before 1993, dongyue had only offered the oem service to jinan chemical company. in 1993, 3000-ton r22 was put into production, and dongyue was determined to create its own brand, which was not easy. by all means, salesman managed to meet the purchasing staff of the air-conditioner manufacturers, but they all said that they would not cooperate with the township enterprise.
at that time, township enterprises are the symbol of the counterfeit products, and it was no wonder that they replied so. although our refrigerant was of high-quality, only part of it was sold to the dealers in the first three months. the stock was very large, and there was no money for workers’ salary. the company faced shut-down of the whole production line.
at this time, yao benzhong, head of the sales dapartment at that time, had visited chunlan in jiangsu for three times before they agreed to try out our products. but the price they asked is very low. when yao benzhong called the compamy, and asked whether we could sell it at this price. zhang jianhong replied at once, ‘ yes. we will sell no matter how low the price is. because it can be a good advertisement for our company.’
hearing this news, wang zhaoheng angrily rushed out to the gate of the factory to prevent the truck loaded with products from going out. he sadly shouted, ‘at this price, we could not earn the transport fare. how could anyone do this kind of business? how prodigal it is!’
however, this truck went out of the factory anyway. and it was this unprofitable business that opened the gate of the air-conditioner manufacturers. on june 3rd 1994, gree cimpany sent us a letter saying, ‘after the sampling and test, one of your samples was below grade.’ on the next day, liu chuanqi with other three staff went to gree, and our quick reaction surprised gree. liu chuanqi said, ‘we have belief in the quality of our products. this trip is not to solve the quality dispute, but for the after-sales service and the long-term cooperation.’ under the 42 celcius degree high temperature, our staff did standard samplings, and all the samples were tested to be premium grade. they had stayed there for 15 days, and this 15-day visiting make gree re-recognise dongyue. people from gree sincerely said, ‘you are really great. we believe in the quality of your products. more importantly, we respect your rigourous sense of responsibility.’
it is the loyalty to market and to customers that has made dongyue gained more and more customers all over the world. even after carefully selected, guestes at the annual conference are up to 500 every year.
the journey was supposed to cost 7 hours. suddenly, a group showed up in front of the bus and stopped the bus, and they intended to get on the bus, but the driver refused to open the door. and they smashed the window. seeing this, mr zhang jianhong told mr xue to get down to the floor and to use the coat to cover his head. to make sure mr xue’s safety, mr zhang asked him to hide under the seat. the bus was in chaos of beating and scolding, shouting for help, and the sound of smashed glass. the driver was beaten up and his head was full of blood. everything was under control till the police came. night was coming, and there was no bus. having no other ways, they tried to stopped the vehicle passong them when they were walking. finally, they caught a small bus which was going to panzhihua. they bought 2am tickets for chongqin , and then they realized that they did not eat anything all the day. while waiting the train, they went to eat noodles at the train station.
so exhausted, they took off their coats and fell asleep on their seats. at about 4am, there came a group of people who sold pettitoes, when most passengers were asleep. actually, these people were to steal properties from the passengers. dazzledly, zhang jianhong felt that someone searched the coats on the hanger with knife. since the passengers were sleeping, he was single-handed, and had to watch the thief took his money (200 yuan) from his coat. however, mr xue was still asleep and knew nothing of it. not until chonqin, did mr zhang tell him it.
going through all the adversities, they finally got the 2 million loan, and the project was successfully put into practice. however, the 3-month term loan was required to pay back in less than one month., and mr zhang started to borrow money from somewhere else. our company become a quality client for several financing institutions. especially after dongyue was listed in hk, the credit line that financing institutions give to dongyue is far above the capital need. the age of borrowing morning from yunan has long gone, but we can not forget the experience.