See how this 80-year-old established book and publishing company breaks through!
Control and Restructuring: Group-Based Operations to Unlock Synergies
Traditional printing companies often face issues like scattered resources across plants and imbalanced capacity during peak and off-peak seasons. These problems not only drag down overall operational efficiency but also hide management risks.
To address this, Jiangsu Phoenix has been fully implementing an integrated "big marketing, big production" operation model since 2023. The group headquarters coordinates major publishing project bids and textbook assignments, while the production quality management center dynamically allocates plant resources based on order types, delivery schedules, and production capacity. This top-down unified scheduling ensures that capacity is fully utilized when tasks peak and resources are efficiently allocated, fundamentally solving the issues of idle capacity during off-peak periods and repeated production scheduling across plants. Equipment utilization has significantly improved.
Technological Independence: Self-Developed R&D and Industry-Academia Collaboration, Building Core Barriers
At the turning point where the printing industry is moving from 'scale competition' to 'value competition,' technological innovation is increasingly becoming the core support for printing companies to strengthen their long-term competitiveness.
Jiangsu Phoenix insists on driving internal growth through independent R&D, forming professional technical R&D teams, and focusing on three main research directions: pre-press intelligent inspection, printing automation transformation, and eco-friendly recycling equipment. They continuously tackle technical challenges. So far, Jiangsu Phoenix has obtained 17 authorized patents, covering practical technologies closely aligned with frontline production needs, such as printing waste liquid recycling, AI automatic online inspection devices, and digital printing color calibration. At the same time, all self-developed patents are fully implemented in their own production lines, which effectively reduces the cost of hardware upgrades and creates unique production processes for the industry, forming technical barriers that are difficult for others to replicate.
In terms of technical breakthroughs, they collaborate with universities to develop new processes, such as cultural and creative specialty printing, jointly tackling common industry technical challenges and accelerating the commercialization of cutting-edge academic research into new products and processes. In talent development, universities train urgently needed skills like digital printing operations and intelligent equipment maintenance according to company needs, directly supplying graduates to R&D and production frontline positions to fill the gap in high-end technical talent. Jiangsu Phoenix has also been approved for vocational skill level certification, carrying out skill assessments for printing and binding workers independently, creating smooth internal promotion channels. Several key employees have been awarded titles like 'Jiangsu Craftsman' and 'National Technical Expert'.
Breaking business formats: Industrial study tours break boundaries and expand value boundaries
Currently, printing capacity is generally overcapacity, and the added value of single products is limited. How to break out of manufacturing boundaries and tap into differentiated value is a direction many printing companies are exploring.
Jiangsu Phoenix, based on its own development history and mature industrial production resources, is pioneering new tracks for industrial study tours and cultivating differentiated competitive advantages. The group has established the Phoenix Printing Culture Museum, integrating four major functions: exhibition of printing history and culture, live demonstrations of intelligent production lines, immersive experiences of traditional craftsmanship, and practical printing course teaching, creating a printing culture science popularization base that integrates cultural heritage, science education, and practical experience.
Relying on the museum's core resources, Jiangsu Phoenix has successfully incubated two distinctive study tour IPs: "Su Xiaofeng" and "Su Xiaohuang"; Targeting the cognitive characteristics and educational needs of students at different educational stages, a series of layered and categorized printed themed course packages have been developed, implementing 16 industrial study tour courses. Allowing young people to experience printing techniques up close not only helps the inheritance and implementation of traditional printing culture but also provides real-world support for quality education.
Building on industrial study tours, Jiangsu Phoenix has further advanced into educational services, collaborating with authoritative psychological experts across disciplines to jointly develop a psychological healing course system, empowering youth growth and promoting the company's extension from printing manufacturer to cultural education service provider.
In less than a year since opening, the base has hosted over 200 study tour activities, serving more than 30,000 people, forming a comprehensive service system covering all education stages and overseas students. The base has successfully been selected for the 2025 Nanjing Primary and Secondary School Student Study Tour Practice Education Resource Library and has been listed as a study site for the China Association for Science and Technology's "Science and Culture China Tour" printing tour. Its brand influence continues to expand, and it has also achieved reverse empowerment for its core printing business.
Jiangsu Phoenix Study and Research Base
Diverse Collaboration: a Global Layout to Build Business Resilience
While deeply cultivating its core publishing and printing business, Jiangsu Phoenix actively extends its industrial chain and completes a diverse, collaborative business landscape.
In its main printing business, Jiangsu Phoenix focuses on the core area of book and periodical printing, concentrating on books, journals, and educational materials. It firmly maintains the essential role of a state-owned printing enterprise in serving educational publishing and ensuring cultural supply, laying a solid foundation for its business.
Beyond the core business, Jiangsu Phoenix expands along the entire printing industry chain. It simultaneously develops three commercial printing sectors: digital printing, newspaper printing, and packaging printing, creating a collaborative growth structure for its four printing businesses. Digital printing uses advanced POD on-demand printing equipment to fully cover short-run printing and personalized customization needs, achieving efficient services with 'printing one book at a time, every book unique.' Newspaper printing relies on high-speed rotary equipment and centralized scheduling advantages to strictly adhere to delivery timelines and quality standards, managing diverse orders from industry journals to campus newspapers. Packaging printing targets food, pharmaceuticals, and consumer electronics, offering one-stop packaging solutions from design to printing.
By staggering orders and complementing production capacity across these four printing divisions, Jiangsu Phoenix balances peak and off-peak seasons, overcoming the 'busy half-year, idle half-year' problem common in single-focused book and periodical printers. This stabilizes annual revenue growth and provides solid support for total profit increases.
From management restructuring to technological independence, from breaking business silos to diverse collaboration, Jiangsu Phoenix's development logic is very clear. It holds on to its printing foundation without being confined by it, aiming to be a leader in traditional fields while also exploring new tracks. As a long-standing state-owned printing company, Jiangsu Phoenix's practices provide a reference for other book and periodical printers looking to innovate and show that digital intelligence upgrades and service extensions are key directions for high-quality industry development. In the future, Jiangsu Phoenix will continue to deepen management efficiency, technological accumulation, and business innovation, constantly strengthening industrial chain collaboration and continuously creating irreplaceable comprehensive value amidst industry changes.