"Chunlan air conditioner went out of business?”
When it comes to Chunlan air conditioning, the post-80s generation is very impressed. The sentence "Chunlan air conditioning, high-level pursuit" has hollowed out the purses of many people.
In the first decade of the last century, Chunlan air conditioning was undoubtedly the leader of the air conditioning industry, with an annual income of 5.6 billion in its most glorious period, and at that time, the annual income of Gree air conditioning was only 400 million.
At the same time, the company's founder, Tao Jianxing, is also known as the "father of air conditioning", and he successfully guided Chunlan air conditioning to enter the international market and ranked seventh in the world.
However, the glory of the past is very different from the past, and now the former king of air conditioning is gradually being forgotten by the public.
Chunlan's air-conditioning technology is little known and its business has gradually declined.
In the first three quarters of this year, Chunlan's main revenue was 14.8 billion yuan, a decrease of 44 compared with last year17%。
In fact, as early as 2008, Chunlan shares have lost more than 500 million yuan for three consecutive years, and the Shanghai ** Stock Exchange decided to suspend trading, resulting in its stock price being significantly **, maintaining at the level of 6 yuan per share.
The air-conditioning industry, which used to be mainly operated, is now gradually declining, and has even fallen to the top ten in the industry.
After that, Chunlan Group tried to successfully transform into a real estate stock through asset replacement, but this did not bring salvation to it.
In just a few decades, why did he, who was once known as the "king of air conditioning", encounter such a predicament?Who played a decisive role in this?What happened to Chunlan's air conditioning system?
When we talk about Chunlan air conditioning, Tao Jianxing is indispensable as its founder.
Although Tao Jianxing was born in an ordinary intellectual family, he showed great wisdom since he was a child, not only liked to observe and research, but also developed a deep interest in electronic technology, often indulging in disassembling electrical equipment at home.
In 1977, Tao Jianxing joined Taizhou Forest Machinery Factory and took up the position of technician.
Thanks to Tao Jianxing's unremitting Xi and diligent work attitude, he quickly accumulated a lot of electronic technology knowledge and management experience. By chance, he realized that he had great potential for development. It didn't take long for him to be appointed head of the technical section.
In 1985, Tao Jianxing was transferred to Taizhou Air Conditioning Equipment Factory as the director of the factory.
However, during that period, the Taizhou air-conditioning equipment factory suffered huge economic losses, the production line was forced to stop, and the morale of the employees was greatly reduced.
The factory's air-conditioning output ranks second to last in the country, and among the country's 21 refrigerator manufacturing plants, its factory scale is also the third-to-last, with a net asset of only 4.65 million yuan.
No one had ever wanted to take over this chaotic situation before, and being assigned here was equivalent to "decentralization", but Tao Jianxing firmly decided to take on this heavy responsibility.
After Tao Jianxing took over the factory, he quickly began a large-scale reform action.
First, he restructured the organizational structure, streamlined various departments, and laid off employees, especially those who relied too much on the "big pot rice" mentality, showing a negative and lazy attitude.
His actions aroused discontent and resentment among the workers, and some even threatened him with retaliation, but none of this shook Tao Jianxing's determination to reform.
Next, Tao Jianxing screened the factory's existing more than 40 production lines, and only retained more than 10 production lines with practical value.
Subsequently, Tao Jianxing conducted in-depth market research, and he observed that the main sales in the market were air conditioning equipment with a power range of 3,000 to 7,000 kcal per hour.
Therefore, he chose to fill the gap in the market and focused on the production of air conditioning equipment up to 3,000 kcal and more than 7,000 kcal per hour.
In this context, Tao Jianxing has always followed the strategy of high standards and strict requirements to ensure that the quality of products is strictly controlled.
They spared no effort to raise funds and introduced cutting-edge production processes and testing tools, which significantly improved the accuracy and stability of the air conditioning equipment.
In 1988, Taizhou Air Conditioning Equipment Factory officially launched household air conditioning equipment to the market.
After a year, the factory has sold more than 100,000 units, and it is shocking that the performance and quality of the air conditioner have been highly praised by consumers, and orders are endless.
In that year, the air-conditioning equipment factory was officially renamed Chunlan Refrigeration Equipment***
In pursuit of a more far-reaching future, Tao Jianxing decided to turn his attention to inverter air conditioning technology.
However, when he tried to buy the technology from a Japanese company, the Japanese company offered as much as 70 million.
Obviously, the Japanese side refused to sell this technology to Tao Jianxing, and made cold remarks and sarcasm to the technical team, believing that China could not successfully develop an inverter air conditioner.
