Traditional lighting lost to LED Honeywell Lang can be forced to "discard" behind

[Photo/text reporter Zhou Jianhua] In the middle and late January, the reporter learned from the internal management of Honeywell Langen that the abandonment of the traditional light source project has been finalized, and traditional home lighting products will continue to be sold, but when will the LED light source It is still unknown to the market.

Honeywell Langneng won the bid for Wal-Mart LED retrofit project in 2008. In 2010, it announced that LED is the main growth driver of its performance. In 2011, Guangya Exhibition displayed many lED products from commercial photos to home. But until now, its LED light source is still “lying” “sleeping” in the flagship showroom of the largest Zhongshan R&D base in China. Why has it been unable to “wake up” the LED light source series? The difficulty of advancing the traditional home lighting fashion experience museum project launched in 2011, and the gradual shrinking of the traditional light source market share, in the end, how much impact on the domestic channel strategy that is not strong?

Frequent exchange

“The general manager of Deng Chaohua has just retired this year.” In May 2012, the head of Honeywell Langen Media told the reporters.

In the following months, reporters continued to hear information from Honeywell's dealers, peers, and suppliers: it will completely eliminate the R&D and production of traditional light source projects in 2012, and fully transform To the LED series products, in addition to some traditional home lighting products.

An industry insider revealed that although Deng Chaohua, the founder of Langeng Electric, supported the development of LED, he still paid much attention to the research and development of traditional lighting, especially the extension and penetration of channels. "However, this seems to be in conflict with Honeywell's LED market strategy for Fortune 500 companies."

In the fourth quarter of 2011, Sheng Weili, vice president of the Asia-Pacific region of Honeywell's Environmental Automation Department, said in an interview with the media: "At present, Honeywell's LEDs are mainly aimed at two markets: retail industry and factories. In the Chinese LED market The goal is to achieve $100 million in sales within five years." This shows an attitude of optimistic about the LED domestic market and its full march.

Almost at the same time, Deng Chaohua, then the general manager of Honeywell Langneng, told a domestic financial media that he was confused by the chaotic LED market and that nearly 90% of LED companies were at a loss. At the time, Honeywell Langen was launching the “Home Lighting Fashion Pavilion” project, which is still paired with traditional light sources.

According to the reporter's investigation: During the retirement period of Deng Chaohua from 2011 to 2012, Honeywell Langen's internal management changes quite a lot, and the exchange will be frequent. The original marketing director, R&D director, marketing manager, brand manager, and human resources manager have successively left.

“When I left in 2007, the old staff of the channel department still maintained more than 30 people. By the end of 2011, when we met, there were only 4 people left, and we went to the Italians.” One who had served in Langeng Electric for more than 7 years. The marketer told the high-tech reporter.

“At present, our LEDs are still mainly based on engineering channel projects. The brand is the higher-end Honeywell. The corresponding brand of traditional lighting business is Langeng. Others such as ventilation and electrician also have corresponding brands. This is a stricter distinction.” Huo The head of Nivelangeng’s marketing plan told the senior engineer.



Honeywell Langen Home Fashion Experience Center at Zhongshan Headquarters


Channel truth

Founded in 1991, Langeng Electric only used to be an electrician switch. In 2002, it established the lighting division, which is mainly engaged in energy-saving lamps. In early March 2005, Langneng spent 100 million yuan to acquire Bel Air Electric Co., Ltd., and advanced into the ventilation field. In the middle of the year, the marketing conference promulgated a new round of industrial adjustment policy in parallel with electrician, lighting and ventilation “Troika”.

With the completion of the production of 200,000 square meters of Langen production base, the scale effect is gradually emerging, the annual output of energy-saving lamps is 30 million, and the annual output of electric switches is 80 million sets.

The strategic cooperation between Longen and Honeywell began in 2005 and was authorized by Honeywell to enable Langen products to open in North America. In March 2008, it established a joint venture with Honeywell – “Honeywell Langen Electrical System Technology (Guangdong) Co., Ltd.”, in which Honeywell invested 370 million yuan, accounting for 70% of the joint venture company. Langeng mainly uses the current plant and technology equipment to participate in the stock, accounting for 30% of the shares.

It stands to reason that Langeng Electric has certain strength in R&D, manufacturing and channel marketing. With the help of Honeywell's influence in technology and foreign brands, after nearly four or five years of running-in, Honeywell Langen The brand should have a longer-term development in China.
However, internal management and overseas marketing personnel have changed frequently, and Honeywell has no intention to strengthen traditional lighting projects. The domestic channels that Langneng has accumulated for nearly 20 years are naturally loose.

