Yaying Women's Brand Connects China - Italian Fashion Ambassador

"'Marco Polo - Made in Italy' campaign? We do not understand." On the morning of May 8, an official of the Zhejiang Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Office responded to the reporter of the China Economic Times.

“In 2004, Zhejiang’s exports to Italy ranked eighth among export destination countries, and imports ranked tenth among importing countries. The actual investment from Italy ranked tenth among all investment sources.” This is Zhejiang Province. A set of figures provided by the Foreign Trade Office to reporters.

The prospects are always exciting

“In recent years, Zhejiang has intensified efforts to attract investment from the EU, and Italy’s investment momentum in Zhejiang is still promising.” Gao Xiuling, deputy director of the General Office of Zhejiang Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Department, told reporters.

Gao said that the economic structures of Italy and Zhejiang are similar, and Zhejiang hopes to cooperate with Italy in high-tech and service industries.

"Of course, cooperation in the use of advanced and applicable technologies in the manufacturing sector and the establishment of an advanced manufacturing base in Zhejiang is also very welcome," she continued.

Some researchers pointed out that the best benchmark for Zhejiang's economic development is the world’s seventh largest industrial country, Italy. There are three similarities between Zhejiang and Italy: mainly SMEs, and the majority of property rights are relatively clear; the industrial products are similar in structure, with a large number of light processing industries such as textiles, clothing, shoes and hats, furniture, jewelry, and hardware; there are numerous Industrial clusters (known in Italy as SMEs) have gathered hundreds of similar companies to form a division of labor and collaboration.

Jia Wande, the chief representative of the Italian National Labor Bank’s representative office in Beijing, once said in Hangzhou that the bank has made Zhejiang one of its first choices for opening its first branch in mainland China. The reason for this motion is that there are many similarities between Zhejiang and Italy's industrial economic structure. Regional industrial clusters are developed, with a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises and family businesses, and they are very close to the Italian National Labor Bank's customer base, and are easily connected.

From another perspective, in the foreign investment sources in Zhejiang, the amount of investment from Italy is obviously not in line with the level of economic development in Italy. According to Gao Xiuling, current foreign investment in Zhejiang mainly comes from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and other regions and countries. Interviewing in Zhejiang, if you want to find Taiwanese-funded, Japanese-funded enterprises, you can say that you can pick up, but to search for Italian investment companies, it really takes a few weeks.

Of course, from the perspective of development, it can also be considered that the potential for Zhejiang to invest in Italy is still far from being realized.

Yaying

"After a joint venture with the Mirolio Group, Yaying will fully introduce the concept of international brand operation at the forefront of Italian fashion, making the development of Yaying coincide with the development trend of the world's women's wear industry." This is the view of Zhang Huaming, Chairman of Zhejiang Yaying Garment Co., Ltd. .

In September 2004, Zhejiang Yaying Garment Co., Ltd., an Italian-Chinese joint venture company with an investment of 225 million yuan, was officially established. The Chinese side of the joint venture is China Yaying Fashion Co., Ltd., which has always been committed to the development of branded women's apparel; the Italian company milolio was established in 1884 and is the third largest textile and apparel company in Italy with 15 international apparel brands. Annual sales are around 1 billion euros.

Li Weizhong, executive director of Zhejiang Yaying Garment Co., Ltd., told reporters that after years of development, the Yaying brand has had a certain status in the domestic women's wear field, and the company's own business conditions are also good. The reason why it decided to cooperate with Milolio was the most important. The purpose is to use the Italian mature design ideas and brand operation concept to further promote the Yaying brand to the country. At the same time, with the joint venture company as a platform, gradually introduce famous women's brands owned by Italy.

He also told reporters that since 2000, high-level executives from Yaying have visited Europe many times and sought strategic partnerships among internationally renowned ladies brands.

In July 2003, the senior management of the Mirolio Group visited Yaying. At that time, the two parties reached a cooperation intention in the areas of design and marketing.

Obviously, this is a cooperation that allows both parties to feel like they hit it off. Therefore, the relevant issues have been relatively smoothly reached. The contract was officially signed on August 31, 2004.

“We must work together with Zhejiang Yaying to research and expand China’s largest market in the world. We have to contribute over 50 years of experience in managing 15 different women’s brands and manage more than 1,000 monopoly in more than 50 countries around the world. The experience of the shop.” At the founding ceremony of Zhejiang Yaying, the company’s director Giuseppe Miroglio, general manager of Vestebene of the Italian Mirolio Group, stated.

“The construction of an industrial park with an area of ​​80,000 square meters has already started.” Li Weizhong told reporters.

He also told reporters that compared with Italy, China's women's brand is obviously a big gap, the most prominent problem is that the brand is more fragmented, and the life cycle is often not long enough. In the interview, the reporter always feels the impulse and passion that Yaying is jumping out of the low-level development of Chinese women's brands.

To learn from each other, we must also avoid weaknesses

“In the past, when we mentioned the significance of the introduction of foreign capital, we generally defined it as “abstract.” My experience is that, in addition to this, “I will try to avoid weaknesses”!” Sino-Italian Joint Venture Jiaxing Edil Silk Co., Ltd. Yang Huali, deputy general manager, told reporters.

He said that taking Italian companies as examples, they have very obvious advantages in product design, brand promotion, market development, and professional division of labor. Some of these advantages are globally leading. However, the corporate governance structure dominated by the family system led to the management of Italian companies being significantly inferior to Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and other Western European countries. Moreover, Italian companies tend to have more discretionary management concepts.

“So when we invest in Italy, we must not only see our own needs but also our own disadvantages. At the same time, we must also rationally analyze each other’s shortcomings and find ways to make up for them in a timely manner. This means that we must not only 'complement each other'. ', but also 'need to avoid weaknesses'!" He said.

In addition, the Italian companies in the professional division of labor and processing technology research in depth is China's industry can not, the silk industry is particularly evident. This difference may even become a bottleneck in the cooperation between the two parties.

Taking Edirne as an example, the Italian side emphasizes that its core competitiveness is raw material production. Even under conditions of underemployment, it still believes that it should guide consumption and expand investment; while China believes that it is more important to adapt to changes in the market. Adjust product structure.

He told reporters that it is important to strengthen cooperation and mutual understanding and communication. China needs to know more about Italy, and Italy also very much hopes to learn more about China. He has received two scholars from the University of California. The two scholars were commissioned by the Italian Chamber of Commerce to come to China to conduct research on the prospects for economic and trade cooperation. Edel was chosen as a sample by them.

Yang Huali also believes that while raising the level of manufacturing in Zhejiang and even China, Italy is a country that is worth focusing on. However, Japan, South Korea, and even India are all objects that should be thoroughly understood and studied.