In The Face Of Unexpected Large Orders From The United States, Shanghai'S Largest Textile Foreign Trade Enterprise Handled This Way

"What is the current production situation? Can all the garments be delivered before the appointed date Located in the design center of Shanghai xinlianfang import and Export Co., Ltd., located on Yuyuan Road, Changning District, Chen Zhengzheng, general manager of xinlianfang, is busy telling Li Hualiang, the head of the company's business department 7, to complete the latest batch of garment orders of North American customers on schedule and with good quality.

Chen Zheng, the "old foreign trade" who has been frowning a long time ago, now looks much more relaxed.

A sudden e-mail brought a turnaround

A few months ago, this Shanghai textile and clothing industry import and export scale of the largest foreign trade enterprise, once fell into confusion.

Chen Zheng lamented that this is the most difficult year for foreign trade in the past 30 years. The outbreak of the epidemic at the beginning of the year made foreign trade enterprises encounter two stages of "squeeze". At first, it was unable to resume work and production in China for a while, and worried that overseas orders could not be delivered on time; when production capacity gradually recovered in April and may, overseas epidemic situation was threatening, and foreign customers stopped placing orders one after another.

The challenge in the second half was more severe than in the first. "Whether it's a foundry or a company, it's fatal to have no work to do and no orders to receive. After all, if the fixed expenses are there, the cash flow may be enough for several months." At that time, the judgment of the whole foreign trade industry on the trend of the epidemic situation was not clear, and it was difficult for xinlianfang to judge how much it would fall this year, 30% or 50%? Maybe more.

In previous years, the annual import and export trade volume of xinlianfang was about 1.3 billion to 1.5 billion US dollars, of which exports exceeded 1 billion US dollars. In export, ODM (original design manufacturer), the core part of xinlianfang, has been a stable supplier of many famous fashion brands in Europe and Japan.

Although ODM's orders are shrinking, can ODM open up new markets in terms of R & D, production and services?

"In the face of changes, we can only adjust ourselves and respond to the changes of uncertainty with deterministic changes." Chen Zheng said. In the past, relying on several stable large brand orders, xinlianfang's whole industrial chain from design, proofing, testing to OEM production was "at ease". However, under the epidemic situation, a large number of overseas physical stores of these big brands closed down, but xinlianfang suddenly faced the risk of "chain breaking", especially the downstream OEM enterprises may close down at any time.

Change and turnaround, starting with an unexpected email.

In the first ten days of April, Jin Peiyi, the backbone of the seven export sales departments focusing on the development of clothing export in Europe and the United States, received an e-mail from a North American customer asking for an order with a total amount of US $10 million. At that time, Jin Peiyi and Li Hualiang were mixed in joy and sorrow, and were extremely entangled. Fortunately, it is still trusted by overseas customers during the epidemic period, and there is an urgent need for new orders to open up space and get out of the predicament. The worry is that, at the peak of the global epidemic, foreign clothing brands have closed their stores one after another. Although this "strange" customer order is attractive, will the sales of the client be impacted by the epidemic? What's more, it's a big order, and the risk of compliance under the epidemic situation needs to be more carefully considered.

Chen Zheng and the decision-making team quickly decided to take orders! Never miss any opportunity for change and development.

Don't put eggs in one basket

This is an order from a famous supermarket in North America.

Chen Zheng told reporters that during the epidemic period, the demand for fashion clothing shrank, but the order of the supermarket was home sports leisure clothes, that is, basic clothing. "For supermarkets, the casual clothes sold here are just like the" bread "and" butter "of supermarkets, which are the just needs of the common people (72.490, 0.00, 0.00%). The products we export to customers are not clothes, but" bread that will not expire. " Moreover, since the outbreak, this large supermarket has been operating well.

However, rational analysis can not eliminate the real risk. Relying on its past experience and good credit, xinlianfang has reached an agreement with China Export Credit Insurance Corporation to "insure" the business in this special period. On the other hand, considering the payment after delivery, the business is divided into three orders and executed in batches to reduce the risk and capital pressure.

