Tiger China: breaking the border and growing together

Less than two months ago, tiger China announced an investment of about 150 million yuan to expand Taicang factory and held a grand foundation ceremony. Now there may be many people who still remember the scene of foundation laying at that time. At the ceremony, Luo Biao, President of tiger China, solemnly announced tiger China's ambition to the government leaders, industry association leaders, upstream and downstream partners, and news media: "to become an industry research and development center, to make the coating simple and clean". This is tiger China's expectation for the future and the responsibility that should be undertaken as an industry leader. From an unknown foreign-funded enterprise in China to today, tiger China has spent 19 years, but there is more energy behind it. Founded in 1930, this Austrian company has been focusing on innovative finishing solutions for nearly 90 years, and is a leader in the surface treatment industry. The company has 8 factories, more than 50 branches and three top R & D centers (Europe / Austria, Asia / China, North America / USA) all over the world. In 2000, tiger entered the Chinese market with its proud product, powder coating. Compared with other foreign-funded enterprises that first entered the Chinese market, the development of tiger as a late comer in China is not radical, but "stable". However, tiger, whose time and volume are not dominant, has rapidly established its foothold in China's powder coating market with its excellent quality and unique strategy.

It has successively established production bases in Suzhou, Jiangsu, Qingyuan, Guangdong and Chengdu, Sichuan. Binding metal powder has also become a synonym for tiger China. "The biggest difference between us and other foreign brands is that tiger never pursues the maximization of shareholders' interests, but pays more attention to the sustainable development of tiger China team. Therefore, tiger China management team has a very large autonomy, which can determine the development direction of tiger China and achieve the reputation of" the most localized foreign brand " Luo Biao pointed out. It can be said that this is the key to tiger's success in the Chinese market. Under the leadership of Luo Biao, tiger China has made full use of the power of foreign innovative technology and local research and development, and gradually grown into a leader in powder coating industry. From tiger powder coating to tiger new materials, tiger China has undergone at least two transformations. In recent years, with the increasing trend of "paint to powder", powder coating industry has ushered in new opportunities. But at the same time, a problem appears gradually. The influx of a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises in the early stage leads to the saturation of powder coating market, high degree of product homogeneity and limited market growth space. Luo Biao foresaw the emergence of such a "situation" early and formulated a very clear strategy. On the one hand, tiger is constantly enriching its existing product systems and services, and constantly upgrading; on the other hand, on the basis of powder coating business, it is seeking more new possibilities, and in 2016, it will march into the application fields of new materials such as waterborne industrial coatings, industrial digital printing, solar power generation, etc.

In just three years, tiger powder coating has transformed into tiger coating, and then tiger coating has transformed into a new material for tiger surface technology. In fact, the transformation process of tiger China is not smooth. Luo Biao said frankly that the biggest difficulty in the transformation process is to get rid of the traditional powder coating thinking mode and the traditional manufacturing thinking mode, and transform to the cross-border, digital and platform thinking mode. But he believes that tiger is a long-term learning organization, which will be able to successfully achieve transformation and upgrading. Luo Biao's confidence is not without reason. After nearly two years of exploration and attempt, tiger gradually found the match point of powder / water-based industrial coating / digital printing, and this year has been converted into orders. "At the beginning, we conceived this combined business model to add personalized decoration effect to customers on the basis of corrosion prevention. At present, it seems that this system coating solution + personalized product and service model has great potential." "Whether it's solar coated materials, thermosetting 3D printing materials or powder printing materials combining the advantages of digital printing technology and powder coating, tiger has gradually transformed into a real new material and system solution provider." Luo Biao said. Real feedback from the market has strengthened tiger China's path of new material innovation. The expansion of Taicang factory will further improve tiger China's production capacity. The total investment of Taicang phase II project is about 150 million yuan, and 12000 square meters of new factory buildings are planned to be completed and accepted in June 2020.

After completion and operation, tiger Taicang production base has 20 conventional powder coating production lines, 6 bonding metal powder production lines, 4 acrylic transparent powder production lines and 2 dust-free environment special product production lines, with a total capacity of more than 35000 tons. According to the path map of tiger industry 4.0, Taicang phase II project will be equipped with the most complete automatic production line in the industry, including one key unmanned automatic color change, automatic ingredients and other industrial black technologies. "Our goal is to achieve the first unmanned manufacturing model workshop in China in 3-5 years, automatic color matching in the laboratory, seamless tracking of each customer's technical and quality requirements through SAP system, flexible production while automation, cost reduction and efficiency improvement." Luo Biao, who has become the R & D center of the industry, believes that the foreign brands of powder coatings are repositioning in the past few years, and will increase investment in China in the next few years, and their mutual acquisition is a high probability event. Some domestic private brands have gradually gained market share and brand influence by looking for niche market. Both the increase of investment from foreign enterprises and the rapid promotion of private enterprises are good scenarios for the industry itself, which shows that the powder coating industry has great potential. However, it is worth noting that no matter foreign-funded enterprises or private enterprises invest more in market expansion, the real investment in R & D and innovation is very small.

"Without innovation, the sustainable development of the industry is worrying." From the statistical data, there are about 6000 powder coating manufacturers sharing a market of 1.6 million tons, which is highly fragmented and highly competitive. "China's powder coating market is still growing. The market is full of products, but lack of innovative products. This is our tiger's opportunity." In view of this, tiger has continued to increase investment in R & D in the past few years. In the 2019-2028 ten-year plan, tiger even explicitly proposed to become "the R & D center of the industry, so as to make the coating simple and clean". Moreover, tigers have a great advantage and a high degree of autonomy. Therefore, tiger can spare no effort to invest resources in R & D, production automation, market segmentation, data management and hierarchical organization or "self-organization" development fields for many years. When other foreign brands draw profits to foreign shareholders, tiger leaves all profits in China for investment in R & D and production to meet the increasing domestic customers High quality and new product demand. Help the powder coating industry to become a win-win ecosystem. Mention the low-key style in the industry before, even the tiger with the title of "invisible champion". Luo Biao said frankly that the tiger is no "invisible champion" in the powder coating industry. No matter the turnover, profit, total investment and assets, the tiger is the leader of the industry. He said with a smile that it is not a low-key enterprise to raise a high-profile idea of "flattening the gap between China's coating technology and the world's level and even surpassing it". Recently, tiger has made a "high profile" in the industry.

At Tiger's initiative and organization, it has jointly established a "powder coating manufacturing enterprise club" with 12 10000 ton powder coating manufacturing enterprises such as Huangshan Yongjia, which is the industry's first creation. It is understood that after the establishment of the club, it will jointly collect, jointly research and develop, jointly promote new market segments, share industry resources, and jointly empower downstream end users. When talking about the management suggestions, the leader of the foreign-funded enterprise in the powder coating industry who has been in office for the longest time said modestly that the management suggestions can not be said, but the management concept can share some: with a tolerant heart, help the tiger people who are willing to learn and pursue growth to realize their career dreams; with the feelings of CO creation, help the powder coating industry to become a win-win ecosystem. At the end of the interview, Luo Biao transformed his goal into a specific digital expression: in the next ten years (2019-2028), tiger China's sales will exceed 3 billion yuan, with a return on sales (ROS) of 15%, and become the number one or two in the segmented industry. When he said this, Luo Biao spoke loudly, with firmness and confidence in his voice.