Chapter 400 BlueCloud's Future

Theo and Sam looked at Haruto and waited for his answer.

As the person steering the ship in the daily operations of the BlueCloud Coffee Shop, Haruto was the most qualified person to comment and make suggestions for the shop's future.

Haruto took a deep breath before saying, "Boss, I don't know if you remember. One of the tasks you had for me was to scout cities with the potential to receive BlueCloud branch stores."

Theo nodded as he vaguely remembered telling Sylph to send a message to Haruto with this requirement.

"As I scouted possible locations to open new stores, I studied the viability and the best conditions to do it. In the end, I found two possible plans. And what differs from one to another is the amount invested in them.

Haruto pointed at the screen as he said, "Just as it says on the screen. The first plan is the most expensive one. In this plan, we would open stores in the two most famous cities of the country. Elffire City and Catadrid."

"On the screen, we can see the number of stores that other franchises have in these two cities. Each of them has more than 200 stores in each city!" Haruto exclaimed.

Theo and Sam were surprised when they heard the number. They had never imagined that there was such a high number of stores in the two metropolises. But after thinking about it, they understood why.

The two cities had the most populated area per square meter in the country. Briefly, there were too many people living in the two cities! So, it was reasonable to have that high number of stores to cover the entire population in the cities.

"And if we want to compete with them, at least, we have to open half of the number of stores they have. Which is around 100 stores in each city. But the cost of opening one store is much more expensive in the two cities when compared to the stores we opened here in Elffire City."

"Just the rental fees in some places I searched for reach the staggering number of 1 million dollars per month. But the advantage of these places is that they are located on rich and busy streets and malls. Which in turn would make our profits to have a sharp increase."

"And that's because I'm not saying anything about the other costs. But even if we choose places with cheaper rent fees. I calculate that the company would have to invest at least 300k in each store. Multiplying that by 100, we would have to invest 30 million dollars in each city." Haruto said with a slightly nervous voice.

Theo and Sam raised their eyebrows when they heard the staggering number, but even then they didn't say anything.

"This means that in the two cities, we would invest 60 million dollars to open branch stores. But for this investment to be successful, we would have to heavily advertise our product. I'm talking about TV Commercials, Billboards, and many other ways."

"I don't have a specific number of how much money we would have to invest in advertisements, but I would say that the higher we spend on it, the more return we would see. For example, we would see a much better result if we invested 20 million than if we invested 2 million." Haruto finished the explanation of his first plan.

He knew that the amount of money to invest in this plan was too high, so he could only present the possibility to his boss and let the decision to them.

"The second plan demands much less money to invest. I scouted every state capital in the country and the viability to open branch stores of the BlueCloud in them. If we open at least 5 stores in 20 state capitals, we would open 100 stores all over the country. Even though we wouldn't cover all the state capitals, we would still expand the range of operations. Plus, I calculate that we would only have to invest 20 million dollars to open these 100 stores." Haruto said as he pointed at the map that was on the screen.

The map showed the Sakura Abode Country, and there were marks all over the country where the stores would be opened.

"The rental fees would not be a problem in this case. But that would be two problems that we would need to solve as soon as possible."

"The first problem is the advertisement. As we would cover 20 metropolitan areas, we would invest in advertisements for each city separately. But that's the cheapest way. The best way would be to advertise all over the states where the shops would open. This means we would invest to advertise to 20 states of the federation. The cost would be enormous."

"The second problem is the distribution. As of now, we can take care of the distribution here in Elffire City. But if we expand to other cities, we would have a huge problem. How can we transport the precooked dishes and meals to other cities? By train, truck, or airplane? How to stock up on these things?"

"Most importantly, the place where we produce these things today for the 10 stores in Elffire City, does not have the capacity to produce these things for another 100 stores."

"Therefore, our priority to do before opening stores in other cities is to optimize the factory and transportation system. Without it, these stores wouldn't be able to be operational and earn profits."

"I personally think that we need to do these things first." Haruto finished his thoughts with that.

He looked at Theo and Sam with expectation. He wanted to know what they thought of his plans and suggestion.

Theo had a thoughtful face as he calculated the best way and the possibility of implementing these plans.

"We can discard the first plan at this first moment as we don't have enough money to implement it. But maybe someday in the future, we can put this plan on the table again." Theo started.

Even though he would receive a lot of money from his album streams, he planned to use that money for other things. The expansion of his coffee shop franchise was not that urgent.

"But I do appreciate your idea of opening a factory and optimizing the transporting system. We will do that before considering opening stores in other cities." Theo said with a smile.

Haruto sighed in relief when he heard that. He felt bummed that the boss discarded his plan right off the bat, but he could understand why. So, he had a happy expression when he heard that the boss liked his suggestion.

"You and Sam can discuss the details of opening the factory and transporting system, but that will have to wait until the end of January." Theo said.

He and Sam would not be available in January due to their vacation.

Just like that, the three of them discussed a few other details for a while and at the end of it, Haruto left the conference room with a happy expression.

He was so happy that his boss liked his work. He was more motivated than ever to keep striving for the shop's success.