Souce: Foshan daily

On the morning of February 26, Midea and Eastman Chemical Company, an advanced material company from the U.S., entered into a strategic cooperation agreement, signifying the first licensing of the Tritan brand to a home appliance producer.

According to Eastman Global Sales Director and Regional Business Director for Asia Pacific Randy Beavers, as Midea is a leader in the home appliance industry and Eastman is a material specialist, the cooperation between the two means that Eastman will better help Midea develop in terms of product design, quality improvement, and marketing. He said that the merits of the Tritan brand materials are safety and BPA free. Tritan materials are very strong, hence suitable for application in small home appliances such as juicers, slow juicers, and blenders. He added that the consumer demand for juicers and blenders is increasing. With the rotating speed of the motors increasing all the way, the hardness requirement for the material used in making the walls of the blender containers is getting higher, Tritan materials can fulfill the demanding requirements while they do not contain BPA.

Yong Ren, Midea General Manager of Appliance Domestic Sales, said that, since Midea entered the slow juicer market in 2013, Eastman materials have been its first choice for the core components of the blenders; for example the juicer augers, juice cups, and blending cups. According to Ren, this cooperation is significant in that both parties will work together to promote material safety and improve the quality of China’s small home appliances to match international standards.

The use of good materials will add cost burden. The price of Eastman materials are approximately three times higher than similar materials, according to Ren. He added that the Dingfu electric cooker with a price of 2,999 yuan launched by Midea last year have been well received in the market, indicating that the Chinese domestic market are not short of consumers who can afford the price but the high quality products.

Eastman Global Sales Director also said that Eastman’s materials not only are safer but also help reduce the product return rate. Take a food machine in the U.S. as an example. Before using Eastman materials, the brand suffered a product return rate of 8~10%; since using Eastman materials five years ago, it has seen only two product returns so far.