| Riding on the long tradition of embroidery making, Wendeng city is the home of numerous home textile producers |
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| Beddings made in Wendeng are sold domestically as well as exported |
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Located in the east of Shandong province, Wendeng is a newly-developed, industrial city taking an active role in vitalizing the provincial manufacturing activities in northeastern China.
Three major pillars support the economy of Wendeng, namely mechanical and electrical tools, automobiles and auto parts, as well as home textiles/leather. Scale of production is gradually achieved in these clusters. In 2004, Wendeng was honoured as a crafted home textile town in China.
Wendeng's specially designed home textiles, usually with the help of various embroidery, are sold to US and European buyers.
Home textile making fosters private business
A large number of private companies started their business in making home textiles in Wendeng years ago where they were encouraged by local authorities' policies. These firms are situated across a group of towns and villages of the city.
Until late last year, there were 4,076 home textiles enterprises in the city of Wendeng. The annual sales revenue of the city's home textile industry reached about RMB 13.61 billion during the year. The annual output value in this sector accounted for 26.5% in Wendeng's total industrial output value, according to the city's official data.
Some larger enterprises include Yunlong Group, Yida, Wande Textile, Yunxiang Embroidery, Yinfeng Home textiles.
Home textile manufacturers in Wendeng possess three famous brands in China, three nationwide inspection-free products and two famous trademarks in the country by late 2008.
Embroidery products made by hand (left) have nurtured the growth of those made by machines |
These recognized products include bedding textiles and textile goods used on the table, the wall and furniture. In addition, some decorative textiles in the car and at home made in Wendeng are also reputed. Overall, Wendeng's home textile products of exceeding 3,200 patterns or designs, are exported to more than 60 countries and regions such as the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
Embroidery from handcrafted to machine-made
Shangdong was one of the famous areas providing exquisite embroidery made by hand in China.
The handcraft techniques were gradually replaced by a mechanical hand as Wendeng modernized its industry with modern textile machinery. Yunlong Group is one of the pioneers in achieving this transition.
"From hand-made production to machine-laden manufacturing, our company has come a long way and currently markets the products at home and abroad. However, we do some highly precise processes by hand such as putting on beads manually to create a beautifully structured and complex pattern. In this way, we can also preserve and pass the handcraft techniques of embroidery to the next generation," said Bi Pengcheng, office manager of Yunlong Group. With 16 subsidiaries and over 5,000 workers, Yunlong Group is one of the major players in the field in Wendeng.
Another home textile maker in Wendeng nourished its growth through branding. "We produce for our clients when engaging an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) model. We did not develop the market ourselves. Creating our brands is a way to generate and maintain the demand of our end products. Moving from an OEM to establishing a brand is a road of getting mature for a corporation," said Wang Jinguang, Chairman of Yida Group.
Annual capacity to top 600 million pieces
Currently, the city of Wendeng has a number of well-known and large-size home textile producers and some of them are ranked among the top 500 enterprises in China's textile and garment industry in 2008-2009. The annual production capacity reaches over 600 million pieces (sets) of home textile products, according to the official data.
After the global financial crisis broke out and overseas home textile markets turned slack, the municipal government of Wendeng organized some trade promotion meetings for the local home textile makers under a collective brand name of "Home textiles made in Wendeng".
These trade promotion meetings were organized across six provinces (mainly in North China) and 30 cities in China. This helped the enterprises gain more orders to survive the economic downturn. Over 400 enterprises participated and a sales revenue over RMB28 million was attained at the meetings, orders for goods exceeded RMB100 million were received.
Further, the local authorities of Wendeng invested
RMB3 million to establish a home textile public service center and provide free services for small and medium enterprises in regard of product innovation, human resources training and more.
Director of Wendeng's Home Textile Bureau, Xu Fang (徐方), described that the large Chinese home textile market as a sweet watermelon with a thick skin. SMEs do not possess a big knife themselves to open the melon. However, they can join together to share the large market," said Mr Xu.
Background information was provided by the Wendeng government.
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