Socks Of College Students Suffer From "Cotton Inflation"

News background

This is a group of college students. Entrepreneurial sample 。

They did not know that the product had a busy season and a low season. They went out to run the market without opening their mouths. However, the roaring hosiery machines are weaving their entrepreneurial dreams for 24 hours.

In 2009, this newspaper reported that dozens of college students began to start business in the Northeast socks Industrial Park (hereinafter referred to as "socks garden") in Liaoyuan. After more than a year, soft cotton market, capital steel needle appeared, college students entrepreneurs encountered cotton price surge for the first time. This group does not appear to be overburdened by imagination, but it is not destined to be a "smooth road" before their eyes.

Hidden needle in cotton!

Cotton prices in recent years, Liaoyuan socks Industrial Park students Entrepreneurial group Entered the winter. Adding insult to injury is how will logistics and labor costs rise simultaneously?

With the promotion of the "super zone" of socks industry, the university students began to split up under the crisis. How do they consider their future?

At 20 o'clock in November 19th, in the office of snowman socks, He Xinpeng was staring at the computer screen in a pile of hills like half finished socks. Although cotton prices have dropped in recent days, this kind of unprecedented method has left him with no bottom.

"Proletarian" starts 100% debt business

"For the poor family economic conditions, I am grateful for everything provided by the stocking garden."

The hosiery garden is located in the development zone of Liaoyuan. The students in the stocking garden like to say that they are proletariat.

In early 2009, Tian Zhongjun, chairman of socks garden, provided a platform for college students who wanted to start a business but had no conditions. The park provides 10 sets of hosiery machines worth 230 thousand ~45 yuan for each university student entrepreneur, and 200 thousand yuan of liquidity for each person. All of them are guaranteed by the park, applying for low interest loans or discount loans to the banks, and entrepreneurs need to pay back in 3 years.

At the same time, hosiery provides 300 to 500 square meters of workshop for each university student entrepreneurial team. The first year is free from rent, and the rent for second years and third years is reduced by 50% or 30% respectively. Accommodation and pre training practice are provided by the park.

He Xinpeng, a graduate of Changchun University, is from Hebei rural area. He is the first college student to enter the hosiery garden. "For the poor family economic conditions, I am grateful for everything provided by the stocking garden." He Xinpeng said, but because of the need to repay the loan, and socks factory demand for cash consumption is very large, he has considerable pressure.

He Xinpeng's partner, Wang Qiushi, said: "as we all know, the debt ratio of an enterprise can not be too high, but we are very special because we are 100% of debt and every cent is borrowed."

He Xinpeng's socks factory called Snowman socks industry, he and Wang Qiushi, Wang Yu three people open together, 30 socks machine plus liquidity, enterprises at the beginning of liabilities about 1500000 yuan.

Now, the second batch and the third batch of College Students' socks factories have been opened one after another, and 124 college students have set up 73 enterprises in the stocking garden.

Running customers during the day and taking the train at night

Wang Yingxin runs a customer who always brings his girlfriend, because after the rejection, the two people pass away with a smile and are not particularly embarrassed.

The hosiery factories of college students were mostly concentrated in buildings 6 and 7. In the early morning of November 20th, the two buildings in the busy buildings became strangely quiet. Socks and sewing machines stopped. Only a few workers and college students were clearing the site.

"Last night came the fire inspection, there was a larger socks factory (because of security risks) was fined 50 thousand yuan, so now the University's factory has stopped, heard that the inspection was 12 months later. After a day's shutdown, it's worth more than 1000 yuan. " He Xinpeng complained about the stacking of cotton and spool in the cardboard box.

"How can I pay so much?" Wang Qiushi, who was repairing the suction duct, comforted him. "Even if we wake up, we will be filled with flammable products everywhere, without any safety awareness."

"Upset." He Xinpeng, a worried face, walked around in the empty workshop.

