Invisible Jeweler: Chaoshan Jewelry

Paris's most luxurious Place Vendôme – a collection of world-class jewellery brands such as Cartier, Bulgari and Harry Winston – a high-end jewellery company called TTF is being invited by the Paris city government to settle down. Wu Fenghua is the founder of TTF. The purpose of his trip was to agree on the details of the opening. He described the experience of these years with "escape from death". A few years ago, Wu Fenghua could not imagine this day. Although TTF's clients have international celebrities like Hillary Clinton, this company, which has been established for more than a decade, is still compared to the international brands that have deposited more than a hundred years of old money on Vendome Square. It seems that there is not enough energy.

China is the world's second-largest jewelry market after the United States, with a scale of 400 billion. Wu has just scraped a spoonful of cream from this big cake. Although jewellery always occupies the most conspicuous advertising space, the Chinese businessmen who control this market are mostly low-key, closed, and mysterious. They are family-based, with successive generations of contacts as the background, weaving is not known to outsiders. s story.

Wu Fenghua, who opened a shop in Paris, is a different kind in the Shuibei jewelry circle. Guo Xiaofei, vice president of the Shenzhen Jewelry Industry Association, said that “the whole water shell is the only one”. Wu Fenghua described the water shell as “a vulgarity everywhere”. At this moment, the water shell is flowing. Before the Lunar New Year, it was the busiest moment for jewelers.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, the Baitai Jewelry Exhibition Hall of Shuibei Second Road, jewelry merchants all over the country are ready to enter the market. One of them rushed to a counter, and used the body to protect the counter. The person behind him turned and shouted: "Don't rob me. These are mine!" Here, gold jewelry is like a cabbage. The scene is very shocking.

In the peak season, the phenomenon of grabbing goods is very common. In 2012, Zhou Dasheng opened the 2,000th store through the joining method, surpassing the Hong Kong-owned brand Chow Tai Fook's more than 1,000 stores worldwide, and at least 10 companies with more than 200 chain stores in the Mainland. The rigid demand of 70 million married young people and the jewellery shops that bloom everywhere in the country are the reasons for the rush of goods.

However, Wu Fenghua and others are challenging the rules of the game here. Capital has discovered this fertile ground, introducing venture capital and listing has become a hot topic in the jewelry circle. At present, at least five domestic jewelry companies are listed in the queue, and there are more than a dozen. Preparing materials for listing.

From the jewelry processing and manufacturing bases such as Shuibei to the endless chain of jewelry brands and designs, the tradition of Chinese jewellery and rivers is undergoing transformation. In the outbreak of consumption, jewelers are still unable to shape even if they still want to close.

Chaozhou Daxie

Zhou Taolin, the chairman of Baitai Jewelry, is of medium build and well-dressed. The hair with wax is meticulous and looks very modest. He controls China's largest gold jewelry manufacturing company, and according to CCTV, the company is mixed with 999 gold. In 2012, it processed more than 100 tons of gold jewelry, accounting for at least 1/5 market share. Since the 1990s, it has maintained such a status. On the website of Baitai Company, the photo of the chairman and even the words can not be found. Like most Chaozhou bosses of Shuibei, he is extremely low-key and respects the reporters.

"He has a feeling for gold," said an old man who followed him for many years. Two pieces of material were placed in front of his eyes. The color can be seen in nines and nines, not to mention in his hands. "He is People born in gold." We communicated in a simple office, where the furniture was old and the latex paint on the walls peeled off as if it had passed through the 1990s. It is difficult to connect such an office environment with a jewelry company with an annual output value of more than 40 billion. The first floor of this building is the exquisite atmosphere of Baitai Jewelry, which is filled with 1 ton of gold jewelry.

