In 1980, Suzhou Changjiang Hardware Factory assigned some personnel and moved to the north of Huqiu Road to establish an educated youth factory. The original factory was changed to the first factory of household appliances, which specialized in the production of cleaning appliances, with an output of 6,568 units that year.
On March 1, 1984, Suzhou No. 1 Household Appliances Factory was named Suzhou Vacuum Cleaner Factory (collectively owned), focusing on the research and development of Chunhua brand household, commercial and industrial vacuum cleaners. The factory was located at No. 27, Dongzhong City. At that time, the fixed assets were 1.4 million and the annual production capacityof vacuum cleaners is 18,000 units.
In 1986, Xu Zengxing, then director of the Suzhou Light Industry Bureau, became the chairman of Chunhua Vacuum Cleaner Factory. He and Yang Dechang, the then director, formulated the general policy of developing production: quality, credibility; volume, competition for status; new products to increase efficiency ; Go on projects to fight for stamina; engage in cross-linking to increase vitality. Xu Zengxing coordinated the use of the 4,000-square-meter factory building of Great Wall Electric Group, and also obtained 1 million yuan of working capital from Great Wall. While other vacuum cleaner factories are still working on infrastructure to increase production capacity, Chunhua vacuum cleaners have quickly occupied the market. With the popularity of Chunhua vacuum cleaners in the country, Suzhou Light Industry products have "four famous brands", namely: Great Wall brand electric fans, Xiangxuehai brand refrigerators, Peacock brand TV sets, and Chunhua brand vacuum cleaners.
In 1987, the production and sales volume of Chunhua vacuum cleaners soared to 163,000 units (there were only 20,000 units around 1986), and its market share ranked first in China. Since then, Chunhua vacuum cleaners have ranked first in the domestic market share for more than ten consecutive years, and their peak sales accounted for more than 50% of the country's total sales. What's more rare is that Chunhua vacuum cleaner exports account for more than 50% of the country's total vacuum cleaner exports, and it is the undisputed "double king" of domestic and foreign trade.
In 1987, Ni Zugen was transferred to Suzhou Chunhua Vacuum Cleaner General Factory at the end of the year, and served successively as electrical engineer, director of the electrical branch plant, and deputy director of the general plant. During the period, he presided over the technical research work on the localization of the 20,000-rpm high-speed commutator vacuum cleaner motor. Ni Zugen relied on learning and a large number of experiments. It took three months to be the first in China to solve the serious quality problems of poor reliability of domestic high-speed vacuum cleaner motors such as burn-in, breaking the situation that the vacuum cleaner industry must rely on imports for motors. The product was awarded the "Ministry Quality Award for Vacuum Cleaner Motor" by the Ministry of Light Industry.
In 1989, Suzhou Vacuum Cleaner Factory officially changed its name to Suzhou Chunhua Vacuum Cleaner General Factory. In the same year, Chunhua entered the ranks of the national second-level enterprises and was the only company in the vacuum cleaner industry that received this title.
In 1989, Suzhou Vacuum Cleaner Factory officially changed its name to Suzhou Chunhua Vacuum Cleaner General Factory. In the same year, Chunhua entered the ranks of the national second-level enterprises and was the only company in the vacuum cleaner industry that received this title.
In 1990, Bian Zhuang succeeded Yang Dechang as the factory director of Suzhou Chunhua Vacuum Cleaner General Factory. In the same year, the Chunhua brand vacuum cleaner ranked first in China with a total score of 116.65. At the same time, Chunhua vacuum cleaner won the highest award in the vacuum cleaner industry-the National Silver Award for High-quality Products.
In 1990, at this time, Qian Dongqi was also a business manager of the Shenzhen branch of China Electronics Import and Export Corporation. Qian Dongqi and foreign guests traveled all over China to inspect vacuum cleaner factories. There were only five suitable for export from the south to the north.
