From January to May this year, Pinghu Chenda Storage & Office Co., Ltd. achieved export revenue of 87.63 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.8%. Its cross-border e-commerce export sales for the full year last year reached 28.75 million yuan, representing a growth of 86%. These impressive figures highlight the robust development momentum of this foreign trade enterprise based in Caoqiao Subdistrict, Pinghu.
Beyond the numbers, its market performance is equally remarkable. The company's metal toolboxes, charging cabinets, and tool cabinets have each topped the sales charts on the U.S. site of the B2B cross-border e-commerce platform, GigaCloud. In May of this year, the company was successfully selected for the 2025 "Zhejiang Export Famous Brand" list, receiving provincial recognition in areas such as technological innovation, international standards, and global operations, further bolstering its brand's credibility with overseas consumers and enhancing its global influence.
This naturally raises the question: how did a traditional manufacturing company that started with plastic components carve out its own niche in the overseas metal toolbox market?
The Pivotal Shift from Plastics to Metal
Chenda Storage's origins were not in metal products. Founded in 2000, the company initially operated as a traditional manufacturer of plastic components.
The turning point came in 2004. At that time, the company mainly produced office cabinets and cases but soon encountered a development bottleneck. These products are durable goods with long repurchase cycles, leading to a gradually saturating market. This forced the company to contemplate a new strategic direction.
Chenda Storage first transitioned from plastic component manufacturing to the production of steel filing cabinets and toolboxes. Over the subsequent years, it continuously iterated and upgraded its products, focusing on aspects like wheels, handles, and even packaging for its toolboxes. As General Manager Hu Hebing explained, "Our equipment is largely interchangeable, and our products all utilize sheet metal processing techniques, giving us strong production adaptability. Without adding new equipment, developing different types of products for various markets and clients carries a very low trial-and-error cost." This strategy of using versatile equipment to produce a diverse range of products allowed the company to test market waters at a relatively low cost.
To date, Chenda Storage operates from four factory sites with over 500 employees. Its product portfolio spans 10 major series and more than 500 varieties, including filing cabinets, office desks and chairs, storage racks, toolboxes, tool cabinets, workbenches, and electric beds.
From Canton Fair Debut to Cologne Fair Focus
The company's foray into foreign trade began at the Canton Fair. At this exhibition, often regarded as a barometer of China's foreign trade, the enterprise opened the door to overseas markets. Its presence is a fixture at the biannual spring and autumn sessions of the fair, where numerous European and American clients first became acquainted with this Pinghu-based company.
If the Canton Fair was the first step in "going global," what truly enabled the company to establish deep roots in overseas markets was its proactive, meticulous approach to customer development and relationship management.
In March of this year, Hu Hebing led a team to Cologne, Germany, to participate in a premier global hardware exhibition, bringing along new products that had undergone multiple rounds of iteration and upgrades. At the show, their booth attracted a steady stream of visitors. Their new toolbox models, featuring widened dimensions, added mesh panels, and double-door cabinet bodies, precisely met the needs of European clients for large workshop applications.
However, Hu Hebing understood that exhibitions are merely a starting point; the real work lies in the follow-up. After the fair concluded, he did not rush back to China. Instead, he and his team immediately embarked on visits to several long-standing German clients. Traveling by car from cities in northern to southern Germany, with Cologne as their hub, they met with customers across the region. "Whether they are new clients or old friends, it's important to communicate and stay connected frequently," he said. "To a certain extent, reaching a certain level of interaction is also about nurturing the relationship."
During one visit, Hu Hebing discovered that a long-term German partner had some reservations due to delivery schedule issues from the previous year. He did not avoid the topic. Instead, he proactively engaged in a face-to-face, candid discussion with the client, coordinating a solution on the spot. Over a meal and a few beers, as the atmosphere eased, he half-jokingly suggested, "How about placing a larger order this time?" Surprisingly, the client readily agreed, immediately adding an order for 12 containers on the spot. This kind of trust and rapport built through in-person interaction is something emails and video conferences cannot replicate. A trip to Germany and a face-to-face conversation represent the most effective cultivation of the market.