Surprisingly, the contemptuous attitude of Japanese companies towards China has created a huge development opportunity for Tao Jianxing.
Tao Jianxing decided to set up a R&D team to conduct the technology research and development, and amazingly, just one year later, this team has mastered the key inverter technology.
Not only is the cost of its research and development only 3 million, but the performance of the domestic air conditioner even exceeds that of the inverter air conditioner produced in Japan.
Soon after, the factory successfully launched inverter energy-saving air conditioning products, and quickly occupied the market share, and the annual output also achieved several times of continuous growth, thus creating favorable conditions for the factory to go from loss to profit.
However, Tao Jianxing was not satisfied with this, and in order to increase Chunlan's share of the market, he began to invest more efforts in brand promotion.
He initially invested 50,000 yuan to invite Ye Maozhong, now an advertising fanatic, to shoot commercials, but because Ye Maozhong was not experienced at the time, he had to rely on a fellow countryman working in a Shanghai film studio to urgently complete the advertising work.
Then, Tao Jianxing invested as much as 300 million yuan to promote this advertisement to CCTV, and it has been broadcast for five consecutive years.
The advertisement, titled "Score 6 billiards in one shot", aroused strong repercussions after it was broadcast.
The advertising slogan "Chunlan air conditioning, high-level pursuit" is deeply loved by the public, which also helps Chunlan quickly emerge and become a leader in the industry.
In 1990, the output value of Chunlan air conditioning reached 1200 million yuan, firmly in the leading position of the same industry in the country, and its hatchback air conditioning products have also successfully occupied 35% of the domestic market share of the same type of products.
At the same time, the domestic air conditioning and household appliances market has not only successfully attracted foreign brands to station, but also many well-known brands such as Wuxi Yingyan, Shaanxi Baohua and Shunde Huabao have also shown their strength.
However, Tao Jianxing is indeed outstanding in experience and ability, and in the fierce market competition, the performance of Chunlan air conditioning continues to rise.
By 1994, the number of Chunlan air conditioning manufacturers had grown to 12, with an annual output of more than 1 million units, sales of 5.2 billion yuan, and a market share of an astonishing 40%, which greatly exceeded that of Gree, which had an annual sales of only 600 million yuan with its competitors.
It is no exaggeration to say that during that period, for every three air conditioners sold in the country, one was a Chunlan brand air conditioner.
From the perspective of the scale of the enterprise, Chunlan air conditioning is undoubtedly the largest air conditioning manufacturing center in China and one of the seven major air conditioning manufacturers in the world.
Rumor has it that at that time, Chunlan's brand had spread widely in countless homes, which made the employees who worked at Chunlan very dignified, and even when they were off duty, the employees still wore their work**.
In that year, Chunlan successfully completed the listing procedures on the Shanghai ** Stock Exchange.
Since then, with the continuous prosperity of the market and the continuous growth of the company, Chunlan's shares have continued to rise, once reaching 64 per shareThe high point of 3 yuan, together with Changhong and Haier, constitutes the three pillars of China's **.
In 1995, Chunlan participated in the National Household Appliance Industry Competition hosted by the National Bureau of Statistics, and successfully stood out with its outstanding performance and strength, and won the honorary title of "China's Air Conditioning King".
By 1996, Chunlan's total output value had surged to 10.7 billion yuan, a 509-fold increase compared to the figure when Tao Jianxing took over, which was a shocking achievement.
At the same time, the company's net assets have also surged from the original 4.65 million yuan to nearly 4 billion yuan, achieving an 858-fold increase.
For every entrepreneur, this represents an unparalleled level of excellence.
However, fate is always full of unyields and changes, and Chunlan has gradually moved from the peak to the predicament.
Tao Jianxing holds this view: at present, the self-produced Chunlan air conditioner has reached the leading position in the market, and the domestic market has also reached saturation, so it is necessary to find a new way to increase profits.
In order to promote Chunlan air conditioning to the world, Tao Jianxing decisively threw himself into the tide of diversification strategy and decided to invest in industries such as motorcycles and automobiles.
In 1994, Tao Jianxing, who carried 2 billion, broke into the motorcycle industry, and only two years later, two new products, "Chunlan Tiger" and "Chunlan Leopard", each priced as high as 5,000 yuan.
In the 90s of the 20th century, the scale of the deal was huge, but what is shocking is that in just half a year, it sold 60,000 units, with a total sales of nearly 1 billion yuan.
Tao Jianxing gained great motivation and confidence from this performance of the motorcycle.
At this moment, Tao's ambition became stronger and stronger, and he was no longer satisfied with his achievements in the motorcycle industry, but was determined to further venture into the automotive industry to build a larger business empire.
