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in the gold and jewelry industry, father-son partnerships are popular, and the chairman's son has been working in his own company for a long time. the chairmen like to start a business with their fathers and sons, and the second generation also cooperates well. perhaps they have seen a lot of gold, so they don't go out and spend money lavishly to get involved in scandals. it is really a breath of fresh air in the business world.

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recently, laopu gold was included in the hong kong stock connect list. including his company, the 33 stocks included in the list have collectively become popular.

this company has only 32 stores and was listed on the hong kong stock exchange in 2021. in the first half of the year, while many gold jewelers were closing stores, its revenue and net profit doubled against the market trend.

the operation of laopu gold is inseparable from the founders xu gaoming and his son. they targeted the matte-colored ancient gold and invested a lot of money in the chinese-style decoration of the store, winning over young people who like the new chinese style.

in the gold and jewelry industry, it is popular for fathers and sons to work together, and the chairman's son started working in his own company very early.

the liao father and son of chao hongji worked together to build a large business empire spanning the gold, jewelry and fashion industries. even cheng yutong, who was only in his teens, first became an apprentice in the gold shop of his future father-in-law zhou zhiyuan. he showed his business acumen and became the son-in-law of the zhou family. he also expanded chow tai fook step by step.

chairmen like fathers and sons to start a business together, and the second generation also cooperates well. perhaps they have seen a lot of gold, so they don't spend money lavishly and engage in scandals. they are truly a breath of fresh air in the business world.

1.

/ father and son team forge ancient gold,

outperforming peers and doubling performance against the market trend /

recently, the hong kong stock exchange announced the adjustment of the hong kong stock connect list, with 33 individual stocks being added, including alibaba, sf express, sunshine insurance and other companies, and laopu gold is also on the list.

speaking of which, among all the listed gold and jewelry companies this year, laopu gold has done the best job.

both revenue and net profit have more than doubled. in contrast, the performance of other gold jewelry brands is not ideal. only chow tai fook and lao feng xiang have increased by a few points, while the others are declining, especially yuyuan group and chow sang sang, which have declined by 36.4% and 52.64% respectively.

in addition, in the first half of this year, laopu gold opened three new large stores, namely the beijing china world mall store, the hong kong flagship store and the tianjin mixc store.

on the other hand, other gold brands are closing stores. according to the semi-annual report, chow sang sang opened 25 new branches and closed 47 branches in the first half of the year, reducing 22 branches in total. chow tai fook had a net reduction of 91 stores in the mainland market in the first quarter of fiscal year 2024. in addition, there was a net reduction of 89 stores in the previous quarter, and a total of 180 stores in the two quarters. luk fook group's announcement for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024 showed that there was a net reduction of 108 luk fook jewelry stores in the mainland market.

moreover, in 2022 and 2023, laopu gold ranked first in single-store revenue among all gold jewelry brands in china. from 2019 to the present, laopu gold's gross profit margin has been as high as 40%, crushing all competitors.

why is laopu gold so strong? it is all thanks to the cooperation between the boss xu gaoming and his son, and their strategy of segmenting the market.

in the early 1990s, xu gaoming was the general manager of the fisheries building of the animal husbandry and fisheries bureau of yueyang city. after working there for three years, he could not help but quit his job and started his own business. at first, he and his nephew cooperated to open a travel company in yueyang.

in 2004, xu gaoming founded golden treasure, which has two brands, one called "golden treasure" and the other called "laopu gold". the former sells cultural and creative tourism products, mainly in scenic spots and temples, while the latter sells gold jewelry, mainly in shopping malls.

however, laopu gold was only registered and independently operated in 2011. it was not until 2016 that laopu gold was completely separated from golden treasures.

xu gaoming's son xu dongbo entered laopu gold to run the business early on. the father and son chose to focus on ancient craftsmanship and only set up shop in high-end shopping malls, including beijing skp, mixc, the venetian macao, etc.

moreover, in high-end shopping malls where every inch of land is valuable, the store will also be equipped with a very classy chinese-style study room.

▲laopu gold nanjing deji plaza store

there are also many "golden artworks" on display in this room, such as the qingzhu gold pen that costs 50,000 yuan, which is made of pure gold except for the wolf hair. another example is the gold jewelry box that costs 350,000 yuan, and the hanging aromatherapy rack that costs 120,000 yuan, which can even light candles. even the sword of goujian, the king of yue, which men cannot refuse, is made of pure gold. who wouldn't be confused when seeing it:

by 2023, although laopu gold will only have 29 stores, which is too small compared to chow tai fook, which has more than 7,000 stores, the average revenue per store of laopu gold can reach nearly 100 million yuan.

the hong kong flagship store opened at the end of march this year is not only located in canton road, tsim sha tsui, the most prosperous area in hong kong, but also has a large area. there was a long queue on the first day of opening. hong kong usually uses square feet to calculate the area. this new store is more than 1,000 square meters, which is more than 10,000 square feet. this is also the largest single store in the old store's prime area.

