BSH has announced the death of former colleague Colin Blake, who has passed away following a very short illness.retired from BSH in 2014, but will be remembered as BSH UK & Ireland’s longest-serving chief financial officer working with Uwe Hanneck to bring Bosch, Neff, Siemens and Gaggenau brands to the country
Kaiser Appliances UK Opens Showroom in London
German family-owned appliance brand Kaiser opened its first showroom yesterday in London’s Kings Road.
The showroom enjoys a high-profile corner location on the iconic road that is home to many interior design and kitchen showrooms and is just a stone’s throw from the prestigious Chelsea Harbour design district
BSH achieves record €15.9bn sales in 2022, retaining top spot in Europe
Leading German appliance brand BSH has celebrated record growth for a third year running, achieving sales of €15.9bn in the 2022 financial year, despite challenges
BSH managed a growth of 2.5% on the previous year (currency-adjusted of 4.2%) despite supply bottlenecks, increased material prices and higher logistics and energy costs.
In addition, the company said that over the two previous years, it has benefited from a boom in the consumer goods business caused by the pandemic. This increased demand fell last year, while inflation rose sharply at the same time.
CEO Dr Matthew Metz commented: “Thanks to the loyalty of our consumers and trading partners, our strong global brand portfolio, our innovative products and services and the great commitment of our employees, we have mastered the past year well.
“Our aspiration for the current year: We want to continue growing profitably in all regions and product categories. In addition to managing the significantly increased costs – for example in the areas of energy, material and personnel – the focus is on making our supply chains even more resilient.”Stable growth in all regions
In the Americas region including the USA and Canada, BSH once again showed above-average growth in the 2022 financial year, with an increase of 16%. While in Europe, it remained No.1, despite delivery bottlenecks and increased energy and material prices, which were particularly noticeable in this region.
For the entire Asia-Pacific/Africa region, BSH achieved sales growth of 2% compared to the previous year. Due to special effects, such as restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, BSH recorded a decline of 4% in China. On the other hand, sales in the growth markets increased at an above-average rate, particularly in India and the Middle East.
With a clear view of the future, BSH is setting the course for future growth today. “Our central concern is to understand local needs in the markets and to develop and produce home appliances that meet consumer needs and improve the quality of life in their homes. For us, market proximity and international growth go hand in hand,” Dr Metz explains.
“At the same time, we are expanding globally. From 2024 we will be manufacturing refrigerators for the North American market in a new factory in Mexico. We have also invested in the Asia-Pacific and Africa region: In India, we have expanded our production in Chennai. And last week we celebrated the ground-breaking ceremony for our stove factory in Cairo.
Product categories cooling and dishwashing with strong growth
The strongest sales driver in the past financial year was the cooling product category with an increase of 8.8% on the previous year, closely followed by the sink product category, which was able to increase 8%. Cooking, the top-selling product category, grew by 2.8%. Here, however, the market was waiting for an important model change, a new oven series, which is due in spring 2023. Laundry care and consumer products, the small home appliance division, saw declines of 6% and 6.2%, respectively.
BSH customer service with its comprehensive range of services achieved a 2.2% increase in sales. Around 15,000 employees work in over 50 countries every day. 83% of all repairs can be done right away. This performance is also reflected in the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which continuously measures satisfaction with customer service, BSH said. The score rose again by two points to the outstanding value of 73 points. The success of customer service can also be seen in regular awards. In 2022, the German daily newspaper “Welt” awarded German customer service for the eleventh time in a row for first-class service from the Bosch and Siemens brands. The Bosch brand even emerges from the ranking as No. 1 in the entire household appliance industry, closely followed by Siemens in second placeIn 2022, BSH presented a range of innovative digital products and solutions, it said. The new premium oven series from Bosch and Siemens (shown top) was among these, while the Smart Kitchen Dock presented last year bundles a wide variety of Alexa and Home Connect functions and thus enables access to all services of the Home Connect platform as well as to recipe apps with smart cooking support such as Kitchen Stories, the company added.
