"These two production lines are your golden geese, Mr. Marcus, continuously generating wealth for you." Song Tianyao gently wiped away the stray hairs and water droplets from the small nameplate on the machine with his finger, and said to Marcus, "I'll contact you after I open. Also, I don't plan to only sell cheap wigs, and seventy wigs are too few. I'll go to other factories to see if I can get more. I'll call you if I need anything."
"Of course, seventy is a bit few, but it's the maximum I can provide beyond the order," Marcus said to Song Tianyao.
Leaving the wig factory, Song Tianyao silently read the name and address of the assembly line production plant on the nameplate. Tang Boqi followed behind Song Tianyao in silence. An assembly line set costing $70,000 would deter most people. You should know that the Harley-Davidson motorcycle he was riding cost less than US dollars 800, and a new Ford family car only cost US dollars 1,500.
"Let's say goodbye here, Billy." Song Tianyao turned to Tang Boqi and said, "This is my view of San Francisco. Next, I plan to go to Los Angeles, then New York. I'll ask some brokers to help me get to know some capable United States distributors, like the owners of large department store chains, to find sales opportunities. I think if you're going to do the wig business, you'll probably do something similar with me."
"That's right, we definitely need to find a suitable distributor to handle sales." Tang Boqi nodded seriously, a rare occurrence for him. "Shall I take you to the airport? See you off one last time?"
Song Tianyao lowered his head, lit a cigarette, and smiled at Tang Boqi, saying, "No need. To be honest, I'm not very interested in motorcycles. I'd like to take a taxi and see the city sights. Please give my regards to your family and me, and thank you for taking care of me in San Francisco."
"Goodbye, I should talk to my family about how to do this kind of business. There are so many things to consider. Goodbye, Song Tianyao, it was nice to meet you, especially since we share the same views on Wall Street. Are we friends?" Tang Boqi didn't hesitate and simply straddled his motorcycle, saying to Song Tianyao.
Song Tianyao nodded. "Of course."
"See you next time. Maybe we'll bump into each other at a distributor's party. I certainly won't be wearing this outfit then." After saying that, Tang Boqi put on his sunglasses, revved the engine, and drove off.
Song Tianyao stood on the street, a cigarette dangling from his lips, watching Tang Boqi walk away. He chuckled, "I just like this kind of arrogant young man, like Zhang Yuliang. I really hope you can take your time with the initial preparations and building up the distribution channels. I just don't know if you're pretending not to understand what I'm saying, but you're a pretty interesting guy. Who cares about those things at distributors' parties? In a godforsaken place like United States, without factories and products, big distributors won't even bother to hurl a curse at you. Only when you have products and visible profits will they pounce on you like dogs."
As he spoke, he hailed a taxi. "To the airport, I need to catch the next flight to Cleveland. Thank you, I'll pay you extra, sir."
Chapter 208 Outdated Machines
Song Tianyao flew to Cleveland because Marcus's assembly line equipment was produced in Cleveland, an industrial powerhouse in the United States. Since the 18th century, it has relied on the steel industry to develop and has become a heavy industrial city with the largest metal manufacturing industry in the United States and a population of nearly one million. Compared with Detroit, the newly emerging industrial city of Cleveland after the war was like a baby just learning to walk.
Countless iron ores from all over the world are imported through the port, where they are processed into various steel machinery, auto parts, electrical equipment, and so on, before being shipped all over the world.
From the production line nameplate, Song Tianyao noticed that the company that manufactured the wig equipment for Marcus was a company called Fisher Machinery located in Cleveland. However, when Song Tianyao arrived in Cleveland, he discovered that Fisher Machinery had been acquired by a larger company four months earlier.
It seems that with the economic boom in the United States companies have become keen on the game of big fish eating small fish. When Song Tianyao was reading various economic journals in Hong Kong, he noticed that the banking, retail and other industries in the United States were experiencing a large-scale wave of mergers and acquisitions. However, when he stood outside the gate of Fisher Company and listened to the old security guard explain that the company had changed from custom manufacturing of various assembly line equipment to specializing in producing car machining lathes for Ford Company, he still couldn't help but want to swear.
Even though the fifty-year-old security guard told Song Tianyao the address of Galen Nelson, the former owner of Fisher Company, after learning that Song Tianyao wanted to buy wig production equipment, it couldn't alleviate Song Tianyao's pain over the cost of the airfare. For United States, the airfare might be a small amount, but when converted to Hong Kong Hong Kong dollars, it was a huge sum in Hong Kong. If he couldn't find wig production equipment in Cleveland, Song Tianyao would have to fly to Detroit again.
Clinging to a last glimmer of hope, Song Tianyao visited Galen Nelson, the former owner of Fisher Company.
This was an elderly United States man in his sixties with white hair, a loud voice, and a robust build. When Song Tianyao met him, he was mowing the lawn in the front yard of his villa in the suburbs of Cleveland.
"Excuse me, is this Mr. Nelson's home?" Song Tianyao asked Galen Nelson, who was pushing a lawnmower, from outside the low fence of the villa.
Galen Nelson stopped, turned off the lawnmower to silence the mechanical noise, and asked, "Son, is something wrong?"
"I've seen wig manufacturing equipment produced by Fisher Company in San Francisco. I came to Cleveland this time to buy some wig manufacturing equipment. Mr. Charlie, a security guard at Fisher Company, told me that Mr. Nelson might be able to help me, so I came here to see him," Song Tianyao said to the old man.
Galen Nelson put down his lawnmower, walked over to Song Tianyao, brushed the grass clippings off his clothes, and said, "Charlie definitely didn't tell you that I stopped being the owner of Fisher Company four years ago. My damn son was the owner, but that bastard sold the company to Ford Company without consulting me and ran off to New York with the money to start some damn telephone company. He's nothing like a member of the Nelson Family, who are obsessed with mechanics."