Chapter 22

The next morning, I had Jay drive us to the airport where Linda had arranged a chartered flight for us down to Surat to meet with a loom manufacturer. Debbie had flown but never by private jet. Sophia had never been higher than the room she was staying in at the hotel. When we were in the air, they were both like little girls scurrying around to see something out one side or the other or check out the amenities of the plane.

We did have a flight attendant and she was used to new flyers and did what she could to accommodate them. I had some tea and read a paper from the States that I’d managed to buy at the airport. We left Jay to have a day off with pay. He’d be on call to pick us up when we returned. We all brought an overnight bag just in case but hoped to be back in town that evening.

The meeting went very well. We talked about their looms, the speed, reliability, ease of use and safety. The price wasn’t cheap but since they were assembled using parts and labor at Indian labor prices, they were much less expensive as the machinery back in the states.

As the meeting wound down I said, “I am willing to sign a contract in theory but still need to put a couple more pieces in place. If you’re willing to accept the potential cancellation based on those factors, then we can put together a deal. If you aren’t willing to sign the deal based on those factors, then I can complete the rest of it and then come back and negotiate a new deal.”

The owner was very friendly and understood what I was trying to do. He also understood that I wasn’t trying to screw him but just protect myself. He wanted to take us to dinner but I said, “I would love to share a meal with you but I have a plane waiting on the tarmac and a driver waiting for me in New Delhi. We can dine together next time.” We shook hands and the ladies all did the bow thing before we boarded the plane and took to the night sky for the two-hour flight back to New Delhi.

The plan was to buy the business from the cash strapped owner. Then we would use the building and management team that we liked. We would replace all the looms and then crank up production. There was also land next to the factory that we could use to stage or warehouse materials or expand production if needed.

The meeting the following day with the owner was fun. His name was Hiren and he fit into the mold where he thought he was something special. His swagger was funny to watch as he eyed the women as potential conquests if the meeting went his way.

After we shook and we sat down he said, “I understand that you wanted to meet me about using our looms to make fabric for you. We have had many great companies such as Sport Support as customers and you should be very happy to be added to our list of customers.”

“I like the location and size of your facilities and the management team impressed me with their knowledge. Can we walk through the plant and you can answer some questions for me before we talk about the millions of yards of fabric we will need in the coming years?”

“Certainly, I would be happy to and we can have the manager walk with us since he’s in charge of the day to day operations.”

We walked out onto the floor of the factory and two of the big looms weren’t running and seemed to be torn apart. I asked, “It seems like you are having some major break downs and that concerns me since the demand for our products and fabric, never ends. A delay here could leave many of our workers at the other factories without fabric to make our garments. This would leave our merchants without something to sell. We all work together during the entire process and this would be unacceptable.”

Hiren turned to the plant manager, Sunny and said, “I’ve told you not to let this happen. I can’t believe you are doing maintenance on two machines at the same time.”

Sunny just nodded but didn’t talk back to the owner in front of me.

Many of the other machines were missing safety pieces and were held together with wire and other make shift things. The plant was clean but seemed to be understaffed. The workers were running around and that wasn’t the safest way to run a factory.

We went back to the conference room and sat down. I turned to Debbie and said, “I know that you like the location of this place but I don’t think that I would feel right with the looms in the condition that they are signing up to have our products made here.” Turning to Hiren, I said, “Would you be willing to replace all of the looms before I signed a contract with you to do the work? Would you be willing to hire and train more workers so they can work safely with our products? If there is an accident and someone is hurt or killed the papers won’t say, Hiren’s factory, they will say the factory where Sport Support makes their products. We can’t have our reputation ruined because of bad equipment or unsafe work conditions.”

To watch him squirm was fun. “If you sign the contracts to have all of the materials made here then I’ll have them replaced.”

“No, it doesn’t work that way. I want your values to line up with my values. I want you to make the changes not just for me or for your other customers but because it’s the right thing to do.”

“I can’t spend that kind of money on a hope that you might sign up to work with us. I’m willing to make the changes but will need a commitment from you first.”

“I won’t sign a contract until I see the safe and functioning looms in place for my worker’s safety. I’m sorry that we can’t do business.”

I could see the desperation in his eyes as I stood to leave. “Wait, is there some other way to make this work. You have said that his location is good for your operations.”

“You could sell me the business and I could replace all of the looms but then you’d be out of the business.”

He sat for a minute but said, “It wouldn’t be cheap but I would consider selling the business.”

He threw out a number that was just crazy. I said, “Let me work with your bookkeeper to understand your cash flow, reserves, accounts payable, receivables, inventory, contracts with existing customers and check on the land, buildings and any liens against them and I’ll come back with an offer. It might take a day or two.”

He didn’t want me to go through his books but knew that I’d be stupid just to make or take a deal without doing my research. Hiren left and told me to let him know when I was ready to discuss a price. After I knew that he’d left the building I turned to the General Manager Sunny and said, “I won’t take this deal if you’re not included in it. I don’t blame you for not having the support of the owner to do your job.”

