Sun Pingfan: The "Mu Yield Champion" In The Textile Machinery Industry

Act as China Textile Machinery Industry The head of the leading enterprise, Sun Pingfan, chairman of Ningbo Cixing Limited by Share Ltd, has many labels such as "flat machine child prodigy" and "mu yield champion". On the newly released Hurun rich list, he ranked 313 in the list with 6 billion 200 million of his wealth.

Recalling the growth experience of Cixing, from obscurity to China's first brand, the scale expansion is more than 300 times what is behind it? Sun Pingfan's answer is that independent innovation is the core technology, and it is the ambition, wisdom and strength to participate in global brand competition to achieve leapfrog sustainable development.

"In the right direction, the road is not far away."

Two times to start a business

In 1969, Sun Ping fan Born in the East China Sea, Cixi, Zhejiang, is the starting point of the "maritime Silk Road". It is also known as the national textile base. "Grandpa's hand-held machine, his father's knitting business", from childhood to Sun Pingfan made a strong interest in knitting technology and knitting machinery. Through self-study and master's teaching, Sun Pingfan was able to produce hand-held flat knitting machine (knitting equipment) independently when he was 18 years old, and many people called it a "flat knitting machine child prodigy".

In the commercial atmosphere of Zhejiang, he chose to start his own business. In 1988, Sun Pingfan came to Jiaojiang textile production base in Taizhou, Zhejiang, and registered the Venus knitting machinery factory. Through relatively simple assembly and processing, she produced the most popular hand knitting machine at that time. Because of stable quality, in recent years, his "Golden Star" hand-held flat knitting machine occupied 80% of the local market share. By 1995, "Venus" was already a mature brand in Taizhou.

Since the late 90s of last century, the traditional handheld flat knitting machine industry has encountered growing bottlenecks. At the same time, the computerized flat knitting machine developed abroad has begun to enter the domestic market. The production capacity of 2 workers of computerized flat knitting machine is equivalent to 20 of traditional hand-held machines. And the price of an imported computerized flat knitting machine is equivalent to 500 handsets. Nevertheless, Sun Pingfan was at the beginning of the advanced computer flat knitting machine abroad and sniffed the message of industrial spanformation. He decided to give up his relatively stable development in the hand-held flat knitting machine industry.

In 2003, Sun Pingfan returned to his hometown of Cixi and began "the two venture" to set up Ningbo yulen Knitting Machinery Co., Ltd. The accumulation of years of operation has been put into the design, development and production of computerized flat knitting machines, and even the bank loans have been put in. Everything starts from scratch. Compared with the hand operated flat knitting machine, the computerized flat knitting machine is just like the intelligent three-dimensional color clothing printer, which can print your ideal fashion quickly. This is a revolutionary improvement in the spanformation of knitting from hand-held flat knitting machine to high mechatronics. "In the right direction, the road is not far away." This is Sun Pingfan's most trusted phrase. In the process of business competition, Sun Pingfan's brand consciousness is also increasingly strengthened. He has made a special trip to Beijing to register today's famous industry's Cixing trademark.

"In order to learn technology, we drive eighty thousand kilometers a year."

Breaking monopoly and independently developing computerized flat knitting machine

"At that time, the technology of some core components was monopolized by several large companies in Germany and Japan for a long time. All the equipment was imported, and there were no relevant professionals in China, so the technology development was quite difficult." To this end, Sun Pingfan paid a lot of "tuition fees". He travels frequently in China's Taiwan and Japan, employing experts and technicians to train and guide employees, and organizing technical teams to understand the structure of computerized flat knitting machines and develop them. There is only one goal: "we must master the core technology."

In Sun Pingfan's opinion, whether or not to master the core technology and whether the core technology has the capability of independent research and development is the key to the difference between "China's intelligence making" and "made in China". "At that time, in order to learn technology, I drove 80 thousand kilometers a year, and some friends joked that a taxi would only run 100 thousand kilometers a year." More than 300 days and nights, Sun Pingfan and experts and workers were soaking in the machine room. "At that time, for a key component, several of our researchers could stay for three days and three nights, so that I could not sleep."

Under the leadership of Sun Pingfan, the first computerized flat knitting machine developed by China independently broke the monopoly pattern of foreign brands, made the brand of Cixing rise rapidly, and continuously created many first national brands. From 2004 to 2007, the first batch of computerized knitting flat knitting machines, the first batch of computerized knitted seamless underwear machines, the first batch of computerized flat knitting machines, and the first batch of computerized high-speed silk stockings machines were born.

