"Double-digit growth in 2024!"
In the context of the "darkest moment" of beauty OEMs, such a goal seems to be a "fool's dream" - in the past year, dozens of cosmetics companies across the country have cancelled their production licenses, the pace of industry clearance has been further accelerated, and the "volume" of various competitive dimensions has been upgraded, and the entire beauty industry has ushered in structural restructuring in the turbulent change.
However, Fan Zhanhua, the head of Nosbel, is convinced.
Fan Zhanhua, chairman and president of Qingsong Co., Ltd. and CEO of Nosbel
20 years of entrepreneurship, there is no "magic trick" only "reliable"
A mottled and yellowed notebook of non-woven fabrics covered with various small square fabrics is the starting point of Nosbel.
At the 20th anniversary celebration held a few days ago, Nosbel used a time corridor to vividly present the growth history of the company from an unknown small factory to one of the world's four largest cosmetics ODM companies and the world's largest mask ODM scale.
Starting from the three-person founding team in 2004, to the successful breakthrough of 100 million yuan in 2009, it soared all the way to more than 1 billion yuan in 2015, and until it set an annual revenue record of 2.67 billion yuan in 2020, Nosbel's 20-year development history is not only the evolution of the global mask category, but also witnessed the golden age of the rise of China's beauty industry.
Throughout Nosbel's journey, it has embarked on at least two rounds. The first round was the huge OEM demand generated by the rapid development of Chinese local brands, especially the facial mask category, around 2010, and the second round was the surge in orders brought about by the rise of cutting-edge brands online after 2017. This is intuitively reflected in the revenue, from 2015 to 2018 in just 4 years, Nosbel has completed an astonishing leap from 1 billion to 2 billion.
"Our earliest clients were multinational companies like Avon, Nivea and Watsons, all of which we have been working with for at least 15 years. In an exclusive interview before the opening of the anniversary, Fan Zhanhua excitedly recalled to FBeauty that in 2006, he participated in the 100th Canton Fair, shuttling through the exhibition halls where thousands of merchants gathered, and at that time he clearly realized that "who to be with" is important in doing business.
It turns out that the starting point of the business and the cooperation with "discerning" giant customers such as Mentholatum and Beiersdorf not only brought Nosbel stable orders, but also brought a deep impact on all aspects of the operation, such as production standards, management processes and consumer insights.
Up to now, Nosbel has built four production bases and three R&D centers, opening up the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, forming a comprehensive layout of raw materials, R&D, design, production, products and testing. The business scope not only includes a variety of exclusive high-end mask categories such as microfiber "milk skin" masks, graphene masks, freeze-dried masks, etc., but also horizontally expands the skin care business of all categories such as creams, emulsions, essences, makeup removers, and wash care.
"Our products have been sold to more than 40 countries and regions around the world, and now we are close to covering Antarctica. Fan Zhanhua said with a smile that the existing more than 400 customers can be divided into three categories: international companies, local head enterprises and cutting-edge brands, covering multinational companies such as Procter & Gamble and Unilever, and also building a stable cooperative relationship with well-known domestic products such as Botanical Doctor and Nature Hall.
Unlike most OEM companies, which focus on orders for production, Nosbel has long focused on the construction of "factory branding", not only actively participating in various industry exhibition activities, releasing more than 150 new products in the exhibition every year, but also participating in the drafting of the world's first "electrospun fiber film for cosmetics" group standard, reflecting the industry status and mission of first-class enterprises.
Compared with fame, "reliable" is the industry evaluation that Fan Zhanhua is most proud of.
Fan Zhanhua told "FBeauty Future Traces" that in the past 20 years, Nosbel has grown rapidly with the development of the industry, "All along, we have no routines, and there are no tricks - customers have needs, we go to production, customers say that the production capacity is not enough, we will increase equipment, customers want to disinfect and rectify, we will respond and cooperate." It is in the process of satisfying one by one that the company has achieved steady development. ”
He repeatedly emphasized that "customer first" and truly meet the needs of the brand has always been the key to the business that Nosbel adheres to.