“If you are going to do what you said that you were, I’d be happy to run this factory. I almost quit when he blamed me for the machines being down. He knows to the penny what I need to get them up and running. He just won’t approve the expenses.”

“I already have the looms on a tentative order to be made and delivered here from Surat in about six weeks. In the meantime, we will take everything out of the factory, rewire the building, remodel the offices, and employee areas. We will get new forklifts, redo the loading area and replace all the lighting and plumbing fixtures so this place looks brand new. Some new paint inside and out wouldn’t hurt anything. How many people do you have working here right now and how much do they get paid?”

“Wow. That won’t be cheap. We have twenty men running the looms and handling the materials. They average about three hundred Rupees a day. We have people in the office that run the business side, there are five of them and they average about the same but the pay is different for different jobs some higher and some lower. I am the GM and I have two floor managers. I make about fifteen thousand Rupees a day and my floor managers about six hundred a day.”

Doing the math in my head, I had to shake my head that they ran the entire factory for less than two hundred dollars a day in labor costs. “Sunny, if we buy this place or I should say, If Hiren sells it for a fair price then we will keep every person that you want to keep. If any are problem employees, now is the time to let them go.

“I don’t want them to do a lot of work that is outside of their true job but setting up new looms even if they just get paid to watch might come in handy later if something happens and they can prevent it from breaking or causing more problems. They can either tear out the old ones or we can hire a demolition crew to tear them out.

“The old looms will be destroyed so someone like Hiren won’t buy them and try to set up a factory across the street. Can you hire contractors to do the construction work? I want all new electrical and plumbing so we won’t have to worry about any breakdowns or fires due to faulty equipment.”

“I know people that can do all of that.”

We spent the rest of the day building financial reports about the company and its assets. If I offered Hiren what it was worth, he couldn’t pay off the loans to the bank. I had to figure out just how bad I wanted to screw him. We spent the next day with the bank and the attorney that Darcy had found for us. The bank could see the failure of his business soon and was happy to work with us. The attorney made sure that everything was in order and wrote up the documents that I asked for.

We met again with Hiren and I laid out two contracts on the table in front of him. I said, “Hiren, after going over the books, you were somewhat misleading about your large and distinguished customer list. I saw the names in years past but very few are still working with you. I see an extensive list of accounts payable to banks, suppliers and mortgage holders. I also see a lengthy list of accounts receivable because the people refuse to pay for the late deliveries that you make and defective products that you deliver.”

“I’m aware of the financial sheet.”

“Then you know that you’d be better off paying me a single Rupee to take this upside-down business off your hands.”

“The name on this business is worth more than that.”

“It was before you ran it into the ground and spent money on trips, cars and women instead of investing it back into the business. I will be changing the name if we can come to an agreement. I can leave you with all the debt and pay you twenty million Rupees for the land and business. I think you owe more than that though. My other option is that I take the land, the business and the debt of the business. That is only the list of debts that is clearly labeled on appendix A of the contract. We will pay you an additional three million Rupee to walk away and give up ownership.”

I’m sure he wanted to be a millionaire but the forty-five thousand dollars was about all that I was willing to give him for being a blood relative to a good businessman. He read over the terms and knew that I was being cheap but it was more than the business was worth. He nodded his head and signed the documents. I signed after him and gave him a copy and a check.

We called a meeting of the staff and told them what would be happening over the next six weeks and gave them each a fifty percent raise. I figured that if I couldn’t make a profit on a factory that ran for less than three hundred dollars a day that I should go out of business. They were given the rest of the day off and told to bring their families to dinner that night at a local restaurant.

Darcy had sent overnight a load of Bolts of all sizes to give out at the dinner but I let Debbie worry about that. The banks lowered the debt by fifty-percent and I paid them off. The mortgage was reduced to meet the current value of the land building and equipment and I paid that off. I wrote off much of the accounts receivables but talked to the owners of the businesses. They were willing to keep their contracts in place and maybe even extend them if I could be up and running in six weeks and produce the quality and quantity that I promised. All the other debt was paid off and the order placed for the new looms.

When you consider what I paid in the end with the reduced debt, it more than covered what I paid to Hiren by ten times. There would still be money spent to get everything up and running but the cost seemed negligible compared to what we would have spent even in the most rural parts of the US.

The dinner turned into a big party. We explained that everyone would get paid for the down time although many would be expected to work. There would be more people hired and new equipment would help offset much of the new work. We would be running three shifts. Two shifts would be for Sport Support and the third would be for the existing customer contracts. The other contracts would pay for all the equipment and facilities with the expanded production capabilities.

The wives and children all loved the Bolts they were given as the men spent time examining the varied materials that they would soon be making in their looms.

The sewing factories went about the same way with poor working conditions and unsafe machinery having to be replaced. We found it was easier to just buy, build or remodel the plants than try to work with owners that wanted to milk every bit of profit out of the workers.

Sophia did get her mom and dad both jobs in the factories and the family income more than doubled. It still wasn’t a lot but to them it was a gold mine.

