"It's as fast as the wind, and it's as smooth as oil, and the variety of steel is clear and thick. Cutting Jiangshan into a splendid landscape, Hangzhou is more than just a state. "

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

From the late Ming Dynasty to the present, it has been nearly 4 years since the inheritance of scissors in Zhang Xiaoquan, and it can still sell nearly 3 million scissors every year. On July 7th, Zhang Xiaoquan Co., Ltd.' s application for listing on the Growth Enterprise Market was accepted by Shenzhen Stock Exchange, which is expected to become another time-honored brand and the "first share of scissors".

unlike many controversial time-honored brands, the knife and scissors business in Zhang Xiaoquan 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 craftsman spirit for 4 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 craftsman in Hangzhou in the early Qing Dynasty. His ancestral home was in Qian County, Huizhou, and making scissors was a craft handed down in his family. His father, Zhang Sijia, studied making scissors in Wuhu, and later opened the "Zhang Dalong" scissors shop in Dajing Lane, Hangzhou during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty (around 161).

According to the historical data consulted by Cat Sister, 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.

naturally, the strength of fine steel and pig iron cannot be mentioned in the same breath. Zhang Dalong's scissors, which adopted the sword forging process, were radiant, sharp and durable, and stood out among the scissors of peers, becoming the golden signboard in Hangzhou at that time.

It's a pity that our country didn't have the awareness of intellectual property rights in the Ming Dynasty, and the counterfeit products of "Zhang Dalong" scissors in Hangzhou were endless, and the quality was mixed, so that the reputation of the real "Zhang Dalong" scissors suffered a cliff-like decline.

in 1663, the second year of Qing emperor Kangxi, the founder Zhang Sijia died, and the rich second generation Zhang Xiaoquan took over. He thinks that the brand value of the old brand founded by his father has been damaged by counterfeiters, so he simply abandons the original brand, names the scissors produced by the family business after his own name, and engraves his name on all the scissors.

in the forty-six years of Qianlong (1781), Zhang Xiaoquan welcomed the most important guest in history, namely Emperor Qianlong himself. According to relevant information, that year Emperor Qianlong visited Zhang Xiaoquan Scissors Shop on his southern tour. I bought a pair of scissors and praised them when I went back, so I inscribed the word "Zhang Xiaoquan" on the plaque for Zhang Xiaoquan's scissors, and listed Zhang Xiaoquan's scissors as a tribute, which was named "the royal scissors of the court".

The identity of Zhang Xiaoquan Scissors may be true, but the story of Emperor Qianlong personally bringing goods for various food specialties is so rampant that it is difficult to tell 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 Sun Zuying registered his trademark in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce with the trademark "Haiyun Bath Day", which became one of the first trademarks in Chinese history.

Since then, Zhang Xiaoquan Scissors has made frequent appearances in international exhibitions and won awards. These include Nanyang Guild in 199, Panama World Expo in 1915, Philadelphia World Expo in 1926 and West Lake Expo in 1929.

After the founding of New China, Zhang Xiaoquan scissors are still highly valued. In 1956, Chairman Mao mentioned at the work report meeting of "Accelerating the Socialist Transformation of Handicraft Industry", "I remind you that many good things in handicrafts should not be thrown away. Don't get rid of the scissors of Pockmarked Wang and Zhang Xiaoquan for ten thousand years. The good things of our nation and those that have been lost must be restored and made better. "

It is worth mentioning that Wang Mazi, a time-honored brand of scissors in Beijing, which stood side by side with Zhang Xiaoquan in those years, was called "Wang Mazi in the north and Zhang Xiaoquan in the south". It was also famous for using steel to make scissors blades, but it failed to develop well after the reform and opening up, and declared bankruptcy in 23.

small scissors are not difficult to make, and it seems that there is no technical threshold. However, Zhang Xiaoquan's scissors can go through 4 years, from the Ming Dynasty to the modern times, from home to overseas, and they have been recognized, so their production should be unique.

A person who carefully and meticulously makes articles day after day is called a craftsman, and the spirit of perfecting the articles to the extreme with great concentration is called the craftsman spirit. In recent years, when we mention the 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 embody this spirit.

