Riding the wind of rebirth

"It was Mr. Zhou's several orders that turned our factory around." Deputy Director Duan said with emotion, "He also used his connections in Hong Kong Island, Japan and South Korea to actively recommend customers to us. He also suggested that we help the masters set up personal studios to enhance the market value of their works. In particular, he helped to connect with several rounds of overseas exhibitions, making Sugong jade carving famous in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and even Southeast Asia, driving the development momentum of the industry."

"But we in Suzhou haven't treated Mr. Xiao Zhou unfairly." Deputy Director Duan said with a smile: "Although the gold medal winners of the Hundred Flowers Awards in the past two years are nominally from our Jiangsu Province, they are all custom-made works of Mr. Xiao Zhou!"

"Yes, yes, it's mutually beneficial, mutually beneficial." Zhou Zhi said, "This is because the Suzhou Jade Carving Factory has a strong foundation. Otherwise, even if we find customers, they won't appreciate the craftsmanship, and it will be a waste."

"The arts and crafts system in the Northern Xinjiang Autonomous Region is actually like this. They are also a border region, they have export ports, and they are also the main production area of ​​jade materials. As a result, they have never been able to develop. The main reason is that the craftsmanship is not up to standard and overseas merchants do not think highly of it."

"Let's sit down and talk, shall we?" Yao Chong interrupted everyone's chat and asked them to sit down: "Everyone was so happy when Elbow came that they even forgot to give up their seats."

So everyone sat down again, and the beautiful waitress brought by Director Liu poured tea for Zhou Zhi and Mai Xiaomiao, and everyone started a "tea party".

"Mr. Zhou, Suzhou Jade Carving Company is now basically on the right track. The masters have set up their own studios, run their own business, do their own accounting, and are responsible for their own profits and losses. They pay a portion of management fees to the company every year, recruit the best carvers for the company, and also take on the task of training them."

"When they participate in exhibitions, competitions, trade fairs and other external activities, they gather together under the name of the jade carving company. So far, the effect seems to be very good. It not only revitalizes Sugong jade carving and makes a name for itself, but also increases the actual income of senior craftsmen and improves their enthusiasm for continuing to specialize in their skills. At the same time, it also achieves effective mentoring and mentoring, and in turn drives the downstream general goods processing."

"In the second half of this year, we established an industrial park based on the successful restructuring of our jade carving company. The output value of the park in the second half of the year was more than four times that of the jade carving factory in the first half of the year. This fully proves that we are on the right track."

"We would like to ask Mr. Zhou to continue to support us in the future. We also promise to create satisfactory products for Mr. Zhou with the same as before, no, with a more enthusiastic and serious service spirit."

"I am an old acquaintance of Mr. Yao, Mr. Xu, and several masters of the jade carving factory." Zhou Zhi had to express his opinion after hearing this: "The cooperation has always been very pleasant. Mr. Li and Mr. Feng in Hong Kong are also very satisfied with the craftsmanship level of Suzhou. I will definitely continue to seek cooperation in the future. By the way, has Wanjia Group contacted you?"

"We've got in touch." Deputy Director Duan nodded. "This year, Wanjia Group entered the mainland to invest, and also invested in our park, replacing the company with better equipment. We provide jade, crystal and other product processing for the silver shop under its name. More than one-fold of the four-fold increase in output value in the second half of this year was brought by them."

"I heard that Wanjia Group was also introduced by Mr. Zhou. On behalf of the municipal government and the processing park, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Mr. Zhou."

"I'm not too familiar with Wanjia Group and Tianxin Silver House, but the daughter of the chairman of both companies, Ms. Lin Wanqiu, and her husband Li Lehai are both members of the Yu Tang Cultural Heritage Protection Fund Board, so we are relatively familiar with each other." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "Deputy Director Duan should thank them more, because when I was promoting the business for the jade carving company, they didn't give me a clear response at the time."

After saying that, he glanced at Yao Chong and said, "Boss Yao must have put in a lot of effort."

At this moment, Yao Chong could only describe his gratitude towards Zhou Zhi. In fact, after Zhou Zhi learned that Lin Wanqiu had given birth to a son, he told Yao Chong to strike while the iron is hot and look for some business from Wanjia Group and Tianxin Silver House, Lin Wanqiu's mother's side.

The process was actually quite smooth, but Zhou Zhi had to admire the Suzhou people's enthusiasm and acumen for business.

"I have the earnest care and strong support of my leaders, and the selfless help of my friends." Yao Chong said, "Otherwise I would not be able to run this business." Seeing that everyone had praised each other to a certain extent, Xu Zhiman spoke up, "Elbow, good workmanship requires good materials. The price of jade materials changes every day, and the same is true for overseas jadeite. We are facing more and more difficulties in the processing industry..."

"There is a problem." Deputy Director Duan took over the topic: "Although the output value of the jade carving industrial park has increased, there is still a crisis, that is, the soaring price of materials."

"Under such circumstances, we are faced with a dilemma." Deputy Director Duan frowned, as if he had been troubled by this problem for a long time. "If we only do processing with supplied materials, it would be like waiting for customers like Mr. Zhou to come to us with raw materials for customization. Obviously, our business scope will be greatly limited."

"If you want to do large-scale mass production, pressing the raw materials is an indispensable measure at many processing points."

"Many processing shops in the industrial park do not have strong capital. It is a bit difficult for them to purchase materials, process products, and then hand them over to the company for shipment and sales."

"The department held several meetings to ask the jade carving company to take on the job of purchasing materials, but the jade carving company itself does not have much financial resources, so the best way is to take out a loan."

"The problem is that if you want to get a bank loan, you need proper collateral. Although jade jewelry is rising rapidly, the banking industry has regulations that these things cannot be used as collateral. Apart from these, the jade carving company only has a building and some stores left. It is difficult to raise enough funds."

"We heard from Mr. Yao and Mr. Xu that Mr. Zhou has flexible thinking and broad vision. We would like to ask Mr. Zhou to give us some advice."

"Is that so..." Zhou Zhi pondered for a moment: "Can we refer to the cooperation model of Tianxin Silver House? Can't we use their funds to purchase raw materials?"

"Not for the time being." Deputy Director Duan smiled bitterly, "If Tianxin Silver House and Wanjia Group continue to increase their stakes, their shares in the jade carving company will exceed 50%, and they will dominate the company's board of directors. This is something that our Light Industry Department and the provincial and municipal governments do not want to see."

"Then there are only two options left," Zhou Zhi said.

There are two more ways? Deputy Director Duan, Yao Chong, and Director Liu of the Beijing Office were all stunned. Originally, Deputy Director Duan was just planning to use this as an opportunity to talk to Zhou Zhi about the difficulty of obtaining materials for the jade carving company, hoping to cooperate with Xu Zhiman to get some good materials from Zhou Zhi.

We have discussed it before. Now the best jade materials such as Lianghe seed material and 95 Yutian material are in short supply. Thanks to Zhouzhi's well-informed resources, Suzhou Jade Carving Factory also got some of the 95 Yutian jade. However, the more they got, the more greedy they became.

Even if it is just a custom-made product, it is also a custom-made product processed by Su Gong. The work is the endorsement of Su Gong and the best footnote to the saying "Su Gong's products must be fine products". To maintain this reputation, it is necessary to produce one or two top-quality products every year.

Jadeite is still easy to find, but I'm afraid high-quality jade materials can only be found in Zhouzhi now.

Zhou Zhi actually said there was another way, and more than one! (End of this chapter)