So they found the Suzhou Chunhua vacuum cleaner, which had the largest market share in the country at that time. Qian Dongqi is mainly responsible for the coordination between foreign guests and Chinese factories, assisting in signing OEM agreements, passing export certification, and unintentionally becoming the first batch of pioneers in China's vacuum cleaner export.
In 1993, Xiao Jianfu replaced Bian Zhuang as the director of the Suzhou Chunhua Vacuum Cleaner Factory. The total output of Chunhua vacuum cleaners reached 430,000 units that year. The company began to explore a new model of "market-oriented management" and implemented a "simulated legal person" management model for the production branch. Change the way that the group company issues production plans, allocate raw materials and labor force in the past, give branch factories the right to use human rights, purDreame rights, capital use rights and even internal division of work rights, and market the production branches.
In 1994, Suzhou Chunhua Electrical Appliances Co., Ltd. was established by the Suzhou Vacuum Cleaner General Factory, Wuxian Microcomputer Factory, and Changzhou Xushi Town Asset Management Company through targeted fundraising. In the same year, the General Vacuum Cleaner Factory obtained the right to import and export independently. The output of vacuum cleaners increased to 753,500 units and 370,000 units were exported. In the list of famous products recommended to domestic consumers and shopping malls announced by the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Chunhua brand vacuum cleaners topped the list of vacuum cleaners.
In 1994, Bian Zhuang, who had served as the director of Suzhou Plastic No. 5 Factory, Suzhou Chunhua Vacuum Cleaner Factory, and Deputy Director of Suzhou Light Industry Bureau, resigned and set up Suzhou Eup Electric Co., Ltd.
In 1994, Ni Zugen had become the deputy director of Chunhua Electrical Appliances Factory, but he was not satisfied with this. Instead, he resigned with a loan of 30,000 US dollars and founded Suzhou kinglexy Electric Appliance Co.,Ltd, and led 60 employees from one Vacuum cleaner products, a production line, started the road of entrepreneurship with ODM vacuum cleaner as the business model. This is the predecessor of Lexy Electric.
In 1995, Chunhua Vacuum Cleaner General Factory and Philips established a joint venture "Suzhou Chunfei Household Appliances Co., Ltd." with a total investment of US$24.2 million, with Chunhua accounting for 51% of the shares and Philips 41%.
In 1996, Li Jukun became the director of Wuxian Microcomputer Factory, a town-run enterprise that mainly produces camels and electronic control parts (circuit boards) of Great Wall fans for Wuxian Explosion-proof Motor Factory. Later, the business situation became more and more sluggish, and the factory was heavily in debt. After Li Jukun took office, on the one hand, the company cut costs, reduced non-productive expenses, and expanded business on the other. Eventually, it cooperated with Chunhua Vacuum Cleaner Factory then, and turn the loss into profit.
In 1996, Kinglexy officially named the English name "KingClean", the cleaning king, which means that Lexy's goal is to be the king of vacuum cleaners. In the same year, Lexy’s export volume exceeded US$20 million. In just two years, lexy’s vacuum cleaner production and sales exceeded 670,000 units, making it the largest vacuum cleaner factory in China.
In 1997, lexy independently developed the first domestic high-performance motor with 30,000 rpm. The motor efficiency increased from 34% to 44%, and the service life was increased to more than 500 hours, while the cost was reduced by 1/3. It has been leading the way of he domestic vacuum cleaner trend for many years. In the same year, it invested and built a factory to produce vacuum cleaner motors, which established the leading technology and leading position of lexy vacuum cleaners in the industry.
In 1997, when Qian Dongqi was in the United States to promote Chinese-made products, he was interviewed by a media reporter at the time. It can be said that he was the first-generation spokesperson for Chinese vacuum cleaner to go overseas. The demand for vacuum cleaners in European and American countries is extremely strong, which prove this business is promising, so Qian Dongqi and others opened a vacuum cleaner factory in Suzhou.
