“Imported bricks are getting harder and harder to sell”, “high-end growth is sluggish, low-end is engaging in price wars”, “side games and even counterfeiting are common, and other chaos abounds”. Recently, some people working in the imported brick industry expressed their bitterness to "Ceramic Information".
Customs data shows that the overall import value of imported ceramic tiles in 2020 fell for the first time in five years (-7.27%), and the shares of the two largest sources of imported tiles, Italy (-13.63%) and Spain (-2.91%), were both Although India's imported bricks have experienced considerable growth (29.29%), the average price has dropped by 17.65% to US$12.41 per square meter, and has been deeply pursued by domestic bricks.
Do you have to start the imported brick business if you don’t have money?
Since the first imported ceramic tiles entered the country in the 1980s, it took more than 30 years for the value of imported ceramic tiles to exceed US$100 million, or about 656 million yuan, in 2017. Domestic ceramic tiles, which started in the same period, now have a market size of 300 billion yuan.
Such a disparity in size made Li Dawei (pseudonym), who has been in the import and export ceramic tile business for more than 10 years, sigh with emotion: "Except for Italy and Spain, and the Indian slabs in the past two years, the top ten imported bricks are The countries at the bottom of the list may be ranked in the top ten just by entering a cabinet from them. In China, which is as big as China, it is like a grain of sand thrown into water without making a splash. ”
Li Dawei’s emotion is not an exaggeration. In 2020, Russia's imported bricks ranked fifth with a value of US$2.785 million (approximately 18.2696 million yuan), accounting for 1.82% of the overall import value. This proportion was only achieved on the premise of a year-on-year increase of 45.22% .
In other words, the amount of ceramic tiles imported from one country for one year is only equivalent to one month's sales of a small and medium-sized domestic brick brand. This has made many ceramic tile practitioners lose interest in imported bricks. "There is no quantity to make imported bricks. We can only make matching products for brands. There is no basic supply of domestic bricks. To make purely imported bricks, we either have some capital and can endure the loneliness, or we can spend a little money to buy samples and wait for the designer to choose. Import. So I always say that companies with no money only make imported bricks, and those who want to make a lot of money will make domestic bricks. Domestic bricks are plentiful, valuable, and have fast turnover. All the famous brick brands are domestic bricks. Imported bricks are not. There are only a few that are famous for their limited quantity, low prices, slow turnover, and long delivery times,” Li Dawei teased.
"It is not easy to make imported bricks. If you go low-end, even if there is an opportunity, it will only be a flash in the pan. For example, Indian large-scale bricks have been popular for a year or two. After domestic factories catch up, there will be no Indian large-scale bricks. Fight on price , the domestic cost-effectiveness is always the first.Li Dawei pointed out that the production of imported bricks can only go to the high-end consumer market. After all, only the top rich can afford them. Moreover, imported brick products must have technologies that domestic manufacturers are not able to master at present, so that there will be room for survival in the country. .
The pain of slow share growth
The reason for the slow growth of the overall share of imported bricks needs to be analyzed from the bottom logic, that is, the level of price.
Tan Xiyuan, national sales director of Italian Marazzi Group, believes that high-end imported bricks from Italy and Spain are targeted at high-end consumer groups due to their high prices. This requires heavy reliance on designer channels. The target consumer groups and sales channels are relatively Fixed, the share of high-end imported bricks will naturally grow slowly. On the other hand, imported bricks from India and other countries that win on price mainly seize the time window of slate in the first two years, but with the increase of domestic slate With the rise of the industry, low price is no longer the advantage of imported rock slabs from India.
Li Dawei also holds the "price theory". He pointed out that the small share of high-end imported bricks is "not a problem of agency for separate series of products", but that being a general agent requires strength, because to be the general agent of high-end imported brick brands in China, every year The cost of the delivery agreement is at least tens of millions of yuan. “The minimum requirement for delivery starts at 1 million euros per year, plus 7% tariff and 13% value-added tax, as well as domestic logistics, warehousing, and operating expenses. The unit price of imported bricks is not tens of yuan per square meter, but For thousands of dollars, are you confident that you can sell it every year? For example, for an imported brick brand, it changes to a general agent every few years, so being a general agent requires strength. "Not only that, but also the transportation and paving costs at the back end of the sales. It also costs several hundred yuan per square meter, which raises the price threshold for end consumption.
On the other hand, it is even more difficult to make a living with imported bricks that are competing for price. Li Dawei said that “you can count them on ten fingers” that are still in the business of importing slates from India, because “now that the production of domestic slates increases, the price will continue to drop, and China has put the Indian slates to sleep. If you compare it to output, kiln size, and price, China is definitely the winner."
