Midea Group

Midea Group
美的集团

Midea headquarters in Shunde, Guangdong
Type	Public Company
Traded as	SZSE: 000333
Industry	Electrical Appliances
Founded	1968
Founder	He Xiangjian
Headquarters	Beijiao, Shunde, Foshan, Guangdong, China
Key people	Fāng Hóngbō (Paul Fang, 方洪波) (Chairman)
Products	Household Appliances
Revenue	$22.17 billion USD (2015)
Number of employees	100,000
Website	Midea Global Midea China

Midea Group (Chinese: 美的集团; pinyin: Měidì Jítuán) is a Chinese electrical appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Beijiao, Shunde, Foshan, Guangdong. As of 2013, the firm employs approximately 100,000 people in China and overseas across 21 manufacturing plants and 260 logistics centers across 200 countries.^[1] Midea Group is listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange since 2013. It has been listed on the Fortune 500 since July 2016.^[2][3] Midea produces wide ranges of lighting, water appliances, floor care, small kitchen appliances, laundry, large cooking appliances, and refrigeration appliances. It also has a long history in producing home and commercial solutions in air conditioning and heating (HVAC). In the summer of 2016, Midea made a highly publicized move to acquire German robotics company KUKA.^[4][5]

History

Starting with only CN¥ 5,000 to open a workshop for the production of bottle lids in Beijiao, Shunde in 1968, He Xiangjian (何享健), the founder of the company, has since turned Midea into one of the most successful private companies in China, with sales revenue for the entire Group declared at US$22.2 billion for 2011.^[1]

After its initial period of manufacturing bottle lids and car parts, the company focused on the manufacture of fully finished goods; specifically, electric fans beginning in 1980. Five years later, Midea produced its first air conditioner, a product which remains as the core component of Midea's business today. Over the following 15 years though, the company gradually expanded into a wide variety of other electrical home appliances, including refrigerators, washing machines, microwaves.^[6]

In 1993, the subsidiary which handled the core businesses of the company, known as "GD Midea Holding", proceeded with a public offering of shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.^[6] The GD Midea's parent company, known today as "Midea Group", remained a privately held company.

Midea opened its first overseas production facilities in 2007, in the Vietnam Industrial Park outside of Ho Chi Minh City. This would mark the beginning of a period of international expansion for the company. In the very next year, Midea formed a manufacturing joint venture with Belarusian microwave producer Horizont, in order to break into the various CIS markets.^[6]

2010 would see the first of several overseas joint ventures between Midea and American air conditioner manufacturer, Carrier Corporation. Their first joint venture is based in Cairo, Egypt, under the name of Miraco Carrier. The next year, Midea and Carrier continued on this course, forming a collection of closely networked joint venture companies in Brazil, Argentina and Chile, and another one separately in India.^[6]

In August 2012, the board of Midea Group announced that the company's founder, He Xiangjian, had informed them of his resignation as Chairman of Midea Group. GD Midea Holding Chairman and President, Paul Fang, was subsequently named as the new Chairman of Midea Group.^[7]

By April 2013, the whole company (including GD Midea) was publicly listed as Midea Group in Shenzen stock market (000333SZ).

At the end of 2014, the Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi invested CN¥ 1.2 Billion (around $200 Million USD) acquiring 1.2% of Midea Group. Despite being a small part of it, this opened the door to future collaboration between the 2 companies making Midea´s stock grow more than 6% in the day of the purchasing.^[8] It is said that both companies want to set a strategic cooperation for the future Internet of Things (also known as IoT) era.

In 2016, Midea made two major acquisitions, the first of which was Toshiba's home appliances business,^[9] followed by the even larger purchase of KUKA, the German robotics company.^[4][5]

Products

Midea's MDV-X VRF air conditioner

Midea's main business is producing home appliances and commercial air conditioners. It sells products domestically under its own name, while the majority of its export business is as an OEM and ODM for many well-known global brands. In recent years, Midea has begun launching its own brand in a growing number of foreign markets, such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile, India, Egypt, and most countries in southeast Asia.^{[10][11][12][13][14]}

The company's main product category is air conditioners, both residential and commercial. It manufactures other major home appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, and dishwashers. Midea also offers a wide range of smaller appliances, such as microwave ovens, kettles, water dispensers, and vacuum cleaners.^[15]

Midea annually wins 40+ design awards across a variety of reputable global design shows such as Red Dot,^[16] iF^[17] and other design competitions.

Beyond Midea's eponymous brand name, the company also employs a series of other brands. The Little Swan brand was adopted when Midea acquired the Little Swan company in 2008. Little Swan products are mostly laundry and refrigeration appliances. Hualing is a brand used by Midea for air conditioners and refrigerators, and was also adopted in 2008. MDV is one of the brands used by Midea for its line of commercial air conditioners, active since 1999.

Projects

During the last decade, Midea has landed several increasingly high-profile projects, peaking with the most recent wins to install large-scale HVAC solutions in all the 12 stadiums for the Olympic games in Brazil in 2016,^[18][19][20] as well as 9 of 12 stadiums for the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.^[21][22]

Research & Development

Courtyard of Midea's Research and Development Institute

Recently, Midea has maintained a policy of scaling R&D by consistently reinvesting 3% of company-wide revenues back into research and development efforts.^[1]

In terms of intellectual property, Midea has been pursuing registration of its achievements in innovation more recently than before: the number of patent and utility applications made by Midea between 2000 and 2004 grew from 2 to more than 40.^[23]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Midea (company).

• Chinese website
• Global website
• Forbes list of 2000 top companies
• Joint Venture with Carrier