Guo Yaoting decided to choose the ostrich, which is very durable, and named the ink he developed to indicate that the ink has good firmness, stable performance, and will not sediment or deteriorate after long-term use; at the same time, ostrich has tenacious vitality. Being good at walking in arid deserts also holds the hope of selling well all over China
Anyone with some culture will not be unfamiliar with "ostrich" ink. It was born 60 years ago. For a long time, it has pure color and excellent texture and has been sold at home and abroad, setting up a long-lasting famous brand for Tianjin's national industry. How did this brand come about? Let’s start with its founder Guo Yaoting.
Guo Yaoting is from Zhaoyuan, Shandong. In 1926, 15-year-old Guo Yaoting said goodbye to his parents and came to work as an apprentice in a stationery store called Cheng Wenxin in Andong, Liaoning (now Dandong). Chengwenxin was a famous printing and stationery store at that time, and its main store was located in Andong. He worked hard there and learned a lot, and he was also reused by his boss. In 1934, in order to avoid the economic control imposed by the Puppet Manchukuo on the Northeast and open up new sales channels, the head office sent him to Tianjin to sell books and stationery, and at the same time, he was preparing to build a Chengwenxin Tianjin branch. After a year of full preparation, in 1935, a Tianjin branch of Chengwenxin, which was both industrial and commercial, opened on Guodian Street, with the name Chengwenxindeji Stationery Store. It was mainly engaged in printing business, and also engaged in stationery paper and ink materials. Guo Yaoting serves as deputy manager, responsible for purchasing and sales, and often deals with customers outside.
At that time, the anti-imperialist and patriotic movement was raging in the country, and the calls for promoting domestic products became louder and louder than ever. Guo Yaoting, who has been in business for many years, has also truly felt from his own business that the business war between foreign businessmen and Chinese businessmen competing for the Chinese market has never stopped. There was no domestic ink on the market at that time. Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places began to produce ink after 1925, but they were all low-grade salt-based inks and ink tablets with low quality and could not compete with imported products. As a patriotic businessman, Guo Yaoting became increasingly aware of the relationship between domestic products and national destiny. He secretly determined to reform the variety and quality of domestic products so that the market would accept domestic products and end the monopoly of foreign products on the market as soon as possible.
Since 1940, he has developed crayons, carbon paper, sketch paper and paper slates. Later, he turned to ink, which has a wide range of uses, large sales volume, and great development prospects. During Japan's invasion of China and World War II, imported ink decreased significantly. Guo Yaoting seized this opportunity to develop domestic ink and determined to create his own brand. From 1942, while running Chengwenxin, Guo Yaoting began to organize experiments in developing ink in the store. He bought a copy of "Encyclopedia of Industry" published by the Commercial Press, and based on the basic knowledge of ink production, Xu Chongguo of the store was the main technical person in charge, and he hired technicians with professional knowledge to assist him in developing ink that turned from blue to black. When Guo Yaoting selects production raw materials, quality assurance is the premise. For example, after repeated comparisons with the royal blue block, which is the main raw material of the ink, it was decided to use the German Taurus brand and hairpiece. However, the supply of this pigment is tight, and sometimes it has to be purchased from private hands at a high price. It takes one tael of gold to exchange for one kilogram of high-quality royal blue block. Regarding the water quality for making ink, although boiled water can basically meet the required standards, they still use sulfonated coal-treated water.
After more than two years of repeated trials, constantly adjusting formulas, selecting pigments, improving water quality, etc., a small amount of ordinary ink was first produced and named "Lide" brand for students to use. It was not until 1945 that iron tannate ink, that is, blue-black ink, was finally developed. At this time, the "Camel" brand paint on the market was popular all over the country. The camel has durability, which means that the paint will never fade. Guo Yaoting reflected on his "Lide" brand and felt that it lacked national flavor, so he decided to stop using this trademark and chose the ostrich, which is also very durable, to name the ink he developed.
When Ostrich Ink was officially put into production, Tianjin was still under the control of the Japanese and puppets. One can imagine how difficult it is to engage in industrial production with the strength of one store. First of all, there is no factory building. They set aside several old buildings to build production workshops; if they didn't have production containers, they bought some cheap jars and basins; if they didn't have packaging bottles after production, they bought them on credit from a glassware factory. Set up a mat tent in the yard and put up planks as a workbench. When the weather is nice, the ink is packed on the stage and the bottles are painted off the stage. When it rains, I go inside and do other work. For a long time, ostrich ink was produced under such crude conditions.
