The Transformation Of Garment Industry In Guangdong Is The Way To Go.

On the new year's day this year, the wilderness clothing company in Humen, Dongguan, told all employees to have a holiday. On the second day, something bad happened. The workers saw a piece of paper on the door of the company, declaring the company bankrupt, and the boss went nowhere. Afterwards, it was proved that the boss did not "run" but was in custody for 24 hours with relatives and friends in order to prevent suicide.

Humen, known as the "clothing capital of China", has seen a brand enterprise go bankrupt in recent years. It is not only a good news but also a warning sign. As early as 2011, the Guangdong clothing and Apparel Industry Association's research report pointed out: Guangdong clothing enterprises have entered the plight of "warm boiled frog".

The latest statistical analysis of the operation of Guangdong's clothing economy shows that in October of 2011, Guangdong's clothing production still maintained the status of the first largest producer of clothing in the country, but the growth rate slowed down significantly, an increase of 14.25 percentage points over the same period last year, 2.31 percentage points lower than the national average growth rate.

As early as the first half of last year, the economic growth rate of Guangdong's clothing industry was much lower than expected. It is no longer a description of "fatigue". Although still maintained a growth of 12.17%, but the growth rate slowed down significantly, an increase of 8.36 percentage points year-on-year, 0.34 percentage points lower than the national average growth rate.

Export growth also lagged behind the national level. In the first three quarters of 2011, Guangdong exported garments and accessories 25 billion 837 million US dollars, an increase of 16.35% over the same period last year, while the national growth rate was 21.37% over the same period last year. Guangdong's growth rate was 5 percentage points lower than the national total growth rate.

The bottleneck of Guangdong garment industry is coming.

In 2012, the manufacturing industry in China may be a brutal winter than 2008.

After years of efforts, Guangdong has formed several clusters of clothing categories. However, as a result of the integration of the apparel industry chain, it still participates in competition with low added value manufacturing scale.

However, its early stage is proud of the world factory of clothing. Since Hong Kong and Macau clothing industry has entered Guangdong and launched the "three to one subsidy", Guangdong garment industry has gradually formed an industrial chain and cluster development. The garment industry has undoubtedly become one of the nine pillar industries in the whole province.

Now, the clothing industry in Guangdong is declining, and it can only be found from its bottleneck.

From the external factors, the international economic situation is complex and changeable, which is often unexpected. Labor costs are rising all the time, and garment export advantages are no longer. In recent years, overseas orders for brand OEM are often sent to countries in Southeast Asia, and these countries have long coveted the big fat of Guangdong's "clothing export market", coveted for a long time, making Guangdong clothing in the middle and lower reaches of the apparel industry chain awkward.

Sharp decline in export sales, and domestic sales are very difficult. The latter has lost its domestic market because of the former export business. When Guangdong clothing entered the country, it was the world famous brand of seven wolves, Metersbonwe, red beans and so on. It was the world of Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangsu.

It has to be said that there are also problems in concept. Guangdong garment industry, which originated in the wholesale market, has formed the brand mode and concept of Guangdong with long-term management and management. It has pursued the insurance and is impetuous, eager for quick success and instant benefit and lacking courage and understanding. In this regard, it is hard to comment. In some respects, people still see obstacles to the development of Guangdong's own brand of clothing.

Clothing enterprises in Guangdong are used to competition and fighting. These "civil war insiders" have been playing games for many years, and gradually found that there are considerable degree of homogenization competition characteristics in the internal and external resource elements, policy environment, independent innovation, industrial concept and business culture.

Fujian is also a big clothing province. As a rising star, Fujian is quite different from the big brother in the brand. "Nowadays, the clothing brand of Fujian has occupied half of the famous brand in China. It can be said that surpassing Guangdong has become the apparel industry leader. " Guo Zhigang, a clothing brand expert, said that Fujian is located in the coastal area, and there are many things worth learning and learning from in the adjustment and integration of the overall garment industry in Guangdong.

Two times missed the opportunity.

Perhaps many people have overlooked one word: "the Pan Pearl River Delta".

This is a new concept initiated by Zhang Dejiang, former Secretary of the Guangdong provincial Party committee in November 2003, after the "little Pearl River Delta" and "the Great Pearl River Delta". It is referred to as the "9+2" economic zone. Jiang Lin, a professor at Zhongshan University, suggests that this concept is a golden opportunity for the transformation and upgrading of the garment industry in Guangdong. At this time, Guangdong is in the interim stage of industrialization to the late stage. Guangdong's clothing industry has missed the opportunity.