Today, over 95% of Chenda Storage's products are exported, primarily to European and American markets. A significant portion of its clientele consists of contacts initially made at trade shows, with relationships solidified and deals closed through these persistent follow-up visits.
From FOB to E-commerce: A New Growth Engine
If traditional trade forms the company's foundation, then cross-border e-commerce represents its rapidly growing "second curve."
In recent years, Chenda Storage has accelerated its shift towards cross-border e-commerce, gradually transforming from a traditional manufacturing and trading company into a diversified trade enterprise encompassing production, services, supply chain integration, proprietary brands, and cross-border e-commerce.
"We conduct wholesale business on overseas shopping platforms like Amazon and eBay, fulfilling orders on a spot basis for local overseas wholesalers and retailers," Hu Hebing described. He refers to this model as "small-scale wholesale"—selling one unit or two, with the platform handling fulfillment. From an initial average of $20,000 to $30,000 per month, the company's cross-border e-commerce business has charted a consistently upward trajectory, reaching nearly $1 million in peak months.
But Hu Hebing did not stop there. He realized that sales targeting end consumers rely heavily on professional operational teams. While the factory has deep expertise in supply chain, quality control, and pricing, directly managing consumer-facing operations is not its core strength. Consequently, a bolder idea emerged: to engage in deep collaboration with these consumer-facing sellers. Under this model, Chenda Storage would provide capital and inventory, while the partner handles operations, with both parties sharing profits to jointly expand the market.
"As a factory, we are open to cooperation in any form," Hu Hebing stated. "The traditional 'FOB mode' involves receiving orders first and then producing, which handles large volumes but has long cycles. Cross-border e-commerce follows a model of advance stocking and spot fulfillment, which better matches the procurement needs of small and medium-sized overseas clients. Additionally, there's the cooperative store model. As long as it's within a reasonable profit margin, all approaches are worth trying."
The Long-Term Strategy: From OEM to Own Brand
In Chenda Storage's development blueprint, the proprietary brand "ARTMAN" holds a special place. The brand was registered over a decade ago, but its products only began being sold overseas under this own label with the development of the e-commerce business. "Even if we don't make a profit initially, it increases the exposure of our own brand in foreign markets and raises awareness among overseas clients. This lays the groundwork for future sales channel expansion and finding overseas agents. That's the greatest benefit," Hu Hebing noted. On May 26 this year, "ARTMAN" was successfully recognized as a provincial-level famous cross-border e-commerce export brand, further solidifying the company's long-term strategic commitment to developing its own brand.
The significance of a proprietary brand extends far beyond brand recognition. Hu Hebing has done the math: if the company only engaged in OEM (original equipment manufacturing), it would require 800 people during peak order periods but only 300 during slow periods, making workforce management extremely challenging. "However, if we focus on our own brand, we set our own standards. Packaging, design, and production all conform to our factory specifications. During slow business periods, we can build inventory; during busy times, we can release that inventory. This is the ultimate dream for a manufacturing enterprise—to create its own products and manage its own supply chain," Hu Hebing admitted. He believes that only by establishing a strong own brand can a company gain pricing power, sink deeper roots in overseas markets, and secure the core confidence needed for long-term growth.
"The path of building an own brand is not smooth. When the brand is not yet influential enough to command authority in the industry, clients might even perceive us as competing for their business," Hu Hebing acknowledged. Balancing the relationship between OEM clients and the development of the company's own brand is a new challenge he is actively exploring.
Looking ahead, Hu Hebing plans to consolidate the company's four dispersed factory sites. This move aims to integrate resources, streamline management, further enhance production efficiency, and optimize product quality, paving a broader path for "Made in Pinghu" in the global foreign trade market. This small factory that started in Caoqiao, Pinghu, is using its "Made in China" toolboxes to open a door to the global marketplace.
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