In the CHINT archives, there is a special gift: the custom sailboat presented by Sam Fais, Greek distributor, to the chairman of CHINT Group Nan Cunhui, which expressed appreciation for 30 years of working together with CHINT, and hope to continue to cooperate to create a new future.
In Fais’s house, there is also a customized pure gold medal engraved with the number “25”. This was presented to him on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the cooperation between CHINT and Fais, to witness and commemorate the persistent and mutual insistency of both parties.
The two gifts given to each other reflect the original intention of CHINT to build a community of destiny with its partners.
A Sailboat - Witness of 30 Years of Walking Hand in Hand
On September 10, 2019, Fais was invited to participate in the first Conference on Internet of Things for Industry and Energy organized by China Electrical Equipment Industry Association, CHINT Group, etc. in Wenzhou, and at the conference sub-forum–CHINT International Marketing Forum, presented the sterling silver customized sail boat brought by this long distance to Nan Cunhui.
At the gift ceremony, Fais’s entourage told CHINT that Fais was worried that the consignment would damage the gift. During the trip from Greece to China, he kept and took care of it by himself throughout the journey, from the plane, high-speed rail, to car. Nan Cunhui received this precious gift from Fais, and cordially greeted Fais for his hard work, being grateful for having such a family-like customer.
The cooperation between CHINT and Fais began in the 1990s. From merely product trade to deep ploughing of the Greek market, the two sides have cooperated more and more closely and realized win-win. CEO of CHINT Electric and President of CHINT Global, said when reviewing the cooperation with Fais, “This seems to be a destined fate.” Fais is the first international customer of CHINT with the longest cooperation time.
Whenever CHINT executives travel to Europe and participate in exhibition activities in Europe, they would meet Fais to share and discuss the development of CHINT and the development strategy of the European market.
Over the past 30 years, Fais has witnessed and participated in the thorny journey of CHINT’s growth from small to large, from weak to strong, and has become an indispensable part of CHINT’s development. The country managers who have been in contact with Fais mentioned an interesting detail – all the business emails between Fais and CHINT can be called a “little essay”.
The email content is not only simple business needs, but also detailed market analysis, such as customer needs, industry trends, product technical requirements, and so on. In addition to business, CHINT and Fais have established a rare “family relationship” in the business world. Sean Xiao, Deputy General Manager of the Overseas Marketing Department of CHINT Global mentioned in an interview that Fais’s home is like an active CHINT Museum, and it still retains the first CHINT product he has represented.
This ship is not only a testimony of the 30 years of cooperation between Fais and CHINT, but also a brand new journey of developing CHINT’s “True Love Fan”, which will be passed on from generation to generation.
A Gold Medal-- 25 years of Perseverance in Helping Each Other
The cooperation between CHINT and Fais focuses on low-voltage electrical products, and has maintained a relatively stable market volume. However, opening up the Greek market is not as mooth “road”. In 2009, Greece fell into the national debt crisis, the economy declined seriously, the development of the electrical industry fell into a slump, and the cooperation between CHINT and Fais also stagnated.
However, both sides did not waver in their mutual cooperation. CHINT communicated with Fais on the latest developments and responded in a timely manner. In the first five years after the outbreak of the financial crisis, without any economic growth in Greece, Fais maintained its strategic endurance and invested 2.3 million US dollars a year to continuously cultivate the market and enhance the influence of CHINT brand.
Due to the fate forged at the Canton Fair, Fais and CHINT have become a community of shared destiny with a mutually-beneficial and win-win situation.
“Although Fais always make complaints about CHINT products in front of CHINT staff. In the face of customers, he recommends CHINT products and brands without reservation.” This may be the so-called “love kill” bar. According to Sean Xiao, a miniature circuit breaker product of CHINT has been customized based on the Greek market and won the market competition.
It is widely used in the Greek power market and has a market share of 80%. On the one hand, it is because of the stability of CHINT’s supply and the reliability of product quality; on the other hand, the promotion of Fais in the Greek market is also indispensable.
Moved by such a partner, CHINT specially created a pure gold medal engraved with the number “25” and presented it to Fais at the 2017 CHINT 7th International Marketing Conference(CIMF). In the Spring Festival of 2020, the pandemic broke out. Fais learned that the anti-epidemic medical supplies in China were in short supply, so he rushed around and sent the first batch of 30,000 masks to CHINT.
One More Look at an Exhibition
The relationship with Fais, a Greek distributor, began with CHINT’s first participation in the Canton Fair.
In 1992, Fais came to Guangzhou, China to participate in the spring Canton Fair. He went to CHINT booth and stopped, checked the products on the booth with great interest and careful observation. CHINT staff went forward and introduced the functions of each product to him with great passion, and left him the contact information.
CHINT got the first export order afterwards, which opened the first page of CHINT’s overseas business history. Since then, CHINT has realized the great potential of overseas market, started from the simple supply of products, and accelerated the pace of “going global”.
Obtaining an order is the first step to “successfully” going global, but the order delivery has been twists and turns. This is the beginning of the well-known cultural story of “800,000 sea transport to air transport” in CHINT Development: most of the products sent to Greece have been packaged, but the shipping schedule was delayed due to the yellowish shell of one product. “Use Air Transport!” Nan Cunhui immediately decided, “Our brand and reputation are not merely worth 800,000.
With CHINT’s brand and reputation, we can earn back ten 800,000s, one houndred 800,000s, and one thousand 800,000s! “800,000 is CHINT’s “customer-centric” commitment to customers.
The products that cost an extra 100,000 dollars in freight arrived in Greece on schedule, planting a seed for the later story and bearing the fruit of trust. Fais was deeply moved when he understood the situation and strengthened his trust in the CHINT brand.
Since then, he has launched a long-term and close cooperation with CHINT, step by step, steadily and steadily, helping CHINT to become a supplier of the Greek National Electricity Company and take root in Greece. During this period, Fais also encountered many difficulties, but he has not wavered because he firmly believes that “CHINT is the best”.
Because of this moment of stopping at the exhibition, the story of 30 years of growth has been achieved.
