PPG Hearsay Crisis Scene Record

Following media reports that PPG founder Li Liang had absconded with $20 million, PPG related spokesmen and public relations personas made a clarification, and the media also received Li Liang's mail, saying that the report was not true and PPG was functioning normally.

Now, whether Li Liang has taken the money away is no longer a priority. After experiencing the wave of arrears of suppliers' money and advertising, and the resignation of executives, how far can PPG, a "light company" that created the myth of men's clothing selling online, go far?

PPG company is indeed "light". Compared with the reputation of PPG, the PPG company in Xujing Town, Qingpu, is not very well-known in the area. Even though reporters walked on the way to PPG office, they asked many locals, and they knew little about YES, PPG.

Recently, the PPG headquarters with high exposure rate is located on the side of a highway in Xujing town.

There are three other companies that share the same number as PPG, and PPG occupies the 5 place in the 6 buildings.

In yesterday's field unannounced visits, in addition to PPG's front desk, reporters did not see any responsible person.

The reply from the front desk is still the phrase "Li Liang is in the United States, and the marketing department is away on business, and he can not be responsible for the company."

In coordination with the "light mode" advocated by PPG, at present, its operation status is very "light", which is in sharp contrast to the serious business in front of other companies in the field.

"5" one hundred layers of a hundred meters of all windows pull down the blinds, because the front desk shows that visitors can not enter, reporters can only through the gap "snooping" the internal situation, so large a layer, empty.

If it weren't for the two floor lights, it's hard to imagine that this is the state at present. The company has gained more than 10 thousand yuan of sales revenue on the day of its opening in October 24, 2005, and then increased by more than 30% per month. Only by calling center and the Internet, the company can sell 10 thousand left and right men's shirts every day.

"Basically, we work at the call center customer service staff. We do not need to be very manual. The warehouse is not here. We do not deliver the goods through the headquarters."

The front desk explains the staff's few questions raised by reporters.

The reporter noted that in the total of 6 factory buildings, 4, 5 and two buildings were linked with PPG signs, but one of them was empty and full of dust.

One person in the field said that PPG had already returned the building.

To open the PPG website, it is still implementing preferential policies, but this time the flagship has changed from a single discount to a "200 to 60 yuan coupons" and discount. The website's preferential promise has proved its operation on the surface.

The conference was not held. Since the media broke the news last weekend, PPG founder Li Liang absconded with $20 million, the report has received the attention of PPG suppliers, advertisers and investors.

Although Li Liang did not show up, he made a clarification of "absconding" by sending mail. He said he was developing the market in the United States, and through domestic public relations company, he said he would send a statement on the matter and communicate with the overseas media on Thursday.

Li Liang made a clarification at the same time, media reports said, PPG before the luxury management team has fallen apart, COO Li Yong quit to potato network, vice president Huang Langyang pferred to rival Vancl, CFO Wang Yanfeng has left.

What the reporter learned yesterday was that CMO Zhao Yisong was not like the media reported that he had left the company, but he was on vacation, and the marketing personnel were "on a business trip".

Reporters can still recall that at the beginning of this year, when PPG was confronted with the same public opinion, many executives including Li Liang wore PPG shirts to cope with the crisis.

When yesterday's deadline, reporters still did not receive a statement on the PPG event which was released on Monday, and the planned overseas media communication will not be held as scheduled.

PPG has attracted more than $80 million in venture capital since its advocacy of "light mode", including August 2006, Huaying venture capital, Ji Fu Asia's stake in PPG, April 2007 Huaying venture capital, Ji Fu Asia's re stake, Kai Peng Huaying's injection of $50 million, and March 2008's investment in San Shan investment of US $30 million.

It is reported that PPG has sold about 40% of the shares.

The previous round of financing news was that PPG acquired $100 million in October, but this has always been questioned by the industry. PPG has never publicly stated the background of investors.

Since Li Liang had absconded with money, rumors came from the investment community that PPG investors, such as Kai Penghua, Hua Ying venture, and Ji Fu Asia, have begun to find new management for them, and have no longer been open to the media on PPG's own business.

More than 30 million yuan in arrears. In March of this year, PPG founder and CEO Li Liang had been carrying out several hearsay related to PPG debt dispute and capital chain breakup, together with PPG executives in Shanghai. Li Liang clearly pointed out that "the PPG capital chain has not had any problems" and believed that a company involved in debt disputes is extremely normal.

