NMS Copes with the Epidemic Situation proactively, Adjusts Strategies Quickly and Makes Efforts to Seize Opportunities

Recently, NMS President Gong Youliang was interviewed by a reporter from Jiangnan City Daily and talked about how enterprises can actively cope with the increasingly severe global epidemic situation and quickly adjust their business strategies to seize opportunities under the current situation. The interview report also mentioned that President Gong Youliang believed that “The epidemic is only an episode in the company’s development process. In the future, NMS will escalate its business from single units production to an integrated industrial chain operation such as EPC+O service and spare parts production so as to realize the transformation and upgrading from a manufacturer to a manufacturing service provider.”

“Russian employees are to be withdrawn, and South African employees are under home quarantine…” In the long-term plan of President Gong Youliang, sales from overseas markets will account for 70% of the company’s revenue in the future. However, the COVID-19 outbreak gave him a hard blow – domestic factories delayed resuming work first and then foreign sales companies also faced suspension.

Mr. Gong Youliang did not become negative due to the terrible situation. “This year, Chinese Government will increase investment in infrastructure construction, and we are doing related supporting work.” He adjusted his thoughts to seize domestic opportunities and strengthen ties with customers in the meantime. “For regular overseas customers, we have sent them some masks and other anti-epidemic materials.”

NMS Lost Orders Worth Hundreds of Millions of Yuan in Q1.

Gong Youliang did not expect the epidemic to have such a huge impact. “I went to Wuhan on January 5 to apply for a visa at the French Embassy and came to the British Embassy on January 15 to record my fingerprints. At that time, nobody wore masks on the streets.”

On January 23, Wuhan began to lock down. The next day, employees from Wuhan were faced with returning home for vacation. Gong Youliang began to assess the impact of the epidemic. “Most of them are technicians. We advised them not to go back Wuhan because they would be isolated and when they could return to work was unknown.” Eventually, 145 Wuhan employees spent the Spring Festival holiday in the factory.

The epidemic situation became increasingly severe. On January 30, Gong Youliang hastily called together seven or eight business support personnel to set up a temporary epidemic prevention leading group to liaise with local government and other relevant departments. “We have accumulated a batch of orders at the beginning of the year. We must resume production as soon as possible. This is not just a matter of claims. If orders are cancelled due to the epidemic, losses will be too big with a large amount of initial investment.”

The epidemic situation was uncertain, and the resumption of work has been delayed again and again. Gong Youliang looked like a cat on hot bricks. “We have to run the machine first!” On February 17, after more than 100 employees were in place, which included 70 employees in Wanli District where the factory is located and dozens of employees staying in the company, NMS started production overnight.

Domestic factories had a hard time resuming work and the epidemic began to break out around the world. Six sales branches of NMS in foreign countries were faced with suspension. “Russian employees are to be withdrawn, and South African employees are under home quarantine…”

Foreign trade continued to be under pressure, and NMS timely adjusted its overseas plan this year. “We originally planned to achieve 200 million yuan in revenue this year. Now we have set the target at 50 million yuan to ensure the normal operation of foreign companies.” On March 24, Gong Youliang said in an interview that the total value of new domestic and foreign orders in the first quarter would reach about 200 million yuan, which would be 100 million to 150 million yuan less than that in the normal year.

NMS Seizes Opportunities of Domestic Infrastructure Investment

Under the epidemic situation, the previous marketing methods through offline exhibitions and door-to-door sales have been greatly affected, and e-commerce has become the only way to obtain customers. “For to-B companies, though preparations for e-commerce has started before the new year, it was still hesitant to plunge into e-commerce in essence. The epidemic has accelerated the process of our online publicity and promotion.” Gong Youliang is not pessimistic about overseas markets. He believes that the positive effect will gradually appear after the completion of the e-commerce system. In addition, by seeding customers masks and other epidemic prevention materials, NMS can build even more stable relationships with overseas customers.

There is no doubt that overseas revenue declines. But fortunately expanding domestic demand and increasing infrastructure investment have brought new opportunities to NMS. “This year, Chinese Government will increase investment in infrastructure construction, and we are doing related supporting work.” According to Gong Youliang’s introduction, the sales team of NMS has acted early and participated in the bidding of various project in many provinces and cities.

“The severer the situation is, the more innovation and development are needed.” NMS will continue to increase investment in research and development of new products this year.

“5-10mm bluestone is not easy to sell. At the market peak in Jiangxi, bluestone is 60 yuan/ton and can only be used as a stable layer for road construction. But through our sand building technology, valuable fine sand can be made. The sales volume of such equipment alone is estimated to increase by 20-30 this year, generating a revenue of 120-150 million yuan.” Gong Youliang said that NMS is currently engaged in the development of mobile crushing and screening stations. Construction waste, etc. can be processed into new building materials such as brickmaking, masonry, plastering mortar, etc. through machine crushing and screening, which have broad market prospects.

In Gong Youliang’s view, the epidemic situation is only an episode in the company’s development process. In the future, NMS will escalate from single units production to an integrated industrial chain operation such as EPC+O service and spare parts production so as to realize the transformation and upgrading from a manufacturer to a manufacturing service provider.

By Zhao Hongyu, Journalist from Jiangnan City Daily