Flower Color Printing: Lost Aura

In the memory of the “old printer” of the capital, the history of printing in Beijing in the early 1990s can be described as the history of a state-owned enterprise. A group of pioneer companies emerged from the advantages of capital, system, and technology, and quickly became industry leaders and “star” enterprises in this period. Beijing Baihua Color Printing Co., Ltd. is one of them.

璀璨 "Star Way"

In 1983, based on the proposal of Mr. Liao Chengzhi, an older generation of revolutionary scholars, Beijing Baihua Printing Co., Ltd., which provided a number of publishing services for overseas Chinese and Hong Kong and Macao compatriots at home and abroad, was born. At this time, Baihua was only a "small modern printing factory," but at the opening ceremony held in December, "Beijing Municipal Party Committee leaders and many older movie stars have come to the scene." The popularity index of flowers is not hard to imagine. .

The support of political circles and celebrities is just an episode in the history of Baihua's entrepreneurship. It is the subsequent generous investment that makes Baihua famous. In 1983, while Baihua was still planning to build, it spent millions on purchasing a Heidelberg 102 press. The introduction of this two-color offset press not only made Baihua "the first Beijing printing company to introduce Heidelberg machines." In addition, he has added a bright color to the printing industry in the Mainland that uses lead typesetting and black-and-white printing as the mainstream process. The new generation of enterprises Baihua uses the “technical pacesetter” image to show off the edge. In the following years, Baihua purchased several Heidelberg offset presses one after another. According to incomplete statistics, until the 1992 Baihua joint venture, the number of offset presses in Heidelberg reached 5, and even the outside world even nicknamed “Heidelberg’s bridgehead in the Chinese market. "The reputation of "-The production workshop of Baihua is like the exhibition room of Heidelberg equipment. Every year, we welcome several delegations of printing companies from all over the country."

Due to its unique market positioning, Baihua quickly became a “window” for Hong Kong and Macao authors in the Mainland, with representatives such as Qiong Yao. “The works she published in the Mainland are basically printed and printed,” recalls Jiao Bin, general manager of Baihua who is also an “old flower man.” However, for a fully market-oriented enterprise, these limited sources of living can't satisfy the need for survival. Slowly, Baihua has started to undertake business for the society.

In the early 1990s, the printing industry in the mainland, led by Beijing, was still in the state of state-owned capital. This pattern was gradually broken after Deng Xiaoping's speech at the South Tour. Along with the rise of foreign capital and private economy, a group of state-owned enterprises called “pioneers” have accelerated their progress and joint ventures have become a way for them to enter the fast lane of development. The flowers in the vanguard camp are also waiting for opportunities. In 1992, opportunities came. With the help of the famous equipment agent Bao Long Yang, Baihua successfully introduced the Danish Foundation for Developing Countries as a shareholder. According to the agreement, the two parties conducted joint ventures in proportions of 75% (Chinese) and 25% (Danish), with a total investment of up to 15 million US dollars. The most splendid chapter in the history of flower development was unveiled.

One of the best times

Each company has its own sweet memories. For the flowers, that period may have stayed more in 1992-1996. Mentioned in the past, people who experienced the glory of the past are full of pride. Although it is still a long time ago, it is not difficult for us to restore the appearance of blossoming flowers through the patchwork of some memory fragments.

First, the top equipment configuration. “After the joint venture in 1992, Baihua purchased two Heidelberg offset presses. One of them was a bright oil printer with CD thick paper, which was a very advanced offset printing equipment at the time. The sauna machines and Ma Tian were successively introduced. Binding machines, Stahl folding machines and other high-end equipment." In the era of various restrictions on the "weapons" is not yet universally popular, Baihua this move can not be described as far-sighted.

Second, advance the systematic management concept. "In 1992, many people did not know what the computer was. They bought two IBM machines at a time and bought more than 50,000 computers. They hired someone to develop computer management systems." "The entire system covers quotation, scheduling, and Single-entry, billing, and other production processes eliminate the use of hand-sheets, and managers can keep abreast of the company's production and operation status.” If the development and application of this management system made the flowers become the first batch of computer management systems Printing company, another of its "crab" move is to prepare and successfully passed the ISO9000 certification, which won the "the first mainland ISO9000 certified printing company" praise.

Third, the big customer base. "At that time, Baihua's client target was only targeted at the top ten publishing houses, such as construction, light industry, and the United States. I remember the complete works of art published by construction workers. A total of 2,000 copies were published, of which more than a dozen were collected. A lot of small and medium-sized publishers, such as Tongqu Publishing Co., Ltd., which is now famous for children's books, were not on our list at the time.” Even in times when printing is in short supply, picking customers based on their popularity is not an ordinary business. If we don't have enough strength to support it, we would not dare to be so arrogant. However, Baihua is one of the atypical groups.

