On October 30, the empty Gome headquarters. (Southern Weekly reporter Mei Ling/Photo)
Located at No. 26 Xiaoyun Road, East Third Ring Road, Beijing, Pengrun Building was once the largest single top office building in Asia, close to the embassy district and Chaoyang Park. This is also where the headquarters of Gome Electric Appliances is located.
Since its opening in 2000, this 36-storey building with light blue and a helipad on the top floor has witnessed Huang Guangyu, the founder of Gome Electric, ascend to the top of China's richest man three times, and now witnessed the embarrassing situation of Gome Electric's losses due to losses, arrears of goods and arrears of wages.
In mid-October, pop-up windows appeared on the lottery page of the Gome APP for Huang Guangyu, the founder of Gome, and Huang Xiuhong, the current chairman of Gome Electrical Appliances, including "arrears of wages and arrears of payments". In fact, problems such as Gome's salary arrears have appeared as early as 2022, and angry employees have clashed with Huang Guangyu in Pengrun Building.
"What have employees been forced to do in order to do this thing? Now Gome is unattended, and employees can only find their own windows. Zhao Qiang, an employee who will leave Gome's Beijing headquarters in 2023, told Southern Weekend.
Headquarters "empty"
According to Gome Retail (0493. According to the financial report data, Gome Group had a total of about 32,000 employees in 2021, and as of the first half of 2023, the number of employees in Gome Group was 3,609. This means that in a year and a half, Gome has lost ninety percent of its employees.
"In the past, Pengrun Building was full of holes and valleys, and there was no place to park in the morning, and the canteen was full of people when I arrived." Zhao Qiang told Southern Weekend that when he left, most floors of the building were empty.
On the morning of Monday, October 30, a reporter from Southern Weekend came to Pengrun Building, which is divided into two buildings, A and B, with floors 3-36 of Block B being the office of Gome Electric, and the only difference between Block AB is that only Block B has strict access control.
Walking into the headquarters of Gome, the corridor lights are still on, and the biggest feeling is that it is "empty", large and small conference rooms, office areas, and reception rooms have been locked, and only sporadic staff and cleaning staff walk around, and no one comes up to inquire when strangers visit.
On the 18th floor of Pengrun Building, banners are hung on both sides of the elevator reading "Become a trusted world-class retail enterprise" and "Leading the survival and development of enterprises with 'trust'", and the black background wall in the middle is printed with two big characters "Gome". On the right side of the background wall is the propaganda room of Gome Group, which is densely packed with Huang Guangyu, Du Juan and various certificates and trophies of Gome Group in the past. But the time is mostly concentrated before 2018.
In conflict with these former honors, A4 paper that says "No entry is forbidden for non-staff on this floor" is now plastered all over the place.
"The 18th floor is the place where the whole Gome is responsible for receiving merchants and suppliers, and there are several large VIP meeting rooms, which used to have a lot of people every day." Zhao Qiang said. Southern Weekend reporters observed this floor for nearly half an hour, but no one arrived except for one or two cleaning staff.
On the 16th floor, the Gome Supply Chain Company, which is responsible for supporting merchants and suppliers, once included Gome Customization, the original office area of these companies has been locked and removed from the floor guidance board.
In February 2021, Huang Guangyu was officially released from prison after completing his sentence, and said in a high-profile manner that he would strive to restore the company to its original market position in the next 18 months.
His biggest move after his return was the launch of the "True Happiness" app, which represents Gome's retail strategy. According to the financial report, in 2021, Gome will spend 962 million yuan on advertising on this APP.
Traces of "true happiness" appeared intensively on the 17th floor of Gome's headquarters, and the red banner of "Fight for a better career and a better life together" was still hung in the office area, and the room with the appointment meeting of "12.24 9:00-12:00 Household Appliances Division, Household Appliances" was locked. Zhao Qiang sighed, "'True happiness' is earned by how many Gome employees work hard and stay up late to work overtime. ”
The fifth floor of the headquarters contains the office area of Anxun Logistics, a national third-party logistics company built by Gome Group in 2012, which has previously been rumored to be IPO. It's pitch black at the moment. At the end of 2022, news has appeared that Anxun Logistics and its subsidiaries owe more than 3 million freight to carriers in many places in Henan.
