Chapter 486 Marketing Promotion
After Odaye signed the contract with Idar, funds, machinery, and technical workers soon came to Berenburg. Odaye has been running the flour mill for more than ten years and has trained a large number of mature workers.
With capable workers as the backbone, the new flour mill was successfully operated in less than three months through the old and the new.
Although Odaye paid technical workers higher wages than the local area, ordinary workers lowered the cost.
In the local area of Harland, the labor cost has begun to rise in recent years.
Taking the two provinces of Central and Black River as an example, the factory needs to pay four silver coins a month for each worker, and the working hours cannot exceed twelve hours a day. The canteen must provide free meals, fifteen days of vacation a year, and labor insurance costs such as gloves and work clothes must be paid.
In the Rex Province, through negotiations with government departments, as long as three full meals can be provided, two silver coins a month can recruit contract slaves to work. The factory can force contract slaves to work fifteen or sixteen hours, and there is no vacation all year round.
From the perspective of labor costs, opening a factory in the Rex Province can greatly reduce costs.
After the flour was produced, Odaye personally came to Kanas Castle to sell flour to the bakery, high-end restaurants, and wealthy freemen in the castle.
After the large-scale production of white flour in the Haland Territory, selected flour was no longer exclusive to the nobles.
With the circulation of trade, fine white flour gradually appeared in Kanas Castle, and even in the Kingdom of Sis and the Kingdom of Parame in the south, there was a small amount of flour produced by the Kingdom of Haland in circulation.
However, due to the distance of thousands of kilometers and the high logistics and transportation costs, the price of flour in Kanas Castle is very expensive. Now the flour market in Rex Province is as high as 16 copper coins per kilogram. This price is already eight times the level of wealthy provinces such as the Central and Heihe of the Kingdom of Haland, and more than five times higher than the poor areas such as Prilan and the East Coast.
Don't think it's expensive. In Hawkins and Auxerre Castle in the Kingdom of Parame, the price of white flour is as high as three silver coins per kilogram.
If it was three years ago, one kilogram of selected flour in Kanas Castle was also sold for one silver coin, and ten years ago, selected white flour was exclusive to the nobles. Even wealthy nobles cannot buy selected white flour.
The current price is half of what it was three years ago, mainly because of ocean trade, which saves logistics costs.
The Dawn Plane is a little different from Richard's previous life. The ocean is extremely dangerous, and it is difficult for ocean trade to circulate on a large scale.
Harland has accumulated for many years, but there are only more than 20 magic ships, which are mainly used to transport troops.
Magic ships are basically main warships, and there is not much tonnage to transport goods. The remaining more than 60 steam cars are distributed on a coastline of nearly 3,000 kilometers. The transportation capacity is far from enough, and not much flour can be transported all year round.
Although the logistics cost has been reduced a lot compared to a few years ago, the price of flour is still at a high level because of the scarcity of things.
Although the Odaye Flour Mill has just started operation, it can still produce 20 tons of flour every day. As the factory gets on track, there is still room for expansion of production capacity, which can reach 40 to 50 tons per day.
Even if it is placed in the Kingdom of Harland, the annual output value of this factory exceeds 80,000 gold coins, which has a significant boost to the local economy.
Odaye personally acted as a salesman, negotiated and signed contracts with some big customers. Although he was a noble, he was approachable in the business world. Odaye and Imhotun were both truly smart people. Although they pursued interests and ignored life, they also knew who was their friend and who was their enemy.
For the merchant class of the Kingdom of Harland, both of them would strongly support it. Only by increasing the number of business nobles and then sticking together, their embarrassing situation in the noble parliament could be alleviated.
Although the way Hayden and Rogge were ennobled was the same as Odaye and Imhotun, there was a fundamental difference between the two sides. Hayden and Rogge were blood relatives of the king and queen. They were ennobled with external forces, and military nobles were acceptable.
In the history of the Dawn Plane, kings liked to let their relatives follow the generals to fight in the battles. The situation of Rogge and Hayden was similar to this.
Moreover, these two people were important officials of the Kingdom of Harland, with high positions and power. The hereditary nobles also knew the pros and cons and dared not easily provoke the two.
