Zhejiang Kangnai France Store Sales Increased 35% Against The Crisis

According to "today morning post" reported that in May 24th, the reporter arrived in Paris, here has just said goodbye to half a month of continuous rain, the sky is very blue. The uniform buildings in the French Revolution during the French Revolution made people walk up the street without looking up.

However, more than a decade ago, Zheng Xiukang, chairman of Kangnai group, was walking on the streets of Paris. But he was not interested in seeing the scenery. When others went abroad to look at the building, he used to look down at his feet. At that time, looking at foreigners, no one was wearing Kangnai shoes, Zheng Xiukang was thinking about how to change.

Soon, in January 18, 2001, Kangnai's first overseas store opened in the bustling market of the world's fashion capital, the nineteenth District of Paris, France. This is the first brand store opened by Chinese shoe industry overseas. As a result, Zhejiang manufacturing began to take root in the fashion capital of the world.

Encounter on busy commercial streets

Before the reporter set off, he inquired into the specific address of Kangnai's stores in Paris through various channels, for fear that when they got there, they could not find them in the shops.

But surprisingly, we didn't plan to start looking for it, and we accidentally met Kangnai in Paris's exclusive store. At that time, we just came out of Le Louvre Museum, ready to go to the old Buddha market, and suddenly found a familiar "old man" (Kangnai logo) on the street.

"Is this not a Kangnai store?" at first glance, the reporter really had a feeling of meeting old people in a strange land. At that time, several foreigners were studying a pair of shoes in the window, and there were still consumers coming and going.

The reporter walked into the store and found that there were about more than 100 square meters of leather shoes for men and women. Chi Yu, the shopkeeper here, told reporters that this is the flagship store opened by Kangnai in 2006, and there is another layer on the ground floor, with a total area of nearly 300 square meters.

When it comes to encountering, Chi Yu is not surprised. She said that after opening its first brand store in Paris in 2001 and embarking on its own brand, the Kangnai opened its own stores in the major developed countries of the world. At present, there are nearly 20 stores in Paris, and are located in prosperous commercial blocks. "It's not hard to visit our store in Paris."

Apart from Paris, France, the reporter saw Kangnai's stores in these cities when they were shuttling in the streets of Rome, Italy and Athens. According to the briefing, Kangnai has opened more than 200 stores in major European and American countries.

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Sales are increasing by 30%.

In the winter of 2008, the cold spell of the global financial crisis, which began in Wall Street, spread rapidly to Europe, affecting France. The successful success of Kangnai group, a shoe making enterprise in Wenzhou, in the US and Europe, has been in the cold winter.

According to the briefing, the financial crisis has had a certain impact on the performance of the whole Kangnai group, but Kangnai's French store has taken off against the wind and has made amazing achievements. Sales of Kangnai's French stores increased by 35% when sales of many European and American brands dropped, and sales shrank.

"The reason is very simple." Chi Yu said that because of the economic downturn, the purchasing power of the French has declined. The Frenchmen who were keen on buying famous brands used to live in abacus, instead of those that were good quality and affordable. And this just caters to Kangnai's market positioning.

Chen Yuye, manager of Kangnai's overseas development department, said Kangnai was able to stand out in the highly competitive French market because of its distinct positioning: high quality, low and medium price. As a manufacturer of leather shoes, Kangnai attaches great importance to technological spanformation and product innovation in this industry. In the shoe making industry in Wenzhou, Kangnai was the first to introduce advanced international manufacturing equipment and technology. It was also the first enterprise to develop high-grade leather shoes, and has become one of the main manufacturers of high-end leather shoes in China.

"Price advantage, no quality assurance, maybe only for a while, but certainly not for a long time. In the face of other European and American brands, the reason why Kangnai can remain confident is its excellent product quality.

It is for this reason that the euro zone debt crisis has no negative impact on Kangnai's exclusive stores in Europe. The depreciation of the euro relative to the RMB is around 15%, which has a certain impact on Kangnai's sales profits in Europe. However, because the independent brand goes out to sell, rather than helping others to OEM, it has relatively high profits, so the depreciation of the euro has little impact on Kangnai.

