1978, Zhou Chengjian, who graduated from primary school, was admitted to the county middle school with the first place in mathematics, but the cheerful rural life gradually faded away. Because he is a farmer's child, he is often bullied. Once, a child in the city pricked his back with a ballpoint pen, which was "two or three centimeters deep". Zhou Chengjian remembered the pain at that time and his face could not help twisting.
"All the reasons are because of the status of rural people, which makes people look down upon. Since then, I have always felt inferior in my heart. I always feel like a dwarf, and I always feel that it is difficult to get the approval of others." When interviewed by reporters, Zhou Chengjian made no secret of his true thoughts. "But there is a proud side in my personality. The more I feel inferior, the more I want to prove that I can do it.".
This belief supports Zhou Chengjian in his future career, never looking back and looking for the right thing, no matter how big the difficulty is, he can overcome it. "People ask me what difficulties I have in starting a business, but I really don't feel any difficulties. Even if there is a bottleneck, I feel that overcoming it is happiness."
Just because he wanted to get rid of the feeling of "farmers", Zhou Chengjian founded a brand and named his company Meters Garment Co., Ltd. "Meters, it must sound like there is no rural flavor." Zhou Chengjian said that his original idea was actually so simple.
Today, meters bonwe in Zhou Chengjian has become the first brand of casual wear retail in China. "Now I think it is impossible to change the urban hukou into a rural hukou.". Looking back now, Zhou Chengjian, whose rural life as a teenager is his most precious memory, said with a smile that his dual personality led him to only be keen on doing two things, one is to like it, and the other is to prove himself, and only his love for clothes has always made him feel "like falling in love". "Give me 10,000 more opportunities to choose, and I will choose the clothing industry".
Zhou Chengjian said that over the years, Smith Barney has rejected all kinds of temptations of diversified development, and has the opportunity to do real estate. Perhaps today, its assets have increased by more than ten times, but perhaps meters bonwe will be gone.
"I can't be the richest person, but I hope I can be recognized in a certain industry." At the listing ceremony of Smith Barney, Zhou Chengjian, a tailor, presented a small gold-plated sewing machine to Shenzhen Stock Exchange. He said: I was originally a tailor in a village, and now I have the honor to be a tailor in China, hoping to become a global tailor in the future.
Smith Barney was born to be a global tailor.
On August 28th, Smith Barney successfully landed on the small and medium-sized board and released a brand-new sub-brand Me&; CITY, Zhou Chengjian's net worth soared by several billion yuan in one day, reaching 16 1 100 million yuan at the closing price of the day. With karate, Zhou Chengjian has created a "miracle of virtual management" in China's clothing industry. From "a factory without a brand" to "a factory without a brand", Zhou Chengjian said, "Smith Barney has only gone 5%, and there are still 95% things that my team and I need to do. I love the clothing industry very much, and there is still a long way to go to become a global tailor."
Debt200,000, leaving home
1982, just graduated from junior high school. 17-year-old Zhou Chengjian founded Qingtian garment button factory in his hometown of qingtian county, Zhejiang. When selling products all over the country, Zhou Chengjian met a foreign trade company in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, and accepted a large clothing order of up to 300,000 yuan.
When Zhou Chengjian returned to his hometown, he borrowed more than 300,000 yuan from local credit cooperatives, bought back fabrics from the city, and immediately called around 100 tailors to work in his factory. After hard work day and night, after the goods were delivered, I didn't expect the other party to return them all on the grounds that the fabrics were unqualified.
In this way, the first big business that entered the clothing industry fell through, and the enterprise closed down, leaving Zhou Chengjian with a debt of 300,000 yuan. In the 1980s, this was an astronomical figure. "I didn't have the money to pay my debts, but I didn't seem to have any fear at that time," Zhou Chengjian told reporters. "At that time, I still had 9,000 yuan on me. I think this 9,000 yuan is my capital, and I still have a chance."
