Compared with Gree Dong Mingzhu, Chigo's popularity and founder Li Xinghao's exposure are very low. This air-conditioning giant, born in Foshan, Guangdong Province, is now in a difficult climbing stage.
Chigo air conditioning, founded in 1993, is also an established household appliance enterprise. In 2009, it was successfully listed, and its founder, Li Xinghao, was listed on the Forbes rich list with a price of1800 million. In 20 10, the annual income of Gao Zhi will reach 9.277 billion, and the target of 10 will be achieved in10. 20 15, Li Xinghao, which withdrew and returned, put forward the goal of 1000 billion in 2020. But in 20 17, Chigo's revenue was 107365 billion yuan. For more than seven years, Chigo still lingers on the edge of10 billion yuan. Gree has already exceeded 100 billion yuan, and the gap between the two is getting bigger and bigger.
In the first half of 20 18, the total retail sales of air-conditioning industry was114.7 billion yuan. Gree, Midea and Haier rank in the top three, with a total market share of over 70%. The head effect of air-conditioning industry is becoming more and more obvious, and the second echelon is having a hard time. Chigo air conditioning once shouted "sit around three times and look around", but unexpectedly he fell down, and now he has fallen to the eighth place. In the first half of 20 18, it also became the air-conditioning enterprise with the largest decline in retail sales and retail volume. If this continues, Chigo may even lose its position as the second echelon.
In 20 14, Chigo "grabbed" Jackie Chan's endorsement from Gree, and later renewed the cooperation agreement of 10. We all know that the advertising industry has an endorsement curse. As long as Jackie Chan speaks, the brand will basically be yellow. Little overlord learning machine, Aiduo VCD, overlord shampoo ... Dong Mingzhu once said: Jackie Chan's endorsement brands are all dead, except Gree! He also commented on the endorsement of Kochi and Jackie Chan: "He thought that with Jackie Chan as the endorsement, he could compete with Gree? His starting point is wrong. How can he succeed? "
Nowadays, it seems that the performance of Chigo endorsed by international superstar Jackie Chan has not improved much, and it is hard to say whether there will be a "Jackie Chan endorsement curse" again. After all, it depends on Chigo's development strategy.
Li Xinghao is from Nanhai, Foshan, Guangdong. He was born in 1964 and worked as a farmer at home after graduating from high school. With the spring breeze of reform and opening up, Li Xinghao is restless, just like Yang Guoqiang of Foshan Country Garden rolled up his sleeves and went ashore, realizing the perfect transformation from a farmer to a businessman. In 1980s, Li Xinghao began to sell popsicles for a penny, and then sold vegetables to Guangzhou, doing small business.
In the following 10 years, Li Xinghao successively established dozens of factories, covering clothing, plastics, hardware, electronic appliances and other fields, and opened seafood restaurants, but each made money, which shows that Li Xinghao is a natural businessman. In today's words, Li Xinghao is a serial entrepreneur.
1989, Li Xinghao opened an air-conditioning repair shop and formally set foot in the air-conditioning industry. 1993, Li Xinghao built an air-conditioning factory in his hometown Fenggang Village, with a savings of 6 million, which is chigo air conditioning.
Unfortunately, it got off to a bad start. In the first year of its establishment, chigo air conditioning was confronted with a price war in the air-conditioning industry. Chunlan, Kelon, Midea and other brands fight for prices. Chigo, still in its infancy, naturally has no strength to fight back, and 3,000 air conditioners can only be shelved and cannot be sold. At this time, Li Xinghao encountered another embarrassing place. Partners withdrew their funds, bank accounts were frozen, and employees fled. This is arguably the darkest moment in his life. Before that, his business was going well, and such a big blow suddenly made him full of doubts about life.
Fortunately, the mentality of the awesome characters is adjusted quickly. 1997, Li Xinghao sought to make a comeback, held a supplier meeting, and reopened Chigo's entrepreneurial road with 8 million IOUs. After that, Chigo successively reached cooperation with Mitsubishi of Japan, Hyundai of Korea, Weineng of Germany and other enterprises, and established advantages in product quality, and Chigo gradually improved.
Chigo was successfully listed in 2009, ranking fourth in China air conditioning, second only to Gree, Midea and Haier. Chigo's achievements at that time were entirely due to its leading overseas strategy. 1999, chigo air conditioning exported to Norway, and the local dealer sold the retail price of each set to 1500 USD, which deeply touched Li Xinghao. After that, Chigo began to vigorously expand overseas markets. In 20 17, the sales reached 107365 million yuan, and the overseas market reached 4,308.8 million yuan, nearly half.
However, after listing, Chigo did not seize the top three position as expected, but fell behind more and more, which was actually related to Chigo's development strategy. Chigo's great ambition of "making China great again" is similar to Gree's long-term endorsement of "Made in China", but in fact, R&D investment is less than 1% of sales. The proposed cloud air conditioner has not won much response in the market, and Dong Mingzhu even commented that it is only a concept.
Today, Chigo, which has fallen to the eighth place, seems to be struggling to develop. As far as the whole enterprise is concerned, it is far less than the Big Three in terms of talent and innovation.
In China's home appliance industry, we all know that Dong Mingzhu is the most domineering leader, and he often makes some wild remarks. But in addition to her, in fact, Li Xinghao in chigo air conditioning has also been rated as an arrogant person.
He once commented on Gree: "Don't think that Dong Mingzhu is a god. Gree does a good job in marketing, and its manufacturing is no better than mine. It advertises every day!" Miss Dong is uncompromising: "Those who use Chigo are people that Gree doesn't want." "I don't like you, you are worthless! I'm not interested in where to jump. " She refers to Zheng Zuyi who was dug up from Gree. Zheng Zuyi is the first generation postdoctoral fellow majoring in refrigeration in Tsinghua University. He used to be a senior technical consultant of Gree, director of research institute and general manager of Kelon air conditioning. In 2005, he joined Chigo as executive vice president, and later served as chairman of Chigo Holdings.
Regarding the bet between Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun 1 100 million, Li Xinghao also commented that the bet between Gree and Xiaomi must be wrong. The former is not qualified to gamble, because Gree belongs to the state and not to personal property.
Li Xinghao, who is good at bickering, failed to take Chigo to the road of rapid rise, but fell all the way. Today, Hisense and Oaks in the second echelon are developing rapidly, but they are slow to go up. Then, what will happen to the fate of waiting for Zhigao? Maybe it will be known in a year or two.