Chapter 420 Cooperation with County Textile Factory
Li Jie smiled and said, "A lot, yes. But I'm always away for half a month, and I have to travel long distances. I go there once every month or so. If I go too often, I won't be able to take care of my family. Now that I have this store, I may not go there so often in the future."
Xia Juanjuan listened, nodded, and said with a smile: "So that's how it is."
On the way back, Li Zhan couldn't help but feel jealous: "You seem to care about Luocheng?"
Xia Juanjuan was stunned for a moment, then she smiled and asked, "Are you jealous?"
Li Zhan glanced at her, turned his head away, and said, "Who... who wants to be jealous of him?"
Xia Juanjuan covered her mouth and smiled, saying, "I asked about Luocheng mainly because I thought, doesn't Third Brother know how to drive? If there is any short-distance transportation in the future, I can ask Third Brother to help. However, if there is more work in Luocheng, I will forget it."
Li Zhan was stunned for a moment and asked, "Transportation? Don't you have space? Do you still need transportation?"
Xia Juanjuan sighed and said, "You also said that I seem to have put all my energy into business now, right? I think I can't always do it myself. For some things, it would be easier to find someone to do it for me."
She can't just rely on her own space and work herself to death, right?
Lizhan nodded and said, "It's great if you think so. You have been working too hard recently."
These days, except for the New Year's Eve when they did it, Xia Juanjuan fell asleep as soon as she touched the pillow. She was too tired to have the mood to do it.
After returning to Beijing, the vacation was almost over, and Xia Juanjuan stayed at home to help the children check on their winter vacation homework, or help sell salt, or go to the clothing store to check out.
Qi Ningyu did a good job and the store sold a lot of sweaters and jeans.
However, from time to time, people still come to ask about the coat from last time.
Xia Juanjuan was thinking about making something more.
However, the state-owned clothing factory in Guangzhou had its own orders, so even if they helped her, there was only so much they could do.
Xia Juanjuan was thinking about setting up a small clothing factory near Beijing.
But the first thing, the whole set of equipment is a problem.
Xia Juanjuan thought of the textile factory in Mo County.
The one in Mo County is called a textile factory, but it actually has a small garment-making workshop. The clothes sold in the county department store and the work clothes in the factory are all produced there.
Xia Juanjuan thought about it and asked Li Zhan to help ask his old comrade to see if the state-owned factory was willing to cooperate with her.
She provided the design patterns, fabrics, cotton, down, etc., and borrowed the equipment from the garment workshop to make cotton-padded clothes.
Li Zhan was stunned for a moment: "You can design clothes?"
Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "Not really, I just have some ideas of designs that are not currently on sale, and I want to try making them."
She was not a professional, but she had seen a lot before she traveled through time. Moreover, the styles of clothes nowadays are all unified across the country, and adding a few ruffles will make people's eyes bright.
Xia Juanjuan is just showing off her skills now, and later on, she will have to find professionals to do the design.
Li Zhan nodded and said, "The last time I went to the county town and saw Lao Lu, he was still lamenting that the textile factory had no orders and couldn't pay the wages. I'll go ask him."
Li Zhan immediately called the mayor of Lu County.
After hearing what Li Zhan said, County Governor Lu initially thought he was talking nonsense.
"My goodness, although there are policies now, no restrictions, and it can even be said that state-owned factories and private individual businesses are encouraged to cooperate and revitalize resources, but if your wife continues to work, how many pieces can she make? Isn't this ridiculous?"
After hearing this, Li Zhan also felt a little unsure and said, "She said that we should make 100 pieces in the first batch. The processing fee for each piece is 6 yuan, and we will pay for the rest of the needlework, fabric, cotton and goose down. But if it's not suitable, forget it, we will find another way..."
Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by County Magistrate Lu.
"Wait, how many pieces did you say? A hundred? How long will it take?"
"About half a month. The last time I did it somewhere else, it was around this time."
The construction period is half a month, and there are 100 pieces. The processing fee is 6 yuan per piece, which means 600 yuan in half a month, which is enough to pay a month's salary for 20 workers!
County Magistrate Lu rubbed his hands and said, "Master, please take some time to come back to the county. I will ask the director of the textile factory and the workshop manager of the garment workshop to come over and discuss with you how to do it."
