——An Interview to Liu Jieren, General Manager of Shanghai Gather-power Industry Co., Ltd.

Background of the Interview: Shanghai Gather-power Industry Co., Ltd., a stock joint company, is specialized in manufacturing material handling equipment, and now owns a production factory, an international trade company and two branch companies focusing on domestic market to provide the customers with in-time and quality marketing services.

Shanghai Gather-power mainly develops and manufactures two series of products, respectively cranes including mobile container crane, container hoisting equipment, container spreader, container tip machine, container gantry crane, container lift, mobile hydraulic lift, yacht crane, and material handling equipment such as electric reach trucks, electric three-wheel forklift, electric stacker, semi-electric stacker, electric pallet truck and electric handler.

Recently, Shanghai Gather-power officially announced that they would enter the forklift manufacturing industry, and targeting at this news Chinaforklift.com (www.chinaforklift.com, English version: www.forkliftnet.com) conducted a special interview to Liu Jieren, the General Manager of Shanghai Gather-power Industry Co., Ltd.

Only when the company grasps the opportunities of developing and marching forward on the market, can they successfully sell their products and build up their own brands. No matter how great the dealership network has done, the manufacturing company would always hold the initiative of development. The companies need to change their developing strategies to realize better and sound development.

Chinaforklift.com: It is not the best time to enter the forklift manufacturing industry. Mr. Liu, would you mind sharing with us your idea when you decided to transfer the role from an exporter to a manufacturer?

Mr. Liu: It has been six years for us being engaged in exporting forklift stackers. Our export volume had been doubled in several years successively, and nowadays our export business has covered more than 80 countries and districts in the world while the number of dealers was more than 50. Along with the recovery of foreign trade demands on the global market, the export business in our company became more and more sophisticated. In order to enhance the competitive force of our products so as to further increase the sales amount and expand the market, we have to change our role, as being a trade company with the core business of foreign trade is hardly able to reach out aim.

To turn from trade to manufacturing will better exert our resources. In my opinion, electric forklifts will occupy more marketing shares and gain more concerns in the future. Based on this consideration, after two-year’s preparation, we officially announced to enter the electric forklift manufacturing industry.

The only method for our dealers that would not be eliminated during the market competition or exceeded by the peers in the industry must be keeping the initiative to stand in the front edge of the time, actively holding the technological advance and running faster so as to leave other competitors behind. The more the distance, the safer is the company. The fiercer market competition in the coming years entails the falling of the companies with smaller scale and relatively slower developing rate. Only holding the state-of-the-art technologies in the industry and keeps the rapid developing speed, can the company grasp more opportunities and enter the safe zone.

To change of the role is another direction of actively grasping the opportunities. Becoming a forklift manufacturer will help us hold the priority for development. Eventually, product quality control and technological upgrade will better manifest the strength of a company. It is a great strategy to borrow others’ stage to perform our own value and service, which will not only save the cost, but also set ourselves at a higher starting point. Shanghai Gather-power builds up the brand effect rapidly through the transferring from a dealer to a manufacturer.  

Chinaforklift.com: Mr. Liu, during the period of going from behind the curtain, what kind of difficulties has the Shanghai Gather-power encountered, and how do your team solve these problems finally?

Mr. Liu: We indeed met with a number of challenges in the process of turning to manufacturing forklifts, such as talents, technology, capital and infrastructure. But we are not defeated.

The staffs of management team and technological experts in our company are of professional experiences lasting for 10 to 20 years in domestic forklift industry. In terms of management, quality, technology, marketing and production, we have senior professionals and experts to control the whole efficiency. Moreover, we have extensive human resources and marketing basis, in addition with the sufficient industrial sources, which have enabled us to smoothly get into the manufacturing industry.

Besides the above aspects, we firstly establish our core business through three respective of customer service to extend the marketing occupation rate and sales amount of our core business to the largest scale so as to continuously enlarge the sales areas and deeply permeate into the market on the basis of keeping normal operation. Then we carefully analyze the advantages of the technological experts to make good use of the professional resources, laying more sound foundation for a clear direction and goal of the company. As soon as the company has the clear development goal and its own market, the problems will never be the barriers. Anyway, there will always be methods to tackle the problems.

Along with the gradual mature of forklift manufacturing, there were more and more special forklifts and technological products in Europe and America. There are a lot of manufacturers in China has broke through the technological barriers in recent years and form their scales to avoid vicious competition. To walk a differentiated routine and evade the intense competition is the sustainable development of an enterprise.

Chinaforklift.com: The fast development will leave an enterprise the dilemma of lacking the experts. The product homogeneity and opening of the market has also reinforced the competition. Mr. Liu, have you felt the risk on the market? 

