Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic and weak demand, the global home appliance market and the operations of major home appliance companies in Europe, the United States and South Korea have declined or deteriorated. Compared with the downward trend of major overseas counterparts in the global market, the performance of Chinese home appliance companies in the global regional markets” It's amazing."
Data disclosed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on September 14 shows that in 2021, the operating income and total profit of enterprises above designated size in China's household appliance industry will increase by 15.5% and 4.5% year-on-year respectively; the industry's exports will exceed 100 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of more than 20%.
Judging from the performance of the first half of this year disclosed by domestic home appliance companies a few days ago, despite the severe external environment, under the globalization and localization expansion, the company continued to achieve year-on-year growth in revenue and net profit. What new paths and new kinetic energy are hidden behind the successful global operation of Chinese home appliance companies?
Outstanding results in the semi-annual report
Previously, the two major home appliance giants, Whirlpool in the United States and Electrolux in Europe and Sweden, released their 2022 interim reports. Both revenue and profit fell sharply. The home appliance businesses of Samsung and LG in South Korea also suffered the most serious inventory backlog and sales decline, reflecting the fact that Since the beginning of this year, the global home appliance market has been weak, as well as the difficulties and difficulties in the major economies such as Europe and the Americas.
In this context, Haier Smart Home's 2022 semi-annual report shows that in the first half of the year, Haier Smart Home's overseas revenue reached 61.481 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8%, and its operating profit was 3.634 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13%, a record high.
In the first half of the year, Hisense's home appliance export business achieved revenue of 14.322 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.57%. Among them, the TV business performed particularly well. In the second quarter, global TV shipments fell by 11% month-on-month, while Hisense's shipments increased by 5% against the trend, and its shipment share increased by 1.9 percentage points month-on-month, making it the brand with the largest increase in the world.
In addition, in the first half of the year, Midea Group achieved revenue of 77.8 billion yuan in overseas markets, a year-on-year increase of 5%. Gree Electric's own brand sales increased by 16.8% year-on-year, accounting for 53% of total overseas sales.
From the perspective of industry insiders, the decline or deterioration of the operations of major home appliance companies in Europe, America, South Korea and other countries is expected, which belongs to the cyclical fluctuations of the industry affected by the external economy. It is also expected that the performance of Chinese companies in the global market, especially in Europe, America, Japan and other countries has risen, which is a proof that the globalization layout of the company has entered the harvest period for many years.
Win the "hard battle" of global localization
The success of Chinese home appliance companies in the international market is inseparable from the contribution of localization. From market internationalization, to manufacturing localization, to R&D localization, Chinese companies continue to deepen the local market and take root in localized operations.
"Hisense's globalization is actually a high degree of localization." Fang Xueyu, executive vice president of Hisense International Marketing, told the International Business Daily reporter that in the past 20 years, Hisense has been able to face the local market, understand consumer needs, and gain insight into the industry through localization of research, production and sales. information and ultimately act on the upgrading of its own technology.
Wang Haiyan, general manager of the pre-research technology department of Hisense Home Appliances Group, was deeply touched by this and said that if she hadn't communicated with the Japanese R&D center, she would not have known that the Japanese have a demand for frozen hot rice, "We have to sit in the domestic office every day to develop A product that Japanese users love is almost impossible.”
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, Hisense has made frequent localization actions. In 2021, in order to meet the growing demand for air-conditioning products in overseas markets, Hisense Air-conditioning has successively launched a number of new production lines in Thailand; it has established white goods R&D centers in Japan, the United States and other places. This year, Hisense Monterrey Smart Home Appliance Industrial Park achieved mass production. This is Hisense's second factory in Mexico after the Tijuana factory. It mainly produces refrigerators, washing machines, ovens, air conditioners and other home appliances for the Mexican, American and Canadian markets. . Up to now, Hisense has established 55 overseas companies and offices, 13 R&D institutions, 18 industrial parks and production bases.
Glocalization has become the foundation for companies to win the trust of overseas markets. The reporter learned from Haier Zhijia that in the more than 20 years of overseas brand creation, Haier Zhijia relies on the localized layout of "R&D, manufacturing, and marketing", and adheres to the process of cooperating with its own brands to go overseas and M&A brands to develop overseas markets. A global collaborative R&D system.
According to the semi-annual report of Haier Smart Home, as of the end of June, Haier Smart Home had applied for more than 83,000 patents worldwide, including more than 53,000 invention patents, accounting for more than 63%; more than 15,000 overseas invention patents covering 30 countries .
Such a layout allows Haier to have a "zero distance" dialogue with users in the global market and differentiated to meet the needs of local users. In the first half of the year, against the backdrop of a 5.7% decline in the home appliance industry in the European market, Haier Smart Home bucked the trend and grew by 12.7%, far better than the industry growth. In South Asia and Southeast Asia, revenue increased by 22.8% and 11.9% year-on-year respectively.
Not long ago, Haier Smart Home signed a memorandum of understanding with the Egyptian Investment Authority to build an integrated factory covering an area of 200,000 square meters in Ramadan City, Egypt. 900,000 units of equipment will be exported to the local market and to African and Asian countries.