Next to the snowman Hosiery Industry is the two female college students' stocking factory. "Over the past year, many problems have been encountered for the first time." Liu Bing, the boss of college students, inspected all kinds of power supply in the workshop and locked the door. When I first arrived, the college students didn't know that there was a busy season for stocking production. They always wanted socks to wear all the year round. In fact, every year from July to September, cotton socks are in the off-season, so we need to adjust the production rhythm and strategy, otherwise the cash may not work well.

"I compare with each other. When I first opened, I caught up with the off-season, and the hosiery machine was still whirling, and neither pair of socks could be sold." Wang Yingxin, who graduated from Yanbian University, said he was the second group of college students to start business in September 2009.

Every batch of pioneering college students have gone through this process: the socks produced are not sold out of the road, the machine is not well adjusted, and the secondary socks (defective products) are much more.

Reporters saw Zhang Chao Shi, and he was "hostage" (hosiery machine maintenance worker) together to "stir up" socks machine. For the third batch of people entering the park, Wang Yingxin's statement resonated with him. "My step by step win socks industry has been running for more than a month, the socks that can be woven are always out of order, not wide or narrow, and have not yet found the cause. Even during the busy season of stocking sales, it's hard to make room for the market.

The market of college students is all over the country, and near Changchun, Harbin, Shenyang, far away to Xinjiang and Guangzhou. For them, running the market is a headache.

Most college students go out to the market without making money to eat, live and ride. For this reason, Wang Qiushi summed up some tricks, such as running customers as much as possible during the day, and taking the train to another city at night, because it can save the money of the store. Wang Yingxin had a great deal of experience in evasion, but he was afraid of being caught.

"It's not hard to be bitter. It's a fear of running away from customers." Wang Yingxin always carries a girlfriend when he runs a client at the very beginning. After being rejected, the two men passed away without a special embarrassment.

Most students live in the dormitories provided by the stocking garden, live monotonously in the dining hall, the workshop, the dormitory, or live in the workshop just like He Xinpeng, and everything is saved.

"The pain is not afraid. The key is that the competition is fierce. Now there are some big enterprises in the stocking garden that blame the students for robbing the market, because the cost is low, so the price is low." A university student said, the market is so, and three years later, many tax and rent concessions for college students are gone.

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The pain of cotton inflation

On average, the profits of each pair of socks have been reduced to 1 Gross 5, and logistics and labor costs have also increased dramatically.

Data show that in November 11th, ordinary cotton yarn quoted price of 48000 yuan / ton, and in August and September two months ago, the price of ordinary cotton yarn is 26000 yuan / ton.

"Cotton has gone too far and the profit margins of cotton socks have been compressed a lot." He Xinpeng was the only student who paid attention to cotton futures prices. In September of this year, he told Liu Bing that cotton had to go up.

The surge in cotton prices in the end will reduce the profits of socks. The answer is not the same, because the products are different.

Alan socks's Shi Lei and Feng Lin are a pair of lovers. They have counted the accounts for journalists. The cost of socks has a formula: the weight of a pair of socks per gram of cotton yarn per gram is about +0.65 yuan or 0.7 yuan late cost (including rent, water and electricity, personnel expenses).

"Calculated, if the cotton yarn is 26000 yuan per ton, the cost of a pair of 30 grams of socks is about 1.43 yuan, and the wholesale price at that time is about 1.7 yuan / more, and the profit of each pair of socks is about 0.3 yuan." Shi Lei kept a pair of cotton socks and kept pressing a calculator. "Now the cotton yarn at 46000 yuan / ton, the cost of a pair of female socks has risen to 2.03 yuan, even if the wholesale price has risen to 2.2 yuan per pair, the profit is also 1 1 7, plus the loss of the secondary socks, the average profit of each pair of socks has been reduced to 1 Gross 5." Shi Lei was not very satisfied with the result on the calculator.

