display
The corona pandemic brought Europe's largest home appliance manufacturer BSH a boom and sales growth above the industry average.
In the lockdown without going to a restaurant, people cook more at home, according to the Bosch subsidiary.
She now wants to increasingly implement the discussion about hygiene in products too.
"Many dishwashers and washing machines already have their own hygiene programs with higher temperatures," says BSH board member Silke Maurer.
Silver-ion filters are now gradually being introduced for the air in the interior of refrigerators.
Developments for special surface disinfection would be accelerated.
Today's washing machines can wash very hygienically, says Maurer.
Many consumers, however, do not know enough about the programs.
Technically, the laundry treatment could be supplemented with hot steam.
display
There are already devices with this function.
The manager left it open as to whether BSH might be going into completely new products.
"The most exciting question for the industry is: What is left of the changed customer behavior and how do we have to react to it."
For global household appliance manufacturers such as BSH, Whirlpool or Electrolux, it is a challenge to produce the right appliances for culturally diverse consumer habits.
For example, US consumers wash at rather low temperatures, and in China baby / children's laundry and adult laundry are mostly washed separately.
The Bosch subsidiary BSH is the largest foreign home appliance supplier in China.
In order to maintain its market position, BSH is also trying to score points with unusual products, such as a new luxury refrigerator for wine with a special temperature and humidity as well as separate cosmetics for Chinese consumers.
display
In 2020, the wine cosmetics refrigerator was launched in China under the Siemens brand, and now a Bosch version is also coming.
The focus is on the major trend in Asia in skin care and now also on wine storage.
“The Chinese market shows a great need for very high quality,” says Maurer.
After BSH sales shrank slightly for two consecutive years (2018/2019), the management was changed and the sales target switched to profitable growth, the management is now seeing success.
Adjusted for currency effects, sales rose by 8.5 percent in 2020, actually by a good five percent to 13.9 billion euros.
This is above the industry average of three to four percent.
The special corona effect is estimated at around three to five percent increase in sales.
The not precisely quantified earnings grew faster than sales in 2020.
In the USA and China in particular, the market share has increased, while in Europe it is still around 25 percent.
The capacities were overutilized in the second half of the year, it is said.
display
The increase in sales might have been even stronger, but there were delivery bottlenecks, especially from Asia.
This did not affect the new Bosch kitchen appliance Cookit launched in summer 2020, which is practically the alternative to the Thermomix from competing supplier Vorwerk.
He has relocated part of his Thermomix production to China, while the Bosch device is produced in Slovenia.
This is also where the fully automatic coffee machines come from, which are among the products with the highest growth rates during the lockdown.
One of the new offers in Germany in the future is a rental service for washing machines.
In this business, which already exists in the Netherlands, the company expects double-digit growth.
"Everything on shares"
is the daily stock market shot from the WELT business editorial team.
Every morning from 7 a.m. with the WELT financial journalists.
For stock market experts and newcomers.
Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music and Deezer.
Or directly via RSS feed.