Shanghai’s traditional brands find a younger market

The new Seagull CK10 camera Photo: Courtesy of the Shanghai Seagull Digital Camera Co., Ltd

In the 1970s, almost every newlywed Shanghai couple would buy four things for their home - a bike, a sewing machine, a watch and a camera. All of these "vital" items were made in Shanghai and the manufacturers were a mainstay of the city's economy for many years. They were highly regarded throughout the country and were famed for reliability and durability.

But by the late 1990s and early 2000s it was hard to find these bikes, sewing machines, watches and cameras. Most of the shops that once stocked them were closed and it was difficult to find someone who could repair one of these classic items if it malfunctioned.

But in the past few years there has been a resurrection for Forever bikes and Seagull cameras (which are now digital) and both are proving almost as popular as they were in the 1970s. At the 2014 China Time-honored Brand and Famous Brand Expo in Pudong New Area people queued to check out the new Seagull CK10 and CM9 digital cameras. Cyclists had a chance to test ride the new Forever bikes and many looked them over.

Most of the curious onlookers were middle-aged or elderly. Tang Yamin came to the fair almost every day to look for Shanghai brand items but while she enjoyed the experience she was not rushing to actually buy. "I won't get a new Seagull digital camera as I already have two Nikons." She used to have a Seagull camera in the 1980s but bought a Nikon after her Seagull broke.

Qu Jiantao is the CEO and one of the co-founders of the Shanghai Seagull Digital Camera Co., Ltd. Even when the challenges from the Japanese brands Nikon and Canon threatened the viability of his company he remained confident in the brand. "My brand has a huge reputation for quality and reliability. Out there, there are still millions of Seagull camera fans."

Structure change

Keeping pace and answering the challenges from the new wave of Japanese cameras, the Shanghai Seagull Digital Camera Co., Ltd not only made its cameras digital but changed the structure of the company to catch up with the new market era.

Qu Jiantao and his team established the Shanghai Seagull Digital Camera Co., Ltd in 2010, thus ending 52 years of State ownership. From 1958 to 2004 more than 20 million cameras had been produced during the glory days of the company. But after 2004, for five years, the company stopped producing its brand cameras and instead manufactured equipment for other companies. Later Qu and partners bought the company and privatized it.

It was not an easy business decision, Qu said. He had to pay out on the debts the old company had accrued and then had to assess the staff, deploy the key people and look for new talent.

"Now I have a lot more freedom to make decisions," Qu said. He described his experiences of working with the old State-owned business as being like trying to dance while being chained up. After becoming the biggest shareholder in the new company, Qu invested 100 million yuan ($16.20 million) to launch a 50-strong research and development team in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. Qu said he did this because he did not want to overdraft the brand by being an original equipment manufacturer - he felt the way of the future was to master core skills and be creative.