Foreword: It has been 30 years since China's gas heating development. China has now become the world's largest single gas heating market. These 30 years have witnessed the birth, growth and expansion of China's national gas heating brand. At present, the number of wall-hung gas boilers in the Chinese market has exceeded 28 million. Among them, domestic brands represented by "Squirrel" are constantly pursuing innovation, from product production to market layout, to dealer services and retail end user experience, Squirrel wall-hung gas boilers are closely around the three centers of product, market, and service, and make products fine and meticulous, and become the leader of China's wall-hung gas boiler industry. Today, "Comfort System" magazine had the honor to interview Li Guobiao, the marketing director of Guangzhou Devotion Home Environment Technology Co., Ltd., and listen to him talk about the brand building and growth of Squirrel.
It has been nearly 30 years since Devotion was founded. It has witnessed the growth of China's gas heating market, witnessed and promoted the whole process of China's gas heating industry from scratch to becoming the world's largest single gas heating market. As one of the earliest brands to produce wall-hung gas boilers in China, Squirrel has been constantly pursuing innovation and progress. From product production to market layout, to dealer services and retail end-user experience, all closely focus on the three "centers" of product, market and service. Relying on this persistence and development, Devotion has gradually grown. It is a benchmark enterprise in China's wall-hung gas boiler industry.
As early as 30 years ago, China's wall-hung gas boiler market was poor. When foreign brands dominated the market, there were very few Chinese brands. At this time, a seed for the development of Chinese brands was planted in the hearts of Devotion people.
Mr. Li told us that the Squirrel started from scratch, and by the end of 2019, the cumulative shipment of the Squirrel wall-hung gas boilers had exceeded 2 million units. As of the first half of 2021, the cumulative total sales has exceeded 2.4 million units, and is moving towards the 3 million mark. For the wall-hung gas boiler market, Squirrel has become a well-deserved uncrowned king.
Squirrel has been committed to promoting the healthy development of the wall-hung boiler industry and continuously promoting the establishment of industry standards. In the process of development, Squirrel summarizes and continuously upgrades product quality, technology research and development, installation, service and other aspects to help the industry develop in an orderly and healthy manner. In addition, Devotion, a subsidiary of Squirrel, has also edited China's first industry standard for wall-hung boilers, the national mandatory standard for gas-fired wall-hung boilers in China, "Gas Heating and Water Heaters", and the industry standard for condensing boilers in China, "Condensing Gas Heating and Bathing Dual Purposes." Since 2006, Squirrel has participated in the formulation of 38 national, industry and group standards, and is the founder of China's wall-hung boiler industry standards.
In 2021, Squirrel started to deploy the kitchen appliance market, which is a new journey. Mr. Li introduced that, relying on the channels and product accumulation in the HVAC and home appliance markets, Squirrel has expanded its product line to the field of kitchen and bathroom products including integrated stoves, range hoods, gas stoves, and water heaters. The terminal store of Squirrel has also started a channel upgrade from a single-category store of wall-hung boilers to a comprehensive store of gas appliances. It is expected that by the end of 2021, the number of Squirrel Terminal stores will increase by nearly 100, further expanding the terminal scale and brand service capabilities.
In 2021, the 13th National People's Congress established the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. In addition to the "post-coal reform" era and the rise of terminal retail, consumers' demand for heating has changed from a simple "survival just need". "The shift to "comfort needs" means that the market and users will have stricter requirements for products and services. This coincides with the service concept of Squirrel. Creating more energy-saving and high-quality clean heating products is one of the important tasks that Devotion has been working hard to implement.
Mr. Li introduced that Squirrel has never stopped on the way to provide high-quality energy-saving products. As early as 2007, Devotion has successfully developed a fully premixed combustion condensing wall-hung boiler with independent intellectual property rights, which fills the gap of Chinese brands. Not only products, but Devotion has also continued to make efforts in technology research and development. In 2008, Devotion built the industry's first CNAS national laboratory for gas wall-hung boilers certified by the National Accreditation Committee, and has done a lot of research on energy saving and carbon reduction. , and the experimental research to improve the quality of wall-hung boilers, promote the development of the wall-hung boiler industry in the direction of energy saving and low carbon.
The fully premixed condensing wall-hung boiler independently developed by Devotion not only conforms to the current environment of energy saving and environmental protection, but also meets the actual needs of consumers for energy saving and gas saving, so that more consumers can afford this comfortable and environmentally friendly heating product . Mr. Li told us that in the future, Squirrel will continue to focus on "standards, products, services, market popularization" and other aspects, and at the same time, together with other brand manufacturers to drive the entire industry to actively respond to the national dual-carbon policy, to provide better heating equipment. Bring it into thousands of households.
After gaining insight into the overall current situation of China's heating market, Squirrel also made a series of strategic deployments and adjustments in advance. In terms of product layout, we continuously strengthen the core technology of products, refine personalized functions, and meet user needs in multiple dimensions. After 21 years of update and iteration, the Squirrel wall-hung boiler has been upgraded to the third generation of product development, which is superior to the national standard in terms of modular design and noise reduction. Among them, Squirrel's intelligent heating ECO-2.0 energy-saving technology and exclusive patented sunflower blue flame combustion technology have higher combustion efficiency and more comfortable bathroom experience. Together with the self-developed thermostat and intelligent control of the Internet of Things, it fits the current consumer's usage habits well.
On the basis of good quality and good service, Squirrel has also established a terminal display strategy of large categories, modularization and emphasis on experience at the store display level. By focusing on user experience, combining the whole process of product, design, installation, use, and service, and refined presentation, it creates a good terminal experience for consumers.
When talking about the future of Squirrel, Mr. Li was full of enthusiasm. He told us that at present, in order to better adapt to user needs and understand market changes, we have been doing a lot of research and analysis on the industry and users, and even with Cooperation with different industry media and institutions. We found that when users choose wall-hung boiler products, the core concern is the product first, because this is the foundation of the industry and the core needs of consumers. And good products need to meet the two conditions of energy saving and comfort. Energy saving is the element that the country cares about, while comfort and health are the elements that the people care about.
In the post-coal-to-gas era, domestic foreign brands and domestic brands have their own strengths in the north and south markets. Taking the heating market in the north as an example, its development is early, the model is relatively mature, and consumers are relatively rational, so the cost-effectiveness of domestic brand products is higher, and the market opportunities in the north are greater. In addition, due to the influence of the coal-to-gas policy in recent years, the focus of most domestic brands is still the northern market and the coal-to-gas market.
Imported brands started their strategic layout in the southern market as early as 2007, and invested a lot of resources in the southern market to guide consumers to pay attention to service quality and product experience. Under the continuous education of imported brands, most consumers in the southern market prefer imported brands.
For Devotion, the Squirrel has made it clearer that the north is based on the replacement market, and the south focuses on the exposed heating market. Squirrel will continue to take the northern market as the base for its own development, and at the same time promote the development of the southern market to the strategic core level, increase market investment and continuous education of consumers, and develop more differentiated products, while providing more High-quality service and experience, so as to gain the favor of more consumers.
With the in-depth promotion of clean heating, Mr. Li predicts that the overall scale of China's wall-hung boiler market will grow steadily in the future, and the market prospect is still broad. As the leader of the domestic wall-hung boiler brand, Squirrel will continue to be committed to promoting the healthy development of the wall-hung boiler industry and the establishment of industry standards. This is the original intention of Squirrel. As the representative of the domestic wall-hung boiler brand, Squirrel will continue to upgrade product quality, technology research and development, installation, service and other aspects, and share higher standards and effective experience with industry colleagues in various ways to help the industry.
