Volume 5 Chapter 33: Bottom line

"Oh?" Xu Yi asked in a surprised voice, "What trouble? Could it be that it is even more trouble than firing eighteen thousand workers at once?"

Kennard looked at Xu Yi with a gaze of hidden bitterness.

"Sir chairman, strictly speaking.....This trouble is because of the large scale layoffs."

"What does that mean? Tell me about it."

Kennard gave the report in his hand to Xu Yi, "This is the report I just made on our company's current orders, take a look."

Xu Yi took it and found that the data showed that there was a small drop in the current orders for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.

But this was something they expected. After all, no matter how much of an advantage the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had over the other companies, it was impossible for them to completely monopolize the entire magic machine market.

Because the large scale layoffs had affected the Frestech Chamber of Commerce's production capacity, there were many orders that didn't receive their cargo on time.

Even if the quality of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce's products were higher than the other companies, in order to obtain the magic machines they needed, there were many people who decided to order from other companies.

"What is the problem?" Xu Yi asked Kennard in a confused voice.

Kennard gave a bitter laugh, "Sir chairman, you still haven't noticed it? This is our current order count, but if we look at the time, we would find that in the past month, the orders that we received are close to half of what we received last year. This means that many buyers are losing confidence in our company, which is a serious problem."

Xu Yi revealed a faint smile and didn't look nervous at all.

"Losing confidence in us? That isn't true. I feel that they are only losing patience. As long as our company regains our production capacity, I'm certain that they will come back to order from our company again."

Kennard shook his head and gave a sigh, "Sir chairman, it would take a lot of effort to take back the market that was lost and the effects wouldn't be that good. Look, based on this report, in the markets of the Rudson Kingdom, the Mirando Duchy, the Drake Duchy, and the three small duchies that we just opened, there is a decrease in orders that isn't small. According to my data, just with the loss of these markets, we've already lost over two million gold coins. Adding in the three million two hundred and sixty thousand gold coins we paid to fire those eighteen thousand workers, we've already lost a terrifying five million gold coins on this matter!"

Seeing the angry look in Kennard's eyes, Xu Yi gave a shrug. Kennard as the CEO of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, when such an important matter with such serious losses appeared, he faced a large amount of pressure and it was no wonder he even formed a bit of bitterness in his heart towards him.

But Xu Yi didn't regret this decision at all.

After suddenly firing eighteen thousand workers who caused trouble with the strike, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce suddenly became stable.

The workers in the various factories of the company were all working normally now.

Even if the atmosphere was a bit more sombre compared to before, this actually made their work even more efficient.

Adding in the series of automatic production magic machines that Sancheli had developed, the efficiency of their factories had greatly increased.

Xu YI believed that if the workers had some more time to adapt, the production capacity of each factory would be higher than before they fired the eighteen thousand workers, overall enhancing the production capacity of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.

"Alright, to solve this problem completely, we can't avoid the losses. Compared to delaying it and letting this problem continue to exist, it is better to solve it before it affects the entire company. Although we've lost over five million gold coins at once, compared to solving this problem, I feel that the five million gold coins was worth it." Xu Yi said with a serious look.

Kennard was silent for a bit before slowly nodding.

Even if he felt pained over the company's losses this time, as the CEO in charge of managing the company, he knew better than Xu Yi how serious the problem behind the strike was.

Xu Yi's method for solving this was intense, but this method was the most complete way of solving it.

With Xu Yi solving this problem with no mercy at all, the remaining staff would all be loyal to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and wouldn't dare cause any trouble.

Moreover, Xu Yi even organized the workers union, giving the workers a normal way to give their opinion to the company. He had effectively avoided people causing strikes because of opinions they were keeping in, while also enhancing the cohesiveness of the company's workers.

It could be said that in the current Frestech Chamber of Commerce, compared to before the strike and the large scale layoffs, it operated much more smoothly and effectively.

As the CEO, Kennard deeply appreciated this.

So after he seriously calculated this, these two matters did negatively impact the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and cause losses of over five million gold coins.

Even if these were serious losses for other companies, with smaller companies that didn't have the same level of profit being destroyed and the first class companies considering these heavy losses, for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, it wasn't a loss that they couldn't accept.

The Frestech Chamber of Commerce had opened the markets in the surrounding countries and their products could be found all over. They also cooperated with each of those countries, so their profit kept increasing.

According to the current data, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce's net profit last month was a shocking one million four hundred and eighty thousand gold coins. It was an increase of more than half of their January profit of nine hundred and thirty thousand gold coins.

With this trend, by the end of the year, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce might even have a yearly profit of over fifteen million gold coins.

So even if the loss of five million gold coins wasn't small, it was still acceptable for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.

Not to mention that the main influence of these two matters were some delayed orders. Looking at it from a long term perspective, as long as the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had enough production capacity, with the high quality of the Frestech Brand magic machines, they would sell however many they produced. They didn't need to worry that it wouldn't sell and naturally they didn't need to worry that they wouldn't profit.

So what Kennard really felt was a problem was that the buyers had chosen to buy from other brands, making it harder for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to steal back that part of the market.

"This isn't a problem, actually.....this is what I wanted to see happen." Xu Yi said with a faint smile, "I've also considered how to let the other brands enter the new market, but now that this matter has happened and they went looking for the other brands themselves, it saved me quite a bit of energy."

Kennard couldn't help rolling his eyes.

After being with Xu Yi for this long, naturally he knew that Xu Yi always cared about spreading the magic machine industry across the continent. He didn't just want the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to dominate the continent alone.

For a normal merchant, having the market stolen from them was a thing they never wanted to see, but Xu Yi was actually happy to see it happen.

Thinking about it, Kennard didn't care about this problem anymore and moved to another problem.

"Sir chairman, although you have no opinions on the markets stolen, because of the influence of this matter, several countries have paused their intentions to cooperate with our company. The Norton and Ricafor Duchies are even turning to other companies, planning on cooperating with them in terms of magic machines instead. You have to at least take this seriously, right?"

"Un.....This is a problem. But this problem doesn't lie in them not cooperating with our company, rather that it will cause those two duchies to walk the wrong path if they cooperate with other companies. They will waste their time and manpower, which might even turn those two duchies off the magic machine industry, which isn't good."

Xu Yi was silent for a bit before continuing, "How about this, investigate which companies those two duchies are cooperating with and then we'll find those companies, giving them some standards that we made, hoping that they will strictly follow them. If they aren't willing, they can suffer the consequences themselves."

Xu YI's tone was very calm, but there was an absolute dominating tone in his voice.

The Frestech Chamber of Commerce completely controlled the magic machine industry, so Xu Yi had the confidence to say these words.

Kennard wasn't surprised at all, he just nodded in agreement.

"Then what about the Norton and Ricafor Duchies? What should we do about them?" Kennard asked.

"Send people to contact them, tell them that our company is willing to cooperate with them on magic machines that other companies can't cooperate with them on." Xu Yi replied.

Kennard was surprised, "Sir chairman, you mean......"

Xu Yi nodded, "Yes, our company is willing to take out a portion of the production magic machines for them."

"Then what about the military magic machines?" Kennard carefully asked.

Xu Yi glared at him, "What do you think?"

Seeing Xu Yi's expression, Kennard let out a sigh of relief and calmed down.

No matter how generous sir chairman was, how he thought of the other companies, how he wanted to spread the magic machine industry on the continent, there was a bottom line in his heart.

The military magic machines were the sole weapons of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, which could be considered their greatest trump card.

Before the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was strong enough that no one could oppose them, it was best to hold this tightly in their hands for now.