This year, in addition to soaring raw material prices, other production costs have also increased to varying degrees. Wang Yingxin said that since his opening, the electricity charge has risen from 0.83 yuan to 0.86 yuan / degree, and the electricity bill has been spending more than 4000~5000 yuan per year. Freight increased even more. On the short term, the price of logistics delivery to Changchun increased from 5 yuan to 10 yuan. The logistics cost of Shenyang rose from 10 yuan to 20 yuan, and the cost of shipping to Beijing increased from 20 yuan to 40 yuan each. Sent to Changzhou, Jiangsu, from 50, 60 yuan / piece, rose to 80 yuan, 130 yuan or so. Socks factory sends a number of goods every few days, so that the annual cost is several thousand yuan.

What worries Wang Yingxin more is that labor wages have risen quite a lot in the past year. The previous truck drivers were 1500 or 1600 yuan, and now they need 1800 or 1900 yuan. For sewing workers, the monthly salary of a mature worker rose from 1800 yuan to 1900 yuan to 2200 yuan, and the best sewing workers could get 3000 yuan. Wang Yingxin's montgery stocking industry has 20 single needle barrel looms and 3 sewing machines. Because 24 hours and three shifts are produced, 21 workers, 16 sewing workers, two sub workers and a workshop director are hired, and the monthly salary of artificial workers needs nearly 80 thousand yuan.

"The wages of socks garden are high in Liaoyuan, that is to say, people are not good at recruiting. We only give ourselves 1500 yuan." Wang Yingxin's partner, Zhong Qicai, said, on the side of the workshop corridor, he had posted a notice to recruit cars, seams and boards.

Substitute material

In addition to changing the shape of the flower, the stocking boss began to use the tail yarn, or changed the pure cotton yarn into polyester cotton or simply cotton free polyester and spandex.

The wholesale and export prices of socks are hard to keep up with the soaring cotton prices. In September, some enterprises in the hosiery garden set up a price adjustment committee to control the price of socks and not to "kill each other". The chairman of the committee is Xian Changhai, chairman of the large enterprise Xiang Xiang socks.

"I also attended the Committee of Xian Tai, but the effect was not obvious." He Xinpeng feels that the organization is not mature enough, and the power of discourse is not enough.

"Socks produced by college students are basically low-end products, which are worn by ordinary people. If the price increases are too severe, wholesalers will not be able to walk, and naturally they will not accept them." Liu Bing thought the price problem should be slow.

Huang Liguo, a textile analyst at Walt consulting, recently conducted a detailed downstream business survey on cotton price rise. He told reporters that small businesses are not too strong bargaining power, and no pricing power. Rising water is a common principle, but the transmission of industrial chain takes time. In the short period of two months, cotton prices are almost doubled. The survival condition of enterprises is still very poor. If the raw material reserves are exhausted, they may face losses.

"College students here have not heard of losses for the time being, because they usually have stock of raw materials purchased below 30 thousand yuan, and they also think of many other ways to deal with it." Wang Yingxin said, for example, the transformation of flower shape, because socks color and flower shape on sales impact significantly, such as the Guangzhou Asian Games to Guangdong area needs socks shape has changed significantly, he produced cartoon female socks, this year off-season also good sales. Wang Yingxin's factory's profit of each pair of socks can still be maintained at around 0.3 yuan, the annual income of 10 socks machines is between 100 thousand and 120 thousand. The annual income of 10 hosiery machines of other college students has been reduced to below 100 thousand, and some only have 50 thousand yuan, which is stronger than that of going to work.

In Wang Yingxin's "other ways", it is more important to use cotton instead of raw materials.

"I have been making yarn dyed yarn recently. This material is much cheaper than cotton yarn, and it also has color, which is more suitable for women socks." The yarn dyed by Liu Bing is actually an unqualified product that is eliminated from the large spinning mill, also called tail yarn, which is treated at low price after dyeing. "However, this kind of yarn is very popular and it's not easy to get it." Liu Bing said.