In 1998, under the wave of enterprise transformation, Li jukun tried to raise more than 1.6 million funds to turn the microcomputer factory into a private enterprise. In 1999, Wuxian microcomputer factory was renamed Suzhou Chunju Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. and also received more than 100 old employees who share weal and woe. This year, Chunju Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. has a production scale of 50000 vacuum cleaners.
In March 1998, Qian Dongqi founded his own company Taiyike Electric (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. This small company was the predecessor of Ecovacs. At first, it had only 15 employees. It rented a village-run factory in Xianfeng Village, Wuzhong District, and built a production line. The factory is surrounded by farmland, and a sign stands on the top of the building with three English letters "TEK" (the English abbreviation of Taiyike). Since then, the original pattern of Suzhou's "Four Great Vacuum Cleaners" (Lexy, Eup, Chunju, and Taiyike) has basically been completed, and in the next two decades, it will become the leaders in the manufacturing and brand of vacuum cleaners in Suzhou and even in China and the world.
In 1999, Chunhua invested in the construction of a vacuum cleaner production base with international standards in Suzhou Industrial Park. The new factory fully adopts market-oriented mechanism. It learns from private enterprises in employment and division of work. It has no regular employees, no fixed wages, and take up a job through competition, work harder and get more.
In 2000, Qian Dongqi formed a secret five-person R&D team, code-named "HSR", which is the acronym for "HomeService Robot" (home service robot), focusing on the research and development of robot products, a world-leading sales volume. The home service robot brand set sail.
In 2000, Lexy's headquarters moved to No. 1 Xiangyang Road, Suzhou New District, and purDreamed 200 acres of land before and after, with an annual output of 10 million vacuum cleaner motors and an annual output of 10 million vacuum cleaners.
In 2002, Zhu Yunfang resigned as the director of Lexy's motor and founded Suzhou Desheng Motor Co., Ltd. in Weitang, Suzhou to produce various universal motors for vacuum cleaners.
In 2003, the Suzhou Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau passed 13,052 batches of small household appliances for export, 29.51 million units, with a total value of 568 million US dollars, an increase of 47.5% and 61.8% respectively over 2002. Among them, export inspection batches and export value accounted for 89.4% and 90.85% of Jiangsu's exports of small household appliances. At that time, Suzhou was the second largest vacuum cleaner production base in the world. Among more than 40 export small household appliances companies, vacuum cleaners produced by Philips, Kingclean, Eup, Taiyike and Sanyo Household Appliances were dominant.
In 2004, the production and sales volume of Lexy vacuum cleaners exceeded 8 million units, being it the world's largest vacuum cleaner R&D and manufacturing company.
In November 2004, Suzhou Desheng Motor Co., Ltd. moved into Suzhou Industrial Park and changed its name to Suzhou Industrial Park Xing Desheng Motor Co., Ltd. From the initial stage of the establishment of a single production of AC motors for vacuum cleaners to the successful development of brushless DC motor, Xing Desheng has gone through many years. The accumulation of practice and experience quickly occupied the world's vacuum cleaner motor market share, and established its leading position in the vacuum cleaner motor industry.
In 2005, Midea Group acquired Chunhua and established Jiangsu Midea Chunhua Electric Co., Ltd., which laid the foundation for the development of vacuum cleaners and other cleaning appliances.
In 2005, Qian Dongqi and his colleagues cracked the patent of Dyson's multi-stage cyclone vacuum cleaner. The multi-stage cyclone vacuum cleaner does not require dust bags or filters, and can completely separate dust and airflow. Since its introduction in the 1980s, it has been the most popular vacuum cleaner in the world. The multi-stage cyclone vacuum cleaner produced for the brand was exported to Germany, and soon encountered Dyson's patent lawsuit. The Ecovacs team worked hard for more than 40 days, compiled thousands of patent documents, and helped brand owners win lawsuits.
In 2006, Qian Dongqi founded the "Ecovac" brand, whose main product is the multi-stage cyclone vacuum cleaner.
