Deals
Higher Ambitions: China Haier's Gambit to Invade American Homes
- Qingdao Haier offered $5.4 billion to buy GE Appliances
- Company aims to become Apple of China, not GE, analyst says
customer shops for a Haier air conditioner in a Suning home appliances store in Qingdao city, east China's Shandong province, 13 March 2015.
This article is for subscribers only.
When Haier Group set its sights on entering the U.S. market in 1999, it took a year before executives at the Chinese appliance maker secured a meeting with retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to show off its air-conditioners.
Haier, which at the time made one out of every three refrigerators sold in China, held little appeal for American consumers wary about the Chinese brand’s quality and more comfortable with homegrown labels, according to a 2003 book “The Haier Way.”