Hanfu Is Fierce. A Group Of People Earn A Lot By Brushing Their Faces

The roar of one machine is enough to make people cover their ears, let alone eight.

The workers in their forties, with bright eyes, were staring at the huge object in front of them - the high-speed jacquard air-jet loom, and there were 60-70-meter-long rolls of white embryos under their feet.

If there is no accident, they will be transported to the coastal industrial area dozens of kilometers away in two or three days, and then they will be sent to Caoxian, Shandong Province, for nearly two years after printing and dyeing (including scouring and bleaching, dyeing, printing and finishing), and then sent to Caoxian, Shandong Province, which is highly praised for its Han clothing, but most of the fabrics used are from Keqiao. Keqiao and Haining's customers. There, pieces of cloth are processed into clothing and home textile products, and then sold all over the country.

Over the years, Shaoxing's "three port VAT" - wine vat, soy sauce VAT and (printing) dyeing vat - respectively corresponding to wine, sauce products and textile industry, has been well known. In the early days of the Anti Japanese War, Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou were occupied one after another, and the textile industry was transferred to Shaoxing, which then became the main supplier of Cocoon Silk raw materials in China. Several years later, Shaoxing people became rich because of cloth. More than 70000 enterprises, including family workshops, supported the textile industry of more than 200 billion yuan.

But three or four months ago, the white embryo began to accumulate in rolls, Shaoxing ushered in a difficult time. Dai Qianqian, the temporary manager of the factory, estimated that there was at least a million worth of cloth. However, ye Jinjin, the real owner of the factory, did not intend to produce. For the first time in several years, he left the factory and frequently ran among curtain manufacturers.

"The customer's payment is only for me at most. In May, it was delayed by more than 1.4 million." one day in August, Dai Qianqian shook his head repeatedly, and she told Yibang power, "there is no business at present, so he (Ye Jinjin) can try to pull business."

The boss of a textile mill personally pulls orders, which is extremely difficult to imagine in the past.

At the same time, the popularity of the Hanfu in Caoxian county has also made Keqiao, Shaoxing, the place where Hanfu fabrics are supplied, very unpleasant. Some local officials once questioned: why can Caoxian fire, but Keqiao can't?

In the middle and late August of 2021, Yibang power entered Keqiao, Shaoxing, and investigated dozens of textile mills and printing factories, trying to uncover the textile industry chain behind Hanfu, home textile and wallcovering. What changes are taking place? What opportunities are emerging? What is the impact on e-commerce?

"Why can Cao county fire, Keqiao not?"

Shaoxing textile industry chain is too long, from spinning to printing and dyeing, processing, distribution and terminal retail. For the market situation is good or bad, weaving mills often have the last perception.

At the beginning of this year, Dai Qianqian felt that the situation was good and ordered six textile machines. After the down payment, regret soon hit. Half a year later, there was still more than 1 million final payment, textile machinery equipment manufacturers repeatedly urged to pick up the goods, Dai Qianqian delayed again and again, always saying "wait, wait, wait".

She was no stranger to this. This is exactly what the curtain manufacturer said to her.

Since May this year, the fabric demand of curtain manufacturers began to decrease significantly, and it was presented in another form. For example, the proofing time (the factory will design products according to the customer's needs, and then produce again) has been postponed from the original maximum of 30 days to 2 months.

After handing in the samples, the customer's reply often makes Dai Qianqian, who is in his 40s, stamp his feet: "don't worry, change again.".

Autumn is the peak season. Dai Zeng comforted himself that it would improve in July. Now that August has passed, there are only eight machines in the 2000 square meter factory, which is far less than the cheery roar when 12 machines were fully opened in the past.

"Wait for a lonely", Dai Qianqian deep sigh.

This is the first version of the story. Another version is from ye Jinjin. After a tour of curtain manufacturers in Haining, Huzhou and Nantong, he came to the conclusion that it was not easy for the manufacturers. "Because of the competition," ye said.

The direct cause of the competition may come from the fabric dealers who originally did overseas business.

At the end of 1980s, a shed style textile market covering an area of 3500 square meters was settled in Keqiao. 22 years later, under the leadership of the local government, Keqiao Textile City emerged as the times require, and a quarter of the world's fabrics are traded here every year. Textile City to Keqiao, just as Sijiqing wholesale to Hangzhou, small commodity market to Yiwu.

