Haier Group is a Chinese multinational consumer electronics and home appliances company headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong, People's Republic of China. Its products include air conditioners, mobile phones, computers, microwave ovens, washing machines, refrigerators, and televisions. In 2011 the Haier brand had the world's largest market share in white goods, with 7.8 per cent. The origins of Haier date back long before the actual founding of the company. In the 1920s, a refrigerator factory was built in Qingdao to supply the Chinese market. After the 1949 establishment of the People's... Republic of China, Haier was then taken over and turned into a state-owned enterprise. By the 1980s, the factory had debt of over CNY ¥1.4 million and suffered from dilapidated infrastructure, poor management, and lack of quality controls, resulting from the planned economic system and relevant policies. Production had slowed to a trickle, rarely surpassing 80 refrigerators a month, and the factory was close to bankruptcy.
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