"In fact, Langfang Electric has done a good job in the domestic channels mainly in Guangdong and Zhejiang, and the channel influence is far from the first-line brands NVC and Opp." The original Langeng marketing staff revealed.

According to official data from Honeywell Langen, it has established 25 offices, more than 500 dealers and more than 3,000 terminal retail stores in China.

“These data should be viewed from which angle.” A person in charge of marketing of a commercial lighting company in Nanhai, Foshan, told reporters that “more than 500 dealers in the three major fields of electrician, lighting, ventilation, etc., are small, and 3000 Many retail stores are estimated to count hardware stores, supermarkets, etc."

After the merger, Honeywell Langen’s best performance in the LED engineering channel is also the cooperation with domestic Wal-Mart.

In December 2012, Honeywell's Environmental Automation Department announced that its Ex-Or LED lighting technology has once again won the green lighting renovation project of retail giant Wal-Mart's 40 supermarkets in China. Wal-Mart's 100 Chinese supermarkets successfully adopted Honeywell's innovative lighting technology last year. The addition of 40 supermarkets means that nearly half of Wal-Mart's stores in China will use LED energy-saving lighting systems. This new LED order is worth about $12 million.

However, due to the weak control of traditional channels, the orders of engineering orders are too random and non-standard, and Honeywell Langen’s quarterly performance is also quite large.

“Because the traditional lighting business is declining in 2012, it is estimated that there will be 15% to 20%, but because of Wal-Mart’s big order, our Q4 performance has increased by about 25% compared with Q3.” Honeywell Langen Marketing management revealed.

“But Wal-Mart’s orders are sometimes too urgent, or may be delayed at any time due to renovation work. As a result, our personnel recruitment, R&D and production, raw material reserves, finished product inventory, etc. will encounter many challenges, resulting in internal management and capital flow. A lot of pressure." The above personnel added.

LED products launched more than a year ago have not been well promoted in the market.




New recruits

"Honeywell is not familiar with the domestic agent distribution 'rules'. In 2007, Langneng passed a sales strategy to make a large number of distributions to suppress inventory before the merger, and the performance suddenly rushed up, so the merger premium was higher." One engaged in lighting marketing in Zhongshan The professional manager who worked for ten years revealed.

The above-mentioned Langeng pre-marketers also confirmed: “From 2008 to 2009, Langen’s original domestic traditional lighting and electrician sales fell by more than 15% year-on-year. In 2010, it relied heavily on large-scale projects to support traditional channels. The performance is not ideal."

By 2011, the flagship showroom of Honeywell Langen “Home Lighting Fashion Pavilion” was officially completed at Zhongshan Headquarters. At that time, the media meeting to convey this new project was not always unwilling to give up the traditional business of Deng Chaohua, but another deputy general manager Cao, and succeeded Deng's work after 2012.

According to the introduction at the time, the one-stop shopping mode of “home lighting fashion museum” advocated the style of life. More than 200 personalized products are available, and some new products introduced in the fashion hall incorporate LED and intelligent control technology.

However, a year and a half passed, the promotion of “home lighting fashion museum” was not smooth, and the number of stores was quite limited. The reporters called Jiangxi Pingxiang, Anhui, and other places to join some of the merchants in the fashion pavilion, which said that they did not sell the home lighting that was originally promoted with LED light source and intelligent control technology.

The reporter also called Honeywell Langeng dealers in seven of the towns in Dongguan, and said that they did not receive the promotion news of Honeywell Langen LED light source and lighting products, although they saw other high school and low-end products on the market. The LED products and brands are selling well.

“In 2012, Langneng’s traditional ceiling lamp raised its price three times. Now the retail price of the same light effect product is close to that of Philips, NVC and other big brands. And the outlets are everywhere, although it can effectively enhance the exposure of Langneng. And awareness, but the same city price and other problems have occurred from time to time, profits are dilutive." A Honeywell Longman dealer in Dongguan complained.

“The traditional light source project in 2013 was given up, mainly because of profit. Honeywell’s top 500 multinational listed companies are most concerned about the proportion of profit and cost. As for when to fill the LED products in the existing channels To the market, there is still no exact plan.” Honeywell Langen’s head of market planning told the senior engineer.

When the reporter asked about the progress of the "home lighting fashion museum" blocked, why the LED light source products were placed in the flagship exhibition hall of the headquarters for half a year before the energy production was introduced to the market, the person in charge of the marketing department said it was not convenient to disclose. The reporter also called the above-mentioned Deputy General Manager of Honeywell Langneng Cao on the above issues, but also did not receive a positive response.

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