In 2001, China joined the world trade organization, and the situation of foreign trade in textiles and clothing was very good. Over the past 20 years, Shaoxing cloth gradually relies on foreign trade. In the first half of 2019, Shaoxing's textile and garment exports reached 62.49 billion yuan.

However, with the repeated epidemic situation, the global textile industry suffered heavy losses, and the downstream overseas markets of Shaoxing reopened and closed. According to a McKinsey data, the crisis has cost global garment companies 30% of their sales and 90% of their profits.

In order to survive, the fabric merchants engaged in foreign trade turned to the domestic market. When the market is unfamiliar and the cooperation is not deep, they greatly reduce profits and try to grab orders with price war.

Zhou Miaoqing, a native of Keqiao, has been providing fabrics for domestic garment factories since 2000; Before the outbreak, the annual sales volume was over 100 million yuan, and now it has been more than half in 2021, and the sales volume has remained at 30 million yuan.

Many of the customers in the week were directly robbed by low prices. After the price is quoted, customers with better relationship will tactfully prompt "check the price again" or hint "whether your price is too high". More often, after the weekly quotation, the convenience is ignored.

There was an old customer in Wenzhou who ordered more than 10000 meters of net cloth. After Zhou gave an offer of 18 yuan / meter, the customer seemed to disappear out of thin air and no longer replied to any news. Zhou Miaoqing inquired from many sides and learned that his opponent snatched the order with a super low price of 13 yuan / m.

After the price war appeared, the textile industry upstream was also torn a hole, the secret began to reveal, by all people peep. As a result, the customers who have cooperated are not satisfied, Zhou Miaoqing and others have high profits.

"They will be very uncomfortable, think that others make three dollars, we made ten dollars, pit them." Zhou sat in the office, smoking a few puffs.

Q: then why can't you reduce the price?

A: our corresponding customers are high-quality products. We spend 23 million yuan a year on the development of new products. We are not doing wholesale or a market. It's unfair to other customers that I've lowered my grade all of a sudden.

Q: you said that every year you spend 2.3 million on new product development, customers are easily robbed. Is this a test of your development value?

A: that's understandable.

Fabric, let Shaoxing fame, but also become a heavy shackle, trapped Shaoxing to explore higher profit terminal retail. According to Tianyan data, nearly 3300 textile enterprises have been cancelled or revoked in Shaoxing since 2020.

Shaoxing fabrics are mostly semi-finished products. Most of the fabrics from textile factories are transported to the whole country for processing. For example, Hangzhou garment factory makes ready-made clothes, or makes home textiles in surrounding cities, such as Haining curtain.

The profit of textile industry is very thin. The net profit of printing factory is less than 10%, fabric merchant is less than 5%, and the net profit of fabric processing is lower, which has been hovering around 3% in recent two years.

It has always been a worry for Shaoxing people to enjoy the premium of finished products. In the past two years, Caoxian, Shandong Province, is highly praised for its Han clothing, and most of the cloth used is from Keqiao. Local government officials were indignant and asked why Cao county could fire, Keqiao could not?

Turning to a brand, the gross profit has tripled

Ten years ago, Yin Zheng took over the fabric business from his mother, making nearly 50 million a year. In Keqiao, enterprises of this scale are not large, but they are not small.

In recent years, there have been some subtle changes in the market, many merchants from cloth to finished products. Last July, Yin Zheng partnered with others to make finished curtains.

"Before, I only sold whole rolls of fabric. Later, we started to sell loose cut fabrics. Later, it was difficult to do business. We directly made the cloth into curtains and sold it to dealers," Yin Zheng said.

This is a microcosm.

Compared with clothing, the curtain production process is simpler, so it is very easy to gather in Shaoxing. About five or six years ago, the slogan of "curtain finished product" rose in Keqiao, and a large number of fabric manufacturers purchased more equipment and exported finished curtain products.

Cross border is also the result of interest game among all parties. The distribution factory and the dealer's interests are distributed separately, and they are not willing to break the balance. But in recent years, the inventory is too large, for fabric enterprises, either to expand the scale to reduce costs, or the inventory of cloth into finished products for sale. Limited by the scale, most fabric manufacturers tend to the latter.

In March 2017, China Home Textile Association held a curtain Expo, with at least 100 finished curtain enterprises participating.

