While most Keqiao fabric merchants struggle with razor-thin margins on conventional products, a striking contrast is emerging in the Dongsheng Road specialty zone: under the same company, school uniform fabrics sell for tens of yuan per meter while plant-dyed premium menswear fabrics range from 100 to 600 yuan—a price gap of up to tenfold. This dual-track strategy, adopted by Qiting and Haoli Textile over the past two years, offers a replicable path for local merchants trapped in homogenized competition.
Background
The company's origin was unremarkable. In 2013, Qiting started in Keqiao's East Market, registered a year later, focusing on basic school uniform fabrics. Stable quality control earned a loyal customer base and a mature supply chain. The turning point came in 2018 when margins on conventional fabrics kept shrinking. Management decided to split into two directions: one focused on functional outdoor fabrics, the other on a new brand, Haoli Textile, targeting premium menswear, creating a dual-brand independent operation.
Qiting became one of the first tenants in Phase I of the Dongsheng Road outdoor functional fabric zone, while Haoli opened a separate booth in Phase II. The customer structure in Dongsheng Road differs sharply from the old market: brand owners, e-commerce sellers, and designers gather here, demanding higher fabric refinement and yielding better order conversion. As Haoli's general manager Li Xiongzhen put it, this is an ideal platform for premium fabric business.
Industry Impact
Haoli's product logic is clear: all fabrics use natural fibers such as wool, silk, and lyocell, colored via plant extraction, abandoning chemical dyeing for strong environmental credentials. High-end materials and special processes set a price ceiling that naturally filters out price-sensitive buyers, precisely targeting menswear brands and designer orders. This positioning means the company no longer competes on cost but on craftsmanship and differentiation.
Supporting this model is an integrated factory and a 15,000-square-meter warehouse. In-stock goods can handle small urgent orders; custom orders are delivered in 3-10 days, with fastest dispatch in 1 hour. For buyers, sampling and replenishment time costs drop dramatically; for factories, rapid response is itself a trust foundation for premium clients.
Digitalization is another key pillar. Haoli participates in the AI Fabric mini-program's digital archiving, with core varieties like waffle, health knit, double jersey, mesh, air layer, and pique already recorded. Previously, designers brought swatches for comparison—manual and inefficient. Now the system matches identical or similar fabrics with one click, and remote communication with overseas clients has become smoother. The AI Fabric experience hall in Dongsheng Road is about to trial-operate, featuring smart body scanning, 3D virtual try-on, fabric visualization, and garment simulation. This closes the loop between offline display and online data, signaling a shift from "feeling the hand" to "reading the data" in fabric transactions.
Dual-brand synergy extends to supply chain sharing. The outdoor fabric line uses Italian-imported napping machines, boosting capacity and bargaining power; export channels cover Europe and America, meeting EU-standard fluorine-free environmental requirements. Domestic long-term clients include Qiaodun (8-10 years), Xiaobeibei, Yingqi, Macedonia, and Xiaozhubanna, with cross-referral opening premium menswear channels for Haoli. Two years after transformation, overall performance has improved notably, and this year's order growth remains optimistic.