Two times increase in business confidence: full bet on stainless steel faucet

There was still a question as to why he had sold China's best cooker company to the French SEB Group in 2006. Zengfu unwilling to talk about it, but said, "the pot, a labor-intensive industry, will move to other countries." We sold a good price. ”





, the chairman of the Supor group, is more than happy to talk about his work over the years: Stainless steel faucets. Talk to the rise, he asked employees to bring the kitchen faucet, pointing at its connection to the reporter introduced Argon arc welding, laser welding and other welding technology. He also took a pencil on A4 paper to write a painting, trying to explain how his stainless steel faucet on the human body is harmless.





This is a generous said he had for supor two degrees of tears, if only to see "China's first generation of entrepreneurs in the time of the Second war industrial" image, it seems monotonous. Let alone zengfu many times "pointing" reporter should be toward which direction curiosity, "in the Sanitary ware industry This 4 years time, I walk the road too twists and turns".





in the second half of 2007, the Sioux family from the French hand to the transfer of funds, Zengfu not long-term (more than 1 months) rest. From the 80 's in Zhejiang province Taizhou Yuhuan County, Chen Yu Town farm machinery factory, ranging from Shenyang double Happiness Pressure cooker accessories business, Sue has been working for more than 30 years. The vacuum of selling the company made him uncomfortable, "people are all right, find something to do." If I don't do anything, I won't grow old faster?





su Hometown complex is very strong. Its son Su Xianze 2006 thinks, this will be reflected in the direction of Supor group investment. About two years later, Yuhuan County to supor shares to produce stainless steel accessories suppliers to find Zengfu chat, said to consider the production of stainless steel faucet.





"STAINLESS steel faucet" These words in Sue's heart stirred up a splash. Yuhuan County is known as China faucet production base, 2007 output value of 6.669 billion yuan. But the Sue, born in Yuhuan County, knows that, like any industrial cluster in the eastern seaboard of China, the faucet industry in China is not as developed. Their industrial concentration is low, it is said that China's largest faucet production enterprises accounted for 3% of the market share, and this is a production value of tens of billions of yuan industry. Zengfu saw the competition space, also saw the direction, "copper faucet containing lead, lead dissolved in water, this is poison." The impact on adults is still small, children under five years old if absorbed too much, there is a risk of dementia. Stainless steel faucet does not contain lead ingredient.





Zengfu do not understand the computer, do not fry stocks, not capital players. He likes manufacturing. Factories, products these entities make him feel safe. After the sale of Supor shares, Zengfu personal hand has no industrial projects. He decided to buy the supplier and enter the stainless steel faucet field.





result, Zengfu was put together. "After the discovery, in the process of the acquisition of the other party did a lot of things, including doing false accounting to increase assets, etc." People familiar with the matter said.





Sue is not discouraged. This entrepreneurial decades-old entrepreneurs want to be in Supor bathroom Supor before 2006, the development trajectory of the shares, the "Lao" road he should be at home, but look back at the past, he said that some wishful thinking.





"actually entered the industry, we found that it is impossible to be modified." Copper faucet is still in the mechanized, semi mechanized era, cannot be transformed into automated production lines. The high melting point of stainless steel, difficult to process molding, with the production of copper faucet technology, can not weld stainless steel. After the welding is finished, the faucet surface needs to be polished smooth and seamless, the distance between the torch and the faucet is not bad, also cannot depend on manpower. Everything has to come back. ”




The acquisition by
Supor Group ended in a loss of tens of millions of yuan. Zengfu is aware of the design of the company and the factory from the characteristics of stainless steel materials. He was a stove. 2009, Supor Sanitary Ware Company was established.





according to Sue now, the company was founded also for emotional considerations, "with the people behind me, together to achieve supor." They are now working for French workers, can the French always hold them? Maybe not, then we have no way to go. So I said, leave a place for our children to make a bread. ”





However, this kind of pity did not get much response in 2009. People who have grown up with Supor are now at least senior executives at public companies and pay very high salaries, according to people familiar with the matter. They were too bitter to be able to follow the faucet from the beginning. ”





may be because did not extend to enough talent, Supor sanitary Ware Company was founded when Zengfu afterwards quite regret the mistake.





At that time, the company for how to 304 medical stainless steel pipe welding up the puzzled, according to the previous investigation experience in the country, Zengfu did not think what can be referenced precedent. Supor in mainland China can not even find the required automatic surface welding machine, "We also to Shenyang machine tool factory customized millions of yuan equipment, but still difficult to meet our requirements." ”





Supor to solve the problem on his own. It to the upstream of the industrial chain, began in Yuhuan County to develop and produce stainless steel faucet equipment, "one side of experience, a transformation of equipment." 2010 years or so, Supor almost self-made a full set of production equipment, including more than 40 units per unit cost of about 260,000 yuan welding machine.





the experiment was unsuccessful. Supor welding machine developed for stainless steel materials, in the process of welding, can not prevent solder as candle as scattered. The scars they produce on the surface of the product are hard to be sold by grinding and polishing.





