The China Laundry and Dyeing Industry Expert Taishan Forum Successfully Concluded

On November 29-30, the "China Laundry Industry Expert Taishan Forum" concluded perfectly at the Taishan Baosheng Hotel in Shandong. This forum was hosted by the Laundry Professional Committee of the China General Chamber of Commerce, co-organized by the Shandong Laundry Industry Association, and supported by Beijing Riguang Fine Group, Chengde Huawei Coating Electromechanical Equipment Company, Shanghai Hangxing Machinery (Group) Company, Shanghai Weishi Machinery Company, Beijing Yiersan Network Technology Company, Shanghai Secai De Environmental Protection Technology Company, Yingkou Rongrong Laundry Company, Shanghai Churun Cleaning Supplies Company, Beijing Laundry Butler Technology Company, Shanghai Qiaoliya Laundry Equipment Company, Beijing Youni Enterprise Management Company, Xiebaoshen Guang Laundry Technology (Shanghai) Company, Zhejiang Ailan Clean Laundry Chain Company, and other units. Nearly 300 experts from the laundry industry across the country, representatives of industry associations, and heads of laundry enterprises participated in the event.

This forum was an important part of the 5th Taishan Business Forum and the 4th China Life Service Industry Conference, receiving high attention from all sectors of the industry. Leaders attending the event included Jiang Ming, President of the China General Chamber of Commerce; Vice Presidents Fu Longcheng and Zhang Lijun; Zhang Bintao, Deputy Director of the Service Trade and Commercial Service Industry Department of the Ministry of Commerce; Pei Liang, President of the China Chain Store & Franchise Association; Zhou Huaijun, Vice President of the China Employment Promotion Association; Masashi Sumiki, President of the Japan Textile Care Society; Liu Anjiang, Chairman of the China Light Industry Machinery Association; Wang Shuyuan, Founding Director of the China Laundry Expert Committee; Pan Wei, Director; Wang Xueren, Director of the Laundry Expert Committee of the China General Chamber of Commerce; Sun Shanjia, President of the Shandong Laundry Industry Association; and other leaders.

On the evening of November 29, 2018, the Taishan Forum kicked off with the "Laundry Family" networking dinner and the China Laundry Industry Expert Certification Ceremony. In his speech, Jiang Ming, President of the China General Chamber of Commerce, pointed out: The association is a broad platform, and experts are the core wisdom of this platform. He hopes that the China Laundry Expert Committee will continue to gather the strength of experts to solve industry pain points, improve the overall service level of the industry, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the industry. At the solemn certification ceremony for the newly appointed China Laundry Industry Experts, experts from across the country solemnly received their appointment certificates. Wang Xueren, Director of the China Laundry Expert Committee, spoke on behalf of the experts, saying that being a China laundry industry expert represents an honor and a responsibility. He hopes that both new and old experts will make new contributions together, unite and dedicate themselves, and overcome more industry challenges. Guo Jidong, Chairman of Beijing Riguang Fine Group, and Zhang Qin, Chairman of Chengde Huawei Coating Electromechanical Equipment Company, supporters of the networking dinner, expressed in their speeches that it was an honor to participate in such an expert event and to gather with experts from across the country in Tai'an. They hope to join hands with experts in the future, stay true to their original aspirations, forge ahead, and jointly contribute to the development of the laundry industry. At the "Laundry Family" networking dinner, leaders exchanged warmly with domestic and foreign experts and industry elites, discussing friendship in a harmonious and lively atmosphere. The Beijing opera singing by newly appointed expert Sun Jingfang, the military song chorus by the Laundry Industry Veterans Club, and the surprise raffle activities on site brought the dinner event to a climax. On the morning of November 30, the China Laundry Industry Expert Forum meeting session officially began. Zhang Bintao, Deputy Director of the Service Trade and Commercial Service Industry Department of the Ministry of Commerce, delivered the opening speech. In his speech, Director Zhang affirmed the China Laundry Expert Committee's many years of work in statistical analysis and standard construction for the industry, pointing out that the committee's achievements have become a good basis for relevant national departments to understand the laundry industry and formulate related industry policies. Sun Shanjia, President of the Shandong Laundry Industry Association, representing the local industry association, then delivered a speech. He reviewed the development process of the laundry industry from small to large and from weak to strong, briefly outlined aspects such as industry transformation and upgrading, diversified business models, and government policy interpretation, and hoped that participants would gain more and better benefits through learning and communication at this forum. This forum invited more than 20 domestic and foreign experts to present a wonderful and practical knowledge feast to attendees through speeches, dialogues, and Q&A sessions. Dr. Yu Yang from the Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Technology Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment delivered an excellent speech titled "Risk Prevention and Control Situation and Countermeasures of Detergent Chemicals." China's overall approach to chemical environmental management is risk-based full lifecycle control, which will achieve chemical environmental risk prevention strategies through the identification of toxic and hazardous chemicals at the source and risk prevention of toxic and hazardous pollutants. As industry enterprises, opportunities and challenges coexist. They should apply innovative concepts, seek benefits in green development, and simultaneously improve technology, economy, and environmental protection; innovate mechanisms, establish risk management concepts, and prioritize risk prevention.

