In a 100-square-meter workshop in an office building in The Sanwan Industrial Park in Linxiang City, more than a dozen young people tapped on computers to check the status of orders. At their desks, long circular paper tubes were stacked, and on the table were stacks of courier orders. These young men skillfully used a plastic tube to tie up a slender buoy, put them into a round paper tube, and attached a courier slip to send it away.
Don't underestimate these buoys, each weighing only a few grams, but the maximum price can reach a few hundred yuan. Behind it are tens of millions of fishing enthusiasts across the country.
Linxiang, located in northern Hunan Province, is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Yueyang City, Hunan Province, but relying on the local innate natural advantages, small buoys have now become a business card here. In 2014, the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce approved the "Linxiang Buoy" as a Chinese geographical certification trademark.
Li Hongyi, director of the Linxiang Buoy Industry Development Center, was interviewed by the First Financial 1 °C reporter and introduced that Linxiang's current buoy production enterprises have reached more than 780, and the annual output of buoys has exceeded 100 million, accounting for 80% of the national market share. As a result, the scale of the entire fishing tackle industry reached more than 3 billion yuan, attracting more than 30,000 employed people, and 8 brands were awarded the famous trademarks of Hunan Province. Linxiang is already a veritable "hometown of China's buoys".
The city's latest plan for the buoy industry is to accelerate the construction of buoy characteristic towns, so that the production, warehousing and logistics of the fishing tackle industry led by the buoy are more large-scale, and strive to achieve an output value of 5 billion yuan in the entire industry of fishing tackle (buoy) during the "14th Five-Year Plan" (2021~2025) period, and drive the total output value of related industrial development to 10 billion yuan.
A big industry made of thatch
Walking on the streets of Linxiang, except for some advertising slogans, there is no too obvious buoy shadow, and it is difficult to associate such a street scene with the impression of "the hometown of China's buoys".
Li Hongyi told the 1°C reporter that 80% of the buoy production enterprises in Linxiang are in the urban area, and the rest are scattered in some townships. Buoy production generally does not need too large plants and large equipment, these enterprises are basically not facing the street, in the street can not see too many production enterprises. In recent years, some large enterprises have built factories in industrial parks outside the city.
"It can be said that among the 5 fishing enthusiasts in the country, 4 people have buoys produced in Linxiang." Li Liming, deputy general manager of Hunan Chihai Buoy Fishing Tackle Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chihai Fishing Tackle"), said that hundreds of buoy manufacturers throughout Linxiang account for 80% of the national buoy market.
At present, the domestic fishing tackle market has basically formed a pattern: "The rod of Weihai, the standard of Linxiang". Like Weihai fishing rods, the market position of Linxiang buoys is unshakable.
So how did Linxiang, an unknown small city, become the leader of domestic buoy products?
The threshold for buoy production is not high, but it has its own special product format. From the perspective of raw materials alone, Linxiang has certain innate advantages. The main raw material of the buoy is the thatched plant represented by Bamao, Linxiang is close to the Yangtze River, the territory of the river and lake is dense, this type of plant is very common, so it is easy to take materials.
Fishing with buoys made of barmons has a long history. Historical records record that during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, Liu Huang, an official from Linxiang, went to Taiwan to serve as a military station and brought buoy production technology to Taiwan.
In the early 1990s, Liu Huang's descendants in Taiwan and two other merchants brought the modern buoy production process back to Linxiang, opening the road of enterprise production of Linxiang buoys. "Linxiang originally had the tradition of making buoys, which were taken out by the Linxiang people to form a modern craft, and eventually returned to Linxiang, which is a typical road of phoenix returning to the nest."
On November 25, in a six-story factory building in the Sanwan Industrial Park outside Linxiang City, the workers of a buoy production enterprise were working intensively, and the colored thin rods were particularly eye-catching, and the workers inserted the thin rods into the two ends of the jujube core-shaped buoy body and fixed them, and a complete buoy product was processed. Workers say that the middle jujube core is the buoy body, the thin rod that enters the water is called the standard foot, and the thin rod standing on the water surface is called the standard tail.
