Putian Shoe Industry Has Been Helped By Government And Enterprises To Accelerate Pformation And Seek To Break Through.

Core tip: Putian is the tradition of Fujian province.

Big cities are mainly export-oriented exports.

Since the beginning of last year, in the face of the internal and external difficulties in reducing international orders and increasing production costs, the footwear industry in Putian has struggled to pform itself, and enterprises have made great efforts to create internal brands, and the competent departments and trade associations have jointly introduced measures to facilitate pformation.

In the first half of this year, the footwear industry in Putian broke through, and exports continued to grow.

Putian, known as the "shoe city of China", is a big shoe manufacturing city and shoe export city in Fujian province. There are more than 2100 shoe making and related enterprises, and the export volume of footwear industry in 2011 amounted to US $2 billion 266 million.

Statistics released by Putian inspection and Quarantine Bureau showed that: from 1 to August this year, Putian exported 50 thousand and 500 footwear products, with an export volume of US $1 billion 616 million, an increase of 7.2% and 7.9% over the same period last year.

Since the beginning of last year, influenced by the continued spread of the European debt crisis, the protection and technical barriers to international trade have intensified, and the prices of raw materials and labor have continued to rise.

Facing the grim external environment of industry, why is the export footwear industry in Putian going against the trend and making steady progress?

Test: orders are decreasing, and shoe industry exports are frequently blocked.

"It is not only difficult for Putian shoe enterprises to export, but also the rest of the province is facing such difficulties."

Lin Yuancan, Secretary General of the Fujian footwear export base chamber of Commerce, said that the inspection and Quarantine Department of the province recently conducted a survey of 70 export footwear enterprises in our province, indicating that footwear exports are generally more difficult.

The concrete manifestation is: as the international market is weak, export orders are reduced, production costs have risen sharply, and profits have declined accordingly.

Reporters learned from the Putian inspection and quarantine bureau that recently, Brazil decided to impose anti-dumping duties on semi manufactured shoes, upper and soles and other accessories imported from China.

This is the Brazil's anti-dumping duties on finished shoes, and once again tighten restrictions on China's footwear, will directly affect the export of Putian sports shoes, especially the semi-finished products of football shoes.

According to statistics, in 2011, Putian exported only 1 million 226 thousand dollars of footwear products to Brazil.

"External environmental impact is a factor, and rising operating costs is also an important factor."

Putian City Xie Cheng Shoes Co., Ltd. told reporters that the prices of raw materials such as leather and rubber continued to rise, plus recruitment difficulties and workers' wages rising. The average cost of labor increased by 20% to 30%. Some of the international brand orders of the company had been pferred, others were afraid to undertake because of the low unit price.

According to the representative of Nike's OEM factory, Putian footwear industry representatives, in recent years, Nike's orders in China are getting smaller and smaller, which has dropped by 7% (4 million 200 thousand pairs) from 2008 to 2010, and is still declining.

Enterprises: to do well in internal work can break through in the predicament.

"Increasing R & D investment, building independent brands and promoting pformation and upgrading are the fundamental way for enterprise development."

On the 12 day, Voight, chairman of Putian sports and sports Limited by Share Ltd, met Cai Jinhui when he saw reporters.

Founded in 1997, Voight sports Limited by Share Ltd has developed into a strong brand enterprise integrating product development, production management and channel operation.

At present, Voight has thousands of terminal outlets throughout the country, and its products are exported to more than 20 countries and regions around the world.

"Last year, the OEM export volume of the company exceeded 100 million yuan. In the first half of this year, the number of OEM exports decreased by 40% compared to the same period last year. Although the orders increased in the second half of the year, it is estimated that it will drop by 20% to 30% year-on-year."

Cai Jinhui said that the decline in unit price caused by internal and external factors and the rising cost also caused tremendous pressure on the OEM export of Voight.

"However, because of the early start and rapid pace of pformation and upgrading, the export of independent brands has increased, despite the decline in OEM exports, especially through the increase of domestic marketing outlets. The domestic market has expanded continuously, which has increased by 30% over the first half of this year.

In this way, the sales volume of the whole company did not drop, but it increased by 20% in the first half of this year, and the year-on-year growth is 25%.

Cai Jinhui said that on the export side, the company has strives to expand the Middle East and Eastern European markets, and has set up Voight in more than 20 countries including Dubai, Iraq, Lithuania and Ukraine.

The export of independent brands has been steadily rising. In terms of domestic sales, 120 franchised stores have been opened in the first half of this year, and the total number is 1200.

{page_break}

Focusing on technology input and independent research and development is another engine for Voight's development.

"The R & D team of more than 100 people commissioned universities and other scientific research institutions to invest in tens of millions of yuan per year for material technology research."

