Kitchens as high-tech social spaces

Maeck Can Yue leads German appliance maker Miji's efforts to make cooking fun

About 18 years ago, Miji Electronics and Appliances, a German maker of kitchen products and systems, launched its electric stove in the China market.

The product is comparable to an electric vehicle insofar as being a symbol of environmentally friendly lifestyle inventions is concerned, said Maeck Can Yue, Miji's founder and general manager.

In early November, Miji introduced its latest induction cooker with various versions, including smaller portable ones and those with three to six stovetop burners. The cooker can be used at home and also at commercial kitchens.

Miji has also introduced in China its whole kitchen appliance range.

"All the products have matured in the German market. We are bringing them here based on our positive outlook on the consumption upgrade in China," she said.

As Maeck understands, Chinese consumers, including those in the lower-tier cities, have always pursued higher life quality and are especially discerning, in terms of kitchenware products.

Over the past four decades of reform and opening-up, people's lifestyles have now become a mix of the East and the West. Therefore, a large number of kitchen products have evolved based on lifestyle changes, a path that Miji has been taking.

China Insights Consultancy data showed that total sales of radiant electric stoves grew from 900 million yuan ($134 million) in 2013 to 1.7 billion yuan in 2017.

The total market size of the products will reach 3.7 billion yuan in 2022, with the average compound annual growth rate between 2018 and 2022 coming in at 16.6 percent.

Among the top five electric cooker makers in the China market, Miji was the No 1 seller, taking the lion's share of 36 percent, according to market research firm CIC.

"Compared to the Western consumers, Chinese people have shown a higher acceptance of new products and technologies. It is for sure that high-end and technology-enabled kitchen products will promise sustained growth in China. It is one of the major reasons that we will make high-end tailor-made products as the main product line here in the future," said Maeck.

In the early 1990s, Maeck received her master's degree in Germany where she got to study induction cookers. With a strong belief in the Chinese market's potential and the makeover needed for the Chinese kitchens, she gave up her post at a well-established company in Germany, founded Miji and relocated to China.

Over the last 18 years, Miji has set up 170 shops in more than 30 Chinese cities. In mid July 2018, the company successfully listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

According to its prospectus, its income registered an average compound annual growth rate of 8.4 percent between 2015 and 2017, and that for gross profit came in at 15.33 percent.

Its interim results for the fiscal year 2018 to June 30 showed that the company's total revenue exceeded 138 million yuan, up 40 percent year-on-year.

However, Maeck admitted that Miji faced some difficulties when it first introduced its products in China. Most Chinese consumers are used to traditional stoves with open flames. So, they were skeptical about electric stoves' ability to regulate temperature and cook food evenly and thoroughly.

But technology solved all such problems and even saved users the trouble of keeping an eye on the food throughout the cooking process.

With no open flames, there is little smoke, which provides a much healthier kitchen environment, she said.

More importantly, cooking is added with social function as people are no longer chained to the stoves. Family members can talk to each other during cooking, said Maeck.

"We can also apply this social networking function to a wider audience. When people gather together these days, they will usually chat over a meal. In this sense, we have organized a number of cooking parties to bring people together and share with each other their secret recipes. This is also a healthy lifestyle we have been advocating," she said.

The progress that Miji has made can be largely associated with the number of exhibitions that China has held in recent years, like the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai in November 2018.

"Electric stoves, like electric vehicles, are still quite new to Chinese consumers. The promotion would have been more difficult without the national-level exhibitions. With that, we will have the confidence to reach more consumers in China, and further explore the countries engaged in the Belt and Road Initiative," said Maeck.