“The current world is fast-paced. The speculative camp and the concept of scramble in the market are very heavy. It is all fools like us to stick to the manufacturing industry as refrigerators.” General Manager of Hefei Xueye Electric Co., Ltd. to China National Grid Frankly speaking, 2017 is basically a comeback.
At the end of April, listed companies of home appliances issued the 2017 annual report one after another. In stark contrast to the surge in revenue, the gross profit margin of the refrigerator business showed a general decline. With the overall cost and market sales continuing to increase, the competitive landscape of the company tends to be different. The 'inaction' of smart selling points is also prompting refrigerator companies to return to the nature of preservation.
Sales increase broke
After the market peak in 2013, the refrigerator industry entered the adjustment channel. In 2014, 2015 and 2016, there were no significant breakthroughs in sales growth for three consecutive years. However, in 2017, the refrigerator industry ushered in a long absence.
According to AVC's omni-channel push total data, the sales volume of refrigerators in China was 33.76 million units in 2017, which was a year-on-year decrease of 0.6%. Sales volume was 93.9 billion yuan, an increase of 3.9% year-on-year. This is the first time in almost four years, the sales growth of the refrigerator industry is close to 4% for the first time.
In 2018, the sales of the refrigerator industry started well. Total data from AVC's omni-channel sales showed that retail sales of Q1 refrigerators totaled 6.56 million units in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 0.5% and retail sales of RMB 20 billion, a year-on-year increase. 10.5%.
Compared with the beginning of 2017, the situation in 2017 is even more gratifying. The increase in sales is mainly due to the steady advancement of product structure upgrading in the refrigerator industry. Guo Weide, vice president of Ove Cloud Network, told China National Grid that the current consumption power of the refrigerator market With upgrading and upgrading of demand, the proportion of sales of medium and high-end products has continued to grow, driven by consumption upgrades. For example, two doors have been in direct cooling in recent years, three direct-door cooling products have continued to decline, and three doors have become cold. The continuous sales of medium-to-high-end products such as the 4-door cross, 5-door, etc. are actually 'structural price hikes' that have contributed to the continuous growth of sales in the refrigerator industry.
As the ODM service provider of domestic refrigerators leading companies, Snowy Electric feels the same with product upgrades.
'The current refrigerator industry is in summary to push up, push big and push new ones.' Gu Wei said that from the perspective of Snowy Electric's orders, the proportion of high-end high-priced, large-capacity refrigerators has continuously increased, and new product development efforts have been made. The pace is also significantly accelerated.
The overall upgrade of door body, capacity and product technology has led to an increase in the average price of refrigerator products. With the sales volume basically stable, the increase in average price has become a direct driving force for sales growth.
According to the monitoring data from Ove Cloud Network, the average price of refrigerator products climbed by 14.7% in 2017. The average price of five refrigerators increased by 26.8%, the average price of six refrigerators increased by 11.1%, and the average price of refrigerators with four doors increased by 12.4%. The average price of open refrigerators increased by 6.0%. It is expected that in 2018, the average price of refrigerator products will increase by 4.0% year-on-year, and the average offline price will increase by 7.0%.
Gross profit rate is on the decline
China National Grid Invests in the 2017 Annual Report of Listed Appliances of Household Appliances, found that the consumer appliances of Midea Group, refrigerators of Qingdao Haier, ice-washing of Hisense Kelon, and refrigerators and freezers of Meiling Electric, The growth of operating income obviously underperformed the operating cost growth rate. Correspondingly, the gross margin of the refrigerator business is basically in a general decline.
'Rising raw material prices are the most intuitive factor, but the increase in labor costs and sales costs is also an important factor in the increase in the cost of refrigerators. ' Guo Meide believes that the control of labor costs and sales costs are relatively easy, and raw material prices rose Pressure is basically a 'hard landing'.
Shen Wanhongyuan analyst Liu Chih-chi pointed out that in the domestic sales business, there are generally three measures to ease the cost pressures: Upstream, part of the suppliers to reduce the price of some of the cost of the transfer; Downstream, increase the cost of product price transfer part of the cost pressures; Machine manufacturers through Improve production and management efficiency to cope with rising costs.
Wang Hongyin, business manager of the cold plate sales company of Hegang Group, explained to the China State Grid that there are relatively large industry leaders like Haier, Gree, and Midea. The upstream suppliers will give some preferential policies, but the scale of second and third line brands Small, so not all companies have the ability to pass on costs. Moreover, the market influence of second- and third-tier brands is limited. Because of concerns about terminal pressing, etc., it is generally not too large-scale procurement.
In response to rising prices of raw materials, listed companies in home appliances have stated in their annual reports that lean manufacturing and efficiency are improved through smart manufacturing projects, which in turn reduces related operating costs.
'Intelligent manufacturing projects can indeed improve operational efficiency, but this does not seem to be enough to digest the impact of the overall cost fluctuations.' According to Guo Maide, the most intuitive result of smart manufacturing is the reduction in manual use, but considering the overall social The increase in labor costs, the cost reduction effect has yet to be further verified.
In addition, the soaring sales expense is also an important factor affecting the gross profit margin. Among the four companies mentioned above, except for the significant change in the sales expenses of Hisense Kelon, the sales expenses of the other three companies have increased by more than 30%.
