Henry Cheng, AC Product Division ASEAN General Manager, Midea Group, China

Toshiba Thailand, as MIDEA Group joint venture branch company in Thailand, aims to build ‘Midea brand’ to become the top three brand in Thailand in the next 5 years to serve the recovering air-conditioner market and the rising demand of inverter air-conditioner.

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Brian Zhao, President of Toshiba Thailand Co., Ltd. reveals that Thailand’s economy is in recovery mode. Around 4.1% growth is mainly from tourism factor. However, air-conditioner situation did not grow as Economic do, -9.8%. Key factors are the weather is not hot as expect, while consumers spend most of their expenditure for necessary items only. In contrast to the market, Midea air conditioner has outperformed at 54% growth this year. One key reason is that Midea brand has been operating under Toshiba Thailand’s team and utilizing the same source of service and operation since the beginning of the year. This could boost more confidence in the market. Also, an introduction of quality products at an affordable price to the market and continuous investment in marketing contribute to such success. Another key success story is that Thai consumers have shown more confidence in Chinese brand, while other leading brands are slowing down.

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Many sources from the government forecast that Thailand’s economy will grow around 3.8% in 2019I and 3.5% in 2020. As Economic growth trend, property section tends to expand as well. In addition to this, many of its competitors are not expanding, as they should. This widely opens a great opportunity for Midea air conditioner to grow.

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“The key factor to drive our business growth is a launch of 5 new Inverter air-conditioner series including more than 20 models, which makes a full product lineup to satisfy the different markets. Moreover, we plan to continue our investment in marketing with our 12% of revenue, to refresh and enhance our brand. We would like to maintain our ambition to keep double-digit growth next year, with a target of around 74% growth, and aim to be top-three brand in Thailand’s air-conditioner market within 5 years,” said Mr. Zhao.

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Mr.Henry Cheng, AC Product Division ASEAN General Manager, Midea group, China said “Midea Group is the Chinese leading electrical appliance manufacturer and distributer. Founded 50 years ago, the company has operated establishment 18 factories across China and 15 factories in other countries, with 130,000 employees globally. In 2017, it earned global revenue of US$36 billion or 1,200 billion baht, rose 28% a year earlier. It exports products to more than 200 countries worldwide. Midea Group was ranked at 323th by the Fortune Global 500 in term of revenue and ranked at 245th by the Forbes Global 2000 in 2018 in term of revenue, profit, asset and market valuation. For the air-conditioner product, Midea Group is the world largest manufacturer, with a market share for Residential Air Conditioner (RAC) of 28% in China, which is the second largest in the country, and as China’s top exporter with 24% market share. As well, for the Commercial Air Conditioner (CAC) product using in office building, commercial building, hotel, hospital and townhome, Midea group has 11.5% market share in China, and is the China’s top exporter with 20% market share. The key success factor of the group is its cutting-edge technology and its progressively research and development, coupled with its complete production line for air-conditioner including compressor, coil motor panel and integrated circuit. Most importantly, the company has given highest priority in serving the needs of the new generation customers, who are more interested in eco-friendly designs. Midea air conditioner had won over 40 international design awards.”

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Mr. Brian Zhao also said “Over the past three years, the market share among all air-conditioner players has changed. While some leading brands have remained stable with a slightly decreasing market share, others have lost a great deal of market share and faced challenging competition. Nowadays, consumers are more confident on Chinese brand as Chinese mature manufacturing capability. Moreover, close collaboration between Thailand and Chinese governments under One Road One Belt project supports a good trading environment for companies from both two countries.”

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Midea Group has collaborated with Toshiba Thailand to promote Midea air conditioner since 2017 in order to serve the global vision of company that aims to be the world RAC air-conditioner leader, Midea Group targets to be Thailand’s top three popular brand within 5 years, with a target of at least 13% market share in 2022, and five years rooting line below :

In order to achieve this roadmap, First Product upgrading, Midea anticipates that the air-conditioner market next year will be recovering on the back of continuously rising demand for the inverter air conditioner. To meet the market trend, the company is going to enhance on inverter products with a plan to introduce three new wall-mounted split inverter products and two LCAC cassette and ceiling products to capitalize the rising demand.

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“Our three new RAC series are the wall-type air conditioner comprising of Ultimate, Mission and Forest. The highlight is our Ultimate series, which is FULL DC inverter air conditioner. Moreover, Inverter Quattro can FAST COOL the room within 30 seconds. It is also equipped with AIR MAGIC technology improving health by reducing bacteria and dust, but adding moisture to the air. Ultimate series is also the smart air conditioner, which can be controlled via smart mobile application. Next, the Mission series focuses on health and energy saving, while the Forest series is a perfect durable and stable product. For new LCAC product, there are a cassette inverter system with the four-direction discharge and a ceiling-type air conditioner,” said Mr. Zhao.

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Second Marketing investment. Aligning with our strategy direction, we will increase our investment in marketing in 2019 by putting more than 12% of revenue to build brand awareness by focusing on display in shop front and shop inside areas, promotion activities, above-the-line branding, and PC and installer training and servicer platform, which uses the same center and standard as Toshiba.

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Mrs. Kanit Muangkrachang, Chairperson of Toshiba Thailand added “The company believes that from now on Midea air-conditioner brand will be more talked about and become alternative for Thai people as a result of our branding strategy. We have increased the brand’s visibility aggressively since last year by displaying products at more than 500 spots with over 100 billboard installed countrywide. Moreover, the company has trained more than 3,000 technicians. The company is confident in Midea’s world class innovation coupled with Toshiba Thailand’s experiences and the strong teams of both companies, Midea air conditioner can definitely achieve its goal.”