
Freeman scratched his head and said with an embarra.s.sed smile, “It’s like this, chairman Xu. There are many small components companies in this industrial district and although there are many benefits, the compet.i.tion is too fierce. There are many times where there are conflicts between companies for contracts and many companies would choose to cut their prices. We already don’t earn much on the components and if the price is cut even more, no one will be able to earn money in the future.”
“So? You’ve thought of a solution?” Xu Yi asked back.
Freeman laughed, “Aren’t I asking you because I haven’t thought of anything?”
Xu Yi snappily looked at him, “Is it that you haven’t thought of it or you’re not willing to say it? What about Kovac? He’s definitely the one who thought of asking me, so why are you asking instead?”
“He’s in Karma City for some special business.” Freeman had the same shameless smile as he said, “Chairman Xu, you are the president of the Banta City Magic Machine Business Union, our small component companies came from your Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s small company support plan, so you can’t just not care about us, right?”
Seeing the pleading look on Freeman’s face, Xu Yi gave a nod with a sigh, “Alright, the component industry is part of the magic machine industry, so I can’t just ignore it. At the next meeting, I will announce a bottom price for each magic machine related product. If any company goes below that price, it will be considered aggressive compet.i.tion and they will be kicked out of the union.”
Freeman was immediately filled with joy as he cheered, “That’s great! As long as chairman Xu says a word, this problem can be easily solved. Those companies won’t have to kill each other in the future!”
Xu Yi looked at the happy Freeman and shook his head as he said with a sigh, “It’s too early to be happy. In Banta City, I can help you solve this problem, but when you leave Banta City and move through the Lampuri Kingdom, or even walk out of the Lampuri Kingdom to the continent, I can’t help you like this.”
Freeman laughed as he spread his hand in a natural manner, “Isn’t that simple? Right now chairman Xu’s words are effective in Banta City and when we start moving through the Lampuri Kingdom, your words will be effective in the entire kingdom. When we move across the continent, your words will definitely be effective across the continent!”
Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling.
“Freeman, you’re overestimating me too much…..”