"In the past, the cloth was sold for 50 yuan (one meter), and the curtain was only sold for 30 yuan, and there was profit." the staff of the home textile association in charge of the Expo understood that the business was too good in the past, but now the profit is only reduced to a reasonable range.

One evening in August, Liu Dehai drove me back from the factory to the downtown area of Keqiao. Looking at the viaducts coming and going, neon lights flickering in the distance. Liu Dehai, who is more than 40 years old, said with emotion that Keqiao had so many opportunities to make money in the past.

Twenty years ago, he came to Keqiao and started the cloth business. With the transformation from fabric business to finished products, he also seized the opportunity to create Ruby wallcovering in partnership with others. He frequently wandered among major exhibitions and spent more than 16 million yuan on advertising every year.

Now, "Ruby" has become the first brand of local wallcovering. According to the evaluation of three parties, the brand value of ruby wallcovering is 8.05 billion yuan.

I asked Liu Dehai, will brand value bring real benefits? He is very optimistic that he can at least give your franchisees and employees some confidence. "It took us 10 years to make the wall cloth head brand, but it is not a brand that consumers are very familiar with“

In Keqiao, it is not only Liu Dehai and his ruby that have tasted the sweetness. Facts have proved that brand halo does bring considerable benefits to these enterprises.

Eleven years ago, Yang Wei, who returned to the United States, took over the golden cicada curtain factory from his father Yang Lairong. Before taking over, Jinchan mainly contracted to Wal Mart and other large foreign supermarkets, with annual sales of 150 million and stable orders, but its gross profit was only 10%.

After taking over, Jinchan turned to be a brand, with an annual sales volume of 300 million yuan, and its gross profit tripled. Yang Wei has also become a famous local curtain king, and now the spokesperson of Jinchan is actor Ma Yili.

Compared with the depression of semi-finished fabrics, the finished products are a prosperous scene. In the past two years, Keqiao's curtain, clothing and other finished product dealers flooded into Amazon. According to Yang Wei's estimation, most curtain sellers of Amazon US station come from Keqiao, accounting for about 200 or 300.

"The two years have basically doubled, for example, 200 companies this year, 100 last year, and 50 the year before last." but he also said that the cross-border market in the United States is so large that there are more and more sellers and profits are being squeezed.

In order to ensure the timeliness of logistics, the seller needs to send the products to more than 200 warehouses of Amazon in the world, and then Amazon allocates warehouses according to the consumption habits of users in different regions. Rainproof hoodies, for example, are more likely to be sent to the Seattle warehouse, where it's always rainy except July to September.

However, since May this year, Amazon has revised its warehousing rules to limit the amount of inventory in the warehouse of ordinary sellers, while increasing storage costs, especially in Japan and Europe.

In the past, Yang Wei spent 100000 advertising expenses on Amazon every day, which would bring about 300000 sales. Now, the number has become 250000. This year, Yang will drop its investment to 20 million yuan, compared with the original plan of 50 million yuan.

Many sellers feel that the golden age of high investment and high return is over. It seems that we need to wait for a better opportunity, but under the dark tide, the hidden worries have already been revealed.

One hundred thousand yuan as a file mouth

Textile as a labor-intensive industry, Keqiao is still unable to escape the fate of soaring labor costs.

Five or six years ago, the average worker's monthly salary was concentrated at 45000 yuan, and the slightly skilled driver could get 5000 or 6000 yuan. In the past two years, the income of car stop workers has generally doubled to over 10000. Some craft old workers are more popular, such as the back-end processing of old printing workers, annual salary up to 200000-300000 yuan.

"The intermediate color mixing technology has not been learned for three or four years, and most of them become more popular as they get older." a printing factory owner told me that some of the old workers who sacrifice their health even earn more than 500000 a year, such as printing and dyeing factories.

Even so, many factories still suffer from "labor shortage" all year round.

The reason is not the same.

Some people say that most of the workers in Zhejiang come from Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Anhui. Now that the local textile industry is developing, many people would rather take 5000 or 6000 in their hometown than 10000 in Shaoxing. Some people say that the factory is 12 hours a day, all year round, which makes young people flinch.

"There are fewer and fewer young people. There are not many people under 30 in our factory," said a textile factory owner.