Besides the tail yarns, many college students have changed their pure cotton yarns into polyester cotton or simply cotton free polyester and spandex while consuming cheap raw materials. A college student told reporters: "the price of polyester is only 17000 yuan / ton, and the quality of the socks is good. Now the university students have basically not entered the cotton yarn for the sake of production."

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However, even with substitutes, life is not always easy. "The price of polyester is also rising, because cotton yarn is the leader of textile materials." He Xinpeng said that in August, the purchase price of polyester was still 11500 yuan per ton, while the polyester price in October was 13200 yuan per ton. At present, the price of polyester fiber is 17000 yuan per ton.

In 2008, Liaoyuan was selected as China's "cotton stocking town". "Pure cotton and manual sewing" is a special feature of Liaoyuan socks.

There is a worrying situation.

Cotton prices began to fall sharply, and some wholesalers asked for wholesale prices of socks.

On the evening of November 20th, the State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao decided to increase the strength of raw cotton transportation in Xinjiang. By the end of November, the Urumqi Railway Administration had accumulated 500 thousand tons of cotton shipped abroad, an increase of 5.1% over the same period last year. Futures prices began to fall sharply, He Xinpeng felt good.

However, Wang Yingxin felt that the price of cotton yarn was too fast to fall too fast, because the price of socks would have been laborious. Now cotton prices are falling fast. Wholesalers will discuss with manufacturers the possibility of no increase or even price reduction.

On the spot market in November 27th, the price of electronic synthesis of commercial cotton (grade three cotton) in the national cotton trading market dropped from the highest 34560 yuan / ton in November 10th to the current 25000 yuan / ton, and the decline in 18 days was as high as 27.7%.

According to Xinhua news agency, cotton futures at the end of 10, the main fund size of about 3 billion 200 million yuan. By the end of November, the size of the main funds had been reduced to around 1 billion 200 million yuan.

Wang Yingxin worried about the situation finally emerged, some wholesalers asked socks wholesale price reduction. "Socks before the increase is not enough, it is estimated that this price can still be a phase, but difficult to raise prices, falling down can be very easy, we do not have pricing power." He Xinpeng sighed.

From Huang Li Guo's research results, the price of raw materials does not fluctuate greatly, which is what the downstream industry likes to see. Because even if the price of cotton yarn is 100 thousand per ton, if the long-term stability is in this area, the price of terminal socks will naturally rise, and consumers will have time to digest. On the contrary, a sharp rise or fall is unfavorable to downstream enterprises. Such fluctuations will encourage speculation and will not be conducive to orderly storage of raw materials.

Game "beyond the zone"

College students have the opportunity to go up the stairs.

"Create together, do not strive for the best, but do well." Many college students put up inspirational slogans in their workshops or offices. When they deal with difficulties, they think more about how to grow bigger.

Liu Bing and Liu Yanhui are building sales networks. Liu Bing even established "a contented and comfortable socks industry" agent in Henan's old home. Her classmates all over the country, and are very supportive of Liu Bing run enterprises, so she feels the future space is very big. "I plan to have several hosiery machines next year, and I must have my own brand and sales network."

There are also some college students who believe that the establishment of brand and sales network is not realistic at present, because a lot of capital and manpower are needed.

Like the university students, the park is planning its own road of development.

Li Xiufen, Minister of Human Resources Department of the park, recently proposed a strategy called "1+10+N". "1" refers to brand and leading enterprises. "10" is a processing enterprise, mainly for the leading enterprise's foreign trade and supermarket order processing. Each leading enterprise plans to configure about 10 processing enterprises, mainly imported hosiery machines, each processing enterprise equipment hosiery machine about 50 units.

This provides students with the opportunity to "go up the stairs", because university students can make use of existing preferential policies in the plan. The college students who signed up for the program said they would go to the "extra zone".