Odaye and Imhotun were both businessmen, and their foundation was not deep. The process of their ennoblement violated tradition, and the hereditary nobles did not agree with their status at all.
It was difficult for business nobles like Odaye and Immorton to marry with traditional military nobles, and it was almost impossible for them to integrate into the military noble class.
Odaye also had the background of the First Squadron, and his children had old comrades such as Sura and Jennings willing to marry, while Immorton's children now even had problems with marriage. The eldest son was over 30 years old and had not married.
Immorton became a hereditary noble, and it was difficult for him to accept his children marrying ordinary people. After all, his thoughts were those of aboriginals, and he was far less open-minded than Richard.
The reality was like this, and both of them were willing to help the younger generation. Last year, the two of them took out their savings and lent Rand 30,000 gold coins, and personally came forward to help Rand recruit ruthless mercenaries, hoping to support Rand to the hereditary noble class.
Rand was Mrs. Ola's brother. Thirty years ago, he relied on William to become a big businessman in Black River Castle.
When Richard started to manage the territory, Rand and Mrs. Ola both lent a lot of money.
More than a decade ago, William went south, and Rand followed William to the southern region. Although he made a lot of money with the help of William's background, the speed of capital development was far behind that of Odaye, Immorton and others who ran factories.
Originally, Rand developed very smoothly in the south. He was a businessman behind William and could often go in and out of William's mansion. Compared with his father, he was successful in speculation and reached the peak of his life.
But when he heard the news that Odaye and Immorton were promoted to hereditary nobles, he was very sad and full of envy for Immorton and Odaye's life experiences.
Although William respected his brother-in-law very much, it was impossible for him to go against tradition and promote him to the hereditary noble class, let alone to divide a piece from his own territory and give it to him to inherit.
The dukedom under William's name had already selected an heir. Only Richard's lineage had the right to inherit, and small pieces of scattered territories were distributed to Ron, George and others. After all, the most critical reason why William could be promoted to a legend, make great achievements, and be awarded the title of duke was Richard's support behind the scenes.
If William chose other heirs, it would definitely cause internal conflicts. The strength of Ron, George and others is not comparable to that of Richard's lineage. Not letting Richard's lineage inherit is actually letting Richard's brothers die in vain.
After carefully weighing the pros and cons, Rand asked William for a letter and returned to the Kingdom of Harland.
Rand has followed William for many years and also has a large amount of funds in his hands. There are 60,000 gold coins in cash alone, and his business channels can also make thousands of gold coins in profit a year.
After arriving at Prilan Castle, Rand formed a mercenary group, eliminated many undead, and seized a large number of soul crystals, but the gold coins in his hands were seriously consumed and gradually insufficient.
Seeing that half of the war merits were accumulated, the gold coins were not enough, Rand could only ask for help from the local Chamber of Commerce. In the end, Odaye and Immorton joined forces to lend him 30,000 gold coins to help him overcome the difficulties. Now Rand has accumulated eight great merits and four medium merits, and he will soon be able to be successfully knighted and become the third noble merchant.
Odaye negotiated with seven major customers and reached a supply contract of 100 tons of flour per month.
After winning the seven major customers, Odaye almost monopolized half of the civilian market in Kanas Castle, which greatly reduced the pressure on the sales department of the Berenberg Flour Mill.
After winning the major customers, Odaye also planned to open a flour sales store on the most prosperous street in Kanas Castle to do retail business, mainly serving the free people of Kanas Castle.
Of course, the most critical step in the sales strategy was that he planned to go to Rex Magic Academy in person to discuss with the dean Capeson and sign a long-term supply contract with the magic academy at a low price. This low price is roughly the same as the local wholesale price of the Kingdom of Harland.
Rex Magic Academy has the foundation laid by the East Coast United Kingdom and now has more than 200 teachers and more than 4,000 students.
With the occupation of the Kingdom of Harland by Rex Province, the six-ring magician Capeson became the dean. There were two vice-deans, one of whom was a surrendered person from the former East Coast Mage Association. This person was named Lucien, an eight-ring magician with a complete magic inheritance. The other vice president is Capeson's old friend Roentgen.
