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Ren Zuohui, who has been dealing with furniture for his entire life, is the founder of Yuanzong Furniture and a pioneer in the Chinese furniture industry, Dalingshan. In the era of dual monopoly of Hong Kong and Taiwan funded enterprises, he relocated Yuanzong Furniture to Dalingshan and established a long-term roots here. This decision not only changed Ren Zuohui's personal fate, but also became a pivotal private force along with other enterprises, and the tripartite situation made Dalingshan, the "furniture kingdom", renowned worldwide.

The new story suggests that the sun never stagnates.

The Yuan Zong sofa, which can sit well, has been praised by old customers for many years and is also a quality pursuit that Ren Zuohui is proud of, creating a series of popular products with good reputation for this old furniture enterprise.

In the past two years, under the guidance of the local government, Yuanzong Furniture has opened a new channel for online sales in the Tiktok live broadcast room, allowing Ren Zuohui to have a more in-depth understanding of "hot money":Nowadays, the new development pattern is approaching us, and the competition is not only about the strength of manufacturing, but also about the comprehensive ability of products. We must not only adhere to the ultimate pursuit of furniture quality and continue to sell well with reputation products, but also adapt to the trend of personalized, customized, and online needs to rejuvenate, in order to run faster, do bigger, and go further

In the 1990s, Ren Zuohui, who was in his twenties, took a bus back to his hometown of Gaozhou from Shenzhen. While passing through the Dalingshan area, he saw scattered factories and construction sites in full swing, feeling a wave of joy. Soon after, the first far-reaching decision was made: to relocate Yuanzong Furniture Company to Dalingshan.

I came to Shenzhen in 1984 and joined a Hong Kong funded furniture company, which played a crucial role in my growth. I studied at this company for six or seven years and worked in this factory all the time. Along the way, I learned about technology, processes, etc., until I became a supervisor, "said Ren Zuohui.

In 1992, Ren Zuohui started his own business, and the process was quite difficult. At first, I borrowed 100000 yuan from relatives and friends, and rented a piece of land in Nanshan District to build a 5000 square meter factory. By the end of the year, I had earned 700000 to 800000 yuan and started to get started. The factory expanded in the second year, and by 1994, it had arrived in Dalingshan, where business had already begun to thrive.

In the golden age of development, Ren Zuohui first earned processing fees for Taiwan and Taiwan furniture OEM processing, and then began to build his own brand. Throughout the journey, it has been relatively difficult and we have encountered many problems. For example, when we first started building a brand, we opened a specialty store in Shanghai in 1995, and the rent was not cheap. At the beginning, we had no experience and had to pay a great price for running our own store. "Ren Zuohui said that later on, we changed our model and focused on doing our own brand and products well. We followed the dealer model and constantly had suppliers and dealers come to negotiate with us.

What left a deep impression on Ren Zuohui was that when he first started his business, his products couldn't sell well, his business couldn't break through, and his partners even thought about giving up. He had been researching for a long time and found that the product style was not good enough. Later, he changed the product design and it became a "bestseller" as soon as it entered the market. At that time, the furniture they produced was in short supply. "The person in charge of Xiangjiang Furniture once stated that he would demand as much as Yuanzong Furniture sent. Winning a "good start" has given Ren Zuohui more confidence in the future.

At that time, the Chinese furniture market was in an era where various giants were competing for dominance in the Central Plains. After competing with the market, Yuanzong Furniture has added a new product line based on positioning itself as a mid to high end consumer group, specifically serving the rural and urban consumer groups in China's third and fourth tier cities, as well as first-time homebuyers. It has launched new brands and products that take a mass market approach. Nowadays, Yuanzong has six major brands under its umbrella, including Jazz Villa, Jazz Fashion, YZcasa, Shangyu, and Xinrui Sofa, forming a complete product line of furniture.

Since 2003, we have increased our domestic sales efforts and diversified our business risks. Currently, the proportion of domestic and foreign sales of Yuanzong Furniture is about half each. Although the furniture market in first and second tier cities is close to saturation, there is still a lot of space in county-level markets. In the long run, the huge market space in China has enough capacity to cultivate and accommodate furniture industry giants, "Ren Zuohui said.

Experts point out that in the past, China's furniture exports mainly faced competition from developed countries and regions, relying on low costs to win and competing for cost advantages. In the future, furniture companies will face dual competition: in high-end products, competitors will be traditional developed countries, and the means of competition will no longer be price competition, but product design, material research and development, and brand competition; In the mid to low end products, they face competition from Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia, which have lower labor and material costs.