In 1997, Chunlan Group invested 7200 million yuan to Nanjing Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. was acquired, and Chunlan Automobile was established accordingly
After conducting market research, Tao Jianxing noticed that there was a gap in the market for trucks ranging from 5 tons to 15 tons for medium and heavy trucks for freight trucks, so he decided to take advantage of this opportunity to enter the market.
After Chunlan trucks entered the market in 2001, they were deeply loved by freight drivers for their unique exterior design, spacious and comfortable cockpit and standard air conditioning system.
Subsequently, Chunlan Group established a partnership with LG Electronics of South Korea to manufacture fluorine-free refrigerators and further expand the washing machine market.
In addition, Chunlan Group has also participated in the competition in the TV industry, committed to the research and development of high-energy power nickel-metal hydride batteries, and has invested in LCD projects.
Unfortunately, Tao's diversification strategy was quickly thwarted in the real world.
In 2000, Chunlan's LCD project was declared unsuccessful, resulting in $600 million in funding coming to naught. Since then, the domestic truck market has shrunk. After that, the domestic truck industry began to transform to heavy-duty trucks weighing more than 30 tons, and Chunlan's main promotion of cargo trucks below 15 tons gradually lost its market advantage.
Chunlan's washing machine business has had a mediocre response, and it has been in a state of loss for many years.
In 2008, Tao Jianxing sold Chunlan's truck to XCMG, which led to the complete collapse of Chunlan's path to diversification.
If only investments in other areas fail, Chunlan, who has a huge family estate, still has a chance to re-emerge. This is due to its brand influence and brand advantages accumulated in the air conditioning industry. However, Chunlan, which started with air-conditioning technology, unfortunately missed the second stage of air-conditioning technology development.
In view of Tao Jianxing's huge demand for capital and personnel to support the growth of his diversified strategic business, the core business of air conditioning has gradually been neglected.
In 1998, Gree surpassed Chunlan to become the sales champion, and at the same time, well-known brands such as Midea and Haier also quickly emerged, resulting in Chunlan's share in the market gradually decreasing.
By 2005, Chunlan Air Conditioner experienced a loss of 25.95 million yuan, which broke its profit record for 11 consecutive years after its listing.
In 2007, Chunlan's air-conditioning business revenue decreased by 31 percent year-on-year52%, resulting in a net loss of up to 19.8 billion.
Due to the loss for three consecutive years from 2005 to 2007, in 2008, the Shanghai ** Stock Exchange decided to suspend Chunlan's trading, and Chunlan's loss had exceeded 500 million yuan.
This blow further exacerbated Chunlan's predicament, and Tao Jianxing felt very helpless in the face of this unexpected situation.
At that moment, he suddenly understood everything and thought that it was all because of his own wrong decision.
In order to correct his mistakes, Tao Jianxing traveled around looking for potential partners and investors.
However, after a series of losses and trading suspensions, Chunlan's investor confidence has fallen to a freezing point, and no one wants to take over this thorny issue at this moment.
In September 2009, in order to ensure the survival of the company, Tao Jianxing used 6The 5.6 billion yuan of accounts receivable and the shares of his three subsidiaries were exchanged for a 10% stake in Taizhou Power Plant held by Chunlan Group, a 60% stake in Taizhou Xingwei Real Estate Company and a 15550,000 square meters of land.
After an 18-month suspension, Chunlan resumed its listing activities in November 2009.
After the restructuring, Chunlan's main business has shifted from the field of home appliances to the field of real estate.
Although Chunlan is still living well as a company, as a former giant in the air conditioning industry, she no longer exists.
At present, the air conditioning market has formed a pattern of "three points of the world".
Midea, Haier, and Gree have gained most of the market share, and China's air conditioning production capacity is basically excessive, which will make the competition between enterprises more intense.
Chunlan Air Conditioner is facing severe survival challenges, and it has become extremely difficult to re-enter the market.
In the first period of the air-conditioning industry, Gree and Midea are working hard silently and accumulating strength, but only this "leader in the air-conditioning industry" puts down the watermelon in his hand and looks for opportunities everywhere.
In the end, he didn't start to develop a side hustle, and his main business was taken away from him, causing him to collapse completely.
No company can stand at the top of the industry forever, and no company can make a profit permanently. The development of any enterprise is always accompanied by changes in the environment, and the rise and fall of an enterprise depends on whether it can adapt to the new requirements of the market and industry. In the face of the rapid changes of the times, all enterprises are at risk of falling from the peak at any time.
Chunlan's air-conditioning technology did not lag behind this era, but it lost its life in the founder's overly conceited ambitions.