Ms. Lin Ying, CEO of Shanghai Secai De Environmental Protection Technology Co., used a dynamic set of demonstrations to lead attendees into thinking about the "New Style Laundry." Consumers of different age groups have different laundry habits. In the future, all physical stores will be "social spaces," creating a "laundry+" service model, providing more value-added services, or combining laundry stores with self-service laundries to create new-style laundries, which will transform laundry services from low-frequency consumption to high-frequency consumption. Ms. Liu Mengyuan, Founder & CEO of Yiersan, known as the "Rental Prada Queen," and selected as one of Forbes 2018 China's 25 Potential Business Women, showcased the transformation that the clothing rental model brings to consumers' lives through a wonderful video titled "Vivian's Workplace Secret Weapon." If each person buys 5 pieces of clothing per month, at 300-500 yuan per piece, the annual expenditure on clothing is 18,000 to 30,000 yuan. However, 60% of these clothes are worn no more than three times a year. Rental laundry services save consumers storage space and purchase costs. Yiersan has formed a perfect closed loop for rental laundry services through cooperation with laundry giants such as Funait and Tiantian Laundry. The speech by Ge Rongquan, Chief Engineer of the Technology R&D Department of Shanghai Hangxing Group, was titled "Dry Cleaning Equipment: Risks and Countermeasures." In the dry cleaning field, perchloroethylene poses health risks to humans, and petroleum solvents have flammability risks, both affecting the natural environment to varying degrees. By improving perchloroethylene drying recovery, carbon recovery, oil-water separation, refrigerants, and safety tanks, and implementing safety measures such as static electricity removal and nitrogen filling for petroleum dry cleaning machines, risks can be effectively prevented. General Manager Cui Yan of Rongrong Laundry Co., Ltd. introduced how the company deeply applies mobile internet technology and uses modern management software for data analysis to provide customers with targeted and specialized services. They deeply explore customer consumption needs and increase the consumption stickiness between laundry stores and customers. Through technology-driven management methods, their company has achieved a revenue growth rate exceeding 30% for consecutive years. The management software developed by their company has also become a professional tool applied by multiple laundry enterprises. Zhu Lijun, General Manager of Beijing Funait Laundry Service Company, combines years of operational insights to practice a management philosophy of operating with trust, creating value, and innovating growth. The challenges faced by laundries are divided into social responsibility challenges and customer demand challenges. Customers come to laundries to obtain cleanliness value, and trust determines which store they will choose. Funait has made practical changes from aspects such as omni-channel business models, digital management applications, total quality management, and innovative applications to meet consumers' trust and value needs. They introduced the European CERCLEAN quality system certification to achieve comprehensive management of laundries from quality, equipment, goals, processes, efficiency, energy consumption, and safety, helping the enterprise develop healthily and better serve society and consumers. Dr. Pei Liang, President of the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, gave a speech on "Trends in Chain Enterprise Development." In the future, digitalization will play a huge role in the next stage of chain enterprise development, providing enterprises with direct channels to consumers. President Pei answered attendees' questions on-site: He believes that low-cost chain franchise projects, while able to fulfill the entrepreneurial dreams of investors with medium to low investment capacity, face difficulties in investment protection. With the promulgation and continuous promotion of franchise-related laws and regulations, investors can use legal means to protect their interests and are no longer easily attracted by irregular franchises. Dr. Pei