Chen Qihui, Chairman of Ningbo Huikang International Industry Co., Ltd., will tell you that stone troughs can also be used to test refrigeration technology.
In 1972, in a rented 300 square meter warehouse in Zhouxiang Town, Cixi, Ningbo, several farmers were busy around a stone trough containing pig feed. They were trying to manufacture refrigeration equipment, sweat soaked through their clothes, but their eyes were unusually focused.
Leader Chen Qihui wiped away the sweat from his forehead and watched as the equipment components gradually formed in the stone trough - no one would have thought that this scene of experimenting with pig feed troughs would be the starting point for a future global giant.
At that time, the village and town joint venture factory, which was established with 10000 yuan raised by three villages and 20000 yuan invested by the town government, was on the brink of bankruptcy due to a lack of sales channels and could not even afford electricity bills.
Chen Qihui was entrusted with the task at the critical moment, and with the help of his wife, they secured their first order from Hangzhou Oxygen Generator Factory to produce air conditioners.
When the villagers were making homemade soil equipment in the warehouse, they didn't know that this order was negotiated by Chen Qihui riding his bicycle back and forth more than 200 kilometers to Hangzhou, with the wheels shining like sparks.
After three days and nights of hard work, they finally mastered the production process of the product and successfully completed the first batch of orders from the factory. After delivery, the company earned 50000 to 60000 yuan, which immediately wiped out the losses and resulted in a net profit of over 40000 yuan.
In 1974, the factory built a factory building of over 1000 square meters for 15000 yuan, and thus embarked on the right track.
The business opportunity brought by a box of waxberries
In the early summer of 1979, Cixi, Ningbo, was as hot as a steamer, and the only machine in the factory had collapsed.
At that time, they collaborated with Shanghai Refrigeration Plant to supply oxygen concentrators to Hangzhou, but could only produce basic components and lacked complete machine technology.
After the machine lay down, everyone spread out the complete machine drawings sent by Shanghai Refrigeration Factory on the table, looking at the structural drawings marked in German with worried expressions.
The factory technician said, 'Reading blueprints is like reading a heavenly book.'.
Chen Qihui didn't say a word. He followed the clues and found the upstream of Hangzhou Oxygen Plant - Guangzhou Nitrogen Fertilizer Plant, which has the same scale as Hangzhou Oxygen Plant and a production value of 50-60 million yuan.
If it is possible to produce final assembly components, wouldn't the output value experience explosive growth? Chen Qihui made a decisive decision - go to Guangzhou and get the technical drawings.
At that time, there was no direct train from Ningbo to Guangzhou, so Chen Qihui had to take a 6-hour bus ride to Shanghai and then board the green train to Guangzhou, which lasted for 24 hours on the Zhejiang Jiangxi line.
This journey cost him a month's salary, half of which was spent on transportation, and the other half was a gift he brought to the head of the Guangzhou Nitrogen Fertilizer Plant - a box of Cixi Yangmei and Ningbo Shuimo Nian Gao.
For the sake of Cixi Yangmei's reputation, Chen Qihui finally asked the equipment department head to lend out the drawings within three days.
Back in Yuexiu Hotel, Chen Qihui locked the door, spread four parts drawings on the moldy carpet, and compared them one by one on the ground, because the fins designed by the Germans are like fish gills, and it is impossible to see them clearly without close proximity.
He used chess on the table as a deduction tool, with red, handsome, and black representing hot and cold fluids, and cars, horses, and cannons arranged in a fluid channel. Two days later, he finally solved the technical problem. He dipped his toothbrush in coffee and calculated the cost on the back of the drawing, which was 20% lower than Hang Yang's.
Finally, Chen Qihui negotiated a 56000 yuan order with the nitrogen fertilizer factory, elevating the factory from parts processing to a supplier of complete machine components.
The first order consists of 8 prototypes, with a sales price of 28000 yuan per unit, resulting in a considerable profit. Thanks to government support, Chen Qihui obtained her first loan from Cixi Credit Union, and her output value exceeded one million yuan that year, ranking among the top in Cixi.
