Zhang Xiaoquan hit the "first share of scissors", the growth of inventory backlog was blocked, and the terminal retail price was not close to the people

"The wind is as fast as oil and as thick as steel. Cut the mountains and rivers into splendid landscapes, and Hangzhou will be more than just a state. "

This is a poem written by Tian Han, a famous playwright, when he visited the Hangzhou factory in Zhang Xiaoquan on 1966. Few people can imagine that a company that makes scissors can get such praise from scholars.

From the late Ming Dynasty to the present, scissors have been passed down in Zhang Xiaoquan for nearly 400 years, and nearly 30 million scissors can still be sold every year. On July 7th, Zhang Xiaoquan Co., Ltd.' s application for listing on Growth Enterprise Market was accepted by Shenzhen Stock Exchange, which is expected to become another time-honored brand and "the first share of scissorhands".

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 strong vitality? Let's take a look at this somewhat different time-honored brand.

Inheriting craftsman spirit for 400 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 scissors maker in Hangzhou in the early Qing Dynasty. His ancestral home is in Gan County, Huizhou, and making scissors is his family's craft. His father Zhang Sijia learned to make scissors in Wuhu. Later, during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty (around 16 10), Zhang Dalong's scissors shop was opened in Dajing Lane, Hangzhou.

According to the historical data consulted by Sister Cat, at that time, the materials used to make scissors in China were mostly copper and pig iron, but Zhang Sijia introduced the casting process of Longquan sword into the production of scissors, creating a unique "embedded steel" process. That is, the cutting edge of scissors is forged with medium carbon steel and then embedded in the iron shear handle. In the era of manual production, the production of "Zhang Dalong" scissors went through 72 processes from forging to polishing.

The strength of fine steel and pig iron is different. Zhang Dalong scissors, which used sword casting technology, were radiant, sharp and durable, and stood out among the scissors in the same industry, becoming the golden signboard of Hang Cheng at that time.

Unfortunately, in the Ming Dynasty, our country had no awareness of intellectual property rights. Counterfeits of Hangzhou "Zhang Dalong" scissors emerge one after another, with mixed quality, and the reputation of real "Zhang Dalong" scissors plummets.

In the second year of Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty (1663), the founder Zhang Sijia died and the rich second generation Zhang Xiaoquan took over. He thought that the brand value of the old brand founded by his father had been damaged by counterfeiters, so he simply gave up the original brand and named the scissors produced by the family business after himself, and engraved his name on all the scissors.

In the forty-six years of Qianlong (178 1), Zhang Xiaoquan welcomed the most important guest in history, namely Emperor Qianlong himself. According to relevant data, Emperor Qianlong visited Zhang Xiaoquan Scissors Store during his southern tour. I bought a pair of scissors and praised them when I went back, so I wrote the word "Zhang Xiaoquan" on the plaque for Zhang Xiaoquan's scissors, and listed Zhang Xiaoquan's scissors as a tribute and named them "scissors for the court".

The identity of Zhang Xiaoquan Scissors may be true, but the story of Emperor Qianlong personally bringing goods in exchange for various food specialties is so rampant that it is difficult to distinguish between true and false.

In modern times, Zhang Xiaoquan has become more active in history. In the third year of Xuantong (19 1 1), Zhang Xiaoquan's eighth generation Sun Zhangzuying registered his trademark in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce with the trademark "Haiyun Bath Day", which became one of the first trademarks in the history of China.

Since then, Zhang Xiaoquan scissors have frequently appeared in international exhibitions and won prizes. These include 1909 Nanyang persuasion meeting, 19 15 Panama Expo, 1926 Philadelphia Expo and 1929 West Lake Expo.

After the founding of New China, Zhang Xiaoquan scissors are still highly valued. 1956, chairman Mao mentioned at the work report meeting of "accelerating the socialist transformation of handicraft industry", "remind you not to remove many good things from the handicraft industry. Wang pockmarked and his scissors can't be removed in ten thousand years. The good things in our country and those that have been lost must be restored and become better. "

It is worth mentioning that Wang Mazi, the time-honored brand of Beijing scissors that stood side by side with Zhang Xiaoquan, was called "Wang Mazi in the north and Zhang Xiaoquan in the south". It was also famous for making scissors blades with steel, but it failed to develop well after the reform and opening up and declared bankruptcy in 2003.

Small scissors are not difficult to make, and there seems to be no technical threshold. However, Zhang Xiaoquan's scissors have been recognized for 400 years, from the Ming Dynasty to modern times, from home to overseas, so their production should be unique.

A person who makes a serious fuss day after day is called a craftsman, and the spirit of concentrating on making the article to the extreme is called a craftsman spirit. In recent years, when it comes to craftsman spirit, we will think of traditional manufacturing powers such as Japan and Germany, but in fact, some of our time-honored brands can also reflect this spirit.

The traditional manufacturing technology in Zhang Xiaoquan is heavy and complicated. Skilled wool shearers can forge a pair of scissors from a piece of iron and a piece of steel. Now this manufacturing technology has become an intangible cultural heritage. The youngest craftsman who has mastered this craft is nearly 80 years old and has white hair. This is probably the embodiment of craftsman spirit, right?