In terms of sales methods, he adopted flexible and diverse forms such as distribution, agency sales, credit sales, and underwriting; in terms of cost reduction, they sought the support of the railway transportation department and changed the packaging boxes from wooden boxes to cardboard boxes. In terms of transportation, the capacity of ink bottles has changed from the previous 1 liang, 2 liang, and 3 liang to 1 kg. It has also pioneered zero-fill ink sales, which facilitates different needs and benefits both buyers and sellers.
Since the advent of ostrich ink in 1945, in order to verify its quality, Guo Yaoting has written with his own "51" Parker gold pen filled with ostrich ink every day. He also uses gold pens filled with inks of different Chinese and foreign brands. Comparing these handwritings in the future proves that the quality of Ostrich ink is completely comparable to imported famous brand ink. Overturning the idea that Parker gold pens must use Parker or Wattman ink. Decades have passed, and the handwriting written with ostrich ink has not changed in color and the strokes are still clear. In fact, this has long been recognized by the majority of users, so it has become a brand that has lasted for decades. Tianjin Ink Factory took the lead in developing high-grade ink as early as the 1950s, surpassing the American Parker ink at that time and causing a sensation at home and abroad. However, with the development of the times, the fountain pen ink market is shrinking. In 1997, with the financial crisis in Southeast Asia, a buyer's market emerged in the country, and overproduction triggered a price war. The once glorious Ostrich Ink faced severe challenges.
At the beginning of 1998, Wei Shurong was appointed as the factory director for the first time and was appointed at a critical moment. At that time, the company was already in a very difficult situation. According to the memories of old employees of the company, "At that time, 'Ostrich' was burdened with a lot of debts. Among them, the new factory was building a building. There are 4.5 million yuan in arrears, 1.04 million yuan in value-added tax arrears, 1.2 million yuan in employee fund-raising arrears, and 360,000 yuan in provident fund arrears.”
Seeing the difficulties faced by Ostrich Ink, Wei Shurong had only one idea: "We must not let Ostrich, the brand flower created by generations, wither in our hands." The newly appointed factory leadership boldly proposed corporate restructuring. Their understanding at the time was: "Only through restructuring can small and medium-sized enterprises adapt to the fierce market. Competition."
"In order to realize the restructuring, we worked separately from top to bottom. We first went to the employees to give speeches and gained everyone's full support. The Light Bureau, the Municipal Economic Commission, the Restructuring Commission, and I remember that there were other companies in the system that were studying restructuring at that time, and we were the first to succeed in the restructuring of state-owned small and medium-sized enterprises in Tianjin, taking advantage of state-owned enterprises. The 'first train' of reform," said Wei Shurong, current chairman of Tianjin Ostrich Ink Co., Ltd.
In September 1998, Tianjin Ostrich Ink Co., Ltd. was established and began to implement balanced shareholding. In June 2000, a pattern was formed in which operators hold large shares, operating groups hold controlling shares, and shares are tilted toward scientific and technical personnel, sales personnel, and special contributors, and all employees participate in the company.
“The restructuring has brought practical results. The joint-stock system has truly connected employees with the enterprise, and employees have become the owners of the enterprise. It has truly realized the change from letting me do it in the past to doing it for myself.” Zhang Guili, director of the factory office, said, "Before the restructuring, employees spent money lavishly and could not collect external debts. After the restructuring, we insisted on purchasing goods from the source and comparing products. For example, if we reduce the cost of each ink bottle by 0.025 yuan, it will be enough in one year. Saving 400,000 yuan, the cost of each packaging carton is reduced by 0.55 yuan, which can save 360,000 yuan a year. The cost of a bottle cap is reduced by 0.016 yuan, which saves 1 million yuan in purchasing costs in 1998. In 1999, we saved 490,000 yuan more than the previous year. ”
The restructuring not only injected vitality into the enterprise, but also brought tangible benefits to the employees. Yuan Xueru, the company's financial director, told reporters, "From the beginning of the restructuring to 2007, the company's asset value preservation and appreciation rate reached 613%, and the total employee income growth reached 33.6%. After nearly ten years of operation, now every 1 yuan of net assets is 8 times that of last year. By 2007, the dividend per share will be 3.54 yuan. "With the rapid development of global economy and technology, the ink industry has also undergone fundamental changes, which objectively requires companies to speed up product structure adjustment and make scientific and rigorous adjustments quickly. Develop and develop new products to improve core competitiveness. In recent years, Ostrich Ink has accelerated its pace of adjustment and carefully grasped every opportunity in development.
