My name is Deng Jun, the founder of Suzhou Agera Automation Equipment Co., Ltd. I was born into a regular farming family in Hubei Province. As the eldest son, I wanted to ease my family’s burden and enter the workforce as soon as possible, so I chose to attend a vocational school, studying electromechanical integration. This decision planted the seed for my future in the automation equipment industry.
In 1998, I graduated just as the country stopped assigning jobs to graduates. Without hesitation, I packed my bags and boarded a green train headed south to Shenzhen with some classmates. That first night in Shenzhen, gazing at the glowing windows of the towering skyscrapers, I made up my mind to work hard until I earned a window of my own.
I quickly found a job in a small startup producing water treatment equipment. With the attitude of learning without worrying about the pay, I worked diligently and was promoted to production supervisor on the ninth day. Three months later, I started managing the workshop. Shenzhen’s charm lies in the fact that it doesn’t care where you’re from—if you work hard, you’ll be trusted and rewarded. This belief has stayed with me ever since.
The company’s boss, who had a background in sales, inspired me greatly. I’ll never forget his words: “There are always more solutions than problems.” From then on, I set my life’s direction: to achieve my dreams through sales. I’m still grateful for that first job and my first boss who had such a positive impact on my life.
A year later, the sales manager from the water treatment company introduced me to the welding equipment industry, where I started pursuing my passion for sales.
Selling required me to know my products well. Thanks to my electromechanical background and production experience, learning the product was not too hard. The real challenge was finding and closing deals. At first, I was so nervous on cold calls that my voice trembled, and I was frequently rejected by receptionists. But over time, I became skilled at reaching decision-makers. From not knowing where to begin to closing my first deal, and from an ordinary salesperson to a regional manager, my confidence and sales skills grew. I felt the pain and joy of growth and the thrill of success.
However, due to frequent product quality issues at my company, I saw customers returning goods while competitors easily entered the market. I realized I needed a better platform to fully use my abilities. A year later, I joined a competitor in Guangzhou, which was the leading company in the industry at the time.
At this new company, I immediately felt how good products and brand recognition can significantly help sales. I quickly adapted and achieved good results. Three years later, in 2004, the company assigned me to set up an office in Shanghai to handle sales in the East China region.
Three months after arriving in Shanghai, encouraged by the company, I founded “Shanghai Songshun Electromechanical Co., Ltd.” to represent and sell the company’s products, marking the start of my entrepreneurial journey. In 2009, I expanded to Suzhou, creating Suzhou Songshun Electromechanical Co., Ltd. As the company grew, a new problem emerged: most of the brands we represented offered standard equipment, which couldn’t meet the increasing demand for customized solutions. In response to this market need, I founded “Suzhou Agera Automation Equipment Co., Ltd.” at the end of 2012 and registered our own trademarks “Agera” and “AGERA,” focusing on custom non-standard welding and automation equipment.
I still remember the anxiety I felt when we moved into our new, nearly empty factory with only a few machines and parts. I wondered when we would fill the workshop with our own equipment. But reality and pressure left no time for reflection; all I could do was push forward.
Transitioning from trading to manufacturing was painful. Every aspect—funding, talent, equipment, supply chains—needed to be built from scratch, and I had to personally handle many things. The investment in research and equipment was high, yet results were slow. There were countless problems, high expenses, and little return. There were times when I considered going back to trading, but thinking of the loyal team who had worked with me for years and my dream, I kept pushing forward. I worked over 16 hours a day, studying at night and working during the day. After about a year, we built a strong core team, and in 2014, we developed an automatic butt welding machine for a niche market, which earned a patent and generated over 5 million RMB in annual sales. This breakthrough gave us the confidence to overcome the company’s growth challenges through specialized industry equipment.
Today, our company has its own production assembly line, a technical research center, and a team of outstanding R&D and service personnel. We hold over 20 patents and maintain strategic partnerships with leading companies in the industry. Moving forward, our goal is to expand from welding automation to assembly and inspection automation, enhancing our ability to provide full-line equipment and services for industry customers, becoming a top supplier in the automation sector.
Over the years, as we’ve worked with automation equipment, we’ve gone from excitement to frustration, then acceptance, and now, an unconscious love for the challenges of new equipment development. Contributing to the progress of China’s industrial development has become our responsibility and pursuit.
Agera— “Safe people, safe work, and integrity in word and action.” This is our commitment to ourselves and our customers, and it’s our ultimate goal.
Post time: Sep-20-2024
