As the saying goes, in prosperous times, you collect and invest in troubled times. In the field of retail consumption, which is gradually picking up, gold and silver jewelry has once again become the popular first choice for investment.
In the jewelry industry, the most familiar brands are Chow Tai Fook, Zhou Shengsheng, Leofoo, Lukfook and Zhou Dasheng. Except Chow Tai Fook and other brands are "shanzhai" brands with the surname "Zhou".
Chow Tai Fook and Zhou Shengsheng are called "Shaolin" and "Wudang" in jewelry industry. In the jewelry world, they are the real ancestors.
Zheng Yutong, who was born in a poor family in Shunde, Guangdong, was forced to drop out of school at the age of 0/5 to work as a waiter in his father's good friend Zhou Zhiyuan's shop.
This store is Chow Tai Fook Gold Store.
The gold shop has special rules and regulations, and the boss will not accept apprentices easily without knowing the foundation. Zheng Yutong, who is new here, is only responsible for sweeping the floor, cleaning the table, cleaning the toilet and emptying the spittoon in the gold shop, and is not qualified to touch gold jewelry.
However, after finishing these chores every day, Zheng Yutong will take the initiative to learn business from other guys.
One day, Zhou Zhiyuan sent Zheng Yutong to meet people at the dock. In the bustling crowd, Zheng Yutong heard a Nanyang businessman ask passers-by where to exchange Hong Kong dollars. So he took the initiative to strike up a conversation: "You can change it at Jindafu Jinpu to ensure a fair price." The other party was honest in looking after the children, so he followed him to Chow Tai Fook's gold shop.
In this way, Zheng Yutong completed the first gold shop business in his life.
After half a year, Zheng Yutong became a formal apprentice and soon mastered the essentials of opening a shop. Moreover, he showed great interest in gold jewelry and was obsessed with specialized research.
He often uses his commute time to "watch the shop". This is what we now call "going to the store" to conduct market research on competitors.
According to the regulations, apprentices need to study in a goldsmith's shop for at least three years before they can become apprentices. However, Zheng Yutong, who is smart and diligent, soon took up his job independently and became increasingly skilled in daily management. Less than three years later, he was promoted to be the head of a goldsmith shop.
He also passed the "inspection" and married 17-year-old daughter Zhou to him, becoming Chow Tai Fook's "brother-in-law".
With the right-hand man "son-in-law", the gold shop business is getting better and better, and Zhou Zhiyuan decided to open a gold jewelry branch in Hongkong.
2 1 year-old Zheng Yutong, with his wife, 20,000 yuan in cash and 24 taels of gold, opened the "Chow Tai Fook" gold jewelry branch in Queen's Road Central 148.
In order to gain a firm foothold in the highly competitive Hong Kong market, Zheng Yutong launched a new technology strategy of "four nines". At that time, the gold shops were all "99 gold", that is, the purity of gold was 99%. Some people even sell "94 gold" and "95 hardware" as "99 gold", and rarely achieve "three nines" with 99.9% purity, let alone "four nines" with 99.99% purity.
You know, every time you sell one or two pieces of gold, you lose dozens of dollars. The more you sell, the more you lose. Zheng Yutong, on the other hand, thinks that the price difference of several hundred thousand dollars is an advertisement that is hard to buy. In this way, Chow Tai Fook quickly established the reputation and effect of quality.
He is active in thinking and good at learning from others. In just a few years, Zheng Yutong has managed brilliantly, and the number of branches has increased to 1 1. Chow Tai Fook Jewelry Co., Ltd., the earliest limited company in the gold and jewelry industry in Hong Kong, was also established soon.
Zheng Yutong, who has been keeping a keen eye on the jewelry industry, found that many western celebrities prefer high-value diamond jewelry to gold jewelry.
According to international regulations, you can only buy diamonds with a "De Beers" license, but there are only 500 "De Beers" licenses in the world. There is a saying in the industry: "It is more difficult to buy diamonds from De Beers than to pick stars from the sky".
Undaunted, Zheng Yutong made a bold decision to buy a South African diamond processing factory during the financial crisis.
This factory has more than ten "De Beers" licenses. In this way, Zheng Yutong successfully obtained a license to engage in diamond wholesale business and became the largest diamond importer in Hong Kong at that time.
