Zheng Xiukang Is The Maker Of Game Rules.

"Kangnai group has done a good job in internationalization."

This is what Premier Wen Jiabao said in 2004.

Zheng Xiukang, who is not very talkative and has a strong accent in dialect, feels that this sentence is better than hundreds of pages of publicity materials.

When the Yangtze River Delta private enterprises began to carry the banner of "going out" to overseas markets, "Kangnai has been out for many years."

The Kangnai group, founded by Zheng Xiukang, is famous.

In the past month, the Wenzhou shoe manufacturer has completed the order meeting in the United States. The next month is a key German order meeting. The key lies in timing. The EU has just announced the anti-dumping tariff rate for leather shoes in China and Vietnam.

Zheng Xiukang and his Kangnai group seemed to be prepared. Neither tariff nor technical barriers to trade can slow down the pace of Kangnai's breakout.

Like most of Wenzhou's shoemaking enterprises, the main channel of foreign countries is Kangnai group's starting position.

Rely on low-cost expansion to occupy the market in advance.

But Kangnai went abroad and opened up territory overseas, much earlier than most of its peers.

And this step has become a foothold for Kangnai to build high-end independent brand and curve internationalization.

As early as 1998, Kangnai set up an international trade department to fight for the war abroad.

Over the next few years, the frequency of Zheng Xiukang's trip to Europe and the United States increased significantly. One of the tasks was to explore the international footwear market and find a breakthrough.

In January 15, 2001, the first Kangnai store opened by overseas Chinese in Wenzhou opened in the prosperous area of nineteenth districts in Paris, France. In June 8th of that year, second overseas stores in Kangnai opened in Fala, New York, USA.

Over the past five years, Kangnai's English brand has changed from KANGNAI to KENOL, and its more than 100 overseas chain stores have springing up everywhere in Europe and the United States. It has opened 17 stores in 9 cities in Europe, a big shoe producing country in Italy.

While the EU has set up barriers to Chinese shoes, Kangnai shoes, which cost more than $50, rely on their overseas sales outlets.

On 2005, at the 25th anniversary celebration of the group, Zheng Xiukang invited the head of the Spanish trade bureau and the Elche Footwear Association to Wenzhou.

Since the "burning Chinese shoes" in Elche in September 2004, there is a deep hatred between Wenzhou footwear industry and Spain.

And Kangnai's move conveys a signal that "friends should be willing to settle, not to be tied up".

Finally, Elche Shoe Association and Wenzhou shoe leather association signed the Wenzhou declaration.

According to Kangnai's "11th Five-Year plan", more than 1000 overseas stores will be opened.

Apart from the increase in volume, the most important thing is to enter the mainstream sales channels abroad.

In December 2005, Zheng Xiukang invited the president of the French department store chain "ADVANCED VISION" to Wenzhou and signed a cooperation agreement, which means that in the next 5 years, Kangnai products will go directly into the 200 middle and high-end stores in the EU, thus entering the mainstream consumption of developed countries in Europe and the United States.

Kangnai's distribution center in France has been quite perfect. The deputy general Zhou Jin Miao told reporters that Kangnai will push ahead with the European retail system and wholesale system. "Entering the mainstream sales channels abroad is the only way to go."

Zheng Xiukang's overseas vision not only lies in the development of stores, but his investment and training for successors began ten years ago, and now the returns have just begun.

After his son Zheng Laiyi graduated from high school, Zheng Xiukang sent him to University of Leicester to repair leather shoes.

Zheng Laiyi has been alone in Britain for three years. The successor of Kangnai has learned not only the most advanced leather technology in the world, but also the management concept of foreign shoe companies.

Kangnai can cooperate with the world famous footwear professional certification body, the British SATRA organization, and Zheng Laiyi's role is indispensable.

When China is repeatedly subjected to international technical barriers to trade, "why can't we become the makers of game rules so that other countries can accept our standards?"

In Zheng Xiukang's view, the participation of developed countries in the formulation of industry standards and the initiative in mastering trade rules has been a headache for technical barriers to trade.

It is understood that Kangnai group and SATRA joint venture R & D center has broken ground in Wenzhou, the future Kangnai will be one of the makers of international rules of the game.

After all, Kangnai's way to break through is to rely on years of painstaking efforts. For many small and medium-sized shoemaking enterprises, the EU tariff barrier will be increasingly built.

In March 20, 2006, the 25 EU countries will vote on whether to impose anti-dumping duties on leather shoes from China and Vietnam.

Once the vote is passed, all leather shoes exported to the EU from April 7th will be subject to a 4.8% tariff and will increase to 19.4% by October.

At that time, the European Union will discuss whether to implement a formal tariff of up to 5 years.

Deputy general Zhou Jin Miao of Kangnai Group believes that if EU import tariffs begin to increase, retailers and purchasers in Europe are likely to turn to South America and Africa, which will be a heavy blow to SMEs in China's shoemaking industry.

The dilemma of Wenzhou shoe industry is exactly the realistic portrayal of Zhejiang's manufacturing industry facing "two sides attack".

On the one hand, the rise of processing industry in the central and western parts of China has created pressure on Zhejiang's low value-added industries and product expansion. On the other hand, foreign trade barriers have forced Zhejiang's traditional industries to upgrade and pform.

Zhejiang's efforts to break through overseas in recent years are both attempts to pform and relieve pressure.

For example, Wenzhou Kazakhstan shoes company bought WILSON, a famous shoe making company in Italy, and invested 2 million 200 thousand euros to move the WILSON Research Institute to Wenzhou. At the same time, it invested in the leather shoes factory in Nigeria, put the last process of shoemaking in Nigeria, and hoped that "Chinese shoes" would become "African shoes", so as to avoid the trade entanglement of anti-dumping. Wilson

In Zhou Jinmiao's view, the motivation of cross-border mergers and acquisitions of private enterprises in Zhejiang is still at a low level, and the main reason is to win market share and acquire core technology.

This is contrary to the trend of international mainstream mergers and acquisitions.

But Zhu Feng, the Secretary General of the Wenzhou shoe leather association, is full of confidence: after all, the path of Kangnai's breakthrough provides a sample for reference. The way the enterprises go out should be a variety of ways, and the farther it will go.