"Unexpected" orders let xinlianfang upstream and downstream in the epidemic situation also relieved a breath. This business does not depend on how much profit it has made, the key is to ensure the continuous supply chain of ODM. "Xinlianfang gave us a hand when we were in the most difficult time. We saw the hope of continuing to survive, and the jobs of hundreds of workers were also saved." Xinlianfang downstream of Zhejiang acting factory head said.

This business from the North American supermarket also opened a new space for new Lianfang to change.

In the past, the ODM customers of xinlianfang were mainly for fashion customers, but in fact, the structure of customers was relatively single. Once faced with a sudden crisis like the epidemic situation, it will not only face the risk of closing stores, but also greatly reduce the demand for fashion clothing for price sensitive consumers, making it difficult for enterprises to avoid the risk of shrinking orders. On the contrary, at this time, the price is relatively cheap, and the demand for basic clothing is stronger. Comprehensive hypermarkets like supermarkets are the main customers of basic clothing.

"After careful observation, we can find that during the epidemic period, formal occasions have been reduced and people are wearing more casual clothes. In particular, the desire of women to shop for" buy, buy and buy "has also decreased significantly. However, the demand for home leisure has not declined, and some categories have even increased against the trend." Chen Zheng said. As early as three years ago, xinlianfang began to plan to open up the supermarket channel in North America to make up for the weakness of basic clothing, and the epidemic accelerated the process of this transformation.

Fashion clothing gross profit seems to be higher, but due to strong seasonality and following the trend, each style is relatively small. In contrast, although customers have more stringent price requirements for basic clothing, their orders are large and style requirements are relatively simple. In particular, no matter when the basic clothing is a rigid demand, strong shock resistance and risk ability, can ensure the stability of the order.

This "attempt" in the epidemic situation strengthened xinlianfang's judgment and the pace of change. Chen Zheng said that in the future, we will develop more diversified customers and build different levels of markets. When the risks come, we can "not shine in the East but bright in the west", instead of putting eggs in one basket.

The more difficult it is, the more we must keep the "fire"

Diversified market development, let xinlianfang slowly recover in the adjustment and change of the epidemic situation.

Today, the company's stable overseas traditional fashion brand ODM orders have gradually recovered. The reporter saw in the proofing center of xinlianfang that the designers and proofers were busy. "In fact, during the epidemic period, our design and development work has never stopped. Since April, we have designed and proofed nearly 2000 samples according to the product demands of various brands of customers, which is actually more than the number of proofing in the same period last year." Pan huipin, the person in charge of the design proofing platform, said that this is the core competitiveness of the enterprise. The more difficult it is, the more "fire" should be kept. And this is also the enterprise dare to decisively accept the "super" orders of North American customers during the epidemic.

In fact, since the beginning of this year, due to the shrinking customer demand, xinlianfang has taken the initiative to promote, in turn, through market research, actively push design samples to customers to stimulate customer demand. In the past few months, a lot of new orders of Lianfang have been adopted by the customers, and a lot of new products have been launched.

During the difficult period, R & D and design kept on file, which made sufficient preparation for the next round of restart.

Recently, a new fashion design supplier of Lianda is willing to upgrade its service based on its long-term cooperation. Once it is identified as a "high-quality enabling supplier", it will obtain the product export exemption qualification, and the future orders of enterprises will be more secure.

Speaking of the domestic market, Chen Zheng said that xinlianfang will actively explore the "internal circulation" market through import business, especially the domestic sales of imported consumer goods under the background of the China International Fair. As soon as the second half of this year, xinlianfang's flagship store of imported goods on tmall will appear soon.

Recently, xinlianfang, together with the group's brother companies, has actively participated in the plan of Orient International Group to build an import commodity distribution center linking Yangtze River Delta and radiating all over Asia in nanhongqiao area of Shanghai.