中国电池经销商在肯尼亚的祸福

 Africa Express here on China Radio International. I'm your host, Wei Tong.

Today we'll continue the story of a Chinese dealer Meng Shutian who runs a battery business in Kenya.

With unremitting efforts, the Golden Bell battery gradually attained popularity in Kenya. And in 1996, Meng Shutian enlarged the market to Tanzania and Uganda. As his business reached its most prosperity, he didn't expect sudden misfortune to creep up on him. It was the heaviest blow to him and his business. He almost went bankrupt. Just what kind of a blow was it? Stay tuned...

Meng Shutian didn't know that, before the arrival of the Chinese brand, Golden Bell, there already existed a large battery plant - which had accessed the Kenyan market some twenty years previously. It was the Kenya-America joint venture EVEREADY - which enjoyed a fairly large market share in Kenya. One day, Meng Shutian learnt a piece of shocking news: EVEREADY had fired 30 percent of its employees. He got upset and suddenly thought it could be related to an increasing market share of Golden Bell, which shrank the EVEREADY market.

"Since Chinese batteries sold at a reasonable price, they gained a greater market share, and were welcomed by ordinary consumers. So it broke the monopoly of EVEREADY. With the goal of protecting its own industry, the Kenyan government claimed the quality of the Golden Bell battery wasn't up to standard. And sales and imports were prohibited."

Meng Shutian became very distressed. He told me he had never experienced such a heavy blow before. Imports of the Golden Bell battery saw a sharp decrease from 400 million US dollars down to only 10,000 dollars. However, the sudden misfortune didn't discourage Meng Shutian. He thought of two sentences: One is: failure is the mother of success. And the other is: Failure is a double-edged sword. He analyzed that the failure mainly resulted from the lack of analysis in the Kenyan market. He started to change his business model.

"We couldn't focus only on importing products directly from China. That would entail unavoidable competition with the local products. We set up a battery processing plant in Kenya and employed local Kenyans, then our plant became a part of the Kenyan national industry. So we were protected by the Kenyan government, just like EVEREADY."

Meng Shutian gradually understood if he can run business smoothly, it is important to bring more benefits to the locals, rather than simply just making profits for himself.

"The raw materials and tools are transported from China, but all the workers here are local Kenyans. The Kenyan government encourages Chinese enterprises to invest in the country, because they can create more job opportunities. By changing the business model, we have offset disputes with the local enterprises."

In addition to enrolling redundant labors, Meng Shutian is proud that his plant has increased its tax payments to the Kenyan government. In 1998, Meng Shutian's battery plan paid nearly 100 million shillings of tax to the government.

"Besides, Chinese enterprises have boosted other industries in Kenya. For example, many custom clearance companies received more businesses through the output growth of Chinese plants. Every Kenyan who works for a Chinese company is able to support their entire family, not only themselves."

Meng Shutian has recently enlarged his products from batteries to electric torches, TVs, fridges, DVDs, VCDs and so on. Seven years after he first arrived, he set up the Golden Light Export Processing Zone where production, sales and after-sale services are conducted as a whole.

Before I ended my interview with Meng Shutian, he shared a secret with me. The reason why he has been able to stay in Kenya for so many years, while striving so hard to launch his business, is not only the potential market there. He is also reluctant to leave the kind Kenyan people behind.

"I think Kenyans are extremely friendly to Chinese. They are warm-hearted and glad to help whenever I come across problems. They like Chinese culture. Whenever I meet Kenyan children, they gather around me and show me Chinese Kungfu. They admire Chinese leaders for their contributions of turning a poverty-stricken country into one of the world’s largest economic giants within only a few decades."

Now that's all for this two-part story of a Chinese battery dealer Meng Shutian's experience in Kenya. We wish him more success, and yet greater contributions to boosting China-Kenya economic cooperation.

That concludes this edition of Africa Express. I'm Wei Tong. Thanks for listening and bye for now!