Traditional giants still have no core technology in the beach water purification appliance market

Just as the debate surrounding PM2.5 has led to the explosive growth of the air purifier market, the coverage of the “truth of the tap water” by a financial media has also given valuable opportunities for development to the high-end water appliances market represented by water purifiers. The pattern of the water appliance market in which companies participate in competition is quietly changing.

“After the traditional water dispenser and net bucket market started to show negative growth in 2010, the water purifier market for the mid- to high-end market has maintained a rapid growth of 150%-200% over the past two years, and this speed has become even higher this year. Fast.” Guo Chao, general manager of the Israel Strauss Water Purification Company in China who established a joint venture with Haier Group in October 2010, told this reporter on June 18.

It is precisely because this is a market with high growth and generally higher profitability in the industry, more and more companies are beginning to join in. In addition to the original drinking fountains industry, Gengyuan, Angel and other companies, including the United States, Haier, Jiuyang, and even the AO Smith water heater industry, kitchen appliance industry Fang Tai, and other home appliance companies also joined by way of a joint venture. It also includes foreign brands such as 3M that have advantages in the high-end market, and companies engaged in water-supply OEMs before the Zhejiang area.

And let many home appliance industry giants into the water appliance market is not only the industry's gross profit margin of more than 50%, more importantly, this industry is the home appliance industry's rare "consumables industry", that is, a one-time sales of water purification hardware In addition to income, income can also be continuously earned through the sales of consumables such as filter cartridges.

Taking the water purifier produced by the Haier Strauss JV as an example, in addition to the one-off sales of hardware for income of 4000-6599 yuan, the sales of 178 yuan/filter (260 liters of purified water) make it more profitable. High market.

It is noteworthy that Chinese companies still have channels and brand advantages in the water purifier market. In the core water purification technology field, home appliance giants such as Midea, Haier and Jiuyang have to adopt the latest giants of foreign giants through joint ventures. technology.

For example, Haier's MAZE water purification technology used by Strauss, and the United States in cooperation with South Korea's Qinghu Group, in 2012 and the use of the United States Dow Chemical's FILMTEC reverse osmosis membrane technology, with the Sirius to establish a joint venture company Adopts patented picogram technology from Korea, Dow reverse osmosis membrane and many other technologies.

It is worth noting that although the water purification equipment market is growing at a high rate, the current domestic market penetration rate is less than 5%. Some industry experts pointed out that there are two biggest problems in China's water purifier market: First, consumers and water purifiers. Asymmetric corporate information, Chinese consumers can not understand the internationally universal water purification technology; Second, the two major sales channels of water purifiers in the past few years are building materials market and MLM channels, relatively unregulated, product quality can not be guaranteed, these are It has hindered the continued expansion of this market, and the entry of more large companies will gradually regulate this market.