The new owner of the old brand

All time-honored brands have wonderful stories, but time-honored brands can't survive in modern commercial society by stories alone. Today's Zhang Xiaoquan has also become very different from the past.

Unlike many time-honored state-owned assets, Zhang Xiaoquan has undergone two reorganizations in New China, and is now a completely private enterprise.

According to the prospectus, at present, the controlling shareholder of Zhang Xiaoquan is Zhang Xiaoquan Group and the actual controller is Fuchun Holding Group. The two shareholders of Fuchun Holding Group are brothers Zhang and father and son Steven Zhang. At present, the Zhang family holds 765,438+0.83% shares in Zhang Xiaoquan through Fuchun Holdings, Rongquan Investment and Zhenquan Investment, and their control rights are very concentrated.

Fuchun Investment gained control of Zhang Xiaoquan in 2007, which mainly promoted the intelligentization and industrialization of manufacturing industry in Zhang Xiaoquan. On 20 10, Zhang Xiaoquan built a modern hardware science and technology park in Fuyang, Hangzhou, and more than 90% of the production processes were automated.

Zhang Xiaoquan's production mode is the combination of independent production and OEM. At present, Zhang Xiaoquan's self-made production capacity is 6.5438+0.2795 million, but the capacity utilization rate is already very high, and the production line is close to saturation.

In this IPO, Zhang Xiaoquan plans to build an intelligent manufacturing center in Yangjiang City, Guangdong Province, raising 354 million yuan with a construction period of 65,438+08 months. After the completion of the construction, the production capacity will increase by 3,065,438+10,000 pieces, which is equivalent to 2.35 times of the current production capacity.

At the same time, Zhang Xiaoquan no longer only produces scissors, but also extends its product line to household kitchen knives, nail clippers, kitchen utensils and other hardware products. Judging from the operating data disclosed by Zhang Xiaoquan at present, the income of all products in Zhang Xiaoquan has maintained a rapid growth. Especially for knives and daily necessities, the income growth rate of 20 18 is as high as 3 1.49% and 36.66% respectively.

Scissors have been in Zhang Xiaoquan for more than 400 years. At present, the demand for scissors in family clothes has declined, so the income of scissors rarely increases rapidly. However, in 20 19, the income growth rate of all products except daily necessities in Zhang Xiaoquan declined, especially the income growth rate of knife and scissors fell to 4.75%.

The decline in income growth is not necessarily due to the inability to sell things, but also to the inability to keep up with production capacity, especially in Zhang Xiaoquan, where the current production capacity utilization rate has exceeded 100%. However, the inventory problem in Zhang Xiaoquan has become increasingly prominent.

At the end of 20 19, the inventory balance of Zhang Xiaoquan reached1.1200 million yuan, accounting for 37.5 1% of its current assets, an increase of 37.95% compared with the end of 20 18. Among them, inventory goods accounted for the highest proportion, with a total amount of 71468,500 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 44.42%. The growth rate of inventory balance is 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 scissors and knives are still very popular in Zhang Xiaoquan, there is still some resistance to their growth.

Good quality and low price or luxury of the country?

When it comes to time-honored brands, people's first reaction is often an expensive word. Dong 'e Ejiao, Tongrentang and Tianjin Goubuli steamed stuffed bun are all examples of the collapse of word-of-mouth of old brands because the price increase is too radical.

In contrast, the prices of products in Zhang Xiaoquan are relatively close to the people. According to the prospectus of Zhang Xiaoquan, the average price of scissors products in 20 19 is only 5.55 yuan, the average price of knives is only 22 yuan, the price of knives and scissors (knife and scissors set) is only 77.95 yuan, and the average price of other household items is only 18.36 yuan.

Of course, this average price is much lower than its terminal retail price. This is mainly because in the past three years, Zhang Xiaoquan has gradually increased the weight of product distribution channels, and the speed of developing distributors is faster than the sales growth rate of its e-commerce direct stores and offline stores. The proportion of dealer channels increased from 56.34% in 20 17 to 66.06% in 20 19.

At present, the terminal price of Zhang Xiaoquan products is still at the industry average level, which is lower than overseas famous brands such as Shuangliren, although Zhang Xiaoquan products may not be inferior to these imported products in design and performance.

Consumers' feelings for time-honored brands are often complicated. On the one hand, they hope that the value of traditional crafts and traditional brands can be recognized and beat overseas brands to occupy the high-end market. On the other hand, they don't want the price of traditional time-honored brands to exceed their spending power. Therefore, high-end and branding have become the trap of many old brands.

Zhang Xiaoquan's current solution to this problem is to launch more diversified product lines. Taking scissors products as an example, Zhang Xiaoquan has more practical clothing scissors, stationery scissors, beauty scissors and other products, as well as gift box scissors close to handicrafts, such as more and more high-opening and pine crane gift boxes, as well as daily necessities that reflect the aesthetics of traditional life, such as copper pots and dumplings.

If the listing is successful, what kind of time-honored brand will Zhang Xiaoquan become after 400 years of inheritance?