The "Pan Pearl River Delta" is actually a joint development of the provinces along the Pearl River Basin. Including Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Hainan, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and other nine provinces (regions), as well as Hongkong and Hongkong. The inland nine provinces accounted for 20.9% of the total area of the country, with 34.8% of the total population and 33.3% of the total. Jiang Lin said: "the Pan Pearl River Delta region has strong complementarity, and some of them do not exist in Guangdong. They do not exist in Guangdong, and they are complementary to each other in Hong Kong and Macao." Therefore, the uneven development of the Pan Pearl River Delta region and the complementarity of the whole region are more suitable for the transformation of Guangdong's garment industry.

"This formulation is very good, but unfortunately the Guangdong garment industry has not seized the opportunity to make good use of it." Jiang Lin said.

It is often said that we should never make the same mistake in the same place. However, Guangdong clothing has neglected development opportunities for the second time. Facing the 2008 financial turmoil, the transformation and upgrading of clothing in Guangdong has been raised again.

In 2009, Guangdong launched the "Pearl River Delta reform and development plan" and "cage changing birds" and "double transfer" measures. The opportunity of garment industry upgrading is coming again.

The state has promulgated the "revitalization plan for the textile industry", canceling and stopping the collection of 100 items of administrative and industrial charges. After the Customs General Administration promulgated 10 measures to help foreign trade enterprises to spend the winter, the garment industry in Guangdong should accelerate the transformation and upgrading. Due to keen to undertake overseas "big orders" and accustomed to the "incoming processing" of the industrial mode, resulting in the transformation appears slow and slow, resulting in the entire Guangdong garment industry in the context of the financial crisis, "unprepared".

"This is a good opportunity for the transformation and upgrading of the garment industry, but the industry has not been able to grasp it in time, and the opportunity has been wasted." Jiang Lin showed some frustration.

Is there enough time for transformation now?

"Of course, it's just that the difficulty is bigger than before. Now that there are too many ideas, the government may not focus too much resources and policies on the garment industry. It needs to take into account other industries." Jiang Lin said.

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Disadvantages of industrial imbalance

"There are about 10 thousand garment enterprises in the province and millions of employees." Clothing brand expert Guo Zhigang said. Such a large number means that once the garment industry is loose, it will inevitably trigger the "Butterfly Effect". The stable and healthy development of garment enterprises is not only an economic issue.

As a traditional clothing headquarters base, Guangdong has a strong foundation and a complete industrial chain. Its industrial functions are closely related to the stable development of the society. Since the reform and opening up, although the clothing industry in Guangdong still revolves around "wholesale" and OEM processing, it is also moving slowly towards the specialized market, such as Guangzhou international trade fair, Guangzhou new hundred clothing exhibition trade city and other emerging apparel market.

In this apparel industry chain, there are a group of people's "rice bowls" at every point from raw material procurement, product production, design research and marketing to marketing.

In addition, with the transfer of Guangdong's specialized clothing market and the rise of the specialized clothing market in other parts of the country, especially Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other international metropolis as the requirements for the construction of urban planning and trade centers, some parts of Guangdong and the market are beginning to face the pressure of "regional marginalization, urban marginalization, business circle marginalization and brand marginalization". This will lead to the failure of most social groups to be included in the scope of urban community services, and the garment industry in some areas is squeezed to the periphery, thus affecting the healthy development of these regional economies and the satisfaction of normal social needs of members of the society.

"Whether the clothing industry is stable or healthy is not only an economic issue, but also has risen to the political level, which affects social stability, security and harmony. Faced with the crisis and potential crisis that has emerged, our government, enterprises, employees and distributors should work together, especially when the government needs to think strategically and cope with the adjustment. Guo Zhigang said.

Deconstruction of Humen garment industry transformation model

170 square kilometers of Humen are stationed in more than 2000 garment enterprises, including the manufacturer of Dongfeng Garments Co., Ltd., a famous Chinese casual wear brand "YISHION". According to Tan Zhiqiang, director of the economic and Trade Office of Humen Town, Dongguan, 70% of Humen's clothing enterprises are doing domestic sales and 30% doing export trade.

The collapse of this year's famous wilderness Garments Co., Ltd. is quite normal in Tan Zhiqiang's view. "Just like people's old age and illness, every year some enterprises fail, and some enterprises come in. The clothing industry in Guangdong is at the low end of the value chain. The threshold is very low. There is nothing strange about life and death, going in and out. But in general, Humen is still a paradise for the clothing industry to survive. It is a collective group operation, and the vitality of the garment enterprises is often stronger than other places."

