Wenzhou Shoe Industry Innovation Wins Market

"At present, China's footwear industry has entered the stage of shuffling, and the footwear industry in Wenzhou is also facing challenges. However, the overall development trend of Wenzhou footwear industry is steadily improving in the first quarter of this year."

Some time ago, Xie Rongfang, executive vice president and Secretary General of Wenzhou shoe leather industry association, said.

Xie Rongfang's optimism is not without reason.

According to the first quarter data released by Wenzhou customs, Wenzhou footwear exported 2 billion 220 million US dollars in 2007, accounting for 48.15% of the total export volume of similar products in the province. In the first quarter of 2008, footwear exports accounted for 24% of the total value of foreign trade in Wenzhou, and export value ranked first among all kinds of export products in the first quarter of 2008.

The sum was $207 million 62 thousand and 700, an increase of 5.53% over the same period last year.

The statistics of Wenzhou Bureau of statistics show that in the first quarter, 770 enterprises in Wenzhou footwear industry completed the total production value of 9 billion 100 million yuan, and the output reached 120 million pairs, an increase of 11.5% over the same period. The output value in March was 3 billion 500 million yuan, and the output was 45 million pairs, an increase of 16% over the same period last year.

"The above data show that the economic performance of Wenzhou shoe leather industry in the first quarter was good in 2008, and exports and domestic trade maintained a certain increase, and accounted for 24% of the total value of Wenzhou's exports, ranking first in the total value of all kinds of export commodities. The growth of export leather shoes, shoes leather and textile surface shoes remained at more than 13%, while the growth of textile surface shoes was close to 20%.

Xie Rongfang said.

Xie Rongfang said that whether in the domestic market or in the export market, the shoe industry in Wenzhou relies on continuous innovation.

　　開源節流

Not long ago, in the Zhejiang sewing bird Industry Co., Ltd., we saw that the production workshop dominated by domestic trade was still in good condition during the off-season.

Liu Xiaobiao, general manager of the company, said that in order to make the business off-season not light, the company will introduce foreign trade business in the off-season, and the order will be completed in the next few months.

In recent years, due to the continuous rising of raw materials, Wenzhou shoe enterprises with low profits have encountered challenges in their development.

"In the face of difficulties, we first think of positive responses."

Liu Xiaobiao said.

In order to reduce the cost of shoemaking, Liu Xiaobiao adopted the practice of reducing supply chain cost savings.

Originally, Suzhou Ye bird shoes company was unstable when purchasing shoes materials. The main reason was to choose suppliers more complicated. The quality of shoes supplied by suppliers was difficult to synchronize with the requirements of the company, and the price fluctuated greatly with the market changes.

In response to these problems, Liu Xiaobiao has made reforms. Since 2006, the company has no longer purchased materials from the shoe market, but has purchased the raw materials on its own, and then handed them to the shoe making enterprises for processing according to the standards.

After the launch, Liu Xiaobiao said that not only the quality of shoes was guaranteed, but also the cost of making shoes was lower than that of peers. As a result, the company not only guaranteed profits, but also made the products more competitive in the market.

As an internal trade enterprise, every 6 months, 7 months and 8 months, the shoe manufacturers of Suzhou and ye shoes will enter the off-season as well as other shoe manufacturers who do domestic trade.

In the off-season, shoemaking enterprises generally adopt piecework wage. The sharp decline of business volume directly affects the income of workers. Therefore, the loss of skilled workers in the off-season has become a headache for operators.

A few years ago, the company lost nearly half of its employees in a low season. The situation at that time brought Liu Xiaobiao a great shock. "Without a stable workforce, it is impossible to produce stable and high-quality products."

In order not to repeat the same mistakes, in 2007, the company set up the Ministry of foreign trade and began processing OEM products for foreign merchants in the off-season of the domestic market.

However, the company will still focus on domestic trade, and the main purpose of making foreign trade is obviously not to pursue profits. "The processing profit of foreign trade is very thin, and the company gives profits to those employees in the off-season, so that employees can get higher remuneration in the off-season, and the phenomenon of staff turnover has been effectively curbed."

Liu Xiaobiao said.

    外貿轉向

In fact, not all enterprises have the same attitude towards foreign trade as Liu Xiaobiao.

There are many shoe factories in Wenzhou dealing with foreign trade, relying on domestic foreign trade companies to provide orders for foreign shoe companies to make OEM products.

However, this leads enterprises to be at the bottom of the industrial chain. Although the output of foreign shoe enterprises is considerable every year, the profit is small but it is not optimistic.

