Bob of Small End (92 page)

“
Love
you too, Maria.”

Bob checked
out and drove to Small End thinking about all the things they might
do in the future. Endless possibilities if only they could sell the
company.

Monday morning
Ken put a notice on the cloakroom door asking everyone to go to the
tea room for a meeting at nine o’clock. When they were all there
Bob told them that they had decided to sell the company and then
told them why they were doing so. They were, as Lori had predicted,
a little upset. Bob continued and said he’d run the company after
Ken had left and that he’d try to run it exactly as Ken had
done.

“
But
what happens when you’ve sold it?” asked Diane. “Will they run it
the same way?”

“
We hope
so.”

“
Will we
still have a reward lunch and a half day each month?”

“
And our
pay, will that go down?”

“
We
don’t know any of those answers yet. We will try to have them
written in the agreement but they might not want to do everything
the way we have.”

“
Then
we’ll form a union,” exclaimed Ray.

“
Not
yet,” countered Jean. “I don’t like unions. Don’t do that until you
have to.”

“
No.
Let’s not do that,” Brian said, “we might not want to go on strike
when they call for one and I certainly don’t want to pay their
dues.”

Lori spoke up.
“Craig and I were told about this on Friday and I said we would ask
everyone we know if they knew anybody who might buy it. I suggest
you do the same. That way we might find someone who is compatible
with our way of working.”

“
How
much are you selling it for?” Alan asked.

“
Half-a-
million pounds,” answered Bob.

“
Wow!
Who knows anyone with that kind of money?” he asked. No one raised
their hands. “I’ll talk to my Dad and see if he knows anybody but I
don’t think he would.”

“
Try not
to worry about me leaving the company,” said Ken. “It’ll be a
change but if Bob runs the shop it won’t be much different from the
way it is now.”

“
And
I’ll be relying on Craig and Lori,” added Bob, “with them doing
most of the organising you won’t notice any difference.”

“
That’s
true,” Diane said. “Well, let’s start now or we won’t get anything
done before it’s tea time.”

Dave’s cheque
for £15,450 for the August 2nd toys arrived with the mail. Lori
showed it to Bob and Ken then put it in the safe.

“
After
the next cheque arrives there’ll be enough to pay back your loan
Ken” said Bob. “Fifteen thousand plus the interest.”

“
I don’t
want the interest Bob. I probably made more by selling when I did
because the stocks I sold went down in price this last
month.”

“
Oh,
good. Ken, I’m going to tell Joe that we’re selling the company,
it’s about time he knew.”

“
Jack
too, I guess. I’ll call him tonight. Maybe he’ll buy
it!”

“
I don’t
think he’d be able to do that Ken. Though maybe he could, by paying
it off, like a mortgage, using the money that comes from
We-Have-It
. Lori, how much will we
get this week?”

Lori checked
her computer and said, “We’ll get two lots this week unless the
mail’s late. £37,500, if we get both.”

“
Then we
should be able to cover the expenses and start getting back the
money we originally put in. That’d be nice.”

Bob walked to
Joe’s farm after the shop closed and he found him in one of the
greenhouses roto-tilling compost into the beds. As soon as he saw
Bob he stopped the machine and sat on a bench. He looked tired.

“
Hello
Bob. Did you have a good time last weekend?”

“
Yes,
thanks Joe. Is that some of the compost you make from our
sawdust?”

“
About
half is, the rest is old manure from Ben Jackson’s farm. He lets me
have it each year. You must have something important to tell me.
Are you and Maria engaged?”

“
No,
Joe, no, but I do have something to tell you. We’re selling the
company.”

“
Selling
it? Why are you doing that? I thought you were making lots of money
and would keep it forever.”

“
We are
making lots of money but Ken’s accepted a job in Manchester and I
don’t want to run the company without him. I want an easier life. I
came to let you know about it and to ask if you’d know anyone who
might like to buy it. Would you, for instance?”

“
No
thanks Bob. Like you, I want an easier life. And I don’t want to
spend most of my time indoors. Hey, I know a couple of farmers who
invest in various things; they might be interested. How much do you
want for it?”

“
Half-a-
million pounds. It sounds a lot but it makes more than that each
year. At the moment, that is, it might not do that next year if
people stop wanting to buy wooden toys.”

“
Half-a-million, eh. Okay, I’ll pass the word around. You’d
better tell Len, he’ll let everyone in the village know about
it.”

“
I plan
to. I’ll tell him next.”

“
You’ll
be telling Jack?”

“
Ken’s
doing that and I bet he’ll ask if he wants to buy his house but
that’s only a guess. Ken hasn’t said anything to me about
that.”

“
All
right. I’ll let you know if any of my friends are
interested.”

Len was very
interested to hear that they were selling the company and he
promised to let everybody know about it. A villager came to the
counter right then and Bob quickly downed his drink and left; he
didn’t want to be part of the discussion. It would be better if Len
told everyone first, there would be fewer questions for him to
answer that way.

After tea
Tuesday morning Ken and Bob moved to the office and talked about
how they would manage the change if they couldn’t find a buyer.

“
Would
you buy my share Bob? By instalments? So much every month, or every
year if you like?”

“
You
wouldn’t prefer to remain an absentee owner?”

“
I’d
rather not. I’d only worry about how well the company was doing and
I’d probably keep phoning you to find out. I’d rather sell and move
on.”

“
I’ll
buy it if that’s what you want Ken. I feel all this is due to you
and I’m very grateful to be a part of it. So I’ll do whatever you
want. I’ll buy it and pay you off as soon as I can. That is, if we
don’t get anyone who might buy it first. Lori, did you find anyone
who might be interested?”