Ren Zuohui keenly captured the ever-changing times. Around 2000, he built the Dalingshan factory and continued to develop it; In 2014, Ren Zuohui realized that furniture companies had a large demand for land and heavy logistics costs, and he needed to make his second "important decision" since starting his business.

So he teamed up with the Hong Kong Furniture Association to build a domestic sales manufacturing base. After five years of comprehensive investigation, the project has settled in Jianli County, Hubei Province and has been in operation for many years. The Hubei base will only serve as the production base for Emperor Yuanzong, and the headquarters, brand, investment promotion, and research and development must stay in Dalingshan, "said Ren Zuohui. Since moving to Hubei, the production equipment of the enterprise has been improved, and it has learned from the world's most advanced factory standards to achieve intelligent production. Some techniques have made significant progress, moving towards big brands and world-class ones

In fact, the long-term persistence in craftsmanship and quality has contributed to the success of this enterprise.Before launching a new product, Yuanzong Furniture will do a lot of preparation work, "said Yuan Shuizhou, a senior executive of the company

The pursuit of craftsmanship by enterprises also permeates the cultivation of craftsmen. In the workshop of Yuanzong Furniture, many of them are old employees who have been working continuously for many years. For example, there is an aunt who has been working in a company for nearly 30 years, skilled and professional in every move. She said that she started with small procedures such as foreskin and circumcision. Enterprises have strict requirements for craftsmen. Craftsmen need to know how to work hard, endure hardships, and be willing to work tirelessly. They need to make changes in any aspect that they cannot do and immediately rectify any mistakes they feel

After years of development, the furniture industry cluster in Dalingshan Town has formed a complete industrial chain, with a complete supply system and a group of large-scale and high-quality chemical, coating, wood, board, hardware accessories, leather goods and other production enterprises. It also has the well-known wood supply market in China - Jilong Wood Market, and the large-scale furniture hardware market - Dacheng Furniture Hardware Wholesale Market. In addition, Dalingshan Town has significant advantages in location and transportation, with a mature and complete logistics industry. Relying on the development advantages of the Greater Bay Area, the furniture industry cluster has sufficient logistics, information flow, and capital flow, and the industry operates safely and stably.

Time changes, and the stars shift. Compared to the hustle and bustle of many years ago, the Dalingshan furniture industry has become somewhat quiet in recent years. Standing in between, Ren Zuohui has his own clear insights.

Previously, there was a lack of promotion in this area, so we still need to increase efforts to promote Dalingshan furniture. With more promotion, everyone can know and have influence. In fact, whether it is done in Vietnam or mainland China, even if it is done in Vietnam and still considered Dalingshan furniture, the key is to have a brand, "said Ren Zuohui.

The original intention has been determined, and one should act on their own. In 2016, Ren Zuohui was elected as the president of the third session of Dalingshan Furniture Association, promising to lead everyone to work hard and create a Xintiandi in the industry, which became the third "important decision" he made since he started his business.

Looking back on the past few years, he has taken concrete actions by encouraging member companies to participate in large-scale exhibitions in cities such as Houjie, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, enabling peers to enhance their own products and learn from each other. Before the epidemic, the association also organized member units to visit and study in Italy, the United States and other places.

In recent years, Dalingshan Furniture Enterprises have continuously increased their investment in equipment, actively expanded their sales channels, and proactively adapted to new market demands, resulting in a certain improvement in their industrial innovation capabilities. Zhang Peng, Chairman of Da Carpenter Furniture, commented that these efforts are largely due to the work of the Dalingshan Furniture Association, which has helped more small furniture enterprises grow and become stronger.

From relying on export and foreign trade to now forming a new development pattern of dual circulation with equal emphasis on both export and domestic sales, the Dalingshan furniture industry, including Yuanzong, has embraced the new era and met new demands through collective transformation. Both online and offline efforts have been made, and with the proactive reform of the supply side, a new opportunity for innovation to start anew has been obtained.

At the end of 2021, Dalingshan Town was successfully included in the core area of Dongguan's furniture industry cluster, and the furniture industry embarked on a new journey of revitalizing momentum with the support of the municipal and town governments.

In Ren Zuohui's opinion, it is timely to promote now, because Dalingshan Furniture is already very famous. Bringing Dalingshan as the "number one export town" brand of Chinese furniture has great value and is bound to achieve good results. He believes that in the future, more and more people will remember this sentence when they hear about Dalingshan Furniture:“Good furniture, made in Dalingshan！”

Source | Southern+

Editor | tt