The rest of the day went on pretty uneventfully after they returned to the hotel as both of them were tired by the long drive and the heat. Vijayawada was very hot and more importantly too humid for Arjun to handle. At least at his village there was a sea to provide some cool breeze in the evening but this town did not have that either prompting them to coop up inside their hotel room which had Air conditioner making in feel like an entirely different world from the outside. Arjun was too lazy to even go down and have his dinner and made the hotel personnel bring it up to the room for him while Balram went ahead to have his dinner in the nearby hotel he used to frequent when he lived in Vijayawada for a while.
Once he was done Arjun did some squats in the hotel room itself and took a shower after which he quickly fell asleep in his bed as Balram had already informed him that he would come late at night and Arjun did not want to wait for so long.
Arjun woke up early the next day as he did not find the bed as comfortable as he did on his previous trip to Vizag. Perhaps staying in such a good hotel skewed his perceptions a bit, even though he did not feel any discomfort staying at the same hotel earlier now he was having issues with the same bedding.
He went ahead to get refreshed which woke Balram up and once he too was done with his stuff they proceeded to have their breakfast at the in hotel restaurant after which Arjun made a call home to inform he would probably be home by the evening while his mom was angry at him about not informing about it earlier.
Arjun then asked her to connect him to Lalitha so Kavitha promptly called her home, Arjun asked Lalitha for Vasu's phone number as he figured this would be the best person to provide information about the ingredient distributors and promptly dialed him once he hung up the call to home.
But when he called him though no body picked the call up making Arjun reason that it was probably still too early for their office to start and he made Balram drive directly to Guntur since he felt it was still better to ask in person.
When they reached Vasu's mill in Guntur which was luckily opened by now Arjun went directly into Vasu's office where the guy was busy with some phone call and motioned him to take a seat while he was still on call.
What is it Arjun? are you here to pick up the order? Where is that foreigner who was the one you ordered on behalf of, i wished to meet him again Vasu enquired after he was done with the call.
No uncle he will arrive in two to three days time after which we'll collect the order Arjun replied.
Okay, then it's alright ill make sure to get the order ready by then. Don't tell me you've come all the way here to inform be about this.
Hahaha no uncle it's about a different issue.
Whoa i thought you were a miracle kid Vasu kidded
Please stop teasing uncle, i actually called you in the morning but nobody picked the call and as i was already in Vijayawada i figured it would be better to enquire you directly.
So what is it that you want help with?
Well I am starting a new factory....Arjun went on to explain about his dairy beverage factory and how he needed ingredients supplier for to make various kinds of milk.
Vasu asked Arjun to write down the ingredients while he asked his assistant to make his brother come to the office.
Arjun wrote down all the stuff needed to produce these like salt, sugar, cumin, ginger, rose syrup, Almond paste, cardamom, saffron, food coloring etc., and handed it to Vasu.
As Vasu was reading the list his brother Chandrakanth entered the room making Vasu stop reading and introduce them to each other.
Arjun was curios why he had called up his brother but held his words as it was always better to let the guy speak instead of posing the question.
So Arjun my brother Chandra here works in the daily provisions industry and a small scale supplier to various factories around here. Although i can't promise the best pricing i will make sure it stays competitive to the prices you'll be offered if you approach one of the big distributors Vasu mentioned and handed the list Arjun had given him to his brother.
Chandrakanth was surprised by his brother treating a kid so respectfully and went through the list he had given him and then took a look at Arjun once again.
Are you starting some sort of beverage factory sir? He questioned Arjun but unlike the milk distributor he did not have any qualms to address Arjun as sir since his brother was giving him so much respect.
Yes Anna, it seems you're well experienced in this field Arjun replied and asked him not to call Sir as he felt it was too embarrassing.
Yes Arjun, i work with some of them on a daily basis. So what are the quantities we are talking about here? i deal in almost all the products you mention here except rose syrup but i am sure i can find a supplier for it too.
Hmmm... Arjun thought for a while as he had not done prior calculations regarding this and asked Vasu for a calculator and a pen and paper and did some calculating for the next fifteen minutes.
Alright so Anna it would be better if you noted this somewhere Arjun mentioned and Chandra complied immediately taking a pen in his hand and a booklet from his brother.
I need fifteen kilo of salt, four kilo Cumin powder, five kilos of Ginger, green chili and curry leaves combined. one hundred and twenty kilos of sugar, fifteen liters of rose syrup, couple kilos of stabilizer, fifteen kilos of Almond paste or powder whichever is cheaper, a kilo of cardamom, twenty grams saffron, some yellow and pink food coloring Arjun said all these in a flow which shocked Balram who was to the side and could understand why Arjun asked for the guy to note them down on a paper.
And you need these daily i assume? Chandra asked still staring at the paper and getting why his brother treated the kid so respectfully. After all if he could get this deal he would make half his daily income from this single deal alone.
Yes I want them daily though you can deliver stuff which can last longer weekly but stuff like curry leaves and other foods which spoil faster needs to be delivered on a daily basis.
Chandrakanth did some calculations of his own while Vasu and Arjun spoke about Vladimir and other stuff in the mean time.
Arjun the most costliest of these are rose syrup, almond paste and saffron. I can provide the requested quantity of almond paste for five thousand rupees for fifteen kilos, fifteen hundred for saffron and thousand rupees for rose syrup and together with all other ingredients total comes up to around ten thousand rupees for everything you've asked for.
Arjun felt this was too much cost and asked in return, are you calculating the best possible ingredients anna?
Yes Arjun isn't that what you wanted?
No Anna, Quality does not matter as long as there are no impurities Arjun replied which made Chandrakanth get struck to the calculator once again.
Okay Arjun i think i can get the Almond powder for four thousand rupees, saffron for twelve hundred rupees and rose syrup for eight hundred rupees together i can offer a price of eight thousand rupees.
Arjun understood this guy was being considerate for him as no normal distributor would slash the prices so hard but still wanted to test his limits a bit, Seven thousand Anna will that be acceptable?
No Arjun, absolutely not. This is already my limit you can ask my brother here if you think i am lying to you which made Vasu nod his head in support.
Seven thousand five hundred rupees Anna and we have a deal Arjun spoke and just as Chandra was about to reply, Arjun continued we can sign a two year contract for these quantities Anna and also this is just our starting volume, i think we can do two and half times more volume if our factory operates at full capacity.
This shut Chandra down who got down into calculations once again and reluctantly agreed to the proposed price after which they immediately signed the deal and Arjun left with Balram to go the union and meet up with Tharun and Vikram.
Back in the office meanwhile Vasu questioned Chandra, why did you not stick to eight thousand brother? i could see that he was testing your bottom line.
Well Anna this is a considerably volume for me and did not want to throw it away Chandra replied while staring at the floor in embarrassment as he did not realize what Vasu did during the negotiations.