Liang believes that chain franchise laundry and dyeing enterprises should maintain focus on their advantageous business segments to prevent their original advantages from being surpassed or replaced by competitors due to distraction. Regarding whether regional or national franchising is easier to develop, he said that regional retail enterprises in chain franchises have resource and brand recognition advantages, making them a favorable way to achieve rapid short-term growth. Mr. Cai Zhiyun, CEO of Shanghai Churun Cleaning Supplies Co., Ltd., gave a detailed introduction to the "Le Cai Wet Cleaning System." Wet cleaning is currently one of the most environmentally friendly fabric cleaning processes, effectively and quickly cleaning about 85% of garments. Wet cleaning uses less water and energy (as low as 6 liters of water per kilogram of clothing), resulting in clean clothes with bright colors and fresh scents. It is suitable for a wide range of fabric types and can reduce damage to the shape and color of clothes while preventing fabric from graying or dulling. Dr. Sun Xiaofeng, Director of the China Light Industry Clean Production Center, proposed solutions to urgent problems in household laundry and dyeing from three aspects: the current environmental protection status of the industry, requirements, and measures. In recent years, due to the environmental impact of perchloroethylene, developed countries have successively restricted its production, while China's demand for perchloroethylene has grown at an annual rate of 8% to 10%. Facing increasingly severe environmental protection challenges, the laundry industry's clean production should start from multiple aspects such as the research, application, and promotion of environmentally friendly detergents, upgrading clean production technology and equipment, waste heat recovery technology, laundry wastewater reuse technology, improving environmental management systems, and establishing environmental management organizations to achieve green development. Mr. Zhou Huaijun, Vice President of the China Employment Promotion Association and Founder of Qingdao Shuangwan Blockchain Research Institute, gave a speech titled "Blockchain Technology Restructuring Company Structure." Blockchain is a new application model of computer technologies such as distributed data storage, peer-to-peer transmission, consensus mechanisms, and encryption algorithms. It has characteristics and advantages such as immutability, community economy, and incentive mechanisms. These attributes can fully address the difficulties faced by modern small and medium-sized enterprises in financing, marketing, high operating costs, and incentives, perfectly solving these problems through blockchain's credit mechanism. Masashi Sumirenoki, President of the Japan Textile Care Association, gave a presentation on "Development and Trends of the Japanese Laundry and Dyeing Industry." He introduced the growth and decline of the Japanese laundry industry and future attempts. From 1950 to 1992, Japan's dry cleaning industry ranked among the top globally. In 1992, the total sales of dry cleaning in Japan reached 820 billion yen. At that time, the entry of Japanese women into the labor market released household laundry demand to social laundry, leading to significant growth in the dry cleaning industry output. Laundry shops developed and upgraded efficient and high-performance dry cleaning equipment and greatly increased collection points to meet market demand. However, with market changes, dry cleaning demand in Japan dropped to 350 billion yen in 2017, and the market continues to shrink. This decline is due to advances in home laundry technology, widespread use of washing machines, detergents, auxiliary agents, synthetic fibers easier for home washing, and the fact that authorities no longer need to wear formal attire, leading to the decline of Japan's laundry industry. In the future, large Japanese laundry companies will cooperate with well-known luxury brands to provide high-quality services for new textiles and fashion apparel, finding new growth points in laundry. The development history of Japan's laundry industry is also an experience China can learn from in the future. (Details)

