Joyoung innovates in its appliances

Joyoung products on sale at a supermarket in Beijing. NAN SHAN/FOR CHINA DAILY

Editor's Note: In this ongoing series on the birth and growth of privately owned Chinese companies that are redefining innovation, China Daily profiles Joyoung Co Ltd, one of China's leading private home appliance manufacturers and soybean milk makers, which plans to add to its research and development effort and develop more innovative new artificial intelligence home products.

Joyoung, one of China's leading private home appliance manufacturers and soybean milk makers, said it plans to add to its research and development effort and develop more innovative new artificial intelligence home products to meet consumers' needs.

Currently, the soybean milk maker puts over 200 million yuan ($30 million) into research and development, equal to 3 percent of its sales revenues. It employs more than 700 people in its research and development team and aims to recruit more.

The Shenzhen-listed company has developed a variety of kitchen products, so soybean milk makers now make up less than 40 percent of its sales. Its products include cereal makers, juicers, electric furnaces, rice cookers, steamed bun cookers and noodle makers.

Joyoung plans to continue to enrich its product list and has established a base in Zhejiang province. The region is the home of a range of accessories manufacturers that produce parts for Joyoung's different machines.

Wang Xuning, founder and CEO of Joyoung, said: "We aim to solve troublesome problems in kitchens and make cooking easier. We plan to develop more new products and try to lead the sector by constant innovation."

"For instance, we launched robotic chef products about two months ago. They can cook up hundreds of different Chinese dishes. Consumers only need to put all the food materials in the pot, and the entire dish will be ready within 3 to 5 minutes. Now we have run out stock of that product," he said.

Over two decades ago, Joyoung created the first machine to make soybean milk, a traditional healthy drink in China. Since then, the retailer has dominated the business in that industry, with over 100 million consumers using the brand's soybean milk machine.

The company said it would mainly focus on the domestic market, as its products mainly cater to Chinese consumers' cooking habits. Joyoung does export its soybean milk makers and noodle makers to Japan.

Despite the fierce competition in the home appliance industry and a slowing economy, Joyoung achieved sales revenue of 7.06 billion yuan last year, jumping 18.9 percent over 2014, when the revenues were 5.94 billion yuan, 11.4 percent over 2013, according to the company.