[Reporter]: Thank you very much Mr. President for accepting our interview. Because this year I learned that Asston is the twenty-fifth anniversary of entering China, and it is also a key time node. Asston has always been committed to contributing to energy conservation and environmental protection. I want to know how we are evolving on our products. What are the steps for our specific product development and application? Where is our focus this year?
[Reporter]: I am concerned that this year Aston has invested a lot of new products into the market. I want to know the new products invested in the previous period. What is the market feedback we receive now?
[Ariston Serio]: In general, the feedback from the market is still very positive. Some time ago we released our new electric water heater, which is the FLAT flat electric water heater. Because the tablet is a trend now, it is unprecedented in the entire industry, and it is also a very innovative new product that breaks through the tradition, and it is very, very good from the current feedback. In addition, we are in air-energy water heaters, because air energy itself is a relatively new concept. We have launched this new technology since last year, both in terms of sales and consumers. The feedback is very good. Of course, we have introduced a very large number of new products. Many things still take time for consumers to slowly accept some of its new ideas and new product features. This requires us to slowly educate and guide consumers. .
[Reporter]: I went to visit the factory last time. Our new products were still in the rough stage. There were some undisclosed points. After the final unveiling, they were very shocked by this product. FLAT has taken a different approach to create a new water heater with a beautiful shape. We have been working on environmental protection and energy conservation in the future. Will we continue this strategy in terms of appearance? Does this product affect the direction of our future product development?
[Ariston Serio]: The appearance is a factor that our products in the future will focus on. Why? We are an Italian brand. Everyone knows that Italy is a country with more fashion elements. We also want to inherit this tradition and reflect it on our water heater products. At the same time, we need to pass it on to consumers. We not only have energy-saving and safe products, but we also have very modern and very design products. This is a trend of ours, and we will continue to maintain this trend.
[Reporter]: I heard a very good speech from our sales director and marketing director at the conference. In the future, we will be a very important growth point in Central and Southwest China, and the products will be more inclusive in the future, that is to say Consumers at different levels will set up more products. I want to know, because our second and third tier markets have been developing for a while, how is our specific development in the second and third tier markets?
Salvatore Serio [Ariston Serio]: At present, our national market share is about 10%. We just mentioned that the second and third tier cities feel that they are very good markets. Our development goal is to achieve 20%. The market share is almost twice that of the country.
[Reporter]: This year's visit to the market is generally reflected that the market is relatively cold, especially in the second half of the year will be very severe. What is your judgment on the overall market this year? What is the sales situation of our Aston this year?
[Ariston Serio]: Yes, this year's entire Chinese policy orientation does not support us very much. Our policy orientation has indeed affected our entire business, especially in our first-tier cities like Shanghai. In a big city like Beijing, the impact is still quite large. Aston's overall strategy is relatively comprehensive. We have many potential cities, such as Xinjiang and Chengdu in the west, as well as Dalian and Qingdao in the central region. Our growth is still guaranteed. of. At the same time, this piece is a domestic market. In fact, apart from domestic sales, we still have exports. The volume of our exports is still quite large. For example, we export to Indonesia and Vietnam. This is a very good balance.
[Reporter]: Mr. Serio used to manage the factory more. He may have more contacts with the workers on the front line. The rise in labor costs is also quite obvious today. Have we achieved better control in the rise of labor costs?
[Ariston Serio]: Indeed, this is not just a status quo this year. In fact, every year we have pressure from rising labor costs. But as you know, Aston's brand positioning is still very high-end, and our products are positioned very high-end, which may help us to bear the cost of a part of the increase in manpower. The resources of human resources have always been the focus of Aston's attention. In the process of recruiting our employees, our standards are very high. It should be said that it is generally higher than the industry.
[Reporter]: Today, we can see a lot of excellent dealers at the conference venue. Today, the new products that we finally showed also made everyone very excited. I want to know if we have come up with more in this environment. Better incentives to our dealers?
[Ariston Serio]: This is beyond doubt. We will definitely have some better policies for our distributors to better promote our condensing boiler products. The condensing boiler product itself is a renewable energy source. It is a very energy-efficient product. At present, the country has a subsidy for energy-saving and benefiting people. The policy orientation of the country itself is also very supportive for the development of such a product, so it will be good. Some of the policies came out.
[Reporter]: We all hope that this market will become better and better. Thank you for accepting our interview.
[Ariston Serio]: Yes, our company has been working very hard on energy conservation and environmental protection. From the GAL EVO new products we released today, it can be reflected. In addition to the high-end fireplaces that condense, we have a lot of investment in air energy.
HUZHOU JIHAO NONWOVENS FABRIC CO.,LTD , https://www.jihaononwovens.com