With this 9000 yuan, Zhou Chengjian came to Wenzhou, where the commercial atmosphere was already very strong at that time. Through the introduction of their uncles and cousins, their friends also became friends of Zhou Chengjian. After meeting many friends and making connections, 9000 yuan was almost spent. And Zhou Chengjian also got his own order, and he still worked on clothes. Zhou Chengjian found more than a dozen tailors from his hometown, engaged in clothing cutting, layout, sewing machine repair and so on. More than a dozen people ate, drank and lived in the workshop, working overtime day and night, and soon Zhou Chengjian paid off all his debts.
Accidental achievement of "casual" clothing
Meters bonwe series casual wear, which Smith Barney specializes in, has now become the leading brand of casual wear in China. Zhou Chengjian said: It was an accidental mistake that made him focus on the "casual" clothing industry from now on.
Good craftsmanship and good reputation, the processing factory in Zhou Chengjian keeps receiving orders from its Miaoguo Temple clothing wholesale market, and works for more than ten hours every day. I am tired, and one day I finally can't bear it. When I operate, I cut all the sleeves of a batch of suits short. This mistake made Zhou Chengjian, who had just paid off his debts, almost get into heavy debt again. "I like to ponder. I simply make mistakes, connect the cut sleeves with other fabrics, and then cut off the hem of the clothes and make up other fabrics."
In this way, the early casual style clothing was produced, but it was sold out in an hour. The owner made a lot of money and entrusted more enterprises to process the clothing style. Zhou Chengjian was also famous in the clothing market of Miaoguo Temple. But at this time, Zhou Chengjian began to be dissatisfied with the status quo: processing for others, earning up to 80 cents per piece of clothing, and most of the profits were earned by wholesalers. If you do wholesale yourself, you will have the bargaining power. Zhou Chengjian, who has accumulated certain funds, owned his own front shop and back factory in 1989.
In Wenzhou, a prosperous clothing business circle, the suit market is very mature, and Zhou Chengjian, a latecomer, has the worst strength and the strongest ability. "I must find a field that others have not intervened in, and it should be a non-suit dress." Zhou Chengjian told reporters that inspired by that mistake, others asked me, this is neither a suit nor a shirt. What should it be called? I think it should be called casual dress. "Be casual." Zhou Chengjian, who was the first to give the concept of leisure to clothing, also had a special liking for it. On such a formal occasion as the day Smith Barney went public, Zhou Chengjian wore a black leisure suit and a red plaid shirt, and still kept his leisure style. He told reporters that the mission of Smith Barney in the future is still to focus on providing young consumers with personalized and fashionable casual clothes.
The story of meters bonwe.
Zhou Chengjian always said that he was a "person who likes to complicate simple things". Copy a large number of clothes every day, and then sell them wholesale. After three or four years, Zhou Chengjian feels boring again: How can this wholesale clothing be like selling vegetables in a vegetable market, with a price per day? Would it be more interesting to switch to retail?
The idea flashed through Zhou Chengjian's mind, but it didn't seem to make much noise. Once, Zhou Chengjian bought a conch shirt from Shanghai and returned to Wenzhou. Many people pointed to the shirt and said to Zhou Chengjian, This is a famous brand. "I wear a famous brand and everyone will know it at a glance, and this dress is more than twice as expensive as the same quality without a brand." Zhou Chengjian told reporters that at that time, he really made up his mind to establish his own brand.
1993, Metersbonwe Garment Company was born, producing "Bang Wei" brand clothing, which meant to promote the prestige of Guo Bang, but it backfired. At that time, the idea of how to use the brand seemed to be very vague. Zhou Chengjian labeled his clothes as "Metersbonwe Garment", but the word "Bang Wei" was not seen. Over time, people knew about Metersbonwe, but they didn't know about "Bang Wei".
At this time, Zhou Chengjian, who was about to enter the retail industry, decided to register a new brand-Metersbonwe, but it failed because of too many homophones. "So, we simply made mistakes and merged Metersbonwe with Bang Wei," Zhou Chengjian said. At that time, there was no business in Wenzhou without bargaining, but it was a big taboo for retail. "But what should I do?" A simple thing of selling clothes has become a complicated thing in Zhou Chengjian.
