Chapter 176: Ups and Downs
Having worked in the laboratory for many years, Zhao Zhiqin has an impression of the daily inspection items.

Generally speaking, only after receiving orders from outside will the factory organize the production and dyeing of high-end fabrics. Each production batch has strict quantity limits, and inventory rarely occurs. After all, this kind of high-end fabric is very expensive, and domestic demand is very small. Once it is in stock, it means a loss to a large extent.

In Zhao Zhiqin's impression, the factory had no plans to produce high-end fabrics recently, and naturally would not use imported dyes. So when he heard that the inspection report contained dyes rated as Class A, Zhao Zhiqin immediately felt something was wrong.

"This is the test report result." The laboratory technician handed the test report to Zhao Zhiqin.

"Uh." After taking the inspection report, Zhao Zhiqin read it carefully.

"Sample number 1980100217, sample name: indigo powder, chemical index determination, solubility, excellent, stability, excellent... Rating: Class A..."

When he saw this line of words, Zhao Zhiqin was even more confused.

"Hasn't the indigo powder supply to our factory been out of stock for several months? Where did you get the test samples?" Zhao Zhiqin asked the staff member.

"I don't know about that, but the sample was delivered the day before yesterday, so it should be... this bottle." The laboratory technician checked the sample number above and pointed to a glass bottle on the shelf behind him.

"This..." Zhao Zhiqin picked up the glass bottle and looked at it for a moment with a frown. Then he suddenly realized and said, "Isn't this the sample that Xu Ming sent that day?"

When Xu Ming gave the bottle of indigo powder sample to Zhao Zhiqin, Zhao Zhiqin didn't take it seriously at all. In his opinion, it was impossible for a village-run enterprise to produce high-end industrial dyes like indigo powder.

So when he returned to the laboratory, Zhao Zhiqin simply handed the bottle of sample to the staff, asked them to test it when they had time, and then turned and left. After two days, he almost forgot about the matter.

"That's not clear..." The staff shook his head.

"Is there really no problem with your test results?" Zhao Zhiqin asked.

"There is absolutely no problem. These samples have been carefully tested by our team. No processes have been missed, and they have also undergone a second re-inspection." The staff member said confidently.

"Um...Okay, thank you for your hard work." Zhao Zhiqin nodded, then took the bottle of indigo powder sample and walked quickly to the sales department.

There was no one in the sales department at that time, so Zhao Zhiqin came to the reception room again. Sure enough, here, Zhao Zhiqin saw Xu Ming.

"You're a heavy smoker. I just saw you leave here, and it's only been less than half an hour, and you're back again."

Seeing Zhao Zhiqin, Xu Ming took out a cigarette and threw it to him, saying with a smile.

"I have something serious to tell you." Zhao Zhiqin took out the bottle of indigo powder and said to Xu Ming, "You gave me this the day before yesterday and asked me to test it. The results are out today. Take a look."

Zhao Zhiqin said this and handed the inspection report to Xu Ming.

"How can I understand this stuff? Just tell me, can this dye be used?" After taking the test form, Xu Ming just took a look at it and handed the form back.

"The test result of this dye is Class A, which means that the bottle of indigo powder you sent me for inspection fully meets the national standards, and even has better indicators than the indigo powder our factory purchased before!" Zhao Zhiqin pointed to a line of words on the test sheet and said, "See, in terms of dye brightness, the evaluation result is slightly bright, while the indigo powder our factory purchased from other domestic manufacturers before can only be slightly bright. In other words, dyeing cloth with this dye will appear brighter..."

"You mean this sample has passed the inspection?" Xu Ming knew nothing about such professional things as dye inspection, but when he heard the words 'conform to national standards', his expression immediately became excited.

As the section chief of the factory's supply and marketing cooperative, the factory has lost a lot of large orders recently due to the shortage of indigo powder dye for six consecutive months. For this reason, during the factory meeting yesterday morning, the factory director gave him a special task, asking him to do his best to find a new indigo powder dye supplier in the country, and no matter what, to purchase enough dye before the end of this year, otherwise it might affect the payment of their department's year-end bonus.

Generally speaking, the factory director of Fufang rarely issues such strict orders to a department. However, since this year, domestic jeans sales have been so hot that dyed fabrics used to produce jeans are in short supply. In contrast, sales of Fufang's main product, white fabric, have begun to plummet. Due to increasingly fierce competition among domestic manufacturers of similar products, Fufang is faced with so many orders for denim fabrics, but cannot produce half a meter of products due to a supply shortage of dyes. As a factory director, he naturally feels tremendous pressure and transfers the pressure to his subordinates.