In 2007, Ecovacs' first sweeping robot went on the market, sharing the "Ecovacs" trademark with multi-stage cyclone vacuum cleaners and selling them offline together. Consumers showed great interest in this new product, and the sales of sweeping robots quickly surpassed the multi-stage cyclone vacuum cleaners.
In 2008, Midea and Chunhua separated, and Jiangsu Midea Cleaning Appliance Co., Ltd. was established. The former spring flowers from prosperity to decline also heralded the end of a clean era.
In 2011, Lexy successfully invented the first domestic clean cyclone vacuum cleaner that can wipe the floor.
In 2012, the headquarters of Lexy Electric and the Global R&D Center were completed and opened. In the same year, the annual production and sales of vacuum cleaners exceeded 10 million units for the first time, and the cumulative production and sales of vacuum cleaners exceeded 100 million units in the past 18 years. The company achieved sales revenue of 530 million U.S. dollars, and the production and sales volume of the whole machine reached 13 million units, a record high.
In 2012, the export volume of Suzhou vacuum cleaners reached 40 million units, totaling 1.231 billion U.S. dollars.
In 2013, the European Union notified the WTO of the draft implementation regulations on eco-design requirements and energy labeling requirements for vacuum cleaners. After the above two directives take effect, vacuum cleaners that do not meet the requirements of eco-design and energy labeling will not be allowed to be placed on the EU market, which will have a great impact on the export vacuum cleaner industry in Suzhou. The EU notification and comment ended on February 15, 2013. The Suzhou Inspection and Quarantine Bureau and Ecovacs Robotics Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. conducted timely research and analysis on the content of the notification, from providing test methods for dust re-release and dividing the vacuum cleaner unit. As well as the addition of exemption clauses and other aspects, actively participate in the review of standards.
In 2014, Lexy successfully developed the first 80,000 rpm high-performance DC brush vacuum cleaner motor in China, entering a new era of lithium battery convenient vacuum cleaners.
On May 13, 2015, Lexy Electric Co., Ltd. was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and issued 41.0 million shares at an issue price of RMB 19.08 per share. The total amount of funds raised was RMB 802 million. Become the first domestic high-end clean electrical appliance.
In 2018, Lexy founder Ni Zugen was awarded the title of "Great Power Craftsman" by Jiangsu Light Industry.
In 2018, the TEK brand was upgraded to Tianke. The TEK trademark was initially only used for OEM business, and no comprehensive trademark registration was carried out globally. When the brand starts again and the international market is to be explored in the future, the trademark issue becomes a barrier that cannot be circumvented. To this end, Ecovacs registered the "Tineco" trademark to remove obstacles in this regard. Literally understood, "Tian Ke" means to add infinite possibilities.
On May 28, 2018, Ecovacs was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and became the "first share of home service robots." In the 20 years since its establishment, Ecovacs has landed on the capital market and has achieved phased success.
In 2019, Chunju Electric’s “Smart Cleaning Appliance” project with a total investment of 1.2 billion yuan was started in the Huangqiao Intelligent Industry International R&D Community. The display center, experience center, e-commerce sales platform, and intelligent production base "three centers, one platform and one base" are an intelligent R&D and manufacturing platform that realizes the intelligent transformation of the entire process from design to commissioning. It is expected that cleaning appliances will be cleaned every year after production The production capacity will reach 10 million units.
On December 13, 2019, the signing ceremony of Ecovacs Group being selected as "Xinhua News Agency National Brand Project·Service Industry Cutting-Edge Action" was successfully held in Beijing. The three major brands of "ECOVACS Robotics", "TINECO" and "ECOVACS Ecovacs Commercial" under the Ecovacs Group will carry out in-depth cooperation with Xinhua News Agency on brand building, and work together to make intelligent Leading national brands in the field are promoted to the world.
