▲Haier Smart Home 2025 Half-Year Report

On the evening of August 28th, Haier Smart Home released its 2025 half-year report. The financial results showed that in the first half of 2025, Haier Smart Home achieved operating revenue of 156.494 billion yuan, a year-over-year increase of 10.2%; net profit attributable to shareholders reached 12.033 billion yuan, up 15.6% year-over-year, hitting a historical high. In Q2 alone, the company achieved net profit attributable to shareholders of 6.546 billion yuan, representing a 16.14% year-over-year growth, with accelerated performance growth clearly evident.

However, a deeper dive into the financial report details reveals that the company's nine brands - Haier, Casarte, Leader, GE Appliances, Candy, Fisher&Paykel (FPA), AQUA, CCR, and Kwikot - are embroiled in a fierce internal competition resembling a "battle of nine sons for succession," with overlapping positioning leading to internal market cannibalization and serious competitive inefficiencies.

▲Haier Smart Home 2025 Half-Year Report

01 Domestic Market: Blurred Brand Positioning Creates Fierce Internal Competition

In theory, Casarte targets the high-end segment, Haier focuses on the mid-to-high-end market, and Leader concentrates on younger consumers, with clear and distinct positioning. However, based on product data disclosed in the financial report, the boundaries between these three brands have long been blurred.

Looking at the refrigerator category, Casarte's Zhijing series refrigerators feature flush installation design and MSA nitrogen-oxygen intelligent freshness preservation technology, priced above 20,000 yuan. Sales reached 320,000 units in the first half of the year, up 100% year-over-year, capturing over 70% market share in the offline segment priced above 20,000 yuan.

Haier brand's "Heyue" and "Mailang" series also emphasize full-space freshness preservation and ultra-thin zero-clearance installation, priced between 10,000-15,000 yuan. First-half sales exceeded 350,000 units, with cumulative sales surpassing 1.5 million units, representing over 300% year-over-year growth. The "Heyue 625" model even became the industry's single-product sales champion.

Both products share core functions of freshness preservation and embedded design, targeting consumers who pursue home integration and value health preservation. The only difference is Casarte's higher price point. For ordinary consumers, it's difficult to distinguish the essential differences between the two, with many struggling during purchase decisions and ultimately choosing Haier for price considerations or Casarte for its "high-end" label - essentially representing two brands within the same group competing for the same customer base.

More interestingly, Leader brand's "Yueji" series refrigerators feature 594mm professional ultra-thin zero-clearance technology, priced between 2,999-4,999 yuan. While the price is lower, the core ultra-thin zero-clearance selling point highly overlaps with Haier and Casarte's mid-to-high-end products, just with simplified materials and functions. This inevitably diverts some cost-conscious young consumers, creating a three-way brand competition in the refrigerator segment.

Similar situations exist in the washing machine category. Casarte's Languang Pro washer-dryer set features variable frequency motors, care wet-washing functions, and washer-dryer connectivity, with a 580mm ultra-thin body for flush installation, capturing over 90% market share in the 15,000+ yuan price segment. Meanwhile, some high-end washer-dryer products from Haier brand also feature washer-dryer connectivity and ultra-thin body design, priced at 10,000-12,000 yuan, with functions barely different from Casarte's entry-level models.

Leader is even more direct, launching a "lazy washing machine" three-drum model emphasizing zone washing and care. However, Haier also has similar zone washing products, with Leader's design being more youth-oriented and priced about 3,000 yuan lower.

The financial report shows that Haier Smart Home's global washing and care industry revenue reached 32.006 billion yuan in the first half of 2025, up 7.6% year-over-year. However, if internal competitive losses were eliminated and diverted sales volumes combined, this growth rate might achieve another level.

Although Haier Smart Home maintains a leading overall market share in China's home appliance market, internal brand competition has resulted in sluggish market share growth for individual brands. Taking China's refrigerator market in the first half of 2025 as an example, Haier brand held 25% market share, Casarte 10%, and Leader 5%. While these figures appear decent, without the internal losses caused by overlapping brand positioning, each brand could potentially achieve higher market shares based on their respective strengths. Casarte, focusing on high-end markets, could potentially reach 15% or even higher market share. Haier, consolidating its mid-to-high-end position, might break through 30% market share. Leader, deepening its presence in the youth market, could realistically grow to 8% market share. This would result in Haier Smart Home's total refrigerator market share in China far exceeding the current 40%.

02 Overseas Markets: Brand Conflicts Continue in Global Expansion

Haier Smart Home has deployed brands like GE Appliances, Candy, and Fisher&Paykel in overseas markets, which should serve distinct functions, but in reality often "collide" with each other.

In the European market, Candy brand targets mass consumers, launching washing machines, ovens, and other products with a high cost-performance positioning. However, Haier brand has also introduced numerous mid-to-low-end appliances in Europe, with functions highly similar to Candy's and comparable pricing.

Financial data shows that in the first half of 2025, Europe's white goods industry sold 17.4 million units, up 2.0% year-over-year, with sales value of 7.7 billion euros, up 0.4% year-over-year. Haier Smart Home's European market revenue reached 17.995 billion yuan, up 24.07% year-over-year. While growth appears strong, much of it results from Candy and Haier brands "cannibalizing" each other's market share. If both could collaborate and launch differentiated products for different consumer groups, growth might be more sustainable.

Similar issues exist in the North American market. GE Appliances, as a local North American brand, positions itself in the mid-to-high-end segment with a stable customer base. However, Haier brand has also launched numerous mid-to-high-end appliances in North America, such as smart built-in steam-bake combination ovens, with functions overlapping GE Appliances' products but at slightly lower prices.

