Each step of processing adds value
You can sell the same cotton at four different points, and every step raises the price. Wholesale base prices run roughly in that order: cotton cheapest, yarn in the middle, fabric better. Garments are not on the wholesale list at all; they go through retail and earn the most per unit.
The rule that follows is simple: do not sell raw if you have the capacity to process. If you can turn cotton into fabric, do it. Raw sales are for a jammed line or an urgent need for cash.
Retail and wholesale
| Retail | Wholesale | |
|---|---|---|
| What sells | Garments | Cotton, yarn, fabric |
| Unit price | Highest | Lower |
| Volume | Limited by customer flow | As large as the order |
| How to grow it | Billboard, bus stop, staff, shop level | Reputation, office, quality lab |
They are not rivals, they complete each other. Retail has the margin but limited demand; wholesale has thinner margins but empties the warehouse. Since a full store stops the entire chain, a wholesale sale is often not "less profit" but "production continues".
Reputation is money. Garment prices rise with it, and wholesale payments scale with the reputation tier. Reputation starts at 2.0; past 4.0 the large factories appear, with roughly double the volume and nearly double the price. That is why missing an order costs more than it looks.
Growing cotton against buying it
Cotton you grow costs very little per unit once seed and wages are counted. The purchase price hovers around 240 lira. Under normal conditions the field wins every time.
Buying makes sense in exactly two situations:
- An order is about to expire. The reputation cost of missing it can exceed the price difference.
- The factory is starving. A stopped production line loses more than expensive raw material does.
One thing to know: the purchase price is deliberately kept above the best wholesale price. Buying cotton and reselling it untouched is not a profitable loop, and that door is closed on purpose.
What leaves the account at day close
Profit is not just sales. Every day close deducts:
- Upkeep for buildings and facilities.
- Wages for field workers and shop staff.
- Electricity, paid in order: solar first, then grid, diesel last.
- Unit production cost, the labour and energy in each unit of fabric and each garment.
- Tax, charged on daily profit rather than revenue. A bad day is not taxed twice.
The cost of goods sold comes off the tax base as well: cotton purchases, seed, fertiliser, pesticide and diesel. So a sale made from bought cotton is taxed after that purchase is deducted.
Lowering the unit cost
Two facilities reduce production cost directly: the gin and the canteen. Their benefit is not "slightly faster production", it is a permanent margin on every unit you make. As turnover grows so does their return, which earns them an early place in the mid game.
What money becomes later
Past a certain point the problem stops being how to earn and becomes where to spend. Three doors open there: line modernisation (repeatable, multiplies factory and workshop speed), export investment (rail, port and a haulage fleet), and eventually prestige, which trades the whole company for permanent multipliers.