Explore How Huidong Shoe Industry Went Upstream In The 2012 Crisis.

2011, due to external market The two dip of the world economy, especially the European debt crisis, brought great impact to China's manufacturing industry, especially Guangdong, a foreign trade province. What is the future of export-oriented manufacturing industry?

As an industry cluster Industrial Cluster How to transform and upgrade in shock? This is a question worth thinking deeply. Just after the new year, the reporter went deep into the shoe industry cluster interview in Huidong, hoping to show and reflect on the current problems faced by the export-oriented manufacturing industry through this specific case. Most of the shoe factories below the scale of Huidong are closed family management, mainly in the form of family workshops, mainly based on OEM. Like the famous Foxconn, they play the role of OEM. The operation mode of "batting the world by chaos" is the mainstream mode of production at the beginning of development. It has played an indelible contribution to promoting the development of Huidong county industry. Now it is also widespread in Yu Huidong's thousands of shoe factories.

In the global economic ecology chain, Huidong Women's Shoes The industry is just like a boat, but it is impossible for the owners who are the helmmakers to predict where it will go.

　 First, ask the industry: what is the starting point and the crux of the problem?

In 1981, a Huidong native of Hongkong returned home and started the first shoe factory in Huidong in Huang Bu Town. At that time, the shoe factory was a simple household handicraft workshop. Most of the workers were roots, and it became the earliest footwear production base in the country.

Today, there are 2 million pairs of women's shoes flowing out of Huidong every day. The shoe output of one month is connected with each other, enough to circle the earth.

Huidong, which is fast becoming rich by women's shoes, has been mentioned repeatedly for many years. However, one obvious fact is that people outside the industry know little about it. The huge figures surrendered by the low-end manufacturing industry can not hide the embarrassment of Huidong women's shoes: the manufacturing industry on top of the "Chinese women's shoes production base" has not been well-known for nearly 30 years.

In December 22, 2011, the Huidong County People's government reported to Zhu Zenan, deputy director of the Guangdong provincial foreign trade and Economic Cooperation Department, that the shoe industry in our county does not have a "foot washing ashore" farmer. Chen Jingbo, President of Huidong Leather Industry Association, is one of them. Although not long after the shoe factory went bankrupt, the shoe making industry took root in Huidong, and it became the earliest footwear production base in the country.

Today, there are 2 million pairs of women's shoes flowing out of Huidong every day. The shoe output of one month is connected with each other, enough to circle the earth.

Huidong, which is fast becoming rich by women's shoes, has been mentioned repeatedly for many years. However, one obvious fact is that people outside the industry know little about it. The huge figures surrendered by the low-end manufacturing industry can not hide the embarrassment of Huidong women's shoes: the manufacturing industry on top of the "Chinese women's shoes production base" has not been well-known for nearly 30 years.

In December 22, 2011, the Huidong County People's government reported to the Vice Minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation of Guangdong province Zhu Zenan's shoe industry development report: "our county shoe industry does not have a" China famous trademark "or" China famous brand product ".

A more important factor is that the women's shoes manufacturing industry that once brought Huidong's prosperity is also faced with the same dilemma as other professional towns in the Pearl River Delta: rising raw materials, lack of funds, rising manpower costs, lack of brand awareness and low level of design. What's more, the heavy environmental costs that the local community has to pay...

As no one has ever expected that the shoe industry in Huidong will form such a huge industry, no one has ever thought that today's shoe industry in Huidong will be in such a predicament.

When people talk about Huidong women's shoes again, how much they have a detailed mentality: what is the advantage of the manufacturing center with the "Chinese women's shoes production base" signboard? Why is it issued first and then, or later? {page_break}

　　 "Golden Port" fading

Huang Bu Town, an important base for the production of Chinese women's shoes, is hard to find on maps. It is a town on the coast of Huidong County, Huizhou City, Guangdong, adjacent to the famous Dayawan Petrochemical area.

The town, located in the southern part of the peninsula, covers an area of 97.7 square kilometers, and the coastline is 44.5 kilometers long. It is less than 1 hours away from Shenzhen Yantian port. This is the starting point of the footwear industry in Huidong. It is a truly "Golden Port": the total population is about 160 thousand, of which 40 thousand are household registration, and 120 thousand are migrant population, three times more than the local population.

As a specimen of the rapid development of towns in the Pearl River Delta, Huang Bu has attracted many people to stop. These include Chaoshan people, Hakkas, Hongkong people, Taiwanese, migrant workers and countless businessmen witness the great changes in the town from farmland to numerous factories.

Jilong, close to Huang Bu, is another shoe making town in Huidong. The town has a total area of 125.3 square kilometers, a coastline of 16.8 kilometers, and a total population of about 180 thousand people, of whom 37 thousand are household registration and 140 thousand are migrants.

