Zhejiang Guangyu Group: A Tour of the King of Socks in China

In Taoshan Town, Rui'an, Zhejiang Province, which is known for its "Famous Mountain of the Last Ages," there is a China-based Guangyu Group, a modern knitwear company with an area of ​​40,000 square meters. There are many dazzling auras in her body, such as “National Hundred Stars Overseas Chinese Capital Enterprises”, “Zhejiang Advanced Unit for Foreign Trade Exports”, “National “Ankang Cup” Competition Winning Enterprise”, “Wenzhou City Industrial Bailong Enterprise”, "Top 50 Enterprises in Ruian City" and so on. In the foreign knitting market, the company's Neger brand socks are even more impressive.

Not long ago, Sun Yuqiang, chairman of Guangyu Group, unveiled the mystery of the company’s success in the war on business.

A storm opens a turning point

In the knitting industry, it is not accidental for Sun Yuqiang. As early as the planned economy era, he had supplied and sold silk products at a township enterprise in Huling. In 1981, he and another 23 people rented nearly 1,000 square meters of private houses and established a joint venture Ruian Silk Fabrics Factory to start production of silk, crepe, gold velvet and other products. In 1991, the company restructured the system and quantified the assets of the craft silk factory, and all of it was transferred to Sun Yuqiang. The company name was also changed to Ruian Guangyu Knitting Company. Immediately afterwards, Sun Yuqiang invested 200,000 U.S. dollars and introduced eight sets of Italian 108-pin, single syringe Matthews sports socks to start production of socks. The socks produced at the time, known as the "lead socks trend," were popular with shopping malls and department stores across the country such as Shenyang Wuai Market and Chengdu Lotus Pond Market. For the Taoshan area to become a hosiery production of a village product, a town of a product industry cluster, set a good start.

However, the long-term outlook was not long. In 1993, a tribal debt crisis disrupted Sun Yuqiang’s dream of being a “small commodity and big market” in China. Only Chengdu Hehuachi Market owes hundreds of thousands of yuan, and some of the arrears have not yet returned. This turmoil opened yet another transformation of Guangyu Knitting, and Sun Yuqiang has extended his market to overseas.

In the first half of 1996, Guangyu Knitting Co., Ltd. was the first company in Wenzhou to set up a trade group in Hungary, with the approval of the Zhejiang Economic and Trade Department. At that time, heavy industries in Eastern Europe were still developed and light industrial products were very backward. Most of them depended on foreign imports. Sun Yuqiang said: “At the time, socks on the Hungarian market were almost all produced in Turkey. Turkish merchants are able to wholesale one container per day, and we can only sell one container a month. Slowly, due to the good quality of our products. The variety of novelties and the advantages of cheap labor at that time soon won the praise of customers. In less than a year of work, the sales trend was reversed and we became one container a day. They sold only one container a month." In the face of a huge market in Hungary, he is busy here for most of the year.

With their roots, they gradually became familiar with the European market and gradually expanded to countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Germany, and France. In recent years, they have also entered the American and South American markets. At present, Guangyu Knitting Company has offices in 11 overseas countries. Among them, Eastern Europe has five countries: Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. In Western Europe, there are four countries: France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, and America, the United States, and Chile.

In order to expand the influence of products on the European and American markets, in 1998 they registered the Naggar trademark through Madrid trademark international registration, and used local newspapers, billboards (Ukraine and Hungary border) and participated in various forms of exhibitions. The Nike brand socks were vigorously promoted, so that their sock products became famous in the above countries, and the sales and wholesale business continued to expand.

Adhere to the main business and the use of soldiers

The huge sales market has promoted the leap-forward development of production. Since 1998, they have acquired 40,000 square meters of land on the east side of Taoma Road, Henan Village, Taoshan Town, and built a modern industrial plant of nearly 50,000 square meters. By 2010, it has invested more than 100 million yuan and introduced more than 400 socks machines and 50 underwear machines. The company has once again successfully transformed and upgraded. Due to the investment environment problem of Shui On, they had invested more than 100 million yuan in 80,000 square meters of land in Songyang County, Lishui in 2008, and built Jemima, which transformed Guangyu into a China Guangyu Group. Currently, it owns Ruian Guangyu Knitting Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Jemima Garment Co., Ltd., Ruian Qiangxin Garments Co., Ltd., Ruian Guangyu Trade Co., Ltd., and Shui On Jiarui Machinery Co., Ltd., and employs more than 3,000 people. Last year, the group's industrial output value exceeded 700 million yuan (including Songyang Jemima's 300 million yuan) and became a truly "Chinese sock king."

Success is often caused by a variety of factors. However, Sun Yuqiang's most important factor is the human factor. Chen Jianxin, general manager of the company in Hungary, is Sun Yuqiang's right-hand man.

It was no coincidence that when we talked about Chen Jianxin, the secretary of the office sent the daily "Ryan Daily" and said: "The deeds of Manager Chen have been reported." I saw only the 11th edition of the day's newspaper, "Business Warfare Danube - China Guangyu Group The prominent general manager of Chen Jianxin, general manager of overseas (Hungary) company, covered the entire page and reported that Chen Jianxin's “compelling, brave, and wise in the face of the bizarre business warfare...” is like a spring breeze. A photo pointing to Chen Jianxin in the newspaper said that he is not only capable of handling affairs, but also has a strong ability to adapt, and it is commendable that he is loyal to the company’s business and can afford anything.

At the same time that he is meritocracy and proficient in employing people, Sun Yuqiang always treats others with his own heart. Isn't it? At the center of the door of the office building on the first floor of the Guangyu Group's office building, a gravely written wall reads: "Whatever you want to do for anyone, how do you treat people?" Because of this, the group company went from the top management personnel to First-line production workers, like Chen Jianxin, are desperate to work for the Guangyu Group. Ruian Guangyu Knitting Co., Ltd. currently has more than 1,200 employees, most of whom are Taoshan locals. Of the migrant workers, more than 5 years of service have accounted for more than 80%. When many companies complained about the difficulty of recruiting workers, they responded with full enthusiasm and started full production. Whether it is in the workshop, in the activity room, or at a birthday party for the employees in January, the atmosphere of unity and harmony is present. In recent years, the company has successively won the title of "the first advanced unit of labor harmonious relations in Ruian City" and "the advanced unit of labor and harmonious relations in Wenzhou City". In recent years, there have been many bosses in Rui'an seeking for cross-industry development. If they are involved in real estate, financial services, etc., has Guangyu ever tangled up? Sun Yuqiang sighed: "In 2000, there was an episode in Shanghai's Songjiang. Interlaced people were limited in their energy, and they only followed one path. After that lesson, we decided to only do the main business. The main business will be bigger and stronger.” The Guangyu Group has 40 million euros of available working capital in Europe. If these liquid funds are put into the real estate market in the next few years, the consequences will be disastrous.

According to Sun Yuqiang's vision, the future direction of the Guangyu Group will continue along the path of Knitting. The Guangyu Group’s foreign trade companies have already tried to sell jeans products in the European market. Once the time is ripe, they will undergo a more extensive transformation and upgrading.