Zhao Xiaohai nodded. "To be honest, the oil-paper umbrellas produced by your factory are old-fashioned, bulky, and lack aesthetic appeal. The folding umbrellas that are popular nowadays are light and beautiful. Oil-paper umbrellas really can't compare. They're clearly outdated."
Although he was mentally prepared, Director Ma still looked a little unhappy after hearing this.
"I think the problem you have now is not dealing with the backlog of products, but considering transforming and developing new products to cater to the market. Without a market, even if you deal with the backlog of products, the next products you produce will still be in backlog."
Director Ma frowned.
"Switch to making folding umbrellas? We've considered this option, but it requires new machinery and technology, and a significant investment. We submitted a report to the higher authorities, but the province said they've already approved a folding umbrella factory and rejected our proposal."
The planned economy is still in the lead now.
Since there are already companies in the province that are producing folding umbrellas, they will not agree to their factory's duplication of construction. This is what worries Director Ma the most.
Zhao Xiaohai thought for a moment and said:
"Actually, you can continue to make oil-paper umbrellas, but your market positioning needs to change."
“How to change market positioning?”
"The practicality and aesthetics of oil-paper umbrellas are not as good as folding umbrellas now, but they can be transformed into handicrafts. I wonder if Director Ma knows about the oil-paper umbrella culture in Japan?" Zhao Xiaohai asked.
Director Ma shook his head blankly.
"Japanese women love wearing kimonos, and in the summer, wearing kimonos and carrying oil-paper umbrellas is a tradition. There are many workshops and companies in Japan that make oil-paper umbrellas. I heard that some of them have been doing this for hundreds of years. You can make oil-paper umbrellas more exquisitely and at a lower price to enter the Japanese oil-paper umbrella market."
"This not only provides a sales channel, but also allows us to export and earn foreign exchange."
"Really?" Director Ma's eyes lit up.
"Of course it's true. By the way, I saw it in Hong Kong. It belonged to a Japanese woman in kimono, and she had an oil-paper umbrella among them." Zhao Xiaohai said.
Director Ma immediately said, "Okay, I'll go check the information in a moment."
Director Qian from the Nanyang Brush Factory came over.
"Xiao Zhao, do you have any suggestions for our brush factory? I'm sincerely asking for your advice." Factory Director Qian is fat and speaks faster than normal people.
“Make an oil paintbrush!”
Zhao Xiaohai gave the answer directly.
"Which oil painting brush sells best?" asked Director Qian.
"I don't know if it sells well, but in terms of consumption, it's normal for a brush to last for several years. Oil painting brushes are truly consumables. They use at least several or even dozens of them to paint a picture. And after one use, they become useless and need to be replaced next time."
"I don't know if you've ever seen those oil painters, poking and smearing a new brush on the paint, and then throwing it aside when they paint another color. After a while, the paint dries and it's useless, so they have to use a new one."
"Now that the college entrance examination has resumed, more and more people will learn oil painting, and the use of oil painting brushes will definitely increase significantly."
"The domestic demand for oil painting brushes will increase significantly in the future. And once they are finished, they can be exported abroad. Europe and the United States are all into oil painting, and their demand is much greater than in China. They can go abroad and go global. Director Ma and his men are making money from the Japanese devils, and in the future you can make money from the American devils and the European devils."
Everyone found Zhao Xiaohai's words interesting and laughed.
"Xiao Zhao, it's not time to talk about the Japs now. We're all international friends, international friends." Director Zheng reminded with a smile.
"We don't know how to make oil painting brushes, do we?" said Director Qian.
The oil-paper umbrella factory manager next to him smiled and said, "It's the same stick and the same tuft of hair, but one is round and the other is flat. It's easy for you pen makers to flatten and round it, isn't it?"
Everyone laughed again.
The director of the Jacquard Factory then interrupted, "Xiao Zhao, do you have any suggestions for our Jacquard Factory's backlog of goods?"
Zhao Xiaohai shook his head.
"I really don't have any suggestions for your jacquard factory. As long as the prices are low and the merchants can make a profit, your goods should not be difficult to sell on Dehua Street now."
The director of the jacquard factory had a smug smile on his face.
After glancing at the other factory managers, the meaning was very clear: look, there is no problem with our products, and we can sell them now.
Zhao Xiaohai continued:
"However, compared to large state-owned factories, Dehua Street is indeed too small. If you want to sell to merchants, it's probably unrealistic. I think you should consider the consignment sales model I mentioned. Otherwise, you won't be able to sell, the merchants won't have money, and you'll still be stuck in a vicious cycle."
The director of the jacquard factory nodded, this was indeed a practical problem.
Director Lu of the garment factory remained silent, listening to Zhao Xiaohai's analysis of each company one by one. After the other companies finished speaking, Director Lu finally spoke:
"Xiao Zhao, how about you help our garment factory analyze this?"
In fact, Zhao Xiaohai's purpose this time was to target the garment factory. Even if the profit was only 20% for a million-dollar business, he could still make 200,000.
Zhao Xiaohai was very interested in this business.
certainly,
Whether it succeeds or not depends on how he fools people.
In fact, much of what he and several other factory managers had said before was laying the groundwork for the conversation with the garment factory manager.
Zhao Xiaohai pretended to think about it and said to Director Lu, "Director Lu said during the meeting that the backlog of clothes in your factory is mainly due to some problems in connecting with the supply and marketing cooperative. There is no problem with the normal operation of the garment factory."
"I don't know much about costumes, so I won't give you any instructions."
"Let's just talk about the 350,000 pieces of children's clothing that are sitting on the backlog at the garment factories. Honestly, no one except the government could possibly afford them all. Even if all the merchants on Dehua Street were put together, they might not be able to come up with a million."
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