Huang Bu and Jilong, together with the later Pingshan street and Daling Town, constitute the gigantic women's shoes industry in Huidong. Today, the narrow Nim Ping peninsula is bustling with numerous factories and foreign crowds.

The average export price of a pair of women's shoes in Huidong is less than $5, but when it is labeled with the top brands of foreign countries, its value immediately becomes hundreds of dollars, and many of them are sold to Chinese consumers. Camel (American Camel), AanaSui (Anna Sui), Fendi (Fendi) and other more than 60 well-known footwear brands at home and abroad choose Huidong shoe factory as a manufacturer.

Just like Nike, old man, Valentino and other brand names are fixed in Guangdong processing production, "western development, Oriental processing" or "brand outside the province, production in the province" is the way of production that Huidong footwear bosses are accustomed to.

From the map, Huidong, Foshan, Guangzhou, Dongguan and Huizhou are in a straight line. Heshan and Shenzhen are located at the two points at the bottom of this straight line, with Guangzhou as the center, and then link up like an overlooking "K" shape around the Gulf of Guangzhou. This overlooking "K" shape is almost an intuitive distribution of the footwear industry in Guangdong.

Huidong County focuses on making women's shoes, which are similar to Daphne shoes that the public knows. They are all PU skin, but are far from famous. In fact, some of Daphne's products also choose foundry from Huidong shoe factory.

Although it claims to have more than 4800 shoe factories, there are few known to the outside world. Over the past 30 years, only 7 famous brands in Guangdong, 21 famous trademarks in Guangdong and a number of other government officials have been interested in the data.

Huidong is known as the Chinese shoe capital that keeps pace with Wenzhou and Jinjiang. In fact, it is generally acknowledged that there are only two Chinese shoes, Wenzhou and Jinjiang. Wenzhou is famous for producing leather shoes, while Jinjiang occupies half of China's sports shoes market.

In the early 80s of last century, there were a large number of family workshops and specialized markets in the mountainous areas of southern Zhejiang, and the development pattern of small commodities and large markets was known by Fei Xiaotong, a famous scholar, "Wenzhou model". So far, it has been read to Wenzhou.

In the long history of shoemaking in Wenzhou, women's shoes are not their traditional dominant industries. Wenzhou women's shoes are lagging behind Huidong for more than 10 years in production time.

In 2001, when Wenzhou won the gold medal signboard of "China Shoes Capital", the majority of local shoe enterprises still dominated the production and sale of men's shoes. At that time, Kangnai, AOKANG, red dragonfly and other local footwear brands, which were famous for men's shoes, had already entered the ranks of the top ten Chinese footwear brands. Wenzhou shoes had opened over 4 stores in various parts of the country. The Wenzhou women's shoes with PU leather as raw material are still weak and remain at the low end sales mode, mainly based on wholesale agents.

The best way for Wenzhou boss is to copy the successful mode.

In 2005, chairman Huang Xiuman of the giant shoe company first proposed the transformation and upgrading of the sales mode, and began to try to make special counters and monopoly. In the second year, the company asked the famous movie star Jiang Qinqin to help Hawk "big day" women's shoes.

A group of Wenzhou fashion shoes represented by Zhuo Shi Ni launched the "branding" movement, which has risen rapidly with the advantages of Wenzhou's industrial chain, Wenzhou's regional culture and market demand. {page_break}

Nearly 30 brands such as gigantic, famous, Zhuo Sany, special, gormet, kraft, sewing bird and so on are rapidly occupied by the market driven by celebrity endorsements.

Since 2006, the brand of Wenzhou women's shoes has risen rapidly. Last year, the annual output value of more than 300 women's shoes enterprises exceeded 30 billion yuan. Wenzhou women shoes have made up the "barrel short board" of Wenzhou footwear industry, and have the ability to go further.

In essence, there is not much difference between Wenzhou women's shoes represented by Ju Yi and Huidong women's shoes. Unlike Huidong shoe companies, Wenzhou shoe companies have much stronger sense of brand creation and are willing to spend money. In order to enhance the popularity of enterprises, some enterprises in Wenzhou invest millions of dollars or tens of millions of dollars in brand promotion every year, and widely build sales networks throughout the country, and push the brand to the market through various forms such as monopoly, chain affiliate and so on.

As a representative of Wenzhou footwear industry, the giant shoe industry is the representative of Wenzhou footwear industry to the global market. In 1988, Li Ailian borrowed money from relatives and set up a factory to make shoes with leather leftovers as materials. Today, the company is run by her son, and now has 3800 employees, producing 10 million pairs of shoes every year for customers including Spain Zara.

Many of Li Ailian's neighbours also have similar stories. Active local entrepreneurs have turned this into a leader in China's private economy. Huidong has also seen many wealth stories. Unfortunately, they have not turned wealth into a broader market.

Wenzhou was once again placed on the cusp of the waves when the shoe factories went bankrupt and moved abroad. However, people ignore the power behind the rapid rise of Wenzhou - the active private economy is not only "hype", but also has more ability to adapt to the changing situation.

