Renzu Corporation

This is an unofficial player group.

Renzu Shipwrights & Happiness Concern
264px
Origin	Kusari
Alignment	Lawful
Profile
Date of founding	437 AS A.S.
Founder(s)	Renzu Family
Current leader(s)	Independent Neuralnet Department
Base of operations	Newark station, New York, Liberty Waterloo Station, New London, Bretonia Roppongi Station, New Tokyo, Kusari Bonn Station, New Berlin, Rheinland
Primary role
Increase the sale and maintain profitability of Renzu corp. products.
Secondary role
Manufacture + Sell after market products and equipment compedatively.

Description

Renzu Shipwrights Ltd

The Renzu Corporation, a humble business concern that has survived the centuries amongst giants of industry, recently attracted a number of talented young shipwrights by promises of making a fresh expression of their talents outside the well worn channels of Kusarian business practice. Through a limited partnership and considerable speculative investment on the part of the Independent Neuralnet Department , these unique vessels have begun to creep into the open, and grey, markets of Sirius.

History

From Humble Beginnings

What would become the Renzu Corperation started in 437 A.S. on Honshu as a small, Family owned company specialising in watercraft and maintnance. It's earliest foray into Aerospace engineering was a small rotorcraft designed to be able to submurse itself as well as fly, which ultimately sold well as a firefighting aircraft and eventually as a civilian sporter. Over time, the design was expanded and several updated versions and newer designs began to appear. The company eventually switched from primarily maritime to aerospace engineering, purchased a disused Samura factory on Planet Honshu, and officially changed it's name to Renzu Aerospace in 452 A.S.

In a departure from the normal traditionalist stance of Samura and most of Kusari, it looked to an untapped resource for fresh minds and labour... women. Indeed, many women were hired for the company with jobs ranging from prototype design, manufacturing, test-piloting, and marketing. This input, as well as the limits of Renzu's financial and manufacturing capability lead to a change in design philosiphy from the highly crafted and asthetically pleasing (and expensive) designs of Samura and Kishiro, to a more functional, no-frills, and most importantly, more affordable product, while still retaining dogged reliability equal to or greater then it's contemporaries. Renzu's new line of airspeeders sold well on Honshu, but were still limited due to the company's lack of marketing elsewhere.

In 516 A.S., Investors from New Tokyo and Kyushu stepped in, emboldened by Renzu's aerospace and ground vehicles' popularity on Honshu, offering to transport and begin advertizing and opening dealerships on Kyushu and New Tokyo. Offers from planet Junyo eventually followed once the terraforming projects began there.

Expanding Horizons

Over the next two Centuries, Renzu continued to manufacture civilian airspeeders for commercial and personal use across Kusari. While not a serious compeditor to Samura and Kishiro, and always seen as a 'low end' manufacturer, Renzu held onto it's niche as a manufacturer of affordable and reliable aerospace machines. It still had a small department dedicated to manufacturing maritime hardware (which it does to this day) for the civilian market. Both of these ensured a steady profit, which only increased with the Terraforming of Planet Junyo.

In 648 A.S., with the Outbreak of the Matsuda scandal, several Renzu employees were found to have ties to the fledgeling Golden Chrysanthemums organization. With arrest warrants pending, the sitting CEO, sympathetic to the cause, organized the safe extrication of several employees to the safety of the GC. As a result, he was ultimately charged and sentanced to life imprisonment on Fuchu. This was a major blow to the company, and the end of it's ownership by the origional families. With a power vacuum and loss of a number of talented employees, Renzu became an employee owned company, which it remained for the next century and a half.

Between 650 A.S. and 800 A.S., Renzu gradually rebuilt itseld, still maintaining it's liberal policy and free hiring of female employees, despite reciving some negative attention from more conservative individuals such as those affiliated with the Farmers' Alliance (though ironically, many of said farmers benefited from Renzu's brief attempt to expand into the farm-equipment market). Indeed, even the Golden Chrysanthemums themselves looked to Renzu as an example of women's equality in a corperate setting. Beginning in 780 A.S., Renzu began manufacture of the new 'Ki' model, a sporter intended as a stratospheric stunt and race ship. It's engineering team realised that with a few modifications, that same design could be easily converted into a spacecraft. Thus was created the first incarnation of Renzu's line of space vehicles, which would ultimately become the focus of it's buisness.