The traditional manufacturing technology in Zhang Xiaoquan is heavy and complicated. Skilled shearers can forge a pair of scissors with one iron and one steel. Now this manufacturing technology has become an intangible cultural heritage. The youngest craftsman who has mastered this craft is nearly 8 years old and white-haired. This is probably the embodiment of the craftsman spirit, right?

New owners of time-honored brands

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

unlike many time-honored brands with state-owned background, Zhang Xiaoquan has undergone two restructuring in new China, and now it is a completely private enterprise.

According to the prospectus, at present, the controlling shareholder of Zhang Xiaoquan Co., Ltd. is Zhang Xiaoquan Group and the actual controller is Fuchun Holding Group. Guobiao Zhang and Zhang Zhangsheng, two shareholders of Fuchun Holding Group, are brothers, while Guobiao Zhang and Zhang Xincheng are father and son. At present, the Zhang family holds 71.83% of Zhang Xiaoquan shares through Fuchun Holdings, Rongquan Investment and Zhenquan Investment, and their control rights are very concentrated.

After Fuchun Investment gained control of Zhang Xiaoquan in 27, it mainly promoted the intelligentization and industrialization of manufacturing in Zhang Xiaoquan. In 21, Zhang Xiaoquan built a modern hardware science and technology park in Fuyang, Hangzhou, which automated more than 9% of the production processes.

Zhang Xiaoquan's production mode is the combination of independent production and OEM. At present, the capacity of self-made production in Zhang Xiaoquan is 12.795 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 with 354 million yuan raised, with a construction period of 18 months. After the completion of the construction, it will add 3.1 million pieces of production capacity, which is equivalent to increasing the current production capacity by 2.35 times.

At the same time, Zhang Xiaoquan no longer only produces scissors, but also expands its product line to household kitchen knives and 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 relatively rapid growth. Especially for knives and daily necessities, the income growth rate in 218 was as high as 31.49% and 36.66% respectively.

scissors in Zhang Xiaoquan have been around for more than 4 years, and the demand for scissors for family clothes has declined at present, so it is very rare for the income of scissors to show a rapid growth. However, in 219, the income growth rate of all products except daily necessities in Zhang Xiaoquan declined, especially the income growth rate of knife and scissors combination fell to 4.75%.

The decline in income growth is not necessarily because things can't be sold, but also because the capacity can't keep up, especially in Zhang Xiaoquan, where the current capacity utilization rate has exceeded 1%. However, the inventory problem in Zhang Xiaoquan has become increasingly prominent.

At the end of 219, the inventory balance of Zhang Xiaoquan reached 112 million yuan, accounting for 37.51% of its current assets, up 37.95% compared with the end of 218. Among them, the proportion of inventory goods is the highest, with a total amount of 71.4685 million yuan, up 44.42% year-on-year. The growth rate of the balance of inventory goods 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 in Zhang Xiaoquan are still popular, they still encounter some resistance in their growth.

high quality and low price, or luxury in national fashion?

when it comes to time-honored brands, people's first reaction is often an expensive word. Dong 'e Ejiao, Tong Ren Tang and Tianjin Goubuli Steamed Bun are all examples of the collapse of word-of-mouth in 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 Zhang Xiaoquan's prospectus, in 219, the average price of scissors products was only 5.55 yuan, the average price of knives was only 22 yuan, the price of knife scissors (knife scissors set) was only 77.95 yuan, and the average price of other household items was 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, and the proportion of distributor channels has increased from 56.34% in 217 to 66.6% in 219.

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

consumers' feelings towards time-honored brands are often complicated. On the one hand, they hope that the value of traditional crafts and 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 consumption capacity. Therefore, high-end and branding have become the trap of many time-honored 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 that are closer to handicrafts, such as the increasingly high-blooming, pine crane gift box, and daily necessities that embody the traditional aesthetics of life, such as copper pots and soup dumplings.

if the listing is successful, what kind of time-honored brand will Zhang Xiaoquan become?