“July 22, 2025 – The well-known Chinese power bank brand Romoss suddenly announced a halt in production. A mid-level employee of the company disclosed that the top five core executives had fled to Malaysia following the incident. Romoss is currently facing a situation where customer service lines are overflowing, hundreds of employees have been laid off, suppliers still under contract, and a stock of power banks worth fifty million yuan. However, there is no sign of response from the decision-makers at Romoss addressing these issues.
From July 21 to 22, the topic of “current situation at Romoss” once again trended on social media. According to in-depth reports from China and the business review media “Zhiwei,” on July 2, all departments at Romoss were verbally informed about the shutdown of operations. Employees were told that there might be delays in receiving their July salaries, and afterward, they would be paid according to the minimum wage standards in Shenzhen. Each department would have 1 to 2 employees left to handle basic operations. After going through days of panic, helplessness, and confusion, some employees expressed relief that the uncertainty was finally over.
At 1 a.m. on July 6, Romoss issued a notice of the production halt in their company communication group. Employees were allowed to retrieve personal belongings from the office on different time slots the next day, passing through two security gates before accessing their workstations. The security gates were later locked, and a company-wide communication ban was enforced.
Under the office building in Shenzhen, numerous protesting employees stood, along with suppliers who had millions of yuan worth of cooperation with the company, all waiting at the office location. Also waiting in uncertainty were hundreds of thousands of users still queuing online for recall procedures.
On Xiaohongshu (RED), users shared screenshots of queuing positions exceeding 170,000 for refund requests.
“One day after work on July 4, the company took away all our colleagues’ laptops and even the A4 papers from drawers at 3 a.m., regardless of their contents,” said Li Muhai (pseudonym), an employee from the product research and design department. “Now we can’t work anymore, as we relied on the company’s network drives and laptops for daily tasks, and we can’t even reach the company’s top management.”
According to the Shenzhen Market Supervision Administration website on June 16, Romoss recalled a combined total of 491,745 units of mobile power banks of the models PAC20-272, PAC20-392, and PLT20A-152 under the Romoss brand.
At 1 a.m. on July 6, Romoss suddenly announced the halt in production, scheduled to last for six months starting from July 7, 2025. Except for recalled employees, the rest would face temporary unemployment. During this period, the company would pay the employees their regular wages for the first month as per the agreed standards. From the following month, they would receive 80% of the local minimum wage for their livelihood. Social security and housing provident fund payments would also be made based on the local minimum wage standards during the period of shutdown.
The minimum wage in Shenzhen is 2,520 yuan per month. At 80%, it amounts to 2,016 yuan. Employees expressed dissatisfaction, stating that the amount was not sufficient to cover even their rent. This move by Romoss seemed to be a way to force employees to resign without offering any compensation, leaving hundreds of workers struggling to make ends meet.
Around July 12, a mid-level employee at Romoss informed a local media outlet that the five core executives of Romoss had fled to Malaysia following the company’s crisis, and legal changes had been completed multiple times. These executives treated Romoss as a cash cow, purchasing properties and vehicles in Hong Kong but disappeared when the crisis struck.
On July 15, Romoss released a statement on their official Weibo account, claiming that they had never stopped fulfilling their commitments, and the product recall and aftersales service systems were running as planned. Romoss mentioned that they noticed a lot of false information circulating online about the company, causing worry among users and friends. They committed to continue the recall service for an extended period, ensuring every application receives careful attention, with service quality unaffected by time or location differences.
Regarding the new statement released by Romoss on July 15, stating that “key members are present, and the recall service commitment is long-term,” an employee from Romoss responded on WeChat to ‘Zhiwei,’ saying, “Nobody is at work. Originally, there were over 500 people, but now maybe only around 20 remain.”
Romoss was founded in March 2012, with a registered capital of 6 million yuan. The founder, Lei Guibin, targeted the demand for mobile power banks among smartphone users and introduced their first power bank with a capacity of 10,000mAh. At that time, similar products were priced at over 200 yuan, but Romoss entered the market with prices as low as 99 yuan, even dropping to 69 yuan, quickly boosting their sales.
During the “Double 11” in 2013, Romoss sold 300,000 power banks in a single day, generating sales exceeding 20 million yuan and ranking as the top seller in the electronics category on Tmall, maintaining this title for eleven consecutive years.
At its peak, Romoss shipped over 50 million units annually, with revenue exceeding 200 million yuan, and their products reached more than 80 countries and markets worldwide. However, to reduce costs, Romoss used low-quality battery cells for an extended period, leading to a decline in product quality control.
According to the mid-level employee’s disclosure, the problematic products mostly dated back several years. At that time, the owners prioritized profit margins, despite internal concerns about battery quality, and continued using them.
Around mid-June, the National Certification and Accreditation Administration of China displayed that the 3C certification status for Romoss Technology and related companies’ fast-charging power banks was marked as “suspended.”
Li Muhai stated that the company’s power bank 3C certification suspension occurred on June 14.
Previously, Romoss employees mentioned that when the recall incident occurred, almost all workers were reassigned to customer service positions temporarily to handle the recall issues.
Li Muhai explained: “Despite the official recall mentioning 490,000 units, the actual number of people contacting us to confirm whether their products needed to be recalled far exceeds this figure. We sell tens of millions of units annually, with cumulative sales over the years totaling in the hundreds of millions, prompting the company to open the customer service platform permissions to employees from other departments.”
In mid-June, reports surfaced about multiple Beijing universities banning Romoss power banks on their campuses, citing safety concerns that these power banks with 20,000mAh capacity were more prone to explosions compared to other brands. The schools advised students and staff to immediately check and consider discarding these products. Subsequently, Romoss issued an apology statement and initiated a partial product recall. During this period, employees began noticing unusual behavior from the company’s decision-makers.
“Since the incident in March, I haven’t seen the bosses, including the manager Lei Canhuo and the founder Lei Guibin,” said Guo Qinian, a product manager at Romoss.
A supplier rushing to the scene to check on the company’s situation stated that they had approximately 400 million yuan worth of pending transactions with Romoss, but they were unable to reach any relevant personnel.
Guo Qini an explained that Romoss functioned as a family-run business, primarily managed by the four Lei brothers on a rotating basis. In recent years, the youngest brother, Lei Canhuo, took on a more significant role in management.
Guo Qini an commented, “For our product department, we used to meet the bosses quite frequently before the incident. We had weekly meetings where we would see him at least once or more. Looking back now, it seems the bosses had planned to leave a long time ago. After the Qingming Festival in early April, the four brothers quietly exited the organizational structure in the company’s DingDing group chat. Recently, colleagues discovered that the company had changed its legal representatives three times within a short span of three months.”
Shen Weichen (pseudonym) from Romoss’s product department revealed that the company still had finished products worth around 50 million yuan in cost value, all labeled with the Romoss logo, but they were unsure how to proceed in the future.
According to Shen’s estimation, Romoss had an annual turnover of around 1.7 to 1.8 billion yuan last year, with the power bank business accounting for roughly 80% of the revenue.
“Zhiwei” attempted to contact Romoss’s office phone several times to inquire about the details regarding these events but received no response.”