Billet Aluminum
I used her as an example to talk about myself.
She’s our employee (marketer), nothing for you. You mean you bring someone here and want a sales commission. We have a set rate for commission.
We have two types of customers. One comes back to me and says, “Engineer Mo’tamedzadeh, you sell to me,” and the other prefers to buy directly from the factory.
Yes, some say they don’t want to come here and see the factory. They prefer dealing directly.
Yes, you should have an agreement for that. We have no problem. You mean both buying yourself and introducing customers to us.
Yes, exactly.
No problem. The agreement should be between you and me. What do you have in mind? If I see you are really a buyer, we write an agreement saying, for example, a percentage of sales. You sold the profile and introduced the customer to us, we give you a sales percentage. Another step is if you buy the profile from us, the one you buy has nothing else.
Yes, that has a separate price.
We can also give a percentage of sales.
Do you have dry ceramics too?
Profiles?
No, we don’t have them. We mostly work on Lamella and Curtain Wall. If we see the consumer is really a consumer, we can make its mold.
Yes, if that happens, do it.
Do we need a complete list of your customer’s orders or someone knowledgeable about it? For example, we can tell the customer to send the design for us to calculate and give it to them.
What does the customer want, a sample?
No, for example, if someone wants a curtain wall profile, they say they want Lamella 20. Is there someone to do the calculations?
Calculations for the project? They want a profile and these things. We don’t have this, but we can design the drawing. We haven’t done it before, but if you give the sample, we design the profile ourselves. But not the project. We haven’t done it but we are working on it.
That’s more for execution. We don’t do execution. That’s your job. We only produce. You say you want a profile. If I get into that, it’s like taking your job. We don’t interfere in other people’s work, even mold-making. Everyone should earn a living. I don’t interfere in mold-making. It’s better to specialize in my own work. I try to put all my effort into pressing. If I produce, making five pieces is more profitable than getting into execution, which has its own hassles. For example, finding the hardware, glass, etc. My job is producing.
Do you have accessories for Curtain Wall? No, we don’t. You’re an executor, you buy the profile from me and the rest from other colleagues. I don’t want to get involved in everything because if I buy it, even the freight I pay, I want to add it to the price. I say it’s available in the market. You deal directly with the sellers.
Unless it’s a small person who can’t, but you do your work directly, it’s much better.
Even the fixers, I’ve been asked for one by one. A 6-meter one costs 200, and one piece is 350. It’s just cut, and the cutting costs 5,000. It’s very cost-effective. Many wanted it, but it has its own problems. For instance, if you cut it, the unit of measure says it’s small or big. They say it’s crooked, its plastic doesn’t fit, its hardware doesn’t fit. You get involved in details. We don’t get involved in details.
Yes, the goal is to sell a 6-meter branch.
Profiles are per kilogram. Since we are exporting now, we sell almost 20 to 25 zebras a week to Iraq, Curtain Wall profiles.
Do you deliver here, or do they take it there?
We work this way. Customs and everything are their responsibility.
How much do you sell the profile per kilogram?
Standard, the last time we sold to Iraq was 180,000 tomans. However, 50,000 tomans is the wage, meaning it’s 130,000 tomans per meter.
How much is the conversion?
Around 150,000 to 155,000 tomans depending on the profile section.
Do you have door frames for interior doors?
No, we don’t.
We don’t have doors and windows now. The door and window market is dominated by Akpa. Akpa is very strong in this field, and you can’t enter it.
Akpa’s quality and branding are notable. I checked with other factories, and the final price that reaches the customer is always less than other factories’ with Akpa profiles, which is surprising.
Akpa has unified sales across all cities. All their prices are uniform. They succeeded in unifying their sales and mold making. They introduce new models and designs every year. We can’t produce some Akpa profiles.
Can you give us an estimate for mold making costs?
It depends on the profile section you want, whether it’s big or small, its diameter, and the type of steel used. We have prices ranging from 20 million to 200 million tomans depending on the profile section.
You provide the drawing, and we give you a price based on that.
We quote the price, and you decide if you want it made or not.
