A stratified population, whose significant percentages are composed by immigrants and citizens of foreign origin, and with a variegated composition as well, influences the consumption of household appliances. German consumers expect from big appliances energy efficiency, user friendliness and a good comfort level in performances.
At the end of 2015, according to the surveys by the German governmental Body of statistics Destatis, the German population amounted to 81.8 million inhabitants against 81.1 at the end of 2014. The notable rise by 0.86% in one year only is completely due to the immigration, which with about 850,000 people in 2015 has counterbalanced the negative balance of 150,000 units between births and deaths. Out of the total population, non-Germans are 8.2 millions, corresponding to 10%, while the German citizens of foreign origin are in their turn 8 millions.
These data are interesting to understand the stratification of the German market that, due to its size, is still the biggest in Europe and the third in the world, after the much more populous nations of China and USA.
The number of families is very high: 40.2 millions, with an average size of 2.03 persons. Besides, 40.8% of these units are composed by a single person: it is easy to guess the consequences of that on the consumption of household appliances.
The per capita income of the big nation was around 47,000 dollars in 2015. Despite this high value, about 12.5% of the population live under the poverty threshold.
White goods
The global value of the market was 8.2 billion Euros for white goods, against 7.9 in 2014, with the 3.8% growth.
Out of the 2015 total, big appliances represented 5.6 billion Euros, equal to 68.3%, while small appliances correspond to the remaining 2.8 billions. Among big appliances, built-in models represented exactly half of the total value, conventional ones the other half.
The growth was by 6.7% by number of pieces. The difference with the one in value indicates a certain trend towards cheap products, also thanks to the presence of a not negligible class of consumers with low income.
The variations of single appliances, calculated on figures rounded to hundred thousands, are significant only to a limited extent.
In any case, the growths are notable for freezers, hobs and microwave ovens, while at the opposite end rank refrigerators, dishwashers and conventional ovens and stoves.
According to the statements of the trade association Zvei, German consumers pursue in big appliances energy efficiency, user friendliness and a good level of comfort in performances. The elegance factor in design, sought for in the last years, today seems on lower demand.
Small appliances have confirmed to rank in the average, with the 4% rise in the global quantity. No data are released on the market about single products but Zvei identifies the most dynamic fields in the coffee and food preparation. “In almost no German house they prepare the coffee on the stove any longer” states the trade association and the sales of electrical filter coffeepots grow on average by 10% yearly, while an analogue success is scored by kitchen robots.
Another driving sector is the body care. The sales of electrical toothbrushes score the 13% yearly growth rate, followed by electric razors and by epilators, with growths respectively by 16% and by 25%. Finally, electrical bathroom scales attained the 35% record growth in the only 2015.
Production and foreign trade
Germany, slightly preceding Italy, is always the major European manufacturer of white goods. In the Country there are 12 plants for the manufacturing of big appliances and about thirty for small ones. Therefore, the sector employs 46,000 workers. In 2015 they produced there big appliances amounting to about 6.5 billion Euros; 2/3 of them were exported.
The domestic market is then satisfied by almost 70% by the import, coming from Far East, from East Europe and from Italy, too. In 2015, Italian products represented about 11% of the German consumption in the matter.
Consumer electronics
The crisis of the German consumer electronics, already in course for some years, notably worsened in 2015, with a global –12.0 % downturn compared to the already negative 2014. In value, however, the drop was by 7% only.
Only camcorders scored a slight growth, while videogames and consoles remained stable. The decrease was strong for all other appliance types, from –5% of car appliances to the audio segment, where downturns exceeded –17%.
As now well-known, the cause of that is the competition of state-of-the-art information products, from tablets to smartphones and all new products. Their success determines the drop of conventional products.
Diffusion
The presence rate of some among the main appliances slightly grew compared to 2014, while the one of others diminished. In white goods, the one of dishwashers and of microwave ovens is rising while the washing machine, not always equipping singles’ houses, is in downturn, since they often prefer turning to the widespread laundry services.
In the brown good ambit, is instead rising the presence of TV sets with flat screen or satellite antenna while are decreasing camcorders and MP3 players. Even worse the crisis of DVD Players/Recorders, which in 2014 were present in 74% of German houses, dropping to 67% in 2015.
For the first time, Destatis statistics survey in 2015 also the presence of Laptops/Notebooks, Netbooks and tablets: both these product categories, competitors of conventional ones, have a notable diffusion degree and this explains the drop of the latter.
Prospects
Official forecasts for white goods, by Zvei, indicate the global 3% growth for 2016, fairly shared by big and small appliances.
At the beginning of 2016, sector players hoped in a slight recovery for brown goods, favoured also by the occurrence of the European Football Championships. On the contrary, the results of the first quarter of the current year, surveyed by the GfU, constituted a real nasty surprise: the downturns of 2015 have occurred again and in some cases they have even worsened.
In this situation, whatever forecast seems impossible: the German market of consumer electronics, meant in the traditional, does not seem to have hit the bottom, yet.
