Market "Forced" Ningbo Clothing Breakthrough

"Luo Meng did not do foreign trade," which made the clothing industry somewhat shocked. In fact, "orders, no one to do, no one to do, no money to earn" argument has been in the clothing business for a long time. The rising cost of raw materials and labor, the change in exchange rates, and the doubling of interest payments on bank loans. This year, these "red rose" seem to be in the wrong place - not in the stock market, but firmly occupy the production factor market. The comprehensive fermentation of various unfavorable factors brings pressure and trouble to the manufacturing industry in Ningbo. Recession or rebirth? How should Ningbo's clothing enterprises cope with the challenge? What is the vitality of the garment industry as a dominant industry in Ningbo? The reporter understands that under the "forced" market, it is the choice of many enterprises to make breakthroughs in brand guided domestic sales.

Garment enterprises "dare not pick up orders."

"It is not that there is no foreign trade order, but the profit of the OEM has been" thin as blade ". Price reduction It's amazing. " Zhu Xulong, President of Luo Meng group, said that there are still a small number of exports, but they are independent brand exports.

Zhu Xulong said, no longer doing OEM is not a matter of impulse, but the company's strategic adjustment, the company's domestic sales rise, production is a bit behind, focusing on the relatively high profit margins of the plate.

In addition, as prices rise and migrant workers are relatively reduced, they are labor-intensive. clothing Enterprises, "recruitment difficulties" is still continuing. "Before the first month of fifteen, the factory gate was filled with workers looking for jobs. Now, there is a little bit of people missing. It has great influence on the normal production of enterprises. " Zhu Xulong said.

Li Rugang, chairman of YOUNGOR Fashion Co., Ltd., told reporters that at present, it is not only difficult for grassroots employees to recruit workers, but high-end design. personnel And production management talents are seriously lacking, which brings many difficulties to the upgrading and transformation of enterprises.

Reporter survey found that, raw material price increase, labor difficulties and wage increase, exchange rate reduction, credit interest expenses double last year and many other factors, many garment foreign trade enterprises, regardless of old and new customers, its profit margin is hard to exceed 5%. The purchasing power of international consumption continues to weaken, and the pressure of increasing competition in low cost regions such as Vietnam and India also brings unfavorable factors to garment export.

Create another brand in the throes of pain

Zhou Xueming, deputy director of the Ningbo Municipal Commission of letters and commissions, said that the current situation of garment exporters' "single dare not answer" shows that the era of low cost comparative advantage participation in international competitiveness cooperation is coming to an end.

In fact, Luo Meng has been constantly strengthening the brand. He has asked Andy Lau and Jimmy Lin to be the spokesmen of the image. Many of the enterprises that have done their best in foreign trade have chosen to fight their own brands to pry the domestic market.

Recently, Ningbo Ma Wei Garments Co., Ltd., which invested a total of 186 million dollars, settled in Beilun. The company's holder is the Shenzhou Knitting Co., Ltd., a famous OEM garment company with over 5 employees. This means that "the first knitting enterprise in Asia" and the OEM Big Mac have finally taken a crucial step on the road to creating their own brands.

"The independent brand we call is Maxwin (Ma Wei), taking the men's sportswear and children's wear route. At present, we opened the first store in the Century Oriental Plaza store. We plan to open 4 stores in Shanghai within the next year, and are expected to develop to 1000 stores in the next 3 years." Xu Huiguo, assistant general manager of Shenzhou group, told reporters that since 2003, Shenzhou has greatly upgraded its equipment and expanded its factory buildings. In 2004, it became the largest vertical knitting garment manufacturer and exporter in China. Many international brands such as UNIQLO, Nike, Adidas and so on were produced by consumers. Due to huge production volume, Shenzhou has built up a strategic cooperative relationship with these international brands and can not be separated from each other. In 2008, despite the severe impact of the global economic crisis, the growth rate of enterprises was more than 15% in recent years.

"Those who do not seek the overall situation can not plan for one area, but they can not seek for a while." Xu Huiguo believed that the development of enterprises should have a long-term perspective and should not be only satisfied with the status quo. With its own brand, the development of enterprises will have the backbone and win the initiative in the increasingly fierce market competition. The establishment of the Ma Wei clothing brand is a new plan for Shenzhou to enhance product competitiveness on the basis of maintaining OEM production.

In recent years, some old clothing enterprises have also produced new brands by segmenting the market. For example, YOUNGOR has built up the vertical industry chain as usual, and its clothing brand has completed the fashion transformation and market segmentation from the single classic YOUNGOR of the year. MAYOR, YOUNGOR, GY, CEO, Hart Schaffner Marx (Ho Shih MAI) and Han Ma family six brands, or business or leisure, or gentlemen or intellectually, each leads.

Create new brand on the Internet

With the rapid development of the Internet, Ningbo textile and garment enterprises also "touch the net", extending from the "entity battlefield" to "virtual battlefield", and some have also created the brand of network marketing.

"At present, there are 5 clothing and apparel brands, 4 home textile brands and 2 footwear brands in e-commerce transactions. In 2010, the e-commerce sector contributed 150 million yuan in sales revenue. In the first half of this year, e-commerce sales amounted to 260 million yuan. With the arrival of the peak season of sales in the second half of this year, e-commerce sales volume is expected to exceed 1 billion yuan this year." Facing the new blue ocean of e-commerce, Wu Huijun, chairman of Bo Yang dress, is confident.

Wu Huijun introduced that in November 11, 2010, Bo Yang home textile had set the highest sales record in the history of e-commerce so far, and the sales volume of Taobao mall exceeded 34 million 680 thousand yuan per day. At present, Bo Yang's e-commerce team has more than 200 people, and has already created many brands such as shell and walstan.

Old businesses are also testing the waters of e-commerce. Li Rugang introduced that at present YOUNGOR has opened CEO and GY brand flagship stores in Taobao mall, of which 90% of the CEO brand is from the non entity store area, and the network sales have become a useful supplement to the sales channels of the entity stores.

Brand building is a systematic project.

Zhou Xueming believes that brand building is a systematic project. Enterprises should be ready for ideas, funds and talents.

In fact, in recent years, there are also some failed cases in Ningbo's clothing enterprises. New brands are short-lived because of unclear market positioning, no follow up funds and imperfect talent team.

"To cultivate a brand, we need to work hard in designing, purchasing, manufacturing, logistics, warehousing, order processing, wholesale and retail, and so on. We should not aim only at manufacturing and manufacturing." Zhou Xueming thinks that doing foreign trade is a good way to do well in production, but it is a systematic project to sell domestic brands, but also to bite the two ends of the "Smiling Curve" -- designing, developing and marketing.

The same group, which started with OEM, also set up its own brand FIOCCO women's clothing a few years ago. Shi Yun, chairman of the board of directors, said that the brand must not be hurried. First, we must find a good location, and we must steadily stabilize the marketing. FIOCCO women's wear was created in 2006, but there are only 20 stores in the country, all of which are direct stores. "The reason why it is not open for a while is because the brand is still in its growth stage, and the direct store can better establish brand image and control the opening rhythm of the shop more effectively, and maintain the image positioning of the high-end brand." Shi Yun said that in June this year, FIOCCO women's clothing entered the Hangzhou Tower and other high-end shopping malls, began competing with the international women's clothing brands such as Gucci and Dior. Next year it plans to open 10 stores in Beijing, Shanghai and other tier cities. Shi Yun believes that playing the independent brand is a difficult process. At present, the company has nearly 100 million yuan in the investment of FIOCCO women's clothing, and its sales increase by 50% per year.