in 2020, laopu gold sought listing guidance from huatai united securities. it was originally planning to list on the shenzhen stock exchange sme board and submitted application materials. however, in july 2021, laopu gold's initial listing application failed to pass the review of the issuance and listing committee. in june 2023, laopu gold submitted application materials to the shenzhen stock exchange again, but still failed.

after submitting its ipo prospectus several times from november last year to this year, laopu gold passed the hearing of the hong kong stock exchange and was successfully listed on june 28.

it was found in the list of executives and shareholders that not only xu gaoming and his son xu dongbo, but also xu gaoming's nephew xu bo and xu gaoming's nephew jiang xia, all served as executive directors.

2.

/ liao and his son have been in business together for 30 years.

thousands of gold shops drive the fashion empire /

among the gold brands this year, the one second only to laopu gold is chao hongji, whose performance increased by 9.15% in the first half of the year. coincidentally, this company is also managed by a father-son partnership.

chow tai fook, known as the first chain jewelry brand in the a-share market, was founded by liao and his son, whose hometown is chaoyang, shantou. almost the entire village is engaged in gold processing.

liao muzhi and his son liao chuangbin started the gold recycling business very early on. they processed the gold they collected and then sold it to earn money from their craft.

liao muzhi first had a group of northeast merchants who liked gold jewelry, so the father and son helped them process gold. the young liao chuangbin frequently traveled between northeast china, beijing and shantou. at that time, the profit per gram of gold was more than ten yuan, which was equivalent to the hourly wage of many people.

in 1993, many gold processing factories from hong kong and taiwan entered guangdong and took root in panyu, shenzhen and other places. the processing workshops in chaoshan area gradually lost their competitiveness. liao muzhi had to contract the gold jewelry processing workshop of shantou craft group. although the profit was low, the technology was also improved.

in 1996, liao chuangbin returned to shantou from beijing again, rented an office building of 116 square meters, and founded chao hongji, which became one of the two earliest jewelry brands in china, the other brand was called diamond. chao hongji was founded 8 years earlier than liao muzhi's fellow countryman li brothers founded chow tai fook, and 3 years earlier than fujian native zhou zongwen founded chow tai seng.

chao hongji also has its own characteristics, that is, the shape. laopu gold's products are matte colors that match the new chinese style, while chao hongji's products are young-style with diamonds, pearls, enamel colors, etc., and even cartoon shapes.

the target group of this fashion feature is mainly young people, and more than 85% of the customers are those born in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. however, his products use new hard gold processes such as k gold, 3d or 5d.

when he first started to build his brand, liao chuangbin found the familiar northeast region and the first prosperous jiangsu and zhejiang regions, and directly adopted the most expensive model - brand counters, and paid for the decoration himself.

at that time, department stores generally had their own small gold shops, but they were filled with gold jewellery of all brands, which looked very messy. at first, liao chuangbin asked them to sell on his behalf, and also rewarded the salespersons and managers in various ways, but in the end he couldn't help it and changed to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate the counters himself, and asked the salespersons to sign labor contracts with the mall, and chao hongji paid the wages and bonuses. at first, other colleagues laughed at them for wasting money, but later they found that they could really make money by selling at high prices and quickly, and followed suit.

the industry changes led by liao chuangbin are not only about the form of selling goods, but also about the styles.

at that stage, the domestic jewellery supply was in short supply, and most of the styles of mainland products came from hong kong and taiwan. when liao chuangbin recalled, he said, "we just took other people's styles and made a mold." his products won for a while by relying on counters and decoration, but later, after the peers imitated, this trick no longer worked, and everyone was competing in a homogeneous manner.

therefore, liao chuangbin, who was less than 30 years old, made another transformation and created new designs, launching three-color gold and using diamond decoration. in 2002, he had just gotten married and was going to australia for his honeymoon, so he went to hong kong, china to interview and recruit designers. in this way, chao hongji launched new models frequently, which also opened up a gap with other stores.

in this way, liao chuangbin led chao hongji forward, and liao muzhi slowly withdrew from the company.

however, chow tai fook's self-operated model of bag counter decoration still has a shortcoming, that is, the number of stores is not enough. although it started earlier than chow tai fook and chow tai seng, the number of stores has gradually fallen behind. it was not until 2018 that it could not help but learn from its peers and make great use of the power of franchisees. but even so, in 2023, chow tai fook had only 1,404 stores, less than one-third of the number of chow tai seng stores.

in addition, liao chuangbin was not satisfied with gold processing. he set his sights on the fashion industry and made many cross-industry acquisitions.

first, it spent 1.4 billion yuan to acquire the women's bag brand fion at a high premium, then spent 392 million yuan to acquire a 26% stake in the beauty brand dedecms, and also invested in the beauty cross-border e-commerce lamila and the medical beauty platform "gengmei app". however, these acquisitions were not cost-effective. not only did they not make much money, but they were repeatedly provisioned for goodwill impairment, which suppressed chao hongji's stock price.

last year, chao hongji added a net of 246 stores, 85% of which were franchise stores. liao chuangbin also made a bold statement that it plans to add a net of 300 stores each year in the next two years.