"It can be said that after 2023, the entire Gome will fall into a state of dead silence." Zhao Qiang told Southern Weekend.
The traces of "true happiness" are still there. (Southern Weekly reporter Mei Ling/Photo)
Where did the money go
The top 36th floor of Pengrun Building, in past reports, is Huang Guangyu's office location. However, a former employee of Gome who has successfully "climbed to the top" told Southern Weekend, "Boss Huang also lives here, and there is a villa on the 36th floor that he renovated in a combination of Chinese and Western styles." "And if you want to go up to the 36th floor, you need to take the exclusive elevator.
"In the past, many employees came to ask for wages, and they climbed up layer by layer, and they made trouble twice. Later, in order to prevent everyone from going again, that floor could not be entered. Zhao Qiang remembered that a supplier had come to ask for payment before, squatted at the door of Pengrun Building to Huang Guangyu, and "followed Boss Huang to the 36th floor, but I don't know how to deal with it."
On October 30, a number of media reported that Daqing Gome suddenly closed its doors and closed down, and nearly 20 home appliance dealers asked for payment but "didn't know who to ask for".
On the online judgment documents, in 2022, Gome Electrical Appliances was involved in 268 lawsuits, and this number will reach 1,219 in 2023.
This year's lawsuits include an electrical equipment company in Foshan City, Guangdong Province, demanding that Foshan Gome Electrical Appliances pay 1.26 million yuan for the goods, a Zhejiang company demanding that Zhejiang Gome Electrical Appliances return rents and liquidated damages totaling 2.2 million yuan, and a building decoration company in Ningbo demanding that Gome Electrical Appliances and Gome Retail pay 2.4 million yuan for the project.
Some departing employees began to notice problems in the company in March and April 2022. "The biggest problem is the problem of funds, and I can't settle the account." Zhao Qiang told Southern Weekend.
A former employee who is directly involved in Gome's sales and purchase remembers that in the past, he didn't need to think about the settlement of his work, but since 2022, he has been in a situation of "paying here, and not paying there". "I intuitively feel that cash flow is tight."
Therefore, he went to check Gome's daily sales. "I remember that at that time, the daily sales could still reach tens of millions to 100 million or even higher, so I personally felt that it would not be overturned, but I don't know where the money came back and went."
At the beginning of 2022, "the basic salary of employees is still available, but the performance part is rarely paid", and the situation is gradually becoming more and more serious.
In October 2022, at the all-staff meeting held in Pengrun Building, Huang Xiuhong, chairman of Gome Electric Appliances, publicly said, "By the end of December, the company will only pay social security to employees and will not pay wages anymore." ”
GOME also requires employees to sign a letter of commitment, which mentions that "from October 2022, it is understood that the company may delay the payment of employees' wages in the next six months to one year... Commit to adjusting a positive mindset and believing that the company... As an employee, we are committed to doing our best, delivering business results on time, quality and quantity, and achieving performance goals."
"I also read this letter of commitment at the time, and if I don't sign it, is it reasonable to owe wages?" According to Zhao Qiang, some employees have zero income for a year. After the salary negotiation failed, Zhao Qiang also filed for arbitration, and according to the judgment, Gome owed him more than 200,000 yuan in salary plus provident fund.
Another manager of a relevant department of Gome told Southern Weekend, "I am not owed wages, but my children are all owed, 200,000 yuan is a lot."
What is even more unacceptable to Zhao Qiang is that from May 2022, Gome will no longer pay social security provident fund for employees. "But our personal contribution is deducted, and the company does not hand it over to the provident fund management center, which is the case for all employees."
"It's like using our money, but we don't know where it's being used."
An employee of Gome's Lianyungang branch told Southern Weekend, "Since October 2022, we have realized that Gome has begun to have financial problems, because we have not paid wages on time, and we have been delaying the closure of the store until March this year."
The employees all filed for arbitration, but they did not have much confidence, "Gome has no money in the account, and it will end up in nothing."
GOME has 3,895 chain stores and more than 200 million members across the country. In October, some media reported that all Gome stores in Guangdong were closed, and then the company responded that they were not all closed, but the released data showed that Gome reduced its self-operated stores in Guangdong Province by 12 and franchised stores by 74 in the third quarter.
