Chapter 1062: Dealerships (2/3)
Kochi, the economic capital of Cheranadu.
The Kulashekaran Kirana Store in Kochi was not located in the city’s prime business district, but rather on a road that connected to the busiest junction, Kedarnath Junction. This junction led directly to the Port of Kochi, one of the empire’s major ports with a weekly throughput of tens of thousands of tonnes. It was also connected to the Shivaji Shipyard, one of the largest in the empire, and the adjacent Shivaji Industrial Park, which housed all the supporting industries for the shipyard. Together, the shipyard, industrial park, and several smaller shipyards formed the Kochi Shipbuilding Special Economic Zone.
So, despite being a simple Kirana shop, the business is usually alright, and there is a profit of a few thousand Varaha per day after accounting for the salaries of the employees and maintenance of the shop itself.
For locals, it has become a habit to visit the Kirana store for whatever little things they need, but today they were shocked to discover that the store was being dismantled and all the cupboards were being taken out.
" What happened here? What are you guys doing? "
An old woman who usually purchases a litre of milk daily from the Kirana store asked in surprise as she covered her mouth.
The workers hired to clean out the shop momentarily stopped what they were doing and looked at a particular man.
The man, rubbing his brow, asked the workers to continue what they were doing and came out of the shop.
" All the stock in the store has been sold out, old aunt. The owners have decided to remodel the store and make it into a car dealership. "
Hearing the reason, the grandmother was deeply disappointed. The shop was only a few hundred metres away from her home, making it very convenient to walk to, and she liked to talk with the girl who usually ran the shop. Unfortunately, it looks like her days are going to be long once again.
She grew up in a poor village in the countryside. Her family was not always so rich. She, along with her son and daughter-in-law, only settled in Kochi a few years ago when her son decided to open a factory here. Being old, she could not adapt to the new environment quickly enough, so she did not have too many people she could talk to. The young girl who ran the store for the Kulashekaran Company was one of the few who could talk to her to relieve her boredom.
Letting out a deep sigh of regret, she turned around and was about to leave, but, getting curious, she looked at the young man who came out.
" What car dealership is it anyway? "
The contractor who was about to go in smiled, hearing the question, " It’s an Aakarsh Mobility showroom, apparently the owners will be selling the A-7. " His face was filled with pride for being able to get such a contract. If the showroom becomes famous, then his interior design business will also get a boost throughout the state, and maybe he can even take his business to other states.
The contractor was stuck in his fantasy, but the old woman was no different either, because she remembered her son constantly mumbling about purchasing an A-7, and though her ability to accept new things has become very bad, she is still sane enough to realise the massive changes that are taking place in the empire. She also knows what a car is, so when the contractor boy told her that the shop will be selling the car her son is obsessed with, she didn’t hesitate anymore and quickly sent a servant to inform her son about what she had just seen.
The work at the shop continued, and soon the banner that was ordered arrived. The contractor, looking at the banner, nodded in satisfaction and immediately put up the banner, which said, "Aakarsh Mobility showroom coming soon," and continued to urge his workers to quicken their hands. At least now he no longer had to answer every customer who came to the door.
What he did not expect was that hanging up the poster caused more commotion outside the street. The shop was in a location that, along with many other streets, was the gateway to the Shivaji Industrial Park and the port, and saw a lot of new people going through it daily. So, when the poster of the most sought-after car in the empire, the A-7, was attached, it immediately caused a group of people to gather around the shop.
The group was diverse, ranging from people from nearby cities, people from other states, people from northern parts of the empire, and even people from other countries. In fact, there were even a few onlookers who were from Europe.
All of them might not necessarily want to purchase the car, but they surely were drawn to the store that would be selling the most iconic car in the empire, similar to how women will be drawn to exotic jewellery, or men drawn to hypercars and supercars, despite not being able to afford them.
Such scenes were not only happening in Kochi but also in various other cities where the Kulashekaran Kirana Stores were present.
" Manager, use all the funds we received to quicken the pace of getting the showrooms ready. "
" Aakarsh Mobility is ready to ship as soon as we place the orders. " Sheila Kulashekaran urged.
Their plan to contact other dealerships across the state, which sold cars from various companies, turned out to be a huge success, especially with those handling models like the Vishwakarma V-1, Brown B-6, Dravida D4, and other vehicles aimed at middle-class and lower-middle-class buyers.
Although showrooms selling the H&B Veer, Surya S12, and Kashi VK-3 refused to cooperate, since those cars competed in the same segment as the A-7, Sheila wasn’t disappointed. What she had secured was already more than enough. Most of the showrooms agreed to purchase a permit to sell the A-7 in their own stores in exchange for 35% of their company’s profits, while a few preferred to accept fixed commissions instead.
In the end, it didn’t matter either way. By selling the permits to these showrooms, Sheila managed to recover over 1.65 million in funds, regaining nearly half of her investment in bidding for the dealership rights in Cheranadu.
The manager, clearly knowing this, did not oppose the boss’s radical order, at least not when he did not want to be conservative either. He clearly knew that this was a situation where efficiency was the key; the faster their shops opened, the faster the money rolled in.
" Also, manager, the partner showrooms are already urging us to accept the orders. I think we don’t have to wait anymore, we can start taking pre-bookings and recover some more money."
"We currently have a credit line of 200 cars promised to us, and if we manage to sell all of these stocks by the time our showrooms are ready, we might be able to order more."
" I’ll talk to the accounts manager to allocate the finances. While you have the salesgirls, managers, and accountants who’ve been newly employed, briefed, and are starting to accept pre-orders in our shops, even if they are under repair. "
"Yes, boss. Please leave it to me."
He left the office and personally contacted all the branch managers and gave a series of orders while personally contacting the newly trained sales staff and instructing them on what to do before having them go to the showrooms under construction.
---
The special economic zone throbbed with the deafening roar of steam engines, each factory pumping life into the giant industrial cluster, which was like one of the organs of the empire. Smoke spiralled into the sky like a black dragon breathing out fire, painting the air and streets with streaks of soot. Workers in hard safety hats ran hurriedly across the footpaths, sometimes bumping into each other, yet with no time to look around, apologise, or demand an apology, their movements driven by urgency, especially since the all-metal ships had given third-party suppliers more work. Amid such a busy street, not a single car could be seen. Instead, every street was a river of large carriages, loaded with goods bound for the Shivaji Shipyard, the smaller shipyards, or markets, both domestic and overseas.
Among these hundreds of manufacturing companies, which are in the procurement list of the Shivaji Shipyard, the Menon Ironworks is one of them. They are the proprietary manufacturer of anchors, docking chains, and other heavy metal components required in a large ship. Dev Menon, the owner of the company, was sweating profusely as he stood near the converter. The number of orders he received from the Shivaji Shipyard this time was in the thousands, and he had become completely busy. If not for the fact that his mother had sent a servant to inform him about the car showroom, he might even forget to go home.
The news his mother sent made him very excited, but looking at the work that had piled up, he was troubled. But it was a good kind of troubled anyway. A lot of people in the empire would want to be troubled like him. So, thinking of visiting the showroom tomorrow, he personally inspected each and every finished product before sending it off to the Shivaji Shipyard.