This enterprise is the buoy production enterprise established by Liu's descendants back to Linxiang, which was called Mingchang Company at that time, after nearly 30 years of development, Mingchang Company has undergone changes such as share changes, and now the enterprise that inherits its mantle names the company and product with a well-known fairy tale character - Snow White buoy fishing tackle.
Li Liming told the 1 °C reporter that at the beginning of the enterprise production of buoys landing in Linxiang, a high-level buoy can be sold for tens of yuan or even hundreds of yuan, while the average monthly wage of local towns is only a few hundred yuan, and the high profits are attractive, attracting many locals to enter the industry, which has become the most important inducement for the rapid growth and blossoming of buoy production in Linxiang.
Li Liming unforgettable early running sales experience. "More than a decade ago, transportation and communication were not yet developed, and sales inevitably had a backpacker state", carrying a backpack full of buoys, boarding the train, arriving in a city and looking for fishing tackle shops one by one to release goods. Li Liming recalled to the 1 °C reporter that the main body of buoy sales at that time was still fishing tackle shops everywhere, but due to the underdevelopment of information and information, even in a city, inquiring about the location of fishing tackle shops can only rely on asking, and the efficiency is not high.
At that time, the most effective way to promote products was to participate in the exhibition. Li Liming has been selling at the fishing tackle city in Dachang, Hebei Province, for many years, and has participated in the exhibition held in Huairou, Beijing, "At that time, there was no convention center, and the meeting was held in a hotel in Huairou." What impressed Li Liming the most was that the fishing tackle exhibition was getting hotter and hotter every year, and a hotel could not accommodate exhibitors, and at most the organizers rented three hotels as exhibition venues.
The biggest gain of the exhibition is to directly contact the customers of the field, after the end of the exhibition, the organizer will provide each participant with a contact book, which contains the specific information of fishing tackle shops and fishing tackle companies around the world, "This booklet is very useful, in the year when transportation, communications, and information are not developed, it can bring great convenience to sales." Li Liming said.
The popularity of sales and production is undoubtedly a sign of the prosperity of the buoy industry, but problems soon arise. Li Hongyi told the 1 °C reporter that Linxiang is currently engaged in more than 700 enterprises engaged in buoy production, both large-scale large enterprises and family workshops, and high-end and low-end products have coverage. However, precisely because of the low threshold, the phenomenon of malicious price reduction and counterfeiting of counterfeit brand-name products has long been not new in this industry.
30 years of change: from thatch to nanomaterials
"It is too easy to make money by making buoys, there is no product of its own, from large manufacturers to buy goods sold on Taobao, it is easy for a family of three to earn more than 100,000 yuan a year," Li Liming described the current industry format. However, Li Liming and other practitioners believe that this is not a long-term development path, although the high-end and low-end products have long been formed, but in order to make this industry bigger and better, we must concentrate on researching technology and market demand to make the products that best meet the market demand, and at the same time realize the continuous innovation and upgrading of products.
Now, Li Liming is still focusing on sales, but he spends a lot of time fishing, and his footprints are all over the country, including pits, pond fishing, and wild fishing in rivers and lakes. Because when running sales in the north, a customer asked him, "Can't fish, what buoy do you do." This sentence made Li Liming suddenly wake up, and after asking some fishing experts for advice, he understood that different fish in different waters have different habits of biting bait, so the requirements for buoys are also different.
"The buoy body seems to be date-core-shaped, but there are differences in shape, and there will be differences in the speed of turning over after entering the water, as well as differences in the state of the water, which will determine whether the fish can be caught." Li Liming took out a number of buoys to introduce performance to 1 °C reporters. These are the summaries of his fishing experience formed over the years after fishing, and ultimately guide the development of products.