3.

/ a billionaire father and son from fujian,

5,129 stores opened /

in the gold industry, another father and son partnership to start a business is zhou dasheng’s boss zhou zongwen and his son.

the price of gold has hit new highs this year, and news of crazy gold buying has been on the hot search from time to time. among them, the place that appeared most frequently is shuibei village in luohu district, shenzhen, which is known as the "huaqiangbei of gold and jewelry". now the annual revenue of shuibei's gold and jewelry industry exceeds 100 billion, accounting for about half of the national gold wholesale market.

chow tai seng, a gold jewelry brand founded in 1999, is headquartered in shuibei. zhou zongwen, the founder of chow tai seng, has a net worth of 14.5 billion yuan. on the hurun rich list 2024, he is ranked first among the fujian-born rich people in shenzhen.

zhou zongwen was originally a farmer's child in a village in fuqing, fuzhou city, fujian province. after graduating from high school, he was responsible for pulling sugarcane with a cart in the production team. in 1977, when the college entrance examination was resumed, zhou zongwen learned the news and started studying hard all night, and was admitted to wuhan institute of geology, which is now china university of geosciences.

after graduation, zhou zongwen was assigned to a geological team in fujian. although his major was not directly related to jewelry at that time, the geological university had a jewelry identification course, and the geological team also had a gemstone team, so he gradually gained some understanding in this area.

after seven years in the geological team, zhou zongwen finally decided to quit his job and start his own business in 1988, when the trend of going into business was just beginning. he was recommended by his college alumni, zhang linxia, ​​who was then a senior executive of shenzhen jinyang jewelry company, and his college classmate su nanmao to work as the director of a jewelry factory under jinyang jewelry. he gradually accumulated a lot of experience and mastered everything from production to sales.

when the time was right, zhou zongwen decided to create his own jewelry brand.

in 1992, zhou zongwen merged the "hong kong dragon trading company" founded by his family with "zhou's heda" which was engaged in clothing and jewelry trade in indonesia and singapore to establish hong kong zhou dasheng jewelry co., ltd. in 1999, zhou zongwen brought the "zhou dasheng" brand to the mainland, with its headquarters in shuibei, shenzhen, and opened its first direct-operated store in wangfujing, the core business district of beijing.

although the brand was often criticized for piggybacking on chow sang sang and chow tai fook after its establishment, chow tai seng has gradually grown by relying on its own channels and production advantages.

as the economy gradually took off, zhou zongwen became dissatisfied with the development speed of the self-operated model in 2006, so he transformed it to a light-asset franchise model, with the company mainly acting as a supplier. as a result, the number of stores and production and sales volumes increased rapidly.

in 2007 alone, zhou dasheng's national chain stores increased from 150 to more than 500, and by 2009, it exceeded 1,000 stores. in 2013, zhou dasheng had more than 2,300 franchise stores alone, becoming the largest jewelry chain brand in china.

in 2017, zhou dasheng, which was born in shuibei, shenzhen, finally went public on the shenzhen stock exchange next to its "base camp".

in the list of shareholders after the listing, zhou zongwen, his wife zhou huazhen and his son zhou feiming together hold 63.19% of zhou dasheng's shares. the three of them are all members of the board of directors and are involved in daily operations.

after graduation, zhou feiming joined zhou dasheng in a low-key manner. he once worked as an assistant to the chairman and followed his father to run various business affairs. in 2016, he became the vice chairman and deputy general manager.

however, the three of them are very low-key, with no scandals or hot searches, and usually only appear at dealer conferences and other occasions:

▲zhou feiming (photo source: zhou dasheng)

as of march this year, zhou dasheng has opened 5,129 stores and has distributed a total of 3.64 billion yuan in dividends since its listing.

there is a reason why it is popular for father and son to work together to start a business among these gold jewelers.

the second generation of a silver factory owner in guangdong whom my eighth sister knows said that their industry requires a lot of capital, and there is no large amount of spare money for their children to spend. it is impossible for them to get 500 million yuan as easily as wang sicong. it is actually very difficult to start a business, and it is impossible for them to work for others. in the end, the whole family stayed in their own factory to work. some of the four brothers and sisters worked in the workshop, some did sales, and some kept accounts.

it is not easy to develop the real economy well. the second generation of the golden family does not go out to "spend money like water", nor does they start businesses recklessly or have scandals with celebrities. they are truly a breath of fresh air.