Chapter 9
I’m translating the chapter into HTML-formatted prose and checking the special-content boundaries carefully so the output stays valid and consistent with the glossary.CHAPTER_TITLE: Inventory Clearance (1)
The furniture and bedding section of the department store was quiet on a weekday afternoon, with only a scattering of customers drifting through.
Seung-hyun walked slowly between the tiers of neatly arranged luxury bedding sets, running his fingertips over the fabric as he went.
He wasn’t sweating under his coat, but even after only a few touches, a faint dizziness began to creep up on him.
Maybe it was a sign that he had been pushing this ability too hard.
He sat in a cafe inside the department store for a while and got a sugar boost with a caramel macchiato before returning to the bedding section, where he kept searching for bedding made from fabric similar to the stock piled up in the warehouse.
Still, a young man in a suit lingering in front of bedding displays was not the sort of scene one often saw in a department store.
Especially when he kept stroking one quilt after another, the employees watching him had every reason to be puzzled.
A few staff members glanced over at Seung-hyun as he moved through the floor in his suit.
“Hah... this one has a pretty high cotton content. It’s soft enough for a duvet cover, but the sheen is weak...”
When he had first touched the quilts in the bedding section, he had already been sure from the softness alone, even before any information came flooding in.
Maybe this could work.
He knew it sounded absurd, even to himself, but the more he handled these fabrics, the more he felt there might be a way to use the material that had been condemned as defective and left to rot in the warehouse.
And at Seung-hyun’s fingertips, there was something else: a peculiar sensitivity.
While he ran through several fabrics, information kept slipping into his mind in abrupt flashes, like, If this were used as bedding, this level of breathability and durability would last a long time.
“Sir, is there something in particular you’re looking for?”
A bedding section clerk approached and asked softly.
After a moment’s thought, Seung-hyun lifted the soft quilt he had been touching and asked, “What’s this made of?”
“Isn’t it soft? This one’s Modal, sir.”
He knew Modal too.
It was made from cellulose fiber extracted from beech trees, and its hallmark was a silky softness with a natural sheen.
Even if he had never cared much about the factory his father ran, he had studied fashion, so he had always taken an interest in new materials.
“What’s the price range?”
“This one is 280,000 won, sir.”
As expected of a department store, the price of bedding was definitely on the high side.
“Hmm... is it queen size?”
“This one is super single.”
“Ah...”
Seung-hyun nodded and lightly rubbed the surface of the quilt.
If we made this with our fabric, we could bring the polyester blend ratio down even further while improving durability. The sheen and warmth would both be better too. The real question is whether it would sell at a lower price point...
Seung-hyun narrowed his eyes and sat down on the mattress display set up beside the bed.
As he actually leaned back into it, a dense cushioning spread through him, followed by the quilt’s distinct, comforting warmth.
If it were Tencel, the feel would be much better than this... and it would be easy to store too.
The moment that thought fully formed, his whole body tensed up with a chill.
This might be the next market Haesol Textile needed to open up.
What if, instead of limiting themselves to clothing, they created a luxury bedding and home-fabric brand of their own, or tried to supply large quantities to companies in that line of business?
Well, that can wait. Right now, the important thing is clearing inventory.
Among the fabrics that had been rejected for clothing, there were some whose defects were frankly hard to understand.
Rather than poking every clothing brand in sight and trying to force these into apparel, wouldn’t it be better to unload them all at once online?
Unlike garment-specific production, bedding didn’t require tricky silhouettes or complex cutting, so quality, texture, and durability mattered more. Maybe it was possible.
After sitting there for quite a while, he could faintly feel the bedding clerk starting to give him the side-eye.
Seung-hyun got up at once and said, “Please give me one set with this quilt, this duvet cover, and this pillow cover.”
“Oh, certainly. And how would you like it delivered?”
“No. Just pack it up for me; I’ll carry it myself.”
“You’ll carry it yourself? It’ll be bulky.”
“It’s fine.”
With a smile, Seung-hyun paid with the corporate card.
As he left the store, he made a note in his phone: bedding sample development -> participate in the Small and Medium Business Promotion Association exhibition.
He planned to use the exhibition to begin promoting Haesol Textile’s fabrics in earnest to the furniture and interior-design market.
I need to put together a concrete plan before it gets any later...
As he stepped out of the department store, Seung-hyun forced down the swelling excitement in his chest and headed toward the car, carrying a large bag.
When the young president came back into the factory holding a huge bedding set in his hands, the employees threw him curious looks.
Park Han-soo, in particular, followed him into the office and asked, “Wait, isn’t that a quilt?”
