Brand new world for 'Made-in-China'

Intelligent home systems made by Sichuan Changhong Electric Co Ltd attract attention at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, in January, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

In 2009, Hisense restructured its European business to focus on establishing subsidiaries in countries across the continent to market and sell its electronics and appliances.

According to Appliance Online statistics, Hisense refrigerators are the third-biggest revenue generators in the refrigerator sector.

Another successful approach for Chinese appliance makers has been building factories in Europe. Haier has a factory in Italy, TCL has one in France and consumer electronics company Changhong has a factory in the Czech Republic.

Lian Yongping, general manager of Changhong Europe Electric, says moving production to Europe was the only way to establish a foothold in the market without worrying about trade barriers.

Changhong chose the Czech Republic for its factory site because of its central location in the continent, its industrial capability, stable investment environment and skilled but relatively low-cost labor.

"Local workers are highly skilled, but salaries in manufacturing are lower than in countries such as Germany."

The country's industrial capacity allowed Changhong to establish a regional supply chain to manufacture its televisions. Lian says the country's foreign investment regulations help companies make long-term investment plans.

Changhong established its European operations in 2005 and they began production two years later. At the time, the company made only 100,000 TVs a year globally, almost all of them OEM sets for European brands. Today, the number of Changhong's OEM orders is about half its entire production of 800,000 TVs.

Juin says having a factory in Europe provides flexibility when supplying regional markets. "From Poland we are working very closely with our customers and tightly managing their inventories. You therefore need to be able to react fast - shipping time is an issue," Juin says.

Haier built a factory in Italy in 2005, and it now employees 100 people. Aubertin says Haier is now looking for new opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe.

TP-Link, whose headquarters are in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, that makes a wide range of networking products, from routers to Internet-protocol cameras, began its international expansion in 2005.

TP-Link initially sold its products to Europe through distributors, but later established subsidiaries in a number of European countries to manage regional sales, says Eric Wang, head of TP-Link's Western Europe division.

Zhang Kexin and Laura Davis contributed to this story.