In 2007, Cixing became the first computer flat knitting exhibitor in mainland China at the international textile machinery exhibition held in Munich, Germany. But as soon as the machine arrived at the conference hall, the booth of Cixing was sealed up. As soon as I heard, I knew that Japanese island company, which also produced and sold computerized flat knitting machines, believed that Cixing could not develop a computerized flat knitting machine with high precision and high technology in a short time. Therefore, it applied for the enforcement order of the Munich court. "We study their patents, in addition to learning technology, but also to avoid infringement, so I am not afraid of their inspection." Sun Pingfan paid special attention to patent issues in the process of R & D.

The expert team of Japan island refined company disassembled Cixing's computerized flat knitting machine, and found that the core components and the design principles of the island essence were totally different. "They admitted on the spot that we did not infringe their patents, and then compensated for all the losses." On the other hand, the company became one of the most popular brands in the exhibition. At one time, "China Star" attracted many reports from abroad.

"Seize the weakness and talk about cooperation and achieve what we want."

Cross border mergers and acquisitions gradually layout international market

"Be the leader of knitting technology in the world." Sun Pingfan defined the mission of Cixing.

But he knows clearly the difference between himself and the international advanced technology. "Intelligent knitting machinery industry is a highly intensive technology industry, and the development speed of product technology must be fast." Sun Pingfan thought of the fastest way to change from "manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing" - M & A.

For this reason, he took a lot of thought. Every time we attend a textile machinery professional exhibition abroad, we will actively discuss with our international counterparts and try our best to find opportunities for cooperation.

In 2010, Cixing successfully acquired the world-famous knitting machinery enterprise. Stanger group Switzerland This is almost equivalent to the "Geely acquisition of Volvo" in the automotive industry. The mosaic technology of the computerized flat knitting machine is the most advanced in the world, and the research and development ability is strong. But in the past, because the price of the machine was more expensive, the global market did not sell well. Sun Pingfan seized on Stanger's weakness and talked about cooperation more than once, but the real purpose was mergers and acquisitions.

The merger and acquisition negotiations began in 2009, and the process was very hard. Sun Pingfan was very persistent. In June 10, 2010, he successfully completed the acquisition of 3 enterprises such as Stanger group and its Italy fashion design center, and Stanger Shanghai Textile Machinery Co., Ltd.

After the completion of the acquisition, Sun Pingfan retained Stanger's R & D team in Switzerland and gradually spanferred the technology to China. At the same time, Stanger's global marketing network was used to expand foreign trade and merge in the industry, and gradually completed the international strategic layout, so that Cixing entered the international famous brand camp.

"After the merger and acquisition, Cixing didn't dare to say that it was bigger, but at least it was stronger." In 2011, Cixing's sales exceeded 3 billion 300 million yuan, an increase of nearly 4 times that of 2009. In 2011, the annual output and annual sales volume of Cixing computerized flat knitting machine ranked first in the world.

In March 29, 2012, Ningbo Cixing Limited by Share Ltd landed on the gem and successfully listed. "We hope to make the industry better and stronger with the help of the capital market. This is my biggest dream." Sun Pingfan said.

In the Hurun rich list released in September 24th, Sun Pingfan's personal wealth reached 6 billion 300 million, up 3% from last year.

"How big a platform can do big things".

From creating brand to mastering core technology and integrating international resources, cistar is developing from "made in China" to "made in China". To sum up in Sun Pingfan's words, "how big a platform can be."

As early as 2008, Sun Pingfan made a vision: "strive not to add one point of land, and to achieve double output with independent innovation". And from hundreds of millions of yuan in 2008 to 3 billion 300 million yuan in 2011, he became the "champion of mu yield".

In contrast to the scenery data, Sun Pingfan, the head of the enterprise, has kept a low profile. He firmly believes that the key to finding a way out for Chinese enterprises in the global competition is whether the "made in China" can be upgraded to "intelligent China".

Sun Pingfan said frankly, in the process of growing up, enterprises will often encounter other industries' investment opportunities and opportunities. Fortunately, in the historical moment of industrial spanformation and upgrading, he was busy with scientific and technological innovation, independent research and development and strong development momentum of enterprises, so that he gained the confidence of concentrating on industry.