Shanghai Vive, a cosmetics brand with an iconic logo featuring two women, was relaunched in 2010. It is over a century old.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Sink or swim

Despite this, many brands are losing their luster. Only about 10 percent remain profitable. Some 70 percent can merely make ends meet, while two in 10 have closed down after years in the red, according to a city survey.

"Broadly speaking, whether we admit it or not, most of the city's aged brands are going down due to poor advertising choices and a lack of innovation," said Jiang.

Most have followed the same basic business curve: They were nationalized after 1949, when new China was born, they peaked in the 1950s or 1960s, experienced a slump the following decade, then saw business pick up again in the 1980s.

Their performances began to diverge after new domestic brands joined the market along with mature global brands.

According to Jiang, the old brands once boasted the latest technology and most sophisticated techniques but have since failed to keep pace with the changing times.

Official statistics show there were more than 16,000 old brands across the nation in 1950. This number dwindled to 1,600 in 1990. As of 1996, only a few hundred were recognized as time-honored brands by the Ministry of Commerce.

Beijing-based Wangmazi Scissors used to be an industry leader in China but the brand, which is over 350 years old, went bankrupt in 2003 after it found itself saddled with debt.

Varying business models saw the brands follow different development paths during the 1980s and 1990s.

"Every success story is unique, but they were all based on prudent decisionmaking by their management in an ever-changing business environment," said Jiang.