The East Coast Magic Association has five presidents, one president and four vice presidents. More than a decade ago, the vice president, the eight-ring magician Saren, died at the hands of Sofia.
Three years ago, the vice president, the nine-ring magician Harbert, was killed by Sutton's sneak attack.
After the Kanas Castle was breached, President Neo fled to the Magic Kingdom of Markholm. The vice president, the eight-ring magician Crime, followed the army to command the magician group and disappeared in the war.
Among the five presidents, only the vice president Lucien stayed in the magic academy and surrendered to the Harland people.
Although Lucien's professional level was higher than Capeson, Richard still didn't trust him. After forcing him to surrender, he signed a 30-year service contract and would only keep his promise to release him after 30 years. So Lucien could only serve as the vice president and cooperate with Capeson and Roentgen.
Capeson's meditation method was incomplete. He could only meditate to the fifth ring. After joining the Harland Mage Association, he read many novel papers and deduced to make up for the sixth ring. Although he has good magic talent, his IQ is not smart enough. He is not good at magic research. He is very slow in deducing meditation methods. It is difficult for him to be promoted to the seventh ring in this life. From this point of view, he is not as good as his old friend Roentgen.
But it is precisely because of his hopeless future that Capeson has enough time to manage the magic academy and teach people.
Rex Magic is the focus of the Harland Kingdom. The annual funding is very high. Even for students who have just entered the academy, each person will be allocated three gold coins for logistics support. The teachers of the academy are formal magicians and have accumulated strong capital.
As long as the flour is sold to the Rex Magic Academy, it is enough to sell thousands of tons a year.
Odaye has set his sights on this market, and his vision is indeed good.
In addition to the Rex Magic Academy, there is another big market for military supply.
According to the living standards of the Harland Kingdom, the army basically supplies white flour, but when going out to fight, food and fodder are searched locally as much as possible, and it is difficult to eat white flour.
The garrison of Harland in the Duke of Rex, apart from rice, can only eat black bread and wheat rice most of the time, and can only eat white flour once a month.
Rex Province has 40,000 garrisons, and each soldier consumes 200 kilograms of flour per year on average, so 4,000 tons of flour must be provided per year.
4,000 tons of flour is already one-third of the production capacity of the Odaye factory at full speed.
But if you want to get military logistics orders, you need to get through the connections at the top. Odaye alone doesn't have that much face, and Jennings needs to come forward to open up the connections.
Just when Odaye was trying to expand the market, Richard heard his news and summoned Odaye to the official residence.
"You are also a veteran of the First Squadron, so you don't need to be so reserved."
Seeing Odaye lowering his head cautiously, like a trembling quail, Richard pulled him to his seat. Richard has always been relatively tolerant of officers and soldiers who came out of the military system, and now he still occasionally takes time to meet retired veterans.
The Kingdom of Harland is a centralized militaristic country. The officers and soldiers have sacrificed their lives for many years and are the reason why Richard wears the crown. Richard is very clear about this.
Therefore, anyone who comes from the military system will have a higher reputation with Richard.
Odaye bowed respectfully to Richard and said with a trembling voice: "I am still very excited to see His Majesty the Kingdom again. Can I take the liberty to ask if there is anything you need me to do when His Majesty summons me? matter?"
Odaye is indeed loyal to Richard in his heart, because Richard is the person who changed his destiny.
Thirty years ago, the Odaye family became slaves and lived an extremely difficult life. Not only is dignity lost, life safety is also not guaranteed.
In the slave market, Odaye's family contracted the plague, and it was Richard who saved their lives. From that moment on, Odaye was willing to fight for Richard.
A few years later, Odaye retired from the army due to injury. Richard did not abandon him, but arranged for him to enter the army clothing factory to recuperate. Over the next twenty years, Richard liberalized the market and issued decrees that allowed Odaye to earn a large amount of money. Then it was Richard who promoted the policy of soul crystallization in exchange for meritorious service, so that Odaye could break the tradition and successfully become a knight.
Richard is a noble person in Odaye's life. He has changed his destiny several times. He has joined Harland for thirty years. Odaye has always had a high sense of gratitude towards Richard. Compared with traditional nobles, capitalist nobles such as Odaye and Immorton are more loyal to Richard from the bottom of their hearts.