Fourth, high returns on profits. In the mid-1990s, where the overall industry's profit margins were generally rising, there were a handful of companies that had earned a lot of profit. Flowers were among the best. “In the highest year, Baihua has achieved a production value of more than RMB40 million, which is far beyond its production capacity; its profit margins (including plate making and printing) have exceeded 50%.” In an excellent situation, Baihua’s Chinese and foreign shareholders voluntarily gave up dividends. , Put it into a new round of equipment procurement.

High profit returns have created the financial power and reputation of the flowers. “The procurement went out and talked about the business. There were cheques in the pocket. Some of them were opened directly.” “We have 12 cars, of which 9 are cars. One is the Mercedes 600, which was the only one in Beijing at the time.” “Then we received people every day. The printing factory that came to Beijing for meetings, the first place to visit was Baihua.” “The people we recruited were all graduated from high school, and the female employees demanded more than 1.65 meters.”

The “Landscape” of the flowers gives employees “long face” and also shows their “warmth” side. “The backbones including the middle class all visited the country and even learned to visit.” “Every year’s year-end commendation meeting draws employees to Longquan, including family members. In the summer, it also organizes advanced workers to recuperate.” Although it is stated objectively, There was a bright past, but the deeply indifference of a few florists who had inadvertently revealed that we were all moved.

The pain of "discussion"

However, the development of the enterprise has always been progressing in the ups and downs. Under the prestigious name, some hidden dangers are inadvertently covered by halo. The hundred flowers after 1996 seem to have used up their own good luck, repeated three times and five times, "turning the battlefield," and the date of their turn has also become distant. The market "folds". In the early 90s of the era of electricity distribution, Baihua once occupied the technological highland in the field of plate making. In order to ensure the leading edge of technology, Hundred Flowers invested considerable material and manpower. Between 1995 and 1996, Baihua spent heavily on the introduction of the mainland's first DC3000 (full page imposition system) and held a massive press conference at the Kunlun Hotel. Allegedly, this top-level electrical distribution system allows customers to see the results of pre-proofing. Unfortunately, when this system has not had time to play its due role, more advanced photocopying technology will come out, and the electricity era will soon decline.

If we say that because of the lack of discourse power, the replacement of the technology is uncontrollable, then the loss of some of its living resources due to its own management loopholes will cause irreparable harm to many companies including Baihua. According to reports, due to the fact that some salesmen did not have the principle and the moral bottom line of speculation (which was a common phenomenon in the industry at the time), Baihua not only lost some of its high-quality livelihoods, but also received a certain amount of reputation.

However, if this reduction of the flowers is entirely attributable to the internal cause, it will also be unfair. In fact, changes in the market are always closely linked to changes in the external competitive environment. In the mid-1990s, Beijing's printing companies not only faced changes in supply and demand, increased competition in the industry, but also accepted the positive challenges of former “little brothers” Langfang printing companies. The latter relied on the accumulation of capital in the early years, plus costs, prices, cycles, and systems. The absolute advantage in such aspects has long been an irreproachable competitor. Among the hundreds of flowers that are placed in it, one can imagine the competitive pressures on the shoulders.

Investment "discussion." In the short-term development history of Baihua, there have been several investment experiences in multiple fields, but most of the outcomes have not come to an end. The first is to attract foreign investment in the establishment of Baihuayu Fast Printing Co., Ltd. on the basis of the Express Printing Department; the second is to jointly produce humidifiers (for offset printing machines) with the Japanese Gwangyang Agency. "Although the technology is good, but because of the high prices, the sales are not good. The third was the establishment of the packaging department, but it was not long before the florist discovered that this area is not imaginary, "so good to make money." On the one hand, the customer's package price is too severe, and on the other hand, they have strict requirements on color consistency. It is difficult for people who are accustomed to the printing technology of books and periodicals to adapt. Therefore, the packaging department was disbanded in less than two years.

The retrospective investment history of Hundred Flowers can be summed up by “moving on demand”, whether it is in the early years (in the early 1990s) when investing in quick printing, humidifying machines, or later (after the mid-1990s) investing in packaging and printing. Taking packaging printing as an example, in a text recording the history of printing in Beijing in the 1990s, the following scenes were described as follows: “With the drive of market demand, some printing and printing plants in Beijing have adjusted their production structure and developed packaging and decoration printing. Offset printing plants, Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory, Beijing Printing Factory, Foreign Language Printing Factory, Beijing Baihua Printing Co., Ltd., Chemical Industry Press Printing Factory, 1201 Factory and other printing companies have introduced thick paper multicolor offset printing presses and automatic die cutting. Machines, automatic folder-gluers, flexo printing lines, etc., carried out color box printing, trademark printing, etc."

