the BIG interview
Haier Europe looks to grow within the independent sector
The home laundry category is performing well; Simon King caught up with Steve MacDonald, business director, home laundry at Haier Europe, to talk about the market, as well as the performance of the company’s three brands, Candy, Hoover and Haier
W
hile at times volatile, the appliance market has held up well during the
pandemic and this buoyancy has been good news to both manufacturers and retailers. Steve MacDonald, business director, home laundry at Haier Europe, said: “We’re exceptionally lucky in the industry that we work that we’ve had probably such a buoyant rebounce from July/August last year. “We’re in a relatively buoyant market. It’s still as complex and competitive as it always has been and there are fluctuations in which brands do well, but a lot of that is down to the supply chain issues that we’re all facing at this moment in time – you can be very good one month, but not the next.” Mr MacDonald said that over the last 12
months, customers have been willing to spend a bit more because they’ve had more in their pockets. “Haier, in the laundry category, has done very
well,” Mr MacDonald said. “We were looking at some GFK information and in September, I think we’re anywhere between 2.5-3% on washing machines in terms of value; washer-dryers were over 3% in terms of value in September and we’ll start to see some traction on tumble dryers probably in the next quarter.” In May and June, Haier Europe was the number one manufacturer on washing machines in terms of value, but since then Mr MacDonald said, that there have been a few supply issues since – and the company’s share has gone backwards a bit. Haier Europe has picked Candy, Hoover and
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Haier to be at certain price indexes. Mr MacDonald explained: “If a washing machine is around £330, Candy sits at around 84/85 on the price index. We want to get Hoover a bit higher, it normally sits about 94/95 and in the last couple of months, we’ve been 96/97 – I’d love to see that go up to about 100 at the back end of next year. “Haier is really sitting with the likes of LG, Bosch and Samsung and it’s having some success there. Probably two years ago, it would have had a price index of under 100, we’re now seeing a price index on washing machines and washer-dryers somewhere in the region of 130 and that’s consistent – I think we overtook Miele in terms of value for September. “Haier brand gives us the ability to take on
the Korean brands. What we’ve been able to show quite a lot of people in the last 18 months is that we’re able to take on those brands. The juggernaut of a big Chinese brand comes with a lot of expectation.” Looking at economic trends, inflation is likely
to have effect into next year and the market will contract a bit, but it’s not expected to contract massively. Mr MacDonald said: “I think everybody’s been
relatively surprised at how relatively buoyant the market remains.” While online retailers were massively successful during the pandemic, Mr MacDonald acknowledged that people definitely remained relatively loyal to their own high street, with people going back to independent electrical
November 2021
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