This Is How I Became a Chaebol

007 : comet group

“I’ll look over some papers for a while, so go down and do some work.”

“Yes, boss.”

The acquisition has not yet been completed, but it is treated like a president.

I had to find the company ledger.

No matter how much the previous president did the factory operation, there will be a ledger.

You need to know how much raw materials you bought and how much fixed expenses such as electricity bills were to run the factory.

If the president fails to calculate the basic operating expenses, it is only a matter of time before the company goes bankrupt.

“bingo!”

I looked through the papers and found a ledger.

In the meantime, it was made of a hard hard cover, so there were no torn places.

Ordered 12,000 yards of nylon/cotton blend

– Supply of 4,000 pounds of yarn.

– Gabone 120 denier yarn: 60 cents/pound (weight)

– Koryo Nylon 120 denier yarn: 80 cents/lb

“pound? You buy yarn by weight. It costs £4,000 to spin 12,000 yards, so it seems like you can spin 3 yards of fabric per pound.”

Yarn refers to thread, so my guess is correct.

And it seems that there were two suppliers.

A place called Gabone and a place called Goryeo Nairong.

‘Gabone seems to be a Japanese company, but is 120 denier a material specification?’

Denier, denier… I thought I heard it somewhere.

I didn’t think it was the thickness of the thread.

‘Like it… Could it be that they used contraband as yarn? You did a lot of things, you bastard.’

A portman was a term referring to a smuggler who secretly stole goods from a US military base or port.

When I was young, I saw the sweetfish I heard in the ironworks alley again after decades.

Well, at that time, smuggled goods were cheaper than domestic goods and the quality was good, so bullies preferred it.

By the way, the price of Japanese yarn was 60 cents and domestic yarn was 80 cents? If the original price was 25% cheaper, I would have risked my life to smuggle it.

“Hey, class president!”

“Yes!”

“Yes, boss.”

“Did you call me?”

I stuck my head out through the small window in the wall and called for the old class president. I meant to ask any one of the three, Seong-gu/Yong-gu/Dong-gu, but all three looked at me.

It was very comfortable.

“Did you use 120 denier yarn here?”

“Yes. Fabrics for pajamas and shirts should be woven at 120 denier. It feels soft to the touch.”

“I used 300 denier a few years ago, but it’s too rough and the yarn is expensive, so I don’t use it anymore.”

Okay, denier is the thickness of the yarn.

“Is there a yarn supplier around here?”

“Everyone is gathered on the new street across the street. If you go out to the boulevard, you will find it easily.”

“Are you using heirloom yarn most of the time here?”

“Yes, of course. Italian-made threads aren’t too expensive.”

For some reason, it felt like the class presidents were taking imported yarn for granted.

“Didn’t you use Korean yarn?”

“That… well, I want to use it, but it keeps breaking and fluffing a lot, so the quality is really poor. The unit price is also more expensive than foreign products.”

Looking at the class presidents frowning at the word “made in Korea,” the quality must be really poor.

“okay?”

I’ll have to compare the quality myself.

If you don’t want to do it, you should at least write it all at once, is there anything special?

We need to produce fabric right now, but we can’t start with the localization of yarn.

Anyway, I was lucky to find this factory.

It seemed that if I picked the fabric directly from my factory, I would be able to set the unit price and quality specifications when entrusting the subcontractor.

It was difficult, but it felt like the problem was being solved step by step.

**

「Gabone Agency」

I got out of the complex and came out to the main street. Finding a yarn dealer wasn’t too difficult.

“If you don’t know what Gabonane is, get out of here, that’s it.”

If it’s a signboard, it’s natural to write an explanation of ‘what kind of specialty store’ under the name.

However, on the signboard here, there was no such explanation, just “go home” written in large letters.

with my daughter with my daughter

“Are you there?”

“welcome. Where are you from?”

When I opened the door and entered, a female employee greeted me.

If you are a common merchant, you seem to be filtered out of the female employee line.

Ironically, the atmosphere of the supermarket was full.

At most, it is a company that sells yarn.