“
No not
yet. I’ve talked to my Dad and to my uncles. They’re unhappy that
you’re selling but they couldn’t buy it. But you said that people
could buy the company in instalments? I’ll have to tell them that,
it might make a difference. Would it include all the toys we’ve
already made?”

“
I
suppose so,” said Bob.

“
You
know that could be worth a lot of money,” said Ken. “Maybe it’s
value should be added to the sale cost.”

“
Did
Great Toys
offer
include the stock?” asked Bob.

“
Didn’t
ask. Probably.”

“
Then we
should include it in the price too, although we have much more
stock now than we had then.”

“
I guess
so. Okay.”

“
So I’ll
tell them that the price includes the stock and that the company
can be bought by instalments,” said Lori.

“
Well we
hadn’t really thought about it being bought by instalments. We’d
have to have some kind of guarantee that they’d pay all the money
and not walk away if things went badly.”

“
I see.
All right. Then if anyone seems interested I’ll tell them all
that.”

Bob got up,
went to the notice board then asked “How are we doing on production
Lori? I don’t see yesterday’s totals.”

“
Ah
sorry Bob, I haven’t put them up yet. I’ll do it now.” She took the
hand-written list she kept went to the notice board and changed the
date and the totals. “We have 4,800 farms, 2,500 villages and 2,200
trains.”

“
So we
won’t have to worry about filling any request now since Dave’s
orders are going down.”

“
I don’t
think so,” she replied.

“
Are you
going to keep the same routine as before Ken? Two days of farms,
two of villages and one of trains?”

“
Sure.”

“
And
making fifteen hundred of each day?”

“
Yes.”

“
Okay. I
could design some new toys if you like and we now have time to make
them. Customers used to ask if we have different ones.”

“
They
still do,” added Lori. “Dave asked again two or three weeks ago
about that and I’ve had two calls from clients we used to deliver
to. They asked if we had already started making different
kinds.”

“
We
could do that but I’d rather not set up a new bench,” said Ken.
“It’s better not to have an unknown product thrown into the pot
when we’re selling. If the company doesn’t sell then I’ll help you
set up a new bench if you decide to make new ones Bob. That would
have to be over the Christmas holidays. Can we leave it until
then?”

“
Yes,
okay.”

Chapter 40 Lori and Craig

Bob was
sitting at his desk when Lori walked in first thing on Wednesday
morning. She said ‘Hello’ then asked if she could talk to him and
Ken as soon as everyone had started work.

“
You
have some news? Have you found anyone?”

“
Possibly, but can I wait until Ken comes in before I tell
you?”

“
Sure.
Is Craig in the shop? He’ll look after everything.”

“
Yes,
he’ll probably be in the storage room. We’ve doubled the wood order
and he’s not sure it’ll all fit in the racks. We expect it to be
delivered this morning.”

“
I think
that was Ken who just arrived, it sounded like him going into the
shop. I’ll fetch him.”

“
No,
I’ll go,” said Lori. “I want to have a word with Craig
too.”

Two minutes
later she returned with Ken and Craig. She asked Ken to sit down
and once he was seated said, “Craig and I want to buy the workshop.
We had a big conference with my parents and uncles last night and
everyone agreed to lend us the money. Not all of it but perhaps
enough to suit you. We’ve put our offer on paper and everyone has
signed it.”

“
Wow!”
exclaimed Bob, “you’ve come up with half-a-million
pounds?”

“
No, not
exactly. My dad and his brothers will mortgage their houses and use
some of their savings. We think we’ll have at least three hundred
thousand pounds. We may have more because they’ve only estimated
how much they could get on a mortgage and they’ve done that
conservatively. What we would like to do is to buy the company,
using the money we can get from my family, then pay the rest in
instalments. We’d pay it off as quickly as we could of
course.”

“
Let me
see if I understand this Lori,” said Bob. “Let’s say you give us
quarter of a million pounds. You would then owe another quarter
million. Would you pay interest on that?”

“
Yes, of
course, and we’d pay ten percent on what we owe. We’ve written that
in the offer.”

“
You’d
pay us from the money you receive from the sales?”

“
Only
from the sales after the date we bought it. The money from
We-Have-It
that comes before the
date of sale would go to you. But we would own all the stock that’s
in the stock rooms here at the date of sale. That’s what you said
yesterday.”

“
Right,
we said that. And who gets paid first, us or your
relatives?”

“
You.
You’d be paid first. They said they can carry their mortgages.
It’ll be hard for two of them but I’m sure we can pay them back
within a year.”

“
What do
you think about this Ken? I like it very much.”

“
I like
it too. It’s almost too good! You know how to run the shop, Craig,
and you know how the company operates, Lori. And you’d probably
keep employing everyone. Yes. I’d like the idea. Let us read what
you’ve written to be sure we understand what you’re
offering.”

“
We’d
want our lawyer look at it too,” added Bob. “Do you have a
lawyer?”

“
Yes, my
Dad’s lawyer would represent us I’m sure.”

“
You
know you might be buying a company that could collapse in a year or
so?”

“
We’ve
talked a lot about that,” said Craig. “We plan to make other toys
as soon as we’ve settled down.”

“
And
other wooden items as well, under a different trade name,” added
Lori. “Things like condiment holders for kitchens or nameplates for
gardens and houses. But we wouldn’t do that until next
Spring.”

“
Well
you’ve certainly thought about things,” said Bob. “You’ll do very
well I bet. Let me see the offer.”

“
I’ve
two copies, one for each of you. I’ve an extra one for your lawyer
if you decide to go ahead. Craig and I’ll go to the shop and work
there until you’ve discussed this. Let’s go Craig.” Lori stood up
and they both left the office.