Company Origins
Haier originated in 1984 when Zhang took over a failing refrigerator factory in the Chinese port
city of Qingdao. At the time, Zhang was vice general manager of the household appliance division of
Qingdao’s municipal government, and became convinced of the latent demand for refrigerators by
the sight of customers standing in line to pay cash for second-rate refrigerators as they came off the
production line at Qingdao General Refrigerator Factory. The local government wanted to appoint
Zhang director of the nearly bankrupt company which had to borrow from neighboring villages to
pay salaries to its 800 employees, and Zhang reluctantly accepted the challenge.