Chapter 330 Procurement
Zhang Ailun drove a Wrangler to the small town of Vilora. He asked the locals about the location of the cannery and after receiving accurate directions, he drove to the factory and parked at a nearby intersection.
After taking a look at the factory's logo and buildings, I found that they were quite old. The exhaust fans were buzzing, and there were delivery vans parked outside. Workers were carrying boxes of canned food and packing them into the vans.
Zhang Ailun immediately took out his cell phone and called the person in charge of the factory to inform them that he had arrived at the cannery in the small town.
The person in charge asked them to wait for a while and soon led people out of the factory.
After seeing the conspicuous vehicle parked on the side of the road, a middle-aged white man wearing glasses and a suit and tie quickly walked up to say hello.
"Hello, sir. Is this the customer who made an appointment online to come to the venue to view the goods?"
"Yes, it's me." Zhang Ailun shook hands with him.
The other party also introduced himself. "I am the head of the Velora Ranch Cannery. I am also the investor and director of the cannery. You can call me Fox Velora."
"Hamburger Juan King. This is my friend, Sig Comprey." Zhang Ailun nodded and woke up Sig in the car.
"Boss, are we there yet?" Sig opened his sleepy eyes, stretched, and after a few seconds' rest, he immediately got out of the car.
Zhang Allen locked the Wrangler with the car key and followed Volkswagen to the factory. He also asked, "Mr. Velora, isn't your boss here?"
"Mr. King, this is our family business. The current owner of the cannery is my father. The Velora Ranch Cannery was first established in the early twentieth century by my grandfather and later passed on to my father. We also assisted in the Pacific War and provided food and munitions to a large number of Allied troops. You should be able to find relevant information on the Internet. We can guarantee that the canned food produced by our factory has no problems with food taste and safety, and has also undergone professional food safety monitoring." Fox said.
"But my father is not a genius with a business mind, because compared to making and selling canned food, he may be more interested in playing golf and horse racing, which has also led to the fact that the cannery business has always been tepid. Fortunately, many small town residents are accustomed to eating our canned food, and our canned food is also on the shelves in nearby affordable supermarkets, and there are also many orders from online shopping platforms, so we can survive. Now my father is a little old, and many things in the cannery are handed over to me to handle, but obviously, I am not a genius, and I can only promote sales by offering preferential prices." Fox smiled helplessly.
"The reason we chose your canned food is because of your favorable prices and good food quality," Zhang Ailun praised.
After saying that, Fox took the two of them into the cannery for a tour. They could see that the factory building covered a large area and there were many assembly line workers and canning equipment. Although the equipment looked like processing equipment from the last century, everything seemed to be in good order.
However, one could only see some of the finished canned food being produced by the assembly line equipment. The processed cans were neatly lined up on the platform. The workers, wearing work clothes, masks and rubber gloves, put the cans in cardboard boxes printed with the factory logo, and then sealed and packed them and put them on a cart.
Afterwards, other workers will push carts and transport the goods to the van outside for special delivery. Whether it is transporting to a nearby supermarket or mailing to your home, it is a complete smooth job.
The processing of chicken, beef, and luncheon meat is done secretly in the factory behind the scenes, and it is impossible for ordinary people to visit it.
Unless the quality inspectors from the relevant departments come with some permits, they will be allowed to open inspection channels. Otherwise, if a competitor comes in and out to cause damage at will, what if something like a rat head or a duck neck appears inside? They will just smash the signboard.
After being reported by customers, he went bankrupt due to paying millions of dollars in compensation.
Fox also asked the staff to bring canned food, opened the boxes on the spot, and took out tableware for the chief and Sig to taste and eat.
"The main types of canned food we deal in are beef, chicken, and luncheon meat made from whole pork hind legs without minced chicken breast. Potato starch, corn, peas, and carrot granules are added to it, which can ensure sufficient meat content and rich taste while providing the trace elements needed by the human body. Mr. Jin, you said before that these are supplies for the mercenary team, right? Are you engaged in the arms industry, or PMC company?" Fox asked with concern.
Zhang Ailun tasted a few canned foods and found that they tasted surprisingly good?
