Wenzhou Shoe Enterprises Enter The "Learning Experience" And Need To Focus On Industrial Development.

The Wenzhou usury crisis broke out and pushed Dongguan Wen Shang to the front stage. The third major business groups in Dongguan after Taiwan and Hong Kong businessmen have distinct characteristics and play an important role in Dongguan's economic and social development.

Under the spotlight, the mystery of Dongguan Wenshang was unveiled one by one. Their footprints, clustering, rising stories, and Dongguan characteristics will restore these fragments and connect the true images of Dongguan's Wenshang City, and better understand the deep-seated reasons for Dongguan's mild business in Wenzhou's usury crisis.

Reform and opening up to "gold rush"

Chen Zhilin, one of the earliest Wenshang merchants, is now operating in Houjie. Leatherwear It is the Secretary General of Pingyang chamber of Commerce in Dongguan. In his eloquent way, a picture of Wen Shang entered the room gradually and clearly.

In 1992, a gold rush swept across the land of Guangdong, and gold rush customers from all over the country poured in. Among these battalions, the Wenzhou people who dare to do so are at the forefront. Their first choice is in Guangzhou, the southern gate of reform and opening up.

"At that time, it was fashionable to go down to Guangzhou. Wenzhou people, who had a little idea, were competing for Guangzhou." Chen Zhilin recalled that the first batch of Wenshang merchants in Guangzhou mainly engaged in leather, clothing and other wholesale businesses, located in Zhongshan, Guangzhou, the eight way.

According to Chen Zhilin, this group is mainly engaged in Guangzhou Wenshang. Domestic trade Foreign trade exports are relatively small, mainly based on rented shops, and no companies are established. Besides Guangzhou, it has also entered Foshan, the South China Sea and so on.

However, this group of Wen merchants soon discovered Dongguan which is more suitable for leather and clothing business than Guangzhou. "A number of business operators have come to Dongguan and found that a large number of shoe factories have been gathered in Dongguan, and the market demand is bigger."

After a brief stopover in Guangzhou, Wenshang again went south on a large scale and eventually settled in Dongguan.

"At that time, the streets were full of shoe manufacturers, with Taiwan and Hongkong. We were all shocked." Chen Zhilin said that it was natural that Wen merchants, who first came to Dongguan, gathered in Houjie to provide Taiwan funded enterprises and Hong Kong funded enterprises. Leather material Leather and other raw materials.

However, not all of Dongguan's Wenshang groups came from Guangzhou. Liu Daosong, executive vice president of Dongguan Wenzhou chamber of Commerce, said there is another warm business team from Guangxi Nanning. Before and after 1992, he moved to Dongguan in Nanning, Guangxi. Slightly different from the Wenshang from Guangzhou to Dongguan, most of the Wenzhou businessmen from Nanning chose the lower bridge of Dongcheng, and set up a batch of wholesale markets.

With the continuous prosperity of the footwear industry in Dongguan, these two Wenshang teams have gradually merged and eventually formed as many as 38 thousand business groups.

The tide of industrial spanfer has formed the warm business industry.

In the course of the formation of Wenshang in Dongguan, 2000 was regarded as a watershed.

Chen Zhilin said that before 2000, Dongguan's Wenshang mentality still stayed in a simple "gold rush". But after 2000, with the international industrial spanfer, especially the large-scale spanfer of Taiwan funded enterprises and Hong Kong funded enterprises to Dongguan, Dongguan's Wenshang group appeared a explosive growth, and began to form a warm business with Dongguan's industrial layout. {page_break}

Hetian District of Houjie Town witnessed the whole process of "warming up" in Dongguan. According to Liu Daosong, Houjie Hetian is one of the most concentrated areas of Wenshang in Dongguan. Many Wenshang rented shops and set up processing plants in Hetian, becoming the most important source of raw materials supply and sale for Houjie shoe industry.

After 2000, Shenzhen began the first round of industrial spanfer, coupled with the agglomeration of Hong Kong funded enterprises and Taiwan funded enterprises. Dongguan's manufacturing industry ushered in a period of rapid growth. It was during this period that Dongguan's Wenshang team expanded rapidly. They mainly provided raw materials and simple processing services for Dongguan's manufacturing plants.

"The most obvious is 2002 and 2003," Chen Zhilin recalls. In those two years, on the streets of Houjie, there were often businessmen who speak Wenzhou dialect.

Another obvious change is that the shops in Hetian District are more and more, and most of them are from Wenzhou.

"The most brilliant period in Dongguan's manufacturing industry was before 2006, when it was the best and most rapid growth of our business." Chen Zhilin said.

Focus on Dongguan's manufacturing industry

Unlike the local businessmen in Wenzhou and elsewhere, the biggest feature of Dongguan Wenshang is: stick to industry.

Unlike traditional Wen Shang, the development of Dongguan Wenshang originated from supporting the manufacturing industry in Dongguan, and is the raw material supplier of Dongguan's manufacturing industry. Taking Houjie shoe industry as an example, Dongguan Wenshang shipped leather materials from Wenzhou, and made some simple cutting and patterns in Houjie, and then supplied nearby shoe factories.

After most of 2000, Dongguan's manufacturing industry has been developing rapidly due to strong demand from overseas markets, and Dongguan's business has been developing steadily.

Correspondingly, there are ups and downs in Wenzhou's local Wen merchants. With the increase of raw material prices, overseas market slump and RMB appreciation, profits of Wenzhou's manufacturing industry have declined sharply. Meanwhile, the real estate market in Wenzhou is soaring and profits are much higher than that of the manufacturing industry, thus taking away most of the industrial funds.

Chen Zhilin told the reporter a dramatic story: one of his friends from Wenzhou, after exporting to the United States, was fined 250 thousand dollars for failing to pass the test, and for a time, he could not get the fine. He had to sell the land of the workshop, and sold 57 million yuan, thus embarked on the road of rapid wealth growth. {page_break}

In view of the fact that Dongguan's economy is developing healthfully, the real estate market is growing steadily and there is no profiteering phenomenon. Therefore, the development of Dongguan's shoes and other manufacturing industries is relatively stable. Chen Zhilin believes that this is the most fundamental reason for Dongguan Wenshang to focus on industry.