“It is. Want to feel it?”
Seung-hyun unzipped the package and spread out the Modal quilt, and the factory manager reached out, brushed it once, and said, “Yes, it’s soft. But why...”
As he spoke, something clicked in the manager’s mind, and his eyes widened.
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of attaching this to the stock in the warehouse?”
“What do you think? Sounds ridiculous?”
“No... the fabric we have is too high-end to use as bedding. It’s not that there are no Tencel quilts out there, but most of them have a low Tencel content, and ours is high, so the pricing...”
“Forget that. Manager Park, if it were a quilt made from Tencel, how would it feel? Wouldn’t you want to cover yourself with it?”
The main material of the inventory piled up in the warehouse was Tencel.
It was an eco-friendly material extracted from eucalyptus trees and had excellent moisture absorption.
In particular, because it had natural antibacterial properties, it was human-friendly even without frequent washing, and it was extremely soft against the skin.
The only real drawback of Tencel was its high price.
Which naturally meant the amount Haesol Textile had to pay to secure the yarn was correspondingly high.
It wasn’t hard to imagine how much strain it had placed on the company to have fabric made from such expensive yarn sitting in the warehouse instead of going to Taewon Apparel.
“It would be nice, I suppose... but how would you price it, and where would you sell it? We don’t even have a brand, so right now maybe Dongdaemun would be...”
“Not Dongdaemun. As for launching a brand, isn’t that something you can just whip up?”
“Pardon?”
“Outsource the brand creation to a company that does that kind of work, make one, get a few samples made, have a model pose for photos, and then blast it across the internet.”
Park Han-soo blinked, clearly wondering whether this could really work.
“President, I understand wanting to do something, but if you touch that fabric and then can’t sell it, it stops being inventory and just becomes trash.”
“I know. But do you have anywhere to send the inventory we already have?”
“Well...”
The words there isn’t any never quite made it out of Manager Park’s mouth.
“Since it’s inventory, we’re trying something. Honestly, the fact that our company managed to survive for more than ten years as a subcontractor for Taesung Apparel... I’d call that luck. More than anything, it was fortunate that Taesung kept giving us work for over a decade. But look at them now. Taesung’s acting like this. We don’t know when the work will stop coming. So shouldn’t we prepare a backup plan?”
“That’s true.”
“Let’s give it a try. Even if it fails, what we lose is the fabric sitting in inventory and a little money for outsourcing. But at least we’ll get one thing for certain.”
“And what’s that?”
“Experience with bedding. As far as I know, our company doesn’t have any experience in that area yet. Am I wrong?”
“...No, you’re not.”
“Then that’s settled. First, can this be done?”
Once Seung-hyun forced himself to think positively, even Park Han-soo furrowed his brow and started turning the idea over in his head.
The plan was a little absurd, but if it sold properly, it was obvious that making and selling a product would bring in more profit than selling fabric to a big-brand client.
Fabric, no matter how good it was, was still only a material for making a final product. Bedding, by contrast, would let them sell the finished goods themselves.
“The fabric’s various patterns wouldn’t make it impossible to produce quilts. There are quilts made from a single plain fabric without any pattern at all. Our technicians should be able to handle the stitching. The problem will be the filling. If we have time, we’ll get used to the sizing, so if we can source the filling cheaply...”
“So you’re saying it’s possible?”
“It is. And honestly, if we want filling, it wouldn’t be hard to bring in a truckload and park it in front of the company right now.”
Seung-hyun nodded.
At least there was now something they could try, and that alone made him feel much better.
“All right. I’ll find a company that does brand making and ask them for a cheap quote.”
“Then we’ll try making a sample ourselves without filling, using the fabric we have.”
“Yes, yes.”
After the factory manager left, Seung-hyun turned on his computer monitor.
Companies that could create brand names and images on the internet were everywhere, so finding one wouldn’t be a problem.
Then, suddenly struck by curiosity, Seung-hyun minimized the internet window and activated the CCTV program showing the factory interior.
Could it already be...
It was a busy period, with them working hard to process the volume Taesung Apparel had sent down.
Listening to the sound of machinery rattling from outside, Seung-hyun adjusted the CCTV playback time and rewound it.
The adjusted time was last night.
Once an hour or two had passed after the night shift properly began, the monitor showed people diligently cutting fabric and working the sewing lines.
Nothing seemed suspicious.
And yet, in the middle of Seung-hyun’s fixed stare at the screen,
he furrowed his brow and slowly brought his face closer, as if he were about to be pulled right into the monitor.