1994: Starting with unpaid leave

Over the next few days, Dong Jianguo was extremely busy.

The first thing to do is to solve the problem of finding a source of chicken feet.

Previously, Xiuyun would make her own braised dishes one pot at a time for fun, and she could just buy the raw materials at the market.

However, once they are ready to start mass production, the source of goods becomes the first problem that needs to be solved.

Fortunately, Dong Jianguo had good relationships with several large farms in Angxi District, and he spoke to a few familiar farm secretaries about the matter.

Without saying a word, Secretary Guo immediately agreed to allocate a portion of the chicken cut-up business, which was originally sold to the son of the weighing instrument factory director, to him.

However, the secretaries who came to discuss the matter together were a little worried because they had been cooperating with Xiao Liu from the weighing instrument factory since the grain coupons were invalidated, which was almost a year ago.

Now, suddenly dividing things up, even something as insignificant as chicken feet, makes me worry that there might be some misunderstanding between the two sides.

"Old Guo, isn't doing this a bit inappropriate?"

"What's wrong with him? Little Liu is just not a good kid."

"The cut-up chickens we sold to him, that kid has been trying to drive down the price several times, now the price we're selling them to him for is barely covering the cost! If this keeps up, everyone might as well just give up their farms and give them all to him!"

Dong Jianguo didn't want to put Secretary Guo in a difficult position either.

"Uncle Guo, how about we pretend I didn't ask? I'll ask the power grid and those farms in Keshan..."

"What's so difficult about that! I'm the farm's Party Secretary. Even if the weighing scale factory director himself stood in front of me, I'd still sell it to you!"

"This is what a market economy is all about! I can sell to whomever I want!"

Seeing that Uncle Guo insisted, Dong Jianguo didn't say anything more. Anyway, he only wanted the chicken feet, which were scraps from the whole chicken. Even if he sold them to himself, it shouldn't be a big problem.

Moreover, the wholesale and retail prices of chicken feet are about the same as those of eggs, so this small profit shouldn't cause any trouble for me.

Dong Jianguo ultimately chose to sign purchase agreements with the four farms that initially supplied him with eggs.

Chicken feet were purchased from four farms at the same price as eggs.

It's convenient to ship the goods along with the truck.

In addition, he also contacted several other egg suppliers so that they could replenish the supply in time should there be any problems.

Having solved the supply problem, the factory still needs to add new equipment.

The production efficiency of the factory workshop equipment is fixed. After new employees come in, the efficiency of the packaging process, which was previously a bottleneck, will be greatly improved. Therefore, more equipment will be needed to produce braised eggs and braised chicken feet in order to further increase production capacity.

Also, chicken feet are meat products, unlike eggs, so you need to find a cold storage facility to rent a warehouse for storing frozen chicken feet.

Renting the cold storage ourselves is fine as long as the money is in place, but we need to hire a truck for each shipment.

The equipment was still obtained with the help of the second uncle.

During this time, his two cousins ​​worked with him in the egg business and made quite a bit of money.

So the second uncle was very concerned about his affairs.

So the factory added two more braising pots and a high-temperature sterilization device...

Along with the equipment, a telephone line also arrived at the factory.

The phone number I applied for has finally arrived, so I won't have to keep looking for convenience stores to use my pager anymore.

After the telephone installers left, the factory's long-time employees were all overjoyed.

In large companies, having a telephone is not unusual.

But for a private factory, being able to afford a landline in 94 was something to be proud of.

Seeing everyone's excitement, Dong Jianguo patted his chest and guaranteed that in less than two years, every employee in the factory would have a telephone at home...

……

Harvest comes from being busy.

The day after the new equipment arrived at the factory, the certificates of conformity for the pickled chicken feet and the health certificates for the three new employees were issued at the same time.

Not only has the factory become more popular, but orders have also increased significantly.

Harbin Railway Bureau placed a second order.

Because of its low price and decent taste, Tsuru no Mi braised eggs sell quite well on trains.

Director Zhang simply increased the purchase volume significantly all at once.

In the second order, the number of braised eggs with meat gravy increased to 800 boxes.

Including the braised eggs with five-spice flavor, the number of orders exceeded a thousand.

Moreover, the orders are not limited to railway bureaus.

Because he slyly printed his pager number on the packaging, seven or eight passengers who had eaten braised eggs on the train had already paged him, expressing their desire to cooperate and try wholesaling the products.

Dong Jianguo returned a few calls, but because the order volume was too small, the effort wouldn't even cover the travel expenses.

When the train was being shipped, the shipper was worried about not receiving payment, and the recipient was worried about not receiving the goods after paying, so they ultimately had to give up.

Fortunately, he wasn't in a hurry; he was willing to wait and would eventually find a suitable partner.

The sales staff's on-the-ground sales orders have been developing quite well these past few days.

Although it can't compare to the large orders from the Harbin Railway Bureau, we're still getting more than 50 boxes a day. Yesterday, there was a huge surge, with the three ground sales representatives getting a whopping 100 boxes in orders.

Besides the braised eggs, Dong Jianguo also made some adjustments to the packaging of the pickled chicken feet.

At the work meeting, he proposed changing the original 200g large bag packaging for gifting to 100g/bag, with the ex-factory price set at 80 cents per bag, and 8 yuan for a box of 100 bags.

Although the price is not high, the profit is much higher than selling braised eggs.

Erzhuzi was somewhat puzzled by his actions.

"Brother Jianguo, this packaging and weighing process is more troublesome, and the profit per bag will decrease... If we pack a little more into each bag like before, the work efficiency will be much higher..."

Before Dong Jianguo could answer, saleswoman Gao Cailing provided the answer for him: "But this way it will sell better. The retail price depends on the customer base you can reach."

Seeing that Wu Qianzhu still looked confused, Gao Cailing gave an example:

"Look, our 100g chicken feet cost 8 cents at the factory, but let's say they sell for 1.5 yuan at a convenience store."

"If it's 200g of chicken feet, the factory price is 1.6 yuan, and let's assume the convenience store sells it for 3 yuan."

"I understand, but what's the problem?" Erzhuzi scratched his head, not quite grasping the key point.

Instead, Zhao Hongmei raised her hand and answered quickly: "I get it! Someone who wants to buy snacks but only has two yuan on them certainly wouldn't consider our product, right?"

"That's right!" Gao Cailing nodded to Sister Hongmei, then fell silent again.

After everything regarding the chicken feet was settled, Dong Jianguo immediately contacted Director Zhang in Harbin.

Director Zhang didn't hesitate and immediately placed an order for 500 boxes to show his support.

"Xiao Dong, just keep up the good work. As long as the quality is good, we'll get even more orders in the future!"

With Director Zhang's approval, Dong Jianguo went all out.

Dong Jianguo instructed Zhao Hongmei to arrange for 10 laid-off female workers from the textile factory to undergo physical examinations and obtain health certificates, according to the previous list.

Once these people are in place, production capacity can be increased to another level.

Looking at the increasingly bustling factory, Dong Jianguo felt that he might have rented too small a factory building from the beginning...

"People should not underestimate themselves."