When was the last time you wrote with a pen?
In the era of computer input and paperless office, stationery seems to have been far away from us, the memory of hero, Chenguang, true color, Deli and other domestic stationery brands are still the same?
From the agent of foreign stationery to the development of its own research, production and marketing system, M&G has become a household name of domestic stationery brand over the past 30 years. Imperceptiently, Chenguang, which has grown up with a generation of students, has become one of the world's largest stationery manufacturers, covering more than 76,000 retail terminals across the country and selling its products to more than 50 countries and regions around the world. Chenguang is moving towards the new goal of "world-class stationery brand".
Foreign consumers experience Chenguang Yue write buffer neutral pen
When you run out of supplies, make your own
In 1990, Chenguang Stationery took its first step in two small bungalows in Hengshan Village, Gurao Town, Shantou.
Founder Chen Huxiong grew up in a poor family. "There was often not enough to eat," he recalls. Because the family is a genuine farmer, more people less land, the whole family of five people to a little more than half an mu. When I was in junior high school, I was one of five or six people in my class who couldn't afford to eat in the canteen. I packed my own rice gruel and rode to school for an hour by bike.
After dropping out of school to start his own business, salesman became his first job. "In the early days, there's no capital, no background, no brand, nothing. It's all hands on deck." "At first it was really just about living and eating," Mr. Chen said.
After working as a salesman for a period of time, Chen Huxiong found that the stationery industry has relatively stable rigid demand. Stationery is in high demand among students and there is a big market for office supplies. Compared with flowers and food, stationery does not deteriorate and rot, in case it cannot be sold, it will not have too much loss in hand. His contact with Xinhua Bookstore gave him the idea of selling stationery.
Xinhua bookstores all over the country, bookstores and stationery sales are basically next to each other, and the location of the facade is the best before the urban transformation. Chen Lake Xiong thought: if you can let their agent products sold with the bookstore, sales must be good. Chen has established contacts with Xinhua bookstores in Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu and other places, cooperating with them to supply stationery. After several years of development, Chen Huxiong from salesman to sales agent to general agent, through the agency of South Korea and Taiwan stationery, achieved a trade volume of two to three hundred million yuan.
The change came in 1997, after the Asian financial crisis, when the factories of many foreign stationery suppliers closed down. Without a supply of goods let Chen Huxiong anxious, helpless, he made a decision - to build their own pen.
Writing and marking instrument for the quality of the pen refill before delivery
He chose to come to Shanghai to set up a factory. "Shanghai is the commercial center of China, where many established pen makers are based, and it was an opportunity for private companies to flourish." Chen Huxiong said.
Around 1998, Chen Huxiong set up a preparatory factory in Liuli, Pudong, Shanghai. In 1999, he bought 6 mu of land in Fengxian and formally established the factory, which formally entered the industrial stage of integration of production and sales. Over the past 20 years, M&G has become one of Asia's largest stationery producers, producing about 5 billion neutral pens a year.
Pen processing precision and difficulty is no less than precision watch parts. The picture shows Chenguang pen setter
A series of problems after the start of production made Chen Huxiong realize that he had to work hard on technology rather than always rely on imports. "We used to rely on imports of ink and pens from Japan, Korea and Germany, but we overcame the technical difficulties in pen production several years ago." Chen Huxiong said.
The history of "China can't make ballpoint pen tips" is over
Neutral pen and ballpoint pen are common stationery in People's Daily life. However, few people would think of the technological content and technical difficulty behind this common stationery.
In early 2016, the news that "China can't even make a ballpoint pen tip" caught people's attention. The article noted that although China has more than 3,000 pen manufacturers, employing more than 200,000 people and producing more than 40 billion ballpoint pens a year, the core component of the pen tip has to be imported.
"A pen seems simple, and the manufacturing of a single pen tip involves more than 20 processes. Despite the small ball on the pen tip, we have a whole scientific research team studying it, with processing accuracy and difficulty no less than precision watch parts." Chen Huxiong said.
In some ways, the tip of the pen is more technical than the parts of the watch. First of all, it is difficult to process. Under experimental conditions, when a pen is written 1500 meters long, the friction between the pen tip and the pen holder reaches 300,000 times. In order to ensure the matching of the two, the precision is very high. At the same time, because the material is tungsten steel, high hardness, strong wear resistance, processing difficulty. Secondly, quality detection is difficult. Watch parts are solid, external processing is poor, can be detected through the measuring device, and the pen is hollow, detection is difficult, only through the far infrared plus 50 times microscope detection.
