Chapter 60: Man In Fruit Jersey

The limousine parked in front of a familiar restaurant where Ethan and Lucas had met for the second time.

Once the driver opened the door, Ethan and Lucas stepped out. The older man adjusted his suit and smiled.

"Follow me, Brother Ethan."

Once they entered into the restaurant, a waitress immediately approached them.

"Mr. Stark, your private room is ready."

Lucas nodded and asked, "Is the guest around yet?"

The lady nodded. "Yes, sir. He arrived about ten minutes ago."

Lucas nodded and walked past her. Ethan followed him, and they headed upstairs to the third floor.

Lucas approached one of the numbered doors and took out his keycard. Once he swiped it at the scanner, the door was unlocked, and they walked inside.

’Hm... the AC here is a bit much.’ Ethan thought as he rubbed his nose.

He turned to Lucas and said, "Can you lower the AC? This is too high for my liking."

The man nodded without asking questions and immediately picked up the remote.

Watching their interaction, the other person in the room was astonished. He had never seen anyone speak to Lucas so casually.

Shifting his gaze back to Ethan, he studied him intently.

Sensing a gaze on him, Ethan turned to him and smiled. Once Lucas was done adjusting the temperature, he took a seat at the only table in the small room.

Ethan sat beside him, and they finally focused on the chubby man sitting across from them.

Lucas smiled. "Leonard, this is Mr. Hale who I told you about. And Brother Ethan, this is my friend who wants to consult you."

Leonard observed Ethan with a frown, then turned to Lucas. "You aren’t joking, right? You told me you were bringing someone capable. Not someone who wears a fruit jersey."

Ethan raised an eyebrow and looked at his own clothes. He was wearing a roundneck top with apples drawn all over it.

It was one of the clothes he had gotten for himself and purposefully wore to motivate Evelyn.

Shaking his head, he sighed. "Perhaps I should get going."

Lucas immediately stopped him. "Brother Ethan, wait. I apologize. I’ll talk to him."

He immediately turned to Leonard and rebuked him. "You... watch your mouth, will you? Don’t judge a book by its cover. Don’t judge a person by their outfit."

Leonard rolled his eyes and nodded reluctantly. "Alright, alright. I’ll listen to him."

Lucas sighed in relief and glanced at Ethan.

Lazily leaning into the chair, Ethan waved a hand. "Go on. State your problems."

Lucas immediately turned to his friend and urged him to speak up. The man hesitated, then nodded.

"My Orion Group has been doing absolutely well in my hometown. But the instant I expanded our business into neighboring cities, we began to have losses. Also, there’s this company I want to buy, but I want to be sure about it before buying it. Do you have solutions to these problems?"

Ethan closed his eyes and hummed, crossing his fingers as his elbows rested on the armchairs. He remained silent for almost a minute, then spoke.

"Do you sell different products, or just one?"

Leonard answered seriously, "We sell many. But three are our biggest and most important sales."

Ethan nodded and stretched a hand toward him. "Hand over the file containing your revenue per product."

Leonard frowned and turned to Lucas. The file was an important thing and he didn’t want to casually hand it over to a stranger.

Lucas gave him a reassuring nod, and he relaxed. Opening the folder he had brought with him, he took out the file and handed it to Ethan.

The young man collected it, opened his eyes, and browsed through it. ’Hm, this man is smart. He’s not naming them, but labeling them instead.’

Smiling faintly, he set down the file and asked, "Product X is your main deal, right?"

The chubby man nodded, his expression serious.

Ethan hummed quietly and glanced at the file again. The so-called Product X had the lowest gross margin of five percent and a net margin of twelve percent.

The other two, Product Y and Product Z, had twenty-eight and thirty-five percent profit margin respectively.

The gap was enormous, considering that Product X was supposed to be the company’s major focus and largest source of profit.

Ethan tapped the table, then pushed the file back to him.

"I understand your problem now."

Leonard’s eyes shone with hope and doubt. "You do?"

Ethan nodded. "Your extended branches are celebrating the wrong number. Product Y and Z are doing well, but they are not the most important. Your branches aren’t suffering from a sales problem. They’re suffering from a product-mix problem."

"Wrong number?" Leonard frowned. "Products Y and Z are parts of our top three products and they’re doing exceptionally well. Why wouldn’t we celebrate them?"

Shaking his head, Ethan replied with a question. "Then why are you only having losses in revenue?"

The man’s expression tightened. "Because of Product X, I guess."

Ethan nodded. "So isn’t that your main focus? Y and Z combined cannot cover up for the losses made from X."

"Ah...?" Leonard’s eyes widened, and he immediately took off his glasses. "So we shouldn’t have focused on them? But they were our only options."

Sighing, Ethan shook his head. "That’s not a solution at all. It only makes the weakness more glaring."

Heaving a troubled sigh, the man asked, "Then what do I do?"

Closing his eyes again, Ethan thought about it for a moment. This kind of situation wasn’t unfamiliar to him.

On his journey to building the Caldwell Business Empire, he had faced all sorts of problems that were similar to this.

From the moment he had seen the file, he already had several solutions.

He was only wondering which one of the solutions to give the little CEO.

After a while, he decided and opened his eyes. "Stop selling Y and Z alone. Attach them to X, so that anyone who wants to get them, has to get X first."

Leonard’s eyes widened in doubt. "Will that... will that work?"

Ethan answered him confidently. "It would. Most customers solely interested in Y and Z would leave, but others still interested will be drawn to X too. As long as X is good enough and beneficial to them, they’ll buy it. You can do this until X can stand on its own again. Then, you can start selling them separately."

Leonard slowly nodded. He was also a smart man, and once he thought about Ethan’s suggestion properly, he realized it was indeed a good solution. His eyes shone with gratitude, and he stood up.

Locking eyes with Ethan, he bent forward and bowed to him.

"Thank you for your assistance, Mr. Hale!"