BEIJING, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Wensli Group is a Hangzhou-based silk company which takes pride in projecting the Chinese culture through its silk products. It has a goal of becoming China's luxury silk brand.
Wensli gained wide recognition for the adornments it made in “Blue & White Porcelain” patterns for the award ceremonies of Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. Wensli’s exquisite silk products also made their way to the G20 Summit held last year in Hangzhou, where they were presented to the G20 leaders. Over the past two decades, Wensli has grown from a traditional silk Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to a high-end silk brand in China.
In the words of Li Jianhua, CEO of Hangzhou Wensli Silk Culture Co., “In order to make a leap forward, a company must never stop innovating, transformating and upgrading. This is the only way a company can survive fierce competition and pursue excellence.”
Silk gifts for world leaders at the 2016 Hangzhou G20 Summit
In 1990s, synthetic products were introduced as an alternative to silk. This dealt a heavy below to silk production as the demand for silk products declined sharply in the international market. This landed Wensli in dire straits, especially in terms of its silk fabric exports. To cope with these difficult times, the company opted for diversification. It widened its scope to a variety of sectors, such as bioengineering, pharmacy, and real estate. However, this marginalized the silk business.
The year 2003 marked the start of Wensli’s transformation. Li Jianhua, a senior silk expert, joined the group in that year. Together with Tu Hongyan, chairman of Wensli Group, Li marched the company into a new era.
Tu believed, “Silk is a symbol of Chinese civilization. It is a gift that best represents Chinese culture. For this reason, we should use silk and make it into different gifts.”
According to Li, Wensli’s manufacturing technology is as good as one used by international big names. To build China’s national brand, Wensli is always working hard in design and technology. Li said, “We are trying to build a luxury silk brand. To date, no company in the world except Wensli specializes in luxury silk products. We can offer a wide range of luxuries made only of silk.”
For a long period of time, China’s silk industry did not have any of its own brands which were famous abroad. At the same time, a lot of silk companies earned a small profit from being OEM of foreign brands. For a change, Wensli resolutely gave up the OEM model and devoted itself to design and R&D.
“Chinese silk products need to provide something new to the global market. The question is how to incorporate Chinese elements, world-class design and high product quality into international thinking,” said Tu.
Wensli Chairman Tu Hongyan shows her company’s silk products to foreigners
As part of its plan to expand to the international market, in 2013, Wensli Group purchased Marc Rozier, a 120-year-old silk factory in France which is globally renowned for its splendid technique.
Another step that the company took to compete in the international market was the hiring of Patrick Bonnefond, former head of Hermes Textile Holdings, in 2014. Bonnefond said he agreed with the offer because he was “touched by Wensli’s understanding and dedication to silk”. In 2015, Wensli set up an international design team for Chinese designers to engage in cooperation with designers from France, Italy and other countries.
Tu explains, “Profit is not my only goal. I pay more attention to creating an enterprise that could last for a century. What I pursue now is to integrate cultural with artistic elements in silk products so that our consumers relate to the cultural significance while being fashionable.” (Contributed by Huang Xiaolan, Shi Chujiao, Edited by Ma Xin,maxin11@xinhua.org）
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