Haier aims to become a formidable force in consumer electronics

Dubai: China’s consumer electronics giant, Haier, seeks to fill the gap made due to the shrinking of Japanese brands in the market and become a formidable force.

“The Japanese brands are shrinking and their models and number of product ranges is also shrinking. They have shrunk and we have met them at half way now in terms of range. As they [Japanese brands] fade away, our job will be to grab the market share as much as possible,” Aamer Khan, Director of Haier Middle East, told Gulf News at the opening of the company’s first brand showroom in the UAE on Monday.

Haier has done that in lot of global markets and “we see no reason why it cannot be replicated here,” he added.

According to market research company, Euromonitor International, Haier is ranked as the number one appliance brand for the fifth consecutive year in 2013. The company expanded its market share by sales volume to 9.7 per cent last year.

Exponential growth

“Our growth has been exponential as we come from a very low base. We are looking at 60-70 per cent year-on-year growth in the next three to four years in the region,” he said.

The bilateral trade between UAE-China has been growing and in 2012 it stood at $48.4 billion.

“We are expecting around 10 per cent growth every year and consumer electronics play a key role,” said Zhang Yi, Economic and Commercial Counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in the UAE.

The company has invested Dh500,000 for the 2,500 square feet showroom in Bur Dubai in partnership with Hafet Electrical.

“We will be opening our next showroom in Abu Dhabi followed by other emirates in the UAE. This year, around two more exclusive showrooms will be opened in the UAE. The new showroom is targeting the country’s low, mid and high income families and individuals who are looking for value for money plus with value-added features,” said Liang Xiao, general manager of Haier overseas department — GCC areas.

Right now, Haier is strengthening its distribution network to promote the brand and improve visibility.

“We need to improve our visibility as other Chinese brands have become very aggressive. But we see that as a positive sign as one of the main hurdles we had in the past was that the Chinese brands were not regarded as a formidable force,” Khan said.

The Korean brands cannot “bring the prices down” beyond a certain point due to the investment they have made and there are challenges now. This has created a gap in the market and “Chinese brands, if they play their cards right, have a good chance to improve their brand image,” he said.