The advertising slogan "choose air conditioning, go to Zhigao" spread all over the streets and alleys......
The founder behind it is called Li Xinghao, how this farmer's son counterattacked to become the king of air conditioning, he led Chigo air conditioning to glory, at that time, the company was extremely large, and the number of employees at its peak was as many as tens of thousands.
At the beginning, Chigo air conditioning had a high status, and at its peak, it was known as the "Four Dragons of the Industry" together with Gree, Midea and Haier, and was the leader of air conditioning brands in the market.
However, just when the development of Chigo air conditioning was in full swing, the company ushered in internal changes, Li Xinghao handed over the baton, corporate losses, cash flow crisis, and delisting from Hong Kong stocks, these many factors made Chigo air conditioning in the market less and less.
Taste the sweetness in the small business, and plunge into the field of air conditioning
Li Xinghao used to be a farmer in the Nanhai countryside of Guangdong, and he only thought about things that would change his fate, but he did not have the opportunity to put them into practice. With the change of the times and the acceleration of the pace of reform and opening up, he came into contact with the small business, from selling popsicles to opening restaurants, felt the joy of doing business, tasted the sweetness, and wanted to do a big business, so he decided to make air conditioners, and this insistence was decades long.
From the rise of grassroots hard work, to the air conditioning giant shoulder to shoulder with Gree and Midea, Li Xinghao's every step is hardship and sweat, and now, Li Xinghao, who is nearly 60 years old, is still the soul of Chigo air conditioning.
How did Li Xinghao complete his business trajectory?
With the rapid development of science and technology in the mainland, the technological innovation of household appliances is relatively fast, and the household appliances are gradually intelligent, and the air conditioning industry in the mainland has grown from scratch, indicating the rise of China's manufacturing industry.
In the early 90s of the last century, Li Xinghao was doing catering business, because he opened a restaurant that needed to install multiple air conditioners, but the quality of air conditioning was not good, and the maintenance cost was high, which made Li Xinghao very distressed, and he had a very keen sense of business smell He found that no one cared about the air conditioning industry, and there was a lack of professional air conditioning enterprises, so he had the idea of making air conditioners.
At first, he did market research and a joint venture with a Taiwanese businessman to produce air-conditioning products, and later, the business became bigger and bigger, but the Taiwanese businessman withdrew his investment, and in desperation, Li Xinghao could only raise 8 million yuan from the dealer, and Zhigao air-conditioning was able to overcome the difficulties and successfully produce.
Later, people's material conditions are getting better and better, the domestic air-conditioning industry ushered in a golden period of development, Chigo air conditioning sales exceeded 200,000 units, in just a few years, Chigo air conditioning annual sales of more than 2.8 million units, and in energy efficiency, environmental protection, intelligence and other aspects have made great progress.
The domestic air-conditioning industry ushered in a golden period of development
In 2006, Li Xinghao gathered a large number of former technical talents of Kelon and led the company to the peak.
At that time, the revenue and scale of Chigo air conditioning rose to a higher level, exceeding 4.5 billion yuan in 2006 and 5.9 billion yuan in 2008; In 2017, the company's operating income exceeded 10 billion yuan, reaching 10.558 billion yuan.
E-commerce has quietly risen, but Chigo Air Conditioning did not seize the opportunity at the critical moment, but only cared about offline sales, regrettably missing the dividends of the times.
In such a period of fierce market competition, Chigo Air Conditioning is facing the biggest problem in history, and its market share has been shrinking, which has fallen to 4.3% in 2014 and only about 2.2% in 2018, which has brought a fatal blow to the company's performance.
In order to make up for the loss, the company sold about 404 acres of industrial land and ancillary factories in Foshan at a consideration of 450 million yuan, but it still did not turn the corner.
In 2020, Li Xinghao was included in the court list of old men because of the arrears of nearly 40 million yuan for Zhigao air conditioning; In 2021, Chigo Holdings entered the delisting procedure for failing to disclose its financial reports as required. In April 2022, Chigo Holdings was delisted and delisted, officially bidding farewell to the capital market, and seeing Chigo Air Conditioning all the way from glory to the bottom, can it still turn over?