On March 4, 2020, Timco released the floor cleaning unicorn-Timco’s thinking smart floor scrubber, Fuwan FLOOR ONE, the industry’s first, breaking the inherent model of floor cleaning. JD.com's washing machine category tops the best-selling list. In the compact and precise body, the product is integrated into the intelligent control system and the running water cleaning system to raise the floor cleaning to a whole new level, reduce the time and energy of the user's daily cleaning, and become another "phenomenon-level explosive product in the vacuum cleaner segment."
In October 2020, the first off-line and opening ceremony of the Smart Factory of Dreame Technology (Suzhou) was held in Suzhou. Dreame Technology Dreame Technology Smart Factory Project has invested more than 100 million yuan. The industrial park will build a small home appliance production base with a total area of more than 23,000 square meters. At the same time, it will also serve as an incubation site for smart manufacturing and actively build black light factories related to modern manufacturing, unmanned factory.
In 2020, Lexy Chairman Ni Zugen won the Hurun Most Respected Entrepreneur Award in 2020. This heavyweight award is not only a recognition of Mr. Ni Zugen as an outstanding entrepreneur, but also a high affirmation of his outstanding contributions to China's home appliance industry.
In November 2020, Qian Dongqi, Chairman of Ecovacs Group, was awarded the "Industry Leader of the Year" sponsored by China News Weekly. The review committee highly affirmed his pioneering spirit, innovative thinking, forward-looking layout, and Leading and promoting the domestic service robot industry in China. Under the leadership of Qian Dongqi, Ecovacs Robotics promotes China's home service robot industry to be at the forefront of the world's intelligent development with high-quality and innovative products.
On December 31, 2020, Dreame Technology (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. was officially changed to Dreame Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., and the headquarters moved to Suzhou. Founded in 2015, Dreame Technology is an innovative technology company endowed with geek genes. The core team mostly comes from top universities at home and abroad, such as Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology of China, Columbia University, etc. After joining the Xiaomi ecological chain in 2017, Chaim Technology focused on smart clean manufacturing, and continued to expand in areas such as personal care and life.
On March 23, 2021, at the 2021 China Home Appliances and Consumer Electronics Fair (AWE), Wu Gang, the general producer of CCTV big country brands, announced that Lexy has officially become the first company in the clean home appliance industry to be selected as a CCTV big country brand. As one of the leading brands in the global clean home appliance industry, Lexy relies on forward-looking product design, strong R&D advantages, outstanding product quality, and good user reputation.
In 2021, the market value of Ecovacs once exceeded 100 billion yuan, ranking first in the list of listed companies in China's cleaning appliances, nearly 10 billion yuan higher than the market value of the first high-priced stock Stone Technology, ranking first in Suzhou and eleventh in Jiangsu. Listed companies are the veritable king of China's cleaning appliance brands.
On August 27, 2021, the Suzhou Federation of Industry and Commerce released the "2021 Suzhou Top 100 Private Enterprises" list according to the company's 2020 operating income indicators. The operating income threshold of the "2021 Suzhou Top 100 Private Enterprises" is 2.182 billion yuan. Among them, the vacuum cleaner industry has five companies including Ecovacs, Lexy, Chaimu, Midea, and Chunju, becoming the new first echelon of the vacuum cleaner industry in Suzhou, and a brand-new Suzhou vacuum cleaner corporate structure has also been born.
In 2020, China's vacuum cleaner exports are about 150 million units. Almost all vacuum cleaner brands in the world except Dyson produce OEMs or purchase Chinese parts and components in China. China has become the "kingdom" of vacuum cleaner manufacturing in the world. Among them, Suzhou is the core of the "kingdom" of China's vacuum cleaner manufacturing, with advanced manufacturing plants such as Lexy, Ecovacs, Aipu, Chunju, etc., to help the development of the world's cleaning industry.
End of story of vacuum cleaner history from 1979-2021.In the future, there will be more and not only in Jiangsu, which will be all over the China. Keep it up!