The "Beautiful Industry" of an Agricultural County (New Economic Direction, County Economic Observation)

The reporter of this newspaper is the king of victory

An agricultural county located in eastern Henan has developed a "beauty industry" that accounts for half of the country's output - the makeup brush industry. Luyi County, Zhoukou City, Henan Province has gathered more than 160 makeup brush enterprises, with more than 1,000 supporting business entities, and the export volume of makeup brushes accounts for more than 90% of the country's exports of this category, and the annual sales of the county's makeup brush industry chain have exceeded 13 billion yuan.

How can a makeup brush create such great value? How can a county gather many enterprises? How can an industrial chain lead the beauty industry segments?

Turn waste into treasure and form a pillar industry

The left hand rotates repeatedly to tie the round hair, and the right hand pinched the small basket and gently rises and falls on the hair...... Located in the workshop of Rizeng Brush Co., Ltd. in Songkeng Village, Zhangdian Town, Luyi County, workers stepped up to make orders. Every day, makeup brushes are sent from here to all over the world. "We've turned waste into treasure!" Du Xiaoyun, the head of the company, said.

Luyi used to be a big sheep county, and almost every household raised sheep. In the 70s of the last century, Xie Guoyin, the founder of Rizeng Brush Company, found that sheep's tail hair, which was discarded as waste in Luyi, was bandaged and sold in rolls when he visited relatives in Tianjin.

"The tail hair can also be sold for a high price, why don't we try it too?" Xie Guoyin suggested after returning to the village. The village led everyone to build the first tail hair processing factory in Luyi County, and invited masters from Tianjin to teach skills and deep process tail hair into hair. After that, six or seven surrounding towns followed suit. By the 90s of the last century, there were more than 46,000 tail hair processing practitioners in Luyi, with an annual output value of 3.2 billion yuan, and the products were exported to more than 20 countries and regions.

In the following years, with the gradual expansion of the industrial scale, the disadvantages of single products and lack of core competitiveness began to appear, and the profits of the tail hair processing industry were continuously compressed. Seeing the advantages of foreign trade in coastal areas, local tail hair processing enterprises have left to set up factories to process for foreign makeup brush enterprises.

The turning point came in 2016. In order to attract the lost cosmetic brush industry practitioners to return to their hometowns to start businesses, Luyi County implemented the "Phoenix Return to the Nest Project", planned to build a makeup brush industrial park covering an area of 1,500 acres, and launched many preferential measures: 50 million yuan per year as a return to the hometown entrepreneurship development fund to solve the financing problems of enterprises, and provide a new plant subsidy of 93 yuan per square meter and a rent subsidy of 5 yuan per square meter......

The agglomeration effect then manifests. "Attracted by the county's measures, the operators of several of our neighboring villages decided to return to their hometowns for development. Xie Shaofeng, chairman of Henan Yixinyuan Cosmetic Appliances Co., Ltd., and 3 fellow villagers opened factories, and 4 cosmetic brush companies realized platform co-construction and resource sharing.

Since then, a makeup brush industry cluster integrating product research and development, standard formulation and revision, and brand creation has gradually taken shape in Luyi.

Improve supporting facilities and extend the industrial chain

Walking into the drawing production workshop of Luyi Longze Brush Co., Ltd., the sound of the machine rumbled. Here, the plastic pellets are heated to 125 degrees Celsius and then machine-stretched into man-made wool with a diameter of only 0.075 millimetres.

"This brushing technology makes the elasticity and precision of the chemical cilia better, skin-friendly, easy to wash, and the quality of the makeup brushes is better. Liang Fuye, general manager of the company, said.

Liang Fuye has been engaged in the processing of makeup brushes for many years, and was attracted to return to his hometown by the "Phoenix Return to Nest Project". After half a year of research, he found that the market share of makeup brushes with artificial fiber hair has gradually risen, while most of the makeup brushes in Luyi County are still made of tail hair. Liang Fuye invested 16 million yuan to start a business, and set up a technology research and development team to develop a unique wire drawing technology.

"In recent years, the Luyi makeup brush industry chain has been extended, and the products we produce can be directly sent to the downstream supporting enterprises in the park. Liang Fuye introduced, supporting industries continue to improve, the company's scale has also expanded, now, 4 modern wire drawing production lines, to achieve an annual output of more than 600 tons of man-made fiber wool.

A small makeup brush, and a big way. To make a makeup brush, in addition to the brush head, you also need wooden handles, aluminum tubes and other supporting products. In the past, these products had to be imported from other places. In recent years, Luyi has focused on the leading industry of makeup brushes, focusing on extending, supplementing and strengthening the chain, incubating supporting enterprises in the industrial chain, and all kinds of makeup brush supporting products can be produced in the industrial park.

Henan Mingxin Cosmetic Appliances Co., Ltd. introduced raw materials from Russia for wooden handles, and then customized wooden handles according to the needs of enterprises in the cosmetic brush industrial park, making up for a short board in the local high-end cosmetic brush industry chain...... Up to now, Luyi Cosmetic Brush Industrial Park has gathered a number of single product supply enterprises and cosmetic brush production enterprises in the industrial chain, driving the employment of 66,000 people, forming a complete cosmetic brush industry chain such as tail hair, mouth pipe, aluminum skin, wooden handle, wire drawing, luggage, etc.

In order to ensure the stable operation of the chain, Luyi County continues to improve the supporting infrastructure, enhance the service capacity, and connect the relevant data of makeup brush products and output in the park with China Makeup Brush Network, China Post Logistics Park and other platforms in real time, fully smooth the logistics channels, and invest 50 million yuan to build a Henan Province Makeup Brush Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, equipped with 310 sets (sets) of inspection and testing equipment, which can carry out quality inspection of the whole industry chain of makeup brushes.

Makeup brushes are only the front end of beauty products, and in the next step, Luyi County plans to continue to extend the industrial chain and make the makeup and beauty industry bigger and stronger.

Create a brand and take the lead in compiling standards

"Today, I recommend a fine hair foundation brush of its own brand for everyone, which has a good powder grabbing effect and soft skin touch......" In the e-commerce live broadcast room of Henan Zhengyi Industry Co., Ltd., the anchor Cui Jie held a new makeup brush and displayed it on the screen.

"At first, we mainly focused on foreign trade orders, a few yuan for a makeup brush when it leaves the factory, and the value of a label can reach 100 yuan when it leaves the factory. When it comes to the reason for creating its own brand, Qin Yingcheng, chairman of Zhengyi Company, said, "To enhance the added value of products, we need to make our own brand!"

With the help of the expert team dispatched by the Luyi County Government, the company set up a research and development team, used big data to analyze consumer habits, improved the shape and function of makeup brush products in many aspects, created its own brand, and built a new medium and high-end makeup brush production line, with an annual output of 30 million pieces (sets).

At present, the company has 6 independent trademarks, and produces beauty products such as false eyelashes in addition to makeup brushes. Qin Yingcheng introduced that after the establishment of its own brand, the company's product recognition has been continuously improved, and sales have increased, "Our products are mainly sold to Japan and South Korea, and the profit has increased by 30% compared with before."

Leading brand building with innovation, local enterprises have created more than 60 independent brands, developed more than 100 varieties of products in 14 categories, such as beauty makeup pens and aviation instrument brushes, authorized 214 patents, and declared more than 90 technical patents. Luyi County took the lead in compiling provincial-level local standards for makeup brushes and issuing them for implementation to fill the gap in local standards for such products in China. Under the traction of industry standards, the name of "made in Luyi" makeup brushes is getting louder and louder.

People's Daily (2024-04-14 02 Edition)