The Sleep War (4)
After arriving at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport in Hungary, Seung-hyun stepped out of the arrivals hall and immediately spotted a man waving at him from the curb.
“Seung-hyun!”
“Yousef Lema?”
“That’s right.”
Before departing from Incheon Airport for Hungary, Seung-hyun had asked one person for help.
That person was Antoine Arnault, the chairman of Loro Piana.
He had business to take care of in Europe, but he wasn’t familiar with the lay of the land there, so he had called Antoine at once, thinking he needed the help of someone who knew Europe well.
Antoine had understood the situation and, consideringately, arranged for a man named Yousef Lema, someone deeply knowledgeable about goose-down distribution in Eastern Europe, to meet him and look into it together.
He looked to be in his early forties, and apparently spoke not only Hungarian and English, but basic Italian and French as well.
As Seung-hyun approached him, he offered a brief greeting, and Yousef replied with a faint smile.
“You’re President Jung Seung-hyun, yes? I came after receiving a call from Chairman Antoine. It’s an honor to meet you.”
“Hello, and thank you for coming out so late. Can we leave right away?”
It was obvious the young man from Asia was already impatient.
Yousef frowned, then nodded and led him toward a cafe inside the airport.
“Shall we talk for a moment?”
“Sure.”
Seung-hyun didn’t know what was going on, but since there had to be a reason, he dragged his carry-on behind him and followed.
Once they were in the cafe, warming their hands around hot drinks and sipping carefully, Yousef said with a slightly stiff expression, “From what I heard from Antoine, you came here to source premium goose down while producing luxury bedding. Is that correct?”
“Yes. It would be ideal if it’s goose down with a fill power of 850 or higher.”
He nodded and continued.
“Then I should tell you about the situation here first. In recent years, Hungary’s poultry industry has taken a major hit from outbreaks of avian influenza. Roughly one million birds were culled, and most of them were waterfowl.”
That was far from good news.
“Ah...”
“Because of that, goose-down production dropped sharply, and supply contracted significantly. On top of that, feed prices have surged, so production costs have increased as well. Those rising costs are placing a heavy burden on producers.”
It was bad timing piled on bad timing.
“Then companies making luxury bedding that need top-grade goose down must all be in trouble?”
“Most of the larger ones have had stable supply contracts in place for years, so the damage isn’t severe for them. The farms are taking most of the hit, and the smaller the farm, the harder they’re being hit. Demand has eased a little lately because of the unethical issues surrounding goose-down production methods, so the gap between supply and demand hasn’t become extreme yet, but... in any case, finding a farm with extra stock right now is very difficult.”
“Ha...”
Seeing Seung-hyun sigh, Yousef said apologetically, “If you’d called me before leaving Korea, I probably would have told you not to come in the first place. There’s nothing to gain here.”
To have come all the way to Hungary only to be told there was nothing he could do left Seung-hyun feeling hollow.
“So I just go back to Korea?”
“If you want, I can arrange meetings with some fairly large farm owners in Hungary. But...”
“You mean it won’t work.”
“That’s right.”
It was desperate, but he couldn’t go home empty-handed.
“Still, I...”
He was about to get up, resolved to try even if it failed, when—
“What if...”
“Yes?”
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be Hungary?”
“What do you mean?”
“If it’s premium goose down with a fill power above 900 rather than 850, there may be a way.”
“Are you talking about Grand Mother Goose Down?”
Yousef nodded.
“Yes, exactly. There’s a big difference in price, of course... but it’s the only farm I know of that might actually be willing to deal with us. Well, if the price doesn’t work, there’s nothing I can do. As for arranging meetings with Hungarian farm owners, I can absolutely do that now that Antoine has filled me in.”
For Seung-hyun, who needed to move fast, he would rather focus on what was possible than waste time on what wasn’t.
“Then let’s go to Poland.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
Yousef immediately led Seung-hyun out of the airport.
“Were we not taking a plane?”
“There probably isn’t a flight right now. No direct one, either. Even if we had to transfer, then still take a car from the airport to the farm, this would be faster.”
“Ah—”
After he made a phone call to somewhere, a van with a driver arrived almost immediately.
Seung-hyun, who had naturally assumed Yousef would be the one driving, climbed into the van while tugging along his large suitcase and asked, somewhat bewildered, “Did you call a taxi?”
Yousef looked back as though that was a strange thing to say.
“It’s my car.”
“And the man in front...?”
“The driver.”
“Ah...”
Only then did Seung-hyun fully realize once again that this was the man Antoine had sent.
“But if you’re staying for a few days, isn’t that suitcase too big?”
“Ah, there’s a sample bedding set inside.”
“Bedding? Hmm... To be honest, where we’re going, I didn’t make any appointment. If we ask, they’ll definitely tell us not to come. And if the company trying to contract with that farm hears we’re on our way, they’ll rush to close the deal.”
“Is it really all right to do that? What if a contract has already been signed by the time we arrive?”
“Then there’s nothing we can do. But I doubt they’d close it that quickly. Even so, if it already has been signed... then I suppose you’ll just have to blame your own bad luck.”
“...”
“You must be tired. You should try to get some sleep. We’ve got more than eight hours of driving ahead of us.”
At the mention of eight hours just for the trip, Seung-hyun nodded with a worn-out look on his face.
*
How much time passed as he drifted in and out of sleep, talking about this and that with Yousef?
As dawn gradually brightened the sky and the hot sun poured its light over the world, the road signs changed to Polish.
Long after that, somewhere in an endless rural village, a massive goose farm came into view.
The buildings were the color of red brick, and the grassland spreading around them was a vivid green.
The sight of snow-white geese roaming freely across the wide fields was striking.
“This is White Polska Farm.”
“Wow, it really is huge.”
