"As fast as the wind and as smooth as oil, the steel is distinct and thick. Cutting the country into a beautiful scene, Hangzhou is more than just a Bingzhou."
This is the famous playwright Tian Han who visited Zhangzhou in 1966 In the poems that Koizumi left behind when he was working at the Hangzhou factory, few people can imagine that a company that makes scissors can receive such praise from literati.
From the late Ming Dynasty to the present, Zhang Xiaoquan’s scissors have been passed down for nearly 400 years and are still able to sell nearly 30 million pairs every year. On July 7, Zhang Xiaoquan Co., Ltd.’s application for listing on the GEM was accepted by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. It is expected to become another time-honored brand listed and the “first scissors stock”.
Unlike many controversial time-honored brands, Zhang Xiaoquan’s knife and scissors business is still full of vitality after hundreds of years of operation. Why can small scissors have such a strong life? Let's take a look at this somewhat different time-honored brand.
Inheriting the spirit of craftsmanship for four hundred years
It is not difficult to guess from the name that Zhang Xiaoquan is not only the name of the brand, but also the name of the founder himself.
Zhang Xiaoquan was a scissor maker in Hangzhou in the early Qing Dynasty. His ancestral home was Qianxian County, Huizhou. Making scissors was a craft inherited from his family. His father, Zhang Sijia, learned to make scissors in Wuhu. Later, during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty (around 1610), he opened the "Zhang Dalong" scissors shop in Dajing Lane, Hangzhou.
According to historical information reviewed by Mao Mei, most of the scissors-making materials in my country at that time were copper and pig iron, but Zhang Sijia introduced the casting process of Longquan sword into the production of scissors, creating a unique " "Inlaid steel" process. That is, the cutting edge of the scissors is forged from medium carbon steel and then embedded in the iron handle. In the era of hand-making, there were as many as 72 processes in the production of "Zhang Dalong" scissors, from forging to polishing.
The strength of fine steel and pig iron is naturally different. "Zhang Dalong's" scissors, which adopted the sword forging process, were dazzling, sharp and durable. They stood out among the scissors of their peers and became a gold-letter sign in Hangzhou at that time.
It is a pity that our country did not have intellectual property awareness in the Ming Dynasty. There were endless counterfeit products of "Zhang Dalong" scissors in Hangzhou, and their quality varied, so that the reputation of the real "Zhang Dalong" scissors suffered a cliff-like decline. decline.
In the second year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1663), the founder Zhang Sijia passed away and was succeeded by the rich second generation Zhang Xiaoquan. He believed that the brand value of the time-honored brand founded by his father had been damaged by counterfeiters, so he simply abandoned the original brand, named the scissors produced by the family company after him, and engraved his name on all the scissors. .
In the forty-sixth year of Qianlong (1781), Zhang Xiaoquan welcomed the most important guest in history, Emperor Qianlong himself. According to relevant information, Emperor Qianlong visited the south that year and passed by Zhang Xiaoquan's scissors shop during a private visit in Hangzhou. After I bought a pair of scissors and went back, I admired them very much, so I inscribed Zhang Xiaoquan's scissors on a plaque with the words "Zhang Xiaoquan". I also listed Zhang Xiaoquan's scissors as a tribute and designated them as "imperial scissors for the imperial court."
The identity of Zhang Xiaoquan's scissors as the royal scissors of the imperial court may be true, but the stories of Emperor Qianlong personally bringing various delicacies and specialties are so common that it is difficult to distinguish the true from the false.
In modern times, Zhang Xiaoquan has become more active in history. In the third year of Xuantong (1911), Zhang Xiaoquan's eighth-generation grandson Zhang Zuying registered the trademark "Haiyun Bathing Day" with the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, becoming one of the first trademarks in the history of our country.
Since then, Zhang Xiaoquan’s scissors have frequently appeared at international exhibitions and won awards. These include the Nanyang Entrepreneurship Association in 1909, the Panama World's Fair in 1915, the Philadelphia World's Fair in 1926, and the West Lake Exposition in 1929.
After the founding of New China, Zhang Xiaoquan’s scissors still received great attention. In 1956, Chairman Mao mentioned at the work report meeting on "Accelerating the Socialist Transformation of Handicraft Industry", "I remind you that there are many good things in the handicraft industry. Don't get rid of them. Don't get rid of the scissors of Wang Mazi and Zhang Xiaoquan even in ten thousand years." . The good things of our nation that have been destroyed must be restored, and they must be done better.”
It is worth mentioning that at that time, he was known as " Wang Mazi, a time-honored Beijing scissors brand with "Wang Mazi in the north and Zhang Xiaoquan in the south", also became famous for using steel to make scissor blades. However, it failed to develop well after the reform and opening up, and declared bankruptcy in 2003.
It is not difficult to make small scissors, and there seems to be no technical threshold. But Zhang Xiaoquan's scissors can travel through 400 years of time, and have been recognized from the Ming Dynasty to modern times, from domestic to overseas, and their production must be unique.
People who make items carefully and carefully day after day are called craftsmen, and the spirit of concentrating on perfecting the items they create is called the craftsman spirit.
In recent years, when we mention the spirit of craftsmanship, we think of traditional manufacturing powers such as Japan and Germany. But in fact, some of our time-honored brands can also reflect this spirit.
Zhang Xiaoquan’s traditional production process is complex and complex. A skilled scissor maker can forge a pair of scissors from a piece of iron or steel. Today, this production technique has become an intangible cultural heritage. The youngest craftsman who masters this craft is nearly 80 years old and has gray hair. This is probably the embodiment of the craftsman spirit, right?