Cai Jinhui said that since its inception, the company has always adhered to the design concept of "speaking professionally", and has developed three technological patents and nine design patents of leading industry level including palm kinetic energy, sky shield and kinetic energy armor.

Focusing on self created brands and brand promotion is the key to Voight's pformation and upgrading.

Since 2006, Voight has joined hands with basketball superstar Wang Zhizhi to set up the "basketball Putonghua base" in 72 secondary schools throughout the country, to build the biggest basketball cradle in China. In 2010, Voight's brand landed in NBA, East Asian men's Basketball Championship and men's basketball Asian Championships, and strong cooperation with rockets, spurs, pioneers, Timberwolves and other NBA teams, and displayed the brand charm on the international stage.

Last year, the value of "Voight" brand reached 3 billion 650 million yuan.

At present, Voight has invested about 10000000 yuan to build a new factory building in Putian Hualin Industrial Park, build a R & D base for science and technology, and cooperate with Taiwan manufacturers to introduce new technology of rubber materials to produce sole glue.

"If you practice well, you can break through in a predicament."

In the face of changes in the export shoe market since last year, Cai Jinhui felt deeply.

Voight's feelings and changes are also the consensus of Putian footwear operators.

Reporters in Putian City Xie Cheng Shoes Co., Ltd. learned that the company is accelerating from extensive management to intensive management, while actively increasing R & D and product testing efforts.

At present, the company has a product testing center, a footwear sample R & D center and a 300 person technology development team.

With the investment in research and development, quality can be guaranteed before it can dance with the world's first line brands.

Cai Rongqiu, head of the company, said proudly that the company has produced 6 million pairs of shoes and exported more than $60 million a year, becoming the leader of the local private export enterprises.

Government: joint efforts to help enterprises accelerate pformation

"The export footwear industry needs to get out of the predicament. Besides the good practice of the enterprise itself, it needs the help of relevant departments and industry associations."

Lin Yuancan said in an interview with reporters.

In June this year, the Putian municipal government, on the basis of implementing the provincial government's "Circular on promoting the steady growth of the current six measures", issued the "opinions on further promoting the steady growth of the industrial economy", and put forward further measures to support the development of the industrial economy. These measures include: arranging 2 million yuan for industrial capital, offering subsidies to industrial leading enterprises or institutions to set up large physical stores outside the city, and rewarding enterprises with annual sales income of more than 20 million yuan and selling online.

Insiders said that the support policies issued by local governments undoubtedly played a role in providing timely help in the unfavorable situation.

At the same time, the Putian inspection and quarantine department has also launched a number of measures since the beginning of this year to help local export shoe companies tide over difficulties.

For example, relying on the national footwear inspection center (Putian laboratory), the construction of 4 high level public service platforms such as China footwear research and design center, and the use of independently developed more than 10 new testing equipment to help enterprises strengthen quality control, constantly improve the technology content, and improve the overall competitiveness of the export footwear industry.

Good news is coming.

This year, the provincial economic and Trade Commission, focusing on the implementation of the 14 industry adjustment and revitalization program in our province, focuses on upgrading the traditional industries and speeding up the development of strategic emerging industries, and continues to organize and implement enterprise technical upgrading and guidance work. The footwear industry in Putian ranks among them.

In from August 20th to 23rd, the provincial economic and Trade Commission joined the Fujian footwear industry technology development (Putian) base, invited all domestic shoemaking technology experts, held a seminar on pformation and upgrading of footwear industry in Putian, and promoted the counselling activities of enterprise technology improvement, and went deep into the 7 shoe companies such as Voight and Shuang chi to "treat the pulse" and find the current enterprise technological innovation problems.

It is understood that the organizers will also use the existing platform of Fujian shoe technology development base to build an expert resource pool, and establish a public service platform for pformation and upgrading of footwear industry, which is integrated online, offline and offline, providing convenience for experts and enterprises to exchange and interact with each other.

The industry said that this targeted discussion and guidance played an exemplary and guiding role in the pformation and upgrading of the industry, and will also effectively promote the development of footwear industry in Putian in the direction of high technology, high added value and knowledge intensive.

Lin Yuancan said that the shoe export base chamber of Commerce has also strengthened targeted services in recent years to solve problems for export shoe enterprises.

"For example, in order to alleviate the shortage of orders from some shoe enterprises, the chamber of Commerce set up an order outsourcing service platform to promote the establishment of orders, labor idle cooperation between enterprises."

In addition, the chamber of commerce also used the technical resources of the national shoe inspection center and the German Deutsche group to build a third party testing and certification service platform, greatly improving the efficiency and quality of the footwear inspection and certification service.

At present, the chamber of commerce is working with the Ministry of Commerce's e-commerce center to build the "Putian footwear export trade pformation and upgrading professional demonstration base e-commerce center", through online sales expansion.

Industrial exports.