Gome employees and consumers in Beijing, Shanghai, Lianyungang and other places also told Southern Weekend that Gome stores in their cities are also gradually closing. A number of interviewees said, "Gome's stores nationwide are basically closed. ”
In the process of closing stores, a situation that is unacceptable to consumers has arisen.
A consumer in Shanghai bought a washing machine for 7,200 yuan at the Shanghai Gome Changning main store in December 2022, Gome did not deliver the goods and did not refund them, and the consumer sued Gome for mediation, Gome promised to refund it before August 2023, but there has been no news so far.
"Although I knew that Huang Guangyu had been imprisoned and released from prison, it did not affect my shopping at Gome, and I did not think about not delivering the goods after paying the money," the above-mentioned consumer told Southern Weekend. Among the thousands of lawsuits involving Gome in 2023, there are a large number of similar sales disputes, employee wage arrears lawsuits, etc.
In addition to the financial problem, in Zhao Qiang's impression, the second change in the company is the frequent change of direct leadership, which means that the company has problems.
According to incomplete statistics from Southern Weekly, since 2021, dozens of core executives, including the former CEO of Gome Online, CEO of Gome Electrical Appliances, and President of Gome Retail, have left one after another.
How did you get to where you are today?
Huang Guangyu was born in Chaoshan, Guangdong, and is 54 years old. According to the official information of Gome Group, Huang Guangyu established the first "Gome Electrical Appliance Store" in 1987 on Zhushikou Street, Qianmen, Beijing, which mainly deals in various household appliances and covers an area of less than 100 square meters, and Gome's retail road officially started.
In 1990, Gome tried a new supply and marketing model, breaking away from middlemen, directly underwriting customization with manufacturers, and opening a "direct sales" home appliance model. In 1993, GOME unified the store name, product display method, store after-sales service, and publicity, which became the prototype of China's retail chain model.
In 2004, Gome Electric was successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in a backdoor manner, and Huang Guangyu became the richest man in Chinese mainland with a net worth of 10 billion, and won the top again in 2005 and 2008, with a personal wealth of 45 billion yuan.
In November 2008, Huang Guangyu, who was at his peak, was detained by the police on suspicion of economic crimes.
Two years later, Huang Guangyu was sentenced to 14 years in prison for illegal business operations, insider trading, and bribery. In June 2020, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court ruled that Huang Guangyu should be released on parole, and in February 2021, Huang Guangyu was officially released from prison after completing his sentence.
Huang Guangyu's former honors are still on display at the Gome headquarters. (Southern Weekly reporter Mei Ling/Photo)
Zhao Qiang joined Gome the second month after Huang Guangyu was released from prison.
"I have some understanding of the glorious days of Gome, and I think its foundation is quite good, and the plate is also very large. At that time, I thought that after Boss Huang came out, there would definitely be some new measures and ways to vigorously develop Gome again, and combined with my resume, I joined. He told Southern Weekly.
In 2021, after Huang Guangyu returned, he first renamed the GOME APP "True Happiness" as the "general platform" of GOME's retail ecology.
According to past media reports, when Huang Guangyu was in prison, he still wrote letters to communicate with company executives, and Gome executives even used drawings in letters to try to make Huang Guangyu understand the principles of smartphones and apps.
However, Zhao Qiang said frankly, "Until the day I left, I didn't know what the positioning of this APP was."
On the "True Happiness" platform, there are three major scenes: the arena, the show, and the casino, as well as a collection of content sharing communities, short video live broadcasts, event lists, e-commerce shopping platforms and other sections.
Zhao Qiang doesn't know how to position this APP, is it community e-commerce, interest e-commerce or traditional e-commerce? In his opinion, this APP, which has been poured into by the boss, has no core and focus from design, product production to experience, which has an adverse impact on communication.
"It's a matter for policymakers." But Zhao Qiang also mentioned that by the beginning of 2022, the basic function of the platform of "True Happiness" has been equipped, and consumers can buy things or return them normally. As long as there is a burst point in one plate, after the overall tilt, this route can still be passed.
The serious internal friction within Gome made him doubt the company's prospects.
For example, he said that the supply chain of general e-commerce platforms will be relatively concentrated, but within Gome, there are several companies that do supply chain at the same time. The same product of one brand may cooperate with many supply chain companies of Gome.