While the financial report mentions "double-digit growth for high-end brands" in North America, it doesn't specifically disclose growth rates for GE Appliances and Haier brand individually. It's reasonable to assume customer diversion exists between them, failing to achieve a "1+1>2" effect.

Looking at Southeast Asia, multiple Haier Smart Home brands are simultaneously active with unclear market positioning distinctions. Taking air conditioning products as an example, both Haier and AQUA brands have launched energy-efficient air conditioners adapted to local hot climates, with similar functions and prices, competing fiercely for market share.

Originally, through brand differentiation, they could cover broader consumer groups and achieve rapid market share growth, but internal competition has wasted numerous market opportunities. From market share data, Haier Smart Home brands hold an 18% total market share in one Southeast Asian country's air conditioning market, but mutual competition among brands prevents any single brand from standing out, making it difficult to achieve scale effects and brand influence.

▲TV Drama "Emperor Yongzheng" Screenshot

03 Conclusion: Born from the Same Root, Why Fight Each Other So Fiercely?

This "nine sons battling for succession" style competition directly results in massive resource waste and serious profit pressure.

In the first half of 2025, the company's R&D expenses reached 5.79 billion yuan, up 11.73% year-over-year. However, such substantial investment hasn't produced many exclusive breakthrough technologies. The reason is simple: nine major brands operate independently, all investing in R&D for products with similar functions. Technologies like intelligent recognition and precise temperature control are being developed by Haier, Casarte, GE Appliances, and other brands simultaneously, causing serious duplicate investment and dispersed R&D focus, naturally making it difficult to produce excellent products. Integrating R&D resources and concentrating efforts on key technologies could not only reduce R&D costs but also potentially achieve industry-leading technological breakthroughs, enhancing product competitiveness.

Additionally, the first-half sales expense ratio was 10.1%, optimized by 0.1 percentage point compared to the same period last year, but without redundant marketing between brands, optimization space could be even greater. Taking domestic e-commerce promotions as an example, Haier, Casarte, and Leader launch promotional activities for similar products on the same platform, with advertising placement and coupon distribution operating independently, not only wasting marketing expenses but also confusing consumers about which brand to choose.

The same situation occurs in overseas markets, where different brands conduct advertising campaigns in the same regions with highly overlapping content and target audiences, failing to create effective brand differentiation and market coverage.

In fact, gross margin pressure is also a significant issue. The company's gross margin in the first half of 2025 was 26.9%, only 0.1 percentage point higher than the same period last year. Behind this, price wars between brands are largely to blame. To compete for market share, dealers of different brands within the same group often engage in mutual price-cutting. For instance, in offline retail stores, if Haier washing machine dealers reduce prices by 5%, Casarte dealers follow with 3% price cuts to retain customers, while Leader dealers directly cut prices by 8%, creating a vicious cycle of "mutual destruction" that ultimately prevents significant gross margin improvements.

Due to sales price decreases and cost increases caused by internal competition, profit margins for all brands are compressed. Taking Casarte as an example, its high-end products should maintain higher gross margins, but competition with some of Haier's high-end products forces pricing strategies, reducing gross margins from the original 35% to around 30%. Haier brand's gross margins are also affected by competition with Leader and Casarte, dropping from 28% to around 25%. Leader brand, competing for young market share through low-price strategies, maintains gross margins of only around 15%, far below industry average levels. These figures fully demonstrate the serious impact of brand internal competition on profitability.

In 2024, Haier Smart Home acquired two new brands, CCR and Kwikot, hoping to expand into new markets and strengthen brand competitiveness. However, based on the half-year report, integration of both has been less than ideal. Kwikot, as a century-old South African water heater brand, should theoretically help Haier Smart Home quickly enter South Africa's water heater market. However, the financial report only mentions "steady progress in Kwikot business integration with good operational momentum," without disclosing specific revenue contributions or market share growth data. The report doesn't mention specific operational data, raising doubts about whether this acquisition can truly bring substantial benefits to Haier Smart Home.

After entering Haier Smart Home's system, Kwikot faces market promotion difficulties due to overlapping positioning with Haier's water heater product lines in the South African market. Kwikot's original brand advantages haven't been fully leveraged, consumer recognition of differences between Kwikot and Haier brands is insufficient, and market share growth has been slow.

As for CCR brand, due to lack of clear market positioning and effective promotion strategies, it has barely made waves in the competitive home appliance market, failing to achieve expected market expansion goals.

Actually, Haier Smart Home's multi-brand strategy isn't inherently problematic, as different markets and consumer groups have different needs, and multiple brands can cover broader customer bases. The problem lies in failing to provide each brand with clear positioning and differentiated development paths, resulting in "nine sons battling for succession" internal competition and subsequent market "fraternal conflict."

Haier Smart Home could integrate supply chain resources across nine major brands, achieving coordinated operations in procurement, production, logistics, and other areas. In procurement, reduce costs through centralized purchasing; in production, arrange production plans reasonably based on each brand's order demands, improving production equipment utilization rates. In logistics, optimize delivery routes for efficient goods distribution. This would not only reduce operational costs but also improve entire supply chain response speed, better meeting market demands.

Haier Smart Home needs to reorganize brand positioning, strengthen collaboration between brands, and resolve internal competition issues. In the future, amid fierce home appliance market competition, it has the potential to achieve sustained, healthy development. Otherwise, competitors might exploit these weaknesses, gradually eroding market share and missing more growth opportunities. After all, consumers want clear brand recognition and differentiated product choices, not brands within the same group engaging in "internal fighting."