Most people who enter this industry will feel powerless. The industry threshold is low, and most of the entrants are mixed. The proliferation of homogeneous products is the biggest worry at present.

One weekend afternoon, I went into the Textile City, nearly Wanping 4-story building, in addition to sporadic buyers rushed by, most of the shops were empty. Most of the middle-aged owners in the shop sit on their chairs with their heads tilted to kill time with short videos. The fabric samples displayed in the store are similar.

A local who worked in Guangzhou but eventually returned to Keqiao once talked to me about the practice of Gucci and other foreign luxury goods: the last process was completed in Guangzhou before, and the process was almost the same as that of domestic brands. After that, big brand semi-finished products will be transported to France for the last process, and the whole process will be kept confidential.

However, in Shaoxing, the technology of any fabric, regardless of material, printing and dyeing, and even printing pattern, is an open secret. The only local business law is that when you see any cloth popular, copy it quickly and launch it before your peers to make the most of the profits.

For example, a cloth sold out of stock will appear in less than a week, followed by a flood of imitations. Then another version was born. Most of the local clothing fabric manufacturers could only earn the first pot of gold for the new autumn style. Many smart merchants therefore employed a number of sales, who were specially responsible for looking for explosive fabrics. They became real "gold diggers".

In the past two years, Liu Dehai has prosecuted dozens of colleagues. High end wallcovering relies on design. Considering that the salary of dozens of designers in the company is more than 3 million every year, Liu has become the biggest victim of plagiarism.

(they) almost blatantly go to the circle of friends everywhere and tell the dealers that if they copy it, they have to copy it

He had hoped that every design would be patented.

When asked whether the patent is valid, Liu's answer does not surprise me. "This is the thinking of our Chinese people. I didn't steal from you. How could I break the law?" but he still held the hope that "we should rely on the original, and now the national original control is more and more strict."

Over the years, under this set of almost completely speculative business principles, Shaoxing's imitation industry has built a disordered wild lake. Just like in the early years, Putian people built a business empire by imitating shoes. In Shaoxing, the story of "getting millions a month by a piece of imitation cloth" is no longer new. Too many myths of sudden wealth have been born here.

The logic behind supporting the operation of this set of business standards is that Shaoxing textile is mainly produced and manufactured, the threshold is too low, and most entrants are mixed. Among them, there are not only industry tycoons with a fortune of over 100 million, but also didi drivers who have changed careers to seek gold.

How much capital is needed to enter this industry?

"100000 for file mouth, 1 million for factory." Yang Wei, general manager of Jinchan curtain, told me that in Shaoxing, if you want to do business for 100000 yuan, you can find customers, pick up customers, and then find a factory to produce.

According to Tianyan, there are 35000 textile enterprises in Shaoxing.

When product homogeneity is too serious, malicious price reduction becomes the only means of competition, and the overall profit is compressed.

In the Textile City, a slightly shrewd boss will paste the word "factory direct sales" at the entrance of the store, implying lower prices. But long time traders will tell you that most of the fabric comes from almost the same factory. "We all know it. It's just tacit."

At present, the situation of vicious bidding will change.

In September this year, the power restriction policy was introduced, Shaoxing local printing and dyeing factory will stop production for 12 days. A fabric dealer sent me an article and called out, "we textile people really need a big reshuffle if we go on like this."

Talking about this matter, a senior executive of the home textile association interpreted it as "unhealthy" in the industry at present, "overcapacity, and continued vicious price reduction production, which is the practice of full raw material porters."

A group of people earn a lot by brushing their faces

Early Keqiao was full of opportunities to dig for gold, and gold diggers flocked to it. According to Ye Jinjin, there are a group of people who can make a lot of money by simply "brushing their face and paying".

A suit of clothing, from yarn to finished clothing, needs to go through many links such as textile, printing and dyeing, cutting, processing, etc. before the clothing is sold, a large amount of capital will occupy it, and the cashing cycle is too long. In order to facilitate the reproduction cycle, Shaoxing has born a very unique credit system - triangle debt.

In production, the factory owes the raw material supplier and the cloth supplier owes the factory; When paying the debt, the order is reversed, the fabric supplier returns the factory, and the factory restores the material supplier. In December every year, the doors of textile and printing and dyeing factories are closed, and the workers come to rest. The boss stops production and goes around to ask for debts. This is a unique sight of Keqiao.

