In recent years, the kitchen and bath industry has faced challenges such as a shrinking real estate market, rising raw material prices, and intensified fluctuations in the international market. It is transitioning from incremental expansion to stock optimization.
Xiamen is one of the representative production areas for high-end manufacturing of global kitchen and bath products. Currently, many enterprises are breaking through and transforming by innovating sales models, strengthening product research and development, and expanding brand influence, driving the steady development of the industry.
In the exhibition hall of Gold Home Furnishing, staff demonstrated a developing Feiliu AI home decoration design intelligent system. By simply importing a floor plan or real photos of the home, it can generate a full-house decoration rendering in a few minutes. Users can also switch decoration styles and adjust space functional areas through interaction with AI. After customizing a satisfactory decoration rendering through the software, users can contact decoration services through the background. In addition to developing such new online customer acquisition channels, in recent years, Gold Home Furnishing has also broken the original offline sales model centered on home furnishing stores. Taking cities as carriers, it has guided dealers to improve their capabilities in “home decoration, turnkey solutions, partial renovation, and online marketing”, promoting the formation of a multi-dealer and multi-channel layout in one city.
“Many people have become much more cautious in investment. At this time, we launched the ‘shared flagship store’ to develop people with design capabilities and business capabilities into partners. In the future, they don’t need to open stores; they just need to bring business resources to my store. At the end of May, we opened the first (overseas) ‘shared flagship store’ in Malaysia, and we received more than 100 orders on the opening day.”
Dabai Sanitary Ware is a “dark horse” in China’s sanitary ware industry. During this year’s “618” promotion, the company’s sales doubled compared with last year. In recent years, through cooperation with enterprises such as Xiaomi and Samsung, the company has integrated high-standard technologies and intelligent manufacturing experience of electronic and technological products with mature sanitary ware production and manufacturing, launching a series of green and intelligent products, which have attracted many young consumers. Up to now, the company has accumulated nearly 1,000 patents of various types and owns registered trademarks in 30 countries and regions around the world. Last month, the BRICS Technology Innovation Incubation Park led 21 Xiamen enterprises to explore the market in Brazil. Dabai Sanitary Ware brought its “star products” such as intelligent toilets, faucets, and showers for promotion roadshows, gaining 5 intended customers and is expected to obtain an entry ticket to the Brazilian market within the year.
“To win the favor of the market, we must have excellent products to match. We have used new materials and technologies to make our products more cost-effective, while solving many pain points in life. This year, we will launch about 10 new shower products and about 6 new intelligent toilet products.”
After years of development, Xiamen’s kitchen and bath industry occupies an important position in the country and even the world. In 2024, the total output value reached 33.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.6%. As a “National Foreign Trade Transformation and Upgrade (Plumbing, Kitchen and Bath) Base” awarded by the Ministry of Commerce, Xiamen’s kitchen and bath industry service model has upgraded from traditional production OEM to a service model integrating research and development, design, product certification, and technology transfer. Its products are sold to more than 180 countries and regions around the world. In terms of manufacturing capabilities, the average R&D investment of Xiamen’s kitchen and bath enterprises accounts for 4.8% of their revenue, far exceeding the industry average. The number of intellectual property rights and valid patents reaches 14,000, ranking first in the national industry. Industry insiders said that how to further convert technological advantages into brand premium and move from a “manufacturing cluster” to a “brand highland” is the key for Xiamen’s kitchen and bath industry to make significant progress.
In the next step, it is suggested to create a city-level intelligent manufacturing IP through a model led by the government, called by associations, and participated by enterprises to enhance brand influence. On the other hand, it is also necessary to actively promote enterprises’ “intelligent transformation and digital conversion” and leap to the high value-added direction of intelligent manufacturing and brand creation.