At the beginning, Zhou Chengjian adopted the double insurance policy, keeping the wholesale business and testing the water retail, and opened up a great pioneering work of Wenzhou retail industry: clearly disclosing the cost price. 1994, on the opening day, Zhou Chengjian disclosed the cost price of all the clothes in the store, including fabrics, buttons, electricity charges, taxes, etc., and then consumers set the price. As long as it is more than one yuan, the transaction can be made.
The scene was greatly unexpected. "It's crazy. The small shop with only one door had to open the back door of the warehouse, and the media rushed to report it." Zhou Chengjian said that it was great to sell all the clothes, and the profit far exceeded the wholesale, and meters bonwe began to scream. In this way, after a year of wholesale and retail, Smith Barney officially decided to abandon wholesale and fully enter the clothing retail industry.
Don't take the usual path in everything.
1April, 1995, the first meters bonwe store was about to open in Wuma Street, Wenzhou. "I always like to ponder over some' crooked ideas'," Zhou Chengjian said. I couldn't just open it lightly. At that time, I came up with an idea to recruit 30 waiters as candidates, so that consumers could choose the really suitable waiters and get a 30% discount on the sales price. In addition, on the same day, Wuma Street in Wenzhou was all paved with red carpets and went straight to the "meters bonwe" store.
On the opening day, you can imagine the scene. "meters bonwe" became famous, and agents who asked to join in the sales of meters bonwe brand products also came to your door.
"If I follow the old road, I must have a lot of money to expand the factory to meet the rapidly growing demand of the market." However, Zhou Chengjian, who has been in the clothing industry for more than ten years, knows very well that the clothing industry has no core technology at all, and its ability to imitate and copy is extremely high. Foreign clothing can gain market in the mainland, relying on brands and shorter and shorter marketing lead cycles. So Zhou Chengjian boldly made a decision not to take the usual path: outsourcing all the garment and sales links to other enterprises 100%, leaving only the core parts, including the brand "meters bonwe", product design, brand promotion and a small number of direct stores, fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of other enterprises and franchisees, and taking "win-win" as the biggest selling point of operation. Zhou Chengjian said, "It doesn't matter how many resources the enterprise has, but how much the enterprise has the ability to integrate resources. This is the core issue. The world is mine and mine is the world." Zhou Chengjian, which started its brand with only 4 million yuan, quickly copied Smith Barney all over the country, and always focused on providing fashionable clothing products for young consumers.
Listing shows that we are on the right track.
"Smith Barney can go public successfully, it should be said that we went on the right path five years ago." Even today, Zhou Chengjian said with a smile: There are too many excellent enterprises in Wenzhou, and I am too poor there. The environment in Shanghai is very good, but I don't pay much attention to traditional industries. This fertile land is more suitable for the development of Smith Barney.
Zhou Chengjian, who bought her first designer clothes in Shanghai and secretly wanted to make her own designer clothes one day, not only had her own meters bonwe, but also formally established herself in Shanghai. In 2003, Smith Barney officially moved its headquarters to Shanghai.
Shanghai has also provided explosive growth for Smith Barney. In the past three years, the operating profit has increased from 8.76 million yuan and 90.93 million yuan to 430 million yuan, and the operating gross profit margin has also increased from 16.35% and 27.92% to 38.39%. By the end of the first quarter of 2008, the company has owned 22 1 1 stores nationwide.
On August 28th, 2008, Smith Barney (stock code 00269) was listed on the small and medium-sized board in Shenzhen, and the issue price was 19.76 yuan. Coincidentally, the closing price of 26.90 yuan on that day coincided with the stock code and rose by 7. 14 yuan. The market value of the shares held by Zhou Chengjian and his daughter Hu Jiajia reached16/kloc-.
Regarding the surge in wealth, Zhou Chengjian just said that he didn't care about the stock price, and what he could do was to focus on doing a good job in the enterprise, so as to better repay investors. On the same day, Smith Barney officially launched a brand new brand Me&; CITY, testing the field of high-end clothing and expanding new sales markets. “ME& "CITY" follows Smith Barney's consistent spokesperson strategy, and its spokesperson is a leading actor in Hollywood, who also has a large number of loyal fans in China and starred in the American drama Prison Break.
