"The ceramic industry is now in autumn, and winter is actually far from coming."
At the recently held 2022 Bologna Building Materials Exhibition in Italy, Li Zhilin, chairman of Guangdong Jianyi (Group) Ceramics Co., Ltd., used the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter to describe the different development stages of the ceramic industry, and It is pointed out that the current ceramic industry is gradually transitioning from a saturation period to a large-scale period.
Li Zhilin believes that when the winter of the ceramic industry comes, a number of larger enterprises or groups will be created again and enter the large-scale period; after entering the winter, the number of enterprises will still decline until it enters the intensification period, that is, several It is an era when major ceramic companies occupy the vast majority of the market share.
Judging from the third quarter financial reports of 2022 released by listed ceramic companies such as Dongpeng Holdings, Mona Lisa, Diou Home Furnishings, and Wrigley Home Furnishings, most listed ceramic companies have shown sluggish growth. Among them, Dongpeng Holdings achieved revenue of 5.056 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 11.9%; Diou Home Furnishing achieved revenue of 3.115 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 32.33%; Mona Lisa achieved revenue of 4.694 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.7%; Wrigley Home Furnishing Achieved revenue of 5.267 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.23%.
It is conceivable that if the top pottery companies are like this, the life of small and medium-sized pottery companies is not much better. If the real cold winter in the ceramic industry has not yet come, then should ceramic companies take advantage of the opportunity to breathe and prepare for the "winter"? In fact, in terms of "internal training and external training", some ceramic companies have already started to take action, and through continuous exploration, they have unlocked new postures for "winter".
Position 1: Establishing technical barriers
The word "involution" can be said to be a hot word in the ceramic industry in 2022. At present, the involution of the ceramic industry is mainly reflected in homogenization and price wars. If ceramic companies want to effectively counter involution, establishing technical barriers is definitely a difficult but correct way.
▲Mona Lisa’s four scientific research innovations
Take the Mona Lisa as an example. In 2022 alone, a number of scientific research and innovation achievements were repeatedly recognized at expert technical appraisal meetings, including solving the problem of massive crystallization of the glaze during the secondary heat treatment of rock slabs. The "Research and Development and Industrialization of Key Technologies for Multi-dimensional Curved Slate Slabs" project addresses issues such as loss of gloss and micro-cracks in curved parts, and the "Research and Development and Industrialization of Key Technologies for Dark Relief Slate Slabs" project achieves precise control of uneven textures, and has achieved major breakthroughs. The "Key Technology and Industrialization of Large-Scale High-Strength Glaze-Polished Ultra-Thin Ceramic Plates" project focuses on the body reinforcement technology and glaze decoration technology of ultra-thin ceramic plates.
Coincidentally, the scientific and technological achievements of Dongpeng Holdings' "Research and Industrialization of Key Technologies for Replicating Original Texture Effect Ceramic Slabs" project were also highly recognized at the expert technical appraisal meeting. It is understood that in addition to producing large-sized slate products with good mechanical properties, this project can also reproduce the decorative effects of three-dimensional native textures such as imitation leather, wood grain, and stone grain with undulating layers, and greatly effectively improve the smoothness of the product. degree, improving the paving performance of the product.
It can be seen that although the mature industrialization system has led to the continuous narrowing of the production technology gap between ceramic companies, there are still ceramic companies that can overcome the "stuck neck" problem through technological innovation, from the surface process effect, product performance and function And achieve new breakthroughs in processing technology and other aspects, leaving peers with nowhere to "roll".
Position 2: Start the talent plan
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized that "technology is the primary productive force, talent is the primary resource, and innovation is the primary driving force." Innovation can be said to be an eternal topic in all walks of life, and the foundation of innovation lies in talents. Therefore, some people in the industry bluntly said that corporate competition is ultimately a competition for talents.
In June this year, Mona Lisa held a postdoctoral research workstation Dr. Su Huazhi’s outbound and Dr. Nie Guanglin’s inbound report meeting; in October, Oceano held a postdoctoral research workstation Dr. Tian Wei’s inbound and Zhou Jun’s inbound report meeting Doctoral mid-term assessment and Dr. Zhang Ti’s outgoing project review meeting. In the "Notice on Approving the Registration of Postdoctoral Research Workstations" recently issued by the Office of the Human Resources and Social Security Department of Guangdong Province, Xinmingzhu was successfully approved to establish a postdoctoral research workstation, and can now independently carry out postdoctoral work.Talent recruitment and training work.
It is understood that in order to support the work of the postdoctoral scientific research workstation, Mona Lisa has continuously strengthened its linkage with major universities and promoted the development of "industry-university-research" work, thereby recruiting a large number of outstanding postdoctoral scientific researchers and greatly improving the company's scientific and technological capabilities. Ability to transform results. Oceano and New Pearl, which also focus on the talent sector, have built a central research institute (I&I Ceramics R&D Center) and New Pearl Contemporary Ceramics Research Institute respectively in addition to postdoctoral research workstations, successfully occupying the strategic position in the competition for talents in the ceramic industry. Highlands.