If you want to produce a consistent quality pen tip, you must ensure the stability of product quality. In the process of processing, tool wear, machine temperature changes, will affect the processing parameters of the pen. How to eliminate the impact of tool wear and machine temperature change, it is necessary to fine-tune the pen processing parameters in time. For example, it is necessary to ensure that the gap between the ball and the ball body is within 3 microns.
If you want to make a good pen of Chinese people's own, you have to work hard on technological research and development. Since 2002, when K35 and GP1008 came out, Chinese people have used the self-developed push neutral pen for the first time. By 2012, M&G has established a relatively perfect research and development mechanism, constantly conquered the core technology of pen ink, polished the production process, and undertaken various national scientific research projects. China Pen Making Industrial Base, China Pen Making Center, National Industrial Design Center and China Light Industry Pen Making Engineering Technology Key Laboratory have all settled in Chenguang.
Pen tip processing has high requirements in the production process, the technical level of operators, testing technology and production management. All the world's neutral pen tip processing equipment is produced in Switzerland. After M&G introduced Swiss pen tip processing equipment, through years of process improvement, pen tip ink matching research, industrial workers' skills improvement, product quality has achieved different degrees of breakthrough and improvement. At present, Chenguang's pen tip production scale and core pen tip processing technology are in a leading position in China's pen industry.
A good pen, in addition to excellent performance, comfort is also important. In the face of diversified product competition, Chenguang has developed a series of "Comfortable Grip" to relieve writing fatigue and prevent writing calluses on the middle finger. In view of ink pollution of paper and hands, developed to bid farewell to the "small black hands", make the paper cleaner "quick drying" series. "Yue Write buffer" neutral pen, for the first time in the neutral pen to add a front buffer spring structure, effectively reduce writing fatigue, improve comfort, the product won 2019 Germany iF product Award.
The child is painting with the morning brush
Let the stationery have a story, emotion, attitude
Doesn't Morninglight make stationery? In the memory of many "post-80s" and "post-90s", Chenguang stationery used to accompany them through the unforgettable school days. After entering the society, paperless office makes this old brand gradually forgotten. Now, this stationery mainly production of the enterprise with a new look in young people's lives.
Walking into the Jiumu Sundry shop in a large shopping mall in Daxing District, Beijing, the fashionable decoration style and a wide variety of commodities attracted many consumers to buy in the store. When the reporter met Ms. Su, a Beijing citizen in the sundry community, she was standing in front of the shelf to select a charging bank. In front of the charging bank, some exquisite patterns, exquisite packaging, some made into a game console handle, full of creativity. "Compared with ordinary power banks, these power banks incorporate many creative elements, such as the one in my hand, which has cartoon animal patterns and exquisite packaging. It feels very cute to take out and charge." In the end, Su chose a power bank with a makeup mirror and a phone button inside the box.
The store, which focuses on creative products, has changed people's traditional perception of stationery stores. The stationery store next to the school with M&G logo is not all of M&G's offline stores. "Even when I grow up, I will find M&G stationery is still around," Su lamented.
"Nine Wood Sundry Club has a complete range of products, such as makeup tools, hats, bags and toys that I want to buy. The decor is also attractive." Ms. Su said. Reporters saw, sundries before the cashier has lined up a long line.
Founded in 2016, Jiumu Miscellaneous Club is a new attempt to upgrade Chenguang's stationery strategy. Now, in order to expand new consumer groups, Chenguang Stationery has begun to enter the middle and high-end consumer field, set up a new cultural and creative product sales scene in the business center, and started the exploration of a new retail model in the stationery industry.
Different from traditional channels such as cooperative franchise and online sales, physical stores are more like a platform, which attracts more consumers with similar interests and hobbies by shaping the consumption scene and bringing them together. Chen Huxiong, president of Chenguang Stationery, said, "The stationery industry should build a scene around consumption experience, take experience as the core, and promote a new form of retail." The importance of experience lies in that consumers' experience in the scene space directly determines their stay time in the retail terminal.
In addition to functionality, M&G tries to make products have stories, emotions and attitudes to establish emotional connections with consumers. Chenguang Stationery has cooperated with many well-known IP companies at home and abroad, such as Miffy, Nautical King, Little Prince, etc., to launch creative products popular among young consumers. From stationery to cultural innovation, it is not only the added value of products, but also the brand awareness.
Nine wood Sundries shop
By the end of 2018, Jiumu Sundry has set up 115 stores in China, and its products cover from cultural stationery to toys, travel, bags, digital, kitchen, home, etc., which is constantly being iterated and upgraded rapidly.
(Photo provided by Chenguang Stationery)