In the 1970s, 30% of Hong Kong's annual diamond imports came from Chow Tai Fook. According to anecdotal reports, Chow Tai Fook once spent HK$ 550 million to photograph a pink diamond, which attracted worldwide attention.
Zheng Yutong has changed the traditional management mode of the jewelry industry, making the gold shops in Hong Kong no longer monotonous with gold and silver, which has set off a strong wave of foreign tourists buying diamonds in Hong Kong.
Although crowned the "King of Jewelry", Chow Tai Fook ranks among the three major gold banks in Hong Kong. However, gold and jewelry business alone can't make Zheng Yutong a super-rich man on par with Li Ka-shing and Stanley Ho.
He spent HK$/kloc-0.37 billion to buy the former sites of "Blue Chimney" in Kowloon and Tsim Sha Tsui from Swire, build New World Hotel, Lijing Hotel and shopping center, and fully enter the real estate industry. Zheng Yutong is called "the shark gall tycoon" by the outside world.
When Zheng Yutong retired in 20 12, Chow Tai Fook had become a huge business empire, covering jewelry, hotels, department store retail, energy and transportation, infrastructure and other industries, with a market value of 267.9 billion.
Unlike several other rich people, Zheng Yutong put his grandchildren on the stage before he retired.
Because Zheng Yutong's two sons, Zheng Jiachun and Zheng Jiacheng, failed to meet the requirements of Zheng Yutong in terms of inheritance ability.
During his tenure as managing director of New World, Zheng Jiachun was keen on radical acquisitions, which led to high debts. Zheng Yutong had to rise again and take power for the next 20 years.
Zheng Jiacheng, on the other hand, "doesn't love mountains and rivers and loves beautiful people" and is not interested in inheriting hundreds of millions of businesses. Zheng Jiacheng and Kuang Meiyun fell in love for 4 years, both talked about marriage and cheated on Lan Jieying. As a result, due to the intervention of friends, Lan Jieying failed to marry into the Zheng Jiahao family. Later, she became a crazy woman and died of illness, which was miserable enough.
However, Zheng's daughter-in-law failed to get her wish, but she became her adopted daughter. Zheng Yutong taught Kuang Meiyun investment skills and used her personal relationship to help her develop in the real estate and jewelry industries. When the jewelry store in Kuang Meiyun opened, he personally attended the platform.
As neither son can afford it, Zheng Yutong has to look for a successor from the third generation.
At first, Zheng Yutong favored Zheng Zhiheng, the eldest son of Fannie and Freddie. However, Zheng Zhiheng is also quite confused emotionally. Girlfriend committed suicide, lover fought for alimony, and was overwhelmed by peach blossom debt.
Zheng Jiachun's son Zheng Zhigang and daughter Zheng Zhiwen truly inherited grandpa's business management mind and courage.
Zheng Zhigang graduated from Harvard University and now fully accepts Chow Tai Fook Group's industry. He not only helped "New World Department Store" successfully go public, but also invested in the establishment of the art shopping center K 1 1. Excluding other assets, the total market value of New World Development Limited alone has exceeded HK$ 654.38 billion. Zheng Zhigang plans to build 29 K 1 1 in nine cities nationwide by 2024.
Unlike his uncle, Zheng Zhigang was single-minded. At the age of 30, he married Yu Yaying, the daughter of a Hong Kong seafood king.
Besides, Zheng Zhigang likes charity. He cooperated with the non-profit organization "Let Light shine" and donated 28,000 square feet of land in Hong Kong to build public housing at a nominal rent of HK$ 1 to help low-income families with children.
Zheng Zhiwen, the only granddaughter of Zheng Yutong, is now the head of New World Hotel Group. After she took charge of the New World Hotel, it increased from 8 to 40 in just five years.
How Chow Tai Fook Group develops and strengthens its business empire, which gradually survives the epidemic winter, depends on the third generation grandchildren of Zheng Yutong.
In addition, Zheng Yutong made careful arrangements for the distribution of family property before his death. Therefore, after Zheng Yutong's death, there is no drama for the property of the giants.
Unlike Chow Tai Fook's dramatic TVB story, the Zhou Shengsheng family once staged a protracted war over brand ownership disputes.
