From a pig farm to a leading shoe processing corporation in the world, with a fortune of 11.7 billion USD
As the founder of Huali Industrial Group, Zhang’s company makes shoes for major brands such as Nike, Ugg, Puma and Vans with more than 180 million pairs of shoes a year, according to the company. Bloomberg.
However, contrary to his successes, he always kept a low profile, rarely giving interviews or appearing at public events. Taiwanese media called Zhang the “mysterious shoe king”.
Zhang Congyuan.
Born into a farming family in the countryside of Yunlin, Zhang worked in a women’s shoe factory right after graduating from an agricultural college.
When he had enough money saved up, he founded his own shoe factory in the 1980s. Of course, it was a factory with many limitations.
“I don’t have money to rent a factory, so I have to try as much as I can. People buy good plots of land to build new buildings, I have a pig farm and a farm in the countryside. “, he shared in a rare interview acceptance.
Located next to the rice fields in western Taiwan, despite its shabby appearance, this pig farm produces quality shoes, as quoted by Chiang Wei-lun, the shoe company’s chief executive officer. Goodbox.
“Zhang spent money on good materials, and his equipment was never inferior to others,” Mr. Chiang said.
By the late 1980s, Zhang had established a number of other footwear joint ventures throughout Taiwan and also in southern China’s Guangdong province. It should be known that Guangdong was then known as the “factory of the world”, where everything from bags and shoes to Christmas decorations was made here for export.
Zhang’s company now outsources shoe production to the world’s leading corporations.
But Zhang saw an opportunity to make a difference for himself. That opportunity is in vulcanized shoes – shoes manufactured with rubberized soles and insoles – which are popular with skaters because of their thick and flexible soles. Although vulcanized shoes cost little to manufacture, their style was unpopular with shoemakers at the time because it was unfashionable and low-margin.
“Others in the industry have abandoned them, but I just want to focus on getting the best quality,” Mr. Zhang said.
When these shoes started to become fashionable in the 1990s, Zhang had the finishing touches and was able to manufacture them for the likes of Vans and Converse. And even though Converse filed for bankruptcy in 2001, Zhang’s company maintains ties to the brand. That worked, when two years later, Nike bought Converse and on Converse’s recommendation, Nike reached out to partner with Zhang.
In 2004, Zhang officially founded Huali Industrial and today the company has factories in China, Vietnam and Dominica.
When asked about his secret to success, he shared that it “no mystery.”
“To get to the bottom, the important thing is whether you are determined to do better than others.” he said.
Refer BI
at Blogtuan.info – Source: genk.vn – Read the original article here