Mr. Liu: I already have 22-year’s experience in the forklift industry and understand thoroughly about the development of forklift industry at home and abroad. At present, the forklift market is full of cruel competition, especially in the field of domestic diesel forklifts where the competition has been so fierce that the companies fight with each other on the forklift prices, leading to the dramatically low profit. No one will win this price war, and the pressure will be extraordinarily big towards the companies that focus on this market, no matter the dealers or the manufacturers.

We have our own combos. As the internal combustion forklifts is only up to 20% of our business, we have kept away with the main conflict on the market, but focusing more on the electric forklifts. We pay more attention to the development tendency in the future.

Power will be dug out from the risks. How to turn the risk to be opportunities is a question for every enterprise manager to consider. We have to conclude our experiences, and hold the sense of risk to operate the enterprise successfully standing among the competitors in the industry. The competition of forklift brand in the industry becomes fiercer, which urges us to change the developing mode of forklift industry in China. In the future, the competition will go among the brands, which will highlight the importance of the professional talents. 

Chinaforklift.com: That’s true. The competition in the domestic forklift industry will not be that of product technology, but gradually being that among talents and brands. As for brand competition, what will be the next move of Shanghai Gather-power?

Mr. Liu: We will follow this tendency. As for brand built-up, we will still focus on the international market. We are not urgent to march towards the domestic market. A brand needs cultivation, especially on the domestic market. There are too many brands on the market while the two-extreme division is so serious that few brands stayed at the dominant position. However, the situation is different on the overseas market as the extreme division is not so serious. 

On the global market, nearly all the Chinese forklift brands are young. We are confident with our brand, and believe that we will go steadily forwards facing with the challenges and targeting at our aim if we insist on our professional value and technology innovation. Only to innovate can we walk out a different way of development. As a new way with no footprints at all, there will definitely risks, ups and downs, possibilities to succeed and pitfalls to fail. It is hard to obtain success without preparing for accepting failures. In an era of global economy, the competitive force of an enterprise depends on the innovation ability, which will mostly in turn rely on the capacity of the entrepreneurs.

Chinaforklift.com: Innovation provides the power to impel the development of the enterprise. Mr. Liu, would you like to introduce us with the innovations in terms of product technology in Shanghai Gather-power?

Mr. Liu: Firstly, we consider more on the demands of segmented market and walk on a way of product differentiation. The considerations on the demands of segmented market may be more suitable for the situation when we are still in a mediocre scale; the differentiated way shall be specifically combined with the products of the same kind on the current market. One of our principles is to think more on the product development and to pay more attention on improve the stability, reliability, technique, advantage, cost controllability of the products.

In order to expand the domestic and international market so as to occupy more international marketing shares, we establish technology center to take charge of developing new products, improving the production technology and enhancing technology innovation ability.

Fiercer market competition forced many enterprises to fasten the rate of upgrading the product category, and how to tackle with this situation will be a standard to measure the stable and steady development of an enterprise.

Chinaforklift.com: What measures have Gather-power taken to follow the rapid market development and product upgrade? Will there be new moves this year?

Mr. Liu: Our developing strategies will be defined from the angels of both domestic market and international market. What the foreign customers want is the brand “Made in China”, thus on the overseas market, the key is to control the quality of the products and to enhance the performance-price ratio so as to realize the improvement and upgrade. While on the domestic market, we will launch more new products, such as electric three-wheel forklifts, electric reach trucks and high-end electric three-wheel forklift, etc.

With careful preparation in one year, we currently self-develop 1.0t-2.0t electric stacker and 1.5t-3t electric pallet handler under the brand “GP”. These two series of products, which are manufactured by the advanced warehouse equipment technology on the international stage and equipped with key parts imported from Europe, have now been put into mass production. Meanwhile, our company has passed the authentication of ISO9000, CE and SGS International Quality Management System, and also gained the qualification license for special equipment manufacturing issued by General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, Quarantine of People’s Republic of China, fully assuring the quality of GP products and services. 

The homogeneity of product and service supplied by the forklift enterprises led to the irrational price fight so as to outstand among the competitors. To lower the price may be a successful way to increase marketing shares in a short term. Generally speaking, the new enterprise will undertake the great pressure from the leading company when entering a new field and it is the usual method the owner of the new enterprise will take to lower the price. To be fair, there is no right or wrong itself when saying price competition as a strategy, but the key is to how to use this strategy and if it is profitable. 

Chinaforklift.com: The sales mode determines the marketing shares. The price competition between sales companies and dealers has got fiercer and they have set their brands at a quite low position. What sales mode will Shanghai Gather-power take on the domestic market?

