152: Chen Chen: I also want to latch onto a powerful figure.

"President Chen, Fruit Company has agreed to our demands."

"Oh? Cook actually agreed?" Chen Chen looked at Manager Zhao of Yangtze River New Energy with great interest.

"Yes, Fruit Company agreed, but…"

"But what? Did they try to haggle?" On April 1st, when he learned that Fruit Company was releasing the 5s long-battery-life version, Chen Chen had paid close attention. After all, one of the points for which the Apple phone had always been criticized was its battery life.

The overall battery life of the 5s, equipped with the Yangtze River Battery, had increased by 42%. Chen Chen believed it would definitely be sought after by many people.

What he hadn't expected was that the level of popularity would exceed his expectations. In just one day (Cook counted 36 hours from the release, while Chen Chen received the news when dawn broke in China on the 1st, so it was one day), the number of pre-orders exceeded 5 million. This allowed Lu Weiqi to see an opportunity.

Lu Weiqi asked Manager Zhao how many yangtze river battery cells the production lines could produce at maximum capacity daily. After calculating, Manager Zhao told Lu Weiqi that Yangtze River New Energy had carried out the first round of production expansion as soon as they received the deposit from Fruit Company.

They added a few more production lines, and at full throttle, the daily capacity was about 150,000 units. This was the maximum capacity while ensuring the yield rate; it could be said that they had squeezed the capacity to the limit.

Under normal operations, the production lines wouldn't even run at full capacity, only producing 30,000 to 40,000 units per day. The reason for adding new production lines was entirely to cope with Fruit Company's future orders.

Lu Weiqi calculated that the maximum monthly production was about 4 million units. After subtracting the 1 million units promised to Fruit Company and the 1.3 to 1.5 million units that Red Star procured for itself monthly, there would still be about 2 million units left over.

Since they could squeeze out an extra 2 million units of capacity, and looking at the explosive momentum of the Fruit Company 5s, he feared that giving Fruit Company an extra 1 million units per month wouldn't satisfy them.

Since that was the case, why not take the opportunity to fleece Fruit Company once more?

Anyway, the Fruit Company 5s had directly raised its price by 800 rmb this time. Even if they spent an extra 50 to 100 rmb to produce more of the long-battery-life version of the Fruit Company 5s, Fruit Company could still achieve more sales.

He believed Cook would know how to do the math.

Therefore, Lu Weiqi suggested to Chen Chen that, on top of the fixed monthly delivery of 1 million units, they should deliver an additional 1 million units, with a surcharge of 5 dollars per unit.

For the second additional 1 million units, they would charge 10 dollars.

This was tiered pricing; if they wanted an extra 1 million units, they would pay an extra 5 million dollars.

If they wanted an extra 2 million units, they would pay an extra 15 million dollars.

It was the same old saying: Fruit Company has money, if we don't fleece you, who would we fleece? Even future deliveries could be handled this way.

The supplementary agreement stated that Red Star would deliver 3 million units before March. Red Star had already delivered 5 million units, which was an over-fulfillment of the agreement.

If they wanted to increase production again, it wasn't unreasonable for Red Star to ask for more costs.

"Fruit Company said that on the basis of 1 million units per month, they would pay an extra 5 dollars per unit for the excess."

"In other words, they rejected our tiered pricing plan and only agreed to add 5 dollars per unit."

"Tap, tap, tap." Chen Chen tapped his fingers on the table. According to Red Star's plan, if Fruit Company wanted to obtain 3 million yangtze river battery cells, they would need to pay an extra 15 million dollars.

According to Fruit Company's method, they would only need to pay an extra 10 million dollars to obtain 3 million battery cells. The difference in the middle was 5 million dollars, which was tens of millions of rmb.

"Manager Zhao, do this: tell Fruit Company that due to the impact of our country's Dragon Boat Festival holiday, our production capacity can only provide them with an additional 1 million units, and we need to add 7 dollars per unit. Let's see what Fruit Company says."

"7 dollars? Didn't we say 5 dollars before? Will… will Fruit Company accept this?"

"Reply like that for now. Either they go by our previous plan, or that's all they get per month. I believe Cook will make a choice."

Chen Chen never held the idea of continuing to cooperate with Fruit Company forever. Naturally, he would earn as much as he could while he could. Fruit Company was a dog tycoon; they wouldn't miss these peanuts.

Besides, once the trade war started, they wouldn't be able to cooperate even if they wanted to, so he had to take advantage of the present to scrape more from Fruit Company.

"Alright, I'll go reply to Fruit Company first."

After Manager Zhao left, Shen Rou brought a young woman to Chen Chen's side. "President Chen, this is Song Ziwei, the new assistant Manager Lu recruited for you."

