According to Wenzhou Customs statistics, Wenzhou’s glasses exports in 2021 will reach 8.413 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.15%.

As Wenzhou glasses, which are on the same starting line with the clothing, shoe leather and other industries, why are they so loved by foreigners? This time, the most beautiful scenery in foreign trade, what does the industry rely on?

Many world-famous brand glasses are handed over to Wenzhou for processing

Wenzhou’s eyewear industry started with low-end sunglasses, most of which cost only $1 per pair, and are known as beach sunglasses in the industry. That is, when foreigners swim and sunbathe at the seaside, they will buy sunglasses made in Wenzhou.

In fact, in the past few years, the actual export value of Wenzhou glasses is far greater than the customs statistics, because some foreign trade companies in Shenzhen, Shanghai and other places have purchased a large amount of export products.

At present, Wenzhou’s glasses export has stepped out of the period of beach sunglasses, mainly optical glasses, and the export enterprises are mainly concentrated in Ouhai, Lucheng and Longwan. Surgical merchants are more interested in Wenzhou glasses, and more orders are due to the increase in demand for brand glasses in the global market.

At present, Wenzhou has become one of the main bases for OEM of major eyewear brands in the world. According to Xu Haizhou, secretary-general of Wenzhou Optical Chamber of Commerce, there are dozens of internationally renowned brands of OEMs in Wenzhou optical companies, including Hugo Boss, Guess, Armani, Prada, Just Cavalli, Grand vision, Fielmann and other brands, and there are many OEM companies. Forty or fifty.

It is understood that internationally well-known eyewear brands are mainly concentrated in the hands of several brand operating companies, such as Marchon in the United States, Luxottica and Safilo in Italy, and Specsavers in the United Kingdom, etc. At present, these brand operating companies have placed orders with Wenzhou enterprises.

High cost performance makes Wenzhou glasses come from behind

The export of domestic glasses is mainly concentrated in Shenzhen, Xiamen and Wenzhou. Shenzhen OEMs are basically international first- and second-tier brands, while Xiamen focuses on the export of sunglasses and mid-range optical mirrors.

In recent years, international big brands have gradually transferred their orders to Wenzhou glasses enterprises for production, mainly because the cost performance of Wenzhou glasses has improved. Similar glasses, made in Wenzhou are 1 to 2 US dollars cheaper than those in Shenzhen. It is understood that the export of glasses is divided into three grades. The low-end export unit price is below 2 US dollars, the mid-range export unit price is 2 to 4 US dollars, and the high-end export unit price is more than 4 US dollars.

At present, the export unit price of a large number of glasses in Wenzhou has exceeded 4 US dollars, jumping directly from low-end to high-end. Previously, because Shenzhen glasses companies were more from Hong Kong and their quality was first-class in the mainland, they have always been favored by international big names.

Wenzhou glasses have quickly caught up with Shenzhen in the past 10 years, mainly due to the large investment in technical transformation of glasses export enterprises in the past five years. “At present, most of the glasses enterprises in Wenzhou use production equipment with a relatively high level of automation, and some enterprises also use robotic arms.”

After a large number of automated equipment is used, Wenzhou glasses products have become standardized, and the quality will not fluctuate. Some companies invest between 5 million and 10 million yuan in technological transformation every year. The introduction of robotic arms is to reduce labor and improve product quality. An automation group was also set up to explore how to develop and retrofit some of the small production equipment the company needed. The small equipment developed and modified by the automation team saves a lot of labor. And obtained a number of invention patents and utility model patents.

The person in charge of the relevant glasses company said that the quality of glasses produced in Wenzhou and Shenzhen is not much different, but the quality of some craftsmanship is not stable enough in terms of details, there is a slight gap, but the product quality is basically very close. Therefore, some international brands have successively transferred orders to Wenzhou optical companies.

The price advantage comes from the complete industrial chain

The cost performance of Wenzhou glasses is higher than that of Shenzhen, which has a certain relationship with the substantial reduction in the number of “machine substitutions” in recent years. At present, the number of workers employed on a production line in some of their companies has decreased by about 1/2 compared with 10 years ago.

The reason why Wenzhou glasses are more advantageous than Shenzhen in terms of price is mainly due to the integrity of the Wenzhou glasses industry chain. There are many supporting enterprises from glasses production equipment to small screws of accessories. Like glasses production equipment, the equipment produced in Wenzhou is better than other places, and equipment manufacturers can generally develop some equipment separately according to the needs of glasses enterprises.

According to incomplete statistics, there are currently thousands of enterprises in Wenzhou glasses industry, among which there are only about 400 glasses manufacturers, and about 600 other enterprises are supporting enterprises, some of which have become the boss of similar domestic enterprises.

The person in charge of the relevant enterprise said frankly that in terms of management, the enterprise also has its own set of management – after introducing some middle and senior management personnel from domestic glasses enterprises, combined with the characteristics of Wenzhou enterprises, the management of the enterprise in the production link is optimized, thereby reducing costs.

After another three to five years of hard work, Wenzhou Glasses is expected to catch up with the level of Shenzhen, and a large number of orders from international big brands will come to the door. It is understood that only 1/4 of the orders of international big brands are made by Wenzhou glasses companies, and 3/4 of the orders are still selected by Shenzhen and Xiamen glasses companies.