The Chaebol Who Flies From Space - Chapter 75



Only Noblemtl

The Tycoon Who Flies Into Space Episode 75

Episode 75: Iridium Satellite Communications Acquisition (3)

As the energy drink business progressed, the acquisition of the coffee chain also progressed steadily.

The target of the acquisition, Green Bottle, is a coffee shop that started in Auckland.

I came here to try it out before signing the contract to take over a specialty coffee shop.

Although it was a coffee shop that had only been open for a year, customers lined up and waited for their turn.

After waiting for a while and going inside, the strong scent of coffee hit my nose.

Perhaps because they opened the doors in an old building that was previously used as a factory, the interior had a vintage feel.

The term specialty is not an old word. It used to be used in conjunction with gourmet or premium coffee, but when American coffee producers were discussing how to divide the quality of coffee, they started calling it specialty to refer to coffee that scored 80 points or higher out of 100.

Although it does not refer to a specific variety, Geisha is a coffee variety that people consider synonymous with specialty tea.

“They use geishas here too.”

“Can you tell the difference just by scent?”

“I have a bit of a sensitive nose. Haha, this is just a joke, and it’s written in big letters over there. They say they use Geisha coffee beans.”

I sat down for a coffee with Kwak Young-hwan, who first recommended Green Bottle. Katrienne’s favorite coffee was Yirgacheffe, followed by Gesha.

Geisha went to Central and South America and transformed into geisha.

By slightly changing the name, it caught the attention of the Japanese people, and the amount of consumption increased significantly, and it also gained fame.

Needless to say, prices have gone up.

The price of Geisha beans was ten times higher than that of regular coffee.

The coffee produced in Gori Gesha, the origin of Geisha, was not produced in sufficient quantities to be enjoyed to one’s heart’s content. When I happened to do something that earned me praise, the two of us would sit across from each other and drink Gesha coffee.

Katrienne was also a crazy woman, wondering what was good for a child to drink coffee.

As I took a sip of the coffee filled with longing, I could fully experience the explosive flavor unique to Geisha.

I looked around while drinking hand-drip coffee.

Even though it was still a little early, just after opening, the coffee shop was already full and I could see people chatting over coffee.

“They say they’re opening a branch in San Francisco too.”

“Already?”

“Because there are so many people coming here. If we do what the customers want, we have to make a few more, but the owner of this place is a very easygoing person. If we invest money, he said he will expand the size of the existing store. He said that it would be difficult to handle the additional stores with the coffee beans that he has now.”

The original Gori Gesha is quite sour, but the Gesha grown in Panama is slightly sweeter.

The Gesha variety is susceptible to diseases and pests, making it difficult to harvest large quantities.

Along with my favorite Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, I would say that this is the coffee that best suits the name of special tea.

“They will give us half of Green Bottle’s shares for $10 million and keep the rest.”

That didn’t matter at all. What I wanted was to create a Green Bottle Korea branch and increase the number of coffee shops.

“We should send the employees who will be working in Korea here for training.”

“If we open too many branches in Korea, we will run out of people.”

The plan was to initially increase the number of coffee shops to around 10, and then to over 100.

Toad F&B’s real estate team is scouting the country to purchase custom properties.

This place was supposed to serve as a training center to train employees working in Korea.

“In Korea, you won’t be able to make a living by only selling specialty teas.”

When I said I was launching a specialty tea coffee shop in Korea, there was a lot of opposition.

The argument was that the market was not mature and would result in huge losses.

That was right.

Coffee sold at coffee shops was still 2,500 won.

Specialty teas should be priced at double that.

I think they sell specialty teas, but they also sell regular drip coffee. They don’t just sell expensive coffee extracted as drip coffee.

For example, specialty teas such as Geisha are bait products to attract customers.

“I think I should take over a coffee farm in Panama. In order to have a stable supply of coffee beans, I need to own the farm.”

“Can I take charge of that?”

“Are you Mr. Kwak Young-hwan? Do you know much about coffee farms?”

“I don’t know much about it, but my second older brother is a coffee bean broker in South America. Geisha coffee farms are mainly in Panama, but there are also farms in Guatemala and Honduras.”

“Then take charge and try to do it. Buy as many geisha farms as you can.”

I drank the remaining coffee. It had cooled down a bit as we talked, but the longing in my mouth still lingered.

He returned and immediately took over Iridium Communications.

As soon as I signed the acquisition documents, the satellite in space was in my hands.

Milton has been president of Iridium Communications for just over a year, having taken over the company after it went bankrupt and was acquired by Boeing.

I was thinking of leaving it alone for the time being.

The number of employees was 824, which is a lot for a company that had already failed once and was continuously running at a loss, and worked at Iridium Communications.

Team Leader Jeong, who worked with the acquisition team, grumbled while looking at the facilities.

“It’s not as bad as I thought. I thought it was a little too grand.”

“Didn’t you see it while you were working on the takeover?”

“There are many security facilities here that I cannot enter, so I was not able to properly look around. Most of the takeover work was done through paperwork.”

I guess I was picturing the Houston Space Center I saw on TV.

Iridium Communications also had a control team, but it was not large in scale.

Milton, who had been guiding, answered.

“Controlling a satellite is not a very difficult job, so most of the employees are in the sales department.”

“What kind of business are you in?”

“I’ve almost given up on general sales. I can’t compete on price with mobile phones. I’m focusing on location tracking services for ships and airplanes.”

