Chinese home appliances and electronics are increasingly gaining popularity among European consumers because of their price advantages and innovation. These products come from brands like Huawei, Lenovo, TP-Link, Haier and Hisense, TCL and Changhong.
Though Chinese electronics and appliances have been in the European shelves for quite awhile now, the new wave of Chinese products are not just filling the shelves but taking over the market.
Experts say that Europe's preference for China appliances is a major shift in public opinion regarding "made in China" products.
China's European expansion can be attributed to the saturation of the Chinese market. Several companies have been making the same products for decades. Another reason is that many companies such as Haier and Hisense have been manufacturing parts and equipment for European companies.
Qingdao-based company Haier, for instance, had been manufacturing refrigerator parts for the AGA Rangemaster, a popular British company.
Haier's chief executive for European operations, Rene Aubertin, said that years of manufacturing parts for European brands helped the company asses the British consumers.
Aubertin said: "We wanted to focus on our own branded products and gain market share through our designs, high product specifications, quality and innovation. Since 2010, Chinese parts makers have been developing their own product lines. Innovation is one of our core values."
To gain the upper-hand in a market dominated by Bosch, Siemens and Electrolux, the Chinese companies' main recourse is to innovate. And when innovation is concerned, the Chinese had gone a long way, as exemplified by products such as the Haier American refrigerator, which is the best when it comes to energy efficiency rating. Combine that with a lower tag-price cost.
U.K.'s leading appliance retailer Appliance Online (ao.com) sells a Haier fridge for 400 pounds, while a less efficient Bosch fridge costs 700 pounds. Not a hard decisision to make for European buyers.
Haier Europe, which has a headquarter in France, has branches in Britain, Poland, Spain, Belgium, Italy and Russia. Haier's last-year sales reached $550 million, an increase of 10 percent compared to the previous year. The Chinese company has a 400-strong offshore workforce. A team of 15 engineers work in Nuremberg, Germany, to perfect the designs for dishwashers, refrigerators, and other popular consumer products. The company also has a research and development branch ni Lyon, France.
TCL is another Chinese company innovating electronic products. TCL Europe COO Didier Juin said that the company approaches the British competition through "affordable innovation."
Juin said: "We do not pretend to be a leader in innovation. You could say our intention is to be 'fast followers'."
TCL Europe's focus is on product design. Its touch-screen televisions, for example, are designed with bright colors like pink, green, and blue, and its target market are the young professionals. Through the company's R&D based in France, TCL makes it a point that every product passes the European standards. The company's R&D is also tasked to collect data on European users and pass along the data to the China R&D.
Hisense is also making a killing in the European market. Hisense refrigerators are becoming consumer favorite due to its low cost, reliability and advanced features. Yet they generally cost 200 pound less than Bosch Siemens products.
Like other Chinese electronics manufacturers, Hisense U.K.'s success lies in their constant innovation and market data collection.
It seems that the notion "made in China" no longer has a negative connotation as before. The phrase somehow has become appropriate as China continues to dominate foreign markets.