By the Pearl River and White Goose Pond, towering“ Liby The "Center" stands firmly here, which is the headquarters of Libai Technology Group in Guangzhou.
Libai Technology Group Headquarters Building
In 1994, Chen Kaixuan from Chaoshan and his brother Chen Kaichen started their business in the three rented offices. Adhering to the belief of "making the best detergent", Libai survived in the fierce market competition between foreign brands and state-owned enterprises, and achieved breakthrough through innovative measures such as developing distributors and breaking the industry triangle debt.
2024 is the 30th anniversary of the founding of Libai Technology Group. Libai Technology Group has grown into a national daily chemical enterprise with multiple brands and categories, eight production bases in China, and annual sales of more than 20 billion yuan. According to AC Nielsen's data, Libai washing powder accounts for 25% of the national market share, which means that nearly 1/4 of all households in China use Libai washing powder; And stand up Detergent The national market share is 41%, which means that for every 2.5 bottles of detergent sold nationwide, one bottle is recognized.
In the past three decades, how did Libai Technology Group gradually grow into a national daily chemical giant? Looking ahead, how can Libai Technology Group take a new step in the daily chemical industry with increasing competition? In this issue of Navigator, we visited the Guangzhou headquarters of Libai Technology Group and Nansha factory, talked with many senior executives, including Chen Zebin, the "post-85" who recently took over as the chairman, to find the answers to the questions.
Thirty years of innovative development
The past three decades have witnessed the growth of Libai Technology Group.
Xu Xiaodong, secretary of the Party Committee, vice president and chief spokesman of Liby Technology Group, introduced that Liby's development has gone through four stages: 1994-1997 was the "small washing" stage in the early stage of entrepreneurship, and it took only three years to achieve the first sales of detergent in Guangdong Province. From 1998 to 2003, it entered the stage of "big washing", and expanded other washing products besides washing powder. In 1998, it began to enter the national market. In 2003, the sales volume of washing powder reached the top three in the country. From 2004 to 2016, Libai entered the cosmetics field through the acquisition of Shanghai Gaozi Cosmetics; The acquisition and restructuring of the century old brand Lantian Liubizhi entered the field of oral care, among which the sales in 2009 exceeded 10 billion yuan. From 2017 to now, Libai has entered the stage of "new strategic development" and put forward the "1+2" strategy to enable high-quality development of enterprises through industrial interconnection, ecological organization and digital business.
When talking about the reasons for the development and growth of Libai Technology Group, Chen Zebin, chairman of Libai Technology Group, said that today's achievements can only be achieved by relying on opportunities and grasping the development opportunities of reform and opening up. Second, innovation, such as the exclusive distributor model at the beginning of entrepreneurship, has broken the industry triangle debt by delivering goods upon payment; Over the past 30 years, Libai Technology Group has been constantly innovating, winning the favor of consumers with diversified products, and firmly promoting digital transformation in 2015... It is precisely by breaking the tradition and being brave in innovation that Libai Technology Group has developed today. Third, relying on struggle, the growth of Libai cannot be separated from the struggle and efforts of all Libai white people who are pioneering, down-to-earth and persistent.
The past three decades have also witnessed Libai's continuous innovation centered on consumer demand.
At present, Liby Technology Group has the leading sales of washing powder, detergent, soap Washing liquid And washing aids products are constantly distributed according to the needs of subdivision. For example, Master Fragrance and Xiangweiya are high-end washing and care brands focusing on fragrances, Misi is aimed at urban women, Xiaobaibai is aimed at fine washing and care of clothes and shoes, and laundry beads are aimed at young users.
Libai Technology Group Product Matrix
When it comes to innovative research and development, Xu Xiaodong said that Libai Technology Group is the largest R&D investment among domestic peers, and its annual R&D investment exceeds 3% of sales revenue. Up to now, it has invention patents, ranking first in the domestic daily chemical industry, more than the total number of invention patents ranking second to fifth in domestic peers.
Actively embrace digitalization
In the office area of Liby Technology Group headquarters, slogans about the importance of "data" can be seen everywhere, such as "speak with data", "all decisions not based on data are hooligans"... This is just a microcosm of Liby Technology Group's emphasis on digitalization in business management.
The digital transformation of Libai Technology Group is an early start among domestic traditional enterprises. Speaking of this foresight, Chen Zebin said that since 2011, the development of China's Internet has changed rapidly, and many business forms and consumption habits have been reshaped, which has also been transmitted to the enterprise side. Libai is keenly aware that enterprises need to upgrade and change under the trend of mobile Internet, In the future competitive situation, innovation without digital technology is not real innovation. Digital technology will exist as a key and necessary element of production, and a large amount of data precipitated through digital technology will also become a key factor of production. How to use data well is also the key to future development. Therefore, He is determined to promote and operate the digital transformation of enterprises.
