Six post-2000 entrepreneurs enter the traditional fireworks business, with annual sales exceeding 10 million | Early-stage project
What would happen if six post - 2000s individuals ventured into the traditional fireworks business?
Shuaishuai Fireworks is the result of the daring and innovative spirit of the post - 2000s generation. This fireworks sales company, founded in 2023, has a founding team composed of six post - 2000s young men from Northeast China. Among them, the founder, Wu Mingyang, is even a "second - generation fireworks entrepreneur".
Wu Mingyang's father is a fireworks distributor in Heilongjiang. Since childhood, he accompanied his father to sell fireworks at retail terminals. Although he majored in financial management at university, which seemingly has nothing to do with fireworks, after graduation, he simply entered this familiar yet unfamiliar fireworks industry.
He gathered five childhood friends. Just like that, six post - 2000s young men from Northeast China traveled far from home to Liuyang and started their first entrepreneurial journey. Wu Mingyang introduced that the six team members have different majors. Some studied computer science, finance, while others studied civil engineering and sports. They are respectively responsible for overall planning, product selection, design, sales and other tasks according to their own strengths.
The reason for choosing Liuyang is very simple. Liuyang is the largest fireworks production base in China. As the saying goes, "When it comes to Chinese fireworks, look at Hunan; when it comes to Hunan fireworks, look at Liuyang". According to statistics, there are currently 431 fireworks production enterprises in Liuyang. In 2024, the total output value of the fireworks industry reached 50.22 billion yuan, accounting for about 60% of the domestic market share.
The Shuaishuai Fireworks team (Photo source: the enterprise)
As a startup brand, considering the cost of building a factory and safety production issues, Shuaishuai Fireworks currently adopts the contract - manufacturing model. After purchasing goods from upstream factories, it distributes them to distribution channels for sale. Last year, the annual sales volume of Shuaishuai Fireworks exceeded ten million. Wu Mingyang said that in terms of regions, Shuaishuai Fireworks currently covers multiple provinces in the north and south of China, and the best - selling regions are Shandong and Liaoning.
In addition, although the total output value of the fireworks industry in Liuyang is relatively large, due to the large number of small - scale enterprises, the competition among them still remains at a simple price - based competition, competing for the market by undercutting each other's prices.
In response to the serious homogenization of Liuyang fireworks, Shuaishuai Fireworks decided to start with the outer packaging, making it more youthful and novel. Currently, Shuaishuai Fireworks has more than 100 SKUs, mainly launching cultural and creative fireworks with ancient and modern styles. Among them, the "Beautiful China" series is quite popular in the market. The so - called "Beautiful China" series refers to integrating the landmark buildings or representative elements of major Chinese cities into the outer packaging design of fireworks.
Wu Mingyang gave an example to 36Kr. Currently, Shuaishuai Fireworks has designed city - themed series for Shanghai, Beijing, Harbin, Chengdu and other cities. For example, the outer packaging of Beijing uses Chinese red and gold, the main color of Harbin's outer packaging is white, and Shanghai is represented by the romantic colors of blue and purple.
According to Wu Mingyang, such novel outer packaging is quite popular among dealers and manufacturers at fireworks fairs in various provinces. He also mentioned that one of the characteristics that many dealers value about Shuaishuai Fireworks is that the team is young, energetic and innovative. "We came to Liuyang in 2023. Before that, most of the packaging here was in bright red and purple, like 'May the boss make a fortune' or 'Good luck comes to my home'. We innovatively designed some cartoon and AI - animated packaging, which greatly improved the grade of the fireworks. Dealers are also happy about it. After all, fireworks are emotional consumer products. If the outer packaging is improved, the unit price and profit will naturally increase."
In addition, the Shuaishuai Fireworks team also tried to break the "blind - box" history of fireworks. In the past, people could only roughly guess the blooming effect of fireworks through the virtual effect on the outer packaging, and the purchase behavior was like "opening a blind box". Wu Mingyang told 36Kr that the team specially printed QR codes on the outer packaging. By scanning the QR codes, people can see the real blooming effect of the fireworks.
(Photo source: the enterprise)
When it comes to the "fireworks ban" still in effect in many cities, Wu Mingyang said that the main market for Shuaishuai Fireworks is the sinking market. "There is still a large demand for traditional fireworks in counties and rural areas, while there is little demand for electronic fireworks because they are not lively enough and lack the festive atmosphere," he said.
Liuyang is not only the largest fireworks production base in China, but also exports fireworks globally. As the world's largest production and export base for fireworks, with more than 400 production enterprises and an annual output value of over 50 billion yuan, Liuyang firmly holds nearly 60% of China's fireworks export share and ranks at the "C - position" in the global fireworks industry.
Wu Mingyang told 36Kr that Shuaishuai Fireworks has currently obtained the relevant qualifications for overseas fireworks sales. "Without any unexpected circumstances, overseas markets will also be one of our future plans."