"A number of factors have prompted us to seek automation, including rising labor costs and the growing demanding requirements for standardization and consistency in products. But the most important one is the surging need for our products in recent years," he said.

In line with the piqued interest in Chinese traditional brands among young people, Zhang Xiaoquan has enjoyed robust growth since the acquisition and restructuring. In 2018, it posted consolidated sales of 550 million yuan, up fivefold from 2013. Sales through e-commerce platforms accounted for a third of overall sales, while gross profit was around 80 million yuan.

"It's a historical moment for us. After decades of explosive economic growth, the nation is seeing an unprecedented demand for brands and products from the homeland. If we take full advantage of the timing, there would be tremendous growth opportunities for the 391-year-old brand," said Xia.

E-commerce giant JD said that consumers on its platform increased their spending on Chinese brands vis-a-vis foreign ones by 14 percent in 2018, compared with 3 percent in 2017. Young people, aged between 18 and 25, contributed most to the expenditure on domestic brands.

Alibaba, another e-commerce giant, said Chinese consumer brands now have a 71 percent market share on its retail platforms, mainly by creating new categories of products and speeding up new products launches. Chinese traditional brands, more commonly known as time-honored brands, enjoyed a 23.8 percent growth in sales in 2018 compared with the previous year.

Alibaba's report also estimated that there are upward of 10 million "die-hard consumers" of Chinese traditional brands in the country, who are defined as those having shopped at least three times a year for products from such brands.

Another key growth engine that will keep the company's sales soaring at the rate of over 50 percent annually will be Chinese consumers' diversified needs for knives and scissors, according to Xia.

After adding 12 employees to the product development department last year, the company launched 300 new products, expanding its product portfolio to over 2,000.

According to the government report of Yangjiang, in Guangdong province, where 70 percent of the country's knives and scissors are manufactured, the domestic cutlery industry had reached a size of over 70 billion yuan by 2018.