As part of a modern lifestyle, more people choose to eat out. However, the importance of a kitchen in a home has never waned, especially for upscale home owners, pundits say.
“For the rich, the kitchen has become a token of social status. Most of their high-end kitchens are worth at least NT$1 million [US$33,000],” said Tseng Chun-hao (曾俊豪), project engineer at Kaohsiung-based Metal Industries Research & Development Center (MIRD).
“A home kitchen is more than a place for preparing food. It has joined the living room to become a place for family gathering or parties with friends,” Oddo Kitchen International Co Ltd (雅登廚飾) chairman Tseng Ming-ching (曾明敬) said.
Citing surveys by the Industry & Technology Intelligence Service, the output value of the nation’s kitchen furniture sector for both home and commercial uses had nearly doubled from NT$9.8 billion in 2001 to NT$15.2 billion in 2009, Tseng Chun-hao said.
In total, there were around 1,600 players in the domestic kitchen furniture marketplace including brand agents, the surveys found.
And the current market size is estimated at between NT$12 billion and NT$15 billion including kitchens embedded in new property projects, Oddo Kitchen president Angus Tseng (曾俊源) said. The market for high-end kitchens, dominated mostly by foreign brands, is about NT$2 billion, he added.
Foreign brands, such as Miele of Germany, have entered the local market in the past few years.
Tseng Chun-hao said in a report that a standard kitchen set costs at least NT$100,000, depending on how well equipped it is. He said the market demand for kitchen sets in the future could reach billions because less than 50 percent of homes do not have full-function kitchens.
Wei Wen-lung (魏文龍), owner of an Oddo outlet in Tainan, agreed, saying most of his customers for full-scale kitchens in Tainan are willing to budget between NT$500,000 and NT$700,000, compared with 10 years ago, when the average budget was between NT$200,000 and NT$400,000.
Wei’s businesses suffered a mild decline during the recent economic downturn, but quickly rebounded last year to a 10 percent growth rate.
On average, a kitchen accounts for betwen 0.8 percent and 2 percent of a house’s worth, Taiwan Sakura Co Ltd (台灣櫻花) senior manager Jesse Lee (李肇興) said.
Taiwan Sakura and Oddo Kitchen are two leading domestic brands for European-style kitchens, with NT$7.5 billion and NT$3 billion in annual revenues respectively.
Taiwan Sakura is also the nation’s biggest supplier of large cooking appliances — oven and ventilation hoods, etc — with a retail volume of NT$35.3 million last year, followed by Rinnai Corp’s (林內) NT$12 million and Jyethelih Taiwan Inc’s (喜特麗) NT$8.9 million, Euromonitor International’s data showed.
The market research institute’s statistics showed that BSH Bosch & Siemens claimed the largest market share of dishwashers in Taiwan, with a retail volume of NT$48 million last year, while Panasonic Corp sold the most microwaves and refrigeration appliances, with a retail volume of NT$35.5 million and NT$23.4 million last year.
Overall, the market for kitchen appliances, including dishwashers, microwaves, and cooking appliances, totaled NT$28.7 billion last year, the institute’s statistics show.
Lee was optimistic about growth for kitchen sets in the local market, saying that Taiwan Sakura’s revenue target for a year or two from now is NT$1 billion.
Both companies feature total solutions, designing and building the kitchens themselves, while using hardware or techniques either from Germany or Italy.
Most foreign-style kitchens are dominated by Japanese and European looks, since US-style kitchens mostly use classic logs, which do not appeal to local consumers, Tseng Chun-hao said.
Most domestic brands are very competitive against foreign brands, which are at least twice expensive, when it comes to quality, design, use of materials and functionalities. However, they lack pricing power because their brand awareness among local consumers is still weak, he added.
Lack of differentiation among domestic brands is another problem facing the sector, which tends toward price wars, he said.
Price cuts are common, especially in bulk sales of kitchens embedded into property projects, which are a major source of business.
However, such kitchens are rarely tailor-made for homeowners, Taipei Kitchen Commercial Association chairman Jimmy Tsai (蔡方中) said.
The association has long advocated the certification of kitchen specialists, who could ensure the safety of kitchen installations.
Such specialists can also work as kitchen designers to make sure that every piece of kitchen furniture meets the requirements or daily habits of users, since a kitchen often lasts 20 years, he added.
The biggest challenge for the facilitation of such a system is the lack of standards.
The association is now working with related agencies, hoping to come up with a set of standards, he said.
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