Zhou Chengjian told reporters that the real turning point of China's clothing industry should be 20 10. Through the successful hosting of this year's Olympic Games, China will attract the attention of people all over the world, and it will also attract the attention of the global clothing industry. Excellent global brands have entered the China market, and they are all very strong, so there is not much time to train our national brands. Smith Barney has only gone 5% of the way, and 95% of the things need me and my team to do. I love the clothing industry very much, and I still have a long way to go to become a global tailor.
Small grocery store owners don't take the usual path.
There used to be a very popular joke on the Internet. Some college students climbed over the wall every day. One day, the headmaster asked: What's the matter with you? Why don't you climb the wall every day and walk through the gate? The student said to the headmaster, meters bonwe, don't take the usual road.
Jay Chou's advertising words for Smith Barney have already made Smith Barney deeply rooted in people's hearts, and he directly attached the label of "unusual" to Zhou Chengjian, a brand that devoted all his efforts. Like every Wenzhou businessman with no background and starting from scratch, the road he has traveled is doomed to be unusual ...
Become a grocery store owner at the age of 8.
Zhou Chengjian showed his talent as a "leader" when he was very young. In that poor village, Zhou Chengjian studied in a double class, and all the students from grade one to grade five were in the same classroom at the same time. Zhou Chengjian, a junior, can always trick everyone into fleeing without class. Every so often, the teacher complained, and the father hit the child.
"Although my father beat me, it was my father who had the greatest influence on me in my life," said Zhou Chengjian. Of the six brothers and sisters in the family, only myself was loved by everyone. My father thought that Zhou Chengjian, the fourth child, was always relatively active in thinking, so he left the small grocery store at home to Zhou Chengjian, who was only 8 years old.
"It was a poor village. In the era of planned economy, there was a grocery store in each village, and his father was the director of an abacus factory in the commune. His father, who only spoke a few words of Mandarin, was able to sell abacus all over the country, but he was able to do business well." Until today, as long as he mentioned the person who had the greatest influence on his life, Zhou Chengjian always said that he was his father. His father's influence on himself was not a certain thing or a word, but more subtle. Influenced by his father, Zhou Chengjian, who became a small boss, did very well in business, earning thousands of dollars every year, which was quite rich in the countryside in the 1970s.
If we go step by step, the small grocery store in Zhou Chengjian may be able to make it bigger. "From the age of 8 to junior high school graduation, I have been a shopkeeper repeatedly, but there has been no change." Zhou Chengjian, who is naturally dissatisfied with the status quo, asked his father to learn skills. Masons, carpenters and tailors were the only three skills that could be learned in rural areas at that time. "I think cloth feels much more comfortable than mud and hard wood," Zhou Chengjian explained his choice with a smile.
Unexpectedly, my father sent Zhou Chengjian to a famous local tailor through his relationship, and Zhou Chengjian's talent was fully revealed. It took others several years to get started, and Zhou Chengjian could follow the master to make clothes for others in a month.
Now Smith Barney officially landed on the small and medium-sized board in Shenzhen. On the day of listing, the elderly father personally went to the scene to help his son. Zhou Chengjian said emotionally that his father is a very strong-willed person, and his mother feels very keen about the changes of things. Smith Barney can go today. This persistence and persistence are given by his father, while his sensitivity to fashion and market is given by his mother. "They not only give me the characteristics, but also encourage me and support me to do more.
"Tyrants" also have tender tears.
Zhou Chengjian said that what he hates most is his bad temper. "I was too angry. I was like a tyrant a few years ago. I often scolded everyone for no reason. For example, I lost my temper with my employees when preparing for this listing conference." It seems that I apologized again for this when interviewed by reporters in front of the company employees.
"It's just that things at work are too anxious. Some things are actually perfect from the perspective of others, but my understanding is that they can be done better. For this reason, I even threw a teacup before." However, Zhou Chengjian said with a smile, in fact, being anxious will only make things worse, so it has changed a lot now. At worst, the voice is "raised from 20 decibels to 50 decibels".
