In the decade from 2014 to 2024, the scale of China's dishwasher market has achieved a leap from "100 million" to "10 billion", with an omni-channel retail scale of 11.2 billion yuan in 2023, with an annual sales volume of nearly 2 million units, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 30%.
On the other hand, the current penetration rate of dishwashers in China is only 4%, which is much lower than that of ovens with the same quality kitchen appliances (30.8%). If the penetration rate of the European and American markets is higher than 50%, China's dishwasher market should be 100 billion yuan.
From the perspective of market concentration, local brands have the absolute right to speak. According to the report, the market size of dishwasher CR5 accounts for 83.7%, and except for Siemens, the other four are local brands. According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of the end of February 2024, the cumulative number of patents granted for dishwashers in China reached 12,364, of which nearly half came from domestic leading brands.
To sum up, we have reason to believe that under the guidance of the technological iteration and innovation of the leading kitchen appliance brand, the dishwasher will soon open the "reverse output".
Sharpen the spear of "localization".
As a "foreign product", the early development of dishwashers in the Chinese market was not satisfactory. As early as the 80s of the last century, there were Chinese companies that produced and sold dishwashers, but until 2014, consumers' perception of dishwashers was generally still in the stage of "heard, but not understood".
With the take-off of China's social economy, "quality life" has gradually entered the field of vision of consumers, and the dishwasher market ushered in the first round of market explosion in 2015. Although local dishwasher brands such as Fotile and Vantage were born at this time, Siemens is still the "dominant player" in the market: in 2015, Siemens dishwashers accounted for nearly 70% of online retail sales.
How can domestic dishwashers, which started relatively late, replace foreign brands and become a new choice for many consumers? The answer is: local innovation.
The most basic function of a dishwasher is to wash dishes, and to measure the quality of a dishwasher, cleanliness is the most basic yardstick. In the process of making Chinese food, cooking methods such as frying, stir-frying, and frying are commonly used, and the mouth of Chinese tableware is deep, and there are more oil residues on tableware, and the cleaning needs of such tableware are far from those of European and American families. Domestic brands are aiming at the needs of Chinese consumers, constantly optimizing the cleaning effect and enhancing the competitiveness of products, such as the "three-layer six-arm tornado wash" technology created by Vantage and the "high-energy bubble wash" technology of Fotile. Proven in practice, these innovative cleaning technologies ensure that when the cutlery is stacked together, both the front and back sides of the cutlery are fully flushed, leaving no dead spots for cleaning.
In addition to the washing effect, domestic brands are actively innovating in terms of water and electricity saving, basket optimization, water quality softening, and capacity that Chinese people care about, such as Vantage's lower basket lifting control patent designed to avoid bending over to store tableware. The deep accumulation of domestic brands in the field of key technologies of dishwashers is the key reason for "domestic overtaking".
Value added to the value chain to train a "leader"
After experiencing the embryonic period and the savage growth period, the domestic dishwasher market has come to a new watershed, and how to achieve high-quality development and accelerate the high-end transformation has become a topic focused on by the industry.
On this issue, Vantage has explored and summarized a set of effective "methodology", that is, adhering to the exploration and truth-seeking spirit of "scientific brand", guided by user value, and upgrading and iterating through the "easy to use, good-looking, and good-clean" technical route, the value chain of dishwashers has been expanded from the original washing to the integration of "washing, disinfection, drying, and storage" and "clean kitchen".
In May 2020, the "Test Methods and Technical Requirements for Dry Storage of Dishwashers" was approved and released by the China Quality Inspection Association, which marks the entry of dishwashers into the "dry" era. Vantage's original intention to create a "dry" dishwasher is to gain insight into the significant increase in the number of Chinese people's home cooking, and there are stricter requirements for the health and hygiene of the kitchen environment. Through a number of patented technologies such as "double pump cruise drainage" and "double fan breathing system", as well as the innovation of liner materials and processes, Vantage dry dishwashers solve the problem of dishware cleaning, disinfection and storage at one time, and the user value of dishwashers has been greatly enriched and strengthened.
With a deep understanding of the needs of Chinese consumers, in 2023 Vantage proposes the next-generation version of the answer to high-quality kitchens: "Clean Kitchen". Based on the two value bases of "white technology" and "net fashion", Vantage launched the "Juneng Wash" series of dishwashers, through the optimization of internal space and the redesign of the bowl basket, the capacity of Vantage Juneng dishwashers has been significantly improved, among which the explosive B8 has 19 sets of ultra-large capacity, which can wash dishes and pots, which is more in line with the cleaning needs of Chinese kitchens.
At the same time, the panel of the Vantage Juneng dishwasher series has added a nano coating, which is not easy to be adhered to by oil stains and is better cleaned. The inner tank uses an all-steel occlusion process, with a built-in triple fine filtration system and a one-key self-cleaning program for the waterway, which can realize internal self-cleaning and achieve an excellent tableware storage environment for long-term drying and antibacterial.
Looking back on the past decade, the number of new patents granted each year in China's dishwasher market has shown a trend of increasing with the same frequency as omni-channel retail sales. The increase in the number of patents granted reflects the great importance that local leading brands attach to technological innovation, and these new technologies and new functions have accumulated strong momentum for the next "jump" of the market.
It is believed that in the near future, as the dishwasher market cake is further enlarged and the penetration rate increases, the continuous development of domestic brands represented by Vantage and Fotile in this field will not only open up a new situation for China's dishwasher industry, but also have more opportunities to polish Chinese brands in overseas markets.