Growth of RELX: From the Perspective of Its CSR Reports

[2FIRSTS summary report] 

On September 20, 2022, RELX released the 2021-2022 Corporate Social Responsibility Report of Wuxin Technology. This is the third consecutive year since RELX released its first corporate social responsibility (CSR) report on June 16, 2020. Immediately after the release 2FIRSTS collected the three years’ reports and compared and concluded as follows.

One. Core figures

Each year, the report listed some specific data, from which 2FIRSTS selected and compared, as shown below.

RELX Data of the year 2021-2022

RELX Data of the year 2022-2021

RELX Data of the year 2019-2020

In a side-to-side comparison, it appears that during the 3 years,

the growth of patent numbers accelerated: 429→ 495→ 610.

R&D investment nearly tripled from ¥300m in 2021 to ¥800m in 2022.

Relevant employment figures increased by 100,000 in the past year: 124,000 → 277,000 → 370,000.

The number of stores opened nationwide increased nearly 10 times in three years: 2,500 → 10,000 → 24,000

A 4-time year-on-year growth was seen on the seizure of counterfeit products, which grew from 200,000 pieces from in 2021 to 797,891 pieces in 2022. Meanwhile, with the help of RELX, the number of counterfeiting cases settled by the police dropped by half, from 80+ cases in 2021 to 43+ cases in 2022, so it can be inferred that the scale of single cases involving counterfeit products relating to the brand became larger.

In addition, the following new indicators have been added to the 2022 CSR report.

Newly developed international research cooperation projects: 13

By June 2022, “rebirth of empty cartridges” recycle initiative has been implemented in 188 cities nationwide.

What is worth-noting is that the issue of state standard of e-cigarettes partly referred to RELX’s suggestions.

Two Themes

Themes of the CSR reports during the 3 years are as follows:

2020: RELX·Companion

2020-2021 RELX CSR report

2021: Protection·Trust

2020-2021 RELX CSR report

2022: Confidence·Future

2021-2022 CSR Report of Wuxin Technology

In 2020, RELX released its first CSR report. The theme of the report was “RELX·Companion”, reflecting the fact that RELX, as a “new consumption” brand, considers the consumer value of its products as part of its contribution to the society. For example, on page 14 of the report, the title is “Quality First for Every Puff”.

page 14 of the 2020 CSR report

When policies were brewing in 2021, compliance with regulations became the priority of industrial development. Therefore, the protection of minors and product safety made important parts of the 2021 CSR report. In this report, RELX released the “Sunflower System” version 3.0 (page 13) and announced more detailed technical standards related to product safety and quality (page 30).

page 13 of the 2021 CSR report

page 30 of the 2021 CSR report

The release of the 2022 CSR report comes at a special point - the domestic e-cigarette regulatory policy has been fully implemented, while a production license has been issued to Wuxin Technology, and the transition period is coming to an end, so the Chinese e-cigarette industry is about to enter the era of fully compliance. At this moment, the “policy uncertainty” that had been hanging over the head of China’s e-cigarette industry for three years was dissolved, and the regulatory policy risk was cleared, giving companies a clearer future of development. For enterprises, there is no other way out than developing with full confidence. This is probably the meaning of the theme of the 2022 CSR Report “Confidence·Future”.

Three Corporate Profiles

Corporate Profile of the 2020 CSR report

Corporate Profile of the 2021 CSR report

Corporate Profile of the 2022 CSR report

All the reports included a “Corporate Profile”. However, the presentation differs from one year to the next.

The 2020 version emphasizes the “healthier and more enjoyable” features of vape products from the perspective of the emerging industry, and the “consumer evolution” that is taking place worldwide.

The 2021 version rephrased from “China’s leader” in 2020 to “global leader” and no longer emphasizes the “one billion vapors”, with the addition of focuses on scientific research and corporate social responsibility.

The content of the 2022 version is generally consistent with the 2021 version except for some rephrases, e.g., “high quality” instead of “world-class quality”, and “driving the industry and the public…” instead of “leading the industry and the public to expand the radius of awareness of vaping” These changes showed the more “low-key” orientation of Wuxin Technology.

Four Indexes

The reports have increased in content each year: 62 pages for the 2020 report, 66 pages for 2021 and 76 pages for 2022.

Index of the 2020 CSR report

Index of the 2021 CSR report

Index of the 2022 CSR report

Index of the 2020 CSR report: Product Responsibility, Market Responsibility, Environmental Responsibility, Employee Responsibility, Community Responsibility

Index of the 2021 CSR report: Market Responsibility, Product Responsibility, Employee Responsibility, Community Responsibility, Environmental Responsibility, Corporate Governance

Index of the 2022 CSR report: Features, Market Responsibility, Product Responsibility, Environmental Responsibility, Employee Responsibility, Corporate Governance

Focusing on “rebirth of empty cartridges”, “return of the Siberian Tigers” and “response to the pandemic”, the 2022 CSR report of RELX added the new column “Features” to list its most representative CSR projects. In spite of the headline position of the environmental protection project “rebirth of empty cartridges”, RELX still upgraded “Environmental Responsibility” from the fifth position last year to the fourth, which shows the importance it attaches to corporate environmental responsibility. 

Five Founder’s Messages

Message of Wang Ying, founder and CEO of Wuxin Technology, sits as a consistent content of the reports. These are the messages summarized by 2FIRSTS:

Founder’s Message of 2020

In 2020, Wang Ying’s expression is more in “definition”. This state of “defining” the company and even the world shows the most confident and even “domineering” side of RELX’s CEO. This is in line with the state of RELX at that time in 2020 - the momentum of entrepreneurship is strong, and it is rapidly leading in the country and even the world.

Founder’s Message of 2021

In 2021, Wang Ying’s words began to focus more on the “objective world” and had more “reverence”. This year is also the point when RELX, as a start-up company with great success, starts to face compliance and uncertainty.

Founder’s Message of 2022

The expressions of 2022 are more intriguing. The expressions of “deepest” and “least regretful” are usually the feelings after having some profound experiences. Therefore, it is possible to tell only a small part of them, perhaps because they are the only ones that can be told. The more inexpressible ones really seem to be difficult to tell.

In addition, from the three pictures, it can be noticed that the color of the clothes and makeup this year is red, the most auspicious color in China, which is often the choice made when you need to show a “better side”.

These are just speculations from these small talks and we do not intend to criticize a company or its founder. We are trying to understand the journey of a Chinese vaping entrepreneur in the past 4 years, which represents not only the 4 years of an individual entrepreneur, but also a microcosm of the huge changes in the Chinese vaping industry in the past 4 years.

There are many aspects to evaluate RELX, and there is no way we can give an “authoritative answer”. But if there is a Chinese vaping company that pays attention to corporate social responsibility and scientific research, and can establish brand influence in the world, its emergence, growth and development deserve support and expectation.