With every word the child spoke, Mr. Silver's eyes grew wider and wider. He was deeply impressed that a boy of such an age had come up with an entirely new product. He was even more amazed by the fact that, if the advertising idea worked, the product would pay for itself before it ever reached store shelves. In other words, even if only one corporation agreed, the venture would still break even at the very least.
"Master Richi," Dan said respectfully, "that's a great idea. But I dare say any new product still needs advertising."
"It's good that you thought of that," Richie grinned. His eyes sparkled mischievously. "I've thought this through. We need to negotiate large deliveries of Skrepyshes with major retail chains—Asda, Debenhams, Kingfisher, Tesco—as well as children's stores like Mothercare. I plan to supply each chain with at least a million units. According to my calculations, around two hundred million Skrepyshes should saturate the British market. And the chains themselves will take care of advertising our product."
Dan remained skeptical about Richard's plans and asked bluntly,
"Master Richi, what makes you think retail chains will advertise your product?"
"It's simple, Mr. Silver. We'll offer them an exclusive marketing campaign designed to boost sales. For products the stores want to move in large quantities, customers who purchase several items will receive Skrepyshes as a gift—items that won't be available on the shelves and will be exclusive."
Richie continued calmly,
"In addition, there will be entire collectible series of Skrepyshes that many children will want to gather. In turn, children will motivate their parents to buy the products the store wants to sell in order to complete their Skrepyshes collection. To make this work, retail chains will need to order advertising targeted at children under the age of fourteen."
"I don't think that will work," Dan said doubtfully.
"It will work, Mr. Silver!" Richie replied with confidence. "Trust a professional—a child who already wants a Skrepyshe collection!"
***
The summer turned out to be extraordinarily eventful for the transmigrator. Together with John, he had to fly around the entire world: China, the United States, Japan. He even celebrated his ninth birthday on a business trip, while in Tokyo.
In China, Richard signed a contract with a large plastics manufacturing plant to produce Skrepyshes at a price of five U.S. cents per unit.
In theory, it could have been done even more cheaply, but in that case the quality would have suffered. Richie wanted his Skrepyshes to be made from durable, high-quality plastic, so the price was justified.
What the transmigrator underestimated was the popularity of the product—or rather, the sheer scale of the advertising campaigns that many major retail chains decided to launch.
In Britain, he managed to sign contracts with Kingfisher and Asda, each of which ordered one hundred million units. In addition, the American retail giant Walmart approached Richie and placed an order for three hundred million charms. But that wasn't all. When the Japanese market learned about the product, they reached out to the young entrepreneur. The retailer Aeon ordered two hundred million Skrepyshes based on its own designs. In response, their competitors Ito Yokado contacted Richie and placed an order for the same quantity, also using its own designs.
Richie sold the Skrepyshes at double the production price—ten cents per unit. And so that the retail chains would not refuse the promotional items, they were given out as a free bonus.
By the way, Dan Silver managed to sign advertising contracts with Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and Nestlé. Altogether, these corporations ordered a total of one hundred million branded charms. True, they did not agree to the one dollar price. With each of these corporations, it was bargained down to fifty cents per unit of promotional product. In practical terms, this meant that one out of every nine Skrepysh was promotional and covered the cost of producing the other ten. In other words, the product had not even begun production or retail sales, yet it had already covered procurement expenses and generated a profit of five cents per ten units.
In June, Richie made a prepayment of fifteen million dollars—almost all the money he had received from his father—to the factory contracted to manufacture Skrepyshes. That left him with six hundred thousand dollars, which went toward flights, hotels, and other expenses.
By July, the transmigrator found himself holding a small fortune. Payments for the promotional Skrepyshes from corporations began to arrive—fifty million dollars in total. Thirty million of that sum was set aside to cover the factory contract, while the remaining revenue was subjected to ruthless taxation.
In the United Kingdom, companies earning more than £1.5 million per year pay 30 percent of their profits in taxes, while those earning less are taxed at a rate of 19 percent. All told, Richie had to hand over a staggering five million dollars to the state, leaving him with ten million dollars in his possession. In other words, if it weren't for taxes, he would have ended up with exactly the amount he had originally.
Of course, Richie was required to pay the money to the treasury by the end of the year, so technically he could continue to use it in the meantime. Still, he decided to settle his obligations immediately rather than circulate money that didn't truly belong to him.
Throughout this year and into the first half of the next, up until May, funds are expected to flow into Richie's company accounts from the retail chains receiving large shipments of Skrepyshi. That amounts to another eighty million dollars. Thus, taking into account all expenses, taxes, and the recovered expenditures, the net profit will total fifty one million dollars.
It would seem like nothing more than a trifle of plastic, worth mere pennies, yet it brought the transmigrator a fortune.
Starting from late August, the television channels everywhere were flooded with commercials:
"Skrepysh! Watch and repeat how I fasten!"
—or—
"Mom, Mom, look—Skrepyshes!"
Everything turned out exactly as Richard had told Dan. The retail chains themselves paid for television advertising, using Skrepyshes to boost sales of stagnant products. In other words, these little pieces of plastic were not really sold, yet they still brought profit to their creator.
Indeed, in Britain, Japan, and the United States, it was hard to find anyone who did not know what Skrepyshi were.Only one mystery remained for the public: who was behind the appearance of this miraculous piece of plastic, and who was reaping the income from it.
(End of Chapter)
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