Zhang Jian of Emma Technology brought out the first family of China's "electric donkey".

Zebra consumption Shen Tuo

In Chengde, Hebei Province in October, it was already cold, and Zhang Jian, who was here, was probably uneasy.

A few days ago, Zhang Jian was detained by the Chengde Municipal Supervision Commission and placed on file for investigation, and the actual controller of the head company of domestic electric bicycles lost the news. Until an announcement from Emma Technology was disclosed, it immediately exploded.

At present, Emma Technology has not received a notice to assist in the investigation, and Emma Technology, which Zhang Jian and his wife Duan Hua have spent more than 20 years working hard, may not be affected too much.

Since starting his business, Zhang Jian has experienced many dangers, 8 years of three-rush IPO, and his partners turned against each other. Earlier, he parted ways with his sister and sister.

In the early years, Emma Technology stepped on the tuyere of "banning motorcycles", and Emma Technology rose all the way. So far, the annual revenue scale has exceeded 20 billion yuan, and the market value is close to 30 billion yuan.

After "breaking up" with Zhang Jian, sister Zhang Hong and sister Zhang Ru each climbed and rolled in the electric bicycle industry, although the business scale is far less than Zhang Jian, but has deduced a business legend, a family is rooted in this field, which is rare in the country.

The "electric donkey" besieged the city

Emma Technology(603529. SH) actual controller Zhang Jian was suddenly taken away, which undoubtedly brought some uncertainty to the company's future development.

In the hustle and bustle of small and medium-sized investors in the stock bar, we were able to examine the grassroots growth history of this electric bicycle company.

Zhang Jian's first job was not to build electric bicycles. After graduating from university in 1990, he was assigned to work in a company in Shangqiu, Henan, probably because the work in the system was too stable.

At that time, bicycles were just needed for travel, and first-line brands such as Shanghai Permanent and Phoenix were famous. In this context, Zhang Jian's car dealership business is booming.

A car dealer made a small fuss, and Zhang Jian became more and more dissatisfied. He doesn't want to just sell cars, but is more keen to go upstream and make big moves.

In 1999, Zhang Jian came to Tianjin, the birthplace of China's first bicycle, and founded Tianjin Taimei Automobile Industry, the predecessor of Emma Technology, and stepped into the production end.

In 2004, the national "ban on motorcycles" began, the motorcycle industry encountered a crisis, and electric bicycles ushered in an era of savage growth. Zhang Jian led the company to decisively change production. Although, compared with Luyuan and Yadea, Emma entered this field late.

With the deepening of the "ban on motorcycles", the electric bicycle market has grown wildly. According to public data, the number of electric bicycles has increased from 6,757,100 in 2004 to more than 350 million in 2023, and is expected to exceed 400 million this year.

In the siege of "electric donkey", Emma Technology has risen rapidly. In 2023, the operating income and net profit attributable to the parent company will reach 21.04 billion yuan and 1.881 billion yuan respectively. In the same year, the company sold a total of 10,741,500 electric bicycles, electric two-wheeled motorcycles, electric tricycles, etc., of which more than 7.6 million electric bicycles were sold.

Celebrity blessings

Initially, Zhang Jian's sales of electric bicycles have been concentrated in Tianjin, a typical regional brand. Later, he was able to become the head of the country, and Jay Chou contributed a lot.

In 2009, Tianjin Taimei Auto Industry changed its name to Emma Technology and invested heavily to sign a contract with Jay Chou, the king of pop music. The soaring Chou Dong has brought huge traffic to Emma.

With "Love, Act Now" and "Emma, That's Good", they spread wildly on various media, and also appeared in the township market as wall advertisements. In 2010, the company sold more than 2.2 million electric bicycles, firmly occupying the top spot in the industry, and sat for 7 consecutive years.

Many years have passed, and Jay Chou is still the spokesperson of Emma. In a certain company brand ceremony, Zhang Jian took the stage to personally present Jay Chou with the "Unparalleled · Long-term Endorsement Award", in order to witness the intimate relationship established between Emma brand and Jay Chou.

