July 16 (NBD) -- Chinese kitchen appliance supplier Vatti Corp Ltd (002035.SZ), an official partner of France's national football team, announced Monday that it will fulfill its promise to offer full refund for packaged "World Cup Champion" appliances bought during June 1 to July 3.

France clinched the 2018 World Cup victory by beating Croatia with 4:2 in the final in Moscow last night, which is France's second World Cup triumph since 1998.

The kitchen appliance manufacturer said in its announcement that all the refund process will be completed within 10 working days after the customer submitted the application materials. 

All the online orders will be refunded through gift cards, and consumers who bought the appliances in offline stores will be able to receive the refund directly.

The total cost of the refund will reach about 120 million yuan (18.0 million U.S. dollars) if the sales of the "champion package" hit 30,000 sets, a brand PR of Vatti surnamed Mei predicted, adding that the real costs of the World Cup promotion still stay at a reasonable level. 

The refund for online orders will be covered by Vatti and the cost of offline order refund will be provided by dealers, the person introduced. 

The sales of packaged "World Cup Champion" appliances only account for 20 to 30 percent of the total sales volume and the refund is completely affordable for dealers, said a dealer of Vatti in east China's Hangzhou. 

Apart from Vatti, a number of Chinese brands partner with national football teams of different countries. The consumer electronics company Sichuan Changhong Electric Co Ltd (600839.SH) chooses to sponsor Belgian team while the gas water heater manufacturer Guangdong Vanward New Electric Co Ltd (002543.SZ) becomes an official partner of Argentine team.

Besides, Brazilian football star Neymar Jr. was appointed the global brand ambassador of Television manufacture TCL in April this year. 

According to latest data from market research company Zenith, advertising expenses of enterprises during the 2018 World Cup totaled 2.4 billion U.S. dollars, and Chinese companies spent 835 million U.S. dollars on advertisements in this period, more than twice the expense of American enterprises. 

The home appliance giant Hisense spent around 100 million U.S. dollars to become the official sponsor of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. 

The significantly high exposure push Hisense's sales in Russia to a new record high, representing a 300 percent surge in half a month since the World Cup began.

 

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn

Editor: Zhang Lingxiao