——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.