2015 may not stand out much in the vast timeline of history or recent times, but in the world of home appliances and Chinese manufacturing, it holds particular significance.
The core value of small home appliances is to go beyond fulfilling basic needs and provide an enhanced experience. In other words, small appliances may not be daily “necessities” but are “essentials” for a quality life.
To reach this “ideal form,” small appliances need to satisfy two key criteria: 1) meet essential needs and replace traditional methods, and 2) bring a substantial improvement in user experience. For example, people buy egg cookers specifically to ensure consistent results when making soft or hard-boiled eggs. Likewise, a health pot not only meets the basic need for “drinking water” but also offers customizable temperature settings.
From this perspective, the rice cooker, despite decades of popularity, hasn’t achieved its full potential. Although its design and technology have evolved over time, most mainstream rice cookers still focus on replicating the taste of traditional rice cooking—meeting the basic need.
So, what additional value should a rice cooker provide? The answer lies in efficiency. In today’s fast-paced world, waiting for a long cooking time can be a luxury. However, balancing taste with efficiency poses a natural challenge: better taste usually requires longer cooking time, while speed often compromises flavor.
In fact, Japanese experts have argued that it’s impossible to achieve both flavor and speed simultaneously, calling it a “contradiction.”
Yet, this “contradiction” was resolved by Bear Electric Appliance. Their pressure rice cooker brought about a breakthrough, achieving both great taste and efficiency.
Firstly, the cooking quality is elevated. The pressure rice cooker from Bear Electric Appliance creates a vacuum state at -40kPa, allowing water to deeply penetrate the rice, activating amino acids and other nutrients. Even freshly washed rice can achieve the “pre-soaked” effect, resulting in perfectly cooked, plump, and firm rice.
Secondly, efficiency is improved. Bear’s pressure rice cooker intelligently adjusts pressure during cooking, reaching a boiling point of up to 105°C, speeding up the heating process and significantly reducing cooking time to as little as 16 minutes.
While each of these technologies individually may not seem complicated, combining vacuum and variable pressure effectively was the real challenge. It took Bear three years, 128,000 tests, 11,000 surveys, and 106 design drafts to perfect this product.
At Bear Electric Appliance, Meeting User Needs Means Not Making Compromises
For businesses, avoiding compromises can be harder than pursuing innovation. When developing rice cookers, many brands faced a crossroads: invest heavily to achieve both quality and efficiency or prioritize one at the expense of the other.
Bear chose not to compromise, a decision evident in its other product lines as well.
For instance, most water dispensers offer limited temperature options, and some with variable temperature settings have slow water flow. Bear’s Glacier Spring Water Dispenser broke this mold. It features infinitely adjustable temperatures for optimal flavor and provides instant hot and chilled water.
Similarly, Bear Electric Appliance’s latest mechanical coffee maker delivers “the best of both worlds”: 54 grind settings and triple precision extraction for “Golden Cup” standard coffee, complete with frothy milk that anyone can make with zero expertise. Other products include a detachable blender for fine blending and easy cleaning.
Choosing “everything” means increased investment, but Bear remains undeterred. This commitment comes from their “user-first” philosophy and confidence in their R&D capabilities.
Bear has built over 10 elite R&D teams, with nearly 400 experts. As a national industrial design center and intellectual property demonstration enterprise, Bear constantly innovates to create new product categories, supporting a strategy of “strengthening essential categories and expanding emerging categories.” To date, Bear offers over 80 product lines with 900+ models covering various settings like home, office, and outdoor.
Enhancing Quality and Efficiency for Greater Market Opportunities
While pursuing perfection isn’t always the optimal business choice, especially with essential products, Bear has managed to improve both efficiency and profits. R&D spending continues to increase, up 3.93% in 2023, while profits rose by 11.2%. How? By optimizing costs through enhanced efficiency and distributing costs over larger volumes, much like Ford’s Model T.
Bear achieved efficiency gains through digital upgrades and smart manufacturing, establishing a digital “321” system that unifies processes, systems, and data. The company also operates five smart manufacturing bases covering 580,000 square meters, including four dedicated assembly plants and multiple parts factories.
Moreover, growing sales have helped spread costs. In 2023, sales of electric kitchen appliances and pot-based appliances grew by 18.24% and 19.84%, respectively, while other small appliances grew by 22.80% and 67.54%. With 44.8 million units shipped in 2023, Bear has successfully implemented a “high-volume, low-margin” strategy.
As CEO Li Yifeng noted, “Our continuous innovation in technology and production processes empowers our operations with digitalization. This not only drives new productivity but strengthens our manufacturing system, aiming for Bear to become a global leader in small appliance manufacturing.”
Indeed, creating a leading global manufacturing base and comprehensive production system will take time. However, Bear’s accomplishments are a testament to its commitment and promise. Today, Bear is accelerating its ecosystem, with external collaborations exceeding 30% and room to grow.
Ultimately, Bear’s “high-end transformation” is not about merely raising prices and passing on costs to consumers; it’s about enhancing value. This requires cutting-edge innovation, operational efficiency, and an exceptional user experience, creating a value chain that sustains upward growth.
From the rice cooker, which sparked introspection and challenges, to its recent successes, Bear’s journey is a powerful narrative of technological perseverance, product excellence, strategic insight, and strong user reputation.
To know more about Bear Electric Appliance, please visit Bear’s official website: www.bearappliance.com
Company Name: Bear Electric Appliance Co., Ltd.
City, State, Country: Foshan, Guangdong, China
Address: No.3 Fuxing Road, Fu’an Industrial Park, Leliu, Shunde, Foshan City, Guangdong, China 528300
Contact Person: Ally Guo, Oversea Sales Manager
Email: service@bearappliance.com
Website: www.bearappliance.com
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No The Money Circles journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.