Manufacturing · Profile from Manufacturing Research Companion: Companies, Strategic Moves, and Technical Studies
Haier
The Qingdao refrigerator works that Zhang Ruimin took over in the mid-1980s and, by his own legend, set straight by having workers smash 76 defective refrigerators with sledgehammers in 1985 (from memory, verify), and which grew into the world's largest household-appliance group by several measures (company claim, verify). Its listed arm, Haier Smart Home, passed RMB 300bn of revenue for the first time in 2025 (RMB 302,329m in the annual report, +5.71%) with net profit attributable to shareholders of ~RMB 19.55bn (+4.39%) (company). Haier matters to a US manufacturing book for one reason above all: in Jun 2016 it bought GE Appliances for ~$5.6bn, after the US Department of Justice had blocked Electrolux's ~$3.3bn deal for the same business, and then left it to run from Louisville, Kentucky. Under Chinese ownership GE Appliances added US plants, pledged more than $3bn of further US manufacturing investment over five years in Aug 2025, and moved refrigerator, gas-range and water-heater production out of China and Mexico (company, AP). Haier's story turns on quality as the founding act and on buying a US manufacturer and letting it run: its process capability was built at home, but its US position was bought — and kept local.
At a glance
- Founded
- Origins in the Qingdao Refrigerator Factory, a collective enterprise; Zhang Ruimin appointed to run it in 1984; technology licensed from Germany's Liebherr in the 1980s (all from memory, verify)
- Headquarters
- Qingdao, Shandong, China
- Ownership / structure
- Haier Group (a collectively owned enterprise, from memory, verify) controls Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd., listed in Shanghai (600690), Frankfurt (D shares, from 2018, from memory, verify) and Hong Kong (H shares, code 6690, trading from 23 Dec 2020, when Haier Smart Home completed the privatisation of Haier Electronics by scheme of arrangement) (company announcement, web-checked)
- Leadership (2026)
- Li Huagang, chairman of Haier Smart Home (Q3 2026 release); Zhou Yunjie, chairman of Haier Group (from memory, verify); Kevin Nolan, president and CEO of GE Appliances (press, 2025)
- Brands
- Haier, Casarte, Leader (China); GE Appliances brands — GE, GE Profile, Café, Monogram, Hotpoint (US, licensed GE brand); Fisher & Paykel (New Zealand); AQUA (Sanyo heritage, Japan and Southeast Asia); Candy and Hoover (Europe) (from memory for brand list, verify)
- Scale
- FY2025: revenue RMB 302,329m (+5.71%; RMB 302.35bn in the press release); net profit attributable ~RMB 19.553bn (+4.39%); excluding non-recurring items ~RMB 18.60bn; operating cash flow RMB 26.00bn; gross margin 26.1% (−1.1 pp); payout 55% of net profit. Q4 2025: revenue RMB 68.294bn (−6.72%), net profit RMB 2.18bn (−39.22%). Q3 2026 (29 Oct 2026): revenue RMB 69.70bn, net profit RMB 4.68bn; nine months RMB 221.82bn and RMB 15.00bn (company releases via press)
- US plants (GE Appliances, selected)
- Appliance Park, Louisville, Kentucky (headquarters and laundry, dishwashers, refrigerators — verify current lines); plants in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina named in the Aug 2025 plan; 11 US manufacturing plants in total (company, 2025); Haier's own Camden, South Carolina refrigerator plant (opened 2000; now part of the US business, verify)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- The 1985 refrigerator smashing; the Camden plant (2000); the Maytag bid withdrawn (2005); Sanyo white goods (2011) and Fisher & Paykel (2012); GE Appliances (closed Jun 2016); Rendanheyi and Candy (2019); the Haier Electronics privatisation and Hong Kong listing (2020); Carrier's Commercial Refrigeration (2024); GE Appliances' $3bn US reshoring (2025–26) and Haier's 2026 revenue decline
8 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1985
Smashing Defective Refrigerators
Production-system change (quality)
2000
Camden South Carolina Plant
New plant (greenfield)
2005
Maytag Bid Withdrawn
Acquisition (failed)
2012
Sanyo White Goods and Fisher and Paykel
Acquisition (two cross-border purchases)
2016
GE Appliances Acquisition
Acquisition
2020
Haier Electronics Privatisation and Hong Kong Listing
Restructuring (privatisation of a listed subsidiary); spin-off or IPO (listing by introduction of H shares)
2024
Carrier Commercial Refrigeration Acquisition
Acquisition
2025
GE Appliances 3bn US Reshoring
Reshoring (production moved from China and Mexico to the US); new lines (brownfield); supplier contracts; demand setback