The people of Ningbo traditionally do business elsewhere. Dr Sun Yat-sen once remarked, "The Ningbo people are experienced in trade and commerce, and own businesses in all Chinese ports. Even in Europe, Ningbo people can be found engaging in business, and their capability and influence are second to none." At present, 73,000 merchants of Ningbo origin do business in 64 countries and regions of the world, some of whom are famous entrepreneurs, scientists and social celebrities. The tradition of doing business overseas has broadened the Ningbo people's outlook, and helped them gain more foreign trade experience.

Ningbo entrepreneurs have taken an active part in promoting their products overseas and establishing international marketing networks. In their market expansion, some enterprises stand out as influential big names both at home and abroad. The following three are just three among them:

Bird

Ningbo Bird Co., Ltd. started in 1992 making pagers and rose steadily to the second largest pager supplier in China (after Motorola). In 1999, the company began handset design and production during the peak of mobilecom market boom. A year later, Bird sold more handsets than all other Chinese companies. According to MII, Bird held 9.5% of GSM/GPRS handset market by June 2004 (15% in 2003). Bird is a major force behind rapid rise of Chinese handset industry, it sold 13 million handsets in 2004 and exported 3.4 million handsets to overseas markets.

Revenue for the Ningbo, Zhejiang based company was 10.8 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) in 2003, up 70.3% from a year ago, net income 245 million yuan ($29.5 million), up 13.5%. Bird employs over 10,000 workers and spends 6% of revenue on R&D. Putian Corporation is the largest shareholder of Bird with about 34% holdings. Bird is one of the widely held companies on the Chinese stock exchange.

The rapid rise of Bird is attributed to its strong emphasis on product innovation, including five R&D facilities, partnership with foreign design firms, intimate knowledge of customer demand and fast response, and a comprehensive distribution network. The company used to rely on its expansive distribution network with 41 branches, 400 sales offices and 30,000 retail outlets, which helped penetrating second and third-tier cities. However, a large overhead adds to sales cost and undercut gross margins. In 2004, Bird began to consolidate branches and close down offices by 10% as overall sales lost momentum and price plummeted.

Bird is a company capable of reaching new heights in sales and market share. Despite hardship, it maintained leadership position by launching nearly 50 new models in 2004. But challenge is grave in an increasingly mature market. In addition to new models, Bird is pushing sales in India, Russia and Eastern Europe. In 2004, Bird set up an alliance with Siemens as a way to push its products in Western Europe as an OEM with limited success due to different corporate cultures and lackluster sales of Siemens brand.

Youngor

The Youngor Group is the largest garment manufacturing plant in China and in the world. Founded in 1979, through over 20 years' development, Youngor Group has gradually determined a managing pattern which takes textile garment as the main industry, real estate and international trade as two wings. In 2003 the Group accomplished a turnover of RMB 10.119 billion. It earns USD520 million in export. At present its net capital is over RMB 4 billion. It creates job opportunities for more than 20,000 employees. It can annually produces 10 million shirts, 2 million sets of suits, above 20 million pieces of dress and personal adornment. It is a leading enterprise in the garment manufacturing industry in China. The market share of the Youngor shirt ranks No. 1 for ten consecutive years and that of its suit also for 4 years running. Both of them become "China Famous Brand" Products. In 2003, Youngor International Garment Industrial City which integrates the design, production, sales, exhibition and marketing into a whole has been confirmed by China Clothes Association as the largest garment manufacturing base of in China. "Creating a famous international brand, founding an enterprise with a production history of over a hundred years" is the motto of Youngor. In the meantime of Youngor's building up the clothes manufacture base with high investment and high-tech, it is also engaged in the construction of sales network system. Nowadays its sales network system is beginning to take shape. It has set up over 150 branch companies, more than 2,000 commercial net points all over the country. It has formed a strong marketing capability. Youngor is now quickening its pace of enhancing the sales network by high-tech information, speeding up the market information feedback through Youngor digital project, reducing the supply chain cycle, shaping the market quick reaction mechanism, further lifting up the core competitive power of this company. At the same time of constructing the retail terminal, Youngor enters into the upper reach of the textile industry in the clothes cycle. In 2003 it invested in 1 billion Yuan RMB to complete the first-phase project of the Textile City. Sino-Japanese Textile which has been thrown into production in the initial phase finds great favor in the eyes of vast colleagues both at home and abroad. The items such as knitted dyeing & finishing, woollen textile and so on have successively been thrown into production. The construction of Textile City marks the fundamental formation of the strategic framework which gathers together textile & dress block textile fabrics, ready-made clothes production, interlocking retail. It provides a new increase point for the future development of Youngor Enterprise.

Red Eagle

Founded in 1925, Ningbo Red Eagle Cigarette Factory has a history of nearly 80 years.

After scores of years of development, the machinery and technology of Red Eagle have entered a new development stage. Cigarettes made in the factory features select tobacco, best recipes, advanced manufacturing technology and process, and comforting taste. Among all the other products, Red Eagle ranks among "the Reputed Cigarettes of China" in the years of 1997 through 2001. In 2002, Red Eagle was recognized as a "Famous Brand" and the brand was estimated to be worth RMB 5.16  billion, according to the Enterprise Brand Evaluation Centre of China and China's Brand Association. With an evaluation by the Famous Brand Promotion Committee of China and the recognition by China Quality Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, its knockout product, the Red Eagle Cigarettes, was entitled "Famous Brand of China". "The Labour Day" and "Upper Reach" cigarettes also enjoy appreciation from customers.

A technological reform project, which is listed as a major project in the ninth "Five Year Plans of China" was launched on October 15, 1998, with a gross investment of RMB 1.5 billion. For years, Red Eagle aims at "First-class Products, First-class Technology, First-class Administration, First-class Benefit and First-class Environment" as its development goal and endeavours to provide excellent products and service for all customers.