The profit from a meter of school uniform fabric today may not match the margin on plant-dyed wool. In Keqiao's China Textile City, the dual brands Qiting and Haoli are executing a decade-long shift from low to high value-added products. Qiting, registered in 2014, built its base on school uniform fabrics at the East Market. In 2018, Haoli was launched to target high-end business menswear and light luxury, pricing at 100-600 yuan per meter. This leap reflects not just one company's transformation, but the collective anxiety and breakout attempts across Keqiao's industrial belt as cost advantages fade.
Transformation Logic: Avoiding Price Wars with Natural Materials
Profit compression in conventional fabrics was a common pain point for Keqiao merchants around 2018. Intensified competition dragged homogeneous products into price battles. Haoli's choice was to completely cut ties with the mass market. Using only natural fibers like wool, silk, and Lyocell, with colors derived entirely from plant extracts instead of chemical dyes, this approach raises material costs and extends production cycles, but also delivers environmental credentials and differentiation. For buyers, this means a verifiable green story that supports premium pricing at the brand level.
High-end positioning isn't just about materials. Haoli leverages its own integrated factory, sharing 15,000 square meters of warehousing, with a dual-track system: stock for small urgent orders and custom orders with a 3-10 day lead time, and fastest delivery within one hour. This flexible responsiveness is a core service valued by designer brands and e-commerce merchants. While competitors still compete on price per meter, Haoli builds a new competitive dimension around delivery speed and customization flexibility.
Digital Empowerment: How AI Transforms High-End Fabric Sourcing
The pain point in high-end fabric business lies often in the matching process, not production. Designers and brand buyers frequently carry swatches to find similar fabrics. Traditional manual search and color card comparison are inefficient, and remote communication is time-consuming. Haoli digitized its core fabrics—waffle, health knit, double-faced jersey, mesh, air layer, pique—into an AI fabric mini-program, enabling one-click matching of similar fabrics. This system compresses hours of sourcing into minutes and improves matching accuracy.
For the industry, this signals a shift from experience-driven to data-driven transactions. AI not only reduces labor costs but also creates a standardized searchable entry for non-standard high-end fabrics. The upcoming AI fabric experience hall in the Dongsheng Road zone, equipped with smart body scanning, 3D virtual try-on, fabric visualization, and garment simulation, will showcase physical and virtual samples. This immersive experience may attract more out-of-town designers and brand buyers to Keqiao, strengthening Dongsheng Road's position as a highland for outdoor fabrics.
Dual-Brand Synergy: Shared Supply Chain, Differentiated Market Capture
Qiting and Haoli operate independently but are not merely a brand split; it's a coordinated layout. Qiting focuses on outdoor functional fabrics, while Haoli targets high-end menswear. They share a mature supply chain: the outdoor line features Italian-imported napping machines, expanding capacity and improving bargaining power. Export channels cover European and American markets, meeting EU standards for fluorine-free environmental protection. Domestic clients include Qiaodun (8-10 years of cooperation), Xiaobeibei, Yingqi, Macedonia, and Xiaozhubanna, providing a ready-made channel for Haoli's high-end menswear customers through mutual referral.
This dual-track model allows the company to maintain its base while exploring profit ceilings. After two years of transformation, overall revenue has improved significantly, and order growth remains strong. For other Keqiao merchants, this offers a replicable path: don't abandon existing markets, but use new brands to capture upgrade demand, while leveraging digital tools and supply chain synergy to reduce trial costs.