The Baitai Exhibition Hall is not the largest in the water, and the 2 ton gold jewelry is placed in the Yuehao Jewelry Hall, which is known as the “Walmart” in the jewelry industry. Yuehao Jewelry is the second company with a sales volume of more than 100 tons of gold jewelry. The chairman Zhou Defen is in his early forties. His father Zhou Houhou and Zhou Taolin are the first people to go to Shenzhen to pan for gold. They are all from Xiashan Town, Chaoyang District, Shantou, and they are neighbors. In Shuibei, Chaozhou people own a number of enterprises with annual output of dozens of gold jewelry, such as Jinlong, Jinye, Jinjiafu, etc., China's largest K gold jewelry company Aidekang, the largest platinum jewelry company Baofu Group, the largest Inlaid companies such as Xingguangda are the industries of Chaozhou people. Most of them come from several villages near Chaoyang Xiashan Town. The cultural level is not high, and many people are still in contact with each other. This group of people who drink Kung Fu tea, eat Chaoshan, and speak the unique ancient Chinese language, control the water and control the Chinese jewelry market.

Although Zhou Taolin is well known in the industry, but outside the line is still unknown. “We have finished production and wholesaled it to retailers across the country. We don’t need to deal with consumers, and we rarely do marketing, which is very low-key,” said a Chaozhou jewelry merchant. Few people know that many products of Hong Kong-owned jewellery brands such as Chow Tai Fook and Chow Sang Sang are foundry companies of Chaozhou people.

Jewelers are a fairly low-key group on a global scale. When a drawer of jewels in a safe can be used to build a building, only low-key can avoid the bad luck that huge wealth may bring. In the water shell, there are advertisements of jewellery brands everywhere, but the door of the rare company – they are all in a hidden corner, and the jewelers who come to get goods all over the country also look like a passerby.

In fact, not only Chaozhou people, China's first generation of jewelers are painted with mysterious and legendary colors.

After the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, gold has always been a regulated commodity in China. After the reform and opening up, smuggling gold from Hong Kong to Shenzhen was once popular. Until the establishment of the Shanghai Gold Exchange and the Diamond Exchange in 2003, jewelers had a reasonable channel for purchasing gold, platinum, silver and diamonds. "Before this, people dare not advertise and publicize because they don't know where these things come from," said a jeweler from Shuibei. During the wilder period of the industry, Chaozhou people have two advantages in making jewelry: First, Chaozhou has a tradition of playing gold since ancient times, and has skills; secondly, more than half of the richest people in Hong Kong, Macao and Southeast Asia are Chaoshan overseas Chinese, and the essence of gold, rice and other products in Southeast Asia are basically Controlled by them, domestic tide merchants are easy to take advantage of.

In the era of shortage of raw materials, only people with great energy and daring can stand out. Zhao Xinglong, the chairman of Dongfang Jinluo, is such a person. Zhao Zeng was an intelligence officer of the Yunnan Frontier Defense Force. He was disguised as an emerald businessman to collect intelligence in Myanmar. As a result, he was inseparable from this beautiful stone. People in the industry call him "Jade Mania", and he is said to be able to see a stone all night long until he understands it.

Profiteering

Although the price of gold jewelry is very low, the price war is still fierce. When the vicious competition reaches the extreme value. At the end of 2011, the Shenzhen Jewelry Association took the lead. The big companies in the industry signed an industry statement to resist the price war, raising the minimum price of gold processing fees to 3.5 yuan / gram, lower than before. But it did not stop the outbreak of vicious incidents. “They are not willing to increase their investment, relying on the craftsmanship and creativity of the products to increase profits, because the cost is higher,” said the businessman. For most Chaozhou companies, you must make money by scale and turnover. The businessman counted the accounts. "A company like Baitai does not make more than a dozen tons a month, so it does not make money. It is equivalent to 3 tons of gold in turnover, and it will turn five or six miles a month. 3 tons of gold is more than ten Billions, the investment is too big." Such pressure, eventually fell to the front line of workers, overtime is a common occurrence.

Another feature of Shuibei is that the jewellery from one exhibition hall to another is familiar, and plagiarism is the same melody on this street. Plagiarism here has almost no cost and no shame. Except for a few people, only Wu Fenghua and Cartier's design director discussed "the highest level of design is philosophy", and only he will think "what is the commanding height of aesthetics?" But his problems, for Chaozhou people, are jokes - what is more important than making money?

"(High-end jewellery) is not easy to sell, the price is high, the experts don't buy it, and the price is low, you can't bear to sell it. You put it there every day, how much is the interest?" A Chaozhou businessman said with some self-satisfaction.

The people who ridiculed TTF for not making money pointed out the number one secret of this industry: this jewel-like, seemingly profitable industry is not as profitable as it is supposed to be, not just Chinese jewelry, but globally.