You would never think that Zhou Fangpu, the founder of Zhou Shengsheng, turned out to be just a teacher in a rural private school. Zhou Yongcheng, the third generation descendant of Zhou Shengsheng, once wanted to be a "programmer".
Zhou Fangpu is not only a teacher, but also a doctor. After giving up medicine and going into business, he opened a small gold shop in Shunde. The name of the gold shop "Zhou Shengsheng" means "endless cycle of hope".
Zhou Fangpu has two wives and three sons. In order to compete fairly, Zhou Fangpu allowed them to operate independently with "Zhou Shengsheng Jewelry Store in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao" and "Zhou Shengsheng Jewelry Store" respectively, and made a will. Future generations can continue to operate under the brand name of "Zhou Shengsheng", but they are not allowed to sell and outsiders are not allowed to join.
However, with the Zhou Shengsheng brand jewelry business getting bigger and bigger, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac want to take the brand "Zhou Shengsheng" as their own. When it was very fierce, they went to court.
Later, the court finally ruled that both women can use the registered trademark of "Zhou Shengsheng". The "tug-of-war" of brand ownership that has lasted for a long time has subsided.
In fact, it is Zhou Fangpu's three sons, Zhou Junlian and Zhou who really promote the "Zhou Shengsheng" brand.
Unlike the intrigue between the two rooms, the three brothers are United. They opened many gold shops in Zhou Shengsheng, from Shunde to Macau, and then from Macau to Hongkong.
The three brothers also successfully transformed into a gold shop and expanded their main products, including diamonds, jadeite, pearls, Rolex, Tudor and other famous watches.
1973, Zhou Shengsheng became the first listed gold jewelry company in Hong Kong, and Chow Tai Fook just went public 38 years later.
The third generation of Zhou family has 14 heirs. Among 14 people, Zhou Yonglian's son Zhou Yongcheng is the most outstanding in intelligence.
But at first, Zhou Yongcheng did not directly enter the family business. He went to the United States to study and start a business, hoping to create his own sky through his own efforts.
Zhou Yongcheng did not choose business, but chose a computer that was still very unpopular at that time, and successively entered IT, real estate and other industries. When his career entered a rising period, his father Zhou Junlian hoped that he could return to China to take over his father's family business.
After Zhou Yongcheng took over, he took Zhou Shengsheng and became the earliest jewelry store in the industry to complete electronization, from product design to storefront design to rejuvenation iteration.
Zhou Yongcheng's management style is pragmatic and gentle. The outside world commented on him: "I am willing to trust others and I am willing to give them opportunities." When his family wants to enter Zhou Shengsheng, Zhou Yongcheng's first consideration is what talents he has and whether Zhou Shengsheng needs such talents. It not only balances the relationship between family members, but also changes the conservative employment mechanism of family enterprises into an open way.
Last week, Zhou Shengsheng led the gains in Hong Kong retail stocks by more than 5%. According to the announcement data, the company's turnover in 2020 was HK$ 654.38+05.032 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 654.38+09%. Retail income of jewellery and watches in the Mainland reached HK$ 8.686 billion, down 65,438+00% year-on-year. Among them, gold jewelry decreased by 23% year-on-year. However, with the gradual control of the epidemic, the decline narrowed in the second quarter of last year, and the sales volume increased by more than 1% in the second half of the year.
And he Liufu, two "cottage" Zhou jewels, also "scraped" all over the place, and "scraped" a good performance.
The official website of Leofoo explains the origin of his brand like this:
It seems that the connotation is quite rich.
Leofoo has established the status of "Hong Kong Centennial Brand", but in fact, the brand has only a short history of 17 years, and only opened its first store in Hong Kong in 20 16 years.
Ironically, Leofoo once took another jewelry brand named "Zhou Baifu" to court. Then "Zhou Baifu" pointed out that Leofoo itself is a combination of "Chow Tai Fook" and "Liu Fu".
Besides, it's not Zhou, but Li. The founders are Chaoshan people and Li brothers in Guangdong. The birthplace is not Hongkong, but Shuibei Village, the first jewelry village in China.
After graduating from college, Li worked in a bank in Chaoshan, his hometown. By chance, he came into contact with the "mysterious" jewelry industry and saw the business opportunities.
