I
left it until 3:00 p.m. on the Monday afternoon - 09:00 a.m. Chicago time - to
phone Ron. I gave him a report on my week in Scotland. He didn’t seem concerned about my lack of progress, merely suggesting I try the mills in
England, which of course is what I planned to do. But when I asked him if he
knew anyone who might be interested in off grade LWC, he reacted immediately.
“Why do you ask?”
“Because I know where there is
some.”
“Where?”
“At one of the mill’s I visited in
Scotland.”
“How much is there?”
“Four thousand five hundred tons.”
“You’re kidding!”
“No, I’m not kidding.”
“Jesus Christ! That grade’s like
gold dust. I want to see it. I’ll fly over tonight. What’s the nearest
airport?”
“Glasgow.”
“Meet me there. And bring your
golf clubs. I’m not missing an opportunity to play golf if I’m coming to Scotland.”
I flew up to Glasgow on the
shuttle from Heathrow the next morning and rented a car. I met Ron off his
flight from Chicago and we drove straight to Prestwick Golf Club where I had
booked a tee time for us. After our round, we had a sandwich in the bar and headed for the mill.
The paper was in three different
warehouses and the mill had a car drive us to see it. Ron spent an age
clambering over rolls thick with three years of dust checking the
specifications on the labels before dusting himself off and declaring: “Okay, let’s get back to the mill and talk price.”
Our visit resulted in Ron
opening a letter of credit for $2,000,000, and two hundred and twenty
forty-foot trucks crossing the Scottish border at Gretna Green and trundling
down the M6 motorway to Liverpool docks with 4,500 tons of paper to be loaded on a freighter bound for
Philadelphia.
The guys at the mill were
over the moon to be getting rid of paper they never thought they would see the
back of, and Ron was cock-a-hoop because of the money he would make on the
deal. To say I was delighted would be a masterly understatement; euphoric would
be nearer the mark, because my commission from the mill on the deal would be
$60,000.
It would change everything.
Extract from my book WILL YOU TELL HER,OR SHALL I? A true story. My story. The story of how I lived with the ten-year terminal illness of my wife. Available on www.booksthepublishersmissed.com
Twitter: Maximillian19
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