In September 2018, Haier acquired the Italian home appliance company, Candy Group, and entered the small appliance market as such.
Please see the link: What impact does Haier’s acquisition of the Italian Candy Group have on the vacuum cleaner industry?
In fact, in August 2018, Haier’s rival City Hisense also acquired a home appliance company in Europe, Gorenje.
Gorenje is a home appliance manufacturer in Slovenia and is currently the eighth largest home appliance maker in Europe. Its existing brands are Gorenje , Mora , Atag , Etna , Körting , ASKO, UPO, etc. Among them Gorenje and ASKO are global brands.
Founded in 1950, Gorenja originally made agricultural machinery and began to work on washing machines and refrigerators in the 1960s. At the same time, it began its international journey. Listed in 1998, Gorenje grew into a leading appliance company in Eastern Europe, and the eighth largest home appliance company in Europe through decades of development.
Currently Gorenje has 3 holding companies, 42 sales companies and 5 production bases:
62.8% of its home appliance production bases are in Slovenia, 13.6% in the Czech Republic, 23.6% in Serbia, while its R&D centers are in Slovenia, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Sweden.
Its most important markets are Russia, the Netherlands and Germany.
Gorenje enjoyed sales of 1.31 billion euros in 2017, and EBITDA (profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of 76.4 million euros. The Yangtze River Securities Research Institute reported that its revenue growth is relatively slow this year.
Regionally, the Group saw 2017 sales of 439.6 million euros in West Europe, 744.7 million euros in Eastern Europe, and 1256.6 million euros in other regions.
Its home appliance sales in 2016 and 2017: 41.5% in Western Europe, 48.1% in Eastern Europe, and 10.4% in other regions in 2016. In 2017, 38.5% in Western Europe, 49.9% in Eastern Europe, and 11.6% in other regions.
Sales of brands in 2016 and 2017: Gorenje contributed to sales the most, 67.5% and 67.8% in 2016 and 2017 respectively, followed by the Asko brand—11.9 and 12.5% respectively.
Sales of products: the cooking appliance (cooking appliance) 42.7%, the refrigeration product 24%, the washing product 16.7%, the dishwasher 12.1%, and the small household appliance 4.5% (the vacuum cleaner is included).
In 2017, the total number of employees was 11,014, of which 6717 in Slovenia, 2263 in Serbia, 624 in the Czech Republic, 58 in Sweden, 428 in the Netherlands, 131 in Croatia, 115 in Russia and 678 in other regions.
Crisis management strategy:
Since the small household appliance business is only a small part of Gorenja, the vacuum cleaner is not stressed in the 2017 annual report, except the G-Force vacuum cleaners adapted to the EU energy efficiency regulations.
A simple search for the vacuum cleaners online shows that horizontal dust bag vacuum cleaners still dominate, while the cyclone models are less searched and the wireless vacuum cleaner models are not searched. In this regard, there is great space for development of the vacuum cleaner business. This also illustrates the current status of vacuum cleaners in Eastern Europe.
Gorenje is to Hisense what the Candy Group is to Haier. Both home appliances giants in Qingdao target large home appliances business in Europe. Anyway, it is a chance not to be missed for the high-growth vacuum cleaner business. It remains to be seen if Hisense will make a difference in this regard.
