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Bag-making booms in Hebei town

By ZHANG YU in Shijiazhuang zhangyu1@chinadaily.com.cn

Zhang Fenhua has been busier than usual recently at a handbag factory in Kangbao county in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province.

She is one of 50 workers making 70,000 ladies handbags for export to Argentina.

“I am proud that the bags we make are sold overseas,” the 55-yearold stitcher said.

Zhang has worked at the factory since 2014 and is known for the beauty of her needlework.

“The company is very strict about checking the quality of products, and our work needs to be very careful,” she said.

Hebei Hengtai Leather Goods Company was registered in Kangbao in 2014. It is managed by Yuan Xiaojun, who grew up in the nearby countryside but started out as a migrant worker in the 1990s.

“Given what I do now, no one would guess what I used to do,” the 44-year-old said, who started work as a mechanic at a garage in Beijing in 1999.

Two years later, he was presented with an opportunity when his boss sent him to Baigou town in neighboring Baoding city in Hebei, which is a well-known hub for the bag business.

“I began to get to know about the production and trade of different kinds of bags, especially foreign trade, and became interested in selling bags abroad,” Yuan said. “It was challenging but also helped broaden my horizons, compared to being a mechanic.”

In 2003, Yuan quit his job at the garage and started a bag business in Baigou, renting a stall only 4 square meters in size. As he became more experienced and business grew, he bought a small shop three years later and opened an online e-commerce shop to export bags.

“The most I’ve sold in a day was 220,000 bags,” he said, adding that he attributes his achievements to his father, who used to sell pork when Yuan was a child in Kangbao.

“Because of him, I am quite good at accounting,” he said.

Although his bag business in Baigou was successful, Yuan missed home, so he decided to return to Kangbao and start another bag business there.

With the support of preferential local government policies, Yuan got 20,000 square meters to open his bag-making factory in early 2014.

That July, he sold more than 30,000 bags to France. “It was a good start for business in my hometown,” he said.

Over the years, he has introduced advanced machinery and raised production.

“I felt it was also important to set up a research department to work on designing products that are up-to-date,” Yuan said.

Now, he has his own brand, with 20 lines and 600 categories.

“Integrity is my secret to selling bags overseas,” he said, adding that he hopes to continue to expand abroad.

He sold 1.6 million bags last year, almost double the number sold in 2021. They mainly went to wholesalers in 25 countries and regions, including the United Kingdom, France and Chile.

He is now planning to add two new production lines this year and will focus more on research.

“I hope the bags made in my hometown will be used and enjoyed by more people around the world,” Yuan said.

CHINA

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2023-05-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-05-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://chinadaily.pressreader.com/article/281724093928965

China Daily