"Song is my junior from school; she just graduated last year and is very capable. She was originally planning to go to Vivo, but I asked Manager Lu to recruit her to our Red Star."

"I'll mentor her for a while longer, and I believe she will be able to take over my position very well."

After Shen Rou finished speaking, Song Ziwei also stepped forward and greeted Chen Chen. "Hello, Chairman. I am Song Ziwei, and I will be your new assistant from now on."

Chen Chen looked her up and down. A pair of beautiful legs looked exceptionally slender against the backdrop of her uniform.

"Hello. Just call me President Chen from now on."

Not bad, not bad. In her 20s, 1.7 meters tall, with long, powerful legs—she was pleasing to the eye. If he waited for the weather to warm up, and she wore stockings…

It's just that the name Song Ziwei felt so familiar. Where had he heard it before?

"I believe Shen has already told you about the work content. Since Shen says you are capable, I trust you can do this job well."

"You can share an office with Shen for now. I'll have Manager Lu get you another desk."

After Chen Chen finished speaking, he looked at Song Ziwei again. Well, this finally made Chen Chen realize who this was.

Isn't this the legendary "Song Legs"?

He should have realized it when he saw those legs. It was a shame he had seen countless legs, yet he hadn't even recognized the famous Song Legs.

Lu Weibing recruited her to be my assistant?

However, this couldn't be blamed on Chen Chen. When Song Legs appeared at Love Cool, she was already nearly 30 years old, which was completely different from her current youthful appearance.

Chen Chen was already looking forward to the summer. With these two legs, they would look good in any kind of stockings, wouldn't they? Of course, they would look good without them too.

On the Fruit Company side, Cooker received Manager Zhao's reply. Seeing that Red Star had raised the price by another 2 dollars, he didn't dare to make a decision on his own and went to Cook's office again.

"BOSS, Red Star says that they Chinese people want to eat a kind of food called zongzi and celebrate a festival called the Dragon Boat Festival."

"It's a statutory holiday in China, so their production capacity is not enough to provide us with an additional 2 million Yangtze River Battery units. They can only provide 1 million units per month, and furthermore…"

"And there's a price increase, 7 dollars per unit." Seeing Cook's impatient look, he directly stated Red Star's new conditions.

"Shit!"

"Shit!"

"Red Star is taking advantage of our crisis, nakedly taking advantage of our crisis!"

"Can't 5 dollars per unit satisfy their appetite?"

"Cooker, reply to Red Star immediately: 5 dollars per unit, and I want an extra 3 million units!"

"Otherwise, I will terminate the cooperation!"

"Damn it! I've never seen such a Chinese enterprise!"

Looking at the furious Cook, Cooker had to say cautiously: "BOSS, there is a penalty for terminating the cooperation."

"And we have already paid the money."

"So…"

"You mean you want me to accept Red Star's terms?"

"Impossible! No enterprise has ever dared to manipulate us at Fruit Company like this, not even Microsoft or Qualcomm, let alone Red Star, which is just a small Chinese enterprise!"

"BOSS, listen to me. I mean we should negotiate according to the plan Red Star proposed the first time. If we get 2 million more units, we can sell 2 million more long-battery-life versions and gain more profit."

"You don't need to be so angry with Red Star."

Cook waved his hand impatiently at Cooker, signaling him to handle it himself; he didn't want to hear any more news about Red Star.

Cooker had no choice but to leave Cook's office first, thinking about how to renegotiate with Red Star.

Red Star raising the price by another 2 dollars had a very clear meaning: I have the capacity, but if you want 2 million units for only 5 dollars extra, then sorry, I can only give you 1 million units for 7 dollars. If you want more, go with my tiered pricing plan.

After thinking about it, Cooker felt it was more appropriate to accept the plan Red Star proposed in the first round, as they could get more battery cells after all.

Soon, the enlightened Cooker replied to Red Star, indicating that he was willing to accept Red Star's first tiered pricing plan, and in terms of price, he was willing to give 8 dollars for the second tier.

"8 dollars is 8 dollars. It's free money anyway. Looking at the situation with Fruit Company, if we keep insisting on 10 dollars, they won't agree." With Chen Chen's approval, Manager Zhao replied to Cooker and readily agreed to his price.

The new factory would be operational in July, which meant that in these two or three months, Yangtze River New Energy Company could earn an additional 300 million in profit through the price increase.

A dog tycoon is truly a dog tycoon; whenever they catch an opportunity, they must be fleeced hard.

As the Fruit Company 5s long-battery-life version flew from China to all parts of the world, many people soon received this long-battery-life version of the mobile phone.