Most Underwear Factories Are Facing Internal Worries And Difficulties.

In recent years, with the downward pressure of the economy, some enterprises represented by labor-intensive industries in the coastal areas of China have been greatly affected, and the garment manufacturing industry is the first to bear the brunt.

The Valley Rao in Shantou, Guangdong has "

It is called "Hometown".

Sold at home and abroad.

2014 data show that the town

Production accounts for 12% of the country's total output.

But such a powerful, influential place, with more than 3000 underwear companies, but not a listed company.

Now, what are the problems faced by lingerzhen's underwear enterprises? What challenges are they facing in the process of pformation?

"In the past, it was definitely profitable, or where did it come from?" this is earned by underwear. At that time, it earned about 1000000 yuan a year.

In April 28th, Li Xingcheng (a pseudonym) pointed to the workshop behind him and told reporters.

This is a 5 storey factory building, but there is no worker in it. The factory, which has a history of 20 years and is full of Li Xingcheng's heart, has gone bankrupt this year.

Li Xingcheng's grain Rao is one of the top ten towns in Shantou, Guangdong. The famous underwear town has the reputation of "the hometown of underwear".

Underwear produced here is sold at home and abroad.

Last year alone, he produced more than 300 million pieces of bra.

However, after decades of development, Gu Rao is facing a difficult problem of pformation and upgrading.

In terms of domestic sales, the market is facing overcapacity. Under fierce competition, the imitation of low price is rampant; on the other hand, labor costs and management fees increase year by year, but the price of orders is getting lower and lower.

In the face of various pressures, enterprises are exploring the road of pformation. In addition to technological innovation and improving the quality of orders, enterprises also cross border to enter education and pform some factories into schools.

The government of the town of Gu Rao said that it is promoting the development of the Rao knitted underwear industry through a series of measures, such as introducing advanced equipment and collaborating with research institutes to develop innovative products.

Bra production accounted for 12% of the country in 2014.

Gu Rao is located in Chaoyang District, Shantou, Guangdong, with an area of about 70 square kilometers, with a total population of over 200 thousand.

As the name of the town is, it is quite rich in the east of Guangdong Province, where most of the buildings are over 35 stories, and private cars running through the streets are also like cargoes.

Entering the street of the valley, the signs erected at the gates of the buildings also revealed the source of the original accumulation of Gu Rao capital.

They all seem to have a uniform format. Most of them are red gold characters, the main part is "XX underwear factory", small words are marked "producing all kinds of underwear", and there are telephone calls and faxes at the rear.

According to the relevant officials of the Gu Rao town government, "underwear town" started in the late 80s of last century. At present, it has initially formed a complete knitted underwear industry chain from twisting, warp knitting, computer embroidery, washing and dyeing, finishing, processing finished products, accessories to accessories, and so on.

In grain Rao, underwear production is divided into domestic sales and external sales.

The so-called domestic sales, that is, enterprises produce their own brand underwear, and then look for distributors; the outer ones mainly undertake the OEM production of foreign underwear brands, and are divided into central Dongdan, South America and Europe and the United States separately.

In April 28th, the data obtained from the government of the Valley Rao town showed that there were nearly 3000 knitted underwear production and business establishments in the town, including nearly 1000 enterprises (including 137 large-scale enterprises) and more than 2000 small workshops.

There are 4000 registered trademarks and 90 authorized patents.

It has more than 6000 advanced machines at home and abroad, covering all production links of knitted underwear industry.

The whole town produced more than 300 million kinds of brassiere last year, and more than 200 million series of underwear and 150 million underwear.

According to the magazine's report, according to statistics from Frost&Sullivan, a consultancy, in 2014, China's underwear production accounted for 60% of the world's total, reaching 2 billion 900 million, of which Sullivan's bra output accounted for 12% of the country's output.

Even so, according to reporters, there is no local listed company.

Most underwear factories are facing internal worries and difficulties.

Li Xingcheng's underwear factory is a typical domestic sales enterprise. It has been 20 years since its start from a family workshop. Its peak period exceeds 100 employees, with an annual profit of over 1 million yuan, but this year it has quietly closed down.

"No way to do it, the market competition is too big, there is not much profit space, although the product can earn a little money, but looking back, most of the goods are overloaded in the factory, and they dare not do it."

