Official data showed that China's home appliance sector saw steady profit growth in the first eight months of 2019, according to Xinhua.

As China becomes one of the largest coffee-consuming nations in the world, Italian home appliance manufacturer De'Longhi, best-known for their espresso coffee machines, has achieved great success since it entered the Chinese market in 2005.

Quality of coffee delivery defines a company

Zong Yanping, managing director of De'Longhi (Greater China), told CGTN that they brought not just home appliances to Chinese consumers, but the Italian lifestyle as well.  "Thanks to Chinese consumers' open-mindedness to foreign culture and lifestyle" to let the company be successful, he said.

The advice given by the world's biggest manufacturer of coffee machines, focusing on the high-end market, and developing successfully in China, was "all about the quality of coffee delivery," he said. Their big concern is whether the machine at home can make coffee as good as those at the café.

China is a huge market for coffee machines, according to Wang Yi, regional project leader of business transformation,  De'Longhi China. Last year, 1.5 million units of coffee machines were sold in Chinese market, totaling 1.5 billion yuan. De'Longhi China’s market share was 60 percent of all fully automatic coffee machines.

Wang Yi added that the Chinese small appliance market changes very fast and the company has had to adapt to the changes. For example, breaking ground in local social community, professional cooking schools to flagship stores to give some areas and locations for consumers to learn how to use the machine. And they also offer a lot of courses and online programs for consumers "so they can enjoy this with their families and friends," said Wang.

From shared kitchen to a private kitchen

Alex Wang, a former banquet chef at Shanghai Pudong Shangri-La Hotel and now a gourmet cuisine consultant chef, was invited by De'Longhi to teach local residents at a shared kitchen in a community center of Shanghai to make pumpkin cake for Halloween. De'Longhi provided their kitchen machine with the shared kitchen and supported these cooking courses to attract more consumers to use their utensils.

Chef Alex’s father is a Chinese chef specializing in Sichuan cuisine. As a chef for nearly 20 years now, Alex hopes to be able to create Chinese-western fusion food. The second China International Import Expo will kick off soon, where he will present more western cooking methods, and promote a fusion of both cuisines.

Alex's friend Li Ping, a housewife in Shanghai, is a collector of kitchen utensils with different kinds of styles. "People may think that buying kitchen utensils at home doesn't help much. But I think it's like getting married. Because I love them and they love me," said Li.

Li started to buy various home appliances four or five years ago. Although she's not good at making traditional Chinese cuisine, she fell in love with cake models first and became fond of cooking through utensils. "The kitchen machine, the milk frother and the coffee machine. These pastry molds are all part of me as a person," said the housewife.

Li Ping said, "While I cook, I experience life, and people-to-people relationships."

Zong Yanping said the first CIIE was a very unique show and the result was very positive. "We get to meet a lot of consumers at the expo, which to us is a big selling point of the CIIE," said Zong. After the CIIE last year,  De'Longhi started having big events with Tmall and JD.

The main theme of De'Longhi at the second CIIE this year will be technology and smart life. They will bring fully-automatic coffee machines linked with applications on smartphones to better promote their attitude of enjoying the beauty of intelligent life.

Filmed by Fu Gaoliang

Video editor: Mi Xue

Graphic designer: Sa Ren

Copy editors: Vanessa Gu, Henry 

Chief editor: Pei Jian, Wang Dewei

Supervisor: Mei Yan