And to put it in place in practice, this is a great test of the basic skills of the foundry. For example, ampoules and freeze-dried masks have a large market demand, but the requirements for processes and equipment are high, and not every brand factory has such production capacity. The satisfaction of this differentiated production line is also a differentiated business opportunity that Nosbel has observed.
No matter which subdivision it is involved in, Nosbel's requirements are that it must be "specialized" and "thorough". For example, in the production of a makeup remover product, Nosbel will thoroughly study the category from market insight to scientific research trends, and thoroughly penetrate the resources of this chain, and finally complete a set of solutions in the co-creation with the enterprise. This kind of value that is needed at any time is also the confidence that Nosbel still has the confidence to return to double-digit growth and profit improvement under the trend of leading enterprises building their own industrial chains.
Technology + efficiency, the key to return to growth
It is obvious to all that in recent years, both Chinese and foreign enterprises, the pace of new brands is becoming "slow", which is behind the demand for compliance, more is the underlying driving force of the consumer market is changing, in the face of increasingly rational consumers, brands are more cautious in the operation, especially pay attention to the "quality-price ratio" in the production side.
This is the challenge of the times in the foundry industry, and it is also a key opportunity for leading enterprises to complete their efforts.
"At present, our two feet have basically been pulled out of the quagmire, after a major adjustment, the company has entered a benign state as a whole", Fan Zhanhua told "FBeauty Future" excitedly, the annual growth target of the confidence, in addition to the continuous optimism about the growth of the market market, as well as the internal technological innovation and efficiency improvement of the growth engine.
Fan Zhanhua knows that solid scientific research is an important proposition based on the era of scientific and technological skin care. In the past few years, Nosbel has invested an average of more than 87 million yuan in R&D every year. Up to now, the company has a R&D team of more than 180 people, has 139 patents, participated in the formulation of 14 national, industry and group standards, and has been rated as a "national high-tech enterprise" for many years.
He said that Nosbel will continue to increase R&D investment, and adopt a targeted training method to introduce professional talents, and will also focus on in-depth industry-university-research cooperation, co-creation and symbiosis with customers and suppliers, co-research and sharing, jointly create explosive products, and deeply broaden the product chain. It is reported that it has established in-depth cooperation with 6 universities including Jinan University and Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, as well as 8 scientific research institutions such as China-Singapore International Joint Research Institute and NAMI.
Specifically, in the innovation of "chip" raw materials, Nosbel will accelerate the pace of research and development of new materials, focusing on the development of high-tech raw materials such as synthetic biological raw materials, electroactive technology materials, natural plant mud raw materials, natural microecological regulation raw materials, etc., promote the application and market transformation of high-tech raw materials, and play a role in product efficacy improvement and transdermal absorption.
This series of operations will eventually build Nosbel into an innovation platform and form a unique innovation ecosystem.
This kind of thinking is highly consistent with the open innovation ideas advocated by international beauty giants and leading beauty companies, and in a wide range of links, Nosbel has also become an important force in the industry's scientific and technological innovation.
In addition to the deep "volume" of scientific and technological innovation, as a benchmark manufacturing enterprise, Nosbel also attaches great importance to reducing costs, increasing efficiency and organizational upgrading of the whole link through digitalization.
As early as 2015, Nosbel implemented the "Machine Substitution" digitalization project. Today, the digital links of Nosbel's key businesses from R&D, production, finished products to logistics are in real-time and transparent information flow. The intelligent production workshop of more than 120,000 square meters and the digital equipment accounting for more than 82% of the production equipment have endowed it with the efficient transformation of digital intelligence. So far, the average time to plate efficiency has increased by 19.5%, and the average time to control time efficiency of formula documents has increased by 22.2%.
In Fan Zhanhua's plan, in 2024, Nosbel will further upgrade, iterate, and improve the digital management system, embrace AI technology, continue to accelerate the construction of digital factories, and upgrade digital equipment to 90%, so as to realize end-to-end digital management of the whole life cycle of products.