An expanded version of the Ki, the 'Saishi' was soon developed as well, with it's maiden flight in 791 A.S. Both of these ships saw limited sucess in Kusari markets, mainly by freelancers and pilots who could ill affoard the more expensive Samura ships, and were reluctant to buy the Ageria Hawk or Starflier line. Some of these freelancers took to customizing their ships, and taking them to various racing competitions outside of Kusari. This unintended advertizement eventually fed back to Renzu, and orders increased significantly. Emboldened by this, Renzu booked an opening at the Denver Space Vehicles convention in Liberty, where it made quite a show when two Renzu pilots shot down an unsuspecting Lane Hacker Sabre who had attempted to make trouble. This incedent was caught on numerous cameras, and orders began pouring in (including from said Hacker). Renzu had entered a new phase of life and new oppurtunities in a gray and untapped market beyond Kusari

Export Market

In the wake of the Denver Space Expo incedent, orders from all corners of Sirius poured in, and the Ki and Saishi began flying off of the assembely lines. With the opening of two new factories, Renzu was able to double it's profits and begin to hire fresh, young, and new talent for it's design team. While not yet fully competative with the ubiquitous Hawk or Starflier line, or Domestic products like the Drake, the Ki and Saishi, along with the new Anki freighter, sold well enough to grab the attention of several influential powers, Samura Industries and Interspace Commerce. Samura, which had up until then dominated the Kusari shipbuilding market, saw Renzu's rise as a potential threat, as well as a moneymaking oppurtunity. Quickly, they offered to buy Renzu and run it as a subsidiary. Renzu did infact consider this, but the deal was ultimately cancel, mainly due to conflict of ideals in the way both groups respectively ran their companies (Samura's conservative approach versus Renzu's highly liberal one).

However, no sooner did the deal with Samura fall through did Interspace Commerce step in and offer an investment deal; It would allow Renzu to open franchises on it's Space Stations of Newark, Waterloo, Roppongi, and Bonn, in return for a cut of the profits and partnership. Renzu happily agreed to this, and began aggressively advertizing abroad, and secured a perminant place in the Denver Space Expo, as well as other similar events. Slowly but surely, Renzu ships began to creep into the open and gray markets of Sirius.

But Renzu had even more ambitious plans in store. At the 810 Denver Space Expo, Renzu unveiled it's largest and most ambitious project ever... the Talarca Cruiser. The inital prototypes had been built and tested in secret in Yukawa shipyards, which had been rented out from Kishiro in return for a cut of the profits, before manufacture moved to Renzu's plant on Honshu. The company was taking a huge risk in such a venture, with each Talarca costing 65 million credits to manufacture, and even Interspace being shy about the venture. Fortunately, the Talarca was an smash hit when it finally hit the market, with sales far exceeding the construction cost. The Talarca's relatively low cost, modular interior, high adaptability, low maintnance costs, and the general lack of regulation required to purchase one (at the time) made it ideal for Military Police, Large Corperations like the GMG, Zoners, Research Firms operating in the Edgeworlds, Rich Freelancers, and most notoriously, unlawfuls of every stripe.

The Talarca ultimately became a victim of it's own sucess, with models more often then not seen in the hands of Criminals, Notibly Farmers Alliance, Golden Chrysanthemums and Blood Dragons, and others. Even the Harvesters were known to have copied the design. The result of this was a dramatic increase in regulations regarding large capital ships both inside Kusari and Beyond. Eventually, orders for the Talarca dwindled, and the cost of manufacture (combined with materials rationing with the onset of the Kusari-Bretonia war) lead to it's being discontinues as of 817 A.S. However, it's sucess had catapaulted Renzu to new heights.

With the profits gained from the Talarca project, Renzu opened five additional factories to Manufacture it's Anki, Ki, Saishi, and Kushan VHF lines. Soon afterward, Renzu purchased manufacturers' rights to the Wasupu from the GMG, and began manufacturing the design under Renzu's name. The Wasupu was keyed to the Domestic market, the final frontier for Renzu. Once again, this brought Renzu in conflict with Samura, although there was ultimately little the Giant could do. Buying Renzu, which was at this point heavily connected to Interspace Commerce proved impossible, and Renzu's dominance of the export market meant that it could now sucessfully compete with Samura.