The beef is juicy and tender, the chicken is smooth and silky, the luncheon meat tastes great too, and there are subtle fruit and vegetable particles. Although it contains potato starch, it tastes like real pork.
The taste is more like the big meat ham in Russia, which is full of meat when you break it open, rather than the starchy ham sausage.
What’s even more infuriating is that the starch in the starch sausages produced in some countries even contains fake starch!
You can use all starch to pass off inferior products as good ones, and at most sell them at a lower price, or you can use zombie meat with a higher content and sell them at a higher price.
But you can't call it meat ham or starch ham and at the same time add a lot of technology and hard work to it.
That bite is neither starch nor pork. All you eat is carcinogenic additives! This thing is afraid that consumers will die of health too late!
If the Beggars' Sect disciples had been able to eat such good canned food when they were begging on the streets, they would not have to starve.
Although the meals provided by Los Angeles shelters and street charity food trucks are free, nutritious, and sufficient, you still need to queue up to get the meals. The quality of the meat is not very good, and it is all zombie meat and frozen meat stocks, but it is free and there is nothing to say. It is better than those who spend money to buy high-tech food. They are already very conscientious businesses!
Judging from the taste and content of the canned food, the Velora Cannery is a very good and conscientious canner. No wonder it has not gone bankrupt for so long. Although it does not make much money, it can maintain its operation by relying on its reputation, and there are consumers willing to support it.
Just as Xige was about to say that there were orders for Africa, the chief leader interrupted him and explained, "I have a private island in the waters between California and Mexico, with more than a hundred people stationed there. Although there is a cold storage to ensure the freshness of the food, it is also a good choice to occasionally get some instant canned food to change the taste and improve the meal as a midnight snack."
Fox was a little surprised when he heard this. "You actually have a private island? Then you must be a billionaire!"
"No, no, the island is not worth much, just a few hundred million dollars." Zhang Ailun waved his hand and said.
"..." Fox was choked. I don't think I asked you how much it was?
Who asked you!
But he didn't pay too much attention to such small details. He was more concerned about how to reach a long-term cooperation with the leader to promote his canned food.
“Your canned food tastes good.”
The chief nodded and said, "But fifty cents for a can is almost not profitable. Considering the current price of beef and pork, and the high quality of the ingredients in your cans, you will even lose money if you sell them at this price."
"The price we sell to supermarkets is usually between $ and $. Only discounted prices and wholesale prices are lower than one dollar." Fox explained: "If you buy so many cans at once, 50 cents is the discounted price!"
"Can I know where your meat comes from?" Zhang Ailun asked. "I passed by your ranch before and found that you didn't raise many beef cattle. I don't think you can provide too many raw materials for the cannery. I need to know more about it. After all, I can't let my soldiers eat meat of unknown origin, right?"
Fox didn't expect that they would even notice this, and he nodded and said, "Since the ranch animal husbandry business is not very prosperous, we have indeed been purchasing beef and pork from outside. When my father ran the cannery, the meat source was self-sufficient from our own ranch, but after the sales increased, we sold a few plots of land and could not guarantee enough meat for the cannery. We also chose to buy from the streets or other channels like other canneries, and the price would be much cheaper." "But I can guarantee that the source of the meat is definitely not sick animals."
Fox simply took the two of them into the cold storage room and the meat processing room.
You can see a lot of beef and pork, as well as whole chickens, which have been cut and deboned by staff, removing the less useful parts, and then thrown onto the assembly line equipment for grinding and cutting.
On the other side, after being cooked and seasoned, the fruit and vegetable particles are classified and sealed in a large pot for stewing. A pile of canned meat is sealed and cooked in a high-temperature pressure cooker, and it basically takes a few minutes to become mushy.
The time control is just right, because if it is longer, it will be simmered.
It's like cooking chicken in a popcorn machine. When you open it, there's nothing but smoke. It's all evaporated.
Then it is put into the assembly line pipeline for rapid cooling, accurately weighed and placed in cans, the cans are sealed, and then it can be freshly baked.
This is still a relatively slow assembly line, and many of the equipment are old products from the last century.