Later, when recalling this experience, Chen Qihui said, "Looking at those hand drawn drawings now is very rough, but at that time we realized a truth - high-end technology is not bought, it is dismantled hungry
Delivering ice cubes to the world
In 2001, at the historic moment of China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Wellcome had just established "Ningbo Wellcome International Industrial Co., Ltd." (now known as Wellcome Technology), specializing in air conditioning accessories. Chen Qihui hired highly paid business negotiators who were proficient in multiple languages, and eventually successfully formed a joint venture with a Kuwaiti company to enter the Middle East market by sea.
At that time, Chen Qihui heard that the Canton Fair was an excellent window for international trade, but Huikang was a township enterprise and did not have the qualification to participate. Chen Qihui sneaked into the restroom of the venue and stuffed the product brochure into the foreigner's briefcase.
When Chen Qihui led his team to study abroad that year, he found that many people in Chicago were queuing up to buy bagged ice cubes. After asking, I found out that Europeans and Americans like to drink cold drinks: iced coffee in the morning, iced cola at noon, and iced beer at night.
But at that time, ice makers were almost only commercially available, often weighing tens or even hundreds of kilograms, and household refrigerators took more than 6 hours to make ice, making them unusable.
Chen Qihui captured this business opportunity: "Ice cubes in Europe and the United States, like Chinese tea, were just in demand. But no one made the big commercial machines' small 'at that time - this was Huikang's opportunity."
After returning to China, he immediately decided to develop a household ice maker and set the goal of "ice production in 6 minutes".
As expected, this goal faced strong opposition as soon as it was proposed.
The sales team said, "We can't even fulfill all of our air conditioning orders, why bother with small household appliances
The technical team said, "Home appliances require micro condensation technology, and we don't even have experts in fluid mechanics. How can we do it？”
History has proven countless times that many major decisions do not come from the majority, but from key figures who defy public opinion. Chen Qihui was a key figure at this critical moment.
He established a special team, selected key personnel from the air conditioning production line, personally dismantled refrigerator components, and invested 2 million yuan in research and development, which accounted for 35% of the annual profit.
According to Chen Yuepeng, the son of Chen Qihui, "It was very difficult to develop our own ice maker. We failed more than 20 times, and at one point we felt like we couldn't continue. There were also frequent heated arguments between father and son, several times to the point of hitting the table
But fortunately, they firmly believe that ice makers are the future direction of the enterprise, leading the team day and night to work tirelessly on technology.
In 2003, Huikang launched a revolutionary product - the portable ice maker, which only takes 6-10 minutes to produce ice per cycle. At the same time, more than 100 types of ice makers were developed, covering multiple ice types such as bullet ice, square ice, granular ice, and spherical ice, and 161 patents were obtained.
This innovation fills the global gap in household ice makers, with sales exceeding 100000 units in the first year of entering the North American market, quickly occupying 80% of the North American market share.
Nowadays, Chen Qihui's focus has brought abundant returns to Huikang:
From 2022 to 2024, the global market share of civilian ice makers will increase from 19% to 31%, ranking first in the world for three consecutive years;
In 2024, the revenue will reach 3.2 billion yuan, with 70% coming from overseas and 60% from the US market.
In 2024, Huikang Technology was awarded the title of "Manufacturing Industry Single Champion Enterprise" by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, standing at the global peak in the segmented field.
From technical experiments near pig feed troughs to mastering 161 patents; From a village run small factory on the brink of bankruptcy to an industry champion with a global market share of 31%. Chen Qihui has been working in the refrigeration industry for 45 years. He said that in order to be a business, one must adhere to craftsmanship. To create an industry, one must research and dig deep into it in order to achieve success.
Whenever young entrepreneurs seek advice from Chen Qihui, he often mentions the "Four Thousand Spirit" of Zhejiang merchants: "Even if living conditions improve, entrepreneurs cannot forget to travel thousands of mountains and rivers, speak countless words, do everything in their power, and endure countless hardships
On June 12, 2025, Huikang Technology officially submitted its listing application to the main board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, planning to raise 1.8 billion yuan.
When this' Chinese ice 'knocks on the door of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, it carries not only the dream of a company going public, but also the spiritual inheritance of a generation of Chinese manufacturing people who have traveled thousands of mountains and rivers and tried their best.