“I came out of mainstream unemployment. I’m here to buy nylon yarn.”

I haven’t had a business card since a while ago, so I’m not in a good mood.

I want to dig a business card right now.

“What kind of nylon yarn?”

“I am looking for nylon-cotton blend yarn for tricots. In 120 denier.”

I answered confidently.

It was because Sambok confirmed that the fabric was a tricot type, and the former class leaders said that they use 120 denier fabric for shirts and pajamas.

It is clear that if I export my fabric to Singapore, I will make shirts and pajamas.

“president!! A guest has arrived. president!”

“Miss Kim, what’s wrong?”

“A customer is looking for 120 denier nylon-cotton blend yarn for a tricot.”

The female employee called the boss right away, as if my order had managed to exceed the beginner level.

“Oh, welcome..”

“I am Woo Chan-soo, the president of Daesae Unemployment. Can I see some nylon cotton blend yarn? I wish I could show you a sample.”

“Yes, come this way. Our Gabone has products with various blends from 5% to 65% cotton.”

When I went back to the back of the counter, yarn samples were lined up on a long table, and sample fabrics were placed next to them so that I could feel the touch.

It seems that Gabonesa’s Korean branch has its own dignity, right?

“I would like to purchase these models as samples.”

The texture of several models was similar to the yarn I was looking for. I thought I would just bring it as a sample, weave the fabric, and find the optimal mixing ratio.

In the 21st century, all you have to do is send the sample fabric Razak chose to the National Testing & Research Institute and ask them to analyze the percentage of cotton and nylon mixed.

At a time when there was no basic analysis equipment such as an electron microscope, let alone a test laboratory, there was no choice but to solve any problem through trial and error.

“If it is a sample, we have to supply it as much as we can. By the way, how much mass production do you need…”

“Since it is 500,000 yards in terms of fabric, I think we will need about 200,000 pounds in terms of yarn.”

“Heh heh! 200,000 pounds?”

“What is the unit price? I think it should be less than 60 cents per pound…”

When I said 60 cents per pound, the head of the Gabone branch changed his eyes.

I noticed that I came to know the final delivery price.

“Hmm, Miss Kim. Grab a cup of coffee or something. I have something to talk about with you.”

“Yes, boss.”

He sent the female employee over the partition and pulled me into his private office.

There was a small table and a soft sofa, so it was suitable for conversation.

“President Wu, how many barter tickets do you have?”

“A barter ticket?”

what? Barter right out of the blue?

Isn’t barter a word that means barter?

No matter how much it is in the 1960s, it is not the 18th century Age of Discovery, what kind of transaction is barter?

“Eh? Don’t have a barter ticket? Are you really saying we should use carriers for all the 200,000-pound cargo?”

What are you talking about? What is a barter ticket?

This isn’t some kind of second-hand Oi Market, and you need a barter ticket!

You can make official deliveries. What are you talking about smuggling?

“Well, I have no intention of using a carrier, and I plan to get the rest of the supplies from Koryo Nylon except for the delivery of Gabone from 200,000 pounds.”

“…you get the rest from Koryo Nylon? Are you willing to take such a loss?”

“What, what can I do?”

“Phew, it looks like you’ve already used up your barter ticket. Well, since that bastard’s import and export interlocking system is applied in all directions, there is no barter right left.”

‘Export-import interlocking system!’

I was alerted to the word import-export interlocking system.

Seniors said that in the 1960s and 1970s, even traders could not properly use dollars due to chronic foreign exchange shortages in Korea.

For example, cement materials such as limestone are laid down in the stream, but they could not become self-sufficient in cement because they could not import cement to build a cement factory.

So, as a desperate measure, the government’s solution was to allow raw materials to be imported as much as they were exported.

For example, if we export fabrics, we can import the same amount of yarn.

The problem is that I’m exporting this much fabric, so I can’t seem to understand how to import this amount of yarn. First of all, there had to be an export record.