From cooperation to solo flight

He Xinpeng thought of "beyond the super zone" in pursuit of greater development, but his partners felt that the pace was too big. Wang Yingxin returned to his hometown in Shandong in the off-season cotton socks this year.

The plan to "beyond the super zone" has changed the existing pattern.

According to the earliest planning of the park, cooperation among university students is the main way to disperse risks and enhance resistance. Compared to the "3 brothers" mode of Xin Peng, Wang Qiushi and Wang Yu, the "two sisters" mode of Liu Bing and Liu Yanhui, and the "husband and wife shop" mode of Shi Lei and Feng Lin. Now, some people are flying solo.

"I have been independent, and I will go to the" extra zone "in the future. Although it is still in a workshop, He Xinpeng's 10 hosiery machines have begun to operate independently. The reason for solo is not emotional discord, but the divergence of business philosophy.

"If He Xinpeng goes to the" outside super zone ", he is a big boss with tens of millions of people. Wang Qiushi pointed to He Xinpeng's 10 machines and said with a smile.

He told reporters that according to the plan of the park, the condition for entering the "extra zone" is that it is necessary to use 150 thousand ~17 if the Italy hosiery machine in Taiwan is 50 units per unit, the equipment cost will be 7 million, plus 3 million liquidity, and liabilities will exceed 10 million. In Wang Qiushi's view, this step is a bit too big. He also hopes to repay more loans, reduce the debt ratio, buy socks machine bit by bit, and seek breakthroughs.

But in He Xinpeng's view, the scale is not big now, and he thinks that the prospect of park planning is good. Giving up this opportunity will delay time.

Wang Yingxin also signed up to go outside to prepare for the job, but not as optimistic as He Xinpeng. "The uncertainty is very great. Although Italy hosiery machine is advanced and durable, but the price of the single machine is too expensive, the production cost of the product is too high and the socks are sold for 10 yuan a pair." Wang Yingxin is also worried that because of the appreciation of the RMB and the bad economic environment abroad, foreign trade enterprises have gone bankrupt. Will such a situation eventually improve?

Wang Yingxin thinks socks factory can only earn a lot of hard money and can't make big money. Therefore, in the off-season this year, he even returned to Shandong's hometown to hype garlic, and he also got a lot of income. However, if he can make steady money, Wang Yingxin still hopes to make socks factory.

Speaking of development, Wang Qiushi regretted that he did not accept the shareholding system proposed by hosiery garden at the beginning. "Although stocking garden takes up 51%, if we really go public, will our property be doubled?" Wang Qiushi asked reporters.

Reporter's notes: Green boss's dream

The park is Entrepreneurship The college students prepared a dormitory, 4 men, a man and a woman, and 10 lights.

The smell of feet in a man's bedroom is coming, and the "College bosses" are obviously accustomed to this environment. Panties and socks are hung on the rails of the bed. Lunch boxes, thermos bottles and toiletries are scattered in a window. There are many sports shoes and slippers under the bed. Like university dormitories, few people fold quilts here.

There is a large dining hall in the industrial park, lined with stalls, all kinds of snacks, spicy hot, ramen noodles, rice noodles and rice. It doesn't matter if you miss the food. Before 9 o'clock in the evening, there are at least one or two stalls in the dining hall providing stir fry. A meal of 5 yuan can basically be done, college students usually tend to return to the workshop after a hurried meal.

A large shopping mall just opened near the stocking garden, and the video game machine inside it became a lot of fun for many entrepreneurs.

Half of the entrepreneurs are from the countryside. One of the most popular words in their mouths is that it is better to go to land now than to go home. People far away from home can receive calls from their parents every week, and many people want to get their parents around after a firm foothold.

They still look very green, but their minds are more active than the big bosses in the park. This is also an important reason for the park to value them.

The leaders of the stocking garden say that the college students are too large, but the ability of stocking garden is limited compared with that of the stocking garden. However, if we stick to it one by one, there will always be unexpected gains.