So he resolutely resigned from the bank and began the wandering of jewelry rivers and lakes.
He went to Shenzhen Shuibei to set up a jewelry inlay processing factory, from mining and processing to wholesale and retail, supplying jewelry manufacturers.
Soon after, my brother Li Weipeng also came in. The Li brothers in Chaoshan have a good life.
Compared with Chow Tai Fook founded in 1992 and Zhou Shengsheng founded in 1987, Leofoo's cultural background is far from enough, but it has made good achievements, with a revenue of 400 million yuan a year.
Since 20 19, Leofoo has been listed continuously.
The middle reaches of the Pearl River suspended the IPO audit for the first time and questioned the legitimacy of the relationship with franchisees for the second time.
In terms of investment promotion, Leofoo only charges 20,000 initial fees in the first year, and no fees are charged for renewing the contract when it expires. But also promised that the head office would bear the loss of the store. At present, there are over 3,400 franchised stores in Leofoo * * *, but there are only 28 self-operated stores, accounting for less than 1%.
Moreover, in the production process, Leofoo adopts the method of entrusted processing, with only 12 designers, accounting for1.65,438+01%of the total number of employees.
In addition, Leofoo has been involved in many disputes because of trademark infringement. And the first-line brands Chanel, Cartier, Paul Frank, as well as "Big Wolf", "Happy" and other well-known brands have fought lawsuits.
Despite many shortcomings and criticisms, Leofoo insisted on not giving up the goal of attacking IPO.
If the rise of Leofoo depends on "touching porcelain", then Liu Fu depends on marketing.
Liu Fu's predecessor was a small jade shop named Gui Jixiang. Located in the slums of Wong Tai Sin, Hong Kong. The eldest son of the owner of this jade shop is Huang Weichang.
After Huang Weichang got married, he was responsible for the overall management of the jade shop business.
Under the tide of mainland tourists shopping in Hong Kong, Huang Weichang seized the opportunity and opened the first jewelry store in Liu Fu. He also introduced investment and opened many branches.
It is said that at the peak of purchasing in the 1990s, Liu Fu jewelry stores were sometimes out of stock, so they could only give customers gold jewelry wrapped in newspapers.
Huang Weichang is very creative in marketing. As early as in the era of small workshops, he "spent" tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars to invite the star Wang Mingquan to shoot advertisements. Moreover, he also taught himself computers and developed a digital sales management system. These two measures were very advanced in the jewelry industry at that time.
Yang Baoling, a Hong Kong sister, took a stake in Liufu after advertising for Liufu. Moreover, she also invited her best friend "Miss Asia" Ewenki to promote it, so that Lukfook Jewelry won the sponsorship of Hong Kong sister. Since 1997, the battle of Hong Kong Sister for more than 20 years has been the highlight of Lukfook Jewelry.
It is understood that the design of the crown in the second season is very gorgeous. It is made of 880 high-quality American diamonds with more than 30 calories, and the value is as high as 4.28 million.
However, last year, Luk Fook Jewelry suddenly announced that it would stop sponsoring the Queen of Hong Kong.
In just six years, Luk Fook Jewellery was listed in Hong Kong. Business categories have also expanded from gold to platinum, jewelry and gem jewelry.
Nowadays, Liu Fu jewelry no longer needs to rely on the declining Hong Kong Sister Movement to build its brand.
Lukfook Jewelry, which delivers the brand positioning of "Volkswagen Luxury" to customers with high cost performance, has more than 1600 branches, and has also opened stores in more than 10 e-commerce platforms such as JD.COM and Tmall.
Data show that in 20 19, the scale of gold jewelry industry reached 707.3 billion yuan. Because of the "Black Swan" incident in 2020, the industry scale decreased 13% year-on-year.
With the economic recovery, the consumption of gold jewelry has gradually picked up since the Golden Week of the Spring Festival this year. According to the forecast, it is estimated that the total size of China's jewelry market may exceed one trillion yuan in the next five years.
Whether it is rooted in the "Zhou's" brand or the "Friction" Zhou's brand, it will face a reshuffle in the industrial chain, product design and product channels.
Heroes don't ask the source, dig deep into the market and reap dividends, which is king.
. End.
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