Recently, the well-known power bank brand Romoss announced a shutdown notice, leaving its employees in dire straits. A middle-level employee from Romoss revealed that the five core senior executives of the company were largely untraceable after the incident and had reportedly fled to Malaysia, accused of treating the company as a “cash cow” by hoarding hundreds of millions of funds without being willing to compensate the employees.
According to Sohu Technology, a middle-level employee from Romoss stated that the five core bosses of Romoss became largely unresponsive after the company’s crisis, and there were multiple changes in the corporate legal representatives. These top-level executives treated Romoss as a “cash cow,” purchasing properties and vehicles in Hong Kong, but vanished without a trace when the crisis hit.
The report did not mention the names of these five bosses, but public records show that Romoss has two shareholders, Lei Guibin and Lei Canhuo, each holding a 50% stake. There were two legal representatives, Lei Xingrong and Lei Shexing, with another supervisor, Lei Yanling.
The middle-level employee mentioned that Romoss’s monthly sales once reached 200 million Chinese yuan, but the company profits were withdrawn by the bosses at the end of each year, leaving only a one-month reserve for risk management. He stated that it was quite normal for each of these bosses to have hundreds of millions of Chinese yuan in hand, and if each of them contributed 50 million yuan, it would be sufficient to handle employee compensations and product recalls properly, yet they were unwilling to do so.
On the early morning of July 6th, Romoss issued a notice to halt production and operations, announcing a six-month shutdown starting on July 7th, with only a few employees being retained. The notice mentioned that the staff would receive their regular wages for the first month, but from the following month onward, they would only be paid 80% of the local minimum wage as living expenses.
The minimum wage in Shenzhen is 2520 yuan per month, and 80% of that amounts to 2016 yuan. The informant pointed out that this amount may not even cover rent, effectively pressuring the employees to resign without providing any severance compensation.
Romoss employees expressed that when the recall incident first occurred, almost all workers were reassigned to customer service positions to address the recall problems. However, just a few days later, the company suddenly announced the shutdown notice.
Romoss’s online business operations have also come to a standstill. Currently, their official flagship stores on platforms like Tmall, Taobao, and Pinduoduo have been closed, with only the self-operated store on JD.com still operating.
On the social media platform Xiaohongshu, a Romoss employee revealed to Tech Daily that over 300 employees from the headquarters and branches have been put on hold, with only 30 to 40 people remaining in the company. The overtime pay for working through the night last month to address the recall issues has yet to be disbursed.
Established in March 2012 with a registered capital of 6 million yuan, Romoss was founded by Lei Guibin targeting the demand for power banks among smartphone users, introducing the first 10,000mAh high-capacity power bank. While similar products were priced above 200 yuan at the time, Romoss entered the market aggressively with prices as low as 99 yuan or even 69 yuan, quickly boosting sales.
During the “Double 11” shopping festival in 2013, Romoss sold 300,000 power banks in a single day, generating sales exceeding 20 million yuan, topping the Tmall 3C category, and maintaining the best-selling title in the category for 11 consecutive years.
At its peak, Romoss shipped over 50 million units annually and garnered revenue exceeding 200 million yuan, with its products being exported to more than 80 countries and markets. However, to cut costs, Romoss had been using low-priced batteries for a prolonged period, leading to a decline in quality control.
In June of this year, Romoss faced a forced recall of 490,000 power banks due to battery material issues, resulting in the revocation of 3C certifications for a substantial number of products, followed by a complete shutdown of the factories. The middle-level informant disclosed that most of the problematic products were developed several years ago, emphasizing how profit maximization was prioritized by the bosses at the time, despite internal concerns about battery quality issues.