For the Chinese market, BSH uses air quality sensors from Bosch in its refrigerators. These recognise bad smells immediately and automatically clean the air in the refrigerator with the help of active oxygen. In this way, 99% of all bacteria and viruses and 90% of all odours can be eliminated, the company claims. In addition, the networked device informs consumers via smartphone when food has gone bad.
The Bosch Group – and thus also BSH – is a member of the “Connectivity Standards Alliance”, an association of numerous large companies that are simplifying the smart home world with the new Matter connection standard. In the future, it will be possible to operate Matter-enabled household appliances from BSH and household appliances from other manufacturers in just one app.
In addition, expenditure on research and development increased by 5.3% compared to the previous year – BSH invested a total of €840m euros, which BSH is using to promote digital, consumer-oriented products and innovations.
Sustainable solutions along the entire value chain
BSH has been developing and manufacturing CO₂-neutral at all locations worldwide since 2020. One of the biggest levers for this is the constant increase in energy efficiency in production. In 2022, BSH saved around 33.4 GWh of energy with more than 230 energy efficiency measures worldwide. Self-generated green electricity is increasingly covering electricity requirements. BSH has set itself the goal of covering 100% of its electricity needs with green electricity by 2030.
In order to make the value chain more sustainable, the home appliance manufacturer is working with partners on new solutions. These include the use of recycled plastics and so-called green steel. These materials are used, for example, in the new Bosch Green Collection refrigerator, which will be launched in Europe in May. Thanks to the use of recycled, CO₂-reduced and CO₂-neutral materials, the resulting CO₂ footprint from the material is a third lower than that of the identically constructed comparison model with conventional materials
Mhelios, the new energy management service from Midea
Smart home specialist Midea has recently previewed its new Mhelios service, which acts as an intelligent energy management solution for homes
Mhelios has been described as an energy management solution, with a range of features to help homeowners have a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle.
The service can be paired with devices and facilities around the house such as solar panels, smart home appliances and energy storage systems too. By doing this, Mhelios can apparently get the most mileage out of green electricity around the house.
The system also features a smart energy management centre which reportedly has 98.2% efficiency, along with I-V curve scan technology and optimisation with solar energy. If a homeowner suffers an unexpected power outage and does not have access to electricity, the smart energy manager can offer unbalanced off-grid output technology and backup performance.
Beyond that, Mhelios uses artificial intelligence of things technology to track and trace a household’s energy usage. It also provides users with “intelligent control” of a home’s heat pumps and systems for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. Surplus photovoltaic power is converted and reused throughout the home, whether that is via heating, hot water or even space cooling.
Users can download a companion app to manage Mhelios, with options to configure energy storage, as well as monitor usage and cost savings.
Midea has said it has placed sustainability at the heart of its long-term company vision, committing to a Green Strategy that should make the company carbon neutral by the year 2060
MIDEA HAS LAUNCHED A NEW LINE OF BUILT-IN APPLIANCES IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MONDO CONVENIENZA
Midea has launched a new line of built-in appliances under the Midea brand in partnership with the important furniture chain, Mondo Convenienza. Designed to adapt to all the needs of the contemporary kitchen, Midea ovens, hobs, refrigerators and dishwashers are designed by conceiving each product as part of a single ecosystem, in which each line is united by the same aesthetic language for the benefit of functionality that every family can find in their own home.Mondo Convenienza is an Italian company specialized in the large-scale distribution of furniture and furnishing accessories
Whirlpool inaugurates the new Europe headquarters
The new headquarters measure 7 thousand square meters and accommodate 400 peopleThe new headquarters of Whirlpool Corporation was inaugurated in Milan on April 20th . At the center of an area in strong development such as the Certosa district, the building (totally Carbon free) is spread over more than 7 thousand square meters, distributed over two floors, for over 400 people and more than 100 different nationalities.The great novelty of the headquarters is represented by the new World of Whirlpool: a real journey through design innovations and latest generation technologies. 500 m2 dedicated to the group’s major European brands and their various narratives, in a journey through the company’s most innovative products.
