Home appliance giants "group" international big names at the sea just around the corner

In the recent period, home appliance companies have frequently made efforts in overseas markets. On May 18, Midea announced that it intends to acquire all the shares of robot and intelligent automation company German KUKA Group at a price of 115 euros per share through a voluntary offer; one day later, TCL and Egypt’s home appliance giant ELARABY Group announced in Shenzhen that it will The joint venture established a LCD TV factory in Egypt. The plant will be the largest color TV plant in the North African region. On May 24th, Skyworth Group will hold an unveiling ceremony for the "Sweden Southeast Asia Manufacturing Base" in Indonesia.

The domestic appliance market has encountered ceilings and has turned its sights to foreign countries. Although the domestic appliance brand's internationalization strategy is not a new topic in the industry, the previous ones were mostly explored by a single manufacturer, as recently as the density and speed. Fast and high-standard overseas surges are few. Many industry insiders told Nanfang Daily that in the coming period of time, there is a good chance that one or two major brands like Sony and Samsung will be globally renowned.

Japanese Home Appliances Shrinking Front Provide Space

For a long time in the past, Japanese household electrical appliances had dominated the global home appliance market, especially Toshiba and other brands, and had a comprehensive suppression of domestic brands. However, in recent years, Japanese household appliances have begun to shrink. On the contrary, domestic brands began to fight back.

Take Toshiba as an example. At the end of March this year, Midea acquired an 80.1% stake in Toshiba Consumer Electronics Co., Ltd., the main entity of the Toshiba appliance business, for approximately 53.7 billion yen (approximately US$473 million). At the same time, it began to sell some of its production bases around the world, and many base sales are related to Chinese brands.

In 2011, Toshiba worked with Egyptian ELARABY Group to build a factory. However, the factory began to sell at the end of last year. The TCL and ELARABY Group joint construction of the plant, in view of many people in the industry, is likely to fill the gap in the Toshiba retreat.

In an interview with Nanfang Daily, Mr. Mohyielden, chief marketing officer of ELARABY Group, stated that in the joint venture with Toshiba, ELARABY has a 51% shareholding and has a controlling interest in the plant. This cooperation with TCL will include infrastructure, technology, software R&D, etc. It will also involve the Toshiba brand.

The chief financial officer of TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings Co., Ltd. Wang Min told reporters that the shrinking of the Japanese TV series in the global market provided space for domestic TV brands to expand overseas, and the products and technologies they left behind would also be domestic manufacturers. Used by.

On May 24th, Skyworth's Southeast Asia manufacturing base unveiled in Indonesia was not unrelated to Toshiba. It is understood that the base of the company was Toshiba Indonesian consumer goods manufacturing company. It was established in 1996 and is a standard Japanese company. In recent years, Japanese brands have withdrawn from the home appliance industry due to the cost and profit issues, coupled with the strong rise of Chinese home appliance companies.

One of the four planning directions for future Southeast Asian markets announced by Skyworth is to try out the “Toshiba” and “Chuangwei” dual brand operation.

Domestic appliance cross-border acquisition accelerates intelligence

In this round of the trend of entering the overseas market, the case of the U.S. acquisition of KUKA is quite worth looking forward to. Unlike previous acquisition models, this is a cross-border acquisition. Midea does not have a robot manufacturing business, and KUKA is a well-known robot manufacturer in the industry.

Liu Buchen, a senior analyst in the home appliance industry, said in an interview with the Nanfang Daily reporter that in recent years, with the in-depth development of the manufacturing industry, the manufacturing industry is undergoing intelligent upgrading. The potential of the robot market in the future is huge, especially in the Chinese market. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that from 2006 to 2014, China’s labor costs have increased four-fold, and the demand for machine OEMs has increased.

Take the United States itself, many intelligent production lines will be introduced every year. Last year, the United States announced that it will invest 5 billion yuan in automation upgrades, and announced that it will introduce 10,000 robots in the next few years, and now the number of robots in the United States is only 1,000. If this can successfully complete the acquisition of KUKA, his own robot needs can also meet a large number of orders.

Another noteworthy aspect of the U.S. acquisition of KUKA is that in the U.S. publication of the information, there is a special emphasis on not interfering in the operations of KUKA. In the eyes of analysts, on the one hand, the United States does not have the operational capabilities in this area. Interference will be counterproductive; on the one hand, it is to learn from the failure experience of Chinese companies in acquiring foreign companies in the past. Excessive interference will lead to the loss of personnel and the lack of management. .

In an interview with the Nanfang Daily reporter, Liu Buchen believes that this acquisition should be regarded as a strategic investment. If it can be successfully completed and open a not-so-small market, then this cross-border acquisition may well lead to a wave of tracking. tide.

Made in China to get rid of "cheap" labels

The Japanese brands’ global frontline contraction, and Chinese brands quickly filled the loopholes left by Japanese brands. This is considered by many to be an important step for Chinese brands to go global. However, from high sales to world-renowned brands, it is not simply relying on data to decide. The world brands like Samsung, Toshiba, and Sony not only occupy a lot of market share, but more importantly, they can deeply enter the local market culture.

However, according to the Nanfang Daily reporter, the current domestic major brands’ overseas market expansion model mainly involves the acquisition of related branded businesses, overseas joint ventures, and construction of factories. This simple and instant way allows some domestic brands to quickly start to enter the international market. Gained market share and fame, but when it became possible to build its own international big brand and be able to base itself in mature markets such as Europe and the United States, it became another focus of many people.

For a long time, due to too much dependence on cheap labor for production, compared to manufacturing countries such as Japan and Germany, the quality of Chinese employees is relatively low, and Chinese manufacturing has gradually become a synonym for “cheap”. This wave of overseas invasions, in terms of scale and form, has been very different from the previous form. Many analysts are very optimistic about this and think that it is very likely that China's manufacturing industry will turn over.

Liu Buchen said in an interview with Nanfang Daily reporter that China’s home appliance brand has reached a critical point. In the next year or two, China’s home appliance industry may have one or two international-level weight companies like Samsung and Sony.