The era when the printing industry could 'make a profit after just five prints from a 1.5-yuan paper' is long gone. As the sector descends into low-price homogenized competition, a second-generation textile entrepreneur in Keqiao, Shaoxing, is charting a different path. Chen Biao, general manager of Hongxin Printing, is transforming the traditional printing plant founded in 1990 into a high-value, smart-driven enterprise through digital upgrades and global market expansion.
Capacity Upgrade: From Stacking Machines to Boosting Efficiency
Upon taking over the business, Chen Biao abandoned the passive sales model of his parents' generation. He recognized that the industry had moved beyond the era of extensive expansion, and competition now centers on unit output and quality stability. In 2006, he led the construction of a new standardized factory spanning over 16,000 square meters on 15 mu of self-owned land, maximizing space utilization through meticulous planning.
Chen Biao explicitly opposes blindly adding equipment to increase capacity. His logic: the core lies in achieving a qualitative leap in production efficiency through smart transformation. Previously, the workshop could only complete 8,000 meters of fabric printing in 10 hours. Now, through iterative digital equipment upgrades, production efficiency continues to rise. This targeted, efficiency-first approach avoids the common industry pitfall of overcapacity and ensures operational stability.
Global Market: Customized Services Break Local Limitations
Hongxin Printing's market structure has undergone a fundamental change—from a domestic focus to 90% of products now exported to South America, the Middle East, and Africa. To address diverse regional aesthetic preferences, the team has developed differentiated printing solutions: the South American market favors clean, simple stone-textured fabrics, while the Middle East market favors high-saturation dark-colored prints.
This strong market adaptability has become the company's core export advantage. It means the enterprise is no longer dependent on a single local market but diversifies risk through global demand. For buyers, this translates to a stable supplier capable of providing style-matched solutions for multiple regions, rather than just a standard-product factory.
AI Empowerment: Digital Tools for Cost Reduction and Efficiency
In terms of digital tool application, Chen Biao speaks highly of the 'AI Cloth' mini-program launched by the China Textile City Group. Traditional pattern sampling requires cumbersome processes like engraving, sample garment sewing, and physical photography. With the AI fabric visualization feature, uploading a single image automatically generates realistic fabric texture and application videos, accurately simulating drape and on-model effects.
However, Chen Biao has a clear view of AI's role: 'AI is an efficient design assistant, but core creativity still relies on designers. We develop one to two thousand new patterns each year. After AI generates the initial draft, manual screening, adjustment, and professional color optimization are still needed.' This 'AI + human' collaboration model shortens development cycles, quickly responds to customer sampling needs, while preserving design uniqueness, effectively boosting order conversion rates.
Technology Barrier: Industry-Academia Collaboration Targets High-Value Track
Facing low-price competition, Chen Biao has established a core strategy of 'differentiation through patented technology.' The company will leverage industry-academia collaboration, linking with university research resources and focusing on market gaps to develop scarce functional printing patent products. In the future, cutting-edge functional technologies like cooling and anti-radiation will be deeply integrated with traditional printing processes to create high-value-added functional fabrics, increasing profit per meter.
To further amplify the effect of technological empowerment, Chen Biao has proposed an 'industrial park closed-loop' development concept. The company will revitalize idle resources within its existing park and precisely attract upstream and downstream supporting enterprises like printing and laminating to form a complete industrial ecosystem. Through collaborative production within the park, cross-factory logistics, communication, and coordination costs can be significantly reduced, enabling the sharing of core resources like raw materials, equipment, and customers, and retaining the entire value chain's profit.