“High-end jewellery turnover is too slow, so the cost of capital is very high.” Ren Jin, vice president of the China Jewelry Industry Association, said that “selling goods” between high-end jewellery stores in the world is a common phenomenon, even international brands like Cartier. can not avoid. "Selling slowly, can't make customers feel that you sell those pieces every day. It's not possible to distribute the goods yourself, so they will pick up each other." "Selling goods" is a high-grade jewelry rule. "I don't understand the basics of stocking." They are all laymen."

"Why is there no one wanting to do high-quality jewelry because it is too risky." Wu Fenghua said. Like Cartier and Tiffany, the time has been for generations, and the old money that has been settled for more than 100 years has become a world-renowned brand. However, China’s jewelry industry has only been in existence for more than 20 years. “In addition to survival problems, there are development problems.” A large part of TTF’s profits comes from the ODM business for Cartier and Tiffany, for a long time. This part of the stable income supports its ability to take the independent high-end design route. In 2010, TTF sold a sapphire necklace at the Shenzhen Jewelry Fair for 16 million, but such an expensive product is not easy to sell, and sometimes it can't be sold one year.

The real profiteering is colored gems, jade, and Hetian jade that are opaque in the price system. "The price of jadeite is not standard. Ten thousand pieces of things, the market may sell 100,000 yuan, and it is not good to sell two or three thousand." The high-end jade brand of the Yunnan Group, Bao Yi and deputy general manager Yuan Yongping said that It is an industry that can eat by eye.

2010 is the year of the skyrocketing price of jade, and the capital of all walks of life is rushing. Many institutions have made a lot of money, and the so-called experts led the gambling in Myanmar, which helped to raise the price of fantasy. But two years later, many people found themselves locked up. The volume of transactions has shrunk dramatically, and some have only one-third of the highs.

Circle·capital

Despite the imaginary huge profits, the huge market and strong demand of the jewelry industry have attracted a large number of foreign capitals into the past few years, which has also changed the pattern of traditional jewelers.

Hao Yi is one of them. In 2010, Hao Yi, who has extensive experience in the IT and Internet industries, is preparing to establish the Diamond Plaza in every carat. A research report confirmed his confidence that the retail price of diamond-set jewellery is usually one to two times the wholesale price of water, "this is higher than real estate profits." Previously, diamond jewellery was mainly operated by Hong Kong-owned brands and prices were high. His idea was to create a mass-market hypermarket that pulled the diamonds off the altar. "It's just a stone," and ordinary people can afford it. "One carat diamond ring Cartier sold more than 100,000, Chow Tai Fook sold forty or five thousand, we sell two or three thousand, can you tear this market?" The market affirmed his ideas. In every carat, the best selling is the diamond ring of about 7,000 yuan, which is basically a wedding ring. For the 80s, it is just a matter of buying a diamond ring. In just three years of business, there are already five stores per carat. In 2012, the company’s sales have reached 7.8 billion.

Hao Yi believes that the reason why he is a layman is because the industry has long been in a "solidified way of thinking", and it is blunt to say that the industry is "too traditional and too earthy."

The jewellery industry is an industry that is easy to stick to the rules. A large number of family businesses make it difficult to break through the concept. In the eyes of many peers, every carat is a company that is good at speculation. In 2011, it also sponsored a concert, which is very good at making topics. In the past three years, every carat has become the most attractive diamond jewelry brand for young people. Hao Yi has begun to plan the introduction of venture capital and listing.

"This industry needs innovation and needs brainwashing." Hao Yi said. In the upstream jewelry processing and manufacturing process, the Chaozhou people's leadership is a foregone conclusion, but the retail field has not yet ended, and new entrants such as Hao Yi are constantly coming.

Capital has fueled this market in an explosive period. Since 2007, the jewelry industry has 24 PE investments involving 14 companies. This year, Zhou Dasheng introduced the strategic investor New Tianyu, and the Millennium Star introduced the Softbank Safran Fund. At present, the jewelry companies that have been listed include Shenzhen Aideier Jewelry, Shenyang Cuihua Jewelry, etc., and more than 10 jewelry companies are preparing materials.