Libai Technology Group's data insight platform - Shulueyun
Chen Zebin said frankly that the process of transformation cannot be smooth from the beginning of digitalization. He had encountered problems such as "weak digital foundation, lack of reference cases", "the need to change the internal thinking of enterprises", and could only make targeted adjustments through continuous practice and exploration.
For the change of digital transformation to Libai, Chen Zebin gave a key word - "online". In terms of marketing, Libai launched the "marketing 3.0" system, covering more than 1000 brand service providers and more than 800000 terminal stores, to complete the online integration of the overall business; In terms of supply chain, we have built smart factories, built an intelligent integrated digital supply chain system, covered 20 provinces and cities nationwide, and optimized the supply chain and logistics network; In terms of management, it has created the group's unified and only digital work platform - Dudu, with 100% employee coverage, which has united all people, events and data information, and achieved efficient business flow.
Adhere to the green development strategy
In the exhibition hall, we saw an interesting video that Libai's first self owned factory, Panyu Production Base, can raise goldfish from the treated sewage.
Libai Panyu Factory "Sewage fish farming"
Xu Xiaodong said that Libai has always taken "green and sustainable development" as an important strategy for enterprise operation since its inception. For example, when Libai built its first factory in Panyu in 1998, it put forward the demand for "green factory building"; In 2016, the "green health strategy" was first proposed in the industry to drive the upstream and downstream industrial chains to realize green raw materials, green formulas, green technology, green manufacturing, and green products, thus leading the green revolution in the washing industry; In 2019, the Action Committee of Double Carbon Strategy was established to comprehensively launch the action of double carbon strategy; In 2023, Libai Nansha Factory won the certification of the first "carbon neutral" factory in the local daily chemical industry, and launched the first carbon neutral detergent in the whole industry - Libai boutique Qingti jasmine detergent... It can be said that Libai has been on the road to green and low-carbon development.
In Libai Green Life Research Institute, Dr. Zhang Liping, the chief scientist, led the Navigator to conduct a comparative experiment between Libai laundry detergent, laundry gel, detergent and other products and competing products, so as to intuitively display Libai's product strength. Taking laundry beads as an example, at a low temperature of about 10 ° C, the "domestic water-soluble membrane" laundry beads developed by Liby and its suppliers can be quickly dissolved by stirring for about 1 minute, while another brand of laundry beads is still intact. According to Dr. Zhang, this breakthrough is the premise of realizing the 15 minute normal temperature fast washing mode of washing machines. It can not only meet people's fast washing needs in fast-paced life, but also save more than 30% of water and more than 50% of energy, better adapting to the consumption trend of convenience, green, low-carbon, concentration and other changes.
In addition to laundry beads, Liby Technology Group has also launched green revolutionary innovative products such as "non hot washing powder", "food detergent" and "Liby natural soap liquid". Zhang Liping pointed out that the biodegradability of all formula raw materials of Libai's products has reached more than 90%, of which 139 products have been recognized as "green design products" by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, accounting for 46.96% of the industry, and the number ranks first in the industry.
Head high for a new journey
Chen Zebin, the current chairman of Libai Technology Group, is a young and introverted "post-85" generation.
In 2010, when he first started his speech, he low-key joined the Marketing Department as a team leader. In the following ten years, he went through almost all the front-end departments such as brand and marketing. As for the experience of grass-roots training, Chen Zebin said, "On the one hand, it can let me go to the front line to understand the whole process from design to output, to consumer purchase and feedback, to product making, laying a solid foundation for enterprise management; On the other hand, before being a 'leader', I was first a member of the 'staff', which enabled me to better understand how employees work and the corresponding needs, and helped me better practice the 'one family' corporate culture.
As a young manager, Chen Zebin is also taking practical actions to make Libai more energetic and dynamic. For example, in the company's internal implementation of the flower name system, no matter what the rank, employees do not need to call him chairman, but simply call him flower name. Another example is that in 2020, he will leave the scene to take goods for live broadcast. Although he needs to do some psychological construction for his introverted personality, in order to drive all departments to seize the opportunity of live broadcast, he still stood up and carried the banner and insisted on doing so now.
Looking forward to the daily chemical industry in the next ten years, Chen Zebin believes that, relying on digitalization and through scientific and technological innovation, it will move towards green, low-carbon and high-quality development. He said that in the new journey, Libai Technology Group will always keep its original intention, stick to the real industry, take innovation as the starting point, constantly improve the comprehensive ability of enterprises through scientific research and development, digital construction, green low-carbon action, etc., lead the construction of green manufacturing system, and unswervingly follow the path of ecological priority, green development, and digital enterprise revitalization, And we will always maintain the "heart to heart" link with consumers, and constantly provide high-quality products that satisfy consumers and are environmentally friendly.