"Don't explore fishing skills by yourself, study products, rely on simple imitation, product types will not be more, and finally can only make low-end products", Li Liming summed up the impact of fishing skills on buoy production. Correspondingly, as a leading enterprise of pond sea fishing tackle, buoy products are not only upgraded, but also designed and produced electronic intelligent buoys, fish detectors and other new products.
The increase in the production of buoys in Linxiang, as well as the soaring production of buoys, has almost coincided with the growth of the fishing enthusiast group in China. The threshold of this hobby of fishing is not high, participants are young and old, as long as they buy fishing rods, buoys, fishing lines and other equipment, even if they join the ranks, they also need to explore fishing skills through practice.
So how many fishing enthusiasts are there in China? Some say more than 100 million, and the China Fishing Association estimates that the figure is 50 to 60 million. Li Liming and other Linxiang buoy production enterprise owners generally believe that it must be tens of millions, and it is still growing.
Buoy production is easy, fishing participants are huge, buoys represented by fishing tackle is the just need of this hobby, how to make a fishing enthusiast really like buoy, is the most important issue in this industry.
At the beginning of industrialization and the early years of enterprise production, the gap between buoy products has existed, mainly reflected in the product material, especially the foot and tail. The current markings and tails are made of fiberglass or carbon fiber, but nearly 30 years ago, these were rare.
Li Liming told the 1 °C reporter that after he entered the buoy industry in the 90s of the last century, many predecessors mentioned to him that they could not get fiberglass and carbon fiber, and could only use bamboo instead. After finding the bamboo, use the machine that makes the sweater needle to polish it to the thickness of the sweater needle. "That's why in the 1990s and early 2000s, buoys were thicker and more homogeneous."
Because of the scarcity of materials, the price of buoys made of fiberglass or carbon fiber is naturally high, and the high and low ends of buoy products are gradually formed. With the popularity of fiberglass and carbon fiber, the price of buoys has declined, and the number of buoy companies has increased faster and faster.
After nearly 30 years of development, Linxiang buoy products are diverse in form, including traditional products represented by thatch such as bash, engraved with deep handicraft imprints, and new products represented by nanomaterials, with a high level of automated production.
E-commerce promotes industrial upgrading
Zhang Chang, president of the Linxiang Buoy Fishing Tackle E-commerce Association, told 1 °C reporter that according to the current development speed, by 2020, the online sales of Linxiang buoys will exceed offline sales, and the e-commerce of buoy sales has become the norm.
Li Liming told the 1 °C reporter that after statistics, on the day of double 11 alone, the sales volume of buoys in the pond sea fishing tackle reached more than 20,000. On the afternoon of November 25, when talking with a 1°C reporter, two customers came to Li Liming's office and took away the boxes of buoys that had been ordered earlier and prepared to sell them through Taobao.
Li Hongyi told the 1 °C reporter that the popularity and rapid development of the Internet has completely subverted the fishing tackle industry represented by buoys. Especially the speed made him feel that there were too many new things to learn. "Taking sales as an example, it was initially on Taobao, and after the emergence of new platforms such as JD.com and Pinduoduo, Taobao channels were differentiated. These are not fully eaten, and have been upgraded to short videos or live streams."
The continuous innovation of e-commerce sales channels and models has really made buoy business owners unable to quickly convert in understanding and thinking. Li Liming recalled to the 1 °C reporter that Chihai fishing tackle has always adhered to the national unified price, but agents sell on Taobao, the price will be slightly adjusted, most of them are lowered, so how much of the impact on the brand strategy. After Tmall became independent from Taobao, he resolutely proposed to establish the company's official Tmall flagship store as soon as possible.
"At that time, the company had a Taobao store, and the sales were good, and many people thought that it was superfluous to build a Tmall store." It was not until it was discovered that the quality assurance of Tmall's official flagship store promoted the unified price strategy that the company's tmall official flagship store was launched.