After hanging up the phone, Li Zhan couldn't help but be stunned. Why did Lao Lu suddenly change his mind?
The next day, Xia Juanjuan and Li Zhan went back to the county town together.
As expected, County Governor Lu came with the director and deputy director of the textile factory.
Xia Juanjuan and Li Zhan were both startled.
Li Zhan laughed and said, "Old Lu, aren't you making too big a fuss? Juanjuan is just a hundred cotton-padded clothes..."
Lao Lu smiled bitterly and said, "You are so smart. You are in Beijing, so you don't know the hardship of our small-town factories. When you first mentioned it, I thought it was only three or five pieces. I could just find a tailor shop to make them. How could I know you would make so many pieces?"
The director of the textile factory, whose surname is Zhang, also quickly smiled and said, "One hundred orders are enough to keep our garment factory open for half a month. You don't know that the demand for cloth has dropped a lot now, and half of our workshops have stopped production. However, the workers' wages cannot be delayed. They haven't been paid for two months. If we have your orders, at least we can solve the problem of some people's wages a little bit."
Xia Juanjuan had not expected that the textile factory was in such a difficult situation, so she said, "If the factory doesn't mind, I should have more clothes to make in the spring and summer. The quantity may not be large, so I will entrust them to make them then."
After hearing this, Director Zhang rubbed his hands and said gratefully, "Then we will definitely welcome you! Comrade Xia, I heard that you and Comrade Li are both from Mo County? It's great that you don't forget your roots!"
That's settled.
Xia Juanjuan was not vague either. The next day, she sent the cloth, cotton, and down to the textile factory and asked them to start work.
Cotton-padded clothes are mainly sold in winter. She actually started late, and it is still unknown whether all the 100 pieces can be sold.
After the cotton-padded clothes are made, the spring clothes will also have to be made in a hurry.
The most convenient way is to go to Guangzhou to wholesale ready-made clothes and sell them back home.
However, Xia Juanjuan still wanted to create her own clothing brand, so independent design and production were essential.
But building a factory is much more difficult than buying a shop and opening a store. Xia Juanjuan has no worries about raw materials, but the factory, equipment, and later recruiting workers all require time to prepare.
Therefore, Xia Juanjuan still plans to wholesale half of the ready-made clothes from Guangzhou, and design and make the other half by herself, combining the two.
In this case, Xia Juanjuan would have to draw the design in advance.
Although she paid much attention to fashion and had some painting skills before she traveled through time, she was not a professional fashion designer after all, and she actually lacked a lot of basic knowledge.
Fortunately, she had various professional books in her space, so she learned while doing it. She first drew the picture herself, then took out the cloth, cut it according to the size and shape, and then sewed it together. Then she tried it on to see the effect, and changed the design if there was anything inappropriate.
Fortunately, she only planned to design one set of spring clothes, a knitted sweater with a little bat sleeves and a slim-fitting wool skirt.
Li Zhan felt so distressed every night when he saw Xia Juanjuan sitting at the table drawing until late at night.
However, he did not say anything to persuade or complain.
His wife wants to do this, but he can't help or share the responsibility. At least, he shouldn't be resentful and hold her back.
Therefore, Lizhan had to take care of more housework and other things at home these days.
Around nine o'clock in the evening, he would make her a bowl of noodles and cut a few pieces of mutton as a midnight snack.
After working day and night for seven or eight days, the design was finally finalized.
The knitted sweater has a lapel and the pattern is also carefully designed by her.
However, sweaters require special equipment, which the Moxian Textile Factory's garment-making workshop does not have, so Xia Juanjuan went to see Manager Li in Guangzhou.
Manager Li looked at the pattern and asked the person in charge of production in the factory before replying that it was okay.
Manager Li couldn't help laughing and said, "Comrade Xia, did you design this sweater yourself? And the cotton-padded jacket last time, I showed the design to our factory's workshop manager, and he said he had never seen your design before! The pattern is also fresh, with small trees and deer, but the sleeves are so wide, can it be sold?"
Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "Anyway, just make 100 pieces first. We won't have to worry about the backlog if we can't sell them all."
Manager Li nodded and said, "That's fine. The price is cheaper than the last cotton coat, five yuan for one piece. But, are you still going to provide the wool? Or do you want to use ours?"
Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "I'll provide it, and the factory can just help weave it."
She still had a lot of wool stored in her space, and she would think about purchasing more after she used all of it.
As for the woolen skirts, they were handed over to Mo County for processing.
The craftsmanship of wool skirts is much less than that of cotton coats, so the production period for 100 pieces is about six or seven days, and the processing fee for each piece is four yuan.
Therefore, about a week after the 100 cotton coats were hung in the store, the sweaters and wool skirts designed by Xia Juanjuan were also displayed in the store.
Xia Juanjuan directly asked Qi Ningyu to change into clothes from the store, from inside to outside. She wore a sweater and wool skirt inside and a soft and warm cotton coat outside. She was like a walking advertisement.
Customers visiting the store couldn't help but try it on when they saw Qi Ningyu wearing it, which looked so good and neat.
A cotton coat is twenty-five dollars, and a sweater and a wool skirt are both twelve dollars, neither of which is cheap.
After all, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a military coat, which was known for being the best at keeping out the cold in winter, only cost a little over twenty dollars.
However, customers who have tried it in the store can actually feel it. Don’t be fooled by the lightness of this coat. When you press it, you can feel that the cotton used is only a thin layer. But it is very warm when you put it on! It is warmer than a thick and heavy military coat!
Moreover, when the new products were put on the shelves, Xia Juanjuan also held a three-day special sale, and any two items in the store could be discounted by 20%. In total, the coat cost 20 yuan, and the sweater and wool skirt could be bought for less than 10 yuan.
Although everyone is living a tight life now, there are still some wealthy families in Beijing. You don't need cloth coupons to buy clothes in the store here. Therefore, some people buy all three pieces directly, some buy only two, or some buy one and then choose a pair of animal leather gloves for two yuan, which counts as two pieces.
The three new products are selling quite well, and we can sell seven or eight pieces in a day!
After the new products were put on the shelves, Xia Juanjuan no longer paid much attention to the sales in the store and left it all to Qi Ningyu.
She just goes there occasionally.
Qi Ningyu couldn't help but ask, "Sister Juanjuan, this coat is really warm, and why is it so light? Isn't it made of cotton?"
Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "It uses cotton and some velvet. Velvet is light and warm, so the clothes are so light."
"Velvet? It's made of goose hair? How many geese do you have to kill to make one?"
Xia Juanjuan couldn't help laughing and said, "Goose down is not something that can be made by simply killing a goose and using its feathers. It has to go through many processes before it can be used to make clothes."
Whether it is goose down or duck down, not all goose feathers or duck feathers can be used. Only the down on the chest of geese and ducks can be selected to make it. It is fluffy and waterproof, and it needs to go through steps such as washing, drying, sterilization, and separation before it can be made into goose down or duck down.
So it makes sense that down is more expensive than regular cotton-filled jackets.
However, Xia Juanjuan did not tell Qi Ningyu about these things.
"I only found out about this when I went to Shanghai and saw some imported materials in the market there."
Qi Ningyu still said admiringly: "Sister Juanjuan, you know so much."
Now that the clothing store had winter and spring clothes, Xia Juanjuan focused her energies back on her studies.
As for summer clothes, there are all kinds in Guangzhou, so she doesn't plan to design them herself.
Although Beijing is the center of the country, the light industry is developed in Guangzhou after all. The profit is huge just from the price difference between the two cities in the north and south.
Not long after school started in February, Yan Haotian sent a telegram saying that he was going abroad to carry out a mission.
Xia Juanjuan was stunned for a moment, then she calculated the time and finally realized what was going on.
She remembered that this mission should not be long, just over a month. However, since it was a battlefield after all, Xia Juanjuan couldn't help but feel a little worried.
She was afraid that Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru would be worried after hearing it, so she kept it a secret and said that she was going to carry out a small mission and it was not dangerous.
However, she still asked about Chen Lu.
After all, Chen Lu and her brother had been dating since last summer. For such a big thing, Yan Haotian should have sent her a telegram to tell her privately.
As a result, Chen Lu's eyes widened in surprise, and then his eyes were filled with worry and panic. He grabbed Xia Juanjuan's hand and said, "Juanjuan, what did you say? He...he is going to the battlefield?"