'Now the sales of home appliances have changed from previous users to grab users. The increase in the density of various marketing and promotional activities will inevitably lead to a huge increase in sales expenses,' said Guo Meide.
Indeed, the May 21 China Household Appliances Consumer Trend Analysis Report released by Beijing Xinhai Wei Information Center and Aowei Cloud Network pointed out that the annual sales frequency of home appliances has increased from 16 in 2014 to 27 in 2017. , The current marketing rhythm has been developed to the point of nowhere, no time to sell.
Smart 'Let's return to freshness
Browse home appliance listed company financial reports, Although the achievements of intelligent technology are still lacking in ink, the proportion of the narrative on the selling of fresh foods has increased significantly. For example, Haier's cell-grade nutrition and preservation of the entire space, the United States of the fine control of temperature and humidity, Meiling's activation of water molecules preservation, Hisense Kelon's fresh and energy-saving vocabulary and other occupies a considerable proportion.
Coincidentally, Ove Cloud.com pointed out in the 2017 ice-washing market summary report that, in addition to the emergence of differentiated doors, air-cooled, frequency conversion and other technological penetrations were basically completed. The technical development trend of refrigerator products gradually returned to the nature of refrigerators— - Preservation. Ovid Cloud Network predicts that in 2018, the overall market for refrigerators will remain stable, and a preservation war will kick off.
'The market basically stable, so companies generally take the initiative to look for incremental differences in differentiated products.' Guo Meide revealed that, from the monitoring data in recent years, the intelligent selling point has contributed to the growth of the refrigerator industry, and the company’s return to product nature is limited. It is also reasonable to upgrade the preservation technology.
In fact, although the penetration rate of smart refrigerators keeps increasing, the user activation rate is relatively low.
According to Gan Yonghe, Deputy General Manager of Midea Refrigeration Division during the AWE2018 analysis to the China National Grid, the low activation rate at the user end does not mean that the product is not grounded. In fact, smart refrigerators can improve the quality of life for all to see. The root cause is social support and collaboration. Not good enough.
In addition, the smart refrigerator user activation rate is low, and has a great relationship with the company's genes.
According to Gu Wei, Yunmi Refrigerator Co., Ltd., which cooperates with Xuehe Electric Appliance Co., Ltd., has a good performance both in terms of sales growth rate and user activation rate. This is largely related to Yunmi's Internet company gene and its specific consumer audience.
'The smart refrigerator user activation rate is low, and has a lot to do with the low frequency of use of related functions and scenes.' In Guo Meide's view, many smart refrigerators are, to a certain extent, large-screen and large-screen, intelligent and intelligent. The consideration of user experience needs to be further strengthened.
However, Guo Meide still optimistic about the development prospects of smart refrigerators. For example, intelligent ecological scenes represented by smart refrigerators for sourcing vegetables and fresh produce are good examples. The practice of the first disclosure of eco-income by Qingdao Haier's 2017 annual report is even more relevant. The industry trend of thought was shaken.
Industry knockout is inevitable
From the former 'Four Golden Flowers' to the current '1+4+N', the concentration of brand in the refrigerator industry has increased year by year.
Ove cloud network monitoring data, In Q1 of 2017, the market share of refrigerator brand TOP5 was 72.6%. By 2018 Q1, the market share of TOP5 brand has reached 77.6%.
According to Ove Cloud Network analysis, under the background of rising overall costs and e-commerce bonuses disappearing, the advantages of home appliance leading enterprises are prominent, while the technology of small and medium-sized refrigerator companies is lagging behind in terms of replacement technology, brand influence is weak, channels are single, and their own terminals The scarcity of personnel pushes up the sales of expensive and weak, may face the danger of shuffling out.
Moreover, taking into consideration the launch of self-owned brands such as JD.com and the siege of Internet companies such as Yunmi, the living environment of small and medium-sized refrigerator companies has deteriorated further.
“The shipment growth of cloud rice refrigerators in the first quarter of this year was very beautiful. This is also a pleasant surprise.” Gu Wei believes that Internet companies represented by Yunmi will enter the appliance industry and will not have a major impact on leading enterprises. What really hurts are the second and third line brands.
Gu Wei further explained that in fact, the hardware costs such as Yunmi and other Internet companies are similar to those of ordinary home appliance companies, but they do not care so much about the profit brought by the hardware. It is the ultimate goal to build smart Internet services through impulses. To a certain extent, Has also brought a lot of new inspiration and thinking to the traditional home appliance enterprises.
In addition, judging from the competition strategy and market performance of refrigerator companies in 2017, most of the foreign brands fall in price and price, while most domestic brands fall in price and share, and the average price increases. By 2018, Q1. Most foreign brands fall in volume and price, while prices in domestic brands fall. Most domestic brands are price-for-money and share, and average prices increase.
Refrigerator industry is to return to the essence of product preservation, or continue to deepen the smart interconnected eco-model innovation? Is restart the price war win the market, or insist on structural upgrades? May 23, the 10th China Refrigeration Industry Summit Forum will be held in Beijing. China Home Grid Refrigerator Summit preparatory team will also conduct in-depth deeper research into refrigerator companies in the near future.