Chinese appliance and TV manufacturers, who are facing falling sales, while cuddling up to Russia to try and grow share, are being forced to diversify their businesses in an effort to grow.
Haier, the Chinese brand that owns Fisher and Paykel is now moving into home laundry services while Gree who sell air conditioners in Australia are set to start making automotive parts.
Midea is also moving into medical equipment.
The move comes as medical Companies are going the other way buying up audio Companies with Swiss based medical Company Sonova Holding AG buying up Sennheiser, and US Company Masio announcing that they intend to buy Sound United.
This week we revealed how Chinese brands Hisense, Lenovo, Haier, Oppo, Realme, Vivo and the likes of ChiQ, have failed to announce an exit from selling their goods in China and are now taking advantage of the exit of Western brands such as HP, Microsoft, Dell along with hundreds of other technology and lifestyle brands who quite Russia after the Country went to war with Ukraine.
Sales of home appliances have slowed in China after the government introduced measures to cool down the housing market. At the same time sales of Chinese products in major markets such as the USA, Australia and Europe are slowing as consumers move to boycott Chinese brands or brands owned by Chinese Companies this has led to several big brands looking for new revenue streams.
Demand for Chinese television sets, in particular is falling and brands are desperate for growth even if it means diversifying claim analysts.
The Winter Olympic Games in Beijing had stoked replacement purchases as sales revenue rose 15% year-on-year in 2021. Analysts see such growth falling off in 2022.
In the appliance market Haier is focusing on expanding its “Mr. Cleare” smartphone-based laundry service that cleans clothes, shoes and sofa covers in Asia.
Haier already has more than 100 Mr. Cleare outlets in 30 Chinese provinces and municipalities as of June 2021 and is now planning to expand the network.
Users create orders in a WeChat social media app that are then picked up and returned by a driver.
Chinese brand Gree, which is known for its air conditioners, has set up a company to make medical equipment and related services.
A unit of Midea Group, which makes a wide range of home appliances, started a new company to produce automobile parts — mainly for electric vehicles and other new-energy cars according to Chinese news media reports.
With home sales falling in the second half of 2021 from a year earlier because of toughened regulations on property transactions and mortgage loans, sales of home appliances have been hit.
In addition, financial difficulties at Evergrande Group and other real estate companies have discouraged Chinese from buying new homes for fear that those developers may not have enough money to complete projects.
According to GFK, the home appliance market in China will continue to be weak in 2022. Researchers claim that Chinese domestic TV sales are likely to decrease 1.1% from 2021 to $20.6 billion this year, while sales of washing machines and air conditioners are expected to also fall.
Refrigerator’s sales are forecast to grow 4.5% in value not because of an increase in shipments but an increase in their prices because of higher materials and parts costs.