The new owners of time-honored brands
All time-honored brands have wonderful stories, but it is impossible for time-honored brands to survive in the modern business society based on stories alone. Today's Zhang Xiaoquan has become very different from before.
Unlike many time-honored brands with a state-owned background, Zhang Xiaoquan has undergone two restructurings in New China and is now a completely private enterprise.
The prospectus shows that the current controlling shareholder of Zhang Xiaoquan Co., Ltd. is Zhang Xiaoquan Group, and the actual controller is Fuchun Holding Group. The two shareholders of Fuchun Holding Group, Zhang Guobiao and Zhang Zhangsheng, are brothers, while Zhang Guobiao and Zhang Xincheng are father and son. The Zhang family currently holds a total of 71.83% of Zhang Xiaoquan's shares through Fuchun Holdings, Rongquan Investment and Zhenquan Investment, and the control rights are very concentrated.
After Fuchun Investment gained control of Zhang Xiaoquan in 2007, it mainly promoted the intelligentization and industrialization of Zhang Xiaoquan's production and manufacturing. In 2010, Zhang Xiaoquan built a modern hardware technology park in Fuyang, Hangzhou, automating more than 90% of the production process.
Zhang Xiaoquan’s production model is a combination of independent production and OEM. Currently, Zhang Xiaoquan’s self-produced production capacity is 12.795 million pieces, but the capacity utilization rate is already very high and the production line is close to saturation.
In this IPO, Zhang Xiaoquan plans to use 354 million yuan of the raised funds to build an intelligent manufacturing center in Yangjiang City, Guangdong. The construction period will be 18 months. After the construction is completed, the production capacity will be increased by 30.1 million units, equivalent to Yu will increase the current production capacity by 2.35 times.
At the same time, Zhang Xiaoquan no longer only produces scissors, but has expanded his product line to household kitchen knives, nail clippers, kitchen utensils and other hardware and daily necessities. Judging from the current operating data disclosed by Zhang Xiaoquan, the revenue of all Zhang Xiaoquan's products has maintained relatively rapid growth. Especially for cutting tools and daily necessities, the revenue growth rates in 2018 were as high as 31.49% and 36.66% respectively.
Zhang Xiaoquan’s scissors have been around for more than 400 years, and the demand for scissors for home clothing has declined. It is very rare that the income of his scissors can show rapid growth. However, in 2019, the revenue growth rate of all Zhang Xiaoquan's products except daily necessities declined, especially the revenue growth rate of the knife and scissors set fell to 4.75%.
The decline in revenue growth is not necessarily because things cannot be sold, but may also be because production capacity cannot keep up, especially since Zhang Xiaoquan's current capacity utilization rate has exceeded 100%. However, Zhang Xiaoquan's inventory problem has become increasingly prominent.
At the end of 2019, Zhang Xiaoquan’s inventory balance reached 112 million yuan, accounting for 37.51% of its current assets, an increase of 37.95% compared to the end of 2018. Among them, inventory goods accounted for the highest proportion, with a total amount of 71.4685 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 44.42%. The growth rate of the balance of inventory goods was not only higher than the overall accumulation rate of inventory, but also higher than the growth rate of sales revenue.
It can be seen that although Zhang Xiaoquan's scissors and knives are still popular, they still encounter certain resistance in terms of growth.
Good quality and low price or national trend and light luxury?
Nowadays, when people mention time-honored brands, their first reaction is often the word "expensive". Dong'e Ejiao, Tong Ren Tang and Tianjin Goubuli Steamed Buns are all examples of time-honored brands whose reputation collapsed due to too aggressive price increases.
In contrast, the prices of Zhang Xiaoquan's products appear to be more affordable. According to Zhang Xiaoquan’s prospectus, the average price of its scissor products in 2019 was only 5.55 yuan, the average price of knives was only 22 yuan, and the price of a knife and scissors set (knife and scissors set) was only 77.95 yuan. Other household items The average price of supplies is only 18.36 yuan.
Of course, such an average price is far lower than its terminal retail price. This is mainly because Zhang Xiaoquan has gradually increased the weight of product distribution channels in the past three years. The speed of developing dealers is faster than the sales growth rate of his e-commerce direct sales stores and offline stores. The proportion of dealer channels has increased from 2017 to 2017. It increased from 56.34% in 2019 to 66.06% in 2019.
At present, the terminal prices of Zhang Xiaoquan's products are still at the industry average, lower than well-known overseas brands such as Zwilling, although Zhang Xiaoquan's products may not be inferior to these imported products in terms of design and performance.
Consumers often have complicated feelings towards time-honored brands. On the one hand, they hope that the value of traditional craftsmanship and traditional brands can be recognized and defeat overseas brands to occupy the high-end market. On the other hand, they do not want the traditional time-honored brands to be recognized. The price is beyond the scope of one's consumption ability. Therefore, high-endization and branding have become traps for many time-honored brands.
Zhang Xiaoquan’s current solution to this problem is to launch a richer and more diversified product line. Taking scissors as an example, Zhang Xiaoquan has more practical clothing scissors, stationery scissors, beauty scissors and other products, as well as gift box scissors that are closer to handicrafts such as Jie Jie Gao, Hua Kai Fu Gui, Song He Gift Box, etc., as well as copper pots, soup pozi and other daily necessities that embody traditional life aesthetics.
If the listing is successful, what kind of time-honored brand will Zhang Xiaoquan, which has been inherited for 400 years, become?