Japan’s shipments of white goods up 3 pct in FY2022
Local shipments of household electric appliances in Japan rose 3 percent year on year for fiscal year 2022, up for the first time in two years, industry data has shown.
For the fiscal year from April 2022 to March 2023, the shipments totaled nearly 2.59 trillion yen (19.30 billion U.S. dollars), according to the Japan Electrical Manufacturers’ Association (JEMA).
During the period, shipments of washing machines in the country saw a record high, the association noted.
The growth resulted from rising product prices due to increased raw material and transportation costs, the association said in a report released Thursday.
In March alone, domestic shipments of household appliances climbed 3.6 percent from a year earlier to 251.8 billion yen (1.88 billion U.S. dollars), marking the third successive month of increase, the data showed.
In breakdown, shipments of air conditioners and washing machines reported year-on-year increase in March, while that of refrigerators logged a drop for the second month.
Samsung loss
Samsung Electronics Co. is likely to post an operating loss in the second quarter on a chip downturn and decline in mobile demand, in what will be the first quarterly loss for the world’s largest memory chip maker in nearly 15 years, according to analysts Sunday.
Samsung Electronics could suffer an operating loss of as much as 1.28 trillion won (US$961 million), according to an estimate by Hi Investment & Securities Co.
Balay receives an award as the company with the most social innovation
Balay received the “Most Innovative Company” award in the “Social Innovation and Sustainability” category at the First Conference of the Spanish Innovation Index (IEI), which was held on March 30 at the Carlos III University of Madrid. The awards recognized business innovation in 3 different categories: Business Innovation, Digital Innovation and Social Innovation .
The brand, from the BSH group, was named the most innovative Spanish company in this last category. The award was received by Fernando Alonso, Balay’s Brand Manager, and was presented by José Luis Cortina, president of the consulting firm Neovantas, an official partner in the award ceremony.
Hisense Prioritises Sustainable Growth to Build a Greener Future
Earth Day’s purpose is to engage people, institutions, and businesses to recognize their responsibility to accelerate the transition to an equitable, prosperous green economy for all. Hisense, a leading global home appliance and consumer electronics brand, has always viewed sustainable business practices as one of its top priorities, and is committed to achieving, and helping bring about lower energy consumption, and environmental sustainability.
The global consumer electronics giant, best known for its TV, Laser TV and white goods, has recently taken an array of steps to reduce its own impact on the planet, ensuring its manufacturing, supply chain and the products it produces are more efficient and sustainable.
With self-developed technologies, like its self-adaptive backlight control algorithm, digitalized power control algorithm, high-voltage LED light and drive technology, Hisense has managed to reduce energy consumption of each TV by 25%. Moreover, in amending the design of its televisions, the company has reduced the amount of plastic that is required to dissipate heat, saving 4,626 tons of plastic per-year, the equivalent of 514million plastic bags.
Hisense’s refrigeration category has solicited praise from the United Nations Development Program for its use of foaming technology to improve the efficiency of its fridges; a development which is believed to have saved nearly 6,000 tons of carbon emissions.
The company is also improving the footprint of its factories, increasing solar power generation in the plants it operates. It expects the total installed capacity to reach 60MW by the end of 2023, and the annual power generation capacity will reach 53 million kWh. The proportion of solar power generation in Hisense’s total electricity consumption is now at more than 10%.
Hisense is also keen to bring about a more sustainable world beyond its own operations, and to mark Earth Day it has launched a new tree planting initiative to promote the importance of safeguarding the environment.
To find out more about Hisense’s commitment to take us Towards a Greener Future, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcqzEepU98g
About Hisense:
Hisense is a leading global home appliance and consumer electronics brand. Hisense’s business covers multimedia products (with a focus on Smart TVs), home appliances, and IT intelligent informatio
