Talking about the "dream of gold rush" in the lighting industry of the ancient town

Zhongshan Ancient Town, in this small town of only 47.8 square kilometers, has formed an industrial cluster with the ancient town as the center, covering the three cities and 11 towns in the surrounding three cities of Zhongshan, Foshan, Jiangmen and so on. Last year, the lighting industry of the ancient town accounted for more than 60% of the national market share. According to the estimates from the industry, the total number of enterprises in the industrial cluster is over 2 million, with a population of about 400 thousand.

After more than 30 years of development, the ring of "the capital of China" shines over the ancient town, and the workers from all over the country gather here. "Making money" has become the common dream of the "gold miners" in the ancient town. However, the "gold miners" found that the lighting in the ancient town seems not to be so easy to make money. At the same time, such as long-term checks, quality decline and other issues are also beginning to show, what will the future of the lighting industry go? Can the future lights be brighter for 30 years?

Once

"At that time, we did all the work, and from the beginning of the year to the Spring Festival more than two months, we have done 120 thousand yuan business, earned 40 thousand yuan!"

The "Godfather" in the lighting circle of ancient town

30 years to build the capital of Chinese lighting

After thirty years of development, there are more than 1.1 million lighting manufacturing and sales related enterprises (including individuals) in the ancient town. The number of employees is about 100 thousand, and the output value of the lighting industry is 14 billion 300 million yuan each year. Among them, there are 28 Enterprises with output value of over billion yuan, 50 million ~1 billion yuan, 31 and 20 million ~5000 million yuan.

At present, the ancient town has been formed as the center, covering the 11 towns in the three cities around Zhongshan, Foshan, Jiangmen and so on, and the annual sales of over 100 billion yuan of industrial clusters.

In 2013, the total output value of the lighting industry reached 14 billion 280 million yuan, accounting for more than 60% of the national market share, and the total export was 500 million US dollars. The products not only sold well throughout the country, but also exported to more than 130 countries and regions such as Southeast Asia, the United States and Europe. The lighting and flower and seedling industry in the district has become the two pillar industry of the ancient town.

The old lights are all the miracle of the business.

The first bucket of gold in the light of the "Godfather"

Among the thousands of enterprises in the lighting circle of ancient town, the district family is well known. Among them, the Huayi in the district is the "Whampoa military school" which has been trained more than 300 bosses and is called the lamp decoration.

In 1981, the 29 year old bin Wen began to be a garden industry. One day after 5 years, his cousin, who had been doing the lighting business for a year, told him that the lighting industry was very profitable and suggested that he would turn.

Qu Bingwen, now 62, reminiscent of the years, still impassioned. Although the heart is not bottomless, the district Bing Wen still with two partners together 50 thousand yuan stepped on the road of lighting. "At that time, we did all the work in one hand. In the last two months, we did a 120 thousand yuan business and earned 40 thousand yuan."

Then, the profit began to double, in 1987, district Bing Wen made 2. 3 million yuan; in 1988, earned about 600000 yuan; in 1989, district Bing Wen built a factory, began to use machine production, that year, they earned about 2000000 yuan, and grew a way to grow.

From imitating the lamp to the design of the lamp

Like District Bing Wen, the district family almost all walked the same way: sell accessories, imitate the lights, and then design their own lights. Among them, such as victory ball lighting group chairman, district Bing Wen's cousin District Cheng tcong is a typical example.

In 1990, the 20 year old district Cheng Cong began to do accessories business, and sent the accessories to the East Guangdong area and made the first bucket of gold. Two years later, district Cheng Cong bought a hardware factory called Wei ball, which was called "Wei ball" at the time of the ancient town. He won the name "win the ball", and began to produce and sell the accessories. After half a year, the winning ball began to sell the lamp. From selling accessories to selling lights, the first transition has been completed. In 1994, the vision of district Cheng Cong began to turn from domestic to foreign countries, and began the course of the sale of light imitation.

"Seeing a foreign light is very beautiful, I take the light back to imitate, very good sell, in short supply!" Qu Chengcong told reporters that he was the first person to go out, and later, more and more people went out, and the winning ball began to design his own light.

Now

"It's hard to make money now!" The store has more than 100 square meters, and the monthly rent for each square meter is 60 yuan, and the rent for a moonlight shop is thousands. "

Xiao Zhang, the owner of a lighting accessories shop

The lighting industry in ancient town is fiercely competitive

"Lighting capital" of the sign and platform, huge business opportunities also attract a large number of entrepreneurs and migrant workers, people all over the country into the ancient town. In a small town with only more than 70 thousand people, the population has reached 150 thousand. However, the moneymaking legends of the ancient town have been difficult to perform.

According to Bing Wen, it is estimated that the number of people in the lighting industry, including the surrounding towns, is as many as 400 thousand people. In addition, the individual and private economy of the ancient town were very active, accounting for more than 95% of the total economy.

At present, the ancient town has formed a social atmosphere for the whole people to start a business, the whole town has registered and registered more than 10000 individual industrial and commercial licenses, more than 60% of the families become big and small business owners. There are few lighting companies that have been drafted at the beginning of the year, and the intensity of the competition is really well known.