Zhang Chang told the 1 °C reporter that buoy producers accept and learn Internet sales, there is a process, "after all, it is a new thing, some people are old, the computer and smart phone proficiency must be learned for a long time, some people still rely on offline traditional sales, we can only continue to provide a variety of suggestions, teach learning methods and skills." ”
In addition to serving as the president of the E-commerce Association, Zhang Chang also runs his own buoy business. Next to the company's sales platform, a special live broadcast room is set up, and from time to time online live broadcasts are carried out to introduce buoy products and explain fishing techniques. Li Liming's office also has a tripod for live broadcast equipment erection. "I used to do live broadcasting, but now I do less, and I want to do a good job of live broadcasting, which is very tiring." Li Liming said that what he pursues is the quality of live content. In his view, his fishing skills can be handy, the company's products sell well, since he chose to do live broadcasting, he should invest in it, explain and record with his heart, "I have always felt that good products are popular, and good content will not be watched by no one." ”
As the head of the buoy industry support department set up by the Linxiang Municipal Government, Li Hongyi has also made great efforts in researching the fishing tackle industry. "Short videos and live broadcasts are very hot, many fishing big V have also been live broadcast, their driving role in the fans is very strong, it is possible to produce a good role in carrying goods," Li Hongyi attaches great importance to short videos and live broadcasts with goods, and colleagues in the department have time to study, but also to contact the domestic fishing big V as an important task.
According to the data released by the Linxiang Municipal Government, the city currently has more than 100 fishing tackle Tmall stores and Jingdong stores, nearly 300 e-commerce enterprises have developed, and e-commerce sales are expected to reach 80% of the entire fishing tackle (buoy) market share.
However, Li Hongyi told the 1 °C reporter that although the popularity is high, the buoy industry is not the largest economic industry in Linxiang. From the perspective of business format, buoy production is labor-intensive and does not have high technical content, but this industry can attract employment, and the output value created is also considerable, which is of great help to enhance the popularity of Linxiang, so Linxiang supports the development of the buoy industry from the government level.
The Linxiang Municipal Government has established in recent years to support the creation of the entire fishing tackle industry represented by buoys. In addition to buoys, fishing tackle companies such as bait and fishing platforms have also been established in Linxiang.
In order to expand the industry and enhance its popularity, Linxiang City and the China Fishing Sports Association have linked up to build an international standard fishing event venue in Linxiang, and hold a number of international and national fishing events in Linxiang every year.
However, from the perspective of Managers such as Li Hongyi, the Linxiang buoy industry continues to develop well, and there is still a lot of work to be done. Linxiang's current large-scale fishing tackle (buoy) enterprises are not many, and more leading enterprises are definitely needed to drive, there are too many small scattered enterprises, and the industrial scale and format will be affected.
In addition, the industry must have standards. Li Hongyi told the 1 °C reporter that the city has unified technical standards, the fishing tackle (buoy) industry standard formulated by the China Light Industry Federation, 10 buoy companies across the country provide technical texts, and Linxiang accounts for 8.
In July 2019, Linxiang City formulated implementation opinions on accelerating the construction of buoy characteristic towns, covering an area of 3.5 square kilometers, laying out commercial and trade areas, production areas, living areas and fishing areas within this range, and striving to achieve an output value of 5 billion yuan in the entire industry of fishing tackle (buoy) during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and driving the total value of related industrial development of 10 billion yuan.
Moreover, in the buoy industrial park, we will focus on supporting three or five large-scale enterprises to grow into 100 million yuan enterprises, and strive to support the annual loan scale of the fishing tackle industry of not less than 50 million yuan from 2019.
At the same time, guide the leading fishing tackle enterprises to enter the park, and the workshop enterprises to enter the town cluster development, and the enterprises entering the park need to reach the scale of enterprises within one year. In the Three Bays Production Zone, we plan to build fishing tackle e-commerce logistics warehousing, lead the construction of large-scale standard network warehousing, and complete the construction by 2021 to promote the development of fishing tackle (buoy) e-commerce to big data and intelligence.