CCTV Beijing, December 23 (Reporter Yang Chang, Wang Xian, Wang Wei) According to the Voice of China of China Central Radio and Television, "News Has Views", an ordinary northern city supplies 70% of the world's false eyelashes, with a market value of up to 10 billion yuan. This place is Pingdu, Shandong, with 3,895 false eyelash enterprises and more than 20,000 processing points, producing more than 3,000 different styles and categories of false eyelash products, known as the "false eyelash capital of China". When beauty has become the choice of more and more people, what changes have happened to the economy of a place where false eyelashes are "fanned"? Can it become a textbook for the development of industries in other places? And how to "warp" the local economy to achieve high-quality development? China Central Radio and Television's Voice of China's "News Has Views" specially planned "Industry Insights", and talked to Wang Haibo, general manager of a false eyelash handicraft Co., Ltd. in Qingdao. Han Songming, executive chairman and secretary general of Pingdu Beauty Eyelash Association, will take you to gain an in-depth understanding of the development process of Pingdu eyelash industry and discuss the future innovation and upgrading path of the false eyelash industry.
Wang Haibo (photo provided by the interviewee)
Han Songming (photo provided by the interviewee)
Good eyelashes, flatness
How has Pingdu's false eyelash industry come along the way?
The "Double 12" shopping festival just passed brought about a peak sales season for the beauty industry, which also greatly increased the production and sales of false eyelashes. Wang Haibo, general manager of a false eyelash handicraft Co., Ltd. in Qingdao, said that workers had been working overtime before the "Double 12", and they were also continuing to stock up during this time, preparing for the next shopping festival. He introduced that the birth of a pair of false eyelash products needs to go through at least 7-8 production links before it can reach consumers.
False eyelash products (photo provided by the interviewee)
Han Songming, executive chairman of Pingdu Beauty Eyelash Association, sorted out and introduced the development history of Pingdu eyelash industry. He pointed out that the flat eyelash industry is mostly distributed in Changle Village, Dazeshan Town, and has experienced exponential explosive growth since the 70s of the last century. In the past, 60%-70% of the products produced were exported abroad. With the improvement of the living standards of the people in the mainland, after 2015, the domestic false eyelash market has gradually opened up, the output of products has continued to grow, and the styles have gradually become richer. Today, Pingdu's false eyelash industry has become a local characteristic industry that enriches the people, absorbing a large number of rural surplus labor, especially rural women's labor. This not only increased the income of the villagers, but also allowed the beauty and eyelash industry to develop rapidly.
Wang Haibo is the "second generation" of the false eyelash industry, and has a personal experience of the development and changes of the flat eyelash industry. He said that compared with the past way of OEM production in family workshops by the father generation, Pingdu's false eyelash industry is now more standardized, mechanized and digitalized. His company has a dedicated R&D team focusing on the innovation and upgrading of false eyelash products, and its production management is also stricter and more institutionalized.
The domestic market has unlimited potential
How to drive Pingdu's "C-position" industry to achieve new upgrading?
"There are nearly 150 million young women in the mainland after 95. Han Songming said that there is a huge market opportunity in it, women are increasingly pursuing health and beauty, and false eyelashes have also made them more confident. Wang Haibo is also very optimistic about the development of the domestic market. He believes that there are huge consumer groups and strong consumption power in the domestic market, and people are increasingly pursuing quality of life and beauty, and false eyelashes are catering to this consumption trend.
Wang Haibo pointed out that at present, most local enterprises are still in the OEM stage, and the sales side is basically concentrated in southern cities. Han Songming visited nearly 2,000 false eyelash companies. He found that Pingdu's false eyelash industry has a high similarity with the development model of Wenzhou's leather shoe industry 30 years ago, which is basically a model of "front shop and back factory", and has the "small, scattered and chaotic" problem of traditional industries, most of which are still in the processing stage, and the construction of the industrial chain is not complete. As the "C-position" industry of Pingdu, how to turn production advantages into data advantages has become a must-answer question to drive the Pingdu eyelash industry to achieve new upgrades.
In order to promote the transformation and upgrading of the eyelash industry, under the promotion of government departments, Pingdu City organized the establishment of the Beauty Eyelash Association to further standardize the market order and lead the eyelash industry to accelerate the transformation to branding, digitalization and agglomeration. At present, it has attracted nearly 100 enterprises of different sizes. Han Songming believes that with a good industrial foundation and policy support, through a series of measures such as the establishment of industrial associations and the construction of industrial parks, it will greatly promote the transformation and upgrading of the eyelash industry.
Science and technology empower production, where should the false eyelash industry go?
From the perspective of the raw material industry chain, Han Songming pointed out that the raw material of false eyelashes, chemical fiber drawing, contains high scientific and technological content. The price of high-end raw materials imported from South Korea is nearly 800,000 yuan/ton, the price of domestic high-end materials has also reached 200,000 yuan/ton, and the price of general quality is 50,000 to 60,000 yuan/ton. He said that the particularity of false eyelashes in wearing makes the product healthier and more environmentally friendly. At present, Pingdu has begun to invest in the construction of a beauty supporting industrial park, focusing on the production of eyelash raw materials. In the future, we will explore how to manufacture environmentally friendly raw materials and realize the degradability of materials under the premise of conforming to the sensory perception of eyelashes.
In terms of intelligent manufacturing of false eyelashes, in 2022, Pingdu will cooperate with the Robotics Research Institute of Zhejiang University to develop automation equipment, jointly build intelligent manufacturing and digital workshops, and improve production efficiency with the automation mode of man-machine combination. At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has jointly issued production standards for wig and false eyelash related industries to make false eyelash products more friendly and safer.
Wang Haibo said that the profit of false eyelashes is not high, and labor costs account for the vast majority of the cost of false eyelashes, and intelligent manufacturing can indeed effectively reduce production labor costs. However, he believes that false eyelashes, as a special beauty product, are not standardized mold production, and the demand for labor is very large. The core link of its production still needs to adhere to pure hand-made, in order to give the product more flexibility and variability, so as to maintain the characteristics of beauty.
Han Songming also said that digital production does not mean a reduction in the demand for labor. The beauty eyelash industry has always been a labor-intensive industry. Since 2015, the compound annual growth rate of the false eyelash industry has been more than 50%, making it a rare sunrise industry in the beauty category. With the development of the entire industry, the demand for the production and processing of labor will only increase, which will only create more jobs and allow more people to live a good life.
For more exciting information, please download the "Central Radio Network" client in the application market. Welcome to provide news clues, 24-hour reporting hotline 400-800-0088, consumers can also complain online through the "Woodpecker Consumer Complaint Platform" of CCTV. Copyright Notice: The copyright of this article belongs to CCTV, and it may not be reproduced without authorization. Please contact [email protected] for reprinting, we will be held accountable for not respecting the original.