Volume 2 Chapter 168 - Irreplaceable Kennard

Volume 2 Chapter 168 Irreplaceable Kennard

It was impossible for life to be free of problems and it was also impossible for it to always be filled with problems.
Although he had met a bottleneck in the development of the engine, the supplementary bicycle that he had developed gave Xu Yi a pleasant surprise in terms of sales numbers that even surpassed his expectations.
After the seven days of advertising and the announcement in the «Banta Times», when Kennard hosted the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s product announcement and announced that the bicycles would officially be on sale, in just the first day, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce received an order for fifty thousand bicycles.
In just a week, this number turned to a hundred thousand.
Xu Yi thought that in a western fantasy world like the Sines Continent that had magic, elves, and dwarves, something like the bicycle would be accepted that easily, so it would be as popular. He never thought that the sales numbers would be this terrifying.
It had to be known, because the cost of the bicycles weren’t low, the price the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had set also wasn’t low.
This time the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had made different models for their product. The first batch of bicycles was separated into bicycles for men and women, with the men’s bicycles having a price of eight gold coins and the women’s bicycles having a price of six gold coins.
This price was still expensive for many Banta City citizens even with their current wages because buying a bicycle would cost them half their monthly wage.
Not to mention the citizens of other cities that didn’t have as high as a monthly wage as Banta City citizens.
But when the bicycles were put on sale, whether it was the Banta City citizens of the citizens of the surrounding cities, they were all wildly snatching them up.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce was planning on their first batch of ten thousand bicycles to last them a week, but it was all snatched up in just a single afternoon.
Seeing the large number of orders that came in, Ankhto who was put in charge of the bicycle factory by Xu Yi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce never expected the sales numbers of the bicycles to be this terrifying, so they only prepared a single production line. They had trained no more than two hundred workers.
The current monthly production of the factory was only around five thousand units.
To complete the remaining ninety thousand orders, it was impossible even if they took a year.
Faced with this situation, Ankhto, Sebas, and Heinz who had specially come back for this all strongly suggested to Xu Yi to create two more production lines and recruit more workers to satisfy the demand.
However, Kennard had opposed this suggestion.
“Everyone, please take note of this, this is the sales distribution map that I made.” Kennard hung a large map on the conference board and pointed at the dense amount of red points he had drawn on the map, “A single red point represents a thousand units and if everyone looks closely, it isn’t hard to see a problem. It is that in our current order, it is mainly centralized around Banta City and the surrounding cities. If we go out a bit further, there is only a centralized area in Anvilmar City. As for the rest of the kingdom, it is very scattered.”
The other people in the conference carefully looked over the Lampuri Kingdom map and found that other than the red points gathered around Banta City, although places like Karma City and Saltan City had quite a few dots, it wasn’t as dense as Banta City.
Other than these three cities, there were far less dots in the further cities. There was only Anvilmar City where there were a few more red dots gathered, but it was around the same as Karma City or Saltan City, it was still far less than Banta City.
As for further places on the map, there might occasionally be one or two red dots, which only represented a thousand or two units.
“Based on this sales distribution map, I think everyone should understand that although the sales numbers of the bicycle soared in the first week, we should notice that although it’s been ten days past the first week, the sales numbers have never grown past a hundred and twenty thousand. It can be seen that the bicycle’s market is far from being as exaggerated as everyone imagines it to be.” Kennard said in a deep voice, “According to my estimates, after this initial boom, the monthly sales numbers in the future won’t be over five thousand units. If we rashly increase production lines, it will just be wasting resources.”
Ankhto knit his brows, “It can’t be that little, right? This thing is popular in Banta City and the surrounding cities, even the people of Anvilmar City likes them that much, so I think that many places in the kingdom will also accept it. It shouldn’t just be at five thousand units.”
“That’s right, it isn’t this bad, right?” Heinz also said, “Kennard, Xu Yi has praised your analysis skills and your farsight, but I think this time that you’ve made a mistake. This bicycle is selling this well, how could it be that bad in the future?”
Sebas didn’t say anything, he just looked at Xu Yi, clearly wanting to hear his opinion.
Xu Yi didn’t say anything as he shook his head with a smile. He kept looking at Kennard, clearly he wanted everyone to keep listening to what Kennard had to say.
Kennard didn’t show any courtesy, as he cleared his throat and continued, “Ankhto, vice chairman Heinz, I can understand your thoughts, but the bicycle isn’t any different from any magic machines that our company has made before. Because of how remarkable the bicycle is, it can clearly increase people’s speed of travel, so if they can’t afford a personal carriage, they will normally have a demand for the bicycle.”
“Based on this, the sales numbers in the future should keep increasing. Why do you say that it’ll be so little?” Ankhto asked in a confused voice.
Kennard revealed a faint smile, “When it comes to selling goods, there are two factors. When a person decides to buy something, one, they look at their demand, which is whether they need this thing or not. Two, they look at their consumption power, which is whether they can afford it or not. As for the bicycle, most people would have this demand, but…..In the current Lampuri Kingdom, most people wouldn’t have this consumption power.”
