BSH plans further investment in China as the markets grows

Upbeat about the Chinese market, BSH Home Appliances Corp, the German home appliances manufacturer, plans to add more investment in digitalization-themed innovation in this massive market in the coming years.

With China boosting policy support to increase consumer spending and unleash the country's purchasing potential, a key force that propels the nation's economic growth, Alexander Dony, BSH's chief sales and marketing officer, said the Munich-headquartered group will increase its investment in multiple fields, including research and development and artificial intelligence, in the country in the next stage.

"Our new research and development center in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, has more than 800 engineers, making it the largest comprehensive R&D center for our group in the world. Currently, about 90 percent of our products are developed and produced locally," he said.

"As China is the driving force behind global innovation, we must make early arrangements and expand our presence in these areas, as well as introduce new products with a wider price range to attract more consumers," he said.

Speaking at a media roundtable during the Appliance & Electronics World Expo (2023) held in Shanghai in late April, the Dutch executive noted that Chinese Consumers are more likely to purchase built-in household appliances because they tend to have higher aesthetic requirements and demand perfect functionality from the products.

"Therefore, I believe that the development of built-in household appliances will surpass that of standalone products," he noted, predicting that the company's sales revenue would achieve double-digit growth in China this year.

Despite the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, soaring prices of various industrial materials and geopolitical fragmentation, BSH's sales revenue grew by 2.5 percent on a yearly basis to 15.9 billion euros ($17.27 billion) in its 2022 fiscal year. With more than 63,000 employees, the company currently operates 39 plants globally.

Entering China in 1994, BSH to date has established two production bases in Chuzhou, Anhui province and Nanjing, and runs a China R&D center and an Asia-Pacific data exchange center across China. It supplies products ranging from cooking appliances and dishwashers to laundry care products and refrigerators in this market.

China's growing consumption power is expected to bring significant changes in the global supply chain, said Guo Xin, a marketing professor at Beijing Technology and Business University.

Multinational companies will have a greater incentive to relocate their innovation and production operations to China to be closer to consumers who are at the forefront of technology adoption, demographic changes and new purchasing behaviors, she said.