China’s home appliance queen Dong Mingzhu backs ambitious Gree Electric target, plays down trade war
- Outspoken chairwoman and delegate to the National People’s Congress rules out price cuts to expand market share overseas amid US-China trade war
- The 64-year-old breached disclosure rules in January after ‘leaking’ an ambitious target of tripling her white goods empire’s annual revenue to US$89.4 billion
One of China’s best known businesswomen is sticking to her target of tripling her white goods empire’s annual revenue in the next few years, despite trade tensions abroad and slowing growth at home.
Dong Mingzhu, the outspoken chairwoman of Gree Electric and a delegate to the National People’s Congress, said the company still aimed to reach 600 billion yuan (US$89.4 billion) in revenue in the coming years, three times the total achieved in 2018.
She said overseas sales accounted for about 20 per cent of Gree’s total so China’s trade war with the United States would have a limited impact on the company, while also ruling out expanding offshore markets through price cuts.
“The key question is whether the product is good or not – if a company fails because of a trade war, it probably means the company is not strong enough,” said Dong during the National People’s Congress
“We could take the easy route to make the [overseas] markets much bigger by either lowering our prices … but I’m not choosing it. The days of low price competition are over for China.”