"Do you buy all your meat from street channels?" Zhang Ailun took a look at the meat and was surprised to find that it was all relatively fresh cold cuts of meat, which had been slaughtered no more than two months ago.
It turns out it’s not World War II pork, but old beef from the Qing Dynasty.
Such good quality meat is sold at such a low price. The chief leader really has reason to suspect that these are all animals that died accidentally in the slaughterhouse, but looking at the color of the meat and the stamped documents of the safety inspection, they are all meat that meets the food safety grade standards, which is really a bit strange.
Sig reminded him, "Boss, you forgot that the Irish in the sewers were led by their leader who was in the business of smuggling pork, and there was also the cold storage company that was taken down."
After he said that, Zhang Ailun suddenly realized that this was the quality of the meat.
That is the kind of beef and chicken that street drug smugglers use to hide in refrigerated trucks in order to smuggle drugs.
After the disguised drugs are smuggled and sold, the remaining meat also needs to be processed, so it is simply sold at a low price to meat processing plants in need.
But in fact, they are all normal edible meat. The meat either flows into supermarkets, canneries, or is simply thrown into cold storage. In order to save money, smart drug dealers will wait for the next batch of goods to come out before using it as a prop. They are all veteran actors.
If the police seized the refrigerated truck and confiscated the drugs, the meat would be directly thrown into the kitchen.
Besides, you are eating canned food, so why do you care about additives? There are no real leaves growing on them.
Zhang Ailun nodded and said, "Now that we know where your meat comes from, there won't be any problem."
Fox didn't expect them to know so much, and he admitted it immediately, "Of course there is nothing wrong with the quality of this meat. We have also processed it. The purchase price through street channels is relatively cheap. It is also because some meat cannot be processed after being smuggled, and a large amount of meat is stockpiled, so it is sold to the cannery."
"Since there is no problem, let's sign the order contract as soon as possible. I want 50000 boxes each of luncheon meat, beef, and pork." Zhang Ailun said.
"Okay, Mr. King, you need to pay us a total of 75000 US dollars." Fox was delighted and quickly asked the staff to bring the order contract for signing.
Then he asked, "Will you pay the deposit in cash or online?"
"Deposit? Full payment."
Zhang Ailun said as a matter of course. "It's not that troublesome. I just happened to bring enough cash."
He immediately asked Sig to get the cash from the car and directly paid the balance.
"Combining the previous canned goods inventory, we will be able to sort out these 15 cans before noon at the earliest. Where do you need them to be delivered to?" Fox put away the money with a bright smile on his face.
"You can discuss these matters with my assistant Sig." Zhang Ailun directly handed the receiving task to Sig. After all, the other party also had to deliver military supplies. They needed to find a fast ship or air transport to send the supplies to Central Africa. It should be ready for loading or installation before dusk at the earliest.
After touring the factory facilities again, I asked, "Are you thinking of selling your canning factory?"
Fox was stunned for a moment. "I did have this idea before. As the current business competition is quite involuted, our cannery has a small market share, poor management, and owes a foreign debt to the bank. However, the cost of your order is enough to keep us going for a while. I also want to try again. If it doesn't work, I can only transfer it."
"Ok, if the response to this batch of canned goods is good, I will consider placing another order. If the canning factory plans to sell, you can also contact me." Zhang Ailun smiled. Seeing that the other party was not very willing to sell, he did not force it.
The two sides chatted for a few more sentences, and after Sig negotiated the subsequent delivery work with the staff, he turned around and left the factory.
Fox accompanied them all the way, and after they walked out of the processing plant, the chief also got on the Wrangler.
After chatting for a few more words, he let Sig drive, waved goodbye, and drove straight out of the town.
While driving back to Los Angeles, the chief also received a message from Madison. He opened it and found that it was about Silver Island.
Madison: I have found someone to contact Colombian government lawmakers for you and negotiated this matter. They are willing to sell the sovereignty and development rights of Silver Island, but some contract terms need to be signed offline and the other party needs to be paid 2000 million US dollars. Only then will the bill for the transfer of island sovereignty take effect. They will also issue an official statement indicating the transfer of Silver Island.
Zhang Ailun: Do you need me to take someone to Colombia?
(End of this chapter)