These supply chain companies have only one output port, which is the "True Happiness" APP.
This has brought a huge waste of manpower, and each supply chain company has dozens or even hundreds of people, but multiple teams do repetitive work.
"Every team has to survive, and everyone keeps asking for money from the group and dividing it up. The boss may want to compete, but this competition is not external, scattered and internal. Zhao Qiang told Southern Weekend.
Gome has also built a non-external sharing and co-construction platform, which can be accessed by small businesses and suppliers after paying a certain usage fee. "The biggest problem with this platform is that there is no use, and if a merchant wants to open a store, he can go directly to another platform to open a store."
In addition to the "True Happiness" APP, after Huang Guangyu returned, he also successively launched a variety of APPs such as "Dress Up Home" and "Fold on Fold", which puzzled the market.
Liu Buchen, a senior analyst in the home appliance industry, told Southern Weekend, "After Huang Guangyu's return, his radical style made Gome quickly burn money, and the money was spent, but it did not get the effect he expected." ”
A middle-level person from Gome Group told Southern Weekend, "In addition to the decision-making problems of the company's leaders, they do not understand the market environment, and they are also affected by the epidemic." ”
"Chinese Entrepreneur" reported that in late October 2021, on the 36th floor of Pengrun Building, Gome held a high-level meeting for five consecutive days, and Huang Guangyu sat in the main seat, but stared at the iPad flat on the table, playing the game "Angry Birds".
Zhao Qiang said, "Sometimes Boss Huang sleeps during the day, and the meetings are held late at night, and the executives are crazy." ”
Can it still be "brought back to life"?
Southern Weekend contacted a departed vice president-level executive about Gome's current situation, but the other party declined to discuss the matter. In addition, the public relations department of Gome Group has been fully resigned.
At present, the domestic official website of Gome Group can no longer be opened, and the "Dress Up" and "Fold on Fold" apps have been removed from the Apple App Store. After spending a huge amount of promotion money, in January 2023, "True Happiness" will be renamed back to the "Gome" APP. At present, some brands of Gome APP have been withdrawn, and some categories such as TVs and refrigerators have been taken off the shelves, in addition, the live broadcast sales list is blank, and the cleaning and maintenance services that can be provided have been discontinued, and no one has replied from customer service.
Judging from the financial report, in the first half of 2023, Gome's retail revenue will be 415 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 95.74%; The net loss attributable to the parent company was 3.539 billion yuan. During the same period, Gome Retail's current assets were only 5.326 billion yuan, and cash and cash equivalents were 146 million yuan.
However, the total debt balance of Gome Retail is as high as 37.313 billion yuan, and the asset-liability ratio is 106.55%, and the company is insolvent. Among them, the current liabilities were 36.106 billion yuan, accounting for 96.78%.
On the other hand, starting from the second half of 2021, Huang Guangyu and Du Juan have frequently reduced their holdings of Gome retail shares, from 60.98% of their shares at the end of 2021 to 10.79% at present, reducing their holdings and cashing out nearly HK $2 billion.
In February 2021, when Huang Guangyu was officially released from prison, Gome's share price ushered in a wave of surge, and was once jokingly called "prison concept stock" by the market, as of press time, Gome's retail share price was only 0.037 yuan per share, down 97% from when he was released from prison.
"In the past ten years, Gome's development strategy has been mainly reflected in two words - conservative, try not to spend as much money as possible, this is Du Juan's view." Liu Buchen believes that in the era dominated by e-commerce, the decline of traditional home appliance chains is inevitable, and it is just a matter of fast and slow.
But in the eyes of former employees, the decline and end may be more decent.
Zhao Qiang sighed, "Looking back, I am sorry. We joined GOME in the hope of helping the former myth reshape another myth, you give me the opportunity, I give the ability, but now it is difficult to come back to life. ”
The Gome headquarters office stays in the Christmas atmosphere of 2022. (Southern Weekly reporter Mei Ling/Photo)
(At the request of the interviewee, Zhao Qiang is a pseudonym in the article.) ）
Southern Weekly reporter Mei Ling Southern Weekly intern Zhao Yue
Editor-in-charge: Zhang Yue