‘Hey, I get it now. Small-scale chemical fiber manufacturers who could not export due to the import-export linkage system had no choice but to use expensive and low-quality domestic yarn to eat mustard while crying. If you don’t like that, you smuggled the yarn!’

I can understand why smuggling is prevalent on this floor.

Koryo nylons, a domestic company, are doing business with the guts of domestic textile manufacturers.

Somehow, the unit price was 25% higher than that of imported products.

The previous boss also used smuggled goods.

“The carrier is a bit different, is there any other way?”

I had no intention of buying Gabonane yarn.

I saw the difference in quality, got a quote, and stopped by to cut the price of domestic yarn, but the situation became strange.

“It is difficult to earn a full income without barter rights.”

“Regular income is difficult…”

It seems there is a way.

“It is not that there is no way. You said you were exporting 500,000 yards?”

“It was.”

“Then, you will get the barter right after exporting. Could you write a contract saying that you will hand over the barter right to me?”

“… what if you do that?”

“Then I will contact the head office of Gabone and borrow a dollar. Why don’t you just import 50,000 pounds and give President Woo the barter right as soon as he gets it?”

Ugh, the barter bill itself is like a dollar.

No, since it is a right guaranteed by the Korean government, it is rather like an import/export letter of credit.

If you get a barter right, you can sell it to a trader for a premium.

“Good idea. I heard it well, and I will look back and come back some other time.”

“Oh, yes. There will be no place that lends even a dollar at 60 cents per unit.”

“In case you don’t know, you should look back, right?”

“If you are going to visit Goryeo Nairong, please stop. The technology of the Joseon guy is hot pants, so he can’t make 100% nylon yarn properly, let alone mixed yarn. Once the nylon thread breaks, the fabric must be discarded. In fact, Japanese imperialism is the best.”

“Oops. okay.”

damn guy…

No matter how much you are a merchant, you talk harshly.

It’s not domestic technology, but the Joseon bastard’s technology is hot pants?

Even though it’s the 1960s, it’s been 20 years since we escaped the Japanese colonial era.

“Look around and come back. I’ll wait.”

The branch manager of Gabone saw me off with a smile, as if he was confident.

I didn’t really like what you said, but I could get a rough idea of how trade worked in this era.

Until the early 1970s, it was understandable that domestic companies were ignorant of the overseas market.

At that time, entrepreneurs thought that if they exported, they would often lose money, but the real meaning was that it was much wiser to hit the domestic market with smuggling rather than exporting.

The lack of dollars for trade, the prevalence of smuggling, and the domestic forerunners monopolizing the domestic market, I wondered if the government had to encourage exports under these circumstances.

Developing countries are bound to fall into a vicious cycle if a button is worn incorrectly.

The generation before me who got through this situation is amazing.

‘After all, that means there was an innovator that got through this situation… where is that?’

Perhaps Koryo nylons are not the main characters.

Didn’t they say that they monopolized the domestic yarn market and that the quality was bad?

There was no way that a company that is doing well right now would innovate.

Innovative companies always rise above desperate situations.

If I had worked in the textile industry, I would have known which companies became the protagonists of innovation around this time.

Originally in history, since the end of the 1960s, Korea’s textile exports have increased tremendously, so it was normal to have a company that stands out around this time.

“Comet nylon”

“uh?”

As I walked, thinking, I strayed from the main road.

A shabby building appeared in front of me.

It was like a factory renovated from a tile-roofed house, and the signboard phrase ‘Comet Nylon’ did not come off my eyes.

Wasn’t nylon called nylon in the 60’s?

It was like using the 21st century standard term nylon, and the name comet was somehow familiar.

‘Comet… Comet… Could it be that comet group?’

Isn’t the Hyesung Group a chemical conglomerate?

In the 21st century, the main business is oil refining, but it could have started with chemical fibers.

Because the chemical fiber and oil refining industries are technically related.

It was a familiar group because they had experience participating in the Hyesung Group’s oil refinery expansion construction several times when they worked at Daesei Construction in their previous lives.

drooling.

“Are you there?”

I opened the shabby sliding door with ground glass and poked my head into the factory.