In less than 3 months after the clarification conference, there were Shanghai's China run emancipation Media Co., Ltd. and Shanghai AAPP Advertising Co., Ltd., which published a large "debt collection notice" in Shanghai media, asking for more than 165 yuan and 6 million 218 thousand and 500 yuan arrears owed by PPG, which caused PPG to fall into a crisis of confidence again.

According to the data released by PPG in March, the total advertising cost of PPG last year was 230 million yuan. Because of the huge cost of advertising, in Li Liang's view, "four and five million of advertising debt is normal."

However, a person who asked not to be named told reporters that the advertising expenses owed by PPG were far more than those disclosed.

According to the source, in addition to the news of the media and the Epro, there are still more "big heads" debts.

According to the statistics revealed by the reporters, three advertising companies have paid more than 35 million yuan in arrears and have been recovering from the PPG. From the point of view, the PPG has not been paid.

"In fact, I was also responsible for undertaking the advertising business of PPG through the introduction of these large companies. I am not PPG who owes my advertising fees, but I know that if PPG does not pay, these companies will not have the money to give me."

Those who do not want to be named have no choice but to say that he still owes the TV station about PPG advertising fees.

The reporter verified with the relevant persons of one company that he had resigned before 2 and March, but the debt owed by PPG before his departure did exist, which was much more than the figures put forward by reporters (the number of reporters was about 10000000 yuan), but it is not clear whether it has been returned.

Worried about PPG's "golden cicada", it is worth mentioning that these arrears do not include clothing suppliers who have disputes with PPG before.

When reporters got a new $100 million financing news from PPG, they called Zhong run media company, who was responsible for "debt collection", said that it was a matter of inter enterprise. They had asked for leadership before, and refused to disclose any information to the media with PPG's debt.

More suppliers also replied to reporters' questions about whether to repay or not.

Reporters learned that one of the three companies mentioned above had been lawsuits against PPG in the second half of last year, and therefore checked the PPG account through the head office of the people's Bank of China. It was found that there was no money in the accounts disclosed by PPG.

"Some payments are made by express company. The reason given by PPG is that the express is responsible for collecting money, so a lot of goods are debit in express company and can be directly paid by express company, so our debt collectors do not know which account is rich in PPG."

"If the creditor chooses to remain silent or not respond, he will probably be more worried that if we lose too much debt and the image of PPG does not exist at all, it will be even more difficult for us to get money."

There is the direction of debt collection, the reporter said.

What is even more troubling for them is that since Li Liang has always demonstrated that he has opened up business abroad, plus news that 80% of the new round of US $100 million financing will be used for the development and development of the US market, and will establish a global sourcing center. If PPG business is gradually pferred to the overseas market, how will the domestic business or finance be clarified?

In the past, in the case of Shanghai Tang Shen advertising communication company and PPG predecessor, "Shanghai Peggy Agel Ecommerce Ltd", the Tang God has not yet obtained the 930 thousand yuan arrears of Peggy's return to Tang God.

PPG thought that Peggy had only bought the trademark and part of the goods of PPG, but he had no obligation to return the debt. Therefore, the chasing people feared whether PPG would repeat the old trick and implement the "golden cicada".

The lawyer answered questions about the most worrying problem of the current debt collectors. The reporter consulted the lawyers.

The lawyer's answer is that investors or founders are not responsible for debts, and disputes with company debts need to be negotiated with the company. If the company is unable to repay, they can only make decisions according to the legal procedures, and then liquidate the assets of the company, and repay the principal debts according to the proportion, but they can not guarantee the full amount, which is also the risk of the company's operation.

"But the details need to be carefully understood," the lawyers say.

In October 2005, Li Liang founded PPG and cut into the field of men's shirt direct selling. In 2006 and 2007, PPG was awarded $50 million by Hua Ying, Ji Fu Asia and Kai Peng Hua Ying. In 2007, the advertising bombing strategy was implemented, and advertising in Beijing, Shanghai and other places was 230 million yuan throughout the year. PPG

Since the advertisement of PPG suddenly disappeared after November 2007, and in December 2007, PPG suddenly launched a discount sale website, the industry speculated that its capital chain was in question.

In March 2008, the PPG high-level group appeared to clarify the disputes over several arrears and the chain breaking of capital chain, and announced that it had invested $30 million in three hills capital.

In early September 2008, PPG's COO Li Yong Jin left office and entered Tudou as an executive.

In October 2008, it was reported that $100 million was injected into US Department stores.

But there are financial disputes with many advertising companies such as Shanghai Zhong run emancipation Media Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Jie Jie Media Co. Ltd.