Nevertheless, in 4 years time, Supor still spend 100 million yuan try to produce hundreds of thousands of stainless steel faucet products. The solution to the polishing problem has benefited from ABB's polishing of several robots from Foxconn to Supor for finishing process debugging. The trial operation effect is good, zengfu in each production line has placed more than 10 units. The 2012 summer welding problem was also solved. He found a widely used solid-melting process in the aerospace industry. This, Sue says, is a welding process that relies on thousands of degrees of heat to rearrange the stainless steel tubes from the microscopic point of view of molecules. The surface, welded by the process, "cannot find a gap".





this way, the previous welding machine has been useless. "There are other devices that are basically replaced by 2011. This must be tens of millions of (replacement cost).





Originally, Zengfu think, supor bathroom no longer like the creation of Supor cooker decades ago, while the production side of the transformation equipment. Today Supor sanitary ware Yuhuan, Shenyang production base in the "Automated assembly line", should have appeared even step, ABB, solid melting process is not the two years before the Advent.





The reason why the equipment localization of the road, should be attributed to the investment before the investigation is insufficient. "When we went to Guangdong, the company that received us said that there were no stainless steel faucet manufacturers abroad, basically they were doing it themselves." Considering that they have been engaged in OEM for so many years, and almost the largest factory in China ... The chairman rarely goes abroad, we are the two years only through the company's foreign trade department know foreign stainless steel faucet brand. People familiar with the matter said.





Zengfu that "the road is so long" or because of their low academic qualifications. "Stupid man, he did some stupid work. I am a junior high school graduate, some things are not very well spoken. If I had a higher degree of education, my IQ would be a little higher, which might not take 4 years. ”





"Taste of course is uncomfortable. In particular, the early progress of the project is not smooth, sometimes I also feel the pressure is very big, dry very tired. "Sue did not expect to produce the stainless steel faucet He asked for" really very difficult, it seems endless. He was born in 1941 and now has a monthly commute to 3 cities, with a "full schedule".





He said, he is so hard to be dissatisfied with the humble situation of Chinese consumers-have to endure thousands of yuan and unhealthy faucet, and sanitary products are all international brands of the world. "What is the difference in quality of Chinese products? I just want to shorten the gap".





Supor Group was also so full of clockwork. The company has invested 700 million yuan in the production of stainless steel faucet, if the land of Shenyang production base, plant, etc. do not fear depreciation of fixed assets, 4 years of single trial and error fee, research and development costs, raw materials, etc. have also been consumed to zengfu about 300 million yuan. He built 8 (2013 will reach 11, 3-5-Year plan to build 54) a relatively high degree of automation of production lines, only to be equipped with 42 workers, a single annual output of 750,000. Sue plans to use modern factories to achieve large-scale production.





but the consequences of the lack of information channels continue to appear-stainless steel faucet is now a very small market. According to Supor Sanitary Ware National Operations director Liu Yan, "stainless steel faucet accounted for the global tap market ratio will not exceed 1%".





Moreover, it is difficult to find the explosive growth of the market in the near future. For China's long drinking water pollution chain, the replacement of stainless steel faucet increased safety factor is tantamount to a drop in the bucket. For export, the United States stipulated that after January 4, 2014, the access to drinking water products and equipment to reduce the lead content from the previous 8% to 0.25%, and the impact of China's export faucet output value is not billions yuan (one said billions of yuan).





even if Supor occupy the stainless steel faucet market, the competition target of the product replaces the copper faucet, the global faucet gross output value also only 90 billion yuan (of which the Chinese market is about 30 billion). If according to Supor Group's plan, Supor sanitary ware 2013 year target output value is 1 billion yuan (Liu Yan said now has sold the dealer 3.4 billion yuan), even proposed "the fifth year reached 50 billion yuan".





but Zengfu had to "worry" how to sell so many stainless steel faucets. In the second half of 2012, Supor group resolution less "54 production line This remote figure, the first stable years 11 production line scale." At the same time began to do market communication, momentum.





According to plan, 2013 will be them in various media, offline channel education market one year, they will repeatedly mention the copper faucet inside the cavity of the patina, lead content, electroplating process of environmental pollution and other keywords, repeatedly mentioned that their faucet is not higher than the mid-range copper faucet price, they look at the security room decoration market, They even expect Chinese consumers to replace them with old ones.





not everyone agrees to zengfu investment in the faucet industry. "Shareholders must disagree. Now there are shareholders who have not seen the dawn. They didn't show it to me, maybe they wanted to, or they probably didn't want to talk. I don't know, I didn't hear a voice against me. However, I am the founder of the company, chairman, I accounted for the Ching shares. Shareholders speak in numbers, so they are less likely to object. "Zengfu said.





Liu Yan burdened with the task of educating the market, he said, "I firmly believe that the Chairman of this decision is not wrong, we all believe so firmly."





son Su Xianze How to see stainless steel faucet? Zengfu said, "Su Xianze is graduated from Zhejiang University, and its level should be said to be much higher than mine." Does he feel satisfied with the way we do business? I don't know what he thinks. He is also a busy man, the chairman of a public company (Supor), who often goes abroad. ”





Despite the old sense of low education, Zengfu is not planning to go to business school or lectures. "I have no time." And I'm so old that I need a diploma, right?





founder not always go forward. Zengfu also wanted to give up, "all the things are thrown away, I can rest completely." Sue said to the people around him, he doesn't care about the money, but "can you give up?" I put this thing on, and I climbed down from the back of the tiger, definitely to eat the tiger. I can't do it anymore. ”