Tasting the sweetness from marketing makes the company more convinced of the influence of stars. Public reports show that in recent years, in addition to Jay Chou, there have also been a number of new-generation idols such as Zhang Yifan, Jin Mengjia and Zhao Zhaoyi to help attract all kinds of consumers.

This leads to an increase in selling expenses. From 2018 to 2020, the sales expenses remained around 400 million yuan. From 2021, selling expenses increased from $551 million to $641 million in 2023. Among them, the expenditure on advertising and business promotion has remained above 100 million yuan all year round.

Emma can often be seen in top variety shows, fashion magazines and large-scale events. In the first half of 2024, the company's sales expenses increased by 39.08% year-on-year to 412 million yuan, which the company said was mainly due to the impact of market competition, the company's expansion of sales team and increased investment in marketing and publicity.

Increase investment in sales, but the arrival of the company's growth bottleneck seems to be difficult to reverse.

From 2020 to 2023, its revenue growth rate will decrease from 23.8% to 1.12%, and the growth rate of net profit attributable to the parent company will decrease from 14.76% to 0.41% in the same period. In the first half of this year, the revenue and net profit attributable to the parent company reached 10.591 billion yuan and 951 million yuan respectively, a year-on-year increase of 3.66% and 6.24%.

The first family of electric vehicles

Henan people have always had a tradition of helping people in business, and Zhang Jian is the same. In 2004, Zhang Jian decided to give up the bicycle business and introduced his brother-in-law Zhang Yanfeng and sister Zhang Ru as shareholders to jointly develop the electric bicycle business. The latter two hold 51% and 24% of Tianjin Taimei Auto respectively.

After one year of cooperation, because of the major differences in business philosophy, Zhang Yanfeng withdrew from Tianjin Taimei Automobile Industry and established Tianjin Taifeng Little Bird Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd., which is mainly engaged in the production and sales of bicycles and electric bicycles.

Later, Zhang Hong's family successively set up Henan Little Bird Bicycle Industry, Little Bird Bicycle Industry and other enterprises to control the "Little Bird" electric bicycle brand.

Before Zhang Jian went to Tianjin to start a business, his sister Zhang Hong and sister Zhang Ru developed in Shangqiu locally, and established Shangqiu Qiankun Bicycle Co., Ltd. in 1997 to engage in the wholesale and sales of bicycles, motorcycles and bicycle accessories.

In May 2008, five shareholders including Li Guohong of Tianjin Taimei Automobile Industry decided to withdraw their shares because the company's development was not as expected, and Zhang Ru received 5% of the shares at a consideration of 250,000 yuan. In July 2009, Zhang Ru transferred 5% of the equity held by Zhang Ru to Zhang Jian for a consideration of 2.5 million yuan.

In August 2011, Zhang Ru set up Henan Bubuxian Power Technology Co., Ltd., which exclusively operates its own brand Bubuxian electric tricycle and other products. According to the prospectus, from 2011 to 2013, Henan AIMA, a subsidiary of Emma Technology, had some tricycle OEM and parts transactions with Henan Century Taimei Automobile Industry controlled by Zhang Ru, with a total transaction volume of 35.3439 million yuan excluding tax. Since then, there has been no business contact between the two parties.

Zhang Ru and Zhang Jian seem to have a good relationship. According to the prospectus, in 2018, Zhang Ru borrowed 2 million yuan from Zhang Jian's spouse Duan Hua for the renovation of the hotel he invested; In 2019, it borrowed another 30 million yuan for temporary capital turnover.

In contrast, the relationship between Zhang Hong and Zhang Jian is a bit delicate. Before Emma Technology went public, the sponsor tried to interview Zhang Hong and her spouse Zhang Yanfeng, but the other party refused, and did not reply to the questionnaire sent by the sponsor.

Although the Zhang brothers and sisters have their own doors, they are still gathered in the field of electric vehicles, and are known as the first family of electric bicycles in China.