Kitchen Appliances in China: Top Chinese Brands and How to Sell Through Resellers

If you make kitchen appliances and want to sell them in China, start with who you are up against. Kitchen appliances in China are dominated by Chinese brands: Midea, Haier, Fotile (方太), Robam (老板), Supor and Joyoung, with Gree strong in air conditioning. Below is the 2026 picture with each brand’s latest revenue, then the choice that decides almost everything for a foreign brand: go direct to consumers, or work through resellers and distributors.

China has a deep network of kitchen appliance resellers, online and offline, who already have the reach, the relationships and the logistics you lack. Used well, they put your product in front of millions. Used badly, they become a black box that takes your margin and tells you nothing.

By Jon Wang, founder, SEO Agency China (Shanghai).
I help foreign appliance and kitchenware brands sell on JD and Tmall, where Midea, Fotile and Supor set the price and the content standard every new brand is judged against.

The best Chinese home appliance brands in the kitchen, 2025 figures

All figures below come from the companies’ 2025 annual results, as reported by Chinese financial media. Revenue is group revenue, not kitchen only, except where noted.

Sources: Midea from Xinhua; Robam and the market data from 36Kr; Fotile from Jiemian; Haier, Supor and Joyoung from their annual results coverage.

Three things matter for a foreign brand. First, “Chinese brand” is not always simple: Supor is listed in Shenzhen but controlled by Groupe SEB, and Haier owns the American GE Appliances, which it bought for 5.6 billion USD in June 2016. Second, the market is shrinking in volume terms. AVC (奥维云网) data quoted by 36Kr puts 2025 kitchen and bathroom retail sales at 161.3 billion yuan, down 8.5 percent, with range hoods down 3.6 percent and gas hobs down 4.9 percent. Third, the fight at the top is tight. Online, in January to April 2025, Fotile held 17.28 percent of range hood sales and Robam 17.27 percent, with Vatti (华帝) third at 10.03 percent.

A falling market with strong local leaders does not leave room for a “me too” product. It leaves room for a specific product the leaders do not make well: a premium coffee machine, a niche cooking appliance, a design object for small apartments.

What a reseller actually gives you

A good reseller or distributor brings what a foreign brand cannot build quickly: sales channels, relationships with retailers and platforms, warehousing and logistics, after-sales handling, and knowledge of how the category moves locally. For an appliance, where service, installation and warranty matter, that is real value. The reseller lets you reach the market faster and lighter than going fully direct, which is why so many foreign brands start this way. My overview of home appliance distributors in China covers how they are organised.

But a reseller sells your product. It does not build your brand. That distinction is the one foreign appliance makers most often miss, and it is where the trouble starts.

What a reseller will not do for you

• Build your brand’s reputation. They push products, not your long-term identity or story.
• Create consumer demand. They serve demand that exists. They rarely create desire for an unknown foreign brand next to Midea and Fotile.
• Give you the customer relationship. The buyer often belongs to the reseller, not to you, leaving you blind and dependent.
• Protect your positioning. Left alone, resellers may compete on price and erode the premium image you want.

Brand pull plus reseller push

The brands that get the best from resellers do not hand everything over and hope. They build their own demand directly, so consumers come looking for the product, then let resellers fulfil that demand. You create the pull, the reseller provides the push and the logistics. Appliance buyers in China research before they buy, especially anything for the kitchen that touches food and family, so the brand you build directly is what makes them ask for you at the point of sale.

On Xiaohongshu, Chinese consumers research appliances through real reviews, demonstrations and kitchen tours. That is where you build the desire that makes resellers want to stock you. On Douyin, cooking videos do the same job at scale.

Take a hypothetical German maker of premium espresso machines, run by a sales director called Lena. She signs an exclusive deal with a Shanghai reseller and ships 600 units. Nine months later 140 have sold, and the reseller asks for a price cut to clear stock. What failed: nobody in China knew the brand, so the machines sat next to cheaper local models with no reason to pay more. What worked: she kept the reseller for logistics and service, opened a JD flagship store, and paid coffee creators to show latte art at home, in Chinese, with the price justified by the milk system. Over the next two quarters the reseller reordered twice. The reason: buyers walked in asking for the brand by name, so the reseller no longer had to sell it.

How do I choose and manage a reseller?

Look for fit, not just reach. A reseller with the right channels for your product and price point is worth more than the biggest one who treats you as a minor line. Be clear about pricing, positioning and territory upfront. And do not go silent once the deal is signed: keep building your own demand so you are never wholly dependent on the reseller’s effort or goodwill. A brand that creates its own pull keeps its bargaining power. A brand that relies entirely on the reseller has none. My notes on how to deal with Chinese distributors go further on contracts and territory.

What happens when a buyer checks my brand before purchase?

An appliance is a considered purchase, and the Chinese buyer verifies before committing. When they search your brand on Baidu, JD or Xiaohongshu, they need to see a real, trustworthy brand, whoever they buy it from. A strong brand presence makes every reseller’s job easier and protects you from being an anonymous box on someone else’s shelf. If you are choosing between platforms for your own store, my comparison of JD.com vs Tmall in 2026 helps; for appliances, JD’s logistics and installation service are a strong argument.

Can a small appliance brand use resellers without losing control?

Yes, if you keep ownership of your brand and demand. Use resellers for what they are good at, reach and logistics, while you own what matters long term: your reputation, your consumer relationship and your positioning. The mistake is outsourcing your whole China presence to a distributor. The winning move is partnering on distribution while owning your brand.

Questions we get about Chinese appliance brands

What is the biggest Chinese home appliance brand?

Midea Group, by revenue. It reported 458.5 billion yuan for 2025, up 12.1 percent, ahead of Haier Smart Home at 302.3 billion yuan. Gree is the other big name, best known for air conditioners. In kitchen appliances specifically, Fotile and Robam lead range hoods and hobs, while Supor and Joyoung lead small kitchen appliances.

Is Supor a Chinese brand?

Supor was founded in China and is listed in Shenzhen, but it is controlled by the French group SEB, which holds about 83 percent of the shares through SEB Internationale. Chinese consumers see it as a domestic brand, and its products are designed for Chinese cooking, but the profits mostly go to a French parent.

Which is better, Fotile or Robam?

They are close rivals. In early 2025 they split the online range hood market almost evenly, 17.28 percent for Fotile and 17.27 percent for Robam. Fotile is private and reported over 17 billion yuan of revenue in 2025. Robam is listed and reported 10.12 billion yuan, down 9.78 percent. Both are premium Chinese brands built around strong extraction for Chinese stir-fry cooking.

Can a foreign kitchen appliance brand still win in China?

Yes, in niches the local leaders do not own: premium coffee machines, specialist cooking tools, design-led small appliances. Do not fight Midea on rice cookers. Pick a use case, build demand on Xiaohongshu and Douyin, sell through JD or Tmall, and let resellers handle logistics and after-sales once buyers ask for you.

Selling your kitchen appliance on JD with resellers behind you

We are a small Shanghai team that helps foreign appliance brands build their own demand in China, so resellers work harder for them instead of the other way round.
Our JD.com agency service sets up and runs the flagship store that gives buyers, and resellers, proof your appliance sells.
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