The expert dialogue session took place in the latter half of the afternoon on the 30th. The first session was hosted by Director Pan Wei of the China Laundry Committee. The dialogue invited Zhou Ying, General Manager and Co-founder of Beijing Laundry Butler Technology Company; Xie Qinggui, Chairman of Shanghai Qiaoliya Laundry Equipment Co., Ltd.; Liu Shuai, Executive Dean of Xingen Laundry Business School; and Cao Xiaobin of Zhejiang Ailan Clean Laundry Chain Co., Ltd. They conducted an in-depth discussion on "Operation and Management of Household Laundry Services," focusing on chain franchising, vocational education in the laundry and dyeing industry, and refined management of laundry enterprises.

Zhou Ying: The laundry and dyeing industry faces issues such as manual bookkeeping, poor layout, talent shortage, and traditional thinking. In the future, modern laundry enterprises should adopt automated management models for processes, marketing, production, and management.

Xie Qinggui: Chain franchise enterprises should have a correct vision, which is to lead everyone to profitability, not to franchise just for the sake of franchising. From the company's organizational structure, such as establishing training and after-sales departments, help franchisees learn more knowledge and enable them to develop better and longer-term.

Cao Xiaobin: Laundry enterprises can improve the issue of peak and off-season fluctuations through cross-industry operations. There is a problem where factories are built but management systems cannot keep up. This can be improved by mutual learning and reference among peers to avoid detours. In terms of retaining employees, creating good promotion mechanisms to help talents grow together with the enterprise is the best model for the development of laundry and dyeing enterprises.

Liu Shuai: The training system in the laundry and dyeing industry is not sound. The talent training system should be more systematic. Xingen Academy is committed to building a training system for the laundry and dyeing industry by inviting experts from cross-fields to train more management-oriented technical talents for laundry enterprises to meet their continuous upgrading and development needs.

The second dialogue session was hosted by Wang Xueren, Director of the Expert Committee on Laundry and Dyeing Industry of the China General Chamber of Commerce. Sun Xiaofeng, Director of the China Light Industry Clean Production Center; Qian Zhigen, CEO of Jiebiao Shengguang Laundry Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.; and Guo Shiqi, General Manager of Beijing Youni Enterprise Management Co., Ltd., jointly discussed "Laundry Services and Environmental Protection."

Sun Xiaofeng: In 2012, we found that the environmental protection indicators for the washing and dyeing industry were blank, so we drafted the "Clean Production Indicator System for the Washing and Dyeing Industry," which quantitatively limits various aspects such as water consumption, pollutant discharge, and management requirements in the washing and dyeing industry. In 2019, this standard will be officially promulgated and implemented, and in the future, it will play an important role in environmental impact assessments and clean production evaluations of washing and dyeing enterprises.

Qian Zhigen: Shen Guang chose to cooperate with a Spanish company mainly because of this company's capabilities in energy-saving and environmental protection equipment manufacturing and its rich practical solutions. We hope to introduce such high-quality environmental protection equipment into China. In 2019, Jiebiao Shen Guang will launch equipment that uses water washing + drying mode to replace dry cleaning, better promoting energy-saving and environmental protection development in household laundry enterprises.

Guo Shiqi: The use of silicone-based solvents is very widespread. Its early R&D costs reached tens of millions of US dollars because it is a non-toxic and harmless solvent and is also one of the raw materials used in women's cosmetics, making it very environmentally friendly. Beijing Uni Company started introducing this project in 2012, and now hundreds of enterprises in China are using it well. In 2017, silicone-based solvents have also entered the relatively conservative high-end hotel laundries, and in the future, they will enter a broader washing field. The market for environmentally friendly washing industry development in China will be very huge.

The expert Q&A session was held on the evening of the 30th. Mr. Qi Datong, chief lecturer of the Washing and Dyeing Professional Committee of the China General Chamber of Commerce, shared cases such as the Burberry python skin incident, mink fur incident outerwear, and the sweet dream of French Saint Laurent. These representative cases and highly valuable content sharing won rounds of applause from the participants.

Mr. Jia Runze, a member of the Expert Committee of the China Washing and Dyeing Industry, shared multiple washing and dyeing accident rescue cases and also introduced the recently popular air washing. Through videos, he demonstrated washing, which inspired the participants.

The China Washing and Dyeing Industry Expert Taishan Forum, adhering to the attitude of leading the industry in the right direction, received unanimous praise from participants with its high-level forum content. During the forum, Director Pan Wei of the China Washing Committee awarded pioneer certification certificates to the first batch of enterprises participating in CERCLEAN certification in China, including Dalian Youbang Laundry Company, Tiantian Laundry (Guangzhou) Company, and Shanghai Shicao Washing Company (details). The wonderful sharing by experts and the comprehensive display of outstanding enterprises will help promote the green, healthy, and sustainable development of the industry.