Speaking of imported slate slabs from India, Liu Xinghe (pseudonym), who has been in the industry for 20 years, also pointed out that some employees who were originally engaged in international trade two years ago relied on a certain amount of funds and customer accumulation to establish a business in Foshan Huaxia Ceramics City. I rented an office nearby and started a business of importing slates from India. "Two years ago, a large amount of 500,000 square meters was imported from India a month. Now one line of a domestic factory can produce this amount in a month. Companies in surrounding production areas such as Gao'an and Jiajiang are also setting up slate production lines., in the division of market resources, domestic slate has a greater impact than Indian slate. This is the source of pressure that many people say that imported bricks are becoming increasingly difficult to make, so what I make now are some with special craftsmanship. For rock slabs, I would rather sell them more expensively and be differentiated. It doesn’t matter if the quantity is smaller. ”
So, how can imported bricks increase their share? Tan Xiyuan pointed out that high-end imported bricks are now competing with each other, and the sales channels are too single, which can easily hit the ceiling. Nowadays, many imported brick brands are taking the road of clearly marked prices, which is to explore whether they can "cut the cake from Two pounds to five pounds.” If you want to go from five pounds to something bigger, Tan Xiyuan believes that you should consider diversified development in terms of products, prices, channels, etc. "Imported bricks must follow the model of 'localization' and 'Chinese-foreign cooperation' to make it bigger." Strong, imported brick brands should learn from BBA, Kohler, and TOTO, and control production technology and standards, but in domestic production, localization will have a domestic customer base, and pure imports will have a pure import customer base. This is our Marazzi strategic plan , we need an opportunity at the right time, right place and right people. We are preparing for this by adopting the China branch model.”
"Selling dog meat on sheep's heads" and other chaos continue
If they had not been deeply involved in the imported brick circle for a long time, even many people in the ceramic industry would not understand imported bricks. For example, there are many factories in the Sassuolo region of Italy, with a high density, and ceramic tiles of various qualities and prices are available. However, most of the ceramic tiles imported from Italy to the country are better quality and higher priced ceramic tiles, resulting in a situation where imported tiles are very expensive. The illusion of high-end.
The lack of information leaves a lot of room for imported bricks to operate. Liu Xinghe pointed out the fact that there are two imported brick brands on the market with the same trademark pattern but different trademark colors. “Although they appear to be the same brand on the surface, they are only different in color, but they are two different brands. They are independent companies, and one of them will get goods from the other. Their production line in Spain also welcomes us to OEM. The minimum order is 3,000 square meters, but the price is a little higher. "As with such a complicated relationship, it is difficult for outsiders to know. .
Liu Xinghe also said that whether they are divided into series product agents or brand general agents, nowadays high-end imported brick brands are basically exclusive agents in China. "Although there are still occasional speculators, they are not imported brick brands. There are also some general agents who are trying to attract investment under the banner of other people's brands, but overallIn terms of operation, the operation is relatively standardized, and the requirements of foreign manufacturers are also higher. In the past, they could only ship in one cabinet or half a cabinet, but now many of them can no longer do it. ”
Whether it is OEM or speculation, and regardless of quality, as long as the ceramic tiles are imported from abroad, they can still bear the name of imported bricks. However, there is still chaos in the imported brick market of “selling sheep’s meat to others”.
Li Linfeng (pseudonym), a terminal dealer in the imported brick business in Nanjing, Jiangsu, pointed out that there are still domestic bricks on the market pretending to be imported bricks, because in China most stores open under the name of a trade name rather than the brand name of imported bricks. Bricks are easily mixed up, and the biggest difficulty is that "customers can't tell the difference between real and fake." Although this shows that the production technology of domestic bricks is getting better and better, and fakes can be confused with real ones, the counterfeiting itself is not only wrong, but also reflects the inferiority of domestic bricks. .
With the rise of slate in recent years, especially the high unit price of imported slate, the phenomenon of domestic slate passing off as imported slate has also emerged. Liu Xinghe showed two albums with different sizes but almost the same content. They were albums imitating Italian FMG rock slabs by a domestic brand. "They bought FMG products, scanned them, and then copied them. The textures in the albums are all the same. To be honest, this is really excessive." This will also cause damage to the interests of consumers, making them think that they have bought cheap imported bricks. But in fact, they bought domestic bricks at a high price.
(The article is reproduced from Ceramic Information)
