Drink maotai and divide the cash! Hebei Gree quarreled with the headquarters： ＂I want to buy air conditioners everywhere in the market.＂
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News from The Paper, Hebei, one of Gree Electric’s important markets, has suffered an unexpected change just as air-conditioning enterprises are preparing for the new freezing year.
It is reported that Hebei Xinxing Gree Electric Sales Co., Ltd. (Hebei Gree), a distributor in Gree Electric, issued a notice on August 18th, saying that on August 16th, Gree Electric suddenly stopped the delivery of goods to Hebei Gree, and asked the distributors who had invested money to plan and pick up the goods as soon as possible.
Just four days after Gree Electric cut off the supply of Gree in Hebei, on August 20th, Xu Zifa, the chairman of Hebei Xinxing Gree Electric Sales Co., Ltd., hosted a banquet for the mainstream distributors in Shijiazhuang five-star hotel, and announced at the meeting that he would quit the operation of Gree from today! At the same time, he promised to give everyone a reassurance, and the dealer’s payment, rebate and anwei fee will be cashed for everyone.
According to a reporter from The Paper who learned from an insider, the details of "Moutai that was drunk for 15 years that night, and 100,000 cash was distributed to 10 people at each table" were true. Xu Zifa also thanked the dealer for his support for so many years.
On August 23rd, a reporter from The Paper called Hebei Gree, and the staff who answered the phone said "there is no obligation to answer whether the company will continue to sell Gree air conditioners" and "if you want to buy Gree air conditioners, the market is everywhere".
Gree Electric also chose to play it cool. As of press time in The Paper, Gree Electric has not responded positively to this matter.
However, The Paper reporter learned from a number of people in the home appliance industry that Gree Electric really fell out with Hebei Gree. Next, Gree Electric will re-establish distribution channels in Hebei.
Some media reported that after Gree stopped supplying to the general distributor in Hebei, Gree Zhuhai Headquarters sent a 50-member marketing team to Hebei, bypassing the original general distribution of Gree in Hebei and contacting local agents. The Paper reporter also learned from insiders that the situation is basically true.
The strength of Hebei Gree should not be underestimated.
Hebei Xinxing Gree Electric Sales Co., Ltd. is one of the most powerful distributors in Gree Electric. Jinghai Internet Technology Development Co., Ltd. (Jinghai Internet), which was established by Hebei Gree and more than a dozen Gree Electric distributors, is an important shareholder of Gree Electric. As of the first quarter of this year, Jinghai Internet holds 8.34% of the shares of Gree Electric, ranking the third largest shareholder.
Tianyancha information shows that Hebei Gree indirectly holds 28% of the shareholders of Jinghai Internet and is also the largest shareholder of Jinghai Internet.
However, on June 24th this year, Gree Electric announced that it had received the Notice of Share Reduction from Jinghai Internet, a shareholder holding more than 5% of the shares. On June 24th, 2022, Jinghai Internet reduced its shareholding by 110,219,217 shares, accounting for 1.86% of the total share capital of Gree Electric, and cashed in 3.5 billion yuan. After the reduction, the shareholding ratio of Jinghai Internet decreased to 6.47%.
More importantly, as a major distributor in Gree Electric, Xu Zifa is also an investor in Philips Air Conditioning, which may also be one of the reasons for the deadlock between the two sides.
On August 9th this year, at the new product launch conference held by Philips Air Conditioning, Huang Hui, the former CEO of Gree Electric, appeared as the chairman of Philips Air Conditioning, Vinfom Hu, the assistant to the former president of Gree Electric, became the president of Philips Air Conditioning, and Xu Zifa attended the meeting as the shareholder representative of Philips Air Conditioning.
Gree turned into a competitor of Gree, which obviously angered Gree.
Liu Buchen, a senior home appliance observer, said in an interview with a reporter from The Paper that Gree Electric must be very dissatisfied with this practice of Hebei Gree. Before that, Gree Electric asked the dealer to choose one, and if he wanted to represent Gree, he could not represent Philips.
"Hebei Gree has both active and passive factors in doing so. Passive factors Gree Electric has promoted channel transformation in recent years, and the proportion of online sales has become higher and higher, which has affected the interests of traditional dealers and forced them to seek new ways out; However, investing in Philips is definitely the initiative of Hebei Gree. Considering so many years of experience and resources, I will try Philips air conditioning. " Liu Buchen said that he is not optimistic about the future prospects of Philips Air Conditioning and will not pose a threat to Gree.
However, Liu Buchen believes that it will take time for Gree to change the Hebei channel and find a suitable candidate, which may have a negative impact on Gree’s local sales.
However, the Hebei dealer incident did not bring much pressure to Gree Electric’s share price. On August 23rd, Gree Electric closed at 30.23 yuan, a decrease of 0.85%. The total market value of Gree Electric is 170.2 billion yuan.
Original title: Drink Maotai and discover gold! Xu Zifa took the lead in Hebei dealers and announced that he would quit Gree and went to Philips.