Mr. Liu: The domestic market was somehow at chaos these years. Many companies were on so thin ices that they could not even undergo the loss if giving up their business. As a new player in this field, we will not repeat their mistakes.

Shanghai Gather-power will conduct progressive and sound strategy according to our actual operation demands, thinking more on the long-term and close relationships with the dealers. We also consider to hold stocks together with the dealers to complement the advantages of each other so as to realize the stable improvement of our marketing shares. An enterprise that expects to obtain a long and steady development shall get the competitive advance first, which then turn out to be durable competitive power. In my opinion, the success during the competition lies in the capacity of the employees, and only when the human resources are transferred to be the organizational capital can the enterprise enhance the overall productivity and efficiency continuously.

Chinaforklift.com: Mr. Liu, what are the advantages for Shanghai Gather-power to stand steadily on the market?

Mr. Liu: In these years, Shanghai Gather-power insists in sincere operation, and conducts a human-oriented principle, trying the best to make the workers, customers and stockholders satisfy. Our company has gathered profound marketing foundation on domestic and global material handling equipment market as well. With a professional and experienced team, each department such as production, research and development, purchase, sales and service is in the charge of devoted, competent and distinguished staff, who can best meet the demands of rapid development and the needs to expanding domestic and overseas market.

Our advantages are mainly manifested on two aspects: the professionalism and devotion of our working team, and the experiences accumulated theses years for grasping the development tendency of the market.

The forklift market in China has undergone a fast development period with distinct characters of its own. Though the enterprises in this industry hold different opinions, they are all hopeful towards the future of forklift industry. Anyway, the survival of an enterprise does not rely on the macro industry, but on the operational capacity of the managers.

Chinaforklift.com: Gather-power has done great in terms of export and foreign trade. Now the company focuses on the domestic market, Mr. Liu, in your expectation, how will the domestic forklift market go next year?

Mr. Liu: In fact, we did well on both domestic and overseas market. But in these three years, we invested more on the global market. As for the domestic forklift market next year, I think it will progress further, and it is still a good time for a new brand to take part in.

Shanghai Gather-power plans to launch GP series of warehouse equipment to national and international market since January, 2013. On the global stage, we will rely on the mature international trade platform to realize market coverage through 50 overseas dealers and agents, through which the GP series will rapidly appear on overseas market; while for the domestic market, we will go around protecting the profits of our dealers, taking regional authoritative and exclusive dealerships as the main marketing mode to realize win-win. In our plan, we will develop and cultivate 80 regional dealers in the coming two years, gradually establishing a national network for marketing and after sales service.

The ability of an enterprise to resist the risks can be more clearly unclosed against the retracted economic situation. We shall improve our management level and try the best to develop new customers so as to maintain a high increasing rate. Moreover, we have to enhance the product quality, not only to increase the marketing shares, but also to keep the price to the normal level. 

Chinaforklift.com: Facing with the downturn of the economy, what will Shanghai Gather-power do to evade the risks?

Mr. Liu: There will always be risks on the market, while the opportunities will exist at the same time. We need to fully consider and research the situation of the market before taking any prevention measures; meanwhile, we have to combine the actual conditions and changing rules of the market to make a series of feasible, specific and reachable measures.

Firstly, the company will pay more attention to maneuver the activity of the workers, enhancing the efficiency of human resources in an all around way; secondly, we believe that overseas high-end market will gradually recover from the recession in the next one or two years. We will have larger development spaces, and now we have to prepare for the prosperity in the future. 

Tightly holding the precious chances lying Shanghai’s advantages in terms of manufacturing, green revolution, international trade and shipping in 21st century, Shanghai Gather-power will undoubtedly become a vigorous new force into the electric warehouse forklift industry in China.

 

Liu Renjie, General Manager of Shanghai Gather-power Industry Co., Ltd.

About Shanghai Gather-power

Shanghai Gather-power Industry Co., Ltd. was established in 2003 in Fengxian District, Shanghai, China. GP currently have more than 350 staffs, among whom 40% are university staff, including 32 engineers and technical researchers. Most of the 32 technicians have served as a Chief Engineer or Assistant Chief Engineer in well-known forklift manufacturing enterprises.

The company has invested 11.8 million USD dollars in construction of the factory, which covers an area of 15,000 square meters. The factory owns large scale forklift truck laboratory, an international advanced component processing center, forklift truck assembly lines, mast production lines, automatic spraying lines and metal processing workshops.

Its leading product, GP brand forklift, can be widely applied in the material handing of industrial, mining, carrying, storage and logistics trade. With great effort to promote in the international market, GP has established long-term business relationships with a large scale of professional customers. The GP brand enjoys popularity in Mideast market and Europe.