From this it can be seen that packaging and printing was the first choice for the transformation of newspapers and printing companies or for the exhibition industry. However, it was rarely and consistently achieved. The reason is that some of them are contrary to the system, and some are lacking in the prediction of difficulties, forgetting that while conforming to the trend, it is also very important to review the situation.

Restructured "Folding". 2003 was a turning point for the people of Baihua. According to the relevant regulations of the state, all ministries and commissions should complete the restructuring and decoupling of the subordinate enterprises before and after that year. Therefore, in the background, the restructuring of the hundred flowers as a subsidiary of the Ministry of Security has also been placed on the top of the table. When the people of Baihua were worried about the fate of the unresolved reforms, a so-called private capital "airborne" a hundred flowers, "a few people came, spent nearly a year in the flowers, tossed a lot, and withdrawn at the end of the year." Baihua people are resentful that their arrival has not changed the performance of Baihua's decline, but has disrupted normal production and business order. In the second year, “the entire company was in a semi-discontinued state for the whole year. The vast majority of employees had given up leave and could only open minimum wages. The customer naturally lost almost the same.” Until 2005, Baihua spent a year in desperation was formally taken over by the China Printing Group, which was affiliated with the SASAC. After spending 10 years in a joint venture, Baihua returned to the origin and became a wholly-owned state-owned enterprise.

At this time, the flowers are like old people whose oil lamps have dried up. In 2005, when China and India took over, Baihua had a total loss of 15 million yuan, and there were 7-8 million belonging to bad debts. And its output value can only be more than 20 million yuan in the case of capacity saturation. After the transfer to the China-India Group, Baihua quickly resumed production and moved towards the established goal of “turning losses in five years”. By the end of 2009, the loss figure has been reduced to more than 1 million, but it also declares the reality that the target has not been completed. Since “turning away from loss and hopelessness”, the China-India Group decided to cut the knife quickly and implement the separation of the main and auxiliary industries. The "joint life" is also linked to two other printing companies under the China-India Group, the Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory and the People's Fine Arts Printing House. The three companies were integrated into Beijing Xinhua Printing Co., Ltd. The main business was relocated to the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, and the original factory area was developed and operated in the auxiliary industries such as real estate and property.

“As early as in 2007 and 2008, we envisioned the development of the main and auxiliary industries. The main business sector can be relocated to Daxing, and local governments are optimistic. The original land belongs to a food factory. The plant is very simple. If we want to redesign, In the near-decoration period, it will cost more than 20 million yuan, and later it will catch up with the financial crisis, and all companies have tightened their moneybags. This has become an impossible task. If this opportunity can be grasped, the flowers should be as early as possible. Losses will not go to the point where today (the separation between the main and the auxiliary). "Overwhelmed by the opportunity to pass by, so that the employees who witnessed the entire process are still very sad.

"Although all flowers have come all the way, although there are some problems in the management and management of the thinking, the most fundamental and the most important issue is the market." The summary of an employee who did not wish to be identified was recognized by many witnesses. . In their view, the failure to accurately grasp the pulse and seize the market is the root cause for the decline of the flowers.

Sad "second takeoff"

In June 2010, Jiao Bin was appointed as the general manager of Baihua by the group and stayed in the original factory, responsible for the development and operation of the auxiliary business. From the beginning of his tenure, Jiao Bin began to think hard about a problem: how to revitalize existing properties, and use the least investment in exchange for greater income. It should be noted that the auxiliary sector is responsible for the livelihood of the company’s more than 100 retired employees, and the company’s funds have long been stretched.

Jiao Bin, who shouldered a difficult mission, led six employees to start their investment careers with “black eyes”. Never denied, Jiao Bin, who was clearly positioned to touch the stones, found a sunny road in the bump. “We have positioned ourselves as a design park with clear goals and only recruited architectural design companies. They like tall, spacious houses, which saves us the cost of renovating.”

This unique position has given Jiao Bin a pleasant surprise. “The current contract rent has reached 7.5 million yuan. Before we estimated that it would be able to reach 5 million yuan, it would be good. If we keep the entire plant area alive, 9 million should be no problem. Now the group sees that our auxiliary business is doing very well and we are ready to make this block into the main business." Jiao Bin jokingly compared the gains of the secondary industry to the second take-off of the Hundred Flowers. However, we are still sensitive to the bitterness and sadness of their speech. Whoever said it was not, that although the flowers were in existence, the subject had changed; those lost rings and the passing years could only be accompanied by a sigh and eternal stops in the memories of the printing man.