According to Li Xingcheng, the reduction of profit space is mainly reflected in the rise of labor costs and the low price of products caused by vicious competition. Under this double squeeze, there is little profit left.

The rise of labor costs is a common problem faced by labor-intensive enterprises, and Gu Rao is no exception.

Here, the salary of front-line staff has increased from less than 2000 yuan per month to at least 3500 yuan.

Vicious competition has given the manufacturers a fatal blow.

Li Xingcheng said that some manufacturers did not research and develop new products, but to see that some underwear sold on the market became hot, and they followed suit. "Steal your version, steal it and do it immediately, and they will make it impossible for us to do it."

Guangdong lingerie association responsible person said that most of the underwear brand is not well known, so the product can only be handed to wholesalers and sales companies, so the profit is relatively low. "There is no designer, the general manufacturers can only imitate each other, there is no core technology and brand."

Exports also face multiple challenges.

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The underwear factory of Zhang Jia (pseudonym) is mainly OEM production from its initial stage.

She told the daily economic news that for 13 years, although her underwear factory has been engaged in OEM production, it has been upgrading. It has started from the lowest Middle East, and then has taken the mid-range South American list. At present, she takes the high-end European and American brands.

However, European and American customers have requirements for product quality, manufacturers and so on, and their prices and profits are relatively high.

The escalation of orders, on the one hand, makes the expenses of enterprises in labor cost and management cost rise year by year. On the other hand, the price of orders is getting lower and lower, which makes the profits of enterprises decrease.

Guangdong underwear association responsible person said, the price reduction is related to many aspects, "mainly the consumption power of foreign markets is declining, terminal prices can not go; in addition, foreign businessmen are also aware of the Chinese market, putting the price to death, anyway, if you don't do it, go to other people to do it."

"The gross margin is usually 15%~20%, now less than 10%.

Underwear factories compete with each other, even customers lose money. Underwear factories have to subsidize and share their losses in order to retain customers. "

The person in charge told reporters.

Transformation has to be pformed into a school for pformation.

According to the reporter's visit, the underwear enterprises in Gu Rao are mostly started by small family workshops, mainly based on OEM production and commission processing.

"The town of grain and Rao is very powerful, with great capacity and can receive a lot of foreign orders.

But in addition to exports, the domestic brand impact is relatively poor, only in terms of OEM production has certain advantages.

Guangdong underwear association responsible person told reporters.

The official said that if the grain and Rao area is still developing according to the OEM mode, it is difficult to talk about the pformation. "There are not a few enterprises where to make the brand, where to go to the OEM, or to upgrade to the embroidery business, but now the clothing industry is also in a bad market."

Gu Rao town government also admitted that the labor intensive production mode represented by family style and workshop type is still widespread in the valley. Most enterprises are faced with problems such as backward core technology, lack of high-end talents and lag of technical information.

Of course, there are also cases of successful pformation.

Gu Rao textile company is one of the largest underwear production enterprises. During the rush hours, the company has more than 3000 employees and over 2 million underwear monthly.

But at present, the company has reduced to more than 1000 employees, and introduced the automatic production line with no trace underwear. At present, the monthly output is about 1 million 500 thousand pieces.

"Because of lower prices, higher labor costs and difficult employment, the company can not continue to expand, only to narrow the scale."

According to the company's relevant person in charge, under this environment, the company pformed its original idle factory into a school.

Reporters at the scene saw that at present, about 4 factories have been completely pformed into teaching sites, including teaching buildings, student dormitories, and sports grounds.

It is understood that at present, the school has opened pre-school classes to the first grade of 8 grades, and more than 400 students have enrolled.

Some underwear factories have introduced automatic production lines and other equipment, pforming from traditional underwear to seamless underwear and seamless underwear production.

However, more underwear factories in Gu Rao town are only involved in the pformation from a single domestic sale or a single export to two, or a lingerie factory represented by Zhang Jia, from the low end to the high-end.

Gu Rao township government said it would pay more attention to technology input, encourage and support enterprises' independent innovation, and promote the pformation of "Gu Rao manufacturing" to "Gu Rao creation".

According to the information provided by the government of Gu Rao Town, Gu Rao invested nearly 3 billion 500 million yuan, imported advanced embroidery machines and warp knitting machines at home and abroad, and co operated with research institutes and other institutions to carry out innovative product development and promote the development of the Rao knitted underwear industry.