Since the beginning of this year, the home furnishing industry has been bound to negative keywords such as falls, detentions, and insolvency, making the upstream paint industry feel heavy.
The founder of Red Star Macalline, Che Jianxin, sold his controlling stake and was placed under detention by the supervisory authorities; Liangjiajia was insolvent, and its founder, Zeng Yuzhou, fell to his death; Wang Linpeng, the founder of Juran Home, was released from detention for only three days before choosing to jump to seek relief; Liu Bing, the founder of Fusenmei, was also detained... Now Gujia is in trouble too.
On August 5, 2025, Gu Jiangsheng, the legal representative of Gujia Group Co., Ltd., had an additional execution record, with an execution target amount of 1.092 billion yuan, and the executing court was the Intermediate People's Court of Foshan City, Guangdong Province. Tianyancha shows that this is the seventh time Gujia Group has been listed as a person subject to execution, with a cumulative execution target amount of 3.038 billion yuan.
He Jianfeng is the only son of He Xiangjian, the founder of Midea Group. This prince of Midea is unwilling to take over at Midea, but instead sets up his own business, spending 10.299 billion yuan to acquire 29.42% of Gujia Home's shares, becoming the actual controller. Since taking over, Gujia's stock price has dropped from 36.72 yuan/share to the current 26 yuan/share, a floating loss of nearly 30%.
He Jianfeng, the prince of Midea.
Gu Jiangsheng is a sports teacher at Zhejiang Shuren University. He resigned from public office in 2000 to take over the family business, and established Gujia Home in 2006. It was listed on the main board in 2016, becoming a leading enterprise in the domestic soft furniture industry, and has appeared multiple times on the Hurun Rich List.
Gu Jiangsheng, who made it to the rich list, has become a bit complacent. In 2018, he announced a sales target of 100 billion yuan and launched intensive mergers and acquisitions both domestically and abroad, acquiring German Rolf Benz, Italian Natuzzi (China operations), Australian Nick Scali, as well as a dozen projects including domestic Xibao Home and Banerqi.
Founder of Gujia, Gu Jiangsheng.
After the real estate industry crisis, under policies such as trade-in and stimulating domestic demand, smart home has become the future trend of the home furnishing industry. Home furnishing giants have become major clients in the eyes of paint companies, but the repayment period for home furnishing giants to paint suppliers is not so friendly.
Why do pancakes leak? Greed (to spread) too much.
Under the weak market conditions, the negative effects of blind mergers and acquisitions began to show. Gujia's total debt also rose from 2.535 billion yuan to 5.959 billion yuan, and the debt-to-asset ratio soared to 52.28%, far higher than the then Oupai and Sophia.
To alleviate financial pressure, Gu Jiangsheng began large-scale share reductions from 2020, cashing out a total of 8.04 billion yuan over three years.
So far, the company has distributed dividends to shareholders 9 times, with a total amount of 6.339 billion yuan, and Gu Jiangsheng, as the main shareholder, has received about 2 billion yuan in dividends.
On November 9, 2023, the Gu Jiangsheng family transferred 29.42% of their shares in Gujia Home to He Jianfeng's Yingfeng Ruihe Investment for a total price of 10.299 billion yuan.
He Jianfeng's purpose in acquiring Gujia is simple. Midea is in the home appliance business, while Gujia is in the furniture business, with 7,000 stores nationwide.
Furniture, home appliances, and smart control systems combined together make smart homes, so He Jianfeng's acquisition of Gujia is to lay out in advance for the smart home trend.
But ideals are rich, while reality is thin.
When He Jianfeng took over, the stock price of Gujia was 36.72 yuan/share, now it is 26 yuan/share, a floating loss of nearly 30%.
In 2024, Gujia's profits fell simultaneously, achieving revenue of 18.48 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.81%, and a net profit of 1.417 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 29.38%. The cash flow from operating activities was 2.68 billion yuan, but current liabilities reached 6.998 billion yuan, with interest-bearing debt reaching 7.444 billion yuan.
From Gujia's founder Gu Jiangsheng cashing out 20 billion yuan and leaving behind 6 billion yuan in debt, to Gujia Group being forcibly executed for 3.038 billion yuan, and then to Midea's prince spending 10 billion yuan to take over, the layout of smart home has not yet been completed, and has not yet formed a feedback.
In May this year, Gujia Home announced a private placement, issuing 104 million shares to Yingfeng Group controlled by He Jianfeng at a price of 19.15 yuan/share, raising 1.997 billion yuan. The raised funds will be used for the intelligent upgrading project of home product production lines, R&D projects for smart home products, AI, and retail digital transformation projects, etc. After the capital injection is completed, He Jianfeng's shareholding ratio through Yingfeng Ruihe Investment and Yingfeng Group will reach 37.37%.
The golden era of the linkage between home furnishing and real estate has ended, but the golden era of smart home has not yet arrived. At this time, the market continues to be weak, and some home furnishing giants that rely on real estate, heavy assets, aggressive mergers and acquisitions, and high-leverage financing are accelerating their exit due to misjudging the situation.
According to the announcement from the People's Court, as of the first half of 2025, at least 131 home decoration companies have gone bankrupt nationwide, setting a record for the industry's bankruptcy speed in nearly three years.
After real estate, the home furnishing and decoration industry has entered a deep adjustment. For paint and waterproof suppliers to survive in this cycle, low-cost and stable management is essential. Because this is both the lifeline for home furnishing companies and the way out for paint companies.