Seung-hyun marveled as he looked past the window at the fences stretching on without end.
Scattered across the broad fields were facilities for feeding and caring for the geese.
It looked like free-range breeding, which made him think the feather quality must be excellent because the birds experienced so little stress.
“The owner is named Stanisław. He’s been running this goose farm for three generations, and from what I hear, he’s having financial trouble.”
“Financial trouble?”
“There used to be a company they contracted with, but when that company went under, they couldn’t collect payment for what had already been supplied and ended up in rough shape. As if that weren’t enough, they also couldn’t get paid what they were owed, so cash flow became a problem. If not for that, this opportunity probably wouldn’t have come to you, Mr. Jung.”
After parking and getting out to make the call, a middle-aged man with a sturdy build and a dark expression approached from a distance.
It was the farm owner, Stanisław.
After Yousef greeted him in Polish, Stanisław spoke with him for quite some time.
Apparently they had shown up abruptly without any prior notice.
“One hour? Okay. Got it. Just don’t sign anything, all right?”
After the farm owner went back inside, Yousef came over and said, “He’s asking us to wait about an hour. There seems to be a company in there trying to make a deal with him.”
“So if we’d been a little later, the contract would already have been done?”
“Not quite that fast. Probably... a day? He would have decided within a day, I think, haha.”
Yousef Lema gave Seung-hyun’s shoulder a light pat, relieved that their luck wasn’t bad after all.
Seung-hyun wondered what to do for an hour, then decided to just look around the farm.
A farm with white geese wandering about was healing in itself.
As he wandered for a long while through the green farm, with white geese and fresh, open air all around him, Yousef called.
The farm owner wanted to see them.
They had walked quite a distance, so after about ten minutes they headed toward the red-brick house, where Yousef and Stanisław were speaking about something outside the door.
Stanisław looked at Seung-hyun, approaching from afar, and shrugged.
At first he shook his head and looked at him pessimistically, then nodded toward Seung-hyun and opened the door.
“Come in.”
Inside the cozy, warm brick house, Stanisław served milk tea to Seung-hyun and Yousef, then dropped into the seat across from the table and said, “It’s funny that someone from the East would be looking for this kind of quality. You’ve seen the farm already. What did you think?”
“It was very impressive. Especially the way you let the geese roam freely.”
“We raise them in a way that minimizes stress, and we only collect the feathers after they’re fully mature. Producing goose down with a fill power over 900 isn’t difficult for us, but it’s expensive, and we’ve already received offers from another company. I don’t know if we have time to discuss terms with you.”
Just as Seung-hyun was about to answer, Yousef spoke first. It was in Polish, a language Seung-hyun couldn’t understand.
“How much are they offering you per kilogram?”
“That’s...”
“I can guess they offered you serious money. But even if you get through this immediate crisis, don’t you think a long-term contract with them will end up tying your hands later?”
The farm owner pressed his index finger into the white tablecloth as he answered.
“Five million euros. Who wouldn’t be tempted by that much money?”
“I understand. But how many years of contract does that cover? Two? Three? Maybe four? Listen, Mr. Stanisław. Feed prices are only going to rise further because of climate change. If avian influenza spreads more, your farm will be valued even higher!”
“...”
“Where is it?”
After a brief hesitation, he replied, “Frette.”
Since it was Frette, Yousef assumed they must have been able to offer such a large advance and let out a snort.
“Do you know how obsessed they are with cutting costs? They’ll probably nitpick every goose they receive and drive the unit price even lower. I’d wager a hundred thousand euros that if you read that contract carefully, every single clause is stacked against you.”
“...”
“Five million euros is a lot of money, sure, but listen to the terms offered by this young president from the East.”
“I don’t make deals in small units.”
“I know. Your minimum unit is a ton.”
Thinking the man was ready to listen, Yousef turned to Seung-hyun and explained in English what had just been said.
Gratefully, Seung-hyun silently thanked him for persuading the other side on his behalf, then spoke.
“Finding good goose down is a universal desire. We produce high-end bedding for hotels, so we need the very best goose down. We’ll also guarantee a price above a reasonable level.”
“How much?”
“I’ll pay 400 euros per kilogram, and for a two-ton contract, I’ll pay the full amount in advance. The only thing I ask is that if the quality falls below the stated standards, we can cancel the contract immediately. Our target is a fill power of at least 850, with no fine feathers or impurities mixed in.”
For a direct deal with no middleman, that was already a very generous price.
He could see the man hesitating, clearly weighing whether this was better than Frette’s previous offer.
The per-kilogram price was indeed high, but there was a difference between receiving 800 million won in advance and 120 million, so it was only natural that he’d hesitate.
But Seung-hyun’s offer wasn’t finished.
“I’ll also prepay next year’s contract in advance. That would be about 1.6 million euros.”
Yousef immediately asked Stanisław, “What do you think? Isn’t that enough? Doesn’t it open your lungs back up?”
It clearly seemed to ease the farm’s financial strain, because the man’s face brightened a little.
After thinking for a moment, he asked, “You produce bedding?”
“That’s right.”
“Could I see it once?”
“Of course. Just a moment.”
Seung-hyun had brought it along just in case, and now he was glad he had. He hurried outside, pulled the suitcase out of the van, and came back in.
Returning to the brick house, he opened the suitcase and spread the white bedding out on the table. Stanisław’s eyes widened.
He examined it carefully, touching the bedding for a long time and even pressing it to his cheek, before finally speaking.
“Knowing that our goose down is going into something like this gives me real confidence in you. All right. Let’s do it. I’ll send you 900 fill power, not 850. You’ll probably feel a softness on an entirely different level.”
“Thank you.”
Seung-hyun let out a breath of relief at once and shook his hand.