"It's hard to make money now!" In a lighting accessories store on Changan road in ancient town, the owner of the shop opened the channel to a reporter, although it was hard, but did not earn much money. "The store has more than 100 square meters, and the monthly rent for each square meter is 60 yuan, and the rent for a moonlight shop is a few thousand."

New lights are all living in the world

The dilemma 1: blind profit making the quality of the product worried

In addition to the problem of long - term checks, it is the quality of the product that directly causes death.

"Xiong Ji lighting factory has been producing more low-end products, and the price is very low." Mr. He, a supplier who lost 3 million 410 thousand yuan, told reporters that before this, this billion - billion - class enterprise has used inferior raw materials because of the fierce price competition, and the inferior raw materials eventually bring bad quality products. Due to the emergence of large quantities of poor quality products, the product has been returned to customers, and the bulk is very large, leading to the overstock of a large amount of stock, so that it can not even catch up with the speed of repair. In addition, due to the poor quality of the product, the customer transferred the supplier, which led to the break of the capital chain, so the Yankee incident broke out.

The quality of the product still exists in the small businesses of the ancient town, although the lesson was before. According to the related notification, in the first half of this year, the qualified rate of regular supervision of the city lamps and lanterns was only 70%.

In addition, the "three non" business problems also exist, this year 1~5 months, the town of 1659 enterprises, including 219 enterprises without illumination.

Predicament 2: the road to the patented Power of lighting is difficult

In addition to the above problems, some large enterprises with research and development ability are also faced with the imitation, even plagiarism, of the lighting products. "Although we can apply for patent rights, it is difficult to enforce the law, even if a fine has a long period of litigation." Qu Chengcong said.

In fact, the lighting industry in the ancient town still faces other problems, such as the lack of technical personnel, the weak enterprise innovation ability, the further increase in tax burden pressure, the difficulties in the survival and development of small and medium enterprises, and the rising cost of labor and so on.

"Talent training is not paid enough attention, enterprises do not want to spend a lot of time and financial resources to cultivate talent, at the same time, the mobility of technical talents, the lack of loyalty to the enterprise, cause the enterprise to prevent the existence of their psychology." In a recent industrial analysis report published in the ancient town, it was said.

In addition, most of the enterprises in the ancient town are labor-intensive, lack of technical personnel, lack of investment in technology research and development, product innovation is more embodied in patterns, varieties, product functional innovation, original innovation and technological innovation changes are not enough, original invention patents are less.

Find the way

"The system we develop can be controlled according to the customer's setting, in addition to controlling the extinction, it can also control the intensity of the light."

Li Jun, deputy director of the semiconductor lighting technology research center of Zhongshan University (ancient town)

The lights of the ancient town are to be made of Art

Opportunity 1: research and development for ancient town lighting and hematopoiesis

In the face of these problems, how to deal with and upgrade the lighting industry of the ancient town of one hundred thousand employees? The reporter learned that as early as 2008, the ancient town had begun to look for the road of upgrading and upgrading of the lighting industry, and the team led by Li Jun was one of the cooperation projects between Zhongshan University and the ancient town.

Li Jun is between Guangzhou and Zhongshan. His present position is the deputy director of the center for semiconductor lighting technology research at the Zhongshan University (ancient town). In addition to the intelligent control system, his team is still working on the research and development of semiconductor light sources. In this research center, there are also academicians and professors from Chinese Academy of Sciences. A few months later, these research results will be put into the production of the enterprise.

"The traditional switch can only control a light or a row of lights, but the system we develop can be controlled according to the customer's setting, in addition to control of the light, but also to control the intensity of light." Li Jun said that the system of research and development can also be adjusted to achieve intelligent control according to customer settings.

In addition, the ancient town also joint Zhongshan Polytechnic to build the ancient town lighting college, the introduction of the Zhongshan professional lighting design, marketing, management of the three major, for the lighting industry in the ancient town to cultivate high-quality lighting industry skilled professionals. In September this year, the first batch of students will be placed in the ancient town lamp decoration college in the ancient town of Tong Yi Industrial Park.

Opportunity 2: the time of patent authorization is greatly shortened

For enterprises, the research and development needs a rapid patent licensing mechanism and the rights mechanism to ensure the enthusiasm of the enterprise. Accordingly, in 2011, China's Zhongshan (lamp) intellectual property rights rapid rights center came into being.

"The previous patent from the application to the authorization is about half a year, but the lighting in the ancient town may have been updated in half a year, and it has already been imitated by other enterprises. Now has the intellectual property right fast Rights Center, the enterprise can achieve 10 working days to complete the patent authorization, greatly solved the problem that the enterprise research and development can not go on the market synchronously. Zhou Jintian, director of the center for rapid rights protection, said that after the establishment of the center, the patent application was two digit growth.

"The number of patent applications before the establishment of the rapid Rights Center was about 2000. After the establishment of the center in 2011, it reached more than 2800, more than 3200 in 2012 and more than 4600 in 2013, and last year's patent application was about 1/4 of the city of Zhongshan." It is called.

In addition, the center handles more than 370 cases of patent rights protection, which reflects the rapid improvement of intellectual property rights protection.

In addition, the ancient town also established the Guangdong modern service trading center ancient town sub center, and this is the first branch of the province, for the ancient town lighting enterprises to build an e-commerce, financial and other platforms.

Opportunity 3: the design of personal service brings business opportunities

Lighting industry chain in ancient town