The smallest diameter we make is 160.You mean the smallest diameter in the Curtain Wall profile? Yes, we make that.
This is for Curtain Wall.
No, I meant for door frames.
We don’t do doors and windows. You should approach Akpa for that.
Okay, understood. Thanks for the information.
It’s important to have expertise in your specific work. For example, when you say you make Lamella, that’s your main job.
Yes, exactly. We focus on what we are good at. If someone comes and asks for profiles, we give them the best quality profiles we can make.
That’s a good approach. If you start taking on other work, it gets complicated.
Exactly. We try to avoid getting involved in everything.
For example, if someone wants a mold for a specific project, can you make it?
Yes, we can make it. But it has to be a large order.
What if someone wants just one or two pieces?
We usually don’t do small orders because it’s not cost-effective.
That’s clear. So, you prefer larger orders.
Yes, it’s more efficient for us.
Do you do any export outside of Iraq?
We mostly export to Iraq. But we are open to other markets if there’s a demand.
Do you have any specific quality standards you follow for your products?
Yes, we follow strict quality standards to ensure the best products for our customers.
That’s great to hear. It’s important to maintain high quality.
Absolutely. Quality is our priority.
Can you provide some samples of your work?
Yes, we can provide samples.
How long does it take to produce a mold and the first batch of profiles?
It depends on the complexity of the mold and the order size, but generally, it takes a few weeks.
Okay, thank you for the detailed information.
You’re welcome. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
Mr. Farzaneh, are you the production manager here or the owner of the factory?
We are partners with my brother.
Do you own the factory? Yes.
In recent years, since we mostly worked with Arak, we know the factories there well. We started with Kowsar first because Mr. Rasouli was a friend of mine. After a while, we got to know Mr. Amirabadi and worked with them for a while. Here, we worked with alloy guys for some time. Anyway, issues like with Mr. Rasouli, who was my friend, we faced problems with two shipments. Once I sent a customer to the factory, he bought 7 tons of doors and windows. They quibbled over 700 tomans for freight. They sent the load and didn’t give the 700 tomans, frustrating the customer who then called me and said, “What kind of factory is this?”
I don’t like such behavior. For instance, I sent a customer who wanted to produce suitcase handles for an innovative project. He did the casting there, but they didn’t consider the commission for us. They made the mold for him and produced it, but handled the customer poorly, making him leave. We advertise and work hard, the customer comes here, and then they handle the customer poorly or give them bad quality, making them angry. It’s like we build a building, and you come and destroy it from the ground up. We cut ties with many factories over these issues despite being friends. We don’t work with them anymore.
But there are tough customers too. I talked to that customer for a long time over 700 tomans. He was very firm.
Some people care more about the freight than the profile itself.
Every customer is sensitive about something. One customer said, for example, “I put a 6-meter branch of Lamella 20 on the ground, and a brand new note shouldn’t fit underneath it.”
I called Mr. Rasouli and told him about this customer who wants 20 tons of material but has this condition and cares about quality. After visiting our factory, I told him that no factory can make a 6-meter lamella with a one or two-millimeter error. If you send him to the factory and he finds out it’s wrong, he’ll be very upset.
I said this is not the right way to talk to a customer. I didn’t say anything to them at that moment.
You just need to say if you can produce it or not. There’s no need for all this. If someone treated you badly, you wouldn’t work with them anymore.
For instance, Pakashimi, if a customer came twice and you say you don’t work with Pakashimi, and then you say send him here to annoy him. We don’t do that. We try to respect anyone who comes here. We don’t have such an attitude.
Now, Ms. Jafari introduced us to you. How do you handle accounts and work with Ms. Jafari? We want to see how you can work with us in the future.
You deal directly with us. Ms. Jafari is just an intermediary, our employee.
Yes, she’s your employee. But let’s say we have one or a hundred purchases. Our goal in collaborating with the factory is that if I introduce Ms. Jafari to your factory, and she makes a hundred purchases and brings her friends here to buy, we should get a commission percentage we agreed on if they buy directly from the factory without using our intermediary.
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