Zipper, an indispensable small object in everyone's life. In yiwu, the world's largest wholesale market for small goods, "zipper king" tao haidi is famous. Its zhejiang weihai zipper co., LTD. Has been awarded the title of "China famous brand" with a zipper of 4 million, and tao haidi has been invited to attend the high-end BBS.
However, the weihai zipper, which covers an area of 400 mu in the city of yiwu, now looks a bit sluggish, with most of its production lines stagnating and the past busier than ever. The company's official website, "century weihai, international brand" propaganda language is still in, and the company has been managed, tao haidi himself also lose freedom.
The reason that tao haidi suffered Waterloo was that he blindly diversified into real estate.
"Chicken feather for sugar" started
Often feet blister
In yiwu, known for its small wares, the story of "chicken hair for sugar" is always mentioned, even though it was 30 years ago. Yiwu is rich in brown sugar. The small traders go south, and exchange cheap goods such as sugar and straw paper in exchange for waste products such as chicken and hair from the residents.
It is fair to say that the history of yiwu market is the history of chicken hair changing sugar, while yiwu's original chicken-haired is from the town of 23. Under the scrutiny, it is a kind of innovative spirit, which is a kind of hard work, a lot of growth, a pioneering spirit, and a spirit of perseverance, flexibility and hard work.
Today, feather in sugar culture has become a city of yiwu, a restaurant with a feather in sugar "as the name to attract customers, yiwu people also use the spiritual and cultural motivation next generation does not forget to bear hardships, innovation.
Like most of the yiwu businessmen at the time, tao haidi, who was born in 1965, started to go to the villages of jiangxi and other places to make chicken hair for sugar. The young boy, who is still very thin, carries over 100 pounds of cargo, and learns his father's appearance, shaking the rattle and walking on the rough country road.
At that time, the transportation was very difficult, usually going out before the Spring Festival, only to return to yiwu in March and April.
A number of yiwu businessmen who have been involved in the chick-haired trade in sugar have told reporters that it is often the case that a large number of baskets are sold in the countryside.
Like most of the yiwu businessmen, after two years of trading chicken feathers, tao haidi set up a grocery stall by the side of yiwu road, selling small goods. Slowly, he found that the zipper had a huge advantage, so the key distribution zipper, became yiwu one of the earliest zipper operators.
Inspired by Japanese brand zipper
Vow to change "a few cents"
In 1994, the original accumulation of tao haidi's land of 2.5 mu, invested 3 million yuan, founded yiwu weihai zipper co., LTD. Because of the quality of products and services, the supply of goods is in short supply. "The products are sold to the customers to the factory, waiting for the machine to pick up the goods." Earlier, tao haidi recalled in a media interview.
Two years later, in 1996, tao haidi expanded the production scale of 25 mu in yiwu economic development zone. In just a few years, the company developed into one of China's largest zipper production bases and export bases and accounted for a third of China's domestic exports.
Meanwhile, tao haidi discovered the value of the brand. It's zipper. Weihai zippers sell for a few cents, while Japanese brand zippers sell for a few bucks. Therefore, he decided to create a brand, and the company began to focus on research and development, improve quality and enhance external publicity.
Soon, weihai zipper established the earliest r&d center of yiwu zipper industry, with more than 30 r&d talents, including a large number of expatriates.
In view of the consumer market in the United States, weihai zipper has introduced foreign technology and equipment, and cooperated with the Shanghai mold research institute and other domestic institutions. In 2001, weihai zipper expanded again, this time the land expropriation 300 mu, the development goal is to become China first-class zipper enterprise.
Since then, luo ping (not his real name) has rarely seen tao haidi. As yiwu merchants of the same age, they had very good early years and met frequently. Over the next few years, the weihai zipper is getting bigger and bigger, and the annual output of the zipper is 200 laps around the equator. "The zippers in the warehouse sometimes pile up and the scene is so overwhelming that you can't even imagine it." LuoPingShui.
The popularity of weihai zipper is also getting higher and higher, and its brand has been awarded the title of "China famous trademark" and "top ten famous brands of China zipper". Tao haidi was elected vice President of China zipper industry association and President of yiwu zipper industry association.
I wanted my grandchildren to zip it
But the profit lure in the enemy building
When he became famous, tao haidi was often invited to participate in high-end BBS and share the myth of entrepreneurship.
At the "2010 (4th) contribution to China summit", tao haidi said that the goal of weihai zipper was 100 years enterprise, and three generations of people zipped. "It's not just my life, my son is in succession, his grandson is thinking about it, he's been indoctrinated with the idea of zipper."
As can be seen from it, tao haidi understands that the product is small, the acme industry is big. At that summit, he talked about working with LV, and talked about the high-tech products of the suit. "We're going to go into the capital market, and we're going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on research and development, and we're going to go 100 years, like maotai, and we're going to have no problem."
However, he is not satisfied with his zipper achievement, especially when he sees his friends in real estate.
Looking up the relevant data, the weihai zipper is the weihai holding company, and the shareholders of weihai holding company take off for tao haidi and their son tao, who are controlled by tao haidi.
In the second half of 2010, a rating agency in Shanghai issued an evaluation report showing that the weihai zipper is a core entity for weihai holdings, accounting for about 90 percent of the annual revenue of the company.
In addition to weihai holdings, tao haidi also invested in zhejiang weihai industrial co., LTD. In September 2003. The main functions of weihai industry are industrial investment and have no actual business content. Zhejiang xinxia real estate development co., LTD. And pujiang county Orient blue county real estate co., LTD.
Founded in June 2004, xinsha real estate development is located in pujiang county adjacent to yiwu, with a total investment of 420 million yuan and 3 rolling development. Tao haidi placed the building in a high-end school district and has high hopes for it.
Six years ago, the financial crisis passed
Six years later the hole was too big to take off
But his friend luo ping found that his work in the zipper industry was asymmetrical, and tao haidi suffered a setback in real estate. As of now, the building that locates high-end school district still hasn't finished sale.
In LuoPing impression, a few years ago, TaoHaiDi and two other boss plan in shaoxing, real estate development contract TaoHaiDi investment 200 million yuan, the other two for $150 million each, but then one of the boss 150 million yuan have been slow to reach the designated position, final project on hold.
The real estate project, which has not yet been expected, is taking up a lot of cash flow. It is not hard to see from the evaluation report that at that time, weihai industry has long been occupying weihai zipper funds phenomenon. As of the end of June 2011, it was still 100 million yuan, mainly invested in the property projects of xinxia property and blue county property.
In 2008, under the influence of the international financial crisis, tao haidi felt the pressure was enormous.
Also around 2008, luo ping met tao haidi again. They drank coffee in a cafe in downtown yiwu, and tao's brother fell asleep leaning on his chair. "At the time, he was so stressed out that it was possible to have an old friend."
Fortunately, with the support of relevant departments, tao haidi finally survived the crisis.
However, in 2014, the real estate industry ended the high growth trend and some regional prices went down. The weihai zipper, which has invested heavily in property, is in crisis again. Because the hole is too big, this time tao haidi failed to take off.
When reporters arrived at the weihai zipper company in mid-january, the staff members declined to be interviewed by the reporter on the grounds of their absence. A meeting room on the first floor became a temporary office space for the hosting team. Staff told reporters that the government of yiwu had set up a working group to interview them and would not comment on other issues.
The deputy director of the government office in yiwu, which is responsible for hosting the work, confirmed that the weihai zipper has been hosted by an enterprise with a background in the country.
(report of the people's livelihood weekly, the English talent)