However, Samura still held tightly onto it's exclusive military contracts, and soon introduced the Black Dragon and other high end ships, hoping to cater to the luxury market (and organized crime syndicates), while trying to paint Renzu as a 'Low Class, Budget' ship dealer. Renzu had little problem with this, however, as it's sales continued to increase as new, aggressive advertizing campaigns came into play. As well, Renzu had one final advantage over Samura, the fact that it was in no way connected with the War Effort, and exclusively manufactured civilian or for-export ships. So, despite being a small fraction of the size of Samura, Renzu is still capable of holding it's own amongst the great Keiretsu of Kusari, and making acceptable profit at the same time.

Renzu Today

The Company has experianced significant change as of 817 A.S. It has begun purchasing and creating it's own private transport fleet and security force, to gain further independance from Samura and Kishiro (who had both previously been subcontracted to ship much of their product), however both Keiretsu are still viable trade partners, and provide raw materials and optronics for Renzu ships, while at the same time, Renzu provides a number of it's own ships for use by both companies as well as the GMG, as the result of an agreement from it's purchase of the Wasupu design. As well, Renzu has opened up a new research and development department for the design of new ships and upgrades of existing ones.

Renzu however is still a leading manufacturer of Airspeeders, atmospheric aircraft, maritime machinery, and machines for the agricultural sector. Renzu has also begin manufacturing Kishiro designed 'Kite' atmospheric rotorcraft under liscence. In return, Renzu routinely purchases technology from (and occasionally transports things for) Kishiro and Samura respectively. However, the firm is not without it's controversey. In 817 A.S., a new CEO took power, Ayane Matsamura (the first female CEO in the corperation's history). This alone, as well as her eccentric nature and buisness style has drawn criticism from more Conservative elements of the Kusari buisness and political world. However, Ayane has sucessfully lead the company into it's new trade fleet and advertizing campaign, and gained praise for her dealings with Daumann heavy industries in Rheinland to purchase a large quantity of surplus machinery and parts once used for Talarca production.

However, the company is not without a dark side. The Stigma of it's actions during the Matsuda Incedent and rumors of secret affiliation with the Golden Chrysanthemums still linger. However, this can neither be proven nor legally acted upon. Possibly more alarming is the fact that several Renzu employees have been funnelling company money to the same untracable neural-net accounts (said employees have been fired and tried in court, several of whom were found guilty of embezzeling company funds). Said accounts however have proven 'non existant' on further investigation. As well, the recent bout of unidentified vessels pirating and attacking Kusari shipping have strangely and seemingly deliberately ignored Renzu ships. However, there is little concrete evidence available on any front, and all of the strange phenomina can be explained away as coincedence.

Company goals

1: Increase the sale and maintain profitability of Renzu corp. products.
2: Manufacture + Sell after market products and equipment compedatively.
3: In-the-field advertizing! Display our mighty shipline to the Sector however feasable.
4: Research and Develop new technology and products.
5: Have fun! And dispense fun, happiness, and Renzu products to the farthest corners of Sirius!

Shipline

Saishi heavy fighter: One of our flagship products! Not to cheap, not to expensive. Perfect for anyone who needs a nice, functional, modifyable chassis to carry them to and fro across Sirius!

Ki light fighter: One of our flagship products! Lightweight, agile, and flashy, perfect for anyone who wants a ship that can fly rings around the competition.

Anki Freighter: The mainsday freighter in our inventory. Powerful, Durable, Reliable, and capable of Hauling anything that needs to be hauled. Our main freighter vessel.

Touketsu Very heavy Fighter: Got pirates ruining your day? Well ruin theirs with the mighty Tokestu! This bad boy combines respectable firepower and armor in an affordable package.

Wasupu Very Heavy Fighter: Once the exclusive domain of the GMG, the Wasupu is now available for anyone needing a manuverable, affordable, and powerful ship for out in the edge worlds or right here in Kusari!

Talarca Cruiser (DISCONTINUED): Formerly the largest and mightiest Renzu ship ever manufactured, the Talarca was a multi purpose and affordable ship used for all sorts of deep space science and progressive stuff! Sadly, it's time has passed, and it is no longer on the market. May it rest in peace!

Diplomacy

Buisness Parners + Allies Our closest friends, allies, and customers. Treat with respect and offer discounts.

• Interspace Commerce - [IND]

(our partners in crime)

Bases based out of

• Newark Station, New York, Liberty
• Waterloo Station, New London, Bretonia
• Roppongi Station], New Tokyo, Kusari
• Bonn Station, New Berlin, Rheinland