As we all know, today's air conditioning market is "divided into three parts" by Midea, Haier and Gree, and other brands have almost no possibility of development. But you know what?
As early as the first decade of the last century, the "boss" of the air conditioning industry had another person.
It is the Chunlan air conditioner that is popular all over the country.
According to statistics, the market share of Chunlan air conditioners was as high as 40% at that time, which is equivalent to every three air conditioners sold in the country, one is Chunlan air conditioners. In its heyday, Chunlan's highest annual sales were as high as 5.6 billion yuan, while Gree's sales were only 600 million yuan in the same period.
Today, Gree has risen strongly to become the top three in the industry, but Chunlan air conditioning has fallen into danger and almost collapsed.
When it comes to Chunlan air conditioning, we have to mention its founder Tao Jianxing.
Tao Jianxing was born in an ordinary intellectual family, he has a lively brain, flexible hands and feet since he was a child, especially interested in electronic products at home, often disassembled, assembled and disassembled, tireless.
As an adult, Tao Jianxing became a technician as he wished and entered Taizhou Forest Machinery Factory to work. There, he was studious and hardworking, and soon became the head of the technical section, where he continued to accumulate a wealth of technical and managerial experience.
In 1985, Tao Jianxing was ordered to save the Taizhou Air Conditioning Equipment Factory, which had stopped production and had dismal performance.
Tao Jianxing, who took office, was not defeated by reality, and after some visits and investigations, he began a drastic reform.
Tao Jianxing started by streamlining the staff, and he decisively laid off those passive and lazy workers and reorganized the organizational structure. He then sifted through the factory's more than 40 production lines, leaving only the 10 or so most useful.
After some investigation, Tao Jianxing found that all the air conditioners on the market are concentrated in the power range of 3000-7000 kcal, and the types are single.
First, the style is monotonous, which also provides Tao Jianxing with new product ideas.
Tao Jianxing decided to start with the differentiation of products, after some hard research and development, he finally produced a batch of air conditioners below 3000 power and 7000 power or more, they have excellent performance, and have quickly been praised by the majority of users, Chunlan air conditioning has also successfully opened the market.
In order to pursue more long-term development, Tao Jianxing turned his attention to inverter air conditioners, and also religiously purchased from Japan, where technology is developed. Who knows, the other party's attitude was arrogant and sneering, and he also offered Tao Jianxing a sky-high price.
Tao Jianxing was so angry that he immediately decided to develop it himself, and only a year later, he mastered the core inverter technology.
Compared with Japanese products, the new products are lower cost and more energy-efficient, so they quickly occupied the air conditioning market, and also brought the factory back to life.
Since then, Tao Jianxing has increased his marketing efforts and spent a huge amount of money on CCTV advertising for 5 years, which has also made Chunlan quickly become the boss of the air conditioning industry.
In 1990, the market value of Chunlan air conditioner was as high as 1200 million yuan, ranking first in the country. Four years later, Chunlan was successfully listed on the Shanghai ** Stock Exchange, and its stock price rose all the way.
Since then, Chunlan Air Conditioning has won the reputation of "China's Air Conditioning King" with a value of 10.7 billion, and Tao Jianxing has also become a well-known "Father of Air Conditioning".
From 1990 to 1998, Chunlan air conditioning sales have been ranked first in the country.
However, fate is always treacherous and changeable, and Chunlan is also at the peak step by step towards the quagmire.
After several years of being the first in the industry, Tao Jianxing's ambitions began to swell, he believes that the domestic air conditioning market has been saturated, and more energy should be dispersed to other emerging industries.
Since then, he has jumped on the diversification strategy, investing in motorcycles, heavy trucks, washing machines and televisions.
Due to the dispersion of energy and lack of competitiveness, many of the industries in which Tao Jianxing invested ended in failure.
At the same time, Chunlan air conditioning, as the main business of the past, was seriously neglected, and the second period of air conditioning development was missed.
In 1998, when Gree, Midea and Haier continued to rise and occupy the market, Chunlan was losing ground and shrinking sharply.
In the following three years, Chunlan suffered continuous losses, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange temporarily suspended Chunlan's trading.
It was only at this time that Tao Jianxing suddenly realized. He ran around looking for partners and investors to save Chunlan Air Conditioning, but unfortunately no one cared.
In desperation, Tao Jianxing had no choice but to use the remaining assets to replace the parent company Chunlan Group and Taizhou Xingwei Real Estate Company.
Today, Chunlan's main business after the reorganization is no longer home appliance business, but real estate.
Throughout the development history of Chunlan, the early stage was full of vigor and rapid progress, but in the later stage, it hit a wall everywhere and lingered, which can't help but make people sigh.
The experience of Chunlan air conditioning has also sounded the alarm for us, no company can always stand at the top, and no company can always lie down to make money.
If an enterprise wants to become bigger and stronger, it must first continue to improve its main business, which is the ultimate core competitiveness.
What do you think of Chunlan air conditioner? Welcome to the comment section to share your opinions.