A shocking surprise came when it was time to pay the girls. Due to paperwork and going back and forth to the States, by the time the checks arrived for Debbie and Sophia, it was about three weeks after they started. I was paying for the hotels and the food and any other incidentals so they didn’t really need any more money.

I messed up the first time with Sophia when I offered her a hundred dollars to work for me. I was quoting a daily rate like I would in the states. She was doing what they do in India which is to quote a monthly rate. So, I was planning to pay her five or six hundred dollars a week and she was expecting about 3 dollars a day.

When the check arrived, she was expecting about three thousand Rupees and not the hundred thousand that was there. She had a check for about what her father would make over eighteen months and she’d only worked for three weeks. She started to cry and we didn’t know why. Debbie finally took her in the other room and figured out what had happened.

I told her that I’d cut her pay if she wanted but we had a verbal contract and she would be paid what I offered her when she hired on. If she wanted to renegotiate she could or she could just keep working until she had to go back to school. She kept saying that it was too much but she had more school to pay for. I did let her pay me back for the schooling that I’d paid for before she started but wouldn’t let her pay me for the phone calls which was much more than the school payment.

She did become even more submissive to me but also more independent outside of our relationship. She saw that I truly valued her and that what she did for me out in public made my life and decisions easier. She also saw that I did the same for Jay when I’d tip him or tip others that helped me.

We set up three more factories in the next six months. Sophia did skip a semester to help and then went back when we were finished. The only other thing that happened over Christmas; Debbie wanted to take a couple weeks and fly home to visit her family and take care of some personal things. I was going to do the same but instead called the girls and said, “It’s cold in the states. Why don’t you fly to Australia and we can hang out on the beach?”

They loved the idea and I invited Sophia to come along. She didn’t celebrate Christmas but was happy to use her passport and see her girlfriend. She and I didn’t charter a jet but did fly first class down to Sydney where Seema lived. We had a house rented on Manly beach. I didn’t pick it or name the beach so it wasn’t me trying to inflate my ego. I rented a hotel room for my interpreter and told her that I’d call her if I needed any Hindi interpreted.

Patty, Mindy and Eve were a sight for sore eyes. We spoke often on the phone but to hold them, hug them, kiss them and make love to them was a wonderful thing. We spent the first three days in bed and then started to get a little stir crazy so went out on the beach and played. They all wanted to meet Sophia so she was forced to bring Seema to dinner and meet up with us.

There was a lot of joking and fun as the girls all talked about me being away and Sophia being a good friend to me. Seema knew that we had sex so she piled on some and made Sophia blush even more if that was possible but Sophia promised revenge when they were back at the hotel.

We saw a lot of things and even rented a boat to enjoy the fireworks over Sydney harbor for New Years. The weeks came to an end and there were a lot of tears as I went back to India with Sophia and the girls all flew back to the states. Sophia promised that as soon as she finished school that she would be moving to Australia to be with Seema.

She had a full bank account and when she finished with me, she dove back into her studies to finish up her degree in chemistry. She wanted to be a scientist. After visiting the last of the factories and watching the process from start to finish, I left the actual running of the operations to Debbie and her team as they continued to repeat the process in Korea, China and Japan.

The clothes were selling as fast as we could make them and we were making a dollar or sixty-five Rupees per garment. The demand was great and after I was back in the states for a month, Darcy said that the financial projections for India alone were over three hundred million for the year and double that the following year.

1996 was half way over when Darcy, Mary, Mom, Britt, Karen and I had a family meeting. Lilly was there but she didn’t say anything. We talked about the family investments, and Karen was kicking ass. She had made a ton on the crash of eighty-seven but since then had been eating up the tech stocks. She and Britt had a knack for picking those that had a promise and would grow into something that added to society and seemed to pass on those that burned out as just another computer program with no purpose in life.

Sport Support was still growing and the International markets were as strong if not stronger than the demand in the US. The brand now had multiple lines of clothes and the only thing they didn’t make was formal suits and ties. You could get slacks and a sport coat but no suits. The sport side continued to grow and dominate the market segment.

Pro Level sports drinks were printing money. Most of that went back into marketing because Darcy liked her toys and loved to have more to put onto the television station. The station seemed to get an offer from a larger company to buy them about every week.

The ad space was expensive but the demographics were huge for the segment of the population that spent the most money on non-essential items. If it was a set of speakers, toys, cars or alcohol, they all wanted a spot on EXSN. That was fine because Sport Support, Pro-Level and Survival of the Fittest all locked in their rates when they signed up as the first sponsors of the network. Many of the skateboard brands, and other products did the same but at a slightly higher rate. There weren’t much the others could say by coming late to the party and when they lost in court, they just looked like crybabies.

Mary had a serious boyfriend and was moving to Europe to run the operations over there. I was offered to do the same in Asia but I politely passed and told them I would oversee that part of the world but would do it from the United States.

I was back to overseeing the television, and Patty was with Survival of the Fittest. I lived in Mom’s old house with Patty, Eve and Mindy. Mindy and Eve spent their days teaching the gymnastics and getting ready for the Olympics in the next month or two where Eve was predicted to walk away covered in gold medals with her friend and coach, Mindy, by her side.