Bosch Home Appliances, as the home appliance business platform under the German Bosch Group, has maintained relatively stable development since taking over Siemens Home Appliances business. It also holds a competitive advantage in high-end consumer markets in many countries worldwide. However, it has consistently lacked the ability to make offensive moves and breakthroughs, remaining in a defensive position. Particularly in recent years, there has been a noticeable gap in market operations, product iteration, and user interaction compared to its peers, facing the embarrassing situation of insufficient momentum.
By Sun Li
After enduring the 3-year test of the pandemic, Bosch Siemens Home Appliances Group, also known as Bosch Home Appliances, which is one of the few foreign-owned home appliance companies still insisting on self-operation globally, encountered a severe test in 2023 with both its main markets and main product categories experiencing significant declines.
Whether this is just a coincidence or a harbinger of declining development for the company remains uncertain in the home appliance industry's view. However, for Bosch Siemens Home Appliances Group, the upcoming market competition and user acquisition won't be easy. Not only is the external economic and commercial environment constantly changing, but the internal competitive landscape and opponents are also becoming more formidable.
The latest financial report released by Bosch Home Appliances for 2023 shows that the company's overall revenue was 14.8 billion yuan, with revenue remaining basically flat compared to 2022 after adjusting for exchange rate effects. However, a closer examination of the company's financial report reveals new developments: Bosch Home Appliances' revenue declined by 7%, with the North American market falling by 11.3%, the Greater China market by 10.5%, and the European market by 6.3%. Emerging markets such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the African continent declined by 2.2%, and the company completely withdrew from the Russian market. However, Bosch Home Appliances showed strong momentum in the Turkish market.
Amidst the widespread downturn in major global markets, Bosch Home Appliances' main product categories naturally suffered from a general decline. According to industry sources, Bosch Home Appliances currently owns well-known brands such as Bosch, Junker, and Siemens, which are authorized by Siemens Group, covering categories such as refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, range hoods, stoves, dishwashers, water purifiers, and smart cooking machines, mainly focusing on high-end and embedded solutions for kitchen appliances.
In the past year of 2023, Bosch Home Appliances admitted in its annual report that it was impacted by factors such as weak market demand, a sluggish real estate market, and price wars with competitors from Asia such as China, resulting in sales declines in categories such as refrigerators, kitchen appliances, and dishwashers, while achieving positive performance in categories such as washing machines and dryers. However, the decline in major categories will inevitably drag down Bosch Home Appliances' overall revenue.
It is also worth noting that compared to competitors such as Haier, Midea, Samsung, and LG, Bosch Home Appliances' operating categories have shorter product lines and face fragmentation in scenario-based and bundled offerings. In other words, in the wave of competition in whole-home smart appliances and smart homes, Bosch Siemens Home Appliances has already lost at the starting line.
With Siemens Group and Philips Group successively exiting the home appliance business, as well as European veteran home appliance giant Electrolux seeking acquisition, and American home appliance giant Whirlpool gradually selling its home appliance business in non-U.S. markets to its peers, the future of Bosch Home Appliances, as the home appliance business platform under the German Bosch Group, whether it will exit the self-operation of the home appliance business, directly sell to its peers, or seek joint operation methods, remains to be seen?
The home appliance industry believes that this question still needs time to be answered. However, the final trend of the home appliance industry and the competitive landscape of major leading companies are already evident. That is, the reshuffle of the home appliance market has transitioned from large enterprises cleaning up small enterprises to large enterprises cleaning up and squeezing each other.
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