In early 2007, Zhan Chong Lou, a general manager of Wenzhou shoe industry group, founded Yongjia Zhongyi shoes and Garments Co., Ltd., and began to look for a way to develop different foreign trade shoe enterprises.

Zhan Chong Lou looks at the economically active Middle East.

When the company was founded, he invested a total of 20 million yuan, of which 10 million yuan introduced a Italy shoe production line and launched in Yongjia, north.

Another 10 million yuan, he used to buy more than 200 square meters of three storey shops in the most famous commercial streets in Dubai, and began accepting orders from Middle East merchants in Dubai.

Because the company's foreign trade business goes directly to the foreign market, the product style adopts the popular styles in Europe and America. The "Zhongyi" brand men's casual shoes produced by the Italian shoes and clothing company have aroused great interest among the Middle East merchants in the Dubai market.

Last year, the company sold hundreds of thousands of pairs of casual shoes through Dubai, all over the big cities in the Middle East.

Since this year, due to the influence of raw materials and other factors, in order to reduce the profit of the enterprise, the Chinese and Italian shoes began to launch the high-end leisure shoes based on the real leather to the Middle East market, and increase the brand publicity in the Middle East, and the enterprise development is rising steadily.

In Zhan Chong Lou's plan, in the next few years, Zhongyi shoes and clothing company will take the road of brand development.

At present, he has started looking for agents in big cities in some Middle East countries, adopting the way of high end line, and making the shoe industry "cake" in the Middle East market.

Another major export business, the Jin Di shoe industry, has gradually become the star shoe enterprise in Wenzhou since 2006. In 2007, the annual output value of the company was 560 million yuan, and the export products were 12 million pairs and 59 million 900 thousand dollars.

"This year, the company has received a steady stream of foreign orders, which has exceeded the limit of the company's capacity."

For this year's export situation, Zheng Shili, executive deputy general manager of the company, expressed optimism.

Jindi shoes industry is a foreign trade export enterprise specializing in the production of women's shoes. All products are exported to Europe and America.

At present, the company has established long-term cooperation with German Seaman company, and there are large international orders every year.

Zheng Shili said that in order to grasp the quality of products, the company established more than 120 members of the quality inspection team to check the quality of products. In 2007, Jindi shoes industry invested 23 million 800 thousand yuan for production technology pformation, greatly improving the quality and grade of products, and achieving a higher market share.

After strict quality control, the company also shifted the trade target market, aiming at the future development direction of the top women's shoes Market in China.

"We are ready to cooperate with advanced leather shoes manufacturers such as Europe and the United States to produce women's shoes with top quality, and strive to have a place in the domestic market."

Zheng Shili said.

　　業態創新

For Wenzhou shoe companies, which have long been in the domestic market, innovation is also essential in the process of market development.

Red dragonfly, a shoe maker in Wenzhou, made two innovations in 2007: sports shoes and integrated monopoly.

In the company's view, the introduction of sports shoes is to break the current situation in the domestic market, "products are seriously the same" situation, in the product category beyond competitors to achieve differentiation; and integrated monopoly is to break through the sales mode, to reduce the cost of single shop pressure, to achieve the best way to achieve a single store high efficiency.

The so-called "integrated concept store", that is, in a 300-1000 square meter space, the collection of Red Dragonfly brand shoes, sports shoes, leather goods, clothing and accessories and other products, provide one-stop shopping experience.

Qian Jinbo, chairman of the company, is quite confident about the channel of "integrated concept store".

In his view, with the advent of the era of consumer upgrades, consumer demand for products has changed. Brand consumption has come into being. Integrated concept store mode is popular in European and American countries. Red dragonfly can not only satisfy consumers' changing demand for fashion shopping, but also make full use and integration of resources of enterprises and brands, so as to maximize market profits.

So far, Qian Jin Bo's implementation of the new format has achieved initial success. At the end of 3 this year, when the integrated concept store was completed in Hangzhou, compared with the previous single store mode, the company found that the sales volume of each store grew by 30% over the same period last year, and the average sales volume per square meter per square meter, that is, flat efficiency, was greatly improved.

"The integrated store mode can increase the effectiveness of every square meter in the store, while the rental pressure of the integrated store mode is expected to drop by 15% compared to the single store."

Qian Jinbo said.

At present, the red dragonfly has opened dozens of integrated stores in the whole country, and will be gradually pushed away nationwide in the coming period.

According to the company's plan, the integration store mode will grow to 500 in the next 3 years.