It can be said that in the face of a more uncertain 2024, Nosbel has found the certainty of returning to growth by focusing on technology and efficiency with one hand, and this courage to go against the wind is driven by a higher-level corporate mission.
A new narrative of a century-old dream,
See the value background of Made in China
Standing at a new starting point at the age of 20, Nosbel, as a supply-side party, is at a turbulent turning point in the "three waves" of quality upgrading of consumer demand, comprehensive structural restructuring of the industry and iteration of technological change.
Under the new competitive environment, the reshuffle of supply chain enterprises will be further accelerated, and the traditional OEM enterprises with volume formula technology and price are facing huge challenges.
"Large scale and wide business do not mean that the enterprise is really strong. Fan Zhanhua said, for example, in the era of the pursuit of traffic and low prices, some people used to produce a four-dime mask, but now there will be no brands to roll like this, because the market reality determines that such companies have no way to live.
As a representative of the "specialized, special and new" development model, Nosbel compares itself to a "catering group", with teams that do different "cuisines" for different categories to meet the needs of different users, and to do enough thorough and deep in the subdivided field.
With the experience of cooperating with many Chinese and foreign enterprises in the past 20 years, Fan Zhanhua is deeply aware that the gap between Chinese enterprises and foreign giants is not only raw materials and formulas, but the ability to systematically manage the whole chain from consumer insight to delivery solutions, which is also the core of Chinese enterprises facing future competition.
To have this kind of systematic combat capability, the core is to establish a sound management system within the enterprise, so that management becomes a culture and a habit, and cannot be chaotic because of the wind and grass of the environment. By managing systematically, we can find certainty in dealing with uncertain times.
While highlighting the short-term goal of double-digit growth, Nosbel also systematically answered the ultimate question of "who am I", and lit up the value background of Chinese beauty manufacturing enterprises in the new era with a new management thinking.
Fan Zhanhua said that looking to the future, Nosbel will move towards a new vision of "becoming a world-class beauty and health company" with the new mission of "making everyone look 10 years younger", and set the corporate values as "user first, struggle with me".
Fan Zhanhua introduced to "FBeauty Future Traces" that in the face of the future, Nosbel must re-examine itself from a longer-term perspective, reorganize a new mission and vision according to the time latitude of 100 years, and guide the company to move forward firmly with correct values.
Although the current valuation of "Nosbel" itself as a factory brand has reached 1.25 billion yuan, Fan Zhanhua is not satisfied with this, and said that he will be more patient, confident and determined to build a closed loop on products, R&D and talents, and strive to build a "century-old store".
In this thorny century-old expedition, exploring sustainable development models and pursuing business for good is one of the strategies that Nosbel is implementing.
It is reported that Nosbel actively explores innovative upcycled materials, uses plant by-products and residual materials to extract functional substances, and transforms them into "green + efficacy" cloud fiber plant clay smear mask, reducing costs and reducing waste, and has been rated as a "national green supply chain management enterprise" by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. While saving energy and reducing emissions, Nosbel actively undertakes corporate social responsibility and continues to evolve from a strong company to a good company.
It is worth mentioning that in order to build a world-class enterprise and meet the current needs of domestic customers going overseas, Nosbel has made a layout in advance and has obtained the GMPC (US-FDA) and customs AEO advanced certification enterprises. Not only that, for the halal regional cosmetics market, Nosbel has also set up a halal cosmetics workshop, which has passed the Indonesian MUI halal and BPJPH certification.
For the growth of overseas markets, Fan Zhanhua also showed strong expectations, believing that with the rise of China's economy, the reputation of Made in China will definitely improve on the world stage, "It takes time and a process, but the result is certain."
The wind and waves of change are more urgent. Standing at the beginning of 2024, with the pragmatic thinking of "co-creation and symbiosis", to create an open and sustainable innovation ecosystem, Nosbel held high the torch towards the centennial journey, and also illuminated the value background of Chinese beauty manufacturing in the new era.
"This year will definitely be better than last year. Fan Zhanhua ended the interview with this, and walked briskly into the stage spotlight.
Author/Liu Ying
Proofreading / Li Lin