Zhou Chengjian, who "falls in love" because of her clothing career, is a workaholic. She never takes a break on Saturday and Sunday. The company's top management always chooses this time for meetings. After a long time, the top management "collectively protests" and Zhou Chengjian has to give up. Zhou Chengjian, who suddenly has a weekend, is "extremely miserable". "I feel that time passes too slowly, Saturday is better, and then Sunday is simply too painful. I have to call my employees if I have nothing to do." Zhou Chengjian said that I get up early at 6 o'clock almost every Monday and can't wait to go to work.
Is such a "tyrant" and "workaholic", who would have thought that Zhou Chengjian also shed many tears for the employees of the company.
In 2003, the company moved its headquarters from Wenzhou to Shanghai. For this move, Zhou Chengjian hesitated for three years. As early as 2000, Zhou Chengjian chose Shanghai as a springboard for enterprise upgrading, not willing to sell clothes only in Wenzhou. However, such a huge project brought various problems, especially many high-level entrepreneurs who started businesses together. "meters bonwe can't be the first in Wenzhou, but it will only be a dead end in Shanghai. Death is inevitable and life is accidental. If we really want to move, we won't go." Some entrepreneurs even told Zhou Chengjian.
Contradictions, Zhou Chengjian overthrew his idea, and first set up a branch in Shanghai, which is the same as Wenzhou. After a long time, which is the headquarters must face a choice. "Let's move." In 2003, Zhou Chengjian finally made up his mind, and Smith Barney also completed the important strategic layout of its own development.
After moving, many excellent employees gave up Shanghai for various reasons. "But I have no ability to guide them and keep them. I can only be miserable." Looking back on those years, Zhou Chengjian said, "My heart is like the feeling of my heart being torn. I have been insomnia for a long time, and I am often awakened by nightmares in the middle of the night. I am sad and shed tears. It took two or three years for my heart to gradually erase those shadows."
Please come to Niu Gensheng and Wang Shi for listing.
Smith Barney successfully went public. It is worth mentioning that Niu Gensheng, the chairman of Mengniu Group, and Wang Shi, the chairman of Vanke Group, the famous heavyweights in business circles, appeared in the list of independent directors of Smith Barney.
Wang Shi has always been a friend of Zhou Chengjian, while Niu Gensheng is a classmate of Zhou Chengjian in cheung kong graduate school of business. "These two celebrities are thoughtful and wise elders, and they also have a * * * sex, that is, they look at the material very flatly. Young people can ask such elders for any help, and as elders, they can point out my shortcomings and deficiencies without scruple. I think this is a good combination. "Zhou Chengjian said that Niu Gensheng and Wang Shi both agreed to their requests happily.
Zhou Chengjian said that the next step for Smith Barney to raise funds is to invest in large shops. As a giant in the real estate industry, Wang Shi will give himself a lot of advice on how to choose commercial real estate. And Niu Gensheng also often gives advice to Zhou Chengjian and talks with him for four hours at the longest. Niu Gensheng warned Zhou Chengjian with his own entrepreneurial experience that as a leader of an enterprise, he should be not only the owner of capital, but also the distributor of capital.
It is understood that among the listed family businesses in China, the shareholding structure of Smith Barney is extremely rare. Before the company went public, the actual shareholders were only the company's chairman Zhou Chengjian and his daughter Hu Jiajia, and * * * owned 600 million shares, accounting for 90% of the total issued share capital of 670 million shares. In this regard, Zhou Chengjian told reporters that each enterprise has different missions at different stages of development. As far as Smith Barney is concerned, the relative concentration of equity today is not a bad thing, especially in traditional industries. The garment industry needs to pursue long-term and stable development, not to say that the investment this year will change next year. Therefore, from now on, the relative concentration of equity will help long-term investment projects and protect long-term interests. Of course, when Smith Barney develops to a new historical stage in the future, it may adopt other methods to allocate capital, such as equity incentives.