"Xingsheng Toothbrush"-Interview

Wearing a hairnet and a dust-free suit, Tony adjusted the electronic magnifier and gazed intently at the image on his computer screen.

On the screen, the blue-green bristles appeared neatly arranged, full, and rounded at the tips. "If the bristles are too long, cleaning efficiency suffers; if they are too short, the texture becomes too stiff and can easily injure the gums," Tony explained, highlighting the intricate craftsmanship behind this small toothbrush.

Xingsheng Toothbrush is a renowned Chinese brand with a nearly 30-year history in foreign trade. As the head of foreign trade at Jiangsu Xingsheng Brush Co., Ltd., Tony has years of experience in the industry. Early in his role, he faced significant challenges in meeting the stringent requirements set by French clients regarding production materials and workshop cleanliness.

"As the saying goes, 'Change brings adaptability, and adaptability ensures longevity'; without evolving to meet trends, one faces inevitable elimination." Consequently, Tony overhauled the production workshops to meet strict international standards—standards he describes as comparable to "cleanrooms for chip manufacturing." This move made Xingsheng one of the first companies in Yangzhou to operate high-cleanliness workshops.

Yangzhou is celebrated as the "Toothbrush Capital of China." Within this 40-square-kilometer area, thousands of toothbrush manufacturers are clustered together. The region produces nearly 20 million toothbrushes daily, generating an annual output value exceeding 13 billion yuan and commanding over 80% of the domestic market and more than 35% of the global market.

As market share approached the industry's saturation point, the local government launched four major transformation initiatives—focusing on technology, energy conservation, green practices, and smart manufacturing—to encourage toothbrush enterprises to accelerate industrial upgrading and transformation through technological innovation and digital adoption. In the production workshop, the reporter observed over a dozen injection molding machines lined up in a row; they automatically fed material from above, pressing molten plastic pellets into brush handles. Agile green robotic arms grasped the semi-finished handles and placed them into the injection molds; upon removal, they had been transformed into lifelike dolphin shapes.

In the past, a single injection molding machine required four or five operators; today, the entire workshop runs with just three workers. Tony explained that through the extensive application of parametric programming technology, intelligent equipment and digital systems have become the backbone of the toothbrush production line.

Having grown from a small family workshop into a high-tech enterprise in Jiangsu Province, this former foreign trade professional has witnessed the transformation of Yangzhou’s toothbrush industry and remains confident in its future innovation.

In the product showroom, more than thirty patent certificates are neatly displayed. Picking up a newly launched toothbrush, Tony said, "This handle is made from starch and is fully biodegradable within two years." In his view, by aligning with eco-friendly principles and addressing specific cleaning needs, specialized toothbrushes—such as those capable of high-temperature sterilization, models with replaceable heads, and versions designed for dentures or tongue cleaning—have become the key to achieving the next "breakthrough."

"Wherever there are people, there are toothbrushes made in Yangzhou." Inside the China Toothbrush Museum in Yangzhou, this striking slogan embodies the dreams of generations of "toothbrush people." (Lü Qian, Li Kuo, Li Nanhua, Wang Renhong, Xie Di, Xu Zheng, Zhang Yufeng, Yu Le, Zhang Hantian, Gao Chao)