Chen Yuye said that in a sense, the financial crisis and the debt crisis in the euro area are indeed an opportunity for Kangnai to expand overseas. Kangnai's remarkable performance in France confirms this. He also encouraged more Chinese footwear companies to open their own brand stores abroad and build Chinese brands.

Enter the wolf of others' territory

"Why can't there be a Chinese brand store in Paris's prosperous commercial center?" "why can Chinese enterprises only have a share in the lower reaches of the industrial value chain?" "after China's entry into WTO, foreign wolves come." Then why can't we become wolves and enter other people's territory? "

Such a passionate tone, even a little crazy, made reporters feel a little out of breath. Surprisingly, Zheng Xiukang, the chairman of the Kangnai group with the same name and elegant appearance, has such an effect in Wenzhou.

However, Kangnai's development in France did not seem so smooth. Kangnai initially wanted to enter some large shopping malls and shopping centers in France, but compared with other European and American shoe brands, the history of Kangnai shoes was too short, and the general French people were not optimistic about "made in China", so Kangnai was rejected by many shopping malls. In desperation, Kangnai decided to open its own store. No one had thought that the decision that had already been made had made Kangnai flourish in France.

In 2001, Kangnai's first overseas store opened in the 19 district of Paris, France. This is the first time that the Chinese shoe industry has opened its own brand store abroad. The top 150 leather shoes sold for $150 are sold out on the same day. The local people exclaim: products that match Italy's hand-made leather shoes are so cheap! But where do they know that the price of US $150 can sell at least 5 pairs of shoes to Chinese general shoe factories.

Localization is the first homework that many multinationals have to do when they come to China. In fact, when Chinese enterprises go out, how to integrate into each other's culture and achieve localization on other people's sites is also crucial.

"Actually, it's not difficult to go out, but the key is how to blend in." Zheng Xiukang said that many millions of domestic businesses or tens of millions of foreign stores have opened stores abroad. But it is not easy to have a long-term foothold and earn money.

In order to overcome the climate, Zheng Xiukang read a lot of books, understood the local customs and habits, and surveyed them in the field. He found that apart from some superficial problems, there are also great differences between Chinese and foreign in terms of service and consumption psychology.

For example, the habit of shopping guide in China is usually the salesperson's greeting, saying, "Hello, welcome," while foreign shopping guides usually greet time according to "good morning", "good afternoon", "good evening" and so on. When trying shoes, Chinese consumers, especially men, will have 70% to 80% chance of success if they are willing to try shoes, while foreign consumers have to try 10 or more to buy a pair of shoes. These seemingly inadvertent details are applied by Zheng Xiukang to the training of shopping guide.

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Reporter's notes

From exporting products to exporting brands

We have seen too many "Made in China" products on this trip to Europe, but few have seen Chinese brands. Therefore, Kangnai can open a store in the fashion capital of the world, and can achieve good results.

For Kangnai enterprises and more private enterprises in Zhejiang, brand export is a necessary path for enterprises to become bigger and stronger. As an exportation Province, Zhejiang has always been unable to get rid of the low end impression. To a large extent, our enterprises are putting up others' brands when they go abroad. We don't need to say more about the story of Bobbi.

The reality is that when our labor force and other factors can no longer support our low cost, the international economic environment has a little bit of trouble, which will make our enterprises shudder. Trade disputes, export tax rebate policy, RMB appreciation and foreign market demand. Any change of factors is enough to push down a large number of enterprises.

To fundamentally change this situation, we must export the brand and seek a higher profit link in the industrial chain. As Zheng Xiukang said, turn yourself into a wolf and enter other people's territory.

Whether for Zhejiang's economy or China's economy, the real strength of the economy and the promotion of its economic status largely depend on how many brands you have in the world. Moreover, the competition of the two economies will eventually rise to the competition of large enterprises and big brands in the economy, rather than a simple GDP digital dispute.

Therefore, from this level, the practice of Kangnai's overseas stores obviously has a deeper social significance.