With the popularity of computers, the demand for computer spray printing ink has surged, and refilling and reusing ink cartridges has become a consumer trend.
Gao Lingjun, director of the Technology Development and Testing Department of Tianjin Ostrich Ink Co., Ltd., said, "In response to this situation, the company developed computer spray printing ink in 1994, becoming the first in the same industry nationwide to apply ink to high-tech printing. In full It ensures the compatibility with the original ink and is conducive to environmental protection and reuse. Its spraying is uniform, dense and full, and the inkjet dots have no defects, missing points, multi-point deformation, no diffusion, and no splashing. The unique ink characteristics have reached foreign standards. With the same product level and more suitable for the usage habits of Chinese consumers, this product is gradually replacing foreign computer consumables and forming a mainstream trend in China."
Internationally, inkjet printers are widely used in industrial production. Printing production dates on metal cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles falls into this technical category. In recent years, this technology has begun to be gradually used in our country. Its supporting inkjet ink not only consumes a lot of money, has high profit margins, but also has certain anti-counterfeiting properties. "Aiming at this rising industry, in August 1999 we successfully developed inkjet ink and additives with high added value and high technical content, and passed the new product technology appraisal of the Municipal Science and Technology Commission. Experts unanimously believed that this product is the first in China and has reached The products have reached the international advanced level and have quickly opened up the domestic market, with sales revenue rising steadily," Gao Lingjun introduced.
The production of animation cartoons that matches the development of the animation industry is still an emerging industry in my country. Ostrich has taken the lead in the production of animation cartoons. It began OEM production of animation inks for Japan and South Korea three years ago, and its long-term exports are It has accumulated rich experience and is currently able to produce more than 60 colors of professional animation ink. Wei Shurong said, “After capturing the information that Tianjin will vigorously develop the animation industry and build several animation industry bases, Ostrich Ink actively contacted relevant parties to provide professional support for the base to take off. In the future, based on the development of animation ink, Ostrich Ink will also target The development and production of a full range of animated cartoons.”
These high-tech products have added stamina to Ostrich’s development. Every step forward of Ostrich's products has led the development direction of my country's ink industry and has become a pioneer in independent technological innovation in the same industry across the country. In recent years, Ostrich Ink has successively won awards such as "Famous Brand Products in China's Pen Making Industry", "National Pen Making Meritorious Enterprise", and "China Ink King". The National Pen Making Industry Association has commissioned Ostrich Ink to compile a national ink manufacturing textbook. This textbook has been Printed and distributed nationwide as a special training material for ink manufacturers.
At present, Ostrich has established a good product structure. Among them, Ostrich brand fountain pen writing ink is the main product, accounting for 52% of the company's sales; Ostrich brand ink, accounting for 12% of the company's sales; Ostrich brand inkjet coding ink, computer spray printing ink and other series of products account for 50% of the company's sales 15%; Ostrich brand's special inks for pens and pens include: highlighter ink, gel pen ink, straight liquid pen ink, color pen ink, drawing ink, whiteboard pen ink, marker ink and other special ink series, accounting for 15% of the company's total. 13% of sales; the Ostrich brand series of office supplies account for 8% of the company's sales.
Ostrich insists on "walking on two legs" and adheres to the road of marketing innovation while innovating products. Zhu Fang, executive deputy general manager in charge of sales, said, “In terms of marketing innovation, we have established three sales departments to specialize in selling new products. We have formulated corresponding preferential policies for the sales of new products. We will implement a one-time reward for top sales figures at the end of the year to fully Mobilizing the enthusiasm and work enthusiasm of the sales staff; secondly, in 2000, the brand buyout policy was implemented, and 8 major customers in Shaanxi, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Henan, Hebei, Shandong and other places have bought the 'ostrich' brand franchise.” Innovative initiatives gave Ostrich Ink a strong foothold across the country.