Luxury American home appliance brand called ‘Dacor’, which was acquired by Samsung Electronics, is set to be available to consumers in South Korea. Samsung Electronics is planning to build Dacor, which is very popular in North American market, as a premium home appliance brand in South Korea.
According to industries on the 12th, Samsung Electronics is going to introduce Dacor built-in home appliances to South Korean market during second half of this year at the earliest. Samsung Electronics recently registered trademark for ‘Dacor’ and ‘Dacor’ in Korean to Korean Intellectual Property Office. This is part of its preliminary process to start Dacor business in South Korea.
Dacor is a luxury American home appliance brand that was acquired by Samsung Electronics last August and sells built-in refrigerators and freezers, cooktops, ovens, and dishwashers. It is highly regarded as a luxury brand in real estate businesses in North America. Although it is currently not sold in South Korea, some of residents who live in luxury housings such as townhouses are using products from Dacor by importing them.
After acquiring Dacor, Samsung Electronics started participating from planning of Dacor’s products and introduced their first collaborative product called ‘Modernist Collection’ in March. Samsung Electronics’ technical skills are applied to ‘Push Open Door’ that allows doors of a refrigerator to be opened easily and ‘room temperature technology’ that help products to be stored for long time by minimizing changes of temperature inside. Samsung Electronics also applied its technologies that link Dacor’s products with IoT (Internet of Things) and Smartphones.
Design of Dacor’s products has been upgraded too. Dacor recently applied graphite stainless design, which is hard to implement, to its products. “Because it is a difficult technology, we utilized Samsung Electronics’ knowhow.” said CEO Charles Huebner of Dacor. “We have applied Samsung Electronics’ digital technology to lineup of Modernist Collection and improved UI (User Interface).”
When Dacor brand lands in South Korea, it will help Samsung Electronics’ premium home appliance business to gain momentum. Considering that Dacor’s main products cost about $20,000, they cost more than Samsung Electronics’ current premium home appliances. It is heard that total price of 4 kinds of Modernist Collection is about $35,333 (40 million KRW). Samsung Electronics can increase its profitability even more through ultra-premium products.
Samsung Electronics can also expand range of its B2B business. Most of Dacor’s products are built-in products. In order to supply them to new apartments or luxury houses, there needs to be changes to marketing and supply strategies. Rather than going after consumers directly, it will be more advantageous to work with construction companies.
“Because South Korea’s built-in home appliance markets are at beginning stage, Samsung Electronics need new strategies to pioneer these markets.” said a representative for an industry. “Samsung Electronics is going to expand its experiences and capabilities towards B2B markets.”
Samsung Electronics is also planning to expand current Dacor’s production infrastructures that are centered on North America globally. There is a high chance that Dacor’s products that are going to be released in South Korea will be manufactured from factories in South Korea. It is planning to utilize its local production facilities according to demands from markets.
If Dacor’s products are produced in South Korea, South Korea can be a production base that will supply Dacor’s products to other Asian countries such as China. Samsung Electronics is planning to go after premium home appliance markets in Asia followed by North America and Europe.
“Samsung Electronics is going to built foundation to go after premium markets in Asian countries such as China by having South Korean market as a test bed and predicting reactions and demands from markets.” said a representative for an industry. “This can be its driving force in expanding Dacor business globally.”
Staff Reporter Kwon, Dongjoon | djkwon@etnews.com