Anti-epidemic stay-at-home cook "Hong Kong Girl Pot" Bruno's sales are booming

Special interview

Written by: Kwong Yueting

2020-08-24 07:30

In the commercial society, there is danger. This sentence is applied to the Japanese kitchen appliance brand Bruno's Hong Kong agent Ace Kitchen (first-class kitchenware), which is not bad at all. Because the epidemic lasted for many months, many people avoided eating out and switched to cooking at home, stimulating sales of small home appliances. The sales of Ace Kitchen's kitchen-related products have been bucking the market in the past few months. The company even took advantage of the fall in rents and moved into shopping malls in the form of short-term leases. In just one year, the number of stores increased from 2 to 6 , Can be called a wonderful work against the market.

Ace Kitchen product manager Ye Jinchao believes that the retail market is sluggish, and there are more Ji shops in shopping malls, which will enable the company to open stores at lower rents. In the future, it will seek more opportunities to open limited-time stores.

Ace Kitchen currently has 6 branches in Hong Kong, all of which are leased in the form of short-term leases, with flexibility to turn around. (Photo by Gong Jiasheng)

Founded in 2014, Ace Kitchen is the Hong Kong agent of Bruno multi-function electric cooker and Vitantonio, a Japanese waffle maker brand. As a small Hong Kong company, it really took a lot of effort to persuade Japanese suppliers to cooperate in the first place. "Japanese companies have never thought of doing export business for a long time, and our company has no background, they will be more worried that our company will be easy to handle, and the after-sales service may not be good, so in 2015 It took half a year for Vitantonio agents to impress him with sincerity, and then he tried to sell 1,000 copies in a small batch."

After a small test, the market responded very well. The company opened a Vitantonio Facebook page on the first day. Without any publicity, there were thousands of likes (likes), and all subsequent batches of products were sold. "It turns out that there are many Hong Kong people who make a special trip to Japan to return to Lebanon. After discovering that there is a Hong Kong version, they are very happy. They don't want to buy the Japanese travel special. They also don't worry about voltage problems, and they have maintenance! "

With Vitantonio’s successful example, the company later introduced the Bruno brand, and its sales continued. Its multi-function cooking pot was called "Hong Kong Girl Pot" because of its exquisite and retro appearance. On average, over 10,000 units are sold a year. The Bruno and Vitantonio brands currently account for 40% to 50% and about 20% of Ace Kitchen's overall sales volume. Because Bruno is well-known and the company's sales champion, the company decided to use Bruno as the name of the store when it opened the store to attract customers to shop for goods.

+2

Under the epidemic, the factory was temporarily out of stock

Under the epidemic, more people cook at home, making kitchen utensils and kitchen-related products popular, but it turned out that Ace Kitchen was facing a crisis of shortage of goods. Ye Jinchao said frankly that many Japanese home appliance brands are produced in the mainland. In February, the epidemic was the most serious in the mainland. Many factories were suspended, making the company unable to deliver to customers. It was May that the supply returned to normal. In the past few months, the company's kitchen-related product sales have risen against the market, and the company has "food and housing" to increase the number of stores. "Two or three years ago, it was very difficult to get a short-term lease at Xiangshang Mall. There are many jiya shops in Yijia Mall, and the rent is relatively low. After calculating the number, I think we support (opening a store), so I just tried it, and I was shocked. The Klook is narrow and the business may not be maintained, but I have found that the business is stable."

In addition to selling small kitchen appliances, the company also cooperates with other brands to introduce some consignment products, such as humidifiers, air cleaners, Bluetooth speakers, tents, picnic mats, etc., which account for a few percent of overall sales. Ye Jinchao said that local electrical shops only sell electrical appliances, while department stores separate the electrical department and the household goods section, so that customers cannot buy kitchenware and household goods at once. The company has referred to the operating model of Japanese kitchenware stores. In addition to the electricity, the seller will also be equipped with corresponding small products, such as rice scoops and dishes.

At present, Ace Kitchen has opened 6 branches in Hong Kong, all of which are short-term rental shopping malls. The smallest shop area is the Tuen Mun Town Plaza branch, which is only about 200 square feet. Therefore, it only sells core products. However, the store’s sales Is the highest. Therefore, when the company chooses a new store location, the size of the store is not an important consideration. Instead, it tends to choose a kiy store with basic decoration (walls, ceilings and floors have not been removed) because of the need to re-lay the floor and Renovating the ceiling often costs hundreds of thousands of dollars; if there is basic decoration and the condition is good, the cost of decoration can be reduced to about 100,000.

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Ye Jinchao said that the company did not make any special promotion, but inadvertently contacted several KOLs (key opinion leaders), and worked together to shoot a short cooking video, which helped the company's sales. (Photo by Gong Jiasheng)

Pink products will catch all ages in one go

The current home appliance market is fiercely competitive, but Ye Jinchao Japanese home appliances still feel attractive to Hong Kong people, because Hong Kong people prefer Japanese brands, and Japanese small home appliances are suitable for families with 2 to 3 people. They are small in size, affordable in price, and designed in colors. Rich, with black, dark brown, and pink products. "If people like pink, they can be used as a kitchen lining." This allows the company's customers to cover women in their 20s to 40s.

Many people may think that the agent "Sweet Water" is priced much higher than the original price of the brand. He explained: "Hong Kong agents have to carry goods with Japanese brands, with at least more than one weight in between. If Japanese agents have high wholesale prices, it will be difficult to sell cheaply." In addition, electrical products sold in Hong Kong must be specially designed for voltage by the factory. It also needs to be certified by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, so the price of the product is difficult to be the same as the price in Japan. Take the Bruno oval electric cooker as an example, the price in Japan is 16,000 yen (about 1173 Hong Kong dollars), and the price in Hong Kong is 1,598 Hong Kong dollars. The company will try to keep the price similar to Japan and acceptable to the public. Because the company's product pricing is already cheap, it will not consider reducing prices to attract customers in the future.

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