However, the development of zippers in Japan was after World War I. At that time, the Japanese called them buckles, and of course some people produced them. However, due to the backwardness of Japan's basic industry, the production mode is very primitive and it is easy to break down because it is completely assembled by hand. It is common for customers to return goods and store inventory to accumulate. It was wartime, and nobody cared.
The world zipper king-Tadao Yoshida
YKK produces five times as many zippers every year as from the Earth to distance to the moon, accounting for 90% of the Japanese. YKK zipper is the representative of modern Japanese culture. It changed the life style of human beings in the 20th century and became an invincible Japanese industry in the world competition.
A symbol of the product. It adds new content to the modernization of life. Yoshida Industrial Co., Ltd. has an annual turnover of over US$ 2 billion and is one of the largest companies in Japan.
Type of enterprise
Zipper manufacturing.
Growth record
Now, everyone has at least one zipper. Maybe the word "self" is not appropriate. After all, it is a very common thing with little value and low price. But on the other hand, what would our life be like without zippers? That would be unthinkable. The clothes we wear, all kinds of things we carry with us, and all kinds of electrical appliances we use all exist by zippers.
Some things, although seemingly small and unremarkable, have such a great impact on life. Many people disdain small zippers, but they are keen on big business, big business. However, an entrepreneur in Japan found huge profits from a small zipper. This discerning person is Tadao Yoshida. The brand image of "YKK" zipper company he founded has become a symbol of developed industries in Japan, just like Toyota and Sony.
Small apprentices trained in Greater Shanghai
1908, Tadao Yoshida was born in Heibu Town, Fuji Prefecture on the north-central coast of Honshu Island, Japan. His father, Keitaro, is a small businessman with a poor but happy family. Due to family difficulties, Yoshida Takashi dropped out of school before graduation. 15 years old, apprenticed in a ceramic shop. Later, I went to work in my brother's shoe store. These hard experiences have greatly exercised Yoshida.
At the age of 20, Yoshida decided to leave his hometown and went to Tokyo alone with 70 yen given by his brother. At that time, China's ceramics were very popular in Japan, so he helped in a small ceramic shop opened by a friend, and was later sent to Shanghai to buy ceramics.
In Shanghai in the 1930s, there were people from gentry to local ruffians and hooligans. It is here that Yoshida's "management philosophy" gradually matures. Shanghai has not only produced countless domestic business tycoons, but also trained foreign passers-by. And this is also his magic weapon to win in the future.
Not long after, Japan's war of aggression against China broke out, and Japan's domestic economy was also in trouble and entered a wartime state. With the sharp depreciation of the yen, Tadao Yoshida had to return to Japan to help his boss save the ceramic shop on the verge of bankruptcy. However, in the tide of the whole people being soldiers and the stock plummeting, his efforts were only a drop in the bucket, and the store could not escape the fate of bankruptcy.
Yoshida accidentally found a large number of zippers entrusted by others as commission when cleaning up the goods left in the store. These zippers have been rusted and damaged for a long time because of their rough production and poor quality. These things that others regard as garbage, Yoshida regards them as future business opportunities. So he borrowed money to buy these zippers and started his own business.
1934 65438+ 10, Tadao Yoshida founded the Three S Company specializing in the production and sale of zippers. He is his own boss and has only two employees. His capital is 350 yen saved by thrift, but his debt is 2070 yen.
But Yoshida doesn't think so. He values the zipper industry and takes it as the starting point of his career. Yoshida came to Osaka Zipper Factory and took advantage of the opportunity of ordering to learn about the manufacturing process of zippers. After I came back, I devoted myself to studying how to improve. He got some repair tools, repaired the zipper that he returned every day, and found out the cause of the failure. In this way, he repaired the zippers he sold, and almost no one returned them. He was called "the magic zipper doctor" by the workers.
The third floor of Sans Company became Tadao Yoshida's zipper factory. A mountain of return zippers, after Yoshida's wonderful hand, are all sold as three S brand zippers. And got the reputation of "golden hammer zipper", which is very popular in Japan.
The birth of "YKK"
The zipper business is getting bigger and bigger, and the scale of the third S company is also expanding. From the original three people to 26 people, the sales network is also growing. 1936, Tadao paid off all his debts. 1938, Tadao Yoshida bought a piece of land and built a new factory. The third S company was renamed Yoshida Industrial Company.
Japan has a wartime economic system. For wartime needs, more guns should be produced to launch a war of aggression, and domestic industrial and commercial circles should be prohibited from using "copper". Copper can't be produced, but the zipper is made of copper as the main raw material. Is it necessary to close down because the business is developing? Yoshida doesn't want to do this. He thinks from another angle. Zippers can be replaced by other things besides copper! This will not be dissolved by the government, but can be started again. After repeated experiments, he decided to use aluminum as a substitute. As a result, Yoshida became the first originator in the world to replace the copper zipper with aluminum. Since then, he has developed an aluminum alloy zipper with strong hardness and light weight, which has been widely welcomed.