Probably not many people remember the fire that burned more than 5000 pairs of Wenzhou inferior leather shoes in Hangzhou's Wulin Gate Square in August 8, 1987. But many shoemaking people in Wenzhou should never forget.

In the late 80s and early 90s of last century, leather shoes in Wenzhou were called "shoes for worship". They were worn out with paper paste and worn out for a week.

It is precisely in the era of low price strategy that occupied the market that many city stores showed "our shop refuses to sell Wenzhou shoes". Wenzhou's "shoe king" Yu ah, using her popularity, influence and status in the footwear industry of Wenzhou, liaison with her colleagues in the construction of Footwear Association. Under his efforts, in 1988, the first industry association of China's leather shoes, Wenzhou Lucheng Footwear Association, was established. On the day of the establishment of the association, Yu and more than 370 shoe factory directors jointly issued an initiative: "all my colleagues in shoe industry should take the reputation of shoe city as the emphasis, pay attention to the quality of leather shoes, and do not earn money for disloyalty."

In 1993, the Wenzhou municipal Party committee and the municipal government's "quality based market" strategy. The quality of the main products of Wenzhou has gradually reached the advanced level of the whole province and the whole country and is close to the international advanced level, and the quality reputation of Wenzhou products has been recovered at home and abroad. Many years ago, this strategy increased the composition of self brand building. Today, Wenzhou has not given up this strategy.

　 What about Huidong?

Opportunity is not the advantage.

Mr. Song of Taiwan trading company in Huidong still remember that before 2006, Huidong shoe factory "mastered" the orders of most trading companies. However, after that, the rise of women's shoes in Wenzhou has shifted many trade companies to the centre of gravity.

There is only one thing that remains unchanged: terminal channels are still controlled by Taiwanese, and Huidong shoe factories are still producing orders. The shoe material shop with the same number of shoes factories in Huidong and its shoe materials are basically supplied by Wenzhou. {page_break}

In Huidong, you can see a lot of Wenzhou people's trading companies, ordering shoes from Huidong shoe factories at lower prices than Wenzhou shoe factories, and then sending them from Shenzhen or Wenzhou to foreign customers.

No matter admit or not, no matter in the competition of low-end products or high-end products, Huidong women's shoes have no advantage to Wenzhou women's shoes.

"At that time, Huang Po women's shoes were opened in shopping malls, and later the state reform VAT, shopping malls to sell counters, added a value-added tax, Huang Bu people think that the tax can be less money, will give up all the opportunities in the mall." Zou Qingyan, the president of the Far East shoe industry, said, "the national value-added tax reform has gone to Wenzhou, so Wenzhou people have accepted the value added tax. Since then, Wenzhou shoes have replaced Huidong shoes in the domestic shopping malls."

People always like to use "where there is a market, where there are Zhejiang people" to describe the ubiquitous Zhejiang businessmen. Compared with the publicity of Wenzhou people, Huidong people are obviously more "low-key". This understatement comes from the conservatism of Cantonese.

Wang Yang, Secretary of the Guangdong provincial Party committee, said in dialogue with netizens that the advantages of the Cantonese are pragmatic and the shortcomings are too pragmatic. This expression confirms the mentality of Cantonese since reform and opening up.

"Making money is too easy, no pressure, no need to think more innovative ideas." Kenichi Ohmae, a famous Japanese management scientist, believes that this is the biggest obstacle to the innovation of Chinese enterprises. The same applies to the women's shoes industry in Huidong.

However, this comfortable situation can not be sustained. With the changing economic situation, the challenge of Huidong shoe factory's transformation to high value-added business is inevitable.

"Huidong people and Hakkas make money by making money. There is no long-term plan and no goal." Chen Shaobo, director of Huidong SME Bureau, said.

At the just concluded two sessions in Huizhou, Huang Shuzheng, vice mayor of Huizhou, said that 2 million of Huidong people thought they were Li Jiacheng and were complacent.

It is probably a generalization of entrepreneurs in Huidong, and at least a lot of entrepreneurs are thinking about how to grow further.

In June 2010, seven shoe enterprises in Huidong made an attempt to form the first shoe group in Guangdong, Huidong, and set up dozens of stores in Guangzhou.

Yu Shun Shoe Co., Ltd. General Manager Mr. Li Meishun said: "now the domestic market, for leather shoes, there is a rare brand development opportunities, because now young people, whether in urban or rural areas, they are influenced by the modern TV pop culture, and the improvement of cultural quality, they have their own ideas, pursuit of personality, fashion, and brand shoes and clothing is the best expression of their personality and fashion; at the same time, in the past two years, the price of genuine leather shoes is mostly over 400 yuan, more than 1000 yuan, so that in the 100-400 yuan stage, it provides a lot of space for women shoes leather shoes brand."