(Yicai Global) June 8 -- There will be no lay offs at Gree Electric Appliances this year and the Chinese household appliance giant is planning to recruit as many as 5,000 university graduates to help with the country’s difficult employment situation, Shanghai Securities New reported, citing the company’s chairwoman.

Gree will stabilize growth and not trim the headcount, so that employees can benefit from the company's development, Dong Mingzhu said at a shareholders’ meeting yesterday. And as more than 10 million college students prepare to enter the job market this year, the firm is preparing to enlist between 3,000 and 5,000 new graduates, she added.

Despite Dong’s promises, staff numbers at the Zhuhai, southern Guangdong-based company tumbled 8 percent last year from 2019 to 81,900 staff.

Concerning overseas sales, Dong said that Gree is committed to building its own brand abroad as it is better for a company to sell its own brand of products, rather than those of a third party.

Export revenue jumped 12.5 percent in 2021 from the year before to CNY22.5 billion (USD3.3 billion), according to the firm’s annual financial report. Gree sold goods to more than 180 countries and regions last year, just over half of which were from its own product lines.

“There has not been significant growth in exports, but also no decline,” Dong said. However the profit from exports is changing due to technology upgrades, she added.

There are concerns, though, that Gree’s largest shareholder Hillhouse Capital Group might start to pare its stake after losing more than CNY10 billion (USD1.5 billion) on its investment since December 2019. “The investment is absolutely stable. There is no problem,” Dong said.

Editor: Kim Taylor