In fact, in the planned economy era, all textile factories in China were subject to unified purchase and sales, but the situation has changed since last year. In July last year, the State Council issued five documents to expand the autonomy of state-owned enterprises, requiring all regions and relevant central departments to select a small number of enterprises in the industrial and transportation systems for pilot expansion, allowing enterprises to conduct partial independent operation and make independent profits.

On January 1 this year, the State Council approved the "Trial Measures on Profit Retention by State-owned Industrial Enterprises" formulated by the State Economic Commission and the Ministry of Finance, further detailing the specific methods of "giving up profits".

As one of the largest textile companies in Jiangxi, Fufang has also become one of the first companies in the province to start a pilot program of independent operation. This means that their factory can, to a certain extent, purchase raw materials and sell products on its own, while also retaining this part of the profit.

Ever since the factory director put pressure on the supply and marketing department, Xu Ming has taken this matter very seriously. Starting from yesterday afternoon, he has sent salesmen from the department to look for new indigo powder suppliers all over the country.

However, Xu Ming did not hold out too much hope for this. After all, there were only two or three manufacturers in China that could produce this kind of dye. So he planned to set off tomorrow night to negotiate directly with the manufacturers, hoping that they could resume supply as soon as possible.

As for the indigo powder that Erhu had sent him before, Xu Ming didn't take it seriously at all. After all, the other party was just a village-run enterprise, and its main business was the production of fertilizers. It was only because of their friendship of having a meal together that he agreed to send it to him for inspection.

But what he didn't expect was that the product sent by Erhu actually passed the factory's inspection.

"Yes, I passed!"

"That's great!" Xu Ming's face lit up, and he immediately said, "I'll contact the manufacturer right away!"

But as soon as Xu Ming stood up, he suddenly remembered something and sat back down.

"What's wrong?" Zhao Zhiqin asked.

"I suddenly remembered that I didn't write down the phone number of that factory... No, this factory doesn't seem to have a phone number. Erhu said he would come again." Xu Ming said.

"Why doesn't their factory even have a phone number? How can such a factory produce qualified indigo powder?!" Zhao Zhiqin looked incredulous and said, "You are not using dyes from other factories for me to test, are you?"

"How is that possible?" Xu Ming shook his head and said, "It seems that I can only wait here... No, I'd better go to the message room. If this guy is stopped by the guard and can't get in, that would be bad!"

After Xu Ming finished speaking, he stood up and left the reception room...

……

At the same time, in a hotel on the outskirts of the city, Erhu felt the glaring sunlight outside the window, so he climbed up from the hard bed, picked up a cup of water on the bedside table, and began to drink it.

Last night at another small clothing workshop on the outskirts of the city, Erhu and the owner of the workshop drank until midnight, until the other was almost unconscious, and then they returned to the hotel.

Even though Erhu looks a little thin, he can drink quite a bit. Conservatively speaking, he can drink half a pound. If he really wants to go all out, he can drink around one and a half pounds.

Nowadays, few business owners are educated people. Some have connections and outlets in society, while others are simply unemployed vagrants who are forced to do small businesses out of business. Over time, their businesses grow bigger and bigger.

When Erhu dealt with these people, he couldn't negotiate any business without drinking three rounds of drinks. Fortunately, Erhu had a good alcohol tolerance. With Xue Guozhong's introduction, he got to know several local clothing business owners. After a few words, they soon became drinking buddies.

It is often said that competitors are enemies, but in Fuzhou, the bosses in the clothing business have very good relationships with each other. They get together to drink and chat when they have nothing to do, share some current business trends, and also make use of each other's connections.

In fact, this kind of unity is also a kind of helplessness. After all, it is not easy to do clothing business like them these days. It is difficult to make a difference alone. Some people have connections, some have sales channels, and some have raw material channels. Only by leveraging each other can the local clothing industry be developed.

In accordance with the country's 'seven up, eight down' policy, their workshops only employ seven people. The small number of people means that production is limited and capped. When encountering some large orders, several of them work together, so the exchanges between them are also very frequent.

Upon learning that Erhu was there to sell dyes, these people's quotations were quite consistent. Ordinary dyes were still priced according to the market price, but for indigo powder that could be used to produce jeans, they offered a price of 140 yuan per kilogram. After a night of fierce battle over the wine table, Erhu finally raised the price by ten yuan to 150 yuan per kilogram!
(End of this chapter)