Many of these jewellery retailing companies started from manufacturing, and Zhou Dasheng and the Millennium Star are all like this. Since 2007, Baitai Jewelry has also opened more than 400 franchise stores. What they are not convinced is that the products of Hong Kong-owned brands such as Chow Tai Fook are obviously their own factory OEMs. Why do you label more than you earn yourself? But this is a thing that is simple to think and hard to do. “Chow Tai Fook has the best shopping malls, the best location, the best rent, the price of similar products is 30% more expensive than other brands. The shopping malls are down 30%, and Chow Tai Fook is only 12%. As long as Chow Tai Fook is in, other brands are Accompanying." Guo Xiaofei, vice president of the Shenzhen Jewelry Industry Association, said.

In Ren Jin's view, jewellery is an industry that accumulates time. It takes at least three generations to make a jewelry brand. The first generation of entrepreneurs are mostly grasshopper heroes, dare to fight hard, but the cultural quality is low; the second generation is the so-called "rich second generation", a lot of cars, gambling, they will find a brand to learn; to the first For the third generation, the customers are relatively stable, a little accumulated and economically based, and they have a somewhat mature view of the taste and will consider how to do better than others.

Xue Wei, chairman of Baofu Group, is only 27 years old. Two years ago, China’s largest platinum jewelry company was managed by the young man. His temperament is more stable than his age. He graduated from a university management major in a UK university. His behavior is very different from his parents' Chaozhou people. He is the leader of the second generation of the jewelry circle. Since taking over, the elders of the Shenzhen Jewelry Circle have been encouraging him to organize a second-generation platform and exchange meetings. "The first meeting last year came to more than 40 people, many of them are still in school." Xue Yu said.

The jewelry industry is particularly concerned with the network. "The first generation knows, the second generation also knows that a generation of people will come down and wait until the third generation to basically do business with the layman." Ren Jin said that internationally renowned jewelry companies are also basic. They are family companies, and their connections have been passed down from generation to generation. Such a second-generation gathering is actually a future gathering of the jewelry industry. It is so important that even the official leaders of the China Jewelry Association and the Shenzhen Jewelry Association came to participate.

Close interpersonal relationships are not limited to domestic jewelry circles, and internationally. "In the world, who has a big diamond in his hand, how much the price, who has the goods, where to put it, everyone in the line knows." Hao Yi said. This is a very narrow circle, very familiar with each other. "No one said that he would pay back at six o'clock at six o'clock." Credit is the most valuable thing in this acquaintance circle. If it is lost, it will not be able to stand in the industry.

E-commerce road

The closed jewelry circle is not a complete old school, and Shi Xiangyang, the founder of the jade story, is an alternative. He was born in a jade carving family and runs the most traditional Chinese style jade. He has a hobby outside other jewelers' kung fu tea. He likes to pay attention to new things. QQ, Weibo, WeChat, the convenient communication in the Internet era has brought strangers closer. The geography also allowed him to smell the business opportunities of change. In 2013, Jade Story first proposed the slogan of 20,000 yuan to join and sell 1 billion yuan of jade, breaking the myth that Chinese jewelry market must invest heavily in more than 20 years, so that entrepreneurial young people can see an opportunity here, maybe The next rich man will be born in this 20,000 yuan investment.

2013 is also a turning point in the technological genius Xiao Zhisheng. He has been working hard in the Internet software application industry. He is an authentic 80-year-old, has no family background, no assets, and relies on the momentum of the unyielding and the Internet. Observation. Dare to think, dare to do, dare to be first. From the success of the diamond e-commerce test "Dai Ou Jewelry Net" to the Jade Story online shopping platform, every opportunity to grasp, can rely on the non-class of half-small sense of smell to identify the market gap, some people say that this is a chance, can be Good luck again and again, it’s really not easy to run into.

E-commerce is derived from the open environment of the Internet, and is used by the server or browser as a virtual platform for trading activities. From generation to development, it took only 10 years, but in the past 10 years, he has made a number of grassroots youths such as "Godfather" Ma Yun, Ma Huateng, Li Yanhong, etc. They explained the company from a new perspective, how to see the world, how to think Question, how to make money.

The trend of the times is always surging, and nothing can compete with this trend of development, and the jewelry circle is no exception. Either conform or die. The laws of nature are always like this, cruel, but fair, and natural choices. In the face of choice, everyone's opportunities are equal.

