Aokang shoe factory.

Founded in 1988, the Mainland's Aokang Group is one of China's top 500 private enterprises, involved in a wide-ranging series of ventures involving shoe making, commercial property and bio products.

A cross-industry and cross-regional enterprise, the group employs 20,000 staff with an annual turnover of Rmb4 billion. Aokang Shoes alone has a staff of over 16,000 and operates three shoe production bases and five shoe brands.

More than 30 provincial level Aokang companies, 3,000 chain-operated specialty stores and over 800 store-in-store outlets have opened across the country. Three shoe sample design centres have also been set up in Wenzhou, Guangzhou and Milan respectively, turning out over 3,000 new designs of shoe samples annually.

Last April, Italian Geox brand moved its leisure shoes R&D centre from Italy to this high octane company's production base in Oubei. Over 10 of Aokang's designers joined Geox's R&D team.

Henceforth, all the leisure shoes sold by Geox around the world will bear the Wenzhou mark from design to production.

Meanwhile, Aokang is evolving from its previous engagement original equipment manufacturing (OEM) to original design manufacturing (ODM).

It is Aokang's sharp fashion sense and strong R&D and production capabilities that have won the company the favour of leading international brands.

In response to the financial crisis, Waterman, the largest shoe company in Europe, quickened its pace seeking foreign business partners. Last October, Aokang and Waterman started negotiating.

After several missions, Waterman finally reached a production and technological co-operation agreement with Aokang. Last April, Waterman placed the first order for 300,000 pairs of ladies shoes with Aokang. The soles of all these shoes will use the light weight soft soles developed by Aokang itself.

Currently, nearly 100 patent applications have been lodged by Aokang for its proprietary innovative technologies such as an improved middle sole and nano anti-germ technology. Each year Aokang invests tens of millions of yuan in R&D.

Reportedly, the orders received by Aokang's Wenzhou production base, with an annual output capacity of over 10 million pairs of shoes, have already been filled right up to the end of the year. That doesn't include orders for outsourced production. From January to April this year, Aokang's export value rose 35% year-on-year while profits grew 15%.

from Shirley Pan, Hangzhou Office