As usual at the start of a new year, Mara’s comrade directors came together to discuss any substantial deviations from their prevalent Five Year Plan. Over the recent years, it had become their routine to start with the situation on the export markets, as these were usually more volatile than their carefully centrally planned home market.
Consequences of the latest Letaran safety regulations
“Next item: Letara”, Henri Nordhov, the Comrade Executive Director read out. “How much of a bombshell were the new safety regulation that their new government dropped over there late last year on everyone as their holiday present?”
Fedor Piechov, Comrade Director of Engineering, didn’t mince words. “A big one, lethal to say the least.” He pointed to Rodyn Gumprov, the development engineer in charge of their now sole model in production.
Rodyn made a sour face, partially because of the answer he was about to give and partially because he has had hardly any holiday, thanks to the Letaran ‘holiday present’. “My comrades and I had a intense look over the last weeks”, he reported. "It’s certainly not something we can comply with with some rework after assembly over there. We would have to do at least some structural reengineering and extensive testing for crashworthiness. That’s not something one can do just on the drawing board or with calculation tables. Overall, the changes would be too substantial to be economically viable, especially after we just finished our first big overhaul of the Tovarysh… Companion model range. "
“Not helping are our steadily shrinking sales figures over there”, Natalya Suddya, Comrade Director of Sales added. “Our revised trims would address a lot of the issues that customers had with the previous versions, but it’d be a pretty big gamble. Besides, we wouldn’t even get an advantage in our home market - no Archanan customer has ever asked about increased safety features.”
“This means?” Nordhov asked, although he knew the answer already.
“We have to withdraw the Companion from the Letaran market after the grace period for safety compliance expires”, Fedor replied. “Guess that’s what we get for exporting into a democracy”, he couldn’t help but adding.
Nordhov allowed a few seconds of stunned silence around he heavy wooden boardroom table.
“What do we do with our recently opened assembly plant over there?”
“What we can do for the time being”, Natalya began again, “is having the assembly plant running at least one shift per day with a skeleton workforce for exports to Somunds. They are less squeamish about safety, let’s hope it stays that way. Might need some extended plant holidays over the Letaran summer so that they don’t overproduce, depending on how demand develops.”
“So it’s not entirely useless?” Nordhov again.
“No”, Natalya replied. “We also think about getting a dealer to open shop in Somunds close to the Letaran border. Then we can see how many Letaran people really care about safety when it is about their wallet as well. They can buy in Somunds and then import individual cars right back into Letara. Besides, our domestic and Dalluhan sales are picking up anyway slowly but surely, including the otherwise unchanged cars formally certified for 92 leaded fuel - that was a good idea.” She throws an appreciative glance to Rodyn. “So any additional market is nice to have, but not as crucial as in the previous years.”
“Alright”, Nordhov obviously was less than pleased but did not see any viable other option either, and he certainly wouldn’t be caught dead throwing more money at a problem caused by a foreign government. “Anything else from Letara?”
Fedor answered again. “Their new government put out a tender for a 4x4 offroader.”
“Do we still have some Konyk jeeps stored away?”
“No, they are finally all gone”, Natalya reported. “Even if it took over four years after they went out of production.”
Fedor joined in again. “Their removable roof would actually make the Konyk ideally flexible for what they want over there, but I don’t think the rear seats would qualify as full-size seats in the sense of what they want anyway. So even if we could get our hands on some more Konyks, it would basically be futile.”
Rodyn spoke. “Oh, and they are stopping the Cannonball and start circuit racing. But I guess since we are not selling anything anymore over there, there is little sense in preparing something. Too bad our last Cannonball outing ended with a whimper, not with a bang.”
Nordhov nodded curtly and proceeded to the next agenda item.
Fedor thought grimly. ‘As will our market presence over there for the time being…’