Relying on the brand of children's clothing, Dongguan Xiao Hu Han Ni Clothing Co., Ltd. has adapted to the market changes. Xie Fengcheng, deputy general manager of its marketing system, said that the orders for the domestic sales of the two years showed no downward trend. In the eyes of Xie Feng Cheng, the reasons for the failure of some garment enterprises are not only caused by the European debt crisis and the rising cost of labor and other factors, but also the accumulated problems in the long-term management of enterprises and the failure of systematic engineering. The so-called "closure" is only in the pure processing of garment enterprises.

Xie Aiming has been engaged in the garment industry for more than 20 years. He served for some famous clothing enterprises in Dongguan and Zhuhai. In September 2009, he started a joint venture with his friends to organize a clothing company. He was in the cold wave of the clothing industry. He invested more money in making the factory bigger and collaborated with the designers in Milan, so that the style of clothes was in line with the world's frontiers, and then opened the brand store in Dongguan. He said that the current closure is basically a "low-end" clothing company, they are high-end women's clothing market.

The meaning of transformation and upgrading is obviously different from others. In the eyes of Huang Peimin, deputy director of Humen economic and Trade Office, it is very simple, "transformation is to find a way out, not so complicated." The young deputy director, Aex Kevin, wearing glasses, blurted out with a powerful voice.

"There are many small and medium enterprises in Humen, and the threshold of clothing industry is relatively low. However, the government attaches great importance to it. Over the years, the industrial chain has been gradually improved, such as" YISHION "such enterprises seize the opportunity to become the leader of the whole casual wear. If some enterprises fail to go on, there will be others coming in, and it can be said that they still have a certain degree of activity. Huang Peimin said so.

Huang Peimin continued to explain the transformation of clothing in Humen with plain language. "If the enterprise is going downhill or there is no room for development, then we should consider the way to go and continue to make wholesale or make brand." The meaning of transformation is to find a better way to survive, transformation is to find a way out, not so complicated.

Brand building is by no means the only way out for transformation. "If the enterprise insists on doing processing, it can become a famous brand in manufacturing industry, which is also a way out. Or do brands, many years do not do well, then whether we can consider processing for the famous local brands? Everyone knows that it is good to build their own brand, but not everyone can do it. So many garment enterprises in Humen now come up with a YISHION. If I shout "transformation", all run to do the brand, is obviously unrealistic. Huang Peimin said with a little excitement.

Fashion has always been an art. It is an art that can be compared with painting, sculpture and architecture. Looking back at the world's four fashion capital, we can see that both Paris and Milan are both international metropolises of art and prosperity in Italy.

Therefore, the transformation of the garment industry must not derail the development of the city.

"Only if we build a beautiful and prosperous Humen can we become a fashion city." In Tan Zhiqiang's description, Humen will become a coastal international shopping mall with a perfect urban construction, beautiful environment, well-developed economy, and gathering fashion culture and art. To transform and upgrade into an international fashion city, it is bound to require a lot of corresponding urban facilities. For this purpose, Humen has put 50 billion into urban upgrading and promoted the upgrading of garment industry through urban upgrading.

The government of Humen has introduced a number of policies to support clothing enterprises, including three 30 million supporting funds, such as applying for famous trademarks of provinces or countries, and technical transformation or the introduction of some advanced materials can get some capital subsidies. However, it is the first step to instilling the concept of "transformation" into enterprises. Huang Peimin said.

The road to transformation is in urgent need of guidance.

The appreciation of the renminbi, the European debt crisis, the oil crisis, the rising raw materials and the soaring cost of manpower have limited the limited profit margins. Not only the operating risks of export enterprises have increased substantially, but also domestic manufacturing enterprises are facing many crises. The road of transformation needs to be carried out urgently. However, without the overall strategic adjustment plan and orderly guidance, the road of transformation is like a war without preparation, with great risks.

At this point, the promotion and guidance of the government has become a "life-saving straw" for small and medium-sized enterprises struggling in a stormy way.

The blind transformation of garment enterprises into private brands and their own market development will make the market enter a more disordered and vicious competition. Experts interviewed insist on this view.

The apparel industry chain mainly includes manufacturing enterprises and Brand Company. Manufacturing enterprises include pure processing enterprises, FOB processing enterprises, namely, the enterprises that can complete garment sourcing from raw materials to garment processing, ODM manufacturing enterprises with R & D capability and manufacturing capability, manufacturing enterprises with their own wholesale brands and manufacturing enterprises with proprietary brands.