“Consumption power?” Ankhto and Heinz looked at each other, feeling confused, “A man’s bicycle only cost eight gold coins and a woman’s bicycle costs six gold coins, how can’t they afford it?”
“I understand.” Before Kennard even replied, Sebas on the side said with a nod, “Yes, there are indeed many people who can’t afford it. Ankhto, vice chairman, because you are in contact all day with people in Banta City and Karma City who have rather high incomes, you’ve forgotten that in our Lampuri Kingdom, most of the normal citizens are poor. A city like our Banta City where an average person can have a monthly income of over ten gold coins is unique. So on the sales trend map that the general manager has made, we find that there are more sales in Banta City, even more sales in Anvilmar City. Moreover, Karma City and Saltan City is like Anvilmar City because most people in Karma City and Saltan City work for large companies for our Banta City, so their monthly income is higher and they can afford the bicycle.”
Ankhto and Heinz looked at each other and after a while, they couldn’t help nodding.
They finally understood, Sebas was right.
To be honest, most of the Lampuri Kingdom was poor and many people couldn’t even feed themselves, so how could they spend so many gold coins to buy a bicycle?
Even Banta City was like this just a few years ago. Thinking about how if the bicycle was sold three years ago, even Heinz who was the owner of a small general store only made a hundred gold coins a year, how could he possibly bear to buy the bicycle.
Thinking of this, the two suddenly felt this was a bit unbelievable.
Based on the situation in the sales distribution map, could it mean that the people of Banta City were even richer than the people of Anvilmar City?
How was that possible? Anvilmar City was the capital of the Lampuri Kingdom!
“There’s no need to doubt it, these are the facts.” Seeing the shocked looks the two had after understanding the situation, Xu Yi said with a faint smile, “Perhaps there aren’t as many large nobles and merchants in Banta City compared to Anvilmar City, but the average income of people is indeed higher than Anvilmar City. There’s also another important reason, it’s that people in Banta City have a high approval of our Frestech Chamber of Commerce. As long as it’s a product from our Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the people of Banta City have full confidence in it. As long as they know the functions of the bicycle, they’ll immediately buy it. As for the people of the other cities, they will wait and see.”
“Un, sir chairman is right.” Kennard said, “If we advertise properly in the future, I believe that the bicycle sales numbers can still increase. But I don’t think that it reaches the level where we need to add another two production lines, so I suggest that we should postpone this for now.”
Ankhto and Heinz looked at each other before nodding.
“I agree.” Sebas also said.
Kennard and the others looked at Xu Yi and he said with a faint smile, “We’ll listen to the general manager in this matter, I won’t interfere.”
Heinz looked at Xu Yi with a strange gaze, but he didn’t say anything else.
After this meeting was over, Heinz immediately went to find Xu Yi alone and asked with a worried look, “Xu Yi, are you planning on handing the company over to Kennard to manage?”
“Why not?” Xu Yi asked back with a smile, “I believe that you are clear on Kennard’s abilities now, do you feel that he isn’t competent?”
“It isn’t that I doubt his abilities, only he…..is someone from the Emma Family after all.” Heinz said with a sigh, “He has to return to the Emma Family eventually, if you give him authority in our company, I’m afraid……it will be bad for the company.”
“You’re thinking too much.” Xu Yi patted Heinz’s shoulder and had him sit down, “First, I trust Kennard’s moral character. After working with him for s o long, I think that he is a very ambitious person, but he can realize his ideals in our company. So there are many times that he’s indicated that he wants to keep working for our company and doesn’t want to return to the Emma Family.”
“This probably isn’t something that he can decide.” Heinz said with curled lips.
“So what if he returns to the Emma Family in the end?” Xu Yi still had a relaxed look on his face, “He is just a general manager, he isn’t a major shareholder, so he is only responsible for some management and he can’t do anything else to the company. Then again, it is hard to find someone to replace such an outstanding general manager. Moreover, even if you find someone to replace him, how can you be sure that the person who replaces him won’t leave?”
Heinz thought about it and found that this was indeed a problem that couldn’t be solved.
The current Frestech Chamber of Commerce wasn’t a small company. As they became bigger, there were more and more things to take care of. If Xu Yi were to take care of everything like before, it wouldn’t be enough even if they split him in half.
Heinz was also clear on the fact that his abilities were limited, he wouldn’t be able to help Xu Yi that much.
After thinking for a while, Heinz could only give a sigh as he helplessly said, “Alright, we’ll leave it like this for now. But we should find some people to help you as much as possible, otherwise if Kennard suddenly leaves, the company will fall into chaos.”
Xu Yi revealed an appreciative smile, “You finally understood, Heinz. The company can’t be taken care of by me alone, only increasing the amount of people in management is the right solution. Here, take a look at something……”
Heinz took the documents from Xu Yi’s hand and after looking at it, he saw a large title on top of it.
“Frestech Chamber of Commerce transformation plan.”