“Airplanes are a small market, but ships are a huge market.”

“Yes, the market is bigger than I thought. There are many cases of ships being lost due to bad weather while in service. If we could track ships at a lower cost than we do now, we could save many lives.”

Until now, we couldn’t track locations, so when a maritime accident occurred, we had to search the sea thoroughly.

“I think ships will be reluctant to install tracking devices due to cost issues.”

“That’s the problem. At first, I thought sales would be easy, but it seems that fishing boats don’t like having location trackers on them.”

“Because I don’t have money. If the fishermen had money, how much would they have?”

“But that doesn’t mean you can give it away for free.”

“Why? Can’t you just give it to me for free?”

This is nothing to someone like me who is confident in making money.

Milton became serious, as if he thought I was just joking.

“It’s going to cost more than $300 million a year. That’s ridiculous. What is $300 million? It’s going to cost more than that. There’s no need for the government to step in and throw money at things that should be done.”

“Three hundred million dollars? That’s a pretty specific number.”

“This is the number I came up with when I calculated how much it would cost to install a tracking device on a ship in the United States.”

“Isn’t the price of each location tracker expensive?”

“Well, you can get a high-performance one for about $1,200, but a lot of fishing boats avoid trackers.”

The argument was that location trackers were a hindrance to doing things outside the law.

There is no need for those people to come forward and help.

“Let’s give it a try. Iridium Communications is taking the lead in protecting fishermen, so the U.S. government won’t just sit back and do nothing.”

I have donated to many places while earning money, but there was nothing better than this. Even without that, the profits from the investment in Ariel were so large that I had to donate to solve the tax problem.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) couldn’t just sit back and do nothing when Iridium communications came out.

While talking to Milton, I walked around the building. The last place I stopped by was a warehouse where spare satellites were stored.

The solar panels used as energy sources were folded, so they didn’t feel very large. The satellite’s structure was also very simple, as it was made for communications purposes.

The lifespan of a low-orbit satellite, such as the Iridium communications satellite, is determined by how much fuel remains before it can be repositioned. The lifespan of a satellite is roughly 5 to 20 years.

If a satellite leaves a certain orbit, it becomes space debris.

Looking at the satellites in storage, I couldn’t come up with anything good to say.

“The satellite is too simple and primitive.”

The expression on the engineer’s face as he entered the warehouse with me hardened at my words.

“Did you say Anton there? Your expression hardened at my words. Do you have anything to say?”

“Satellites are designed to survive in the extreme environments of space. To the untrained eye, they appear simple and unremarkable.”

I said indirectly that I was talking nonsense without knowing anything.

“Do you really think so? The payload uses a passive transponder. I understand that this is simple and has a low risk of failure, so it is mainly used in communication satellites. Am I right?”

“That’s right. The active type is good, but it breaks down often, so it’s not used very often. If the equipment installed on a satellite breaks down once, it’s over.”

“Have you heard that the active repeater made by Benerick last year has an extremely low risk of failure?”

“… … .”

“You may not have heard of it since it’s a new product that was released last year.”

There was no way I would have known about the product I was harassing.

“The bus, which is the body, is a product that Rotten made 10 years ago. Did you know that a new bus came out two years ago? The insulation function has also been greatly upgraded. What on earth do you know?”

The more I spoke, the angrier I became. Anton protested to me, who was extremely angry.

“My job is to maintain the spare satellites. I’m not building new products.”

According to him, his job as a satellite engineer was to manage the spare satellites that had already been built.

“Then why should you stay in the company? You said that making new products is not your job, but as far as I know, your position is satellite design engineer. Even if the company doesn’t have money to make new satellites, shouldn’t you be researching new products? There should be developments over time. If you just guard the warehouse, why does the company need you? If you just sit here and work hard as a satellite engineer, can the company make money? Don’t come in tomorrow. You don’t know anything, so where are you talking nonsense?”

He left the shocked employee alone and notified Milton.

“If we launch this as is, it’s a waste of money. We’ll have to modify a spare satellite and launch it. Milton, do you have space in your company to modify a satellite? No, we can just modify it in the warehouse here.”

What can I do if the fortuneteller says so?

“I told you that children don’t listen when you talk to them. How can you say such things to me without thinking?”

[Engineers are stubborn. And they will continue to be so. They think managers don’t know what they have. Anton also probably thought Master didn’t know anything about satellites.]

“Yeah, that guy is unlucky because he met someone like me. Even if the engineer were acting like that now, the managers probably wouldn’t know anything about technology, so they would just let it slide.”

[Are you going to make a new one?]

“I guess so. When I saw it in person, the satellite was much more obsolete than I thought. The related parts are so technologically advanced, but this is a rag made from models from 10 years ago.”

I went to work the next day. I didn’t want to waste time going back and forth from the hotel where I was staying, so I set up a camp bed on one side of the workshop and slept there.

The ordered parts are piled up in the warehouse.

Rumors started going around that I had blown the lead engineer from day one, so no one was hanging around the warehouse.

The heat sink that covers the outside of the satellite is made of a special material.

The temperature in space is minus 270 degrees Celsius, and even the occasional strong solar wind must be withstood, so most metals cannot withstand it.

Although it looks no different from ordinary steel on the outside, the heat sink I chose is a triple-laminated honeycomb special steel structure.

It will be mainly used to make the outer walls of spaceships in the future.

While assembling the ordered parts, I also added modular parts that I made myself.