Japanese Zipper Giant YKK Set Off A Battle For "Tower Base" In China

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Today, the Chinese zipper market has undergone profound changes. Apart from the upgrading of domestic enterprises in their operations and strategies, the international counterparts represented by the international zipper giant, Japan YKK, have joined the competition.

Where are the main points of the future zipper industry competition in China?

How can China's zipper enterprises gain a foothold in this competition?

In August, with the Japanese YKK group's second zipper manufacturer in Shenzhen, Yoshida zipper (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. Gongming factory officially opened, the largest zipper manufacturer in the world has taken a new step in the investment of the zipper business in China.

According to people familiar with the matter, unlike the previous "China base production + product export" development mode, this time the new factory of YKK will mainly rely on the production of the auxiliary brand "ARCFASTENING" (Ya Kefa Si Ning), and its main target is the Chinese zipper mid and low end market, and the battle of "tower base" in the Chinese zipper market is about to start.

Strategic layout for China's market

"The YKK brand zipper produced by Japan YKK before is mainly aimed at overseas markets, mainly through the employment of cheap labor force in China to obtain lower production costs, and products are mainly used for export.

The main purpose of the second brand "Jacques hair Ning" created in YKK2005 is to compete for the middle and low-grade Chinese zipper market, and to restrain the rapid expansion of Chinese zipper enterprises through competition.

At this year's national zipper conference, Liu Mingyan, vice president of the China Hardware Association zipper branch and general manager of Foshan Yufeng Machinery Industry Co., Ltd.

It is understood that at present, there are 27 branches of YKK group in Japan, and 105 companies have been invested in 59 countries outside Japan, including zippers and aluminum products (building materials doors and windows), synthetic resins, nylon and chemical fibers related to raw materials for production of zippers. A total of 36200 employees, more than half of whom are foreign employees, have only 160 managerial cadres in their group headquarters.

Since the 90s of last century, YKK has invested heavily in factories in the mainland of China.

By 2004, 22 billion 300 million of the 29 billion 200 million yen invested by YKK group in the zipper business overseas was invested in the mainland of China. One of the biggest investment projects was the establishment of a new company in Wuxi to produce and sell sub buttons and metal buttons.

In August of this year, Yoshida Tadahiro, President of Japan's YKK company, said that YKK's investment in Shenzhen has become the largest zipper production base for YKK currently investing in China.

They also intend to build the Shenzhen plant as a model factory and the largest production base of YKK in the world.

"YKK's factory in Shenzhen sold about 300 million zippers this year, compared with about 250 million in the same period last year. Some of the product growth came mainly from the increase in sales volume in China's zipper market.

This year, YKK's new base in Shenzhen will clearly expand its share of the new brand products in the Southern China market. "

Liu Mingyan analysis thinks.

Fight for the middle and low end market

In July of this year, Xun Xing shares have officially announced the construction of factories in Dongguan and Tianjin, Guangdong. By the end of this year, products will be produced, and their production base in Jinjiang and Shanghai has basically completed the regional layout of the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the Bohai Bay market.

Another famous zipper company, Fuxing Group, has been listed successfully in Singapore at the end of last month. The first phase of the raised fund is RMB 300 million yuan.

The group's branch office in Qingdao has officially started construction, and the factory has been put into production in the early stage.

In addition to building production bases in Shanghai, Jinjiang and Hangzhou, the East Dragon zipper company in Shanghai has added another production base in Ningbo this year.

"In fact, the rapid development of China's zipper industry has attracted the attention of Japanese YKK companies.

Jacques, a new brand, mainly focuses on China's zipper enterprises, which is the ten largest brand zipper in China.

Apart from the layout of the "ten brand zipper" enterprises in China, they are trying to compete directly with the strategy of "lower price and better quality".

It is reported that YKK has been preparing to spend 800 million to 1 billion 200 million yuan a year on its' Competition 'and' operation 'of its new brand zipper in the Chinese market.

Shao Dajun, general manager of zipper (Wuxi) zipper company, said.

Zhou Yiyang, director of the Fujian Zipper Association Secretariat, said that Japan's YKK joined the "war group". Since Japan's YKK was mainly used for exporting high-end zippers, its new brand aimed at the domestic market should compete with Pyramid's "tower base" part of the Chinese zipper market, that is, the middle and low zipper market.

According to people familiar with the matter, YKK has always had a feature in its operation: focusing on the one-stop operation of production.

That is to say, from the production and processing of raw materials to the production of zipper products and the manufacture of production equipment, YKK will try its best to ensure its stable raw material supply, low cost and homogenization of raw material quality.

But now this feature has changed in China.

"Recently, Japanese YKK also found that we wanted to buy zipper machines. Most of the zipper machines they used before were used to produce high-grade zippers, and the cost of products and machinery manufacturing was very high.

If you want to develop and produce zipper machinery suitable for China's zipper market, the manufacturing cost is about 5 times higher than that of purchasing.

This does not necessarily conform to the law of survival of Chinese zipper enterprises.

Liu Mingyan said.

Competition and cooperation

In September 10th, at the China zipper conference held in Shantou, Zhou Yiyang told reporters: "in fact, the Secretariat of the national zipper conference should also invite Japan's YKK to attend the conference.

Since it is a national zipper conference, YKK has also set up factories in China, and they can also attend the conference.

In fact, the view of Zhou Yi Yang can not be recognized by some Chinese zipper entrepreneurs. After all, in their eyes, Japanese YKK has always been a foreign company and does not belong to the zipper industry in China.

"Many of us see YKK as mysterious. In fact, it is also a company, but it exists more than any zipper in our country.