Old businessmen often have their own logic to decide whether or not to give their customers an account period. For example, if you owe a large amount of money, you don't owe a small amount of money. If you cooperate for the first time, you will never be in debt. The length of account period varies from one month to half a year. Generally speaking, the closer to the downstream distribution, the shorter the accounting period, which is usually only one or two months. Textile and printing and dyeing factories bear the greatest financial pressure, and most of the payment can be settled by the end of the year.

Triangular debt not only creates prosperity, but also has hidden worries.

Because the chain is too long, once a certain end of the fund is under pressure, the whole chain will also be affected. But occasionally, it's up to the debtor to pay back. People under great financial pressure may ask for the IOU at a discount.

"For example, if you give a 20% or 20% discount, the other party says I'll write you a loan slip." Huang Xuefeng said.

In 2004, Huang Xuefeng was still engaged in the fabric business. He spent tens of thousands to fly to Urumqi to ask for more than 50000 loans from dealers, but he died in vain.

Three years later, Huang took out all his savings and started an apron business. He made it a rule to settle accounts in cash. "For domestic sales, you owe me, I owe you, so I like to do foreign trade," he said.

In Keqiao, a group of professional debt collection companies were born.

In the early years, most of the debt collection methods were barbaric. They claimed to be able to "recover the debts nationwide" with the help of soft and hard work, investigation of privacy and even beauty tactics. Local media have reported that after a business owner defaulted on the payment of 800000 yuan, he was followed by a debt collection company on a 24-hour four person shift system. The unaffected creditors tried to pay 5000 yuan per person, but they were rejected by four people.

Debt collection companies also face the problem of legalization, so smart Shaoxing people think of a more advanced way. A large number of advertisements with "lawyer assistance and professional debt collection" will be posted near the factory. These people are often the victims of triangle debts.

Some people can't bear the burden of the triangle, but others will find business opportunities from it. In the early years, Shaoxing's industry was still in the wilderness, and no commercial order had been established. Some of them won zero capital and ten thousand profits in the triangle debt game by "brushing their faces".

"You don't have to open the market. As long as you know the textile mills and have good sales channels, and have a good relationship with the printing and dyeing factories, you can borrow cloth from the textile mill, sell through the channels after printing and dyeing, and get the money back to the textile mill. I'm not doing a good job in this business?" Ye Jinjin called it "the fallen master.".

With the rise of cross-border e-commerce, online cash settlement reduces the phenomenon of triangular debt.

About ten years ago, the so-called "Iron Army" Alibaba B2B team entered Keqiao, Shaoxing, claiming to help merchants set up overseas sales websites at a cost of less than 40000 yuan. But before long, the "Iron Army" left Keqiao, leaving only a group of merchants who could not operate.

"No one will teach them how to operate, the sophomore will tell you that you need to have professional operators, and he won't come later," concluded one local.

But there are exceptions. In 2010, Zhen Yuan, a returned student from Japan, tried to open up sales channels in two countries with a price of 39800 yuan. The payoff came soon, when she made her first million dollars. She said: "I will also give the account period, that is the old customer, the first cooperation certainly did not, love to do not do."

Zhen Yuan has the confidence to say this. In 2020, her digital printing business is almost unaffected. She estimated sales of 250 million this year and less than 200 million last year. The risk has been shared and only half of her business is offline.

In the early years, the joint production contract was launched in Shaoxing, where local people with a keen sense of smell took over textile mills and printing and dyeing factories from the government. Now, the older generation has handed over the scepter, and the successors in their 30s and 40s have begun to take over, and they are more cautious in dealing with the issue of triangular debts. Most of the time, they prefer to reduce expansion, but also try to avoid involving triangle debt.

"If I'm willing to do triangular debt, the output value will double immediately. If I do 200 million yuan a year, what about that? I might as well earn these two or thirty million yuan now, and I sleep soundly."

The day before I left Keqiao, I went to the textile city again.

On days with few orders, vendors often choose to close their doors in advance. For example, from 4:30 p.m., some people began to close their doors one after another, an hour earlier than the closing time of 5:30.

For decades, they have grown accustomed to this depression, and past experience has taught them that the peak season will come soon.

I once met a young man who changed his career to be a didi driver. He told me that being a driver was just a temporary measure, just to help the family.

"If the market gets better, will you go back?"

"Go back, of course."