A Q&A WITH GE/HAIER
Trends in today’s appliances
The world’s largest producer of major household appliances, Haier is the Chinese brand that famously acquired GE Appliances in 2016 for more than US$5 billion. While the brand isn’t that well known in Canada yet, it will be soon.
I recently had the chance to talk about it with the director of marketing for GE Appliances Canada, Lyndon Madden.
There seems to be more and more importance placed on kitchens, in terms of interior design, as well as appliances, these days. Why do you think that is?
For Haier, it’s all about small spaces. I think when you talk about a lot of the condos that are going up in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver now, the ones with compact footprints, the kitchen becomes part of the living space, so its esthetics are more of a focal point than they used to be.
People want their space to be cohesive, and they want things to blend in and go well together. They’re also paying a lot more attention to surfaces now.
When I was a kid, having a backsplash wasn’t really a thing; maybe you had wallpaper or something. But now, if you don’t have tiles, it’s a bit unusual.
A lot more people are working with solid-surface countertops, all kinds of different cabinets, and my general thought is that people are so proud of everything they’ve created in the kitchen that they want the appliances to complement that.
Can you tell me about some of the major trends in appliances?
One of the main things is a change in size, which is the main trend that Haier is meeting right now. Ninety-nine per cent of the homes in any given city in suburbia are going to have a 30-inch space for a range, a 36-inch space for a refrigerator and a 24-inch space for a dishwasher. But if you look at compact kitchens, in condos, there’s a significant shift: ranges that are 24 inches wide, refrigerators that are 28 to 30 inches wide, and dishwashers that go down to 18 inches wide.
The compact nature isn’t just about the appliance itself being smaller, because the cabinets are closer together, too, so what you’re really talking about is a tighter space. We have a display that we used to launch Haier in Canada and we could fit a refrigerator, dishwasher, range, over-the-range microwave, and something called a combination laundry unit, all in 10 feet and six inches.
What about colour and finish?
Stainless steel is absolutely, far and away, the leader in the market now; even basic black and white have fallen to a lower point of relevance.
Outside of the Haier brand, in the GE portfolio, we have some finishes that are trending significantly. In 2014, GE introduced a finish called GE Slate.
Slate is a grey finish with a metallic overlay and the sheen has a low-satin to matte kind of look, which is quite warm. The handles are stainless steel, so you still have the jewel-factor, but the finish itself is very welcoming and goes with a lot of different styles. In 2017, we’re projecting to sell 10 times more Slate appliances than we did in 2014. Right now, sales are at about one-third the ratio of stainless-steel appliances.
We have a new finish this fall in our GE Café line — which is like our foodie line — that’s called Black Slate.
The foundational under colour is black instead of grey and it’s a really impressive finish.
With technology now becoming a part of everything, how is it affecting appliances?
(In September, we launched) a full suite of appliances, including the range, refrigerator, dishwasher and a laundry duo, that will be Wi-Fi compatible. We have an app that’s already being used in the U.S. that (launched) at the same time.
We tried to add value in the WiFi area, and not just say that we came out with something that’s self-evident:
With refrigeration,
what you’ll be able to do is have your phone send you an alert if the temperature in your fridge starts to go up or down, because the fridge door has accidentally been left open, for example.
With ranges,
you’ll be able to do things like pre-heat the oven on the way home from work, or if you’ve got a dish that will keep, you’ll actually be able to put it in the oven and have it cook while you’re out or turn the oven to a “keep warm” setting, so you don’t have to worry about what’s happening with your food while you’re out.
With laundry,
there will be features like monitoring how much time is left in your cycle so if you’re out, and you’ve gotten caught up somewhere unexpectedly, you’ll be able to extend the dryer cycle from your phone, so you don’t come home to a dryer load of wrinkled laundry.
With dishwashers,
you’ll be able to keep track of the number of tablets that you have, and be notified when you need to purchase new ones.
Finally, all our appliances will have connectivity with Google Home, so you’ll be able to use vocal commands to control your appliances.