[reproduced - China Business News: China Manufacturing Network member company report] Coral: Core technology and professional market in parallel

Small industries can often make big markets. Guangzhou-based ice machine company Guangzhou Coral Refrigeration Equipment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Coral), has produced a large-scale edible ice machine which has reached 90% of the domestic market.

According to Peng Guanghui, general manager of Coral, technology is the core competitiveness of refrigeration equipment companies. In addition to its cooperation with Tsinghua University, Coral has previously expanded cooperation with South China University of Technology to expand the scope of application of products, including artificial ski resorts, low-temperature freezing and refrigerating, and the Fisheries Engineering Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Ministry of Agriculture. Cooperation to develop artificial ice applications in fisheries engineering.

Although in this niche industry, Coral has grown rapidly, but with the increasingly severe foreign trade situation, Coral in overseas markets in recent years has also begun to turn its attention to the domestic. “We are thinking about taking the professional route in the domestic market and locking in the demand for ice in ports, chemicals, food and other industries.” Peng Guanghui told the “China Business” reporter that this year's domestic sales will account for 40% of the company’s total turnover. about.

Use technology to master the power of industry

From the entire refrigeration and air-conditioning industry, ice machine products are only a small product, but they are widely used in the market, in the processing and preservation of agricultural products, aquatic products, seafood, meat products, fruits and vegetables, and in mine cooling, nuclear power engineering, and biology. There are applications in fields such as pharmaceuticals.

In recent years, with the increasing demand for ice in such markets as China's agricultural products, fresh food, seafood and supermarkets, the ice-making machine industry is accelerating. However, the main problems that restrict the development of ice machines in China cannot be ignored either.

“The ice maker industry is not big, but the internal competition is fierce, and the overall technical level of the industry needs to be improved.” Peng Guanghui said that Coral was founded in the beginning is the main export-oriented products, although products in Southeast Asia, Countries in the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, Australia, and other regions have a competitive advantage, but the ice-making industry is very mature in Europe and the United States market. China's ice machine competitiveness is obviously insufficient. “Especially in Germany, China’s ice-making products do not even think Into them, they are the traditional refrigeration industry power."

In order to enhance the competitiveness of its products, Peng Guanghui’s R&D team painstakingly studied ice machine technology. In addition to introducing advanced refrigeration processing equipment and testing equipment, it also strived to cooperate with universities in research, production, and research. In the past three years, Coraler has established cooperation mechanisms with the China Institute of Refrigeration, Tsinghua University, Beijing Refrigeration Institute, National Commercial Refrigeration Equipment Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, and other famous universities and institutions. Through the establishment of a scientific research advisory platform, Energy-saving, safety, environmental protection, and high-efficiency technology concepts are brought into the research and development of commercial ice machine products, making Coral's research strength and product quality achieve rapid development, especially in the safety, health, energy-saving and high-efficiency technologies of large-scale edible ice machines. A major breakthrough has been made.

At present, the number of large-scale edible square ice machines produced by Coral has reached 90% in the domestic market. With its edible ice machines, brine ice makers and ice machines, Coral has become the Shanghai World Expo and Guangzhou Asian Games. Conferences, London Olympic Games and other major sports events suppliers.

"First-class enterprises do standards, second-rate enterprises do products, and third-rate enterprises do equipment." Peng Guanghui told reporters that Coral has not only focused on the research and development of ice machine product technology, but also actively involved in the formulation of industry standards. The implementation of the commercial ice machines and the test methods for automatic ice machines that began in September last year have played an important role in the establishment of two commercial ice machine industry standards. "As the top three enterprises in the ice machine industry, we are also able to grasp a certain amount of industry discourse rights." Peng Guanghui said with a smile.

Take the professional route to expand the domestic market

With the slowing overseas market growth, Coral, who has been focusing on overseas markets, is also considering opening up more markets in the country. “Although in China, the ice-making industry is not too close to the daily life of ordinary people, but for the sake of freshness, hygiene and safety, the demand for ice in such markets as agricultural products, fresh food, seafood and supermarkets in China Increasingly, the demand for ice-making products is increasing. This is a rare market opportunity."

However, Peng Guanghui also believes that, unlike the traditional industries, as a professional and small-scale ice machine product, expanding the domestic market cannot follow the conventional path of the traditional industry. “For example, recruiting a salesman and opening offices in the destination market to attract customers will definitely not work.”

Through meticulous market research, Peng Guanghui believes that taking professional routes may be the right choice, so he first turned his attention to domestic fishing port projects with significant growth potential. “At present, most of our domestic fishery ice uses traditional ice bricks, that is, barrel ice made of salt water. The degree of hygiene is not good and the degree of automation is not high. This method of ice use has long been abandoned in foreign countries.” Peng Guanghui said that Kohler has developed a set of fully-integrated technical solutions covering ice production, ice storage, ice delivery, ice sales, and packaging for ice in domestic fishing ports. The program has already passed the national fishery and refrigeration industry. The expert's design review is the first fully-automated integrated technology for the ice-making machine independently developed in China.

This set of plans means that the future of China's fishing ports in the use of barrel ice may be a historical worry, and most of the fishing ports or changed to Kohler technical program to provide better sanitary conditions of icing. “Compared with the refrigeration products commonly used in the market such as flake ice and barrel ice, the board ice has the advantages of uniform cooling effect, good air permeability, constant refrigeration temperature, long cooling time, etc., and refrigeration, processing and transportation of temperature-sensitive aquatic products. It is the best equipment protection,” said experts from the Beijing Refrigeration Institute.

Expert Reviews

For most export-oriented companies, opening up the domestic market is a big challenge. Brand promotion, channel construction and so on face many uncertainties. I have seen some companies that have done a good job of exporting, but have turned to domestic trade but have been seriously “acquainted” with water. This is an interesting topic – people who are familiar with the domestic trade environment should understand that technological factors that dominate the international competition It may not be possible to determine success or failure in the country.

Therefore, I am more concerned about the performance of Coral which has a leading edge in technology in the domestic market. Obviously, Kohler's domestic market trip has only just begun.