▲Oshenno Central Research Institute (I&I Ceramics R&D Center)
However, the above list is only the tip of the iceberg of ceramic companies’ “talent plans”. Bian Cheng of Keda Manufacturing once clearly stated in an internal meeting of the company that recruiting people is Keda's "number one project"; Jack Ma of Alibaba once publicly stated that the best talents must be discovered, cultivated and trained by the company itself; Huawei's Ren Zhengfei believes that Huawei's core competitiveness is not talent, but effective talent management capabilities. The views of these big guys confirm the truth - talent recruitment, talent cultivation and talent management are equally important.
Position 3: Improve the channel system
Some people believe that the era when channels were king has passed. But for ceramic enterprises, channel system construction strategies will never fall behind. Even the new media and new retail that are being mentioned today are the products of the evolution of channels. Diversified channel layout has become a necessity for ceramic enterprises at all times. A subject that cannot be left behind.
Faced with the explosive growth of the market, ceramic companies aggressively entered the procurement of finely decorated houses. Unexpectedly, they were caught off guard by the "black whirlwind" of thunderstorms by real estate companies. Nowadays, most of the existing market is in the hands of home decoration companies and designers, which means that a new round of competition will begin among ceramic companies. Since 2022, many ceramic companies have made frequent moves in designer channels and decoration channels.
Designer Channel PartyIn this regard, Dongpeng Slate became the only strategic partner of Design China in 2022, and organized the Dongpeng Slate Shixin Youth (2022) Creative Design Competition; Shunhui launched the Design for Happiness-China Residential Design Effect Competition, and held Shunhui Design China Tour events in many cities across the country...
▲Shengdu Decoration’s “One Heart, One Hundred Million, Get Ready to Go” Strategy
In terms of decoration channels, He Xinming, chairman and president of Dongpeng Holdings, personally led a team to visit Bauing Group and successfully signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Bauing Group; Nobel successfully signed a national strategic cooperation agreement with the well-known decoration company Chuangyi Decoration Group Cooperation agreement; Shunhui continues to embrace Shengdu Decoration's "One Heart, One Hundred Million and Set Out" strategy, and continues to upgrade and deepen the cooperative relationship with Shengdu Decoration reached in 2017...
Posture 4: Seeking cross-border win-win situations< /p>
With the advent of smart home, kitchen cabinet and appliance integration craze, many Internet giants including Alibaba and Xiaomi have crossed over into the pan-home furnishing field. At the same time, the popularity of rock slabs, a super species, has been rising. Many ceramic companies have also taken advantage of this trend to actively embrace the pan-home furnishing market and seek cross-border win-win results.
▲Dongpeng Holdings and Oribo reached strategic cooperation
Not long ago, Dongpeng Holdings reached a strategic cooperation with Oribo, which ranks first in the smart home central control screen market shipments, to jointly build an overall large home ecosystem for the era of whole-house intelligence; also breaking industry barriers is Novo Bell, through multi-dimensional and in-depth cooperation with Haier Smart Home, jointly build high-end smart home scenarios; last October, Wrigley Home announced that Huawei had reached a cooperation to cooperate in the field of HarmonyOS Connect and whole-house smart scenario intelligence.... ..
According to incomplete statistics, so far 11 ceramic companies in the ceramic industry have established production and sales holding companies related to home or smart home, including Dongpeng, Mona Lisa, Wrigley, Huida, Jinyitao, Champion , Delifeng, Xinyansu, Zhongyan, etc. Faced with an unfamiliar field that is already dominated by heroes, it is not easy for ceramic enterprises to go deep and thorough in a short period of time. It is obviously a wiser choice to integrate resources and achieve cross-border win-win results.
Posture 5: Improve user value
After years of development, the market competition in the ceramic industry has reached a fever pitch. Li Zhilin believes that this phenomenon just shows that the ceramic industry has entered the user era, that is, an era where user value is the center.
▲Six service functions of Jianyi finished product delivery center
Currently, if ceramic companies want to further enhance user value, service delivery is the core key, so many leading ceramic companies have established corresponding service systems. For example, Jianyi launched the "finished product delivery" service; Oceano launched the "A+ space delivery" service; Mona Lisa launched the "smile paving, exclusive delivery" service; Dongpeng launched the "home decoration" service; Shunhui launched "Shunhui package paving service"; Xin Mingzhu established Mingzhu Kezhu and created a precision delivery system for Mingzhu Kezhu slate slabs...
It is reported that these brands that have launched delivery services have not only upgraded their products in terms of design, warehousing, and processing, but also continuously optimized the use of auxiliary materials, technical training, and worker management. From another perspective, the derivation of service chains will help ceramic companies break through the bottleneck of the last mile and get closer to consumers. Therefore, improving user value is actually an important path to upgrade from an industry brand to a consumer brand.
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Today's ceramic industry is full of uncertainties, but one thing is clear, that is, once winter comes, ceramic companies can only rely on stubborn optimism.It will be difficult to survive. Only those ceramic enterprises that have trained their brand, management, technology, talents, channels, funds, etc. into "hexagonal warriors" before winter begins, have truly mastered the "laws of surviving the winter."
