A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

Chapter 380 Lipstick Business

(Malena)

In the next few days, Lu Cheng divided his men into two groups. One group entered the city of Syracuse to observe the situation, understand the movements of the army and police, and also understand the situation of those gangs that had suffered heavy losses.

Another group of people found a hidden valley for concentrated training.

Sicily is a hilly island. The city of Syracuse faces the sea to the east and some hilly areas to the west, which are very suitable for hiding manpower.

After eliminating the forces around the city of Syracuse, Lu Cheng now has more than 120 subordinates, which is enough for the time being.

Anyway, there is no need to dominate the world. Cultivating a group of elites with strong combat capabilities and developing some peripheral personnel will be enough to gain a foothold in Syracuse.

As for the subsequent development, we cannot rush it.

Sicily is located in an important position on the Mediterranean trade route and has great strategic significance. There are many garrisons and police on the island. Once a gang grows too fast and has too many people, it will attract the attention of the army and police.

Therefore, the next step is to develop steadily and take both black and white into consideration.

After spending a few days teaching his men some weapon-fighting techniques, shooting techniques, and combat skills, Lu Cheng temporarily handed over the training to Camilo, Eric and others, while Lu Cheng led his men to look for some suitable businesses.

During the war years, the most profitable businesses were basically related to food and military supplies.

Sicily has a Mediterranean climate, and its agriculture and fisheries are quite developed. The island is rich in fruits such as citrus, grapes, and lemons. Agriculture is mainly based on wheat, vegetables, and cotton. The fishery is well developed on the west coast. Every year, fishermen catch a large number of sardines and tuna, can them, and ship them to other places for sale.

The official control over these grains and materials is quite strict, and the purchase price is very low, so farmers and fishermen basically cannot make any money.

Therefore, some people buy supplies from grassroots farmers and fishermen and smuggle them to other places to make a profit.

After some consideration, Lu Cheng decided not to engage in the smuggling business.

On the one hand, those who can engage in smuggling business are all powerful forces, and there may be some official or military personnel behind them to support them. If Lu Cheng rashly joins in and competes with others for the cake, he will easily be exposed too early and then fall into endless trouble.

Therefore, Lu Cheng still plans to start from the industry he is familiar with and develop daily chemicals.

Even in this war era, women's lipstick, stockings and cosmetics were in short supply and their prices remained high.

Olive oil, sulfur, lemon, etc. from Sicily can all be used as the main raw materials for daily chemical products.

Nowadays, the lipsticks and cosmetics commonly used by women are still relatively simple in categories, and the quality and effects are also average. There are not many daily chemical factories in Sicily. It is completely okay to make daily chemical products.

The first product Lu Cheng planned to develop was lipstick for women.

In this war period, lipstick is not just a cosmetic for women, but is also given special meaning.

In countries such as Britain and the United States, wearing lipstick is considered a patriotic duty for women. Beautiful red lips can boost the morale of soldiers on the front lines, and red also symbolizes victory.

In the eyes of many women, wearing lipstick is also a symbol of strength and independence.

Moreover, because the failed art student hated lipstick so much, women wearing lipstick became a symbol of anti-fascism.

Because of this, the price of lipstick has always been high. The British government also imposed extremely high tariffs on lipstick, causing many women to be unable to afford lipstick and could only use red beet juice to apply on their lips instead of lipstick.

In this era, the technology of making lipstick is not yet popular. In the future, you can search for a guide on the Internet, buy some raw materials, a few small boxes for lipstick, and some molds, and you can make your own lipstick.

Although Lu Cheng has not deliberately studied this thing, his tablet computer, in the light industry section and daily chemical area, contains detailed methods of making various lipsticks.

Therefore, Lu Cheng simply asked someone to go to the chemical store to purchase a batch of chemicals and a batch of raw materials. After tinkering in the house for half a day, he produced several lipsticks of different colors and scents.

Afterwards, Lu Cheng asked his younger brothers to call out all the women in their families, select a group of skillful women, and divide the work among them, with each group completing the processing of certain materials and certain links.

At the same time, Lu Cheng also asked his men to contact a factory to make some lipstick tubes for lipstick.

The lipstick tube can be made of metal, bamboo, wood, plastic, or glass. There are not many requirements.

Lu Cheng specially asked someone to investigate the prices of various lipsticks sold on the island. The profits were ten, dozens, or even hundreds of times higher than the raw materials.

As long as the lipstick is produced, even if the price is lowered a little, with small profits but quick turnover, huge profits can still be made.

In order to adapt to the current era, the lipsticks produced by Lu Cheng are mainly red, including tomato red, coral red, rose red, maple leaf red, strawberry red, plum red and so on.

The flavors are also rich and varied, including apple, lemon, rose, etc.

After making the samples, Lu Cheng first let his younger brothers' families use them, and the results were very good.

Afterwards, Lu Cheng trained his younger brothers while developing his business.

After producing a batch of products, Lu Cheng asked some of his younger brothers to hang special wooden boxes filled with various lipsticks on their chests and go to places in Syracuse where there were more women to test sell them.

In order to sell it as quickly as possible, Lu Cheng directly set the price 10% lower than the market price.

In fact, even if the price is reduced by 90% and sold at 10% off, it is still a highly profitable business.

But if the price is set too low, it will affect people's perception and cause them to worry about the quality of the product.

At the same time, Lu Cheng named his product "Unique beauty", and also designed an advertising slogan: "Put on this lipstick, radiate unique charm, you are unique" and so on.

Compared to the relatively monotonous lipsticks at that time, Lu Cheng’s products had more colors and scents, and were cheap, so they quickly attracted a group of customers.

After using it, they found that the effect was no different from those big brands, and the quality was even better. Those women liked it even more and rushed to buy it.

After the product had undergone preliminary market testing, Lu Cheng immediately sent people with samples to discuss sales with shopping malls in nearby cities.

Of course, during this period, it was inevitable that some covetous people would be attracted, but they were all quickly eliminated by Lu Cheng's subordinates.

Nowadays, you need to have a way to make money and also the ability to protect yourself.

After the lipstick business was successful, Lu Cheng gathered his younger brothers and prepared to formally establish a daily chemical factory for mass production.

At the same time, Lu Cheng also appeared outside the city of Syracuse, near Malena's house, in his true identity.

"Sir, my house is right next to the sea, with beautiful scenery. I can fall asleep and wake up to the sound of the waves every day... If there wasn't a war going on recently, I would never sell it."

"Just tell me how much it is."

"On top of the original basis, add another 10%."

"Then I'd better go ask the neighbors next door. I'm sure they'll be happy to sell the house to me, too."

"Wait, sir, the price is negotiable. How about adding another five thousand lire? Three thousand? Sir, I can give you all the furniture..."

"Another thousand at most."

"Okay, one thousand is one thousand..."