So many kinds of corporate transformation can not be generalized. Even the same type of enterprises will have the difference between foreign trade and domestic trade. Guo Zhigang believes that every enterprise should design different development paths according to the actual situation, advantages and disadvantages, and the willingness of enterprises and the soft and hard strength of enterprises.

Domestic sales and foreign trade are completely different ideas and patterns. This is also the reason why many foreign trade enterprises have suffered a lot of setbacks in the transformation.

The establishment of brand and brand management is a very specialized field. Specialized Brand Company must have the overall brand management and management capabilities. Similarly, these are things that many manufacturing enterprises can not face.

"A wise decision should be a government or organization to make an integrated adjustment and guidance to the apparel industry chain." Guo Zhigang believes that "to guide the establishment of clothing categories, styles and brand positioning of the company as the leader, at the same time, the establishment of supply chain integration based on the clothing industry chain. Only in this way can we avoid the disorderly competition and greatly enhance the strength and brand foundation of Guangdong's apparel industry.

"The establishment of independent clothing brands, the country started a few years ago, but many enterprises have gone astray, blindly follow, ambitious." Hu Baogang, a senior guest researcher of Guangdong fashion and fashion industry economics research institute, believes that in the face of the transformation and upgrading of the garment industry in Guangdong, both enterprises and the government should "do something" and "do something wrong". Enterprises with strong capital and perfect system are suitable to take the road of building brand. But most of the small garment enterprises should pay more attention to widening sales channels, establishing more sales platforms and good business models, such as setting up theme stores, developing online wholesale and retail businesses, etc.

"Legs and go" to find a way out

"Keep your life first." Jiang Lin, an economist and a professor at Zhongshan University, even felt a little excited. He used a sentence to sum up the urgent task of Guangdong's clothing industry at present: "to exchange space with time, to maintain domestic demand with external demand".

The clothing industry is closely related to the social livelihood of the traditional industries, and Guangdong itself does not have many heavy industries. Therefore, the sustainable development of the clothing industry is closely related to the economic development of Guangdong as a whole. In addition, competition in this low threshold industry has reached the level of white hot. Climbing the upper reaches of the industrial chain has become a business transformation. However, with the improvement of living standards, people's pursuit of clothing is far more than just getting warm. Brand, design, and style are all one of the criteria of choice. But the inefficient clothing Guangdong clothing has long been out of line with the needs of society.

The formation of the industrial chain is not overnight. What Guangdong clothing should do now is to keep the original clothing industry first. Jiang Lin believes that the best way is to continue to win orders from European and American countries, although the profit is not high, but at least can keep the function of the industrial chain.

Save your life and consider domestic demand. "How to expand domestic sales requires not only time but also strategy. It is essential to fully understand the market, develop suitable new products, and even train new design teams.

"Cooperation is the best way. Cooperation with other provinces, especially in Hunan and Hubei. Guangdong enterprises need to set up new thinking. Although Guangdong's economic concepts are more advanced than those of the inland provinces, they are far less familiar with the local market environment than the local enterprises. Jiang Lin said.

To be a professional or to integrate is another problem facing the transformation and upgrading of the garment industry in Guangdong.

"Two legs and walk, professional and integrate two roads together to try." Jiang Lin thought that we should go ahead of the road of diversification, because at present, which way to go in Guangdong's clothing is still in a fog and blurred vision. Take the road of specialization, that is, some clothing companies specialize in brand management, some specialize in design, some specialize in production, and so on.

Can the clothing industry in Guangdong usher in the next spring? If the successful transformation and upgrading of Guangdong's garment industry can transform the international fashion city such as Milan and Paris, will become the fashion barometer of the clothing industry? For this assumption, Jiang Lin said: "it is entirely possible that the foundation of the garment industry in Guangdong is very good, and there is no shortage of market. What we need to improve is our brand management environment and sales channels, and our own international brand is just around the corner."

The development of Internet e-commerce is also a major trend of Guangdong garment industry. In 2012, it will also be a year of adjustment and integration of e-commerce platform. The development of E-business has attracted the attention and participation of many enterprises in the apparel industry chain, which has a great influence on the traditional garment industry.

In the late years, can the Guangdong garment industry move towards "fatigue"? Can it be successfully transformed and upgraded? What kind of blueprint will the new garment industry present? The new historical blueprint will be painted by pioneers.