Design flaw

In 2000, when Wu Fenghua and two friends came to Shenzhen to start business with 10 million, they were still a big sum in the jewelry industry. "It takes more than 2 million to open a (jewelry manufacturing) factory. It is impossible to open a factory without two or three million." Wu Fenghua said. But he didn't want to open a factory – although it was easier to make money, he chose high-end jewellery from the Western cultural system that was designed to win, and only a handful of Chinese were exploring it.

Wu Fenghua graduated from Shenyang Golden College and started his business in the Northeast in the 1990s. “At that time, he recognized Shenzhen’s (jewelry) brand in Shenyang and went to Shenzhen to find Hong Kong’s brand.” When he visited Hong Kong and New York, he knew that he had a dream. How far away. It was a "hidden history of humiliation" that he couldn’t bear back. He participated in some international jewelry exhibitions at the beginning of his business. The Chinese people’s booths are always in the worst corner. Foreigners regard the Chinese as a "thief" of plagiarism design. Many places do not. Let in.

His partner chose to give up, and he almost went bankrupt twice. "Every penny of the flower is his own, not survival or death. Every bit of this share can make it work." The first time TTF was recognized internationally was a call. GorgeWang's Chinese designer, who is the design director of a famous advertising company in New York, graduated from the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts. In 2006, he designed a set of gradated, artistic and colorful gemstone jewels, which made people shine in the international jewellery circle. Since then, international brands such as Cartier and Tiffany have become TTF customers, and TTF has designed and manufactured products for these international brands (the so-called ODM model). "Only when we Chinese recognize the brand, the big names in the world will not look at the brand at all, and people only look at your work."

The low level of Chinese jewelry design is related to the quality of practitioners. Some people say, Shuibei "8 out of 10 people are doing jewelry, and 7 of them are graduated from elementary school."

In 2012, TTF's 29-year-old young designer Xu Erjian's work "The Lady" was on the cover of the French authoritative jewellery magazine "DREAMS", which is the first time that Asian jewelry companies have made their covers on the cover. In the jewelry design process, although the differences between the Chinese and Western cultural systems often make these designers “neuronal”, they still have a lot of high-quality jewelry with Chinese charm. In 2012, the former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Christmas gift was a set of high-quality jewellery from TTF. "China's aesthetic realm is very high, but we are too poor in modern times to completely negate our own culture." Wu Fenghua said.

The Chaoshan people's manufacturing company feels the market pressure of brand and design. Zhou Taolin said at the 2012 final meeting that Baitai should take the road of high-end. This kind of formulation is very common in water, and these large manufacturing companies are facing a transformation. From low-end manufacturing to higher value-added areas, design is a must.

In some market segments, some jewellery companies with unique styles and concepts are emerging, such as the leading enterprises in Hetian jade and jade articles. The chairman of Guozi University is not a jewelry professional, but she has long recognized the importance of product differentiation. . Since 2010, she has been firmly committed to “optimizing the work of the industry chain” in the company. For example, compare the same type of Hetian jade Guanyin pendant, which version is better to sell and which version to keep, and use this as a template for production. "Maybe there will be no effect in three years and five years, but after 10 years, the difference between us and our peers will be very obvious." Guo said. Hehe jade has now obtained venture capital.

In foreign countries, designers are the soul of jewelry, they can even sit on the same level as the boss, but in China it is far from this step.

Ren Jin is a relatively unique person in the jewelry industry. He is the vice president of the Jewelry Industry Association, a professor of jewelry design at China University of Geosciences, and an influential independent designer. At the Wantong Center in Beijing's East Third Ring Road, he has a clubhouse with a very elegant atmosphere. He paints sketches every day at the clubhouse, and hundreds of works line up to wait for him. His clients have many rich people in the Middle East and the United States. "They don't look at your brand at all. They really understand jewelry." For those high-end jewels that are millions of dollars, only the people who really understand it have the confidence to consume.

The most expensive jewel he designed was a sapphire worth HK$170 million. The owner of